Human Rights Treaties and the Law of State Succession in the Event of Secession

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 340-354
Author(s):  
Naiade el-Khoury
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Successor State ◽  
Human Rights Treaties ◽  
State Succession ◽  
The Law

International practice indicates a tendency that the obligations under human rights treaties continue under the law of State succession. The successor State is thus bound to respect the rights previously granted under a human rights treaty to the inhabitants of a territory it has assumed responsibility for. However, the successor State is not automatically party to the human rights treaty which its predecessor was a party to. As such, the continuity of human rights obligations has not occurred ipso iure. Yet, States have acquiesced to the jurisprudence of the Human Rights Committee and accepted their human rights obligations retroactively upon the ratification of the human rights treaties.

The Obligation to Afford Reparation to Injured Individuals

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carla Ferstman
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Human Rights Treaties ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Right ◽  
Right Of Access ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter considers the consequences of breaches of human rights and international humanitarian law for the responsible international organizations. It concentrates on the obligations owed to injured individuals. The obligation to make reparation arises automatically from a finding of responsibility and is an obligation of result. I analyse who has this obligation, to whom it is owed, and what it entails. I also consider the right of individuals to procedures by which they may vindicate their right to a remedy and the right of access to a court that may be implied from certain human rights treaties. In tandem, I consider the relationship between those obligations and individuals’ rights under international law. An overarching issue is how the law of responsibility intersects with the specialized regimes of human rights and international humanitarian law and particularly, their application to individuals.

The Core UN Human Rights Treaty Systems

2019 ◽  
pp. 95-128
Author(s):  
Steven Wheatley
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
The Core ◽  
Ordinary Meaning ◽  
System P ◽  
Human Rights Treaties ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Work First

Chapter 4 examines the core United Nations human rights treaties. It shows how we can think of these as complex systems, the result of the interactions of the states parties and the treaty bodies. The work first explains the regime on opposability and denunciation, which establishes the binding nature of the conventions, before considering the law on reservations, noting how this differs from the scheme under general international law. The chapter then turns to the interpretation of convention rights, detailing the distinctive pro homine (‘in favour of the individual’) approach applied to human rights treaties. The law on interpretation also requires that we examine the subsequent practice of states parties, as well as the pronouncements of the treaty bodies. The doctrine of evolutionary interpretation explains how the ‘ordinary meaning’ of treaty terms can evolve with developments in technical and scientific knowledge, changes in societal understandings, and wider modifications in regulatory approaches outside of the human rights treaty system.

State Succession to Human Rights Treaties: Hong Kong and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

1996 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 928-946 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johannes Chan
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Hong Kong ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Human Rights Treaties ◽  
State Succession ◽  
Civil And Political Rights ◽  
Made In

In 1976 the United Kingdom ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and extended it to Hong Kong. Under the Covenant the United Kingdom assumed an obligation to submit periodic reports to the Human Rights Committee on the measures it has adopted to give effect to the rights recognised by the Covenant and on the progress made in the enjoyment of these rights.1 The United Kingdom has submitted four periodic reports on Hong Kong, in 1978,2 1988,3 19914 and 1995.5

Some Notable Developments in the Practice of the UN Secretary-General as Depositary of Multilateral Treaties: Reservations and Declarations

2005 ◽  
Vol 99 (2) ◽  
pp. 433-450 ◽  
Author(s):  
Palitha T. B. Kohona
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Secretary General ◽  
The Political ◽  
Vienna Convention ◽  
Human Rights Treaties ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Many ◽  
Multilateral Treaties

