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This book deals with urgency and human rights. ‘Urgent'is a word often used, in very different contexts. Yet together with a reference to human rights violations, it likely triggers images of people caught up in armed conflict, facing terror from either the state, gangs, paramilitaries, or terrorists. Or of people fleeing terror and facing walls, fences or seas, at risk of being returned to terror, or ignored, neglected, abused, deprived of access to justice and basic facilities, facing death, torture and cruel treatment. Here these both ongoing and expected violations are explored in the context of (quasi-)judicial proceedings as international tribunals and domestic courts are increasingly called upon to order interim measures or accelerate proceedings in such cases. This edited volume concerns the protective potential of interim measures in international human rights cases and the legitimacy of their use and discusses obstacles to their persuasive use, to clarify how their legitimacy and protective potential could be enhanced in the context of concrete legal cases. Examining this is especially pressing when courts and (quasi-)judicial bodies have used interim measures in response to requests by individuals and organisations in the context of issues that are unpopular with governments and/or controversial within society, which has led states to at times employ political pressure to limit their use. Urgency and human rights are discussed from the vantage point of various practitioners and scholars, with the aim of identifying how interim measures could be legitimate and protective and to single out obstacles to their implementation. Drawing from practices developed in various international and regional adjudicatory systems, the contributors provide their perspectives on the legitimacy and/or the protective potential of interim measures and other (quasi-)judicial proceedings in urgent human rights cases. There is considerablediscussion about how interim measures can be legitimate and well-functioning tools to address urgent human rights cases. This book aims to contribute to the ongoing discussion in this respect. Dr. Eva Rieter is senior researcher and lecturer public international law and human rights law at the Centre for State and Law, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Dr. Karin Zwaan is associate professor in the Department of Migration Law at the Centre for State and Law, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.

Does human rights law work? This book engages in this heated debate through a detailed analysis of thirty years of the right to health - perhaps the most complex human right - in Brazil. Are Brazilians better off three decades after the enactment of the right to health in the 1988 Constitution? Has the flurry of litigation experienced in Brazil helped or harmed the majority of the population? This book offers an in-depth analysis of these complex and controversial questions grounded on a wealth of empirical data. The book covers the history of the recognition of health as a human right in the 1988 Constitution through the Sanitary Movement's campaign and the subsequent three decades of what Ferraz calls the politics and judicialization of health. It challenges positions of both optimists and sceptics of human rights law and will be of interest to those looking for a more nuanced analysis.

How do states violate human rights norms after legalization? Why are these violations so persistent? What are the limits of legalization for protecting human rights norms? Conventional wisdom offers a variety of answers to these questions, but most often they conflate laws and norms and focus only on state actions that violate both. While this focus is undoubtedly valuable, it does not capture cases in which states violate human rights norms without technically violating the law. Norm breakers are not necessarily lawbreakers. Focusing exclusively on norm violations that are illegal obscures the possibility that agents could violate norms in a legal manner, engaging in actions that are awful but lawful.Presenting rich case studies of the French expulsion of Roma immigrants from 2007 to 2017 and the Czech segregation of Roma children in schools for those with mild mental disabilities between 1993 and 2017, Evading International Norms argues that the violation of human rights norms often continues after legalization under the cover of technical legality. While laws and norms overlap, interact, and shape each other in many ways, they tend to reflect each other only selectively, which leads to the existence of norm-law gaps. Taking advantage of such gaps, states resist unwanted human rights obligations by transgressing international human rights norms without violating the laws designed to protect them—a process Zoltán I. Búzás names norm evasion.Based on a wealth of evidence, including more than 160 interviews, the book shows that the treatment of the Roma by France and the Czech Republic violated the norm of racial equality in a technically legal fashion. Búzás cautions that the good news about law compliance is not necessarily good news about norm compliance and draws attention to racial discrimination against the Roma, one of the largest and most marginalized European minorities.

This open access book documents and analyses the various interventions – legal, political, and even artistic – that followed the Ali Enterprises factory fire in Karachi, Pakistan, in 2012. It illuminates the different substantive and procedural aspects of the legal proceedings and negotiations between the various local and transnational actors implicated in the Ali Enterprises fire, as well as the legal and policy reforms sparked by the incident. This endeavour serves to embed these legal cases and reform efforts in the larger context of human and labour rights protection and global value chain governance. It also offers a concrete case study relevant for ongoing debates around the role of transnational approaches in making human rights litigation, advocacy, and law reform more effective. In this regard, the book interrogates and critically reflects on such legal campaigns and local and transnational reform work with a view to future transformative legal and social activism.

This book explores a democratic theory of international law. Characterised by a back-and-forth between theory and practice, it explores the question from two perspectives: a theoretical level which reflects and criticizes the categories, words and concepts through which international law is understood, and a more applied level focussing on'cosmopolitan building sites'or the practical features of the law, such as the role of civil society in international organisations or reform of the UN Security Council. Though written for an academic audience, it will have a more general appeal and be of interest to all those concerned with how international governance is developing.

