International Studies in Human Rights – serie

One of the aims of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is to accord due recognition to the fact that 'the child, by reason of his phsyical and mental immaturity, needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth'.However, a question mark hangs over the extent to which 'special safeguards and care' can negatively impact on the rights of the child and result in discrimination against the child in the guise of 'his physical and mental immaturity'. This volume explores the extent to which children's rights are secured at the national level; and the reasons why children's rights have or have not been recognised and secured by various states at the level of domestic law. It also explores the difficulties inherent in the accordance of rights to children in order to ascertain whether they do in fact derive from the particular nature of children or whether they mask a reluctance of states to fulfil their domestic and international rights obligations to children, and whether such reluctance constitutes 'discrimination against children'. The volume thus explores the theoretical and legal underpinnings of gender and race discrimination, at both the domestic and international level, and examines the extent to which these may be applied to the area of children's rights.

It is usually assumed that economic, social and cultural rights are two different kinds of rights. Despite this dichotomous perception of human rights we talk about human rights as indivisible, interrelated and interdependent. The purpose of the book has been to examine how the European Court of Human Rights perceives of the indivisibility notion as a legal phenomenon. This is done by analysing five different socio-economic rights: the right to health, the right to housing, the right to education, the right to social cash benefits and various work related rights. The examination clearly illustrates that the Court perceives of human rights as indivisible rights and this integrated approach to human rights protection and its further potential is discussed from a hermeneutic perspective.

What is the relationship between culture and human rights? Can the idea of cultural rights, which are predicated on the distinctiveness and exclusivity of a community’s beliefs and traditions, be compatible with the concept of human rights, which are universal and ‘inherent’ to all human beings? If we accept such compatibility, what is the actual content of cultural rights? Who are their beneficiaries: individuals, or peoples or groups as collective entities? And what precise obligations do cultural rights pose upon states or other actors in international law, or for the international community as a whole? International instruments on the protection of human rights do not provide self-evident answers to these questions. This book seeks to analyse these dilemmas and to assess the impact that they are having on international law and the development of a coherent category of cultural human rights.

The International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is the first human rights treaty adopted by the United Nations in the 21st century. It seeks to secure the equal and effective enjoyment of human rights for the estimated 650 million persons with disabilities in the world. It does so by tailoring gerneral human rights norms to their circumstances. It reflects and advances the shift away from welfare to rights in the context of disability. The Convention itself represents a mix between non-discrimination and other substantive human rights and gives practical effect to the idea that all human rights are indivisible and interdependent. This collection of essays examines these developments from the global, European and Scandinavian perspectives and the challenge of transposing its provisions into national law. It marks the coming of age of disabilty as a core human rights concern.

The role and influence human rights in society has been enhanced by its association with international law and yet despite this legal springboard, the scope of its legal nature remains uncertain. By analysing the work of international human rights courts and treaty bodies alongside a brief historical review, this book assesses the distinctive legal dimension of human rights. It concludes that the legalisation of human rights is an unplanned and evolving social construct that continues under the managerial oversight of international human rights courts and treaty bodies which employ the primary tool of treaty interpretation. These characteristics of the legal environment of human rights in international law provide a good appreciation of the law itself and its limits.

The conflict between immunities and the right of access to court under Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights remains one of the most interesting problems in the current Strasbourg jurisprudence. The European Court of Human Rights had to rule repeatedly on interferences with the right of access by State immunity or the immunity of international organisations. It is here that human rights law and public international law are directly conflicting with each other. “Domestic immunities“ of Members of Parliament, judges, the police or the social services have likewise conflicted with the Convention. This book is the first comprehensive work which covers all kinds of immunities and which discusses the entire case-law of the European Court of Human Rights on the matter.

The African human rights system has undergone some remarkable developments since the adoption of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the cornerstone of the African human rights system, in June 1981. The year2011 marked the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the African Charter. It also marked 25 years since the African Charter entered into force on 21 October 1986.This book aims to provide reflections on most of the major human rights issues in the past 30 years of the African human rights system in practice and discussion on the future: the African Charter’s impact and contribution to the respect, protection and promotion of human rights in Africa; the contemporary challenges faced by the African Human rights system in responding adequately to the demands of rapidly evolving African societies; and how the African human rights system can be strengthened in the future to ensure that the human rights protected in the African Charter, as developed in the jurisprudence of the African Commission since the Commission was inaugurated in 1987, are realised in practice.The chapters in this volume bring together the work of 20 human rights scholars and practitioners, with expertise in human rights in Africa, under the following general themes: rights and duties in the African Charter; rights of the vulnerable under the African system; implementation mechanisms for human rights in Africa; and towards an effective African regional human rights system.

The papers by international and Ethiopian scholars included in Human Rights and Development: Legal Perspectives from and for Ethiopia focus on the interconnectedness between the protection of human rights and the achievement of development. The book adds to the international debate by providing a unique insight into the Ethiopian perspective on the nexus between rights and development and by discussing how this nexus manifests itself in the Ethiopian context. The comparative and international frameworks and examples constitute a valuable resource for the debate on human rights and development in Ethiopia, which is currently taking place in the context of the developmental state approach pursued by the Ethiopian government.

In the first Commentary on the United Nations Principles on Housing and Property Restitution for Refugees and Displaced Persons – known colloquially as the Pinheiro Principles – Khaled Hassine and Scott Leckie outline the restitution rights of persons who have faced forced displacement and the loss of their homes, lands and properties. The Commentary compiles and analyzes in considerable detail the legal contents of the Pinheiro Principles - a consolidated international instrument generated by the United Nations in 2005 to provide a solid normative framework on these questions and which legal duties exist for states and the international community to secure them. The book will be of vital interest for all actors concerned with applying restitution rights in practice.

