SUPPORTING NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS INSTITUTIONS IN MONITORING FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS AND THE FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS ASPECTS OF THE RULE OF LAW

About this project

<p style="text-align: justify"><span style="font-size: 11pt"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif">National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) play an important role for EU fundamental rights and rule of law processes in a variety of contexts. These range from ensuring that the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and other fundamental rights related EU law are effectively considered in assessing the fundamental rights situation in their respective countries, to contributions to the European Commission’s rule of law reporting.&nbsp;</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify"><span style="font-size: 11pt"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif">FRA research indicates, however, that in a number of EU Member States NHRIs suffer from a lack of capacity, challenges to their independent mandate, and lack of knowledge regarding EU law, including the Charter.&nbsp; Even well-established NHRIs have recently come under government pressure. This hampers their ability to fully engage with EU fundamental rights and rule of law processes. For NHRIs to be better equipped to play out their role effectively as regards EU fundamental rights and rule of law processes, they would benefit from support to interact with the EU on these essential topics.</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify"><span style="font-size: 11pt"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif">Against this background, this project will seek to strengthen the role of NHRIs in promoting and protecting fundamental rights and the rule of law, by providing them with institutional advice and support and boosting their capacity on EU law, with a focus on the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. The project will strengthen the role of NHRIs in the enforcement of the Charter at the national level, including by broadening their institutional knowledge base and building the capacity of NHRI staff in using the Charter in their work. It will also strengthen the capacity of NHRIs in monitoring fundamental rights and the rule of law, by increasing their engagement with relevant EU mechanisms that support fundamental rights and the rule of law on national level. Finally, the project will develop the capacity of NHRIs to monitor the Charter compliance in the implementation of EU funds, as foreseen by the <a href="https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32021R1060">Common Provisions Regulation for the EU Funds</a>.</span></span></p>

Project partners

• European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights Donor project partner· Austria
• Slovak National Centre for Human Rights Donor project partner· Slovakia
• Ombudsman's Office of the Republic of Latvia Donor project partner· Latvia
• Ombudsman of the Republic of Bulgaria Donor project partner· Bulgaria
• Ombudsman of the Republic of Croatia Donor project partner· Croatia
• Commissioner for Human Rights of Poland Donor project partner· Poland
• Commissioner for Administration and the Protection of Human Rights (Ombudsman) Donor project partner· Cyprus
• European Network of National Human Rights Institutions Donor project partner· Belgium