Since classical antiquity debates about tyranny, tyrannicide and preventing tyranny's re-emergence have permeated governance discourse. Yet within the literature on the global legal order, tyranny is missing. This book creates a taxonomy of tyranny and poses the question: could the global legal order be tyrannical? This taxonomy examines the benefits attached to tyrannical governance for the tyrant, considers how illegitimacy and fear establish tyranny, asks how rule by law, silence and beneficence aid in governing a tyranny. It outlines the modalities of tyranny: scale, imperialism, gender, and bureaucracy. Where it is determined that a tyranny exists, the book examines the extent of the right and duty to effect tyrannicide. As the global legal order gathers ever more power to itself, it becomes imperative to ask whether tyranny lurks at the global scale.

Enabling the victims of international crimes to obtain reparation is crucial to fighting impunity. In Universal Civil Jurisdiction – Which Way Forward? experts of public and private international law discuss one of the key challenges that victims face, namely access to justice. Civil courts in the country where the crime was committed may be biased, or otherwise unwilling or unable to hear the case. Are the courts of other countries permitted, or required, to rule on the victim's claim? Trends at the international and the domestic level after the Naït-Liman judgment of the European Court of Human Rights offer a nuanced answer, suggesting that civil jurisdiction is not only concerned with sovereignty, but is also a tool for the governance of global problems.

With the importance of non-State actors ever increasing, the traditional State-centric approach of international law is being put to the test. In particular, significant accountability lacunae have emerged in the field of human rights protection. To address these challenges, this book makes a case for extraterritorial due diligence obligations of States in international human rights law. It traces back how due diligence obligations evolved on the international plane and develops a general analytical framework making the broad and vague notion of due diligence more approachable. The framework is applied to different fields of international law which provides guidance on how due diligence obligations can be better conceptualized. Drawing inspiration from these developments, the book analyses how extraterritorial human rights due diligence obligations could operate in practice and foster global human rights protection.

This comprehensive Research Handbook offers an in-depth examination of the most significant factors affecting compliance with international human rights law, which has emerged as one of the key problems in the efforts to promote effective protection of human rights. In particular, it examines the relationships between regional human rights courts and domestic actors and judiciaries.Taking an interdisciplinary approach, the Research Handbook explores the legal and political considerations that shape compliance, using a combination of both international and comparative law analysis in the assessment of regional human rights regimes. Chapters written by leading scholars and practitioners from around the globe cover a wide range of jurisdictions from Europe, Latin America and Africa and their interactions with regional human rights courts. The Research Handbook also discusses the limits of, and possible alternatives to, compliance as a framework for analysis, offering a fuller understanding of the effectiveness of international human rights law.Scholars, students and practitioners of public international law, international human rights law and comparative law will find this Research Handbook an invaluable resource. It will also benefit officials and lawyers working with international organisations who deal with human rights issues on a regular basis.

What does the right to the continuous improvement of living conditions in Article 11(1) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights really mean and how can it contribute to social change? The book explores how this underdeveloped right can have valuable application in response to global problems of poverty, inequality and climate destruction, through an in-depth consideration of its meaning. The book seeks to interpret and give meaning to the right as a legal standard, giving it practical value for those whose living conditions are inadequate. It locates the right within broader philosophical and political debates, whilst also assessing the challenges to its realisation. It also explores how the right relates to human rights more generally and considers its application to issues of gender, care and the rights of Indigenous peoples. The contributors deeply probe the meaning of'living conditions', suggesting that these encompass more than the basic rights to housing, water, food, and clothing. The chapters provide a range of doctrinal, historical and philosophical engagements through grounded analysis and imaginative interpretation.With a foreword by Sandra Liebenberg (former Member of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights), the book includes chapters from renowned and emerging scholars working across disciplines from around the world.

Peremptory Norms of General International Law (Jus Cogens): Disquisitions and Dispositions brings together an impressive collection of authors addressing both conceptual issues and challenges relating to peremptory norms of general international. Covered themes in the edited collection include concepts relating to the identification of peremptory norms, consequences of peremptory norms, critiques of peremptory norms, the relationship between peremptory norms and particular areas of international law as well as the peremptory status of particular norms of international law. The contributions are presented from an array of scholars and experts with different perspective, thus providing an interesting mosaic of thoughts on peremptory norms. Written against the backdrop of the ongoing work of the International Law Commission, it exposes some tensions inherent in the jus cogens.