The European Convention on Human Rights is now crucial to decisions to be taken by the military and their political leaders in ‘hard power’ situations – that is, classical international and non-international armed conflict, belligerent occupation, peacekeeping and peace-enforcing and anti-terrorism and anti-piracy operations, but also hybrid warfare, cyber-attack and targeted assassination. Guidance is needed, therefore, on how Convention law relates to these decisions.That guidance is precisely what this book aims to offer. It focuses primarily on States’ accountability under the Convention, but also shows that human rights law, used creatively, can actually help States achieve their objectives.

This book aims to contribute to the global observance of the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), 1948. It considers nature and development of international human rights law. It considers how human rights interact with other regimes such as intellectual property, foreign direct investment, corporate social responsibility, international environmental law, humanitarian law, refugee law, economic law, and criminal law. The book then presents human rights of vulnerable populations and sets out contemporary challenges and issues relating to human rights, such as globalisation, the effects of COVID-19, religion, nationality, and the implementation of economic, social, and cultural rights.

Corporate businesses are expanding nationally and globally. Given this proliferation, this edited book investigates and finds the inseparable nexus between businesses, human rights, and sustainable development. It comprehensively accommodates chapters on separate but interrelated aspects of this interface, providing collective cutting-edge information and critical analyses by outstanding scholars. Their intellectual contributions are invaluable to understand the role of business in protecting, preserving, and improving the human capital and natural resources for the future and fill up a void in the existing literature. The book will be a handy and useful resource book for corporate policymakers, government officials, legislators, academics, researchers, libraries, lawyers, judges, human rights specialists/activists, and anyone interested in the interaction between business, human rights, and sustainable development.

What does compliance with judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) look like in states on the spectrum of democratisation? This work provides an in-depth investigation of three such states—Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia— in the wider context of the growing 'implementation crisis' in Europe, and does so through a combined lens of theoretical insights and rich empirical data. The book offers a detailed analysis of the domestic contexts varying from democratising to increasingly authoritarian tendencies, which shape the states’ compliance behaviour, and discusses why and how such states comply with human rights judgments. It puts particular focus on ‘contested’ compliance as a new form of compliance behaviour involving states’ acting in ‘bad faith’ and argues for a revival of the concept of partial compliance. The wider impact that ECtHR judgments have in states on the spectrum of democratisation is also explored.

This edited volume explores the evolution of reparations in human rights law. The book examines the complexities of collective reparations, and delves into inter-state disputes and their impact on the individual. This book also highlights innovative forms of reparation, including the exhumation and return of remains, creative symbolic reparations through art, and Indigenous music as a form of relational healing. Addressing pressing issues such as climate justice and the integration of development and reparations, this collection offers vital insights for advancing justice and reparation globally.

When the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted, it was intended that the United Nations and other international and regional organizations would follow up on its provisions by adopting legally binding human rights treaties for the practical implementation and protection of human rights on the ground, inside countries. A solid corps of United Nations and regional treaties now exist, representing a veritable international code of human rights. It is crucial that they be implemented and applied both in letter and in spirit, and in good faith, in the countries that have ratified or acceded to them.The human rights treaties are living instruments, and their supervisory bodies apply them in the light of evolving conditions and circumstances nationally, regionally, and internationally. The treaties and the jurisprudence they generate represent living international human rights law. It is important that governments and the general public understand their provisions and the protections they provide.This is a defining work on the value of human rights treaties adopted by the United Nations and regional organizations. Comprehensive, and written by leading authorities, the book brings out dramatically the policy roles and practical value of the treaties in protecting fundamental human rights and the international human rights jurisprudence they generate.The book is rich in its discussions of the case law developed by supervisory bodies established under the human rights treaties. It also has informed and illuminating discussions of contemporary challenges to the implementation of international and regional human rights conventions.This is a historic and defining discussion of the value of human rights treaties and their supervisory bodies.

This book commemorates the 50th anniversary of the International Court of Justice’s Advisory Opinion on the Western Sahara, bringing together leading international legal scholars to explore and critically assess the enduring relevance and implications of the Opinion. It offers a comprehensive and authoritative analysis of the main legal issues surrounding the status of the Western Sahara, including self-determination, territorial sovereignty, decolonization, and the role of international institutions. By providing historical context, legal interpretation, and contemporary perspectives, the volume serves as a definitive reference for scholars, practitioners, and policymakers interested in international law, conflict resolution, and the ongoing legal dimensions of the Western Sahara question.

Why are prisons in Latin America so violent, overcrowded, and marginalising—and what can human rights do about it? This book answers that urgent question through a bold interdisciplinary lens. You explore how law, poverty, gender, and race shape carceral practices, drawing on case studies, original fieldwork, and critical theory. It reveals how the pandemic reshaped incarceration and why global calls for decarceration often fall short. Featuring contributions from leading scholars and practitioners, the book connects local realities to global debates. If you work on law, human rights, or justice systems, this book will challenge what you think you know.

This volume deals with the basic human rights of aliens from the perspective of international and comparative law. It examines the rules regarding treatment of aliens and the extent to which these rules have been adopted in the domestic legislation of more than 40 different states. It aims to achieve two basic goals: 1) to define the status of aliens under international law, that is, which rights are granted to every person by international instruments; and 2) to establish whether this set of rules has been adopted by the domestic legislation of the states under review. The author classifies the basic human rights of aliens into seven different categories, namely: 1) fundamental rights; 2) private rights; 3) social and cultural rights; 4) economic rights; 5) political rights; 6) public rights; and 7) procedural rights. For each of these categories she reviews opinions of international legal commentators, decisions of international and regional tribunals, as well as national legislation, domestic court decisions, and opinions of local authorities.