Wolfgang Benedek, the former Director of the Institute of International Law and International Relations and of the European Research and Training Centre for Human Rights and Democracy of University of Graz, contributes a chapter on "The EU’s engagement with human rights defenders". Furthermore, Markus Möstl, Madalena Vivona, Isabella Meier and Klaus Starl of the UNESCO centre contribute a chapter on "EU practices on measuring human rights".
With the adoption of the Lisbon Treaty, the profile of human rights issues has greatly risen in relation to EU policies, whether internal or external. The EU has thereby made the commitment to ensure that all its actions are compliant with human rights, and seek to promote them. Yet, the EU's commitment has come under scrutiny, not only for its ground-breaking character, but also because recent events have put it to the test.
This volume has been designed to take stock of these developments, to comprehensively discuss the conceptualization and operationalization of the EU's commitment to human rights throughout the EU's relationships, policies, actions and legislative activity, and to critically assess its outcome. It brings together essays from around the world, each discussing different aspects of EU commitment, and evaluating the extent to which the EU is delivering on it. It is an essential reference book on human rights policies throughout the EU and their impact throughout the world. The book has been published within the collaborative research project FRAME.