Abstract:

The development policy of the European Union is a policy area that has developed rapidly, especially after the Cold War and the conflicts between Eastern countries. In the 1990s, the EU issued a development profile and started the human rights and democracy concepts into the Treaty of European Union officially as guiding principles in its foreign policy. Even before the importance of human rights and democracy in the founding treaties of the European Union was mentioned, strengthening the identity of the European Union could be brought at the international level from the start with respect for these criteria together, because these criteria were the grounds for the EU. The specific aim of this work is to consider the human rights dimension of EU development, cooperation and also some related policy issues and implementation problems in practice, which are considered in theoretical approaches in the study. It should be also noted that while the EU acts as an institution and also relief organization, it makes use of its own funds and budgets, not its Member States. Within this context, the activities of the Union to promote human rights could be interpreted as cultural imperialism.    

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