Human rights protection issues in EU Mediterranean countries

The article offers an overview of human rights protection issues in the Mediterranean countries of the EU. First, it focuses on the region's borderline specificity, trying to locate it on the map of European hegemonies and demonstrate how often it is turned into a fortress zone. This specificity determines human rights protection in two dimensions. As far as 'internal' violations are concerned, the article juxtaposes major countries of the EU Mediterranean in search of violation patterns deducible from the ECtHR's jurisprudence. Then 'external' violations are presented - that is, the dimension of violations against refugees and migrants. In this respect the Mediterranean is effectively framed as a battlefield for the Schengen area, with all the consequences for producing border zones. Finally, the article seeks the role of contemporary Mediterranean as a cultural and geographical community dissected by relations of power and domination.