Human rights are at the centre of the European Union's external action. Human rights are to be integrated in all aspects of the Union' s work in the area, such as crisis management, trade and bilateral relations.

Human Rights Guidelines

In order to further direct its work on human rights, the EU has adopted seven sets of guidelines on individual thematic issues:

1) death penalty

2) torture

3) human rights dialogues

4) children and armed conflict

5) human rights defenders

6) rights of the child

7) violence against and discrimination of women

The implementation of the guidelines combines the monitoring of individual cases and events with specific strategies on work with regard to individual countries.