International Law of Human Rights is a book written by two critical scholars from the Global South and aimed at offering a global perspective of the discipline that not only discusses the current state of affairs, but also engages with multiple challenges that underpin this particular branch of international law. Across four Parts, the book engages with the meaning, histories, and development of human rights under international law, as well as with the systems of protection created at the universal and regional levels, ending with the critical discussion of selected human rights. The book presents particular features that contribute to the study of the subject, including the use of ‘case boxes’ that summarize key decisions and specific sections reserved for in-depth reflections and for ‘critical debates’.
Book
Judge Antônio Augusto Cançado Trindade and Damián A. González-Salzberg
Chapter
3. The European Convention and the law of the United Kingdom
Without assuming prior legal knowledge, books in the Directions series introduce and guide readers through key points of law and legal debate. Questions, discussion points, and thinking points help readers to engage fully with each subject and check their understanding as they progress and knowledge can be tested by self-test questions and exam questions at the chapter end. This chapter focuses on the European Convention on Human Rights, which the UK signed in 1950, and on its impact in the UK prior to the Human Rights Act coming into force in October 2000. The UK’s signing of the Convention entailed the country’s acceptance of the obligation to ‘secure for everyone within [its] jurisdiction the rights and freedoms in Section 1 of this Convention’. The Convention is not applied directly by the UK courts. The Convention remains part of international law, which is not directly enforceable in UK courts. The chapter also considers the development of fundamental common law rights which have developed in parallel to the Convention. There is a section on ‘Brexit’ and its impact on the protection of human rights in the UK.
Chapter
13. The right to life
This chapter examines African, American, European, and international jurisprudence on the right to life. It discusses the positive obligation incumbent on States to protect life; the permissible deprivation of life (the death penalty, death caused by national security forces, and death during armed conflict); and the issue of genocide. The chapter concludes that the right to life is of paramount importance in international human rights law. International law covers not only the straightforward human rights aspects, but also extends to the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide.
Chapter
1. History
Ed Bates
This chapter traces the historical development of the concept of human rights and their status in international law. It first discusses human rights on the domestic plane, focusing on the key developments since the late eighteenth century, and then examines international law from the perspective of human rights over the period up to the Second World War. Finally, the chapter considers the efforts to create a universal system of human rights protection in the 1940s, culminating with the proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.
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4. Sources
Christine Chinkin
This chapter discusses the sources of international human rights law set out in Article 38(1) of the Statute of the International Court of Justice: treaties, custom, general principles of law, and, as subsidiary means for determining the law, judicial decisions and the teachings of publicists. It then considers the role of ‘soft law’ instruments, such as resolutions of the UN General Assembly and the work of human rights expert bodies.
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5. Special Character
Frédéric Mégret
This chapter first introduces the relationship of international human rights law to public international law, which is crucial to understanding the ‘special character’ of international human rights obligations. It then introduces the basic idea of what it means for a legal obligation to be described as ‘special’ in nature in international law, and discusses several key consequences that can be said to flow from this character in terms of reservations, enforcement, and withdrawal.
Chapter
3. The Normative Framework Of Human Rights Under International Law
Antônio Augusto Cançado Trindade and Damián A. González-Salzberg
This chapter offers an essential introduction to the normative framework of the protection of human rights under international law. It is of particular relevance to those less acquainted with the discipline of public international law. The chapter discusses the fundamental topics of sources, obligations, and subjects of international law, as applicable to the international law of human rights. It explains that the international law of human rights remains attached to its traditional structures that overwhelmingly focus on the responsibility of States, but discusses how other actors have an ever-increasing role in the field. The chapter concludes with a reflection on the interaction between the international and domestic legal orders when dealing with the protection of rights.
Chapter
26. Anti-terrorism law and human rights
Without assuming prior legal knowledge, books in the Directions series introduce and guide readers through key points of la and legal debate. It discusses European Convention law and relates it to domestic law under the HRA. Questions, discussion points, and thinking points help readers to engage fully with each subject and check their understanding as they progress and knowledge can be tested by self-test questions and exam questions at the chapter end. This chapter considers the application of human rights in the special circumstances of the threat of terrorism and counter-terrorism measures taken in the UK. It considers the compatibility of the Terrorism Act 2000, and other subsequent measures, with human rights. This includes matters such as the definition of terrorism, police powers under the Act (such as random stop and search), and measures, such as TPIMs, to control terrorist suspects. The impact of these measures on the right to liberty and on private life are important themes. The chapter also considers the effect of such measures on the right to a fair hearing (in Articles 5 and 6). These special powers are often controversial giving rise, as they do, to important tensions between the rule of law and the duty on states to uphold the safety and security of the population.
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6. Convention law: pervasive themes
Without assuming prior legal knowledge, books in the Directions series introduce and guide readers through key points of law and legal debate. Questions, discussion points and thinking points help readers to engage fully with each subject and check their understanding as they progress and knowledge can be tested by self-test questions and exam questions at the chapter end. This chapter discusses the various concepts that pervade the way the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) is interpreted and, therefore, how Convention rights under the HRA are applied. The chapter considers the internal and external sources used to interpret the text. It goes on to consider the concepts that the European Court of Human Rights has developed when applying the Convention. In particular the ‘living instrument’ doctrine, the idea of the rule of law, the margin of appreciation, proportionality, and democracy (in a Convention context) are considered and explored.
