Protection of fundamental rights at EU and Member States' level

In the European Union, the protection of fundamental rights is guaranteed both at national level by Member States' constitutional systems and at EU level by the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, which is not an EU institution but an organ of the Council of Europe, provides an additional layer of protection in case of alleged violations of the rights set out in the European Convention on Human Rights.

The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights sets out a series of individual rights and freedoms. It entrenches the rights developed in the case law of the Court of Justice of the EU, found in the European Convention on Human Rights, as well as other rights and principles resulting from the constitutional traditions of EU Member States and other international instruments.