Human Rights Research Series 55 results

This book offers an in-depth analysis of mutual trust in EU migration and criminal law, which highlights the cooperation dynamics between the Member States. This leads the author to the novel argument that mutual trust should be considered as a general principle of EU law. Qualifying mutual trust as a general principle of EU law matters because, when we consider mutual trust as a general principle of EU law, it offers a pertinent lens through which to study Member State cooperation dynamics in the context of external European asylum law.

The main aim of this thesis is therefore to determine whether the ICC is indeedsuffering from such a legitimacy crisis particularly within the African Union,and then by extension in Africa, and to subsequently explore and reduce thislegitimacy crisis under common identified legitimacy deficient fault lines.

The book demonstrates that the existing right to the highest attainable standard of health is inadequate to fully promote and protect the right to mental health, particularly regarding access to quality mental healthcare. Relevant additional human rights in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities are examined to address these shortcomings.

Member States of the European Union have suggested resorting to the extraterritorial processing of asylum claims and resettlement as alternatives to the spontaneous arrival of refugees/asylum seekers at their borders. Yet there exists no consensus about the definition, operation, and implications of these policies. Central to the currently prevailing uncertainty is the effect of extraterritoriality, both in terms of legal and ethical obligations owed to those who are geographically distant from a particular state border. This book seeks to contribute to the discussion on extraterritorial processing and resettlement by considering their implications. It does so by using a mixed methodology, comprising of legal analysis and ethical reasoning, in order to appraise the legality and legitimacy of these policies. The structure of leaving, entering, and remaining is employed to consider the right to leave, non-refoulement, the ability to receive protection in an EU Member State, and their interaction with the extraterritorial context. Scholars researching alternatives to the spontaneous arrival of asylum seekers will find this book particularly relevant, as well as those studying the protection of human rights in the extraterritorial context more generally. Finally, the book also provides insights for policy-makers exploring novel pathways to complement existing asylum systems.

Article 34 of the European Convention on Human Rights prescribes that individual applications must be directed against one of the Convention States. Consequently, private actors involved in proceedings against other private actors before domestic courts must complain about State (in)action in their application to the European Court of Human Rights. In other words, originally 'horizontal' conflicts must be 'verticalised' in order to be admissible. Although such verticalised cases make up a large portion of the Court's case law, the particular nature of these cases, as well as procedural issues that may arise in them, has not received much attention. To fill this gap, this book offers a detailed examination of verticalised cases coming before the Court. The characteristics of and the Court's approach to verticalised cases are explored by means of an in-depth analysis of four types of verticalised cases (cases related to one's surroundings; cases involving a conflict between the right to reputation and private life and the right to freedom of expression; family life cases; and employer-employee cases). On the basis of this analysis, it is argued that the Court's current approach to verticalised cases poses problems for private actors, Convention States and the Court itself. In presenting recommendations for the resolution of these problems, the book concludes with a proposal for a new approach to verticalised cases, consisting of a redesigned third-party intervention procedure.

Statelessness remains an issue of concern in Europe. Stateless persons often experience problems with accessing basic rights, despite the proclamation of human rights and a right to a nationality for all. Various attempts have been made to address the issue of statelessness, for instance through the adoption of the United Nations Statelessness Conventions, but also by European regional cooperation mechanisms. This book analyses and places into context the legal approaches that states have taken together in the context of the Council of Europe and the European Union to prevent and solve statelessness from a human rights perspective.

The 2000 Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime provides the first internationally agreed definition of the human trafficking. However, in failings to clarify the exact scope and meaning of exploitation, it has created an ambiguity as to what constitutes exploitation of labour in criminal law. The international definition's preference for an enumerative approach has been replicated in most regional and domestic legal instruments, making it difficult to draw the line between exploitation in terms of violations of labour rights and extreme forms of exploitation such as those listed in the Protocol. This book addresses this legal gap by seeking to conceptualise labour exploitation in criminal law.

States cooperate to stem irregular migration flows, yet migration control agreements often result in widespread violations of the socio-economic rights of people on the move contained in the Global South. This book examines the States that are responsible for these violations.

This book discusses how delivering a Mega-Sporting Event (MSE) can impact human rights and highlights the challenges of dealing with cases of MSE-related human rights abuses and establishing legal responsibility.

Since the adoption of the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, all children in the world have rights that are protected by states - at least in theory. In practice, children's rights are grossly violated on a daily basis and on a global scale. This publication proposes that a better understanding of children's rights violations may be achieved if looking at law from a child's perspective.

Ever since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 there has been a debate on the issue of universality and cultural diversity. The UN human rights treaty bodies have an important role to play in ensuring a proper balance between safeguarding the universality of the rights, while at the same time leaving room for cultural particularities. This book examines how the UN treaty bodies, in particular the Human Rights Committee, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, fulfil this role.

The term 'vulnerability' is often used in law and policy to refer to disadvantaged, marginalized or excluded human beings. This book explores how a vulnerability focus in basic assistance policies can contribute to substantive equality and therefore to the realization of universal human rights in the migration context. It concentrates on the potential that such a vulnerability focus can have to mitigate stigmatization and stereotyping and to facilitate socio-economic participation.

This book investigates what normative justification can be provided for economic, social and cultural rights guaranteed under international law and how this justification can or should impact the State obligations emerging from these rights.

Armed groups have played a predominant role in violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law committed in conflict settings. The aim of this book is to examine how the principles of international responsibility could be developed and adjusted to account for armed groups as collective entities.

This book offers a human rights perspective of the phenomenon of marital captivity within Christian, Jewish, Hindu and Muslim communities in both secular and non-secular States.

Courts often rely on process-based fundamental rights review. This means that they examine the diligence, fairness, and quality of legislative, administrative, and judicial procedures to determine whether fundamental rights have been violated. This book offers an in-depth and nuanced understanding of process-based fundamental rights review which will support courts in developing well-balanced procedural approaches, and will assist scholars in studying procedural reasoning more systematically.

Recognition of the right to water and sanitation is an important and global issue. This book investigates how this right can be realised from the context of Nigeria and other States in similar circumstances.

Towards a Sustainable Human Right to Water is a timely examination of a critical and time-sensitive subject in the field of human rights law. The book poses the critical question how the concept of sustainable development can contribute to the sustainable realisation of the human right to water for vulnerable people. It takes a three step approach in providing an answer to this fundamental question of our time.

This book presents the first study on collective reparations. It aims to shed light on the legal framework, content and scope of collective reparations, and to the relationship between collective reparations and the individual right to reparations.

The International Criminal Court is neither able nor intended to investigate all situations of crisis across the world. Selectivity is unavoidable for the operation of this international organization. However, the authority of the Prosecutor of the Court to select and prioritize a situation over other situations is not unfettered.