study human rights mainstreaming in eu's external relations - EIUC

DG EXPO Policy Department
mainstreaming. The EU has been equally concerned with promoting the consistency and
coherence between its external relations policy fields and the traditional multilateral fora in
which human rights issues are discussed, notably the UN General Assembly, the Commission
on Human Rights, and now the UN Human Rights Council. In the process, NGOs have played
a significant role by providing their own expertise and information on specific cases of
human rights violations. It is also to be underlined that, since its creation, the European
Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights has engaged itself in monitoring, following up
on (and impacting when possible) the EU’s actions within the UN Human Rights Council.
Other EP committees may similarly also follow-up on specific UN agencies and/or
conferences. It is believed that greater exchanges between the EP and the other EU
institutions in relation to significant UN events could reinforce the mainstreaming of human
rights in multilateral forums.
Year 2001 represents a crucial date for the history of human rights mainstreaming in EU
external relations. Before that year, references to the concept and some of its defining
features were made by EU institutions but not in an explicit relation to human rights and
external relations. In 1995 the Commission would advocate for the “inclusion of respect for
democratic principles and human rights in agreements between the community and third
countries” 42 without mentioning mainstreaming. In the same year, the Commission made an
explicit reference to mainstreaming but only in relation to gender. 43 Later, the 1998 EU
human rights declaration (adopted under the Austrian EU presidency on the occasion of the
50 th anniversary of the UDHR) provided a more comprehensive indication of the EU agenda
for human rights in external relations, highlighting the issue of human rights defenders,
recommending the inclusion of human rights concerns in CFSP, development cooperation,
EU diplomatic action and dialogues with third countries, and emphasizing the role of the
human rights clauses. 44 In accordance with the priority given to the abolition of the death
penalty, in the same year the Union also approved guidelines on the issue. Yet no explicit
mention was made of mainstreaming in the declaration.
In 1998 the concept of ‘mainstreaming’ of human rights, including in external relations, was
invoked by experts and academics in the field of human rights, beginning with the Comité
de Sages 45 that drafted the report ‘Leading by Example’ 46 and notable scholars like Alston
and Weiler 47 . They all suggested that, at the turn of the millennium, the EU needed to relaunch
both its internal and external human rights policies, make them consistent one with
42 European Commission (1995) “Communication on the inclusion of respect for democratic principles
and human rights in agreements between the community and third countries”.
43 European Commission (1995) “Communication on the external dimension of the EU’s human rights
policy: from Rome to Maastricht and Beyond”.
44 th European Union (1998) “Declaration of the European Union on the occasion of the 50 anniversary
of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights”.
45 Members of the Comité were Antonio Cassese, Catherine Lumière, Peter Leuprecht and Mary
Robinson.
46 We are referring here to the report as annexed to Alston et al., 1999:921-927.
47 Alston and Weiler, 1999.
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