Jul 28, 2014 | News
Today the Consultative Forum on Fundamental Rights of Frontex published its first annual report.
The report intends to explain the functioning of the Consultative Forum, retrace Consultative Forum’s activities in 2013 and give a short outlook for 2014. It contains the main recommendations that the Consultative Forum made to Frontex and its Management Board in 2013 and the impact of those.
The Consultative Forum was instituted pursuant to article 26a of Frontex Regulation as revised in October 2011.
It is currently composed by:
- two European Union Agencies:
- European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA)
- European Asylum Support Office (EASO)
- four UN Agencies and Intergovernmental Organisations:
- United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
- International Organization for Migration (IOM)
- Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Office for
- Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE / ODIHR)
- Council of Europe (CoE)
- nine Civil Society Organisations:
- Amnesty International European Institutions Office (AI EIO)
- Caritas Europa (CE)
- Churches’ Commission for Migrants in Europe (CCME)
- European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE)
- International Commission of Jurists (ICJ)
- International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC)
- Jesuit Refugee Service Europe (JRS)
- Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants
- (PICUM)
- Red Cross EU Office.
The Consultative Forum has the competence to assist the Executive Director and the Management Board in fundamental rights matters.
Frontex_Consultative_Forum_AR2014 (Report in pdf)
Jan 21, 2014 | Advocacy, Non-legal submissions, Position papers
The ICJ submitted today its contribution to the public consultation of the European Commission on the future of home affairs policies in the European Union.
In its contribution, the ICJ highlighted the need to increase human rights protection in EU home affairs legislation and in its implementation.
The ICJ submission recommends an increased monitoring of the human rights compliance of draft legislation; calls for increased transparency in the legislative process; and for a better use of infringement proceedings by the European Commission to ensure the effective implementation of EU home affairs legislation with particular attention to the protection of human rights.
The ICJ addressed, in its contribution, the importance of a correct and human rights compliant implementation of the new Common European Asylum System, and the need of further reforms in the EU legislation on asylum, migration and border control.
Finally, the ICJ stressed the poor record of the EU institutions, besides the European Parliament, in ensuring accountability for human rights violations committed in countering terrorism, for example in the cases of the National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance programme scandal and in the cases of alleged complicity of European States in the US-led system of renditions and secret detentions.
EU-PublicConsultation-ICJ-FutureHomeAffairs-2014-Final (download the contribution)
Oct 17, 2013 | Events
The ICJ participated in a meeting of experts within the Council of Europe’s Steering Committee on Human Rights (CDDH) in Strasbourg on 14-16 October 2013.
The Drafting Group on Human Rights and Business of the Steering Committee on Human Rights (CDDH-CORP) has drafted a Declaration of support to the Guiding Principles on Human Rights and Business for consideration by the Committee of Ministers. The ICJ expresses satisfaction at the progress made during the meeting and hopes that the draft declaration will be finally approved by Ministers and that this expert group will be able to move on to drafting a non-binding instrument on access to justice in the context of business activities.
Steering Committee meeting page (for agenda and report, including the draft Declaration)
Photo credit: © notfrancois (the author has no involvement in nor does support this submission)
Apr 2, 2013 | Advocacy, News, Non-legal submissions
The ICJ, Amnesty International and the AIRE Centre submitted written comments on the draft EU accession agreement to the European Convention on Human Rights.
The ICJ, Amnesty International and the AIRE Centre have submitted written observations, on the occasion of the last meeting of the 47+1 Group in charge of the negotiations on the accession of the European Union to the European Convention on Human Rights. The observations focussed on issues of jurisdiction, responsibility, and on the mechanism of co-respondence in cases involving the EU.
EUAccessionECHR-Paper-Joint-2013 (download the paper)
Photo credit: © Yanni Koutsomitis (the author of the picture has no involvement in nor does support this submission)
May 7, 2012 | Advocacy, Non-legal submissions
The ICJ joined another 165 NGOs in an appeal to EU institutions to respect the right to liberty of asylum seekers in the negotations of the new Common European Asylum System.
The ICJ joined other 165 international, European and national NGOs in an appeal to EU institutions to to maintain the presumption against detention in EU asylum legislation and uphold as a minimum a list of essential safeguards on the detention of asylum seekers in EU asylum legislation, on occasion of the negotiations for the revision of the Common European Asylum System.
EU-jointstatement-asylum-2012 (download the joint statement)
Photo credit: © Yanni Koutsomitis (the author of the picture has no involvement in nor does support this submission)