This is the first book that explores whether there are any rules in international law applicable to unilateral sanctions and if so, what they are.The book examines both the lawfulness of unilateral sanctions and the limitations within which they should operate. In doing so, it includes an analysis of State practice, the provisions of various international legal instruments dealing with such sanctions and their impact on other areas of international law such as freedom of navigation, aviation and transit, and the principles of international trade, investment, regional economic integration, and the protection of human rights and the environment.This study finds that unilateral sanctions by a state or a group of states against another state as opposed to'smart'or targeted sanctions of limited scope would be unlawful, unless they meet the procedural and substantive requirements stipulated in international law. Importantly, the book identifies and consolidates these requirements scattered in different areas of international law, including the additional rules of customary international law that have emerged out of the recent practice of States and that increase the limitations on the use of unilateral sanctions.

This book theorises and concretises the idea of'absolute rights'in human rights law with a focus on Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). It unpacks how we might understand what an'absolute right'in human rights law is and draws out how such a right's delimitation may remain faithful to its absolute character. From these starting points, it considers how, as a matter of principle, the right not to be subjected to torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment enshrined in Article 3 ECHR is, and ought, to be substantively delimited by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). Focusing on the wrongs at issue, this analysis touches both on the core of the right and on what some might consider to lie at the right's'fringes': from the aggravated wrong of torture to the severity assessment delineating inhumanity and degradation; the justified use of force and its implications for absoluteness; the delimitation of positive obligations to protect from ill-treatment; and the duty not to expel persons to places where they face a real risk of torture, inhumanity or degradation.Few legal standards carry the simultaneous significance and contestation surrounding this right. This book seeks to contribute fruitfully to efforts to counter a proliferation of attempts to dispute, circumvent or dilute the absolute character of the right not to be subjected to torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and to offer the groundwork for transparently and coherently (re)interpreting the right's contours in line with its absolute character.Winner of the 2022 SLS Peter Birks Prize for Outstanding Legal Scholarship.

Human dignity is a classical concept in public international law, and a core element of the human rights machinery built after the Second World War. This book reflects on the past, present and future of the concept of human dignity, focusing on the role of international lawyers in shaping the idea and their potential and actual role in protecting the rights of certain vulnerable groups of contemporary societies, such as migrant women at risk of domestic servitude, the LGB community and indigenous peoples.

In Irrational Human Rights? An Examination of International Human Rights Treaties Naiade el-Khoury pursues the question how effective international human rights treaties really are and offers a discussion on the effects of treaty mechanisms. Such an examination as to the effects of international human rights treaties, or rather their limits, puts prevalent views of international law to the test. In doing so, this book convincingly argues that rational theories are inadequate to grasp the full effect of international human rights treaties.

Now in its second edition, Dinah Shelton's pioneering book provides a uniquely accessible introduction to the history and the latest developments in international human rights law. Exploring the origins, customs and institutions that have emerged globally and regionally in the last two centuries, this incisive book guides readers through the major treaties and declarations that form the foundations of the discipline today. Key features of this rigorously revised second edition include: Balanced, interdisciplinary coverage of both regional and international variations in human rights law, probing current challenges to the global regime Concise yet scrupulous coverage of historical and philosophical themes that have culminated in the present legal regime Updated statistics and ratification numbers to elucidate recent developments in human rights law. Succinct and cutting-edge, this second edition will be an invaluable guide for seasoned academics and researchers in the field, as well as students at all levels who require a comprehensive introductory text. Its practical insights and key statistical data will also provide a versatile reference point for practitioners in the field.

Legal Sources in Business and Human Rights engages with some evolving trends that are currently affecting the international and EU law sources in the field of Business and Human Rights. Three main dynamics are detected and explored: the emergence of international legal obligations that are also binding on corporations (Part I); the growing participation of corporations in traditional international standard-setting and law-making processes and, in parallel, the emergence of atypical and heterogeneous law-making processes (Part II); the formal or substantive hardening of originally soft normative standards, through a multi-layered and multi-player law-making process (Part III). Interestingly, these trends concur to mitigate States'reluctance to accept binding rules in this field, and to strengthen the effectiveness of soft international regulation.

What does it mean to say that international humanitarian law (IHL) strikes a realistic and meaningful balance between military necessity and humanity, and that the law therefore'accounts for'military necessity? To what consequences does the law'accounting for'military necessity give rise? Through real-life examples and careful analysis, this book challenges received wisdom on the subject by devising a new theory that not only reaffirms Kriegsräson's fallacy but also explains why IHL has no reason to restrict or prohibit militarily unnecessary conduct on that ground alone. Additionally, the theory hypothesises greater normative significance for humanitarian and chivalrous imperatives when they conflict with IHL rules. By combining international law, jurisprudence, military history, strategic studies, and moral philosophy, this book reveals how rational fighting relates to ethical fighting, how IHL incorporates contrasting values that shape its rules, and how law and theory adapt themselves to war's evolutions.

It is because Catholicism played such a formative role in the construction of Western legal culture that it is the focal point of this enquiry. The account of international law from its origin in the treaties of Westphalia, and located in the writing of the Grotian tradition, had lost contact with another cosmopolitan history of international law that reappeared with the growth of the early twentieth century human rights movement. The beginnings of the human rights movement, grounded in democratic sovereign power, returned to that moral vocabulary to promote the further growth of international order in the twentieth century. In recognising this technique of periodically returning to Western cosmopolitan legal culture, this book endeavours to provide a more complete account of the human rights project that factors in the contribution that cosmopolitan Catholicism made to a general theory of sovereignty, international law and human rights.

