EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN ACTION / Alla Tymofeyeva (ed.)

EU citizens. as well as, those rights established in the European Convention on Human Rights and the European Social Charter, two treaties of the Council of Europe. The Charter was drafted by 62 representatives from EU member states. The Charter was not initially adopted as a treaty due to disagreements among member states. Later though, the European Parliament and the Commission recommended that the Charter be incorporated as a EU Treaty. The EU Charter realized its full legal effect after entry into force as the Treaty of Lisbon on 1 December 2009. Under the Charter, the European Union must act and legislate consistently with the Charter and the EU’s courts will strike down legislation adopted by the EU’s institutions that contravenes it. The Charter applies to the institutions of the European Union and its member states. The Charter contains some 54 articles divided into seven titles. The first six titles deal with substantive rights under the headings: dignity, freedoms, equality, solidarity, citizens’ rights and justice, while the last title deals with the interpretation and application of the Charter. Much of Charter is based on the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), European Social Charter, the case-law of the European Court of Justice and pre-existing provisions of European Union law. The first title, dignity, guarantees the right to life and prohibits torture, slavery, the death penalty, eugenic practices and human cloning. Its provisions are mostly based on the ECHR, although Article 1 closely reflects Article 1 of German Basic Law. The second title covers liberty, personal integrity, privacy, protection of personal data, marriage, religion, thought, expression, assembly, work, education, property and asylum. The third title covers equality before the law, prohibition of all discrimination including on the basis of disability, age and sexual orientation, cultural, religious and linguistic diversity, the rights of children and the elderly. The fourth title covers social and workers’ rights including the right to fair working conditions, protection against unjustified dismissal, and access to health care, social and housing assistance. The fifth title covers the rights of EU citizens, such as the right to vote in elections to the European Parliament and to move freely within the EU. It also includes several administrative rights, such as a right to good administration, to access documents and to petition the European Parliament. The sixth title covers justice issues, such as the right to an effective remedy, a fair trial, the presumption of innocence, the principle of legality, non-retrospectivity and double jeopardy. The seventh title concerns the interpretation and application of the Charter. All bodies of the EU deal with the promotion of human rights as it is one of the EU’s top priorities . Nonetheless, there are three bodies that are the most important in regards to the protection of human rights within the EU. These are: 1. the European Ombudsman; 2. the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, known better under the abbrevia- tion FRA (Fundamental Rights Agency); 3. the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). The European Ombudsman is an independent and impartial body that holds the EU administration to account. The Ombudsman investigates complaints about maladministration in EU institutions, bodies, offices, and agencies. Only the Court of Justice of the European Union, acting in its judicial capacity, falls outside the Ombudsman’s mandate. The Ombudsman may find maladministration if an institution fails to respect fundamental rights, legal rules or principles, or the principles of good administration. This covers administrative irregularities, unfairness, discrimination, abuse of power, failure to reply, refusal of information, and unnecessary delay, for example. Any citizen or resident of the EU, or business, association, or other body with a registered office in the EU, can lodge a complaint. The European Ombudsman can only deal with complaints concerning the EU administration and not with complaints about national, regional, or local administrations, even when the complaints concern EU matters. The Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) is the EU body responsible for collecting and analysing data on the fundamental rights listed in the Charter. It was established in 2007 by

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EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN ACTION