The Human Rights Guide is a free online platform for human rights education and self-help. It aims to help people understand human rights in different situations by explaining them through themes. The Guide not only helps people to learn about human rights and understand their basic issues, but also to assess whether a possible human rights violation has occurred and what to do about it. The Guide is also aimed at professional users whose work involves the application of human rights. It also serves as an aid to human rights learning for students and human rights trainers.
The Guide's theme "Human Rights Institutions" has now been supplemented with a new section on the Court of Justice of the European Union. It explains what the Court of Justice of the European Union is, what its aims and objectives are and how it functions and carries out its duties.
The Court of Justice of the European Union is the judicial authority of the European Union, tasked with ensuring the uniform application and interpretation of European Union law. Despite its original economic objective, the European Union has evolved and is now fully committed to the protection of human rights. This objective is underlined in one of its founding treaties. Moreover, the European Union adopted and gave binding force, in 2009, to the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union . In addition to the Charter, fundamental rights are also protected as general principles of European Union law.
The domestic judge remains the first judge when European Union law is involved because of the principles of primacy and direct effect. However, individuals may seek specific recourse from the Court of Justice of the European Union.
It should be borne in mind that the Court of Justice of the European Union only deals with matters related to European Union law. As a consequence, you may not invoke or contest a piece of internal legislation that is not related to European Union law.
This update to the theme conveys the importance of the Court of Justice of the European Union and how it ensures the protection of the human rights.
This theme also provides information on various other human rights institutions, both national and international:
- Ombudsman
- Constitutional Court
- European Court of Human Rights
- Court of Justice of the European Union
- UN Human Rights Committee
The Human Rights Guide also covers themes such as freedom of expression and media, fair trial, domestic violence, prisons and others. The Guide provides information on institutions and organisations that protect human rights in Latvia and Europe, explaining in particular how individuals can turn to them for help.
The Human Rights Guide is produced by the non-governmental organisation Baltic Human Rights Society in cooperation with partner organisations. It is financially supported by the Nordic Council of Ministers' Nordplus Education Programme, the European Union's Erasmus+ Programme and the Active Citizens Fund, and has been granted the patronage of the Ombudsman of the Republic of Latvia and the Latvian National Commission for UNESCO.