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FRALEX – reports and studies on legal issues concerning the promotion and protection of fundamental rights in the European Union

The project involved the production of reports and studies on legal issues around the promotion and protection of fundamental rights in the European Union on the request of the EU Agency of Fundamental Rights. Human European Consultancy was charged with reporting from an EU/international perspective, as well as from a comparative perspective and on the EU Member States (except Germany, Estonia, Greece, Cyprus, Hungary, Portugal and Slovakia). During the project’s lifetime reports on more than 11 different topics were prepared for the EU Member States and at EU/ international level.

Aim

The EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) requested the establishment of teams of national human rights experts (FRALEX) to respond to regular requests to provide it with legal research on fundamental rights topics in the EU. Human European Consultancy established these teams in all EU Member States except for Germany, Estonia, Greece, Cyprus, Hungary, Portugal and Slovakia. We also provided the team which wrote the international and EU reports, as well as the comparative and synthesis reports.

Project

During the lifetime of the project (2008-2011) the FRA issued requests on numerous different topics:

  • Homophobia and discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation (twice)
  • National human rights institutions and human rights organisations
  • Child trafficking
  • Opinion on the Draft Proposal for a Council Framework Decision on the Use of Passenger Name Record (PNR) Data for Law Enforcement Purposes
  • Data protection and data protection legislation in the EU and its Member States
  • Assessment of data protection measures and relevant institutions in the EU and its Member States
  • Impact of the Racial Equality Directive
  • Impact of the use of body scanners in the field of aviation security on human rights, privacy, personal dignity, health and data protection
  • Rights of irregular immigrants in voluntary and involuntary return procedures
  • Access to justice in the EU Member States
  • Mental health and fundamental rights

The project ran for three years until the FRALEX network of legal human rights experts and the RAXEN (racism and xenophobia) network were integrated by the FRA at the end of 2011 to form the FRANET network, which is managed by the FRA itself.

Report(s) / events  

The project management team at Human European Consultancy instructed and managed the national teams and the international team, ensured the quality of reporting together with the international team and ensured the deadlines for reporting were met. 

The teams ensured comprehensive reporting at the EU/international and EU Member State levels through:

  • Inputs into the development of the reporting guidelines
  • Country reports
  • Thematic reports
  • Regular flash reports
  • Quarterly bulletins
  • Responses to requests for information by the FRA

Reports produced within the framework of FRALEX are published on the FRA website http://fra.europa.eu/fraWebsite/research/publications/publications_en.htm 

Country data collected within the framework of FRALEX are published at http://fra.europa.eu/en/publications-and-resources/country-data (see topics on left for themes)

The following thematic FRA reports are based on country, EU/international and comparative reports produced within the framework of FRALEX: 

  1. Homophobia and discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation in the EU Member States Part I – legal analysis (2009) http://fra.europa.eu/sites/default/files/fra_uploads/192-FRA_hdgso_report_Part%201_en.pdf
  2. Child trafficking in the European Union – challenges, perspectives and good practices (2009) http://fra.europa.eu/sites/default/files/fra_uploads/529-Pub_Child_Trafficking_09_en.pdf
  3. The right to political participation of persons with mental health problems and persons with intellectual disabilities (2010) http://fra.europa.eu/sites/default/files/fra_uploads/1216-Report-vote-disability_EN.pdf 
  4. Data protection in the European Union: the role of national data protection authorities – strengthening the fundamental rights architecture in the EU II (2010) http://fra.europa.eu/sites/default/files/fra_uploads/815-Data-protection_en.pdf 
  5. National human rights institutions in the EU Member States (2010) http://fra.europa.eu/sites/default/files/fra_uploads/816-NHRI_en.pdf
  6. Access to justice in Europe: an overview of challenges and opportunities (2011) http://fra.europa.eu/sites/default/files/fra_uploads/1520-report-access-to-justice_EN.pdf
  7. Fundamental rights of migrants in an irregular situation in the European Union (2011) http://fra.europa.eu/sites/default/files/fra_uploads/1827-FRA_2011_Migrants_in_an_irregular_situation_EN.pdf
  8. The Racial Equality Directive: application and challenges (2012) http://fra.europa.eu/sites/default/files/fra_uploads/1916-FRA-RED-synthesis-report_EN.pdf

Main findings

As the first EU-wide, comprehensive reports on important fundamental rights issues throughout the EU, the FRALEX reports were ground-breaking.

In particular, those on homophobia, child trafficking, data protection and privacy issues, and mental health formed the basis of FRA reports, the content of which received a lot of attention and support within EU institutions and from a variety of stakeholders.

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