Completing FRAME, the institute ends large EU-human rights research cooperation

Human rights are high on the EU agenda, however, the EU is facing multiple challenges to fulfil its declared commitment to promote and protect human rights.

These challenges have been the focus of the newly completed EU-funded project called FRAME - Fostering Human Rights Among European (External and Internal) Policies – in which the Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR) has been a partner.

Four reports

In collaboration with researchers from other universities and research institutions, DIHR has published four reports that are focusing on key historical, cultural, legal, economic, political, ethnic, religious and technological factors, that may influence human rights at the EU, international and national levels.

“An example is historical factors, which in some ways facilitates the EU in its endeavor to promote human rights. For instance, although human rights were not explicitly on the agenda of the forerunners to the EU, human rights fitted well into the European peace project that lied behind from the very beginning”, says Eva Maria Lassen.

Wide relevance

According to Eva Maria Lassen, the research results are relevant to human rights academics, practitioners, civil society, and policy-makers at the national, regional, international and EU levels.

“There is no doubt that the EU is deeply committed to the protection and promotion of human rights, both within EU Member States and in the engagement of the EU with countries outside the EU. But the realization of this commitment often gets complicated, not only for political reasons but also because the realisation of human rights does not take place in a void but in a particular context with a number of factors that either can facilitate human rights or be a barrier”, says Eva Maria Lassen.

“You therefore have to understand the context to understand what facilitates and what hinders the EU in the promotion of human rights“, she says.