How can international organizations (IOs) like the United Nations (UN) and their implementing partners be held accountable if their actions and policies violate fundamental human rights? This book provides a new conceptual framework to study pluralist accountability, whereby third parties hold IOs and their implementing partners accountable for human rights violations. Based on a rich study of UN-mandated operations in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Kosovo, the EU Troika's austerity policy, and Global Public-Private Health Partnerships in India, this book analyzes how competition and human rights vulnerability shape the evolution of pluralist accountability in response to diverse human rights violations, such as human trafficking, the violation of the rights of detainees, economic rights, and the right to consent in clinical trials. While highlighting the importance of alternative accountability mechanisms for legitimacy of IOs, this book also argues that pluralist accountability should not be regarded as a panacea for IOs'legitimacy problems, as it is often less legalized and might cause multiple accountability disorder.

With international human rights under challenge, this book represents a comprehensive critique that adds a social policy perspective to recent political and legalistic analysis. Expert contributors draw on local and global examples to review constructs of universal rights and their impact on social policy and human welfare. With thorough analysis of their strengths, weaknesses and enforcement, it sets out their role in domestic and geopolitical affairs. Including a forward by Albie Sachs, this book presents an honest appraisal of both the concepts of international human rights and their realities. It will engage those with an interest in social policy, ethics, politics, international relations, civil society organisations and human rights-based approaches to campaigning and policy development.

This monograph could not be more timely, as discourses relating to refugees'access to territory, rescue at sea, push-back, and push-back by proxy dominate political debate. Looking at the questions which lie at the junction of migration control and refugee law standards, it explores the extent to which readmission can hamper refugees'access to protection. Though it draws mainly on European law, notably the European Convention on Human Rights, it also examines other international frameworks, including those employed by the United Nations and instruments such as the Refugee Convention. Therefore, this book is of importance to readers of international law, refugee law, human rights and migration studies at the global level. It offers an analysis of both the legal and policy questions at play, and engages fully with widely-disputed cases concerning readmission agreements, deportation with assurances and interception at sea. By so doing, this book seeks to clarify a complex field which has at times suffered from partiality in both its terminology and substance.

Traditionally, human rights have protected those facing the sharp edge of the criminal justice system. But over time human rights law has become increasingly infused with duties to mobilise criminal law towards protection and redress for violation of rights. These developments give rise to a whole host of questions concerning the precise parameters of coercive human rights, the rationale(s) that underpin them, and their effects and implications for victims, perpetrators, domestic legal systems, and for the theory and practice of human rights and criminal justice. This collection addresses these questions with a focus on the rich jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). The collection explores four interlocking themes surrounding the issue of coercive human rights: First, the key threads in the doctrine of the ECtHR on duties to mobilise the criminal law as a means of delivering human rights protection. Secondly, the factors that contribute to a readiness to demand coercive measures, including discrimination and vulnerability, and other key justificatory reasoning shaping the development of coercive human rights. Thirdly, the most pressing challenges for the ECtHR's coercive duties doctrine, including: - how it relates to theories and rationales of criminalisation and criminal punishment; - its implications for the fundamental tenets of human rights law itself;- its relationship to transitional justice objectives; and - how (far) it coheres with the imperative of effective protection for persons in precarious or vulnerable situations.Fourthly, the (prospective) evolution of the coercive human rights doctrine and its application within national jurisdictions.

This collection of essays analyses how diversity in human identity and disadvantage affects the articulation, realisation, violation and enforcement of human rights. The question arises from the realisation that people, who are severally and severely disadvantaged because of their race, religion, gender, age, disability, sexual orientation, class etc, often find themselves at the margins of human rights; their condition seldom improved and sometimes even worsened by the rights discourse. How does one make sense of this relationship between the complexity of people's disadvantage and violation of their human rights? Does the human rights discourse, based on its universal and common values, have tools, methods or theories to capture and respond to the difference in people's lived experience of rights? Can intersectionality help in that quest? This book seeks to inaugurate this line of inquiry.

This edited volume on Implementation of International Human Rights Commitments and Implications on Ongoing Legal Reforms in Ethiopia addresses key themes of contemporary interest focused on identifying the gaps between Ethiopia's human rights commitments and the practical problems associated with the realisation of human rights goals. Political and legal challenges affecting implementation at the domestic levels continue in Ethiopian – the nature and complexity of which have been thoroughly expounded in this volume. This edition uncovers the key challenges involving civil and political rights, socio-economic rights and cultural and institutional dimensions of the implementation of human rights in Ethiopia – while the country is absorbed in legal and political reforms.

