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On 6 October, the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) launches a pilot version of Clarity, an interactive online tool to help people with their fundamental rights problems. Clarity, which stands for the ‘Complaints, Legal Assistance and Rights Information Tool for You’, allows users to easily access information on non-judicial bodies dealing with their particular fundamental rights issue(s) in a given EU Member State.

Access the Clarity interactive tool >>

If someone feels that their fundamental rights have been violated, they may not know who to turn to for assistance. By answering a few questions, Clarity lists those bodies, such as equality bodies or national human rights institutions, which may be able to provide assistance in the given situation. It may also provide direct contact through the tool itself or through the full contact details listed for each body.

The pilot version of Clarity provides information in English about bodies in Austria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain and Northern Ireland. Information from Italy and Portugal is not yet ready but should be added soon. The participating non-judicial bodies from the Member States involved in this project helped shape the tool and have provided data on the mandates of the national bodies in their country.

The tool also contains information about EU and international complaints bodies which may also provide assistance.

The Council of the EU recommends further developing Clarity. National representatives of the Council’s working party on e-Law are currently discussing the ways in which the tool can be expanded to cover all 28 EU Member States and kept up-to-date in the future by agreeing to regularly providing necessary information from their country. The European Commission would then integrate the tool into its e-Justice portal, and ensure translation into all EU official languages.