Editors’ Preface

Abstract

We are living in a state of multiple crises: an obvious but still neglected climate crisis; a health crisis with an ongoing pandemic; an economic and financial crisis closely related to an energy crisis; and a human security crisis reflected in the many violent conflicts, new and long-lasting, around the globe. Responses to crises are often emotional, populist and fear-induced. In order to maintain and solidify their power and pursue their interests, governments tend to use crises to create a permanent state of exception, legitimating measures that under ‘normal’ circumstances might have been unthinkable. On the other hand, crises unsettle people – people lose trust in political systems, the media or the rule of law in general. Human rights and violations thereof are at the core of these dynamics; ultimately, crises are a symptom of the fragility of the human rights system, and the disregard by states of rights commonly agreed upon by the international community. At the same time, the doubts about institutions, democratic systems and the rule of law are also an expression of a lack of trust in human rights. What we need, thus, is to regain control over the human rights discourse, in order to be able to respond profoundly to the violation of human rights, and to re-establish trust in them, and the system established to implement them, by showing that human rights are more than just written words. As a platform for the discussion of important and topical human rights issues, the European Yearbook on Human Rights 2022 aims to make a contribution towards ensuring that future responses to crises not only pay respect to human rights but are rooted in them. Differently from the previous editions, which were dedicated to specific topics (the 2021 edition was dedicated to ‘Human Rights in Times of a Pandemic’ , and the 2020 edition to the rights of the child), the EYHR 2022 takes a broad approach to various topical human rights issues in Europe and beyond.