“An injury to one is an injury to all”. This was the motto of the American Labor Union, “The Industrial Workers of the World”, (IWW), at the beginning of the 20th century. It was also used by the Irish Trade Union, where I began my working life. It is an idea that still inspires my work on human rights and democracy today.

In Europe, we have long since learned that when one person's rights come under attack, the rights of others are vulnerable. When one community is demonized or discriminated against, it diminishes us all. That is why no country or region does more to promote human rights and democracy worldwide than the European Union.

But we are expected to do more, particularly now when human rights and democracy are under increasing pressure. And that pressure has been intensified by the COVID-19 health crisis. Today, the need for effective, coherent, strong collective action on human rights and democracy is even more imperative.

This EU Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy 2020-2024 is the third Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy adopted by the EU. As with the previous two Action Plans, the objective is to enhance and hone EU efforts to promote human rights and democracy worldwide.

Each Plan is an opportunity to reassess, renew and reinvigorate our work. It is an opportunity to build on what we have done, think hard about how to address current challenges, and to plan for future ones.

This new Action Plan means stronger action. It steps up action on long-standing priorities on human rights and democracy, such as gender equality, freedom of expression online and offline, eradication of torture, the abolition of the death penalty, the prevention of sexual and gender-based violence, and many more.

New elements include: strengthening the link between human rights and the environment, leveraging the benefits of digital technologies and minimizing the risks, increased action on economic, social, and cultural rights, more emphasis on democracy, including shrinking civic and political space, a greater focus on business and human rights, further action on the protection and empowerment of human rights defenders and greater investment in explaining what we do to promote human rights and democracy.

The Action Plan is a framework, one of purpose and direction, with a broad range of policies, tools, and political and financial instruments at our disposal to implement it.

It will be up to the more than 140 EU Delegations and Member State Embassies across the world to translate the Action Plan from paper into practice, through a range of actions tailored for local needs and circumstances.

Coherence and consistency on what we do externally and what we do internally are vital, not just for our credibility, but because human rights are universal and democracy provides the best means to protect those rights.

The work done through this Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy will complement the implementation of the EU’s internal plan, the European Democracy Action Plan, which aims to foster democratic and electoral integrity inside the EU.

The EU is also renewing its internal and external policy framework on gender equality with the Gender Equality Strategy and through the third Gender Action Plan.

It will take all of us working together to make this Action Plan a living plan; one which not only leads to better protection and respect for human rights and democracy around the world, but one which helps us reduce inequality, poverty and social exclusion.

All of this work comes at a critical moment, a moment of many challenges, but also of huge promise. We will continue to work with a range of actors, and of course civil society in this endeavor.