The Fundamental Rights Research Centre (FRC) of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) is a dynamic hub conducting insightful research on a wide variety of topics ranging from human trafficking and migration to European criminal law. Recently defended PhD theses focused on gender and sexuality in the robotic era, the mutual trust and recognition principles in the EU, and human trafficking.
In addition to the fundamental rights expertise of its members, the FRC has also participated in many European and national research projects that offer practical applications. FRC is currently involved in:
- the FAIR project, which aims to increase awareness about the content and provisions of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights;
- the PROMODE project, which explores the challenges related to online criminal investigation through the lenses of criminal procedure law, data protection law and European human rights law; and
- the iBof project Future-proofing human rights. Developing thicker forms of accountability, which aims to identify the answer to the following research question: How can thicker accountability for human rights violations be achieved, so as to ensure better human rights protection in line with everyday experiences of rights holders?
FRC is also the national contractor for FRANET, the multi-disciplinary research network of the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA). As national contractor, FRC periodically produces state of the art overviews of the human rights situation in Belgium in relation to a variety of topics, thereby helping the FRA monitor the protection of human rights in Belgium.
In the past, FRC has also been part of/coordinated various research projects covering areas as diversified as combating child sexual abuse and exploitation (HEROES and ALUNA), fighting violent extremism (EXIT EUROPE), migrant integration (REBUILD), human trafficking (DESIrE and TRACE) and criminal justice (LIVE_FOR) and many more (for more information, please visit our research projects section).
Thanks to the projects that constitute a privileged platform for academic cooperation, FRC is at the core of an ever-growing and wide academic network, further fueled by the personal projects of its members (be it by the conduct of joint-PhDs and research stays abroad, by their involvement in the edition of international publications or by their organisation and participation in international conferences). FRC is also a member of the Brussels Interdisciplinary Research Center for Migration and Minorities (BIRMM), promoting and truly implementing interdisciplinary research on the topic of migration and minorities.