The European Parliament as a human rights champion? Legitimation practices in the DROI and LIBE committees

Over the years, the European Parliament has gained a reputation for promoting and protecting human rights within the European Union. In this article, I examine how human rights function as a legitimation resource in the EP’s interinstitutional relations. Drawing on 41 interviews with MEPs and staff from DROI and LIBE, I offer a novel framework of three human rights-related legitimation practices. While the EP makes extensive use of all three practices, their application varies depending on legislative competences and issue salience. I further demonstrate that the effectiveness of human rights legitimation depends critically on how the practices interact: When coherently deployed they compound each other into a powerful legitimation claim, but when the EP’s output falls short of its stated standards they risk contradicting each other. Whether rooted in genuine commitment or strategic calculation, human rights legitimation has tangible implications for the Parliament’s institutional role vis-à-vis the Commission and Council.