The EU’s engagement with non-European regional organisations on human rights

Abstract

The chapter introduces the human rights work of the regional inter-governmental organisations highlighted in the European Union (EU) Strategic Framework on Human Rights and Democracy and discusses the EU’s mandate to engage with these organisations and how this engagement takes place in practice, with a focus on the EU’s engagement with the two regional organisations with the most developed human rights systems outside Europe, the African Union (AU), and the Organization of American States (OAS). The chapter finds that although EU human rights cooperation with regional organisations yields essentially positive results, several challenges remain in relation to the conceptualisation of human rights and democracy, the ownership of the human rights agenda, the coherence in the areas of cooperation, the consistency of the financial aid, and the lack of transparency regarding the results of the financial support.