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

DG EXPO Policy Department
and lobbying to dissuade swing voters from following their spoiler-led regional blocs rather than
their own stated human rights principles” 96 .
Enhancing human rights mainstreaming into ESDP operations
With regard to incorporating human rights into the ESPD, it can be noted in general that
important gains have been made in recent years while more still remains to be done. Key
documents used in ESDP missions, such as the EU guidelines on the protection of civilians,
the EU training concept, and standards of behaviour, now all integrate human rights
aspects, in particular gender issues and child protection. The human rights experts of the
Council Secretariat are increasingly involved in the planning, review and follow-up to
operations. All eleven EU Special Representatives (for example in Bosnia-Herzegovina,
Kosovo, Great Lakes region, Middle East, Southern Caucasus) have the promotion of respect
for human rights and the rule of law in their mandate. According to Amnesty International 97 ,
“the centrality of human rights for conflict prevention and crisis management is clearly
understood and acknowledged in the context of the ESDP”, although much remains to be done
to bring it into practice. Efforts are for example still needed to reach greater consistency
between peace-building and conflict prevention. According to the Human Rights and
Democracy Network 98 , human rights advisors should be more numerous in EU missions and
more possibilities for the funding of human rights projects in the framework of peace
building and conflict prevention should be found.
Electoral missions
In its 2000 communication, the Commission made a number of recommendations to
improve election observation and assistance. This included that all EOM should be
conducted and funded under the Community competency and under agreements with
third countries and human rights regulations. The Commission also advocated better annual
planning, the possibility of case-by-case decisions on the launching of an EOM, the creation
of an EU electoral unit, and a special role to be attributed to the European Parliament and
MEPs.
Reinforcing the human rights-based approach to development cooperation
While the Commission’s overall commitment to implement a human rights framework in the
area of development cooperation is clear – and the Council gave its open consent to the
adoption to a human rights-based approach to development and cooperation in its 2001
conclusions - the extent to which this commitment has been translated into practice
remains dubious. The lack of a mainstreaming of human rights into development policy
seems to reflect the lack of emphasis put by EU policy documents and tools on economic,
social and cultural rights. A factor contributing to the resistance to adopting explicit human
rights-based approaches to development cooperation may be concerns about charges of
conditionality. As a result, there is hardly any systematic reference to and use of human
96 Human Rights Watch (2007) “World Report 2007”.
97 Amnesty International (2007) “Annual Report 2006-07: Human Rights and the EU”. .
98 Human Rights & Democracy Network (2009) “Manifesto on Human Rights for the new European
Parliament, 2009”.
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