In Corporate Responsibility and Human Rights, Jide James-Eluyode provides a comprehensive analysis of critical human rights developments and topical issues and trends in corporate social responsibility practices. James-Eluyode examines how corporate entities fulfill their responsibility to respect human rights in general and indigenous peoples'rights in particular. Given the momentous impact of corporate projects and recent developments in the area of international human rights, James-Eluyode contends that the establishment of a universally-binding, corporate code of conduct is inescapable, and concludes that respect for human rights by corporations is not simply a discretionary moral or binding legal matter but a bottom-line issue.

La proclamación del valor intrínseco de la persona humana es inescindible de cada derecho que se confiera a cada persona: hombres y mujeres, ancianos, jóvenes o niños; partiendo del reconocimiento de su dignidad y trascendencia. El tratamiento de los derechos humanos no está ajeno a las pasiones que despiertan las disputas ideológicas. Si existe una problemática necesitada de un enfoque integrador, es precisamente esta; de allí la constante preocupación de intelectuales, dirigentes políticos y sociales y gobernantes de cualquier país y sistema jurídico-institucional, pero también del común mortal. En este sentido, el libro abarca todos los temas referidos a la posición de la persona humana frente al derecho internacional y a la vasta problemática de la protección universal de los derechos humanos y del derecho internacional humanitario; y aunque la obra se presenta desde una perspectiva jurídica ha sido preparada de modo tal que cualquier persona interesada en tan sensibles cuestiones, tenga oportunidad de acceder a información básica e imprescindible, convenientemente seleccionada y presentada. La dignidad y trascendencia de los seres humanos es abordada aquí desde la cabal conciencia de los fundamentos históricos, filosóficos y jurídicos de los derechos humanos.

Malekian introduces two new terms into the system of international criminal law. These are the law of somebodiness and the law of nobodiness. From the lowest to highest level of the provisions of international human rights law, international criminal law, and the Statute of the Permanent International Criminal Court, the philosophical assumption throughout is to preserve the heritage of the body of the law of somebodiness and prevent the imposition of the law of nobodiness. Individuals and groups, regardless of their ethnic composition, possess a certain universal united essence which should not be disregarded, and which should not put them in the position of nobodiness in the legislation of any state. Therefore, the law of somebodiness is the missing ingredient in our legal system, and its existence contributes to the collective good of humanity. The law contests any law which authorises the use of force, the production of weapons for war, or which grants permission to kill under any circumstance. In contrast, the law of nobodiness is a brutal law which violates the rights of human beings, and which may be used to conceal crimes and contribute to the deaths of millions of individuals by presenting the false truth in order to allow the monopolisation of economic resources, the rights of victims, property, and land. The unique and innovative principles of this book establish the right reason for justice in international legal and political disciplines. This book is recommended to all those who are engaged in questions of human personal values as a union of true law. It includes not only students of law and politics, but lawyers, judges, prosecutors, and politicians as well.

This book examines the legal conundrum of reconciling international human rights law in a Muslim majority country and identifies a trajectory for negotiating the protection of religious minorities within Islam. The work explores the history of religious minorities within Islam in Indonesia, which contains the world's largest Muslim population, as well as the present-day ways by which the government may address issues through reconciling international human rights law and Islamic law. Given the context of multiple sets of religious norms in Indonesia, this is a complicated endeavour. In addition to amending and enacting human rights norms, the government is also negotiating with the long history of Islamisation in Indonesia. Particularly relevant is the practice of customary law, which puts the rights of community over individualism. This practice directly affects the rights of religious minorities within Islam. Readers, especially those conducting research, will also be provided with information and references which are relevant to the field of human rights, especially in relation to religious minorities and international law. The book will be a valuable resource for academics and researchers in the fields of International Human Rights Law, Law and Religion, and Islamic Studies.

With a diverse group of contributors from law, business and the social sciences, this book explores the line not only between order and disorder in global affairs, but also chaos and control, continuity and change, the core and the margins. The key themes include: global crises and the role of international law, norms and institutions; the challenge of pluralism to regulatory clarity; and critical assessments of taken-for-granted systems and values such as capitalism, centralised government, de-militarisation and the separation of powers. The book divides into two key parts. The first part, `Conceptions', considers the diverse way in which order/disorder can be conceived in global governance and regulation. The second part, `Case Studies', groups chapters around five topic areas: citizens, capitalism, conflict, crime and courts. The authors here build on the themes presented in the first part by embedding them within specific areas of international regulation, such as international criminal law, maritime law or finance regulation; jurisdictions and regions, such as Australia, Canada, China, Japan and South Asia; and subject-matter, such as water resources, citizenship, statelessness and public interest litigation. This blend of contemporary subject-matter, empirical studies, multi-disciplinary perspectives and academic theories provides a comprehensive analysis to current and emerging debates in the broader global community. In utilizing interdisciplinary studies to draw out common issues and alternative solutions, the book will appeal to a wide readership among academics and policy-makers.

