HRLC is pleased to announce the publication of a major new study on the EU's engagement with non-state actors on the subject of human rights. The Report was undertaken as part of the FRAME research project and was co-authored by a number of Nottingham staff, specifically Professor Jeff Kenner (HRLC Member and Professor of European Law), Professor Aoife Nolan (Economic and Social Rights Unit Head and Professor of International Human Rights Law), Professor Mary Footer (Business, Trade and Human Rights Unit Head and Professor of International Economic Law) and Dr Stuart Wallace (HRLC Research Fellow), in collaboration with researchers at the University of Abo, Finland, and the University of Graz, Austria.
The Report examines EU engagement with Businesses, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), International Financial Institutions (IFIs) and Human Rights Defenders (HRDs) on the subject of human rights. Overall, the Report found that engaging with NSAs can enrich the EU's policies by drawing on the expertise and experience provided by NSAs. By inviting NSAs to contribute to public consultations on policy or expert groups, the EU can harness the expertise of the NSAs, while simultaneously increasing the democratic legitimacy and overall transparency of its policy making process. Working with NSAs can also generate greater political and financial leverage than the EU would be able to generate on its own.
The Report provides a very thorough analysis of the EU's engagement with businesses on the subject of human rights noting that the breadth and complexity of this policy areas has a generated a serious risk that the EU's business and human rights policy will lack coherence and focused direction. Equally, the EU will need to improve its engagement with businesses to enable the new non-financial reporting directive.
The Report identifies the fact that the IFIs analysed had a limited appreciation for the human rights impacts of their activities. However, there is significant scope to influence and improve on this area within the EU. The European Investment Bank's experience of incorporating human rights norms into its project activities could serve as a very useful template for other IFIs such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to adopt similar approaches.
While there have been significant improvements in the EU's engagement with CSOs over recent years, the Report reveals that the EU tends to engage with a relatively narrow spectrum of CSOs, favouring large, professional, Brussels-based CSOs and CSO platforms. There is a need for the EU to broaden and diversify the range of CSOs with which it engages.
Finally, while the EU's engagement with HRDs has been very positive overall, the Report identifies worrying inconsistencies in the level of engagement between EU delegations in third countries and HRDs. The Report also highlights the fact that many HRDs continue to experience difficulties in accessing EU funding.
FRAME is an ambitious 4-year multidisciplinary research project, involving a consortium of 19 internationally recognised and globally networked human rights institutes including the Human Rights Law Centre. It is funded by the European Union under its seventh framework programme (FP7) for research and technological development. The aim of the project is to foster human rights protection in the EU's internal and external policies. More details of the project, including completed research projects, are available at: http://www.fp7-frame.eu/
Posted on Wednesday 24th June 2015