Resisting External Accountability: The European Union and Human Rights
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Description
In her analysis of EU trade policy, Cremona drew attention to the use of human rights clauses in EU trade agreements. More generally, she saw the relevance of the EU’s core values – human rights, democracy and the rule of law – as foundational elements of EU external relations. In its expansion into policy domains beyond economic law issues of fundamental rights protection in the application and implementation of those policies raise more directly the responsibility and accountability of the EU for human rights protection. The EU today has quite a strong and extensive body of human rights law, with numerous internal accountability institutions and mechanisms. However, despite the EU Treaty declaration that it is founded on respect for human rights, and despite assertions of openness to the UN and the international legal order, the EU to date has resisted external human rights accountability. This chapter argues that external accountability is a key dimension of modern human rights law. De Búrca and Kilpatrick argue that the EU’s poor record in this respect – its decision to accede fully to just one international human rights treaty (the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities), and only partially to a second (the Istanbul Convention), while showing little interest in the wider body of international human rights treaties and their accountability mechanisms – is not justified by any compelling reasons, but instead undermines the EU’s stature and credibility as an international actor.
First Page
137
DOI
https://doi.org/10.5040/9781509940981
Source Publication
EU External Relations and the Power of Law: Liber Amicorum in Honour of Marise Cremona
Source Editors/Authors
Kenneth A Armstrong, Joanne Scott, Anne Thies
Publication Date
7-30-2024
Publisher
Hart Publishing
Recommended Citation
Gráinne de Búrca & Claire Kilpatrick,
Resisting External Accountability: The European Union and Human Rights,
EU External Relations and the Power of Law: Liber Amicorum in Honour of Marise Cremona
137
(2024).
Available at:
https://gretchen.law.nyu.edu/fac-chapt/2166
