Library of Essays on International Human Rights – serie

Over the past sixty years the regional human rights systems have surpassed the UN human rights bodies in affording protection to the victims of human rights violations. Most of these systems have courts that are empowered to issue legally binding judgments and reparations for violations of human rights, which states have been unwilling to accord the UN system. The essays selected for this volume examine the structure and functioning of the principal regional human rights systems in the world today: 1) the Inter-American Commission and Court of Human Rights, 2) the European Court of Human Rights, 3) the African Commission and Court of Human and Peoples’ Rights and 4) the ASEAN Intergovernmental Human Rights Commission. These systems guarantee primarily civil and political rights. Central to all four systems is the necessity of a democratic form of government to guarantee these rights, although not all governments, parties to these regional treaties, are democracies. These articles trace the history of these systems, in particular, the expansion of their membership to include almost all independent countries in the region, and their evolution towards recognition of a 'right to democracy'.

Over the past sixty years the regional human rights systems have surpassed the UN human rights bodies in affording protection to the victims of human rights violations. Most of these systems have courts that are empowered to issue legally binding judgments and reparations for violations of human rights, which states have been unwilling to accord the UN system. The essays selected for this volume examine the structure and functioning of the principal regional human rights systems in the world today: 1) the Inter-American Commission and Court of Human Rights, 2) the European Court of Human Rights, 3) the African Commission and Court of Human and Peoples’ Rights and 4) the ASEAN Intergovernmental Human Rights Commission. These systems guarantee primarily civil and political rights. Central to all four systems is the necessity of a democratic form of government to guarantee these rights, although not all governments, parties to these regional treaties, are democracies. These articles trace the history of these systems, in particular, the expansion of their membership to include almost all independent countries in the region, and their evolution towards recognition of a 'right to democracy'.

The principles of equality and non-discrimination lie at the heart of international human rights law. They are the only human rights explicitly included in the UN Charter and they appear at the beginning of virtually every major human rights instrument. This volume contains selected works by leading authors on the subject of equality and non-discrimination under international law. The selections are grouped into four sections. The first presents essays that explore theoretical concepts of equality and non-discrimination. The next addresses the development of international legal standards on the subject. The third presents articles analyzing how those standards have been interpreted and applied by UN and regional human rights bodies, and the last contains works on what measures besides legal action States are to take to in order to achieve equality and non-discrimination.

The essays selected for this volume, written by some of the world’s most respected experts on human rights, encompass the development of human rights law from its philosophical underpinnings and address many of its current controversies. The collected essays explore the drafting of major human rights instruments, including the political challenges that shaped those instruments; examine the interrelationship of various claimed rights; and identify factors producing compliance with - and violation of - human rights law. Other contributions analyze the role of non-governmental organizations in achieving better human rights protections as well as the danger of claiming too many rights, and the tension between rights and security. Contrasting viewpoints in several essays highlight some of the key conflicts in the field. An introductory essay provides a roadmap marking the collection’s major themes, and tracing the relationship between those themes. Taken together, the essays emphasize the legal underpinnings of the human rights regime and as such, the collection provides an essential, wide-ranging account of this important part of international law, procedure and practice.

The United Nations has been at the forefront of developing the international law of human rights for nearly seven decades. This volume brings together the leading research articles on the development of human rights law by the United Nations and also includes essays on issues relating to standard-setting, institutional evolution, and the creation of monitoring procedures.