This Note will examine developments in the practice of the United Nations secretary-general on reservations and declarations to treaties, particularly since 1994 when the Summary of Practice of the Secretary-General as Depositary of Multilateral Treaties was last updated. This period was marked by some notable developments in the previous practice, especially in connection with human rights treaties.The Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties of 1969 (Vienna Convention) provides the framework for the functions of the secretary-general in his role as depositary of multilateral treaties. Most aspects of the law relating to reservations and declarations to treaties are also codified in the Vienna Convention.Over five hundred multilateral treaties are deposited with the secretary-general. The complex requirements relating to these treaties and the concerns of the many disparate states that may undertake treaty actions with regard to them have significantly influenced his practice. He is also conscious of the political sensitivities surrounding his decisions and the need to protect his own integrity and impartiality.

scholarly journals Decolonization and Sovereign Debt

2021 ◽  
pp. 213-231
Author(s):  
Michael Waibel
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Sovereign Debt ◽  
Complex State ◽  
Independent State ◽  
Successor State ◽  
State Succession ◽  
The Law

The complex state succession cases arising from decolonization generated intense debates within legal circles. This chapter examines the tension between two stylized schools on state succession into debt: the universal succession and clean slate theories. Universal succession refers to the automatic and complete assumption of the colonial power’s rights and obligations by the newly independent state as they relate to its territory. According to the competing clean slate theory, the former colonial power’s obligations (including debts) as they relate to the territory of the newly independent state are extinguished on independence. Because these obligations are personal to a state, they lapsed on independence. The successor state thus starts life with a clean slate. This chapter provides historical insights into this legal controversy by focusing on the two scholars and practitioners of international law who embodied these two schools of thought, Judge Mohamed Bedjaoui and Professor Daniel Patrick O’Connell. We show how the fundamental disagreements between the two schools (and their radically different implications for the conditions under which colonial entities can achieve independence) have left the law on state succession in flux. Ultimately, the solutions adopted in the decolonization context and in later succession disputes remained highly case-specific and typically involved an agreement between the states concerned.

Extraterritoriality as a Matter of Interpretation

2020 ◽  
pp. 13-40
Author(s):  
Lea Raible
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Vienna Convention ◽  
Standard View ◽  
Human Rights Treaties ◽  
Treaty Interpretation ◽  
The Law

This chapter considers the standard view that extraterritoriality is a matter of treaty interpretation and that, following on from this, all that is required to discover the extraterritorial scope of human rights treaties is following the rules of interpretation set out in the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. I argue that the extraterritorial scope of a treaty is a matter of treaty interpretation, but that it is not sufficient to follow rules in order to give meaning to international legal instruments. What determines the outcome of an interpretation is, in addition to these rules, a question of values. That is, what lies at the heart of interpretation is the determination of the values and principles that underlie a human rights treaty.

Part VI Human Rights and General International Law, Ch.31 Interpretation of Human Rights Treaties

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fitzmaurice Malgosia
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Vienna Convention ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Human Rights Treaties ◽  
International Human ◽  
The Law ◽  
Rights Issues

This article examines the systems of interpretation of several international human rights treaties by their respective human rights tribunals. It describes some approaches to the classification of human rights treaties and discusses the relevant provisions of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties of 1969 (VCLT). It also reviews the jurisprudence of human rights tribunals on main human rights issues and analyses the provisions of human rights conventions relating to interpretation.

Protecting the past for the future: How does law protect tangible and intangible cultural heritage in armed conflict?

2015 ◽  
Vol 97 (900) ◽  
pp. 1253-1275 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christiane Johannot-Gradis
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
Intangible Cultural Heritage ◽  
The Past ◽  
Human Rights Treaties ◽  
Law Of Armed Conflict ◽  
The Law

AbstractIn war, individuals are vulnerable not only physically but also in terms of their cultural identity, and the obliteration of cultural heritage often becomes a central issue. This is particularly the case in armed conflicts with an ethnic, cultural or religious character. In some regions, cultural heritage consists more of monuments and objects; it is a “tangible” heritage, mostly protected by the law of armed conflict. Elsewhere, where structures are impermanent, cultural heritage is mainly expressed through orality, gestures, rituals, music and other forms of expression that individuals create using various media and instruments. Such heritage is mainly “intangible”. This essay aