Charting the Charter: Equality bodies and fundamental rights in the EU

Background

The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU (the Charter) became binding primary EU legislation with the entering into force of the Lisbon Treaty in 2009. EU institutions in all their actions and Member States, when they are acting within the scope of EU law, have a legal obligation to ensure respect for fundamental rights enshrined in the Charter.

The Court of Justice of the EU as well as national courts in their case law refer increasingly often to the Charter, illustrating its growing importance. However, to date the use of the Charter by equality bodies at the domestic level remains limited.

Objectives

This seminar was designed to enable equality bodies’ staff to:

• Discuss the legal nature of the Charter, and its relevance for practitioners and in particular equality bodies
• Familiarise themselves with the content of the Charter
• Learn about the Charter’s applicability at national level and its links with other human rights instruments such as the European Convention on Human Rights
• Share their knowledge and experience during the sessions and during the breaks
• Learn about good practice initiatives and projects by other equality bodies
• Make better use of the Charter in their work at domestic level
• Upon their return, inform their colleagues about the lessons learned at the training.

The seminar featured presentations by eminent external speakers and experts of equality bodies as well as interactive workshop sessions. Read the Seminar Report below for further details.

Seminar Report

Speakers’ Presentations

OPENING

• Opening address and presentation of the European Commission’s work on the Charter (Chiara Adamo, Head of Unit, European Commission DG Justice, Unit C1 – Fundamental Rights and Rights of the Child)
• Welcome and opening by Equinet (Evelyn Collins, Chair of Equinet, Chief Executive of the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland)

SESSION 1 - Introducing the Charter

Chair: Evelyn Collins, Equality Commission for Northern Ireland

• Introducing the Charter (Adam Bodnar, University of Warsaw and Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, Poland)

SESSION 2 - Workshop on situations and cases where the Charter applies or might apply

Facilitators: Jayne Hardwick and Tamás Kádár, Anna Mazurczak, Katrin Wladasch

SESSION 3 - The content of the Charter

Chair: Mattias Falk, Equality Ombudsman, Sweden

• Structure and content of the Charter (Katrin Wladasch, Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Human Rights)

SESSION 4 - The experience of NHRIs and NGOs

Chair: Kathalijne Buitenweg, Netherlands Institute for Human Rights

• Presentation of cases and other work using the Charter – the experience of an equality body and NHRI (Clare Collier, Equality and Human Rights Commission, Great Britain)
• Presentation of cases from national and European level and other work using the Charter – the experience of an NGO (Nuala Mole, AIRE Centre)

SESSION 5 - Links with other human rights instruments and national law

Chair: Jayne Hardwick, Equality and Human Rights Commission, Great Britain

• The Charter’s links with national human rights law and its application at national level (Miroslaw Wroblewski, Human Rights Defender Office, Poland)
• The Charter’s links with other human rights instruments such as the European Convention on Human Rights (Vincent Depaigne, European Commission, DG Justice)

SESSION 6 - Awareness raising and other ways of using the Charter

Chair: Anne Gaspard, Executive Director, Equinet

• Work and experience of FRA in raising awareness of the European Charter of Fundamental Rights (Gabriel Toggenburg, EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA))
• Using the Charter as a lever for change (John Morijn, Dutch Permanent Representation to the EU). See also: Dutch Governmental Guidelines on the Application of the Charter of Fundamental Rights (in Dutch)

Photos

Charting the Charter: Equality Bodies and Fundamental Rights in the EU

Reading Material

Case study: Equal opportunities are too expensive

Case study: Too young for reduced working hours

EU Charter of Fundamental Rights

EP Report on Fundamental Rights in the European Union

EC 2014 Report on the Application of the Charter of Fundamental rights

CFREU Report - The Charter of Fundamental Rights as a Living Instrument

Fundamental Rights Compatibility - Guidelines for Council Preparatory Bodies