NEWS ARCHIVE

        Exciting PhD Opportunity at VUB   The Fundamental Rights Research Centre (FRC) and the Brussels Privacy Hub (BPH) at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) are offering an exciting opportunity for a new PhD student to join their dynamic research community.

In the FRC podcast, we dive into a diverse array of multidisciplinary topics that shape our world today by analysing their impact on fundamental rights.

On 12 June 2024, FRC member Júlia Zomignani Barboza successfully defended her PhD thesis addressing undesirable unreturnables. The main findings of her thesis have now been published in the International Journal of Refugee Law in an article available here.

FRC member Andreas Kanakakis published a blog post on UKAEL’s Blog (UK Association of European Law) regarding the recently delivered EncroChat Judgment by the CJEU. This contribution reflects part of the research Andreas carried out on evidence admissibility for the PROMODE project.

FRC member Nadine El-Dekmak published a new blog on Human Rights Here Blog on trauma bonding in human trafficking and child sexual abuse crimes. The blog post presents part of the research Nadine conducted in the context of the HEROES project.

On 11 June 2024, FRC member Nadine El-Dekmak presented at the webinar series: Solutions to Counter Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation organised by the CYCLOPES Project.

FRC member Leslie Kassongo Tambu published an article in Juristenkrant, a Flemish newspaper that publishes articles on a great variety of legal subjects in an accessible way, as its target audience is non-experts.

In May, FRC member Leslie Kassongo Tambu presented her PhD research during a symposium organised by the Belgian Network of Junior Researchers in International Law. In her presentation, Leslie presented a summary of her PhD research proposal.

On the 13 May 2024, FRC member Nadine El-Dekmak presented her PhD research on “The Legal dynamics of tied visas and exploitative recruitment practices: Analysing their impact on labour exploitation of migrant workers” at BIRMM Research Day.

On 18 April 2024, FRC director Stefaan Smis will take part in a round table discussion with the rector on the theme of human rights and how VUB should respond in the event of violations.

Paul de Hert , director of FRC and member of the Scientific Committee of the Fundamental Rights Agency, will speak on the Legal and Ethical Pillars for Fighting Hate Speech at the final event of the FAST-LISA project on Hate speech,  scheduled to take place on 11-12 of April at Emilia-Romag...

Do not miss the latest updates from the Stream project!

A new vacancy has been released for a postdoctoral fellowship position in the domain of human rights and accountability as part of the iBOF project “Future-proofing human rights.

FRC member Júlia Zomignani Barboza published a new blog on the RLI Blog on Refugee Law and Forced Migration. The blog post builds on her previous work on Australia, a country that is analysed in her PhD research on undersirable unreturnables.

FRC member Cristina Cocito published a new post on the Strasbourg Observers blog entitled 'Glukhin v Russia: Facial recognition considered highly intrusive but not inconsistent with fundamental rights'. The blogpost is available here.

FRC member, Nadine El-Dekmak published a new short paper on the Migration Conference 2023 Selected Papers entitled “International standards of migrant domestic workers and the kafala system in Lebanon”.

Several FRC members will participate in the International Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Conference on 'The Universal Declaration of Human Rights at 75: Rethinking and Constructing Its Future Together' taking place at Ghent University (Belgium) from 6 to 8 December 2023.  The 75th anni...

On November 30th FRC members Andreas Kanakakis presented his paper ‘The collection of evidence in the EU: mutual trust and mutual mistrust’ during the European Criminal Law Academic Network’s Graduate Conference (ECLAN Graduate Conference: The future of European Criminal Law), held at Univers...

Former FRC member Aleydis Nissen published an article on "State Prevention Targeting Persons Attracted to Minors in Europe" in the St Andrews Law Journal.

From 9 to 25 October 2023, FRC co-director Prof Paul De Hert will give a lecture series on 'Legal Theory, Law and Justice in a Globalising World' as Visiting Professor at the Centre for Comparative Public Law (CCPL) of Himachal Pradesh National Law University, Shimla (India).  Prof De Hert is f...

Since 2018, FRC has been the national contractor for FRANET, the multi-disciplinary research network of the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA). As FRC co-director, Prof. Dr. Paul de Hert acted as FRANET research manager for our work with the FRA. He was assisted in this task by Dr.

On the 24th of August 2023, FRC member, Nadine El-Dekmak presented her forthcoming paper “International standards of Migrant Domestic Workers and the Kafala System in Lebanon” during the penal “Remittances” at the Migration Conference 2023 hosted by the Faculty of law, University of Hamburg (23

Cristina Cocito (FRC Member) and Prof Paul De Hert (FRC co-director) published a new article on the Computer Law and Security Review Journal entitled 'The transformative nature of the EU Declaration on Digital Rights and Principles: replacing the old paradigm (normative equivalency of rights)'.

On the 5th of July 2023, FRC member, Nadine El-Dekmak presented her forthcoming paper “Trauma bonding in human trafficking and child sexual abuse online” during the penal “Technology facilitated trafficking and other forms of online exploitation – Analysis from a legal, social and governance pe...

FRC co-director, Prof. Dr. Paul De Hert has been appointed to the Scientific Committee of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) based in Vienna.

