The European Union’s Guidelines on Human Rights is mostly based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the UN declaration on the Right and Responsibility . Therefore, we will further shortly present both declarations so that we can have a broader view on what inspired the European version.
Firstly, we have the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which was a great achievement in the history of human rights. The document was drafted by a group of men and women with different legal and cultural backgrounds from all regions of the world between April 1946 and December 1948. Some of the most prominent members of the group were the four main members of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights: Eleanor Roosevelt of the United States, the Chair of the Commission; P. C. Chang of China, its Vice-Chair; Charles Malik of Lebanon, the Rapporteur; and René Cassin of France. Along the “giants” of the Commission and of the drafting and adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights were other Commission members who played crucial roles in various parts of the document.
The content of UDHR rests in the 30 articles that have been summed up as it follows:
• Article 1 Right to Equality: We Are All Born Free & Equal and we should all be treated in the same way.
• Article 2 Freedom from Discrimination: These rights belong to everybody, whatever our differences.
• Article 3 Right to Life, Liberty, Personal Security: We all have the right to life, and to live in freedom and safety.
• Article 4 Freedom from Slavery: Nobody has any right to make someone a slave.
• Article 5 Freedom from Torture and Degrading Treatment: Nobody has any right to hurt or to torture anyone.
• Article 6 Right to Recognition as a Person before the Law: Humans have Rights no matter where they are.
• Article 7 Right to Equality before the Law: The law is the same for everyone.
• Article 8 Right to Remedy by Competent Tribunal: Human rights are protected by law and people have the right to ask for the law to help them when they are not treated fairly.
• Article 9 Freedom from Arbitrary Arrest and Exile: No unfair detainment.
• Article 10 Right to Fair Public Hearing: If people are put on trial this should be in public and should be a fair treatment.
• Article 11 Right to be Considered Innocent until Proven Guilty: Nobody should be blamed for doing something until it is proven.
• Article 12 Freedom from Interference with Privacy, Family, Home and Correspondence: Nobody should try to harm our good name. Nobody has the right to come into our home, open our letters, or bother us or our family without a good reason.
• Article 13 Right to Free Movement in and out of the Country: All individuals have the right to go where they want in their own country and to travel as they wish.
• Article 14 Right to Asylum in other Countries from Persecution: The right to seek a safe place to live.
• Article 15 Right to a Nationality and the Freedom to Change It: the right to belong to a country and the freedom of changing a citizenship or gaining a new one or more.
• Article 16 Right to Marriage and Family: Every adult has the right to marry and have a family if they want to. Men and women have the same rights when they are married, and when they are separated.
• Article 17 Right to Own Property: Everyone has the right to own things or share them.
• Article 18 Freedom of Belief and Religion: The right to believe in what one wants to believe, to have a religion, or to change it if he/she wants.
• Article 19 Freedom of Opinion and Information: Freedom of expression.
• Article 20 Right of Peaceful Assembly and Association: The right of free and willingly association.
• Article 21 Right to Participate in Government and in Free Elections: The right to democracy and to be allowed to choose their own leaders.
• Article 22 Right to Social Security: All individuals have the right to affordable housing, medicine, education, and childcare, enough money to live on and medical help if ill or old.
• Article 23 Right to Desirable Work and to Join Trade Unions: Worker’s rights.
• Article 24 Right to Rest and Leisure: The right to rest from work and to relax.
• Article 25 Right to Adequate Living Standard: Food and shelter for all.
• Article 26 Right to Education: Education is a right. Primary school should be free.
• Article 27 Right to Participate in the Cultural Life of Community: Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community and everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author (copyright).
• Article 28 Right to a Social Order that Articulates this Document: Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in the Declaration can be fully realized.
• Article 29 Community Duties Essential to Free and Full Development: Responsibility to other people and to protect their rights and freedoms.
• Article 30 Freedom from State or Personal Interference in the above Rights: No one can take away your rights. Nothing in the Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.
According to M. Glen Johnson : “probably no other document of any kind, certainly no other statement of human rights, has ever been debated so extensively and intensively by such a diverse group of people representing such varied cultures and backgrounds. It was a remarkable achievement merely to have reached such wide agreement on such a text. But the delegates and the peoples they represented were interested not only in reaching agreement on a text but in strengthening the resources available to those struggling to assert their human rights.”
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was proclaimed as a common standard of achievements for all peoples and all nations, as it sets out, for the first time, fundamental human rights to be universally protected and it has been translated into over 500 languages.
Secondly, we have the UN Declaration on the Right and Responsibility. The full name of the Declaration on the Right and Responsibility is actually “Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms”, but the most used form is “The Declaration on human rights defenders”.
The Declaration was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1998, after 14 years of negotiation and lobbying. It is important to notice that the Declaration isn’t addressed just to States and to human rights defenders, but to everyone.
