FRAME: Factors which enable or hinder the protection of human rights

In assessing the factors that influence the protection and promotion of human rights in the European Union (EU), this report elucidates those factors that cut across the catalogue of human rights. This report seeks to examine contemporary human rights challenges in this context by mapping the historical, political, legal, economic, social, cultural, religious, ethnical and technological factors that both facilitate and hamper human rights in the EU.

This report is part of Work Package 2 ‘Challenges and Factors’ of the EU’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) project Fostering Human Rights among European Policies (FRAME). This first cluster of FRAME constitutes the foundations of a sound knowledge base for the assessment of EU human rights policies, encompassing the evolving factors, concepts, institutions and instruments that underlie human rights protection and promotion.

The objective of the report is to analyse these crucial factors while taking into account challenges brought
about by globalisation, with a focus on access to basic rights. The report does this through the provision
of a qualitative mapping addressing the major topics related to each factor. The report is divided into 10
chapters and provides a chapter on each of the above cross-cutting factors, including an overview of the
factor drawn from a literature review, an assessment of current knowledge of the factor and its impact
on human rights in the EU, and challenges and gaps requiring further study.