This morning, FRC member Júlia Zomignani Barboza presented some of the findings of her PhD research during a migration, asylum and multiculturalism seminar at the Université Libre de Bruxelles in Brussels.  During her presentation, she discussed how Australia,

The Fundamental Rights Research Centre (FRC) is seeking to fill one full-time PhD researcher position as part of FRC’s team working on  human rights and data protection reform of the Codes of Criminal Procedures in the Digital Era.

Dr. Amy Weatherburn, Júlia Zomignani Barboza and Prof.

Professor Stefaan Smis has been appointed ad hoc judge at the European Court of Human Rights. His first case to deal with was Mortier v Belgium. Now he is handling the cases RTBF v Belgium and Test-Achats v Belgium.

Carlotta Rigotti (FRC member) and prof.

FRC member, Sibel Top, will publicly discuss her PhD thesis on Monday 21 November 2022 at 10 AM in the VUB Promotion Room D2.01.          Title: The political offence exception clause to extradition in Europe: An analysis of its evolution and application with a sp...

On 15 November 2022, FRC member, Aleydis Nissen, will present her forthcoming book "The European Union, Emerging Global Business and Human Rights" at the Brussels School of Governance.     Emerging and developing states are home to powerful corporations capable of...

FRC member, Júlia Zomignani Barboza, has just published a new article on the Refugee Survey Quaterly, based on her PhD research.  The article, which is available at the following link, is entitled: "Between a rock and a hard place: A human rights assessment of the fate of exclude...

On 27 June 2020, FRC member, Carlotta Rigotti will present her PhD research "Criminal law at the intersection between technology and sexuality: A case study on the possible criminalisation of sex robotics" during the monthly seminar Gender and Law at Durham, at Durham Law School.   &n...

FRC members Bianca-Ioana Marcu, Júlia Zomignani Barboza and Prof.

FRC is seeking to fill one full-time PhD researcher position as part of FRC’s team working in the HEROES project – Novel strategies to fight child sexual exploitation and human trafficking in crimes and protect their victims.   You will be based at the Fundamental Rights Center...

FRC member, Carlotta Rigotti, has just published her article 'A long way to end rape in the European Union: Assessing the commission’s proposal to harmonise rape law, through a feminist lens' on the New Journal of European Criminal Law.     Abstract: On 8 March 2022, th...

On 12 May 2022, FRC member, Carlotta Rigotti, will present part of her ongoing PhD reserach during the EU Pop Conference organised by the University of Central Lancashire.     The presentation is entitled 'Penal populism: Some considerations arising from...

FRC affiliated member, Amy Weatherburn, has contributed to a VUB research project funded by Fairwork Belgium and Orbit vzw and designed to develop a long-term outlook on labour migration needs in Belgium.     Some of the research findings have just been p...

On 28 March 2021, the REBUILD project came to end with an online final conference in which project partners, including FRC, presented project activities and findings.

FRC member, Carlotta Rigotti, and LSTS member, Alessandra Calvi, have just published a contribution entitled 'Privacy' to the new Elgar Encyclopedia of Law and Data Science, edited by prof.

Following the FRC Annual Conference, the FRC members, Carlotta Rigotti, Julia Zomignani Barboza, and Sibel Top summarised the main discussion points of the day in a short blogpost published in the Human Rights Here blog.    

On 15 and 16 December 2021, FRC members, Carlotta Rigotti and Júlia Zomignani Barboza, join the Kick Off Meeting of the HEROES project.

Based on their participation on the REBUILD project, FRC member Júlia Zomignani Barboza and FRC co-director Prof. Dr.

We are happy to announce that FRC member, Sibel Top, has been selected for the finals of the #ThesisThread competition.     The #ThesisThreat competition is an initiative by the Doctoral Schools of the five Flemish universities to promote the development of science...

FRC member, Bianca-Ioana Marcu will hold the Virtual Lunch Talk "Biometrics, Facial Recognition and the Fundamental Rights of Migrants", on 19 October 2021, 12.30-13.30.     This Lunch Talk will be a conversation around the use of biometric data particularly i...

 LSTS member, Lina Jasmontaite, and FRC member, Júlia Zomignani Barboza, published a new article on the International Journal of Refugee Law entitled 'Disproportionate Surveillance: Technology-Assisted and Automated Decisions in Asylum Applications in the EU?'.    

   Prof. Paul de Hert, Dr. Amy Weatherburn, and Júlia Zomignani Barboza worked on a contribution to the Conference on 'Human Rights in Pandemic Times Political Exceptionalism, Social Vulnerability & Restricted Freedoms.

FRC members, Carlotta Rigotti and Júlia Zomignani Barboza, just published a new article on the Special Issue of the International Review of the Red Cross on counter-terrorism.    The article is entitled "Unfolding the case of returnees: How the European Union and its member...

On 16th July 2021, the call for paper for the IDEAS Conference on (Dis)Integration from an (In)equality Perspective was launched.      The conference, which will be co-organised by the Institut d'études européennes of the ULB, the Institute for European Studies of...

Júlia Zomignani Barboza and Lisa Feirabend worked on a contribution to the Migration Conference 2021 on how COVID-19 affected the fundamental rights of migrants and asylum seekers in Belgium.  Focusing on two categories of vulnerable migrants – namely asylum seeke...

On 6 June 2021, FRC Member Sibel Top gave a class on "Justice and Home Affairs Policy" at the Jean Monnet Summer School on EU Policy Making.