Cuando un Estado se suma a un tratado internacional de derechos humanos (y desde que esté en vigor para él) adquiere la obligación de cumplir sus disposiciones. En principio, como en estos tratados se indica, la obligación de adoptar las medidas necesarias para hacer efectivo en su Derecho interno el pleno respeto de los derechos y libertades, todos, reconocidos.Estas obligaciones que, sin la presencia de concreciones mayores, cabe calificar de comportamiento son vinculantes en Derecho, pero su indeterminación en cuanto a contenido y plazos difuminan su efecto útil para los órganos de los Estados partes (en particular sus jueces y tribunales) a los efectos de su eventual aplicación a individuos reclamantes. Y ello no obstante el tenor del artículo 10.2 de nuestra Constitución, según el cual los órganos del Estado (todos) “deberán” utilizar como “elementos interpretativos” de los derechos y libertades que nuestro sistema jurídico reconoce (en particular los de la Norma Fundamental del Estado) los tratados internacionales sobre derechos humanos ratificados por España.Pero si un tratado internacional sobre derechos humanos ratificado por nuestro país, o uno de sus Protocolos, crea órganos internacionales (Comités) a los que otorga competencias para emitir Informes u Observaciones Generales relativos a la clarificación o precisión de los derechos y libertades regulados y/o para pronunciarse sobre quejas, comunicaciones o reclamaciones de personas físicas o jurídicas que se hallen bajo jurisdicción de los Estados partes y consideren violados alguno(s) de sus derechos, la cuestión cambia …

This timely book explores the extent to which national security has affected the intersection between human rights and the exercise of state power. It examines how liberal democracies, long viewed as the proponents and protectors of human rights, have transformed their use of human rights on the global stage, externalizing their own internal agendas.Contextualizing human rights goals, structures and challenges in the immediate post-UDHR era, key chapters analyse the role that national security has played in driving competition between individual rights and rhetoric-laden, democracy-reinforcing approaches to collective rights of security. Internationally diverse authors offer evocative insights into the ways in which law is used to manipulate both intra and interstate relationships, and demonstrate the constant tensions raised by a human rights system that is fundamentally state-centric though defined by individuals'needs and demands. Acknowledging the challenges in contemporary human rights practice, policy and discourse as features of transitional eras in human rights, this forward-thinking book identifies opportunities to correct past inadequacies and promote a stronger system for the future.This is a hard-hitting and much needed study for students and scholars of human rights, security law, constitutional law and international relations more widely. Its practical dimensions will also greatly benefit practitioners in the field.

Having articulated numerous human rights norms and standards in international treaties, the pressing challenge today is their realisation in States'parties around the world. Domestic implementation has proven a difficult task for national authorities as well as international supervisory bodies. This book examines the traditional State-centric and legalistic approach to implementation, critiquing its limited efficacy in practice and failure to connect with local cultures. The book therefore explores the permissibility of other measures of implementation, and advocates more culturally sensitive approaches involving social institutions. Through an interdisciplinary case study of Islam in Indonesia, the book demonstrates the power of social institutions like religion to promote rights compliant positions and behaviours. Like the preamble of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the book reiterates the role not just of the State but indeed'every organ of society'in realising rights.

This book explores to what extent a state owes human rights obligations to individuals outside of its territory, when the conduct of that state impacts upon the lives of those individuals. It draws upon legal and political philosophy to develop a theory of extraterritoriality based on the nature of human rights, merging accounts of economic, social, and cultural rights with those of civil and political rights Lea Raible outlines four main arguments aimed at changing the way we think about the extraterritoriality of human rights. First, she argues that questions regarding extraterritoriality are really about justifying the allocation of human rights obligations to specific states. Second, the book shows that human rights as found in international human rights treaties are underpinned by the values of integrity and equality. Third, she shows that these same values justify the allocation of human rights obligations towards specific individuals to public institutions - including states - that hold political power over those individuals. And finally, the book demonstrates that title to territory is best captured by the value of stability, as opposed to integrity and equality. On this basis, Raible concludes that all standards in international human rights treaties that count as human rights require that a threshold of jurisdiction, understood as political power over individuals, is met. The book applies this theory of extraterritoriality to explain the obligations of states in a wide range of cases.

International human rights have been an important matter for study, policy, and activism since the end of World War II. However, as William H. Meyer observes, global governance is not only a relatively new topic for students of interational relations but also a widely used yet often contested concept. Despite the conflicting and often politicized uses of the term, three key dimensions of global governance can be identified: the impact of diplomatic international organizations such as the International Criminal Court, the importance of nonstate actors and global civil society, and global political trends that can be gleaned from empirical observation and data collection. In Human Rights and Global Governance, Meyer defines global governance generally as the management of global issues within a political space that has no single centralized authority.Employing a combination of historical, quantitative, normative, and policy analyses, Meyer presents a series of case studies at the intersection of power politics and international justice. He examines the global campaign to end impunity for dictators; the recognition, violation, and protection of indigenous rights; the creation and expansion of efforts to ensure corporate social responsibility; the interactions between labor rights and development in the Global South; just war theory as it applies to torturing terrorists, war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the drone wars; and the global strategic environment that best facilitates the making of human rights treaties. Meyer concludes with an evaluation of the successes and failures of two exemplary models for the global governance of human rights as well as recommendations for public policy changes and visions for the future.

