About the Project
HRJust is a Horizon Europe research initiative that examines how human rights justifications operate across major societal challenges. The project combines normative theory, empirical work, and sustained civil society engagement to clarify regulatory gaps and support more inclusive governance.
Project Description
HRJust addresses core questions about the role of human rights justifications in democratic governance. It investigates where regulatory gaps arise, why they matter, and how a stronger theoretical and empirical framework can improve the protection of individual rights.
WHAT
HRJust is a Research and Innovation Action funded under the HORIZON-CL2-2022-DEMOCRACY-01 call – Reshaping Democracies.
It aims to address critical gaps in human rights regulations and to develop a comprehensive theory of human rights justifications.
WHY
Human rights regimes generally operate on the presumption that only individual persons can possess human rights.
Regulatory gaps arise when States use human rights justifications for their actions. These gaps concern both the regulation of State use of HRJ and the protection of individual human rights against that use.
HOW
HRJust aims to develop both a theory of Human Rights Justifications and a process for Systematic Ongoing Civil Society Engagement as a tool for gender- and intersectionality-inclusive participation.
The project also aims to identify gaps in human rights regulations and protection through both conceptual and applied analysis.
WHEN
The project was launched in March 2023 and is scheduled to run for a duration of 39 months.
Work Packages
The consortium’s work is organized into seven work packages that combine coordination, dissemination, theory-building, empirical analysis, and thematic case studies.
WP1
Management
WP2
Dissemination
WP3
Theory
WP4
Covid
WP5
Migration
WP6
Climate
WP7
Empirical cross-cutting
How the work packages connect
WP1 and WP2 focus on the internal coordination of the consortium and the dissemination of its findings. Two WPs – WP3 and WP7 – have a broad scope, dealing respectively with normative theory and cross-cutting empirical application. The remaining three work packages address key thematic areas: the COVID-19 pandemic (WP4), migration (WP5), and climate change (WP6).
Further information is available on the project website and the European Commission website.