On 25th June 2021, FRC member, Carlotta Rigotti, will present her PhD research during the 2021 PhD Workshop of the Criminal Justice Centre (School of Law, Queen Mary University of London).     The presentation will highlight new insights emerging from Carlotta...

On 25th June 2021, FRC member, Sibel Top, presents on the evolution and state of play of the political offence exception in the framework of the Council of Europe at the two-days Conference on extradition and surrender organised by Leiden University, Utrecht University...

The Seventh Bulletin about the Covid-19 pandemic and its fundamental rights in the European Union focuses on equitable access to vaccines. It investigates the situation in the 27 EU Member States from 1 March to 30 April 2021.

We are happy to announce the start of our latest project on labour migration and workers protection (Arbeidsmigratie en werknemersbescherming).     The project will run from June 2021 till December 2021. FRC affiliated member, dr.

On 10 June 2021, the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) released its Fundamental Rights Report 2021.

FRC affiliated member, Amy Weatherburn, has published a book entitled "Labour Exploitation in Human Trafficking Law".     The 2000 Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Conven...

FRC member, Bianca-Ioana Marcu, has just published a new blogpost "Eurodac: Biometrics, Facial Recognition and the Fundamental Rights of Minors" in the European Law Blog.     The blog post features an analysis of the current proposal to amend the Eurodac Regulation, and its...

FRC member, Sibel Top, has published a new article "Prosecuting political dissent: Discussing the relevance of the political offence exception in EU extradition law in light of the Catalan independence crisis" on the New Journal of European Criminal Law.     A...

The EU Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) has just published a comparative report on presumption of innocence  and related rights across the EU Member States, as well as the country report for Belgium.      As the national contractor for the FRA in Belgium,

FRC member, Carlotta Rigotti, has published a new article 'When the law meets feminisms: The shortcomings of contemporary prostitution policies across the European Union' on Women's Studies International Forum     Abstract:  Prostitution is a multi-f...

The online EXIT Europe final conference will take place on 29 March 2020, 10-16.30.  The event will be hosted on Cisco Webex by the EXIT Europe project coordinator, namely the Austrian Ministry of Interior (BMI).     During the conference, the Consortium partn...

FRC Member, Katrien Keyaerts, and one of the FRC directors, prof. Paul De Hert, have just published a new article entitled "Dodelijk politiegeweld en artikel 2 EVRM.

As national contractor for the EU Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA), FRC is currently working on a fieldwork on long-term residents in Belgium.  For this project, FRC will be conducting interviews and focus groups with third-country nationals (non-EU citizens) who have been li...

FRC Member, Sibel Top, has just published a new blogpost entitled "The Waiver of Immunity of Catalan MEPs: Reintroducing Politics in EU Extradition Law" on EJIL:Talk!.

FRC Member, Katrien Keyaerts, and one of the FRC directors, prof.

FRC is proud to be partner in the iBOF project “Future-proofing human rights. Developing thicker forms of accountability” supervised by prof. Paul De Hert and prof.

FRC affiliated member, Auke Willems, has published a book entitled The Principle of Mutual Trust in EU Criminal Law.     This book develops a conceptual framework of the principle of mutual trust in EU criminal law.

FRC member, Sibel Top, gave a class on "Justice and Home Affairs Policy" at the Jean Monnet Winter School on EU policy making" on 3 February 2020, at 8.45 am.     The class offered an overview of the birth and development of the field of justice and home affai...

FRC Member, Aleydis Nissen, has invited Teresa Marchiori (American University) to give an online talk in the series Empirical Methods in Legal Research at Leiden University.     The event will take place on Thursday, 25 February 2021 at 11 a.m. &nbsp...

FRC Member, Sibel Top, will join the CPDP panel "Social media monitoring and movement tracking of political dissidents.

FRC member, Aleydis Nissen, wrote feature articles on conflict resolution in the Kenyan floriculture industry and the South-Korean electronics industry. The first article has been published in Knack magazine  and the second article in the new issue of Eos magazine.

FRC member, Carlotta Rigotti, has published an article in the Workshop Book Proceeding "Gender Based Approaches to the Law and Juris Dictio in Europe".     The article is entitled "Prostitution Laws across the European Union: To Go Beyond the Existin...

Since October 2020, FRC has welcomed Aleydis Nissen as a new member.  Aleydis Nissen will work as a postdoc researcher with the support of FWO on the project 'When Corporations Disrespect Women's Human Rights: Access to Remediation'.

We are happy to announce that prof. Paul De Hert and prof. Rosamunde Van Brakel won a iBof project: 'Future-Proofing Human Rights.

FRC Member, Lisa Feirabend, will present her ongoing PhD research on 'Combatting Street Harassment through Legislative Means in Europe' during the next RHEA Research Seminar.  The event will take place online, on Thursday 10th December, 12.30-14:00.  To join the ev...

FRC member, Carlotta Rigotti, will attend the II Edition of the EURA Winter School “The Regulation of Robotics & AI in Europe: Legal, Ethical and Economic Implications”, organised by the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, European Centre of Excellence on the Regulation of...

The Sixth Bulletin of the Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) examines some of the measures EU Member States have adopted to protect public health as Europe faces the ‘second wave’ of the Covid-19 pandemic.

On 25 November 2020, Prof.

