FRA: Fundamental Rights Report 2022

The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) has issued its Fundamental Rights Report 2022. The report reviews major developments in the field in 2021, recognizing both achievements and shortfalls of human rights protection in the EU over the last year.

This year's focus chapter reviews the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic 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, and examines the measures in national recovery and resilience plans introduced by the member states. It also analyses how EU countries plan to use the EU funding earmarked for recovery from the pandemic to foster social rights.

The remaining chapters cover: the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights; equality and non-discrimination; racism, xenophobia and related intolerance; Roma equality and inclusion; asylum, borders and migration; information society, privacy and data protection; rights of the child; access to justice; and the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

As underlined in the report, 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; and 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).