In Nowhere Countries: Exclusion of Non-Citizens from Rights through Extra-Territoriality at Home, Pauline Maillet offers a new theoretical framework to understand the mechanisms by which non-citizens are excluded from the rights attached to sovereign territory when arriving at states'borders. Initiated in Charles de Gaulle airport, the analysis encompasses similar cases in countries other than France. This interdisciplinary study traces how some liberal democracies create spaces construed as extra-territorial on their own soil to circumvent obligations owed to sea or airborne asylum seekers under the Refugee Convention and its Protocol. How do states make their territory vanish to prevent asylum seekers'arrival? Using a combination of legal analysis and ethnography, this book identifies the legal techniques, enforcement practices and mental landscapes that have sustained nowhere countries.

The United Nations has established a right to the truth to be enjoyed by victims of gross violations of human rights. The origins of the right stem from the need to provide victims and relatives of the missing with a right to know what happened. It encompasses the verification and full public disclosure of the facts associated with the crimes from which they or their relatives suffered. The importance of the right to the truth is based on the belief that, by disclosing the truth, the suffering of victims is alleviated.This book analyses the emergence of this right, as a response to an understanding of the needs of victims, through to its development and application in two particular legal contexts: international human rights law and international criminal justice. The book examines in detail the application of the right through the case law and jurisprudence of international tribunals in the human rights and also the criminal justice context, as well as looking at its place in transitional justice. The theoretical foundations of the right to the truth are considered as well as the various objectives appropriate for different truth-seeking mechanisms. The book then goes on to discuss to what extent it can be understood, constructed and applied as a hard, legally enforceable right with correlating duties on various people and institutions including state agencies, prosecutors and judges.

In the process of resolving disputes, it is not uncommon for parties to justify actions otherwise in breach of their obligations by invoking the need to protect some aspect of the elusive concept of public order. Until this thoroughly researched book, the criteria and factors against which international dispute bodies assess such claims have remained unclear. Now, by providing an in-depth comparative analysis of relevant jurisprudence under four distinct international dispute resolution systems – trade, investment, human rights and international commercial arbitration – the author of this invaluable book identifies common core benchmarks for the application of the public order exception. To achieve the broadest possible scope for her analysis, the author examines the public order exception's function, role and application within the following international dispute resolution systems: relevant World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements as enforced by the organization's Dispute Settlement Body and Appellate Body; international investment agreements as enforced by competent Arbitral Tribunals and Annulment Committees under the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes; provisions under the Inter-American Convention of Human Rights and the European Convention of Human Rights as enforced by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the European Court of Human Rights, respectively; and the New York Convention as enforced by national tribunals across the world. Controversies, tensions and pitfalls inherent in invoking the public order exception are elucidated, along with clear guidelines on how arguments may be crafted in order to enhance prospects of success. Throughout, tables and graphs systematize key aspects of the relevant jurisprudence under each of the dispute resolution systems analysed. As an immediate practical resource for lawyers on any side of a dispute who wish to invoke or strengthen a public order exception claim, the book's systematic analysis will be welcomed by lawyers active in WTO disputes, international investment arbitration, human rights law or enforcement of foreign arbitral awards. Academics and policymakers will find a signal contribution to the ongoing debate on the existence, legal basis, content and functions of the transnational public order.

This book examines the legal nature of Islamic states and the human rights they have committed to uphold. It begins with an overview of the political history of Islam, and of Islamic law, focusing primarily on key developments of the first two centuries of Islam. Building on this foundation, the book presents the first study into Islamic constitutions to map the relationship between Sharia and the state in terms of institutions of governance. It then assesses the place of Islamic law in the national legal order of all of today's Islamic states, before proceeding to a comprehensive analysis of those states'adherences to the UN human rights treaties, and finally, a set of international human rights declarations made jointly by Islamic states. Throughout, the focus remains on human rights. Having examined Islamic law first in isolation, then as it reflects into state structures and national constitutional orders, the book provides the background necessary to understand how an Islamic state's treaty commitments reflect into national law. In this endeavour, the book unites three strands of analysis: the compatibility of Sharia with the human rights enunciated in UN treaties; the patterns of adherence of Islamic states with those treaties; and the compatibility of international Islamic human rights declarations with UN standards. By exploring the international human rights commitments of all Islamic states within a single analytical framework, this book will appeal to international human rights and constitutional scholars with an interest in Islamic law and states. It will also be useful to readers with a general interest in the relationships between Sharia, Islamic states, and internationally recognised human rights.