Taking note of the Commission on Human Rights resolution 1998/7 of 3 April 1998 and of the Economic and Social Council resolution 1998/33 of 30 July 1998 , through this declaration the UN General Assembly “reaffirmed the importance of the observance of the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations for the promotion and protection of all human rights and fundamental freedoms for all persons in all countries of the world” and invited all the governments, agencies and organizations of the United Nations system and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations to “intensify their efforts to disseminate the Declaration and to promote universal respect and understanding thereof, and requests the Secretary-General to include the text of the Declaration in the next edition of Human Rights: A Compilation of International Instruments” .
Further, we will continue by presenting how human rights are seen, monitored and protected within and by the European Union, while shortly displaying the provisions from the main European documents regarding human rights, by briefly analyzing the role of the European Union in monitoring and protecting human rights and by offering an overview on the European human rights mechanism.
EU Strategic Framework and Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy
The EU Strategic Framework and Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy was initially launched in 2012 and set out the principles, objectives and priorities designed to improve the effectiveness and consistency of EU human rights policy as a whole . The Action Plan was designed to promote and protect all human rights, as well as to promote human rights and democracy through all its external actions, through a collective effort, involving the EU Member States as well as the EU institutions for the period 2012 – 2014.
In July 2015, a new Action Plan was adopted by the Council for the 2015 – 2019 period, which welcomed the Joint Communication “Keeping human rights at the heart of the EU agenda”.
The new Action Plan focuses on enabling EU to meet challenges such as complex crises and widespread violations and abuses of human rights and fundamental freedoms through more focused action, systematic and coordinated use of the instruments at its disposal, and enhanced impact of its policies and tools available on the ground.
Moreover, it aims at putting more emphasis at cooperating with local institutions and mechanisms, including national human rights institutions, as well as the civil society and seeks to promote the principles of non-discrimination, gender equality and women’s empowerment.
The European Union will also try to ensure the prevention of conflicts and crises and will create policies in order to ensure better policy coherence, in particular in the fields of migration, trade and investment, development cooperation and counter terrorism together with civil society actors and human rights defenders, with the close involvement of the European Parliament.
The main objectives of the Action Plan (as described in the Council’s Conclusions ) are the following:
1. Delivering a comprehensive support to public institutions by:
a. Supporting the capacity of National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs)
b. Supporting the integrity of electoral processes and the strengthening of Election Management Bodies
c. Supporting the capacity of Parliamentary institutions
d. Targeted support to justice systems
e. Providing comprehensive support to public institutions
f. Strengthening cooperation with the UN and regional Human Rights and Democracy mechanisms
2. Invigorating civil society by:
a. Promoting stronger partnership with third countries’ Civil Society Organizations (CSO), including social partners and between authorities, parliaments and CSO
b. Empowering CSOs defending the rights of women and girls
c. Invigorating support to Human Rights Defenders (HRDs), including in international and regional fora
d. Addressing threats to civil society space
3. Addressing human rights challenges by:
a. Protecting and promoting freedom of expression online and off line
b. Promoting and Protecting Freedom of Religion or Belief
c. Combatting torture, ill treatment and the death penalty
d. Promoting gender equality, women’s rights, empowerment and participation of women and girls
e. Promoting, protecting and fulfilling children’s rights
f. Cultivating an environment of non-discrimination
g. Fostering a comprehensive agenda to promote Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESCR)
h. Advancing on Business and Human Rights
4. Ensuring a comprehensive human rights approach to conflict and crises by:
a. Moving from early-warning to preventive action
b. Enhancing the capacity to address conflicts and crises at multilateral and regional level
c. Supporting compliance with International Humanitarian Law (IHL)
d. Ending impunity, strengthening accountability and promoting and supporting transitional justice (TJ)
e. Mainstreaming Human Rights into all phases of CSDP planning, review and conduct
5. Fostering better coherence and consistency in:
a. Migration/trafficking in human beings (THB)/smuggling of migrants/asylum policies
b. Trade/investment policy
c. Counter-terrorism (CT)
d. Pursuing a Rights Based Approach (RBA) to Development
e. Strengthening the contribution of impact assessments (IAs) to the respect of Human Rights
6. And a more effective EU human rights and democracy support policy through:
a. Increasing the effectiveness of Human Rights Dialogues
b. Improving the visibility and impact of Human Rights Country Strategies (HRCS)
c. Focusing on an effective implementation of EU Human Rights Guidelines
d. Maximizing the impact of Electoral Observation
e. Ensuring the effective use and the best interplay of EU policies, tools and financing instruments
f. Improving public diplomacy and communication on human rights
The Plan confers an important role to the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/ Vice-President and the European Commission who will be responsible for promoting a consistent and coherent implementation of the EU’s human rights policy.