On 20 November, the Belgium Service Public Fédéral de Programmation Intégration sociale organises an online conference to present the findings of the Report "Roma and Travellers in Six Countries", published last month by the Fundamental Rights Agency with the contribution from the&nbs...

On 11 November 2020, FRC member, Carlotta Rigotti and avv. Ivonne Panfilo will hold the fourth webinar on law and prostitution organised by the Italian Research Group on Prostitution and Sex Work (GRIPS).

On 5th November 2020, FRC Member, Carlotta Rigotti will participate as a speaker in the Second Edition of the International Philosophy of Human-Technology Interactions organised by the University of Twente (4th-7th November 2020).  During the panel 'Law & Compu...

The Gender, Technology & Law research group is happy to announce a new series of online sessions to take place in October, November and December 2020.

FRC member, dr. Amy Weatherburn, has been awarded a Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS) post-doc fellowship, starting from the 1st October.

IES Postdoctoral Researcher, Dr.

On 18 September 2020, FRC Member, Carlotta Rigotti, gives a class on "AI and Social Robots", aimed at understanding how we will potentially regulate the liability and personhood of AI and social robots.  The class is a guest lecture of the course "Law and Technology" held by...

FRC member, Sergi Vazquez Maymir, publishes a new article on the  Internet Policy Review. Journal on Internet Regulation Vol.9 No. 3.

FRC Member, Dr Amy Weatherburn has published an article in the inaugural open-access issue of the Journal of Human Trafficking, Enslavement and Conflict-Related Sexual Violence (JHEC) (formerly, the Journal of Human Trafficking and Exploitation).

FRC member, Carlotta Rigotti, published her paper Prostituzione e diritto: alcune riflessioni sui modelli legislativi europei (Prostitution and law: considerations about contemporary legal frameworks across the European Union) in the special issue of MicroMega no.

On 9 September, FRC member, Júlia Zomignani Barboza, presented her PhD research on undesirable but unreturnable migrants at the Migration Conference.

On 1 September 2020, FRC researcher Júlia Zomignani Barboza participated as a speaker in the wrap up session of the Global Launch of the Handbook on Data Protection in Humanitarian Action.

We are happy to announce the start of our latest European Commission project MELINC, as the follow up of the previous EduLAw. MELINC aims at helping Mongolia implement the recommendations of the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities of the UN OHCHR i...

The Fourth Bulletin of the Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) examines how the EU Member States addressed the Covid-19 pandemic in June 2020, having special regard to the fundamental rights implications arising from the adopted emergency measures.

The VUB press release has just published a new item on the findings of the doctoral research of FRC member, dr.

The Third Bulletin of the Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) analyses how the EU Member States addressed the Covid-19 pandemic between 1 May – 31 May 2020.

On 2nd July 2020, FRC member, Carlotta Rigotti, will hold a webinar on data protection in exit work, as part of the EXIT Europe project.     In this session, Carlotta will begin with a brief analysis of the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) no.

On 7 July, FRC member, Sibel Top, will give a class on Justice and Home Affairs in the EU at the IES summer school on EU Policy-Making. 

The Research Foundation, Flanders fellowship (FWO) has been renewed to FRC member, Sibel Top.

On 19 June 2020, Carlotta Rigotti will present her paper Prostitution Laws across the European Union: To Go beyond the Existing Dichotomy, at the First International Workshop on Gender Based Approach to the Law and Juris Dictio in Europe, hosted by the Universitá di Pisa. &n...

On 10 June 2020, the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) released its Fundamental Rights Report 2020. FRC, as FRA’s national contractor, contributed to the report by providing information regarding fundamental rights in Belgium in the year of 2019.

The Covid-19 pandemic still affects everyday life in the EU in unprecedented ways, as mapped by the Second Bulletin of the Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA).

After having given gave a presentation during the 4th International Congress on Love and Sex with Robots, FRC member, Carlotta Rigotti, published her paper "How to Apply Asimov's First Law to Sex Robots" on Paladyn, Journal of Behavioral Robotics.

Government measures to combat COVID-19 have profound implications for everyone, including sex workers.  Accordingly, on behalf of the Italian Research Group on Prostitution and Sex Work, Carlotta Rigotti, contributes to a brief report on the sex workers' conditions in t...

On 13 December 2019, FRC researcher Júlia Zomignani Barboza presented at the 2019 BENELUX conference on Artificial intelligence organised by the European Law Students’ Associations of Belgium Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

Following a year-long investigation, a series of raids took place on 23 September throughout Catalonia in the context of ‘Operation Judas’ that resulted in the arrest of nine independence activists and alleged members of the Committees for the Defense of the Republic.

On 8 November, Amy Weatherburn attended the author workshop for the forthcoming Edited Volume on Migration & Diversity as part of VUB POINcaré Initiative (2019-20) organized by the Brussels Interdisciplinary Research centre on Migration and Minorities (BIRMM) a VUB...

On 8th November 2019, FRC member, Carlotta Rigotti, will join the Constituent Assembly of the Italian Research Group on Prostitution and Sex Work.

On 5th November 2019, FRC member, Sergi Vazquez Maymir, together with the d.pia.lab, published a 2nd policy brief on methods for impact assessment, entitled Towards a Method for Data Protection Impact Assessment: Making Sense of GDPR Requirements’    Abstract:&nbsp...

