European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights,
“Working together for human rights”

Statement by Ms. Navi Pillay
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

Vienna, 3 July 2014

Friends,
Colleagues,
Ladies and gentlemen,
 
I am delighted to have this opportunity to address the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights. Your research is ground-breaking and admirably evidence-based, and I know I speak for the broader human rights community when I say that many of us count on your work. By raising awareness of human rights within the EU among policy-makers, media and the public, and by cooperating with a variety of partners, you at the FRA can help to build a critical mass of different forces pulling in the same direction.

OHCHR and FRA share many of the same concerns. The human rights of migrants. The rights to privacy and to a private life in what is increasingly a surveillance society. The rights of the child. The fundamental importance of equality and the imperative to end discrimination, whether due to race, gender, disability, religion, age, ethnic origin, sexual orientation or for any other reason. In my statement to the Human Rights Council last month, I also stressed that the fight against discrimination can be undermined by extremist political rhetoric. I am indeed disturbed by the recent increase across the political spectrum in several States in Western Europe of a discourse rooted in anti-immigrant and racist sentiment and religious intolerance.

There are also common concerns about economic, social and cultural rights. As you will recall, in my keynote speech at the Fundamental Rights Conference 2012 on “justice in austerity”, I flagged the importance of adopting a human rights-based approach also if and when States choose to pursue austerity programmes and budget cuts. Austerity budgets and policies must not damage the progressive realisation of human rights, and they should be constantly audited to evaluate any disproportionate impact on vulnerable groups, for example on the rights to adequate housing, food, health care, education and access to justice.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Regional systems for human rights complement the international systems, while presenting a number of distinct advantages. They confirm internationally agreed norms and standards and frequently achieve consensus on heightened levels of protection. The work of the European Court of Human Rights has been particularly noteworthy in this regard. Regional systems also provide additional options for redress and accountability in the absence of effective national protection, and although there is no obligation to exhaust remedies at the regional level before moving to the international level, regional systems may appear more immediately relevant. Also, thanks to the levers of proximity and neighbourly influence, regional systems can often ensure more attentive compliance with common standards.

Today I would like to touch on several issues where I believe a sustained, joint effort by OHCHR, on the global level, and by regional organisations like the EU, the Council of Europe or the OSCE can amplify the sum of our work -- creating synergies that heighten our positive impact on people's lives.

But before I go into those key topics and challenges, I want to point out a number of important shifts in the international human rights system. Many of them will have immediate and positive impact on a broad range of stakeholders, and I believe they are highly relevant to the question of how we can improve our work together in the future.

Working with international human rights mechanisms

Let me begin with the treaty bodies. As you know, these committees of independent experts monitor and guide States’ implementation of the ten core international human rights treaties. Until recently, each treaty body evolved in relative isolation from the others, and this lack of coordination and cross-referencing was to some extent detrimental to the holistic protection of human rights.

This April, after a long and highly inclusive process of reflection and consultation, the General Assembly broke new ground with a resolution that will streamline and harmonise the treaty bodies’ work for greater efficiency and effectiveness.  The newly strengthened treaty body processes will become operational in 2015.

Meanwhile, the Special Procedures system of the Human Rights Council has expanded its expert scrutiny to cover a wide range of human rights topics and country situations. The Human Rights Council has also created new thematic mandates such as the Independent Expert on the enjoyment of all human rights by older persons. And the Universal Periodic Review – in which Governments examine the human rights record of all 193 member States of the United Nations – has had remarkable success in encouraging States to recognize and resolve gaps in human rights protection.

These multiple levels of scrutiny and guidance may in some cases create a logjam effect, and we are currently putting great emphasis on an effort to streamline, cluster and prioritize the various recommendations for each State, so that they become easier to grasp and to implement. OHCHR then also assists States to develop clear benchmarks and timelines for action in the context of detailed human rights action plans.

