Samenvatting

Human rights are considered to be very important throughout the world. Without the existence of or the respect for human rights, certain standards of living can not be guaranteed for individuals in our society and nor for specific communities or sub groups living in communities. The European Union (EU) also regards human rights to be of great importance and has implemented guidelines into its internal and external policies to ensure these rights. But how powerful is the European Union in safeguarding human rights? This will be the central question discussed in this paper. To answer this question, you first have to know how the EU defines human rights and what the EU’s policies on human rights are. Therefore, in the first chapter, you will read how the EU interprets human rights and how it developed its policies on this topic since the founding of the European Community. This chapter also explains why human rights are of great importance for the EU. The developments in the EU’s history lead to the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, which is described in chapter two. Here you can read what the current status of the Charter is and which rights are protected by it. This chapter partly answers the central question in regard to the EU’s internal policy. To answer the question more thoroughly you also have to know how an individual inside the EU’s borders can appeal to his or her human rights. This is described in chapter three which contains information about the European Convention on Human Rights and its procedure of pleadings. After this chapter it will be clear how human rights are being protected within the EU in theory. But what is happening in real life? To answer this, three cases within the EU’s borders are discussed in chapter four. After this chapter you will have a clear overview of how powerful the EU is in protecting human rights of its own citizens. But what about human rights outside the EU’s borders? The European Union has an external policy on human rights in order to promote that third countries respect these rights as well. Chapter five first continues with this external policy on human rights and provides information about which instruments the EU has to carry out these policies. Then again, this is followed by cases to examine which actions the EU has taken in these specific cases. After this chapter the central question is fully answered. To conclude, this paper ends with future perspectives and recommendations on the EU’s policies in chapter six.