Considers that children’s rights are at the heart of EU policies and that the 25th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is an opportunity to ensure its full implementation in policy and in practice and to take additional measures to ensure respect for the rights of every child everywhere, especially the most vulnerable.

The Joint Communication by the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and the European Commission of 12 December 2011 entitled ‘Human Rights and Democracy at the heart of EU external action — Towards a more effective approach’ proposed specific measures in order to increase the effectiveness and coherence of the Union's approach to human rights and democracy.

The Joint Communication by the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and the European Commission of 12 December 2011 entitled ‘Human Rights and Democracy at the heart of EU external action — Towards a more effective approach’ proposed specific measures in order to increase the effectiveness and coherence of the Union's approach to human rights and democracy.

Stresses that the effective protection and promotion of human rights and fundamental freedoms constitutes the core of democracy and the rule of law in the EU and an essential condition of the consolidation of the European area of freedom, security and justice and that it requires actions at various levels (international, European, national, regional and local level); stresses, moreover, the role that regional and local authorities can play in the concrete implementation and in the promotion of such rights; therefore calls on all EU institutions, Member States’ governments and parliaments to build on the new institutional and legal fram ...[+++]ework created by the Treaty of Lisbon to devise a comprehensive internal human rights policy for the Union which ensures effective accountability mechanisms, both at national and EU level, to address human rights violations;

The objective of granting comparable rights, responsibilities, and opportunities for all is at the core of European cooperation in integration, taking into account the necessity of balancing migrants’ rights and duties.

Article 5(3) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU[x] prohibits human trafficking in the context of inviolable human dignity which is at the very core of national constitutions and international human rights instruments binding the Member States.