25 Years of Rights: Reflecting on the Impact of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union
Ms. Christina Meinecke, UN Human Rights Representative to the EU
Brussels, 10 December 2025. Recording available.
Ladies and Gentlemen
I would like to thank the European Commission, the Danish Presidency of the Council of the European Union and the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights for inviting me. It is an honour to address you at this event to mark the 25th anniversary of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.
Happy Human Rights Day! As you know, today, we mark another important anniversary: 77 years ago, on this very day, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was adopted.
The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, the European Convention of Human Rights, other regional human rights treaties, the UDHR and core international human rights treaties form a multi-layered and mutually reenforcing system of human rights protection, with the Universal Declaration serving as the foundational inspiration and the Charter acting as a legally binding, regional application and elaboration of these universal standards within the EU legal order.
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