EU Human rights, democracy and rule of law: from concepts to practice Alexandra Timmer Balázs Majtényi Katharina Häusler Orsolya Salát 10.7404/FRAME.REPS.3.231 December 2014 Fostering Human Rights among European Policies LarGe-Scale FP7 Collaborative Project GA No. 320000 1 May 2013-30 April 2017 EU Human rights, democracy and rule of law: from concepts to practice Work Package No. 3 – DeliveraBle No. 2 Due date 31 DecemBer 2014 Submission date 31 DecemBer 2014 Dissemination level PU Lead Beneficiary Utrecht University Authors Alexandra Timmer, Balázs Majtényi, Katharina Häusler, Orsolya Salát http://www.fp7-frame.eu FRAME Deliverable No. 3.2 Acknowledgments The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Commission’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under the Grant Agreement FRAME (project n° 320000). The authors are grateful to Veronika Apostolovski, Wolfgang Benedek, Ivett Császár, Jenny Goldschmidt, Nicolas Hachez, Beáta Huszka, Zsolt Körtvélyesi, Karin Lukas, Isabella Meier, Markus Möstl, Karolina Podstawa, Klaus Starl and Tamás Ziegler for their generous and insightful comments on earlier versions of this report. The authors are also thankful to the EU and NGO officials who agreed to share their expertise with us. The authors finally acknowledge the invaluable research and editorial assistance of Christina Hann, Elise Ketelaars, Aliz Nagy and Sophie Reddering. All errors remain of course the authors’ own. ii FRAME Deliverable No. 3.2 Executive Summary This report provides an analysis of the EU’s conceptualisation and operationalisation of the concepts of human riGhts, democracy and rule of law. It is the second Deliverable in Work Package 3 of the FRAME project. The report understands the term ‘concepts’ to refer to the content of, or the ideas that underlie, the notions of human rights, democracy, and rule of law (Chapter I). Accordingly, the objective of this report is to analyse what content the EU assigns to human rights, democracy, and rule of law. As human constructs, concepts are dynamic and they have no clear boundaries. To complicate matters, the concepts of human rights, democracy and rule of law are famously elusive, which also certainly holds true for their application by the EU. Chapter II describes one clearly discernible trend: the EU has increasingly moved away from ‘thin’/formal to more ‘thick’/substantive conceptions of human rights, the rule of law and democracy. Over the years, the EU has come to interpret these concepts in a fairly broad and holistic manner, which is conceptually underpinned by respect for human dignity. In external action, the EU’s approach to these concepts is even broader. This report shows that the content of each concept consists of several components: o Human rights are the rights humans universally enjoy, and that entail a universal legal obligation on the part of states to uphold them. Human rights are indivisible, in the sense that the EU recognises civil, political, social, economic and cultural rights. In the EU’s conceptualisation, human rights are primarily individual but they can also have collective dimensions (e.g. when it comes to environmental protection). o The rule of law is the proper method of governance, which includes both formal and substantive elements. Within the EU, the rule of law includes legality; legal certainty; prohibition of arbitrariness of the executive powers; independent judiciary; effective judicial review including respect for fundamental rights; and equality before the law. o The concept of democracy determines who governs. There are several principles underlying the EU’s vision of democracy: democratic equality; representative democracy; participatory democracy; transparency and deliberation. There are several themes that cut across all three concepts. This report highlights two in particular: the interaction between universalism and cultural relativism, and the question of how to ensure that human rights, democracy and rule of law are conceptualised in inclusive ways. Chapters III and IV turn to the question how the EU operationalizes these concepts. On the internal scene (Chapter III), the report provides a case study of Hungary. In spite of the fact that Hungary is an EU member state, it diverges from the values enshrined in Article 2 of TEU and the concept of democratic rule of law with human rights. Criticism by international and European organizations has not been followed by fundamental changes of the characteristics of the newly setup constitutional system. Chapter IV analyses the ways in which the EU operationalizes human rights, democracy and rule of law iii FRAME Deliverable No. 3.2 in its external action through its human rights dialogues (HRDs), election observations missions (EOMs) and resolutions by the European Parliament (EP). It focused thereby on the case studies of Egypt and Pakistan. The key question of this analysis is whether the EU’s external policy actors in practice follow the conceptual principles, which have been developed. The conclusion is that this is mixed. Especially as regards social and economic rights and the protection of ‘vulnerable’ groups, conceptualisation and operationalisation do not seem to correspond. iv FRAME Deliverable No. 3.2 List of abbreviations CJEU Court of Justice of the European Union COHOM Council Working Group on Human Rights (in external relations) CSO Civil society organisation DEG Democracy Support and Election Coordination Group of the European Parliament DG DEVCO Directorate-General for Development and Cooperation, European Commission DROI Subcommittee on Human Rights (subcommittee of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the European Parliament) EC European Commission ECtHR European Court of Human Rights EEAS European External Action Service EIDHR European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights ENPI European Neighbourhood Policy Instrument EP European Parliament EOM Election Observation Mission (by the European Union) HRD Human Rights Dialogue ICCPR International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights LGBTI Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual and Intersex people LTO Long-term observer MEP Member of the European Parliament NGO Non-governmental organisation PSC Political and Security Committee (preparatory body for the Council of the EU) STO Short-term observer TEU Treaty on European Union UN United Nations v FRAME Deliverable No. 3.2 Table of Contents Acknowledgments ......................................................................................................................................... ii Executive Summary ...................................................................................................................................... iii List of abbreviations ...................................................................................................................................... v Table of Contents ......................................................................................................................................... vi I. Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 1 A. Introduction: aim and scope of this study ........................................................................................ 1 B. Methodology ..................................................................................................................................... 3 1. What are concepts and conceptions? ........................................................................................... 3 2. Sources and structure of this report ............................................................................................. 5 C. Key issues and challenges that cut across all three concepts ........................................................... 6 1. Interaction between universalism and cultural relativism ........................................................... 6 2. Positioning vulnerable groups ...................................................................................................... 8 II. EU Conceptualisation of human rights, rule of law and democracy ................................................... 12 A. Introduction: a brief history ............................................................................................................ 12 B. Human dignity underpins all three concepts .................................................................................. 15 C. Conceptualisation of human rights ................................................................................................. 19 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 19 2. Human rights and the EU Charter ............................................................................................... 20 3. Individual rights: civil-political and socio-economic ................................................................... 23 4. Collective rights and environmental protection ......................................................................... 24 5. Conceptualizing human rights in external action ....................................................................... 26 6. Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 27 D. Conceptualisation of rule of law ....................................................................................................