This incisive book provides an unparalleled insight into the ways in which international human rights law functions in a real world context across cultural, religious and geopolitical divides. Written by a professor, former ambassador and international judge, the book demonstrates how power, diplomacy, tactics and processes operate within the human rights system from the perspective of a non-Western insider with more than three decades'experience in the field. Taking a comprehensive approach, chapters cover the treatment of human rights in all major cultures, religions, ideologies and global regions and assess the competence of all relevant international institutions. The book investigates the idea of human rights relativism and allegations of hypocrisy and double standards, as well as illuminating the diplomatic methods employed by nations wishing to evade human rights obligations. It also analyses the place of the law within the United Nations and regional human rights systems, along with compliance and enforcement mechanisms, and examines two emerging dimensions of human rights: in cyberspace and at sea. Students and scholars of human rights across the fields of law, politics and international relations will find this unique book invaluable. Its concise, accessible style will also make it useful reading for government officials, those working for NGOs and members of the public with an interest in human rights.

This book presents the findings of the first comprehensive study on the most recent and most unique and innovative method of monitoring international human rights law at the United Nations. Since its existence, there has yet to be a complete and comprehensive book solely dedicated to exploring the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process. Women and International Human Rights Law provides a much-needed insight to what the process is, how it operates in practice, and whether it meets its fundamental aim of promoting the universality of all human rights.The book addresses the topics with regard to international human rights law and will be of interest to researchers, academics, and students interested in the monitoring and implementation of international human rights law at the United Nations. In addition, it will form supplementary reading for those students studying international human rights law on undergraduate programmes and will also appeal to academics and students with interests in political sciences and international relations.

This book challenges the traditional approach to international law by concentrating on international hThis book challenges the traditional approach to international law by concentrating on international humanitarian law and placing the focus beyond States: it reflects on current legal, policy and practical issues that concern non-State actors in and around situations of armed conflict.With the emergence of the nation-State, international law was almost entirely focused on inter-State relations, thus excluding - for the most part - non-State entities. In the modern era, such a focus needs to be adjusted, in order to encompass the various types of functions and interactions that those entities perform throughout numerous international decision-making processes.The contributions that comprise this volume are oriented towards a broad readership audience in the academic and professional fields related to international humanitarian law, international criminal law, international human rights law and general public international law.Ezequiel Heffes, LLM, is a Thematic Legal Adviser in the Policy and Legal Unit at Geneva Call in Geneva, Switzerland, Marcos D. Kotlik, LLM, is Academic Coordinator at the Observatory of International Humanitarian Law of the University of Buenos Aires, School of Law and was a Judicial Fellow at the International Court of Justice between 2018-2019, and Manuel J. Ventura, LLM (Hons), is an Associate Legal Officer in the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, an Adjunct Fellow at the School of Law at Western Sydney University, and a Director of The Peace and Justice Initiative.

This book investigates how effective human rights and the inherent dignity of refugees can be secured in situations of protracted exile and encampment. The book deploys an innovative human rights-based capabilities approach to address fundamental questions relating to law, power, governance, responsibility, and accountability in refugee camps.Adopting an original theoretical framework, the author demonstrates that legal empowerment can change the distribution of power in a given refugee situation, facilitating the exercise of individual agency and assisting in the reform of the opportunity structure available to the individual. Thus, by helping to increase the capability of refugees to participate actively in the decisions that most affect their core rights and interests, participatory approaches to legal empowerment can also assist in securing other capabilities, ultimately ensuring that refugees are able to live dignified lives while in protracted exile. Ultimately, the book demonstrates that legal empowerment of refugees can bring lasting benefits in establishing trust between refugees, the state, and local communities. It will be of interest to researchers within the fields of refugee studies, international law, development studies, and political science, as well as to policy-makers and practitioners working in the fields of refugee assistance and humanitarian intervention.

This book is about the legal regulation of caste discrimination. It highlights the difficulty of capturing caste in international and domestic law, and suggests solutions. Its aim is to contribute to the task of understanding how to secure effective legal protection from and prevention of discrimination on grounds of caste, and why this is important and necessary. It does this by examining the legal conceptualization and regulation of caste as a social category and as a ground of discrimination, in international law and in two national jurisdictions (India and the UK), identifying their complexities, strengths, limitations and potential. Adopting a broadly chronological approach, the book aims to present an account of the role of law in the construction of caste inequality and discrimination, and the subsequent legal efforts to dismantle it. The book will be of value to lawyers and non-lawyers, academics and students of human rights, international law, equalities and discrimination, descent-based and caste-based discrimination, minority rights, and South Asia and its diaspora. It will be a resource for legal practitioners and those in the public and non-governmental sectors involved in the implementation, interpretation and enforcement of equality law in the UK – the first European country to introduce the word'caste'into domestic equality legislation – and in countries with South Asian diasporas such as the USA.