FRA publishes its Fundamental Rights Report 2016

On 30 May 2016 the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) published its Fundamental Rights Report 2016. 

The Annual Report provides concrete and comparative data on the fundamental rights situation on the ground in the 28 EU Member States. In its role as UK Contractor for the FRA, HRLC provided the UK data for the Report.

The Report identifies key developments, promising practice, and challenges in many areas of fundamental rights. These include data on:

• the migration situation: With 60 million people forcibly displaced worldwide, the migration situation is set to remain at the top of the EU agenda. The majority of refugees coming to Europe, many of whom are children, are risking their lives by paying smugglers to cross the sea in overcrowded and unseaworthy boats
• racist and xenophobic incidents: An upsurge in incidents was noted in many Member States, fuelled by fears regarding the migration situation and a spate of terrorist attacks. FRA’s Report finds that Muslims and Jewish communities were particularly affected
•  intelligence services: The terrorist attacks once again highlighted the difficulty of finding the right balance between protecting personal data and privacy and maintaining internal security. A number of EU Member States are in the process of reforming their legal intelligence framework, which could potentially increase the intrusive powers of the services 

Thematic areas covered by the Report are: asylum and migration into the EU; the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights; equality and non-discrimination; racism, xenophobia and related intolerance; Roma integration; information society, data protection; rights of the child; access to justice including the rights of victims of crime; and developments in the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

---