Global trends suggest that norms and institutions of fundamental rights are losing ground. Many governments and political movements explicitly deny fundamental rights' primacy, and some even violate them with impunity. Some political actors and scholars question the centrality and utility of fundamental rights, claiming that they undermine other values such as security, cultural identity, economic development and social justice.

Yet there remain strong voices who insist that fundamental rights have a vital role in addressing new and enduring challenges – migration, the climate crisis and new technologies, to name a few. Such rights are embedded in the very ethos of courts, human rights institutions and many transnational social movements, and indeed in grassroots activism from below. The Centre for Fundamental Rights at the Hertie School was established to address just this: resilience, relevance and future challenges concerning the protection of human and fundamental rights in domestic, regional and global governance.

Listen to a podcast of the launch event of the new Hertie School Centre for Fundamental Rights with a debate on the fundamental questions on fundamental rights. Are they losing or gaining ground, or holding their own in this era of heightened contestation? Do they still provide a lingua franca for legitimate legal and political decision making? Are current rights and accountability structures fit for the 21st century and the challenges it has brought?

More on the participants: https://www.hertie-school.org/en/events/event-previews/2020/20-02-2020-are-fundamental-rights-losing-or-gaining-ground/