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Xenophobia
(2008)
Thus far, research into reservations to treaties has often overlooked reservations formulated to both European Social Charters (and its Protocols) and the relevant European Committee of Social Rights practices. There are several pressing reasons to further explore this gap in existing literature. First, an analysis of practices within the European Social Charters (and Protocols) will provide a fuller picture of the reservations and responses of treaty bodies. Second, in the context of previous landmark events it is worth noting the practices of another human rights treaty monitoring body that is often omitted from analyses. Third, the very fact that the formulation of reservations to treaties gives parties such far-reaching flexibility to shape their contractual obligations (à la carte) is surprising. An important outcome of the research is the finding that, despite the far-reaching flexibility present in the treaties analysed, both the States Parties and the European Committee of Social Rights generally treat them as conventional treaties to which the general rules on reservations apply. Consequently, there is no basis for assuming that the mere fact of adopting the à la carte system in a treaty with no reservation clause implies a formal prohibition of reservations or otherwise discourages their formulation.
Between 2002 and 2006 the Colombian government of Álvaro Uribe counted with great international support to hand a demobilization process of right-wing paramilitary groups, along with the implementation of transitional justice policies such as penal prosecutions and the creation of a National Commission for Reparation and Reconciliation (NCRR) to address justice, truth and reparation for victims of paramilitary violence. The demobilization process began when in 2002 the United Self Defence Forces of Colombia (Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia, AUC) agreed to participate in a government-sponsored demobilization process. Paramilitary groups were responsible for the vast majority of human rights violations for a period of over 30 years. The government designed a special legal framework that envisaged great leniency for paramilitaries who committed serious crimes and reparations for victims of paramilitary violence. More than 30,000 paramilitaries have demobilized under this process between January 2003 and August 2006. Law 975, also known as the “Justice and Peace Law”, and Decree 128 have served as the legal framework for the demobilization and prosecutions of paramilitaries. It has offered the prospect of reduced sentences to demobilized paramilitaries who committed crimes against humanity in exchange for full confessions of crimes, restitution for illegally obtained assets, the release of child soldiers, the release of kidnapped victims and has also provided reparations for victims of paramilitary violence. The Colombian demobilization process presents an atypical case of transitional justice. Many observers have even questioned whether Colombia can be considered a case of transitional justice. Transitional justice measures are often taken up after the change of an authoritarian regime or at a post-conflict stage. However, the particularity of the Colombian case is that transitional justice policies were introduced while the conflict still raged. In this sense, the Colombian case expresses one of the key elements to be addressed which is the tension between offering incentives to perpetrators to disarm and demobilize to prevent future crimes and providing an adequate response to the human rights violations perpetrated throughout the course of an internal conflict. In particular, disarmament, demobilization and reintegration processes require a fine balance between the immunity guarantees offered to ex-combatants and the sought of accountability for their crimes. International law provides the legal framework defining the rights to justice, truth and reparations for victims and the corresponding obligations of the State, but the peace negotiations and conflicted political structures do not always allow for the fulfillment of those rights. Thus, the aim of this article is to analyze what kind of transition may be occurring in Colombia by focusing on the role that transitional justice mechanisms may play in political negotiations between the Colombian government and paramilitary groups. In particular, it seeks to address to what extent such processes contribute to or hinder the achievement of the balance between peacebuilding and accountability, and thus facilitate a real transitional process.
The monitoring system of human rights treaty obligation : colloquium, Potsdam, 22./23. November 1996
(1998)
This volume discusses the impact of human rights law on other fields of international law. Does international human rights law modify other fields of international law? Contributions focus on possible spillover effects of human rights on international economic or international criminal law. Does international human rights law have a streamlining effect on international law as a whole? This might be identified as a process of constitutionalisation. In this book, human rights can be understood as one of the core principles of international legal order and thus have an effect on the general law of treaties or on the settlement of disputes.
Although human rights law is a relatively young field of international law, its content and core values today are of major importance for the interpretation of international law as a whole. As we witness a redefinition of sovereignty as a responsibility of states towards the people and a shift to greater relevance of the individual in international law in general, it is a logical consequence that human rights have an impact on other areas of international law.
The right to privacy in the digital age generates new challenges for the international jurisdiction. The following article deals with such challenges. Therefore it firstly defines the term of privacy in general and presents an international legal framework. With whisteblower Snowden a huge political discourse was initiated and the article gives insights into its further development. In 2015 the Human Rights Council for the first time announced a special rapporteur on the right to privacy. However, the discourse is not only taking place on a political level, also civil society organizations advocate more stringent regulations and prosecutions against violations of the right to privacy. Moreover the importance of the technology sector becomes clear. Companies like Microsoft are increasingly taking responsibility to protect digital media against unjustified data misuse, surveillance, collection and storage. But whereas the IT sector is developing very quickly, legislative processes do so rather slowly. Lastly, the individual is also hold to account. To protect oneself against data misuse is to a great extent acting self-responsible. Still, therefore information on protection must be clear and accessible for everyone.
Content: I. The nature and form of international law 1. The acceptance of the existence of an international legal order 2. The legal position of the individual in international law II. Obligations of states in the protection of international human rights 1. Treaty-based human rights obligations 2. The nature of treaty-based human rights obligations 3. The ”absolute” and ”objective” character of human rights treaty obligations 4. Human rights conventions as self-contained regimes 5. The problem of characterisation of human rights obligations of states III. Human rights obligations arising from general principles of international law 1. Obligations erga omnes and human rights norms 2. The outlawing of genocide as obligation erga omnes 3. Protection from slavery as obligation erga omnes 4. The outlawing of acts of aggression as obligation erga omnes 5. Protection from racial discrimination as obligation erga omnes 6. The basic rights of the human person as obligation erga omnes 7. Jus Cogens and the search for peremptory norms of human rights 8. International crimes and human rights norms 9. The relationship between the concepts: erga omnes, jus cogens, international crime and human rights IV. International instruments for the coercive enforcement of state obligations to ‘respect and ensure’ human rights 1. Countermeasures as consequences of breach of treaties in international law 2. Application of reprisals for the enforcement of treaty-based human rights obligations 3. Intervention for the protection of human rights in international law 4. Intervention by the Security Council for the protection of human rights: the situation before the East-West détente 5. Humanitarian intervention after the end of the Cold War 6. The legal nature of ECOWAS intervention in the Liberian Civil War 7. The legality of NATO’s intervention in Kosovo 8. Some instances of intervention with mixed motives V. Non-forceful measures for the enforcement of states’ human rights obligations 1. Economic and financial pressure as means of enforcing states’ obligation to respect and observe human rights 2. The application of the clausula rebus sic stantibus for the protection of human rights 3. The enforcement of human rights through the World Bank 4. The enforcement of human rights through the ILO 5. Diplomatic recognition as an instrument for securing a state's respect and promotion of human rights 6. Refusal to comply with an extradition agreement as a means of enforcing a state’s human rights obligations 7. Denial of immunity as a means of enforcing a state’s human rights obligations 8. Publicity as an instrument for the enforcement of human rights VI. Judicial enforcement of state obligations to ‘respect and ensure’ human rights 1. Enforcement of human rights through International Criminal Tribunals 2. The International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia 3. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda 4. The International Special Court of Sierra Leone Résumé