ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION

The unprecedented COVID-19 crisis highlighted the need for strong, independent and effective national actors to ensure that human rights are promoted and protected, including in times of emergency. The existence of such national entities is as old as the idea of international human rights, yet today's concept of National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) was formalised in 1991 with the adoption of the so-called Paris Principles, setting out high standards of independence and effectiveness for the functioning of these institutions.

As of today, wider Europe hosts 47 NHRIs. Within the remits of their mandates, these institutions have increasingly engaged with regional actors, such as the Council of Europe (CoE), the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the European Union (EU, the Union). Nevertheless, the level of NHRIs’ regional engagement, notably with the EU, is yet to be fully explored. In the last decade, EU-NHRI cooperation has increasingly expanded, boosted by the creation of the European Network of National Human Rights Institutions (ENNHRI) in 2013. Several EU policy instruments and processes have already explicitly recognised NHRIs’ significant role in the protection and promotion of fundamental rights both at national and regional levels.