FRONTEX providing keynote speaker to CCOEs 10th Anniversary
Inmaculada Arnáez, Fundamental Rights Officer coming to The Hague
CIMIC COE Director Colonel Wolfgang Paulik is proud to announce another key addition to the All-Star cast of honorees and speakers at the 10th Anniversary celebrations of the CIMIC Centre of Excellence. “Following the President of the Republic of Croatia, H.E. Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, the President of Blue Shield International Karl von Habsburg-Lothringen and UN OCHA’s Josef Reiterer, I am particularly honored that FRONTEX, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, has nominated its Fundamental Rights Officer, Mrs. Inmaculada Arnáez, to address the our distinguished audience,” he said on July 10th, to date three months ahead of the Anniversary.
Mrs Arnáez, who is a Spanish lawyer with 20 several years of experience in fundamental rights, humanitarian law and international relations, was appointed in 2012 as the first Fundamental Human Rights Officer at Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency.
The mission of FRONTEX – one of the decentralized agencies of the European Union, located in Warsaw – is to promote, coordinate and develop European border management. The agency is responsible for the monitoring of migratory flows, conducting risk analysis regarding all aspects of integrated border management and supporting EU member states in managing their external borders by coordinating the provision of additional human and technical equipment from other Member States, including on return. It also carries out vulnerability assessments and evaluates the member states’ capacity and readiness to face threats and challenges at their external borders, as well as monitoring the management of the external borders through the Agency’s liaison officers in the EU member states.
The scope of activities of Mrs. Arnáez Fernandez within FRONTEX is pivotal to the overall task of this EU agency. As reported by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants in May 2015, the Fundamental Rights Officer is involved in numerous activities of the Agency, including ‘the establishment of a Code of Conduct for Joint Return Operations, the Vega Handbook on Children and the establishment of a mechanism for monitoring fundamental rights. She is involved in advising on the drafting, implementation and evaluation of the operational plans for joint operations and she also carries out field visits during these operations’. On a regular basis, the Fundamental Rights Officer monitors and reports to the Management Board and in close cooperation with the Director of the Agency. The FRO also cooperated with Consultative Forum on Fundamental Rights, an independent body, which advises FRONTEX on fundamental rights matters.
The 10th Anniversary of the CCOE will gather in The Hague senior representatives from NATO, national ministries of defense, governmental institutions, International and major Non-Governmental Organizations, as well as civic and corporate leaders. The motto “From the Protection of Culture to the Protection of Civilians” has been chosen, to arch the wide span of the activities and tasks relevant to successful Civil-Military Interaction.
Article by: Monica de Astis