Refine
Has Fulltext
- no (93) (remove)
Year of publication
Document Type
- Article (73)
- Monograph/Edited Volume (9)
- Part of a Book (7)
- Doctoral Thesis (2)
- Other (1)
- Review (1)
Is part of the Bibliography
- yes (93) (remove)
Keywords
Institute
Der russische Angriffskrieg auf die Ukraine hat auch die Europäische Menschenrechtsarchitektur ins Wanken gebracht. Der Europarat reagierte schnell und beendete die Mitgliedschaft der Russischen Föderation. Aus diesem Anlass blickt der Beitrag zurück auf die wechselvolle Geschichte der Mitgliedschaft Russlands im Europarat. Seit dem Beitritt vor 26 Jahren haben Konfrontationen die – oftmals kurzen– Phasen der Kooperation überschattet. Das wirft die Frage auf, inwieweit die „Politik des Dialogs“ gegenüber der Russischen Föderation geeignet war, die Menschenrechtslage in Russland zu verbessern. Der Beitrag legt zudem die rechtlichen Grundlagen von Beitritt und Ende der Mitgliedschaft dar und untersucht, wie sich der Ausschluss auf die Anwendbarkeit der Europäischen Menschenrechtskonvention (EMRK) auswirkt. Der Ausschluss Russlands stellt einen Wendepunkt dar. Zwar wird damit ein potenziell gefährlicher Präzedenzfall geschaffen. Jedoch entsteht durch die geschlossene Reaktion der restlichen Mitgliedstaaten auch ein Momentum für Reformen und eine Rückbesinnung auf das Gründungsziel des Europarates – die kollektive Durchsetzung der Menschenrechte.
Human rights can be understood as a multi-faceted concept which needs a strong legal basis, namely, a set of legal guarantees in human rights treaties and an increasing number of monitoring mechanisms. Following the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) of December 10, 1948, various multi-lateral treaties for the protection of human rights have been negotiated and entered into force. They are not restricted to civil and political rights and take a much broader approach. All have monitoring mechanisms acting on a legal basis. The important European system with its strong, judicial monitoring mechanism is providing an effective human rights protection focused on civil and political rights. In the Görgülü case (2004), the German Federal Constitutional Court underlined the importance of the European Court’s judgments and of the ECHR as a legally binding instrument for the protection of human rights.
The nineteenth century witnessed restoration and reformation, the heyday of the nation state in Europe and inter-state cooperation at the same time. Driven by technical progress, communication across borders became an everyday phenomenon demanding transnational cooperation and regulation. Whereas in the political field irregular conferences turned out to be an appropriate instrument for governing transnational cooperation, a more constant and institutionalised matter proved to be adequate for technical cooperation.
In 1865, the International Telegraph Convention set up a relevant administrative union which merged in 1932 with the International Radiotelegraph Union from 1906 to form the newly labelled International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The parties to the ITU met regularly in so-called plenipotentiary conferences every 3 years. Already in 1875 the International Telegraph Convention was completely redrafted and the organisation’s structure changed. The contracting parties created an instrument that paved the way for a modern form of international standard setting. The new, simplified convention contained only general provisions of a policy nature that would remain in effect for an “indeterminate length of time” (Art. 20), detailed rules of a transitory and specific nature that might be subject to frequent changes with the progress of technology were put into the “Regulations for international service” (also known as the Telegraph Regulations). The newly established “administrative conferences” attended by technical experts from the member states were responsible for revising the regulations when necessary.
This was an early example of the transferral of power from sovereign nation states to an international organisation in order to govern transnational communication effectively. The administrative unions, as the first examples in modern history, show the ability of self-interested rational agents to overcome collective action dilemmas, i.e. situations where cooperation avoids sub-optimal outcomes for cooperators. The newly created institutions shaped a spirit of cooperation and the practice of standard setting proved that cooperation is effective. Furthermore, they show the spill-over effects of cooperation: increased cooperation in one area leads to increased cooperation in other areas.
This chapter consists of three parts. In the first part, I will give a short overview about the integration of the protection of the environment into German constitutional law. This section will start with the presentation of the relevant provision, Art. 20a BL. Then, I will elaborate on its legal character. In the second part, I will make some brief remarks on the practical implications of Art. 20a BL. Finally, I will present some preliminary conclusions.
Currently a political debate is ongoing in Germany as to whether Germany should, following the example of several other European countries such as France and the Netherlands, adopt a Supply Chain Act (Lieferkettengesetz). If adopted, the act in question would impose due diligence obligations on German corporations to prevent human rights violations taking place in their respective global supply chains. It is against this background that the article examines the preconditions that must be met in order for such act to be eventually compatible with both, German constitutional and international law. The authors further deal with the question whether Germany might even be obliged under international, as well as under German constitutional law, to enact such a supply chain law in order to protect the human rights of workers employed by companies forming part of the global supply chains of German companies. As far as German constitutional law is concerned the article notably deals with the question whether it is the Federal parliament that may adopt such a law also taking into account the competencies of the European Union in the field, and what are the requirements of legal specificity and proportionality in order for the draft law to stand constitutional scrutiny. The authors further offer detailed suggestions how corporate due diligence standards might be best provided for in the envisaged law and propose a risk analysis approach that varies not only according to specific countries and sector-specific characteristics, but that by the same token also takes into account the ability of the respective German company to exercise an appropriate due diligence standard when it comes to human rigths issues arising within the framewok of their supply chain. As far as the substantive human rights standards are concerned that should serve as benchmarks for the envisaged Supply Chain Act the authors propose to rely on, and refer to, those instruments such as the ICCPR and the CESCR, as well as the ILO treaties containing core labour standards, that enjoy almost universal acceptance and reflect customary international law.
Das Handbuch informiert über die Menschenrechtsinstitutionen und -verfahren der Vereinten Nationen, der UNESCO und der ILO sowie des Europarates und der Europäischen Union. Die erste Auflage erschien 1998, die jetzt vorliegende dritte Auflage wurde erweitert und aktualisiert. Das Buch bietet neben den erklärenden Texten auch Formblätter für Beschwerden, Adressen, Literaturhinweise und grafische Darstellungen. Das Werk richtet sich unter anderem an Studierende, Menschenrechtsakteure, Personen, die Rechtsschutz suchen und deren Rechtsbeistände.