With the adoption of the Lisbon Treaty, the profile of human rights issues has greatly risen in relation to EU policies, whether internal or external. The EU has thereby made the commitment to ensure that all its actions are compliant with human rights, and seek to promote them. Yet, the EU’s commitment has come under scrutiny, not only for its ground-breaking character, but also because recent events have put it to the test.

This volume has been designed to take stock of these developments, to comprehensively discuss the conceptualization and operationalization of the EU’s commitment to human rights throughout the EU’s relationships, policies, actions and legislative activity, and to critically assess its outcome. This title is divided into four parts: ‘Framework’ presents the issues related to human rights promotion by the EU; ‘Actors’ delves into the relationships that play a part, at home or abroad, in regards to human rights policies and judgements; ‘Policies’ takes a case-study approach and systematically reviews a range of EU internal and external policies to assess their human rights impact and implementation; and finally, ‘Strategies’ provides an integrated assessment of the design and implementation of the EU’s commitment to human rights.

This book brings together essays from around the world, each discussing different aspects of EU commitment, and evaluating the extent to which the EU is delivering on it. Each chapter provides an introduction to the state of affairs, discusses opportunities and challenges, and provides recommendations. As such, it is an essential reference book on human rights policies throughout the EU and their impact throughout the world.