Access to protection: a human right
Bringing national and EU policies and practices in line with the obligations set out by the European instruments on human rights.
The Italian Council for Refugees, as leading agency, is implementing this project in collaboration with the Hungarian Helsinki Committee (Hungry), Pro-Asyl Foundation (Germany), The People for Change Foundation (Malta), the Greek Council for Refugees (Greece), and the Spanish Commission for Refugee Aid – CEAR (Spain).
The overall objective of the project is: Bringing national and EU policies and practices in line with the obligations set out by the European instruments on Human Rights and in particular by the Strasbourg Court in the Hirsi case, as far as the access to the territory and to protection is concerned.
The project aims at reaching a “cultural change”, characterized by a shift from a vision mainly focused on security and on the contrast to irregular immigration flows to an approach which can balance these exigencies with the respect of human rights, in particular the principle of non-refoulement and the access to protection, through the adoption, if it is necessary, of specific amendments to the national and European legislation and of guidelines and regulations (i.e. Frontex). The project intends to promote an enhancement of practices, in particular those relative to information and legal counselling services at the borders and to the control of frontiers.
The project began in September 2012 and will end in October 2014. During this period of time, CIR and its partners have realized desk-research activities and analysis of legislation and practices concerning border controls as well as the access to the national territory and to the asylum procedure in the respective countries. The outcomes of these activities and the recommendations have been inserted in national reports. The project “Access to Protection: a human right” foresees additionally a study at the European level about the compliance of the EU legal instruments, policies, practices and monitoring mechanisms with the obligations deriving from human rights and refugee-asylum law.
The national report by the Hungarian Helsinki Committee can be downloaded here.
There is also a short info leaflet for journalist in Hungarian, summarizing the main findings of the research that can be downloaded by clicking at the below picture:
The project is supported by: Epim