FRC member, Carlotta Rigotti, will join the EXIT Europe Consortium meeting in Bratislava. On 4th and 5th November 2019, all Consortium partners will meet to update each other on project progress and to clarify future tasks and activities.

On 30 October 2019, FRC Member Amy Weatherburn will present at a one day conference “Critical perspectives on modern slavery: law, policy and society” at the University of Hull. She will present as part of a panel that focuses upon “The false virtue of modern slavery law and policy.

During her stay at the Queen Mary University of London, FRC Researcher, Sibel Top, is helping to organise the book launch "Building a New Catalonia: Self-Determination and Emancipation".    The event will take place on 24 October at the School of law (Mile End Camp...

On 19 September 2019, FRC researcher Júlia Zomignani Barboza participated as a panellist in the event Human Rights in Danger – Tensions and Security in Asia, organised by the World Solidarity Forum. Sharing the panel with Hacer Z.

From 1 September, FRC Member Amy Weatherburn has begun working part-time at INTERVICT in Tilburg Law School as Co-Coordinator of the Master in Victimology and Criminal Justice (MsC). In addition she will coordinate the Master Thesis course.  Amy will continue her role a...

FRC affiliated member, Dr Jozefien Van Caeneghem has published a book entitled "Legal Aspects of Ethnic Data Collection and Positive Action.

On 6 september 2019, FRC Member, Sibel Top, together with defence lawyer Christophe Marchand, will present an analysis of  the main trends in the evolution of the political offence exemption in European extradition law and discuss its restored relevance in light of the requests f...

On 22-23 August 2019, FRC researcher, Carlotta Rigotti, joined the EXIT Europe, Expert Meeting in Kiel (Germany).  Meant to design a core training manual and a consultancy mechanism for training exit practitioners in the partner countries (AT, DE, FR, IT, SK), the two-days meetin...

On July 9, FRC researcher Júlia Zomignani Barboza presented her PhD proposal at the third session of PhD seminars of the Odysseus Summer School.

  On 24-25 June, FRC Member Sibel Top participated to an advanced seminar on extradition gathering lawyers and prosecutors from all around the world sharing and comparing their day-to-day experience with European Arrest Warrants as well as international extradition...

On 6 september 2019, FRC Member Sibel Top, together with defence lawyer Christophe Marchand, will present an analysis of  the main trends in the evolution of the political offence exemption in European extradition law and discuss its restored relevance in light of the requests for sur...

On 2nd July 2019, FRC researcher Carlotta Rigotti gave a presentation during the 4th International Congress on Love and Sex with Robots.

On 17 June 2019, FRC researcher Júlia Zomignani Barboza gave two presentations during the 1st International Conference on Humanitarian Action and Cooperation for Development held at University Fernando Pessoa in Porto.

Starting from May 2019, prof. Paul Quinn and István Böröcz have started working on a new project co-funded by the European Union’s Horizon2020 Programme (2019-2022).   LOCARD aims to provide a holistic platform for chain of custody assurance along the forensic...

On April 24, FRC researcher Júlia Zomignani Barboza, presented her PhD topic in three minutes during the pre-selections of the VUB’s PhD Cup.

Since May 2019, FRC has welcome Elisabeth Koek as a visiting researcher.  After 10 years of practical experience in Europe, Africa and the Middle East in human rights, humanitarian aid and protection, Elisabeth has started her PhD at the Irish Centre for Human Rights, NUI Galway.

The latest book by FRC Member, Professor Paul Quinn, entitled "Stigma, State Expressions and the Law" starts with a deep insight into what constitutes state expressions, and how they can become stigmatizing, in particular for vulnerable groups and minorities; then it follows on to loo...

On 6th May 2019, FRC member, Carlotta Rigotti, presented her ongoing research on sex robots and their legal implications at the Stadscchouwburg Brugge during the Homo Roboticus on Tour.  Given the increasingly robotized society we live in, the Homo Roboticus project, run by VUB,

What are the human rights implications in the growing market for sex robots?

FRC Member, Amy Weatherburn has co-authored with Dr Yvonne Mellon (University of Liverpool) an article in the New Journal of European Criminal Law entitled Child trafficking victims and legal guardians: Exploring the fulfilment of the EU trafficking directive in the context of the UK...

The Fundamental Rights and Constitutionalism (FRC) Research Group, part of the Department of Metajuridica of the Vrije Universiteit Brussels, is offering 3 years PhD funding to a doctoral student to examine the challenges presented by the exchange of digital evidence.

Amy Weatherburn, FRC Member will present at a two day conference hosted by Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS) and the Ministry of Interior of Latvia Human trafficking – a crime with too few convictions and too many victims.

On 14 February 2019, FRC will join partners in FRA’s multidisciplinary research network, FRANET, in Vienna on 14 February.

On 24-25 January 2019, FRC Member, Sibel Top will be presenting her doctoral research on political crimes at the Annual ECLAN PhD Seminar "25 Years after Maastricht: Achievements, Failures and Challenges of the EU Criminal Justice Area".

FRC Member, Dr Stefan Somers, has published a book entitled The European Convention on Human Rights as an Instrument of Tort Law (Intersentia, 2019).

