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The military invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation has pushed hundreds of thousands of people to flee the country and seek shelter in neighbouring countries. With each passing hour, the humanitarian situation is deteriorating both within and outside the country. Several Ukrainian cities have reportedly lost access to water, heating, electricity and basic supplies, while the civilian population is subject to shelling and violence. While outside Ukraine's borders, the international humanitarian ...

The Holocaust ('Shoah' in Hebrew) – the state-sponsored, systematic persecution and mass murder of Jews, whom the Nazi regime and its collaborators sought to annihilate along with other persecuted groups, such as Roma and Sinti – took place in Europe. It is therefore not surprising that a trend to address negationism – i.e. unfounded theories questioning certain historical events – by means of criminal law, originated in Europe. With time, the scope of criminalisation has been extended to cover not ...

The European Union's objectives in the field of external border protection are to safeguard freedom of movement within the Schengen area (an area without internal borders) and to ensure efficient monitoring of people who cross the EU's external borders. To strengthen its external borders and prevent irregular migrants from reaching EU territory, the EU has focused on extending its partnerships with third countries as well as on reinforcing and providing its border agencies with stronger means and ...

La présente étude, commandée par le département thématique des droits des citoyens et des affaires constitutionnelles du Parlement européen à la demande de la commission des affaires juridiques (JURI), étudie le concept de «droits de la nature» et ses différentes facettes dans la philosophie du droit et les accords internationaux, ainsi que dans la législation et la jurisprudence à différents niveaux. L’étude compare les «droits de la nature» aux «droits à la nature», et se penche sur les notions ...

Cette étude, commandée par le département thématique des droits des citoyens et des affaires constitutionnelles du Parlement européen à la demande de la commission des affaires constitutionnelles, évalue s’il y a lieu de renforcer la coopération entre l’Union européenne et le Conseil de l’Europe. Elle s’articule en deux parties: dans la première, elle examine la participation des organes du Conseil de l’Europe au mécanisme de l’Union pour la démocratie, l’état de droit et les droits fondamentaux, ...

The prohibition of discrimination, and the protection of human rights are important elements of the EU legal order. Nevertheless, discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) persons persists throughout the EU, taking various forms including verbal abuse and physical violence. Sexual orientation is now recognised in EU law as grounds of discrimination. However, the scope of the provisions dealing with this issue is limited and does not cover social protection, healthcare ...

The European Union is strongly opposed to the death penalty in all circumstances, and fighting it is a foremost priority of its external human rights policy. While most countries in the world have abolished capital punishment, death sentences continue to be handed down and carried out in a number of countries. The Union uses its diplomatic and political weight to encourage these countries to join the abolitionist ranks, or at the very least to respect international minimum standards. It funds campaigns ...

La discrimination à l’encontre des minorités est contraire aux valeurs et aux principes de l’Union européenne. Pourtant, des études montrent que la discrimination à l’égard des musulmans est de plus en plus répandue et de plus en plus encouragée par certains partis politiques. Le droit dérivé de l’Union sur la question est limité, et les critères et domaines de la discrimination déjà couverts requièrent encore du travail si l’on veut garantir une protection complète. Malheureusement, plusieurs propositions ...

Seventy years after its adoption, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has achieved all of the significance its drafters hoped it would. It has served as a foundation for the codification of human rights at global, regional and national level. Even though non-binding, many of its provisions enjoy such undisputed recognition as to be considered part of customary international law and therefore universally obligatory. In the absence of universal ratification of the human rights treaties, the Declaration ...

The Council of Europe (CoE) is the oldest of the intergovernmental organisations set up in post-World War II Europe, and the one that has the most member states. Since its creation in 1949, the CoE has shared strong links with other European organisations, such as the European Coal and Steel Community and the Organisation for European Economic Cooperation; it now has close links with the European Union. Over time, the CoE has specialised in human-rights promotion and in monitoring the effective implementation ...