As should be clear, the objectives of the entire process are, firstly, to assist States to identify gaps in their protection of human rights; and, subsequently, to facilitate the adoption of practical solutions that will mend those gaps. Regional organisations, including supranational organisations such as the EU, can usefully intervene at many stages in this process. And of course, in 2010 the EU took the unprecedented step of ratifying the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, meaning that the EU is now bound to ensure that persons with disabilities fully enjoy their human rights – mirroring the obligation of States Parties.

Regional organisations can, and do, provide input to the UPR procedure. They can, and do, coordinate their work within the context of a clearly defined human rights action plan. This means they can better structure their assistance at the national and local level, and minimize the risks of wasteful duplication and overlaps, while also – and this is most crucial – amplifying their follow-up of recommendations emanating from multiple points throughout the international human rights system. For instance, FRA’s annual reports include a substantive chapter on monitoring the international obligations of EU Member States through the lenses of UN treaty bodies, special procedures and the Universal Periodic Review, and this is most useful.

Key topics for joint engagement

I’ve also been pleased to note the rewarding partnership between FRA and OHCHR’s Regional Office for Europe on a number of priority themes, including the situation of Roma in Europe; the human rights of migrants; and the rights of persons with disabilities, particularly in segregated care institutions. Europe is justly proud of its ground-breaking achievements regarding a number of human rights, including the rights of LGBTI people and the right to privacy. But EU Member States have so far failed to meet challenges of protection in other areas; and in my view, FRA’s focus on these continuing human rights challenges within the EU has significant impact on increasing awareness of the need for consistency between the EU’s external and internal policies.

FRA’s research on racial discrimination has highlighted the entrenched discrimination and bigotry faced by the Roma across many countries. I encourage you to continue to focus on this topic, which remains of deep concern – with continuing trends of forced evictions of Roma in France and elsewhere, and the consolidation of ghetto-like zones of social exclusion in several EU Member States, such as Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Italy, Lithuania, Romania and Slovakia.

I also want to thank FRA for our strong cooperation regarding the human rights of migrants. We have seen significant progress by EU Member States regarding prevention of boat tragedies in the Mediterranean, but more can still be done, particularly to prevent human trafficking. I invite FRA to continue coordination with my Office in Brussels to encourage the EU to develop a stronger rights-based approach to migration.

FRA has also carried out pioneering research on the human rights challenges faced by persons with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities, and this has echoed the considerable work done by OHCHR’s Regional Office for Europe. We repeatedly receive reports of degrading conditions for persons with difficulties in care institutions, sometimes resulting in death. These institutions are not being systematically monitored from a human rights perspective, and in a context where many inmates have been stripped of their legal capacity, this is very problematic.

Recent news articles suggesting that in Ireland, institutionalized children and persons with psychosocial disabilities died decades ago in large numbers and were buried unnoticed in mass graves emphasises how easy it is for human rights violations of people in institutions to pass unremarked by broader society, with no attempt to ensure accountability.

 Unfortunately, this is not just a problem of the past. In Bulgaria, the general prosecutor recently investigated the deaths of over 200 children in institutions, most of them apparently due to neglect and ill-treatment, but no prosecutions have followed. Similar deaths of children and young adults in institutions in Romania have repeatedly been reported, yet with no investigations. We need far stronger efforts to maintain accountability behind the closed doors of institutions of care.

I have also been impressed by FRA’s work on National Human Rights Institutions in the EU Member States – an important issue, given that only 11 out of 28 EU Member States have A-status NHRIs in full compliance with the Paris Principles. I welcome the cooperation between OHCHR and FRA regarding the development of the EU Handbook on accreditation of NHRIs, and I hope this will be useful in efforts to boost their compliance.

My friends, as all of us know, a coordinated approach to planning and programming creates clarity, drives more powerful achievements, and avoids not only overlaps and waste, but also, and most fundamentally, gaps in protection. I trust that in the future OHCHR will be able to count on your continuing advice and support.

13.2 minutes