Kristin Henrard - Böcker

The abundance of Roma rights cases before international and European courts reflects the Roma's systemic marginalization as well as their resolve to push the boundaries of human rights law. The Roma have increasingly raised concerns through strategic litigation, urging the courts to develop their jurisprudence and adjust the scope of human rights applications. This edited volume examines these cases, exploring the extent to which strategic litigation can and does push the boundaries of human rights.Adopting a long-needed yet untested approach, the volume situates Roma rights within the broader human rights edifice and identifies its key contributions. The volume focuses on the (quasi) jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, the Court of Justice of the EU, and the European Committee of Social Rights, with several chapters also drawing parallels with jurisdictions beyond Europe. Its contributing authors span a broad range of disciplines, including human rights law, political science, climate justice, and ethnology.Combining rich doctrinal and socio-legal analysis, The Rights of Roma in European Courts is an unparalleled resource for scholars and practitioners seeking to understand the systemic discrimination faced by the Roma and explore legal solutions for countering it.

Accommodation of population diversity is a vital issue for any multinational society. The legacy of Apartheid in South Africa complicates this effort considerably. Henrard introduces a theoretical framework regarding how to accommodate minority protection in the most appropriate way and analyzes the respective contributions of individual rights, minority rights, and the right to self-determination. Subsequent chapters examine the case study of post-apartheid South Africa and attempt to investigate its constitutional development. Henrard finds that provisions within the 1996 Constitution do acknowledge an interrelation between these three important factors; however, implementation of minority protection policy is often quite a different matter.In seeking appropriate means of minority protection, this study stresses inclusionism, integration, and the essential right to identity and real equality. While Henrard reviews and discusses the entire democratic transformation process in South Africa, she cautions that, because current developments are characterized by their unsettled nature, major transformation and flux, analysis of the implementation phase can be only indicative. The apartheid history does not in itself inhibit progressive stances on this important issue. Still, despite the promising nature of the 1996 Constitution, the picture that emerges in terms of policy development aimed at minority protection is ambivalent.

There has recently been a remarkable growth in standard-setting with respect to the protection of minorities in international and European law. Layered on top of existing human rights standards relevant to minorities, these developments have resulted in a complex and multi-faceted regime, but one which still does not amount to an integrated and coherent system of minority protection. In addition to providing an up-to-date account of the relevant standards and their development in practice, this collection breaks new ground by seeking to identify the extent to which some integration and coherence (synergy) is emerging as a result of the work of treaty-monitoring bodies and other international institutions. Leading experts on the main instruments and institutions assess matters such as the application of similar principles, the emergence of common themes, explicit cross-referencing between treaty bodies and international institutions and the development of similar working methods.

Despite the expansion of the human rights paradigm, not only in terms of the variety of rights recognized – both general rights and those for particular groups – but also in terms of available supervisory mechanisms and remedies, multiple challenges can still be identified for the realization of the effective enjoyment of fundamental rights.This thought-provoking Research Handbook explores accountability for human rights violations in terms of international law from a rich spectrum of angles. A conceptual angle, investigating the broader understanding of ‘accountability’, is followed by explorations of the who (can be held accountable), for (the violation of) what (rights), how (following what supervisory mechanisms) and to what extent (leading to what remedies). These angles translate into the five main parts of the Research Handbook and are complemented by a sixth part with contemporary case studies whereby, in each case study, the focus will be placed on a particular accountability challenge.Kristin Henrard and Michelle Duin bring together contributions from a wide variety of authors, including both established experts and emerging scholars in the fields of public international law and international human rights law.The Research Handbook on Accountability for Human Rights Violations is a vital resource for students and academics in law and public policy. Its valuable insights into human rights violations will also greatly benefit human rights policymakers and practitioners in international and humanitarian law.

The EU has slowly but surely developed a solid body of equality law that prohibits different facets of discrimination. While the Union had initially developed anti-discrimination norms that served only the commercial rationale of the common market, focusing on nationality (of a Member State) and gender as protected grounds, the Treaty of Amsterdam (1997) supplied five additional prohibited grounds of discrimination to the EU legislative palette, in line with a much broader egalitarian rationale. In 2000, two EU Equality Directives followed, one focusing on race and ethnic origin, the other covering the remaining four grounds introduced by the Treaty of Amsterdam, namely religion, sexual orientation, disabilities and age.Eighteen years after the adoption of the watershed Equality Directives, it seems timely to dedicate a book to their limits and prospects, to look at the progress made, and to revisit the rise of EU anti-discrimination law beyond gender. This volume sets out to capture the striking developments and shortcomings that have taken place in the interpretation of relevant EU secondary law. Firstly, the book unfolds an up-to-date systematic reappraisal of the five ‘newer’ grounds of discrimination, which have so far received mostly fragmented coverage. Secondly, and more generally, the volume captures how and to what extent the Equality Directives have enabled or, at times, prevented the Court of Justice of the European Union from developing even broader and more refined anti-discrimination jurisprudence. Thus, the book offers a glimpse into the past, present and – it is hoped – future of EU anti-discrimination law as, despite all the flaws in the Union’s ‘Garden of Earthly Delights’, it offers one of the highest standards of protection in comparative anti-discrimination law.