The European Union has and continues to place human rights and democracy at the heart of its external relations, namely through its activities in the UN human rights system. With the ongoing criticism about the inadequacies of the UN Commission on Human Rights Kofi Annan recommended that this...

Both the European Union (EU) and the United States (US) emphasise the centrality of human rights in their domestic and external policies. Despite their common attachment to human rights and a potential affinity of seemingly common transatlantic approaches to human rights issues in external...

The Lisbon Treaty has rung in a new era of democratic and human rights governance. In an attempt to redress concerns about the EU's alleged democratic deficit and inability to speak with one voice on cross-cutting issues of human rights, both the empowered European Parliament (EP) and national...

This article examines the principles of accountability applied by the European Investment Bank in comparison with the practices of other Multilateral Lending Institutions. After a brief description of the EIB and its activities, the substantive and procedural principles governing the EIB's...

Human rights and democratic governance have gained a central position on the EU's development cooperation agenda. The paper clarifies how the notion of integrating human rights in development cooperation has been operationalized in EU policy, with emphasis on recent initiatives. New policy...