Recalibrating ECHR Rights, and the Role of the Human Rights Act Post 9/11: Reasserting International Human Rights Norms in the 'War on Terror'?

In an era of escalation in terrorism and terrorist related criminalities, the international system continues to innovate on how best to contain its scourge, particularly within the confines of established democratic norms. As a response to Security Council resolution 1373 adopted on 28 September 2001, United Nations (UN) member states began to craft domestic counterterrorism legislations to criminalise terrorist activities on their home-soil, as well as extraterritorially. Responding as other nations, Nigeria enacted the Terrorism (Prevention) (Amendment) Act 2013. However, the Act and others like it, have thrown up troubling questions about weaponization of the war on terror, and the need to balance the war with the protection of human rights. This article examines the continued sidestepping of human rights norms in the war against terror. It presents this conflict within the context of Nigeria’s domestic counterterrorism law, highlighting some dangerous provisions in the Act which directly impugns on its obligation under International Human Rights Law (IHRL). It advocates an urgent review in the Act that will reflect the current mood of the UN human rights system, as well as the country’s obligation under IHRL

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Africa's National Human Rights Institutions and the Responsibility to Protect

Global Responsibility to Protect ◽

10.1163/187598410x519589 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 2 (4) ◽

pp. 458-478

Author(s):

Webster Zambara

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

Vulnerable Groups ◽

International Human Rights ◽

National Human ◽

Micro Level ◽

International Human ◽

Human Rights Norms ◽

National Human Rights Institutions ◽

The Cold War

AbstractThe essay argues that one of the greatest shifts in the international humanitarian order heralded by the end of the Cold War has been the concept of holding state sovereignty accountable to an international human rights standard. It argues that while the concept of R2P has generally focused on humanitarian intervention at a macro level, the period since the 1990s has also witnessed an increase of micro-level institutions, in the form of National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) that can advance R2P, including 31 such institutions in Africa. NHRIs can potentially bolster R2P and foster peace in countries in which they operate. The general popularity of R2P as an international standard is contrasted with the great suspicion with which it is regarded by a number of governments—particularly in Africa, where sovereignty is guarded with passion as a result of the anticolonial struggles that gave birth to national independence on the continent. The author further argues that NHRIs—when properly institutionalised and functioning optimally—can play an important role in protecting the rights of vulnerable groups, and have the potential to help countries attain international human rights norms and standards without unduly threatening their sovereign independence. The essay examines the role of NHRIs in the four cases of Sierra Leone, Uganda, Tanzania and South Africa, and assesses the establishment and operation of African NHRIs using measures formulated by the internationally agreed Paris Principles of 1993.

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Human Rights: Effectiveness of International and Regional Mechanisms

10.1093/acrefore/9780190846626.013.214 ◽

2017 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Par Engstrom

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

Relative Effectiveness ◽

International Human Rights Law ◽

International Human Rights ◽

International Human ◽

United Nations System ◽

The One ◽

Human Rights Norms ◽

Nations System

The issue of human rights presents a dilemma for the discipline of international relations (IR) in general and the literature on international institutions in particular. Since international human rights institutions are primarily, but not exclusively, concerned with how states treat their own citizens, they seek to empower individual citizens and groups vis-à-vis their own governments. A major concern is whether such institutions make a difference for the protection and promotion of human rights. This concern has spawned a series of research questions and some major lines of enquiry. The study of human rights regimes has developed at the interface between IR and international law, along with the norms and practices of global human rights institutions. In addition, human rights has been institutionalized globally through the United Nations system and the connections between the development over time of international human rights institutions on the one hand, and their relative effectiveness in shaping human rights behavior on the other. The development and impact of international human rights law and policy have also been influenced by regionalism. While the research on human rights regimes has provided important insights into the role of institutions in narrowing the gap between the rhetoric and practice of human rights, there are crucial areas that need further scholarly attention, such as the domestic actors and institutions that act and could potentially act as “compliance constituencies” and conduits of domestic implementation linking international human rights norms to domestic political and legal institutions and actors.

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Human rights courts and global constitutionalism: Coordination through judicial dialogue

Global Constitutionalism ◽

10.1017/s2045381720000064 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 1-26

Author(s):

WAYNE SANDHOLTZ

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

Focal Point ◽

Original Data ◽

International Human Rights ◽

Decentralized Coordination ◽

International Courts ◽

Global Constitutionalism ◽

International Human ◽

Human Rights Norms

Abstract International courts regularly cite each other, partly as a means of building legitimacy. This study aims to show that judicial dialogue among the regional human rights courts and the Human Rights Committee has an additional effect: it contributes to the construction of a rights-based global constitutionalism. Judicial dialogue among the human rights courts is purposeful because the courts see themselves as embedded in, and contributing to, a global human rights legal system. Cross-citation among the human rights courts advances the construction of rights-based global constitutionalism in that it provides a basic degree of coordination among the regional courts. The jurisprudence of the United Nations Human Rights Committee (HRC), as an authoritative interpreter of core international human rights norms, plays the role of a central focal point for the decentralized coordination of jurisprudence. Using original data, this study demonstrates the extent of citations among the regional human rights courts and from them to the HRC. The network of regional courts and the HRC is building an emergent institutional structure for global rights-based constitutionalism.

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The role of international human rights standards in shaping the legal status of a person and a citizen

Law Review of Kyiv University of Law ◽

10.36695/2219-5521.1.2020.20 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 109-114

Author(s):

Boris Kofman

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

Legal Status ◽

Decisive Role ◽

International Community ◽

International Human Rights ◽

Member States ◽

Legal Standards ◽

International Human ◽

Human Rights Norms

The article examines the role of international human rights legal standards in shaping the legal status of a person and citizen. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of human rights norms that shape and consolidate the legal status of a person and citizen at the international legal level, determining its formation at the level of the legislation of the national member states of the international community. The essential and decisive role of international legal standards in the processes of formation of the legal status of human and citizen rights occurring at the international legal (universal and regional) and national levels is stated. It is argued that the problem of the formation of the legal status of human and citizen rights and freedoms remains relevant, because it serves as a kind of calling card of each state, but it is objectified and complicated by contradictory tendencies in the development of the modern state regarding the limitation of its sovereignty and the need for existential participation in collective councils. maintaining international peace and security. It is stated that such processes continue to the present day and are systematically complicated because they are, on the one hand, influenced by the processes of legal globalization that promote standardization, typing and unification of international norm-making in the field of human rights, and on the other - the peculiarities of formation, operation and implementation of guidelines democratic legal statehood in each of the Member States of the international community.

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Using Human Rights Treaties to Resolve Ambiguity: the Advent of A Rights-Conscious Charming Betsy Canon

Victoria University of Wellington Law Review ◽

10.26686/vuwlr.v38i2.5529 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 38 (2) ◽

pp. 237

Author(s):

Melissa A Waters

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

The United States ◽

International Human Rights Law ◽

International Human Rights ◽

High Court ◽

Human Rights Treaties ◽

International Human ◽

Human Rights Norms

This article considers the role of international human rights law in the domestic context, and examines in particular the use of what the author calls a "rights-conscious Charming Betsy canon", whereby judges in New Zealand, Canada, the United States and Australia have interpreted statutory provisions (focusing on the case study of immigration law) so as to be consistent with international human rights norms. The author also considers the more radical use of the canon, proposed in particular by the High Court of Australia's Justice Kirby, which proposes that even constitutional texts may be interpreted to be consistent with international law, and discusses the threat this poses to traditional common law dualism.

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