FRA: Fostering social rights is the key to EU recovery from Covid-19

The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) has published its Fundamental Rights Report 2022.

FRA’s Fundamental Rights Report 2022 reflects on the developments and shortfalls of human rights protection in the EU over the past year. Its focus chapter reviews the pandemic’s impact on people’s social rights, such as education, employment and healthcare. It looks at the experiences of children, young people, older people, people with disabilities, and other people in vulnerable situations. It also looks at how EU countries plan to use the € 724 billion of EU funding earmarked for recovery from the pandemic to foster social rights.

Moving forward, governments should involve national human rights or equality bodies in monitoring that EU-funded recovery measures follow fundamental rights. These should particularly seek to:

• fulfil the social rights of people most affected by the pandemic,
• assess and adjust, if necessary, EU-funded measures to ensure they respect and foster social rights,
• ensure the use of EU recovery funds is not incompatible with either the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights or the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).

Other key fundamental rights issues in 2021 include:

• child rights,
• migration,
• racism.

The report summarises and analyses major human rights developments in the EU in 2021. It contains proposals for action, covering the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and its use by Member States; equality and non-discrimination; racism and related intolerance; Roma inclusion and equality; asylum, borders and migration; information society, privacy and data protection; child rights; access to justice; and implementing the CRPD.

Read the report here.

Read the full Press Release here.