9:45 – 10:35 — Panel I – Civil Society as a pillar of democracy in the EU and beyond

How can the mainstreaming of human rights reinforce democratic values? Could you share an example drawing from the work of the UN Human Rights Office in Europe?

Mainstreaming human rights — the systematic integration of human-rights standards and principles into all laws, policies, and institutions — plays a central role in reinforcing and deepening democratic values. Human rights should not be treated as an isolated policy area but become part of the everyday functioning of government and public life. In fact, human rights and democracy are interlinked and mutually reinforcing.

Firstly, as to the standards, democracy relies on the protection of rights such as the right to participate in public affairs, freedom of expression and opinion, freedom of association or the right to peaceful assembly. These rights enable citizens to speak, organize, access information, and participate meaningfully in democratic governance.

Secondly, applying human rights principles like non-discrimination, participation, transparency and accountability are vital to democratic legitimacy:

• By embedding equality and addressing discrimination in law and policy-making, States prevent systemic exclusion, ensure that no one is left behind when intervening for example on access to health, education, housing, or social protection.
• By ensuring participation, including by those who find themselves in the most vulnerable situations, we give a voice to those most in need. By giving the space for civil society to engage including on behalf of others in matters that affect people’s life creates buy-in and better outcomes.
• By integrating human-rights standards across institutions we support the rule of law and accountability. Human-rights-based institutional frameworks limit arbitrary power, reduce corruption, and provide mechanisms for remedies when rights are violated — enhancing the legitimacy of democratic institutions.

Overall applying human rights principles strengthens social cohesion and trust, both essential for a resilient democracy.

So, diving in on the issue of participation, promoting and protecting civic space is a core, cross-cutting priority of OHCHR mainstreaming efforts, globally including in Europe, building on guidance which OHCHR has developed over the years building on international human rights standards (including on participation, on protection, on civic space online).

Surely, one issue of support from OHCHR has been to build a wider constituency for human rights considering also the backsliding we face. During my last assignment in Jordan for example, we used as an entry point the United Nations Universal Periodic Review, a peer review mechanism where States review States every 4.5 years and assess the human rights situation and make recommendations for improvements to each other. Civil society can contribute to this process and provide their own assessments. My team therefore made a concerted effort to go beyond the “usual NGOs” that were engaging and familiar with the process and together with other actors reached out especially to new actors and youth organizations. We trained them, accompanied them until the moment of submission and the number of inputs doubled from 30 reports to 60 from the previous review cycle.

Another main focus of the Office, against the background of global trends of repressive laws, harassment of human-rights defenders, censorship, is to safeguard freedom and security in the civic space.

Among key areas OHCHR is prioritising in this context:

• We engage with law and policy makers to ensure an enabling legal and policy frameworks at regional and national level, for example to protect those who engage in public participation from SLAPPs, to prevent the criminalisation of defenders such as environmental or migrant human rights defenders, and to advocate for adequate funding to support civil society including in their advocacy efforts;
• We strengthen the protection ecosystem for human rights defenders and civil society actors – including through the establishment of a regional Community of Practice on Protection, which we are launching with partners early next year;
• We advocate for a free and safe online civic space including by engaging with tech and digital platforms to improve content moderation practices, transparency and responses to online threats, so that the online space can be effectively leveraged to improve the ways people access and share information, form their opinions, debate, and mobilize.

The European Union remains a key ally to strengthen the civil society sector and social movements and improve responses to shrinking civic space – as a means to advance and preserve the health and sustainability of democratic systems both in the EU and globally.