Decoding Frontex's fragmented accountability mosaic and introducing systemic accountability - System Reset

Abstract

In response to widespread human rights violations involving the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex), multiple accountability mechanisms were activated, leading to the resignation of the agency's executive director. Does this mean the current framework can ensure Frontex's overall accountability? Playing with IT metaphors, this article scrutinises Frontex's accountability framework as a whole. It explores a holistic understanding of accountability, which includes judicial and non-judicial (administrative, democratic, social) accountability mechanisms that can together safeguard the Rule of Law. The article highlights the fragmented and ineffective current accountability framework. It challenges traditional accountability notions and suggests a ‘system reset’, introducing the concept of systemic accountability. Systemic accountability addresses systemic issues underlying consistent rights violations through focused structural solutions. As an accountability model, it can be applied further than Frontex operations to the complex realities of shared administration at external borders, where multiple actors and obscured accountabilities lead to systemic violations.