FRC Member, Amy Weatherburn has co-authored a new article entitled "Securing the Prohibition of Labour Exploitation in Law and Practice: Slavery, Servitude, Forced Labour and Human Trafficking in Italy, Spain and the UK"published in a special edition of the Journal of Modern Slavery: A Multidis...

FRC affiliated member, Dr Julia Muraszkiewicz has published a book entitled "Protecting Victims of Human Trafficking From Liability: The European Approach" (Palgave Macmillan, 2019).

The last LIVE_FOR event on the “European Investigation Order (EIO) and digital forensic analysis” will take place on December 18, 2018 in the city of Barcelona.    Key topics of this event are:    European Investigation Order (EIO)- Compare EU and USA legislation...

On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Professor Paul de Hert has been invited by the Association for the United Nations (APNU) to take part in an initiative organized in collaboration with the city of Brussels.     On December...

VUB Research Group on Fundamental Rights and Constitutionalism (FRC) of the Faculty of Law and Criminology has been selected as the national contractor for FRANET, the multi-disciplinary research network of FRA, the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights.    The VUB team will be led by Prof...

The DESIrE Consortium is happy to invite you to its consensus building workshop in Uppsala on 26 October 2018, where DESIrE project partners will identify best practice policies and recommendations on how to combat trafficking in human beings for the purpose of sexual exploitation.  As you...

FRC Member Amy Weatherburn and Affiliated Members Dr Julia Muraskiewicz and Dr Chloé Brière, have co-authored an article entitled 'Civil society organisations in counter-trafficking governance: when long-standing interactions lead to solid partnerships'.

Following the webinar on 13 September, the second part of the training workshop will be held as an attendance training.

We are happy to announce the start of our latest European Commission project REBUILD.

It is our great pleasure to invite you to be part of the ongoing "European Investigation Order and digital forensics" training events.

FRC affiliated member Dr. Jozefien Van Caeneghem has been awarded a Fulbright scholarship to conduct post-doctoral research at the Harvard FXB Center for Health and Human Rights during the 2018-2019 academic year.

FRC has published a new volume Convergences and Divergences Between International Human Rights, International Humanitarian and International Criminal Law (Intersentia, June 2018). The volume has been edited by FRC Directors Prof. Paul de Hert, Prof.

FRC member Sibel Top has been awarded a Research Foundation, Flanders (FWO) PhD fellowship for four years, starting 1 October 2018. Her research focuses on the development of political crimes in Europe. 

FRC member, Amy Weatherburn and Dariusz Kloza (LSTS, VUB) have published a blog on EJIL: Talk!. Irregular migration after the Aquarius incident: moving beyond the law.

On 3 July, Sibel Top gave a class on "Justice and Home Affairs & Brexit" at the Summer School of the Institute of European Studies on European policy-making (2-13 July).

Irregular migration as a Challenge for Democracy is the fifth volume in the Intersentia European Integration and Democracy Series. Prof.

As the prospect of indictments issued by the Special Prosecutor’s Office looms large, the time is ripe to begin scrutinizing the legal framework under which the Kosovo Specialist Chambers (KSC) will be operating. To this end, this Supranational Criminal Law Series lecture, co-organized by the I...

The Desire Project seeks to better understand the impact of different models of sex work on the prevalence of trafficking in human beings. To that purpose, we have selected four countries on basis of their very different approach towards sex work in which we are now doing fieldwork.

From 24-25 May 2018, FRC Member, Sibel Top will be attending and presenting at the European Conference on Comparative Criminal Law and Criminal Justice 'EUROPEAN CRIMINAL LAW AND ITS IMPACT ON NATIONAL LEGAL ORDERS.' held in Warsaw, Poland. 

On 7 May, FRC Member Amy Weatherburn, presented her paper on "The increased vulnerability of migrants to labour exploitation in Europe: using positive obligations to maintain a firewall between migration law and criminal law".

FRC Member, Amy Weatherburn has been invited to chair the upcoming symposium entitled ‘8th Annual International Symposium on Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling’ taking place in Brussels on the 17 April 2018.    The symposium will reflect upon the recent European Commiss...

A new FRA report on the fundamental rights implications of the collection, storage and use of biometric data in EU IT systems in the area of asylum and migration has now been published. Under watchful eyes – biometrics, EU IT-systems and fundamental rights identifies a number of fundamenta...

On 20 March 2018, FRC Member, Sergi Vazquez Maymir, chaired the panel on “ABC gates: an interoperable solution in border control management” with speakers discussing legal, technical and ethical aspects of ABC -gates and in particular addressing the issues concerning its interoperability with Inform...

FRC Researchers (Prof.

FRC researcher Sibel Top will be a visiting researcher alongside Prof. Valsamis Mitsilegas at the Law Faculty of Queen Mary University of London from January 2019 till December 2019. During her time there, she will be working under the supervision of Prof.

All the recent updates of the first year of the DESIRE project, coordinated by FRC, can be found in the 4th issue of the Newsletter.

FRC Researcher, Amy Weatherburn has published a book review of Vladislava Stoyanova's monograph Human Trafficking and Slavery Reconsidered: Conceptual Limits and State’s Positive Obligations in European Law on Rutgers Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books. 

table “The European Investigation Order: Challenges to Fundamental Rights and Sovereignty in the Digital Age” that took place in Brussels on 15 January 2018.  The round table addressed cross border access to electronic evidence and judicial cooperation examining its fundamental e...

On 6 February 2018 Paul Nemitz, Principal Advisor at the European Commission and FRC Affiliated Member, has been appointed as a Fellow of the University. The award ceremony will be held on June 21, 2018.

FRC Researcher, Dr Marijke De Pauw and FRC Co-Director, Prof. Paul De Hert have contributed a chapter to E. Brems (ed.), Fragmentation and Integration in Human Rights Law: Users' Perspectives, Edward Elgar Publishers, 2018 forthcoming).

On 14 November, FRC, in collaboration with the University of Bialystok Centre for Direct Democracy Studies, will be hosting a policy forum on migration crisis as a challenge to democracy.     Programme    14:00 – 14:30 Sandwich lunch    &nb...

As part of the DESIrE project, an explanatory video has been developed that informs the general public about the different legal and policy approaches that exist across Europe.

FRC Researcher, Sibel Top has published a EJIL Talk blog post on the recent issue of an European Arrest Warrant against Carles Puigdemont, read the full entry here: The European Arrest Warrant against Puigdemont: A feeling of déjà vu?  

Workshop in Tilburg on the analysis of national law and policies on sex work in relation to sexual exploitation and human trafficking     On 17 October 2017, the consortium will engage with external stakeholders to present and validate the findings on the research conducted...

On 31 October 2017, Dr. Marijke De Pauw will participate in the expert workshop of the research project “Towards a rights-based approach to long-term care in Europe: Building an Index of rights-based policies for older people”.

On 6 October 2017, Amy Weatherburn attended the Postgrads Against Slavery Ideas to Impact workshop in Liverpool.

FRC Member, Amy Weatherburn, has begun a research stay at the International Victimology Institute Tilburg, Tilburg University.

Next week, FRC researcher Auke Willems will present on the implications of Brexit for individual rights at a workshop on Brexit and Internal Security organised by Aston University in Birmingham (UK), 30 June 2017. 

Associate postdoctoral researcher at FRC, Dr Marijke De Pauw, participated in the 2017 UNECE Research Forum on Ageing. The Research Forum took place on 20 September 2017 in Lisbon, Portugal in preparation of the 2017 UNECE Ministerial Conference on Ageing.

Congratulations to FRC Researcher, Dr Auke Willems who has a new post as ‘Fellow in EU Law’ at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

FRC Researchers Amy Weatherburn and Chloé Brière have published a new article in the latest issue of Ex Ante.

FRC Researchers will be contributing to a research paper, commissioned by the European Parliament on Effective Access to Justice.  The paper will address the main areas:      identify and explain the issues affecting access to justice, which have been raised in petition...

FRC Member, Julia Muraszkiewicz will participate as a chair in the upcoming symposium entitled ‘7th Annual International Symposium on Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling’ taking place in Brussels on the 17th May 2017.     There will be four panel sessions:&nbsp...

Amy Weatherburn has contributed a blog post to the European Database of Asylum Law on the recent european court of human rights judgment in Chowdhury v Greece.  The blog is entitled Ending impunity for the violation of migrant worker’s rights: Chowdury v Greece. 

Next week, FRC researcher Dr Auke Willems will present a paper at the Fifteenth Biennial EUSA Conference on: ‘Improving Prison Conditions in the EU’, 4-6 May 2017, Miami (USA). 

FRC Researcher, Auke Willems is today presenting at the UCL Post Graduate and Early Career Conference in London. His paper is entitled "‘Reconciling competing interests in EU criminal law: the principle of mutual trust". 

FRC Researcher Amy Weatherburn will present at the Migrating out of Poverty: From Evidence to Policy. Her paper is entitled: ‘Immigration Act 2016: tackling precarious employment in the UK ’. The conference will take place on 28-29 March, at SOAS, London. 

FRC Researcher Auke Willems will present at the Cambridge International and European Law Conference 2017. His paper is titled: ‘The Transformation of the Principle of Mutual Trust in EU Criminal Law by the Court of Justice of the European Union’.

On 10 March 2017, FRC Researcher, Mathias Holvoet will be presenting at the University of Westminster conference on "Righting Wrongs: Enforcing human rights, administering international criminal justice." Mathias will be presenting on "The use and misuse of international human ri...

Keep updated from the DESIrE project by visiting DESIrE Website, following us on Twitter @project_desire_ or on Linkedin and Facebook. 

In Autumn 2016, FRC received the news that a new project had been approved by the European Commission under the framework of the Erasmus+.      EduLAw (ELA) on the introduction of educational modules regulations in teacher education started in January 2017 and will run...

To keep informed of the LIVE_FOR project there are a number of options:  Website / Twitter / Facebook / LinkedIN  

Dr Chloé Brière, a new FRC Member, has recently co-authored a study for DG Internal Policies, Citizens' Rights and Constitutional Affairs Department.      The study, entitled Towards a European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) provides an overview of the curr...

We are happy to announce the start of our latest European Commission project DESIrE. The two-year project aims to generate a better understanding of the impact of sex work legislation on the prevalence of trafficking in human beings.

On 2 December from 20:30 - 22:00, FRC Director Professor Paul de Hert will participate in ‘the big privacy debate’ at the Ghent Festival of Equality, where a penal of experts will discuss the contemporary challenges to the notion of privacy. 

FRC researcher Auke Willems has co-authored a policy brief with VUB research professor Florian Trauner for the European Union Institute for Security Studies. The brief deals with the nexus between the EU’s internal and external criminal justice policy.    

MYRIA, the Federal Centre for Migration in Belgium, today launched its annual report on trafficking and smuggling in human beings.

FRC Members, Julia Muraszkiewicz and Felicty Gerry QC have recently co-authored an article entitled Is the Law an Ass When It Comes to Mules?

In collaboration with VUB-IES and ULB-IEE, FRC research has been showcased at a Joint ULB/VUB Intersectoral Dialogue on Fundamental Rights, Citizenship, Freedom of Movement and Data Protection with members of the DG Just Directorate C - Fundamental rights and Union citizensh...

FRC Members, Amy Weatherburn and Julia Muraszkiewicz have published an article in the National Journal of Immigration and Asylum entitled The Impact of the 2012 Domestic Workers in a Private Household Visa on Human Trafficking for Domestic Servitude.

FRC Researcher Auke Willems will present his paper ‘Balancing Security and Justice in EU Criminal Justice Cooperation’ at the Católica 2016 Graduate Legal Research Conference in Lisbon from 22-23 September 2016. 

The Fundamental Rights and Constitutionalism (FRC) Research Group, part of the Department of Metajuridica of the Vrije Universiteit Brussels, is offering a three year PhD funding to a doctoral student to examine the challenges that the current migration situation poses for migration and asylum law,

Auke Willems, FRC Member, has recently had an article published in the Criminal Law Forum. The article, entitled Extradition on the Two Sides of the Atlantic: The U.S.

FRC researchers, Amy Weatherburn and Julia Muraszkiewicz, will be presenting papers at the 16th conference of the International Association for the Study of Forced Migration (IASFM) to be held on 12-15 July 2016 in Poznań, Poland.

The Fundamental Rights and Constitutionalism (FRC) Research Group, part of the Department of Metajuridica of the Vrije Universiteit Brussels, is offering 3 years PhD funding to a doctoral student to examine the challenges traditional and newest mutual legal assistance instruments face in the context...

From April-June 2016, FRC Researcher, Auke Willems, will be a visiting scholar at the European University Institute in Florence.    

The TRACE Project has come to an end, however, the results of the project and the recommendations are now available in the TRACEing Human Trafficking project handbook for policy makers, law enforcement agencies and civil society organisations.    

FRC Researcher, Irene Wieczorek, was interviewed by the Italian Think Tank Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso. The interview reflected upon some of the legal implications of the refugee crisis currently being faced by EU Member States.    

FRC Researcher, Amy Weatherburn, has published a new article entitled Using an Integrated Human Rights-based Approach to Address Modern Slavery: The UK Experience in the European Human Rights Law Review.    

FRC Member, Fisnick Korenica has published a new article entitled 'A View on CJEU Opinion 2/13’s Unclear Stance on and Dislike of Protocol 16 ECHR' in the European Public Law Journal . The article is co-authored with Dren Doli.     

FRC Researcher, Amy Weatherburn, has co-authored with Dr Alex Toft, an article exploring the views of experts on the situation of severe labour exploitation in the UK.

FRC Member Irene Wieczorek participated on the 25th and 26th of April as invited speaker to the Conference The Needed Balances of EU Criminal Law: Past, Present and Future organised by ECLAN (European Criminal Law Academic Network) which celebrated its 10th Anniversary.

FRC Member, Julia Muraszkiewicz has published a new article entitled "The Relationship Between Human Rights Violations and Human Trafficking" in the new issue of Slavery Today Journal.     

On Tuesday 19 April 2016, Paul De Hert co-director of FRC will be speaking on a panel entitled 'The anti-discrimination agenda on the elderly' at the international conference Getting the Balance Right III, held in Brussels. 

Felicity Gerry QC, a UK and Australian Barrister has joined FRC as an affiliated member. Felicity, has vast experience in criminal and human rights law and will contribute to the team's projects, publications and other work.

Auke Willems, FRC Researcher will present his paper on ‘Mutual trust as a term of art in EU criminal law’ at The 10th Annual International Graduate Legal Research Conference, at King’s College London from 4-5 April 2016. 

Julia Muraskiewicz, FRC Researcher, has co-authored an article entitled ‘The role of technology in the fight against human trafficking: reflections on privacy and data protection concerns’.

The Council of the Baltic Sea States Task Force against Trafficking in Human Beings (CBSS TF-THB) in cooperation with the project partners are organising a workshop “Policy Implications of Future Trends in Human Trafficking” on 29 February 2016 in Stockholm, Sweden.     The...

Julia Muraszkiewicz and Amy Weatherburn, FRC Researchers, have had a panel accepted at the EUIA conference 2016.

FRC Researcher Amy Weatherburn, has written a blog entry that highlights highlights some of the achievements of the TRACE project so far. The blog is available in fully from La Strada International's website.    

FRC Researcher, Julia Muraskiewicz, has published an entry on the LSE Human Rights blog entitled "Modern slavery – but let us remember the trafficked". The piece looks at terminology used in the human trafficking discourse.    

Professor Paul de Hert has been invited as an expert to present at a hearing on the fundamental rights of public officials wearing religious symbols at the Belgian Senate. Prof. de Hert will be joined by Professor Julie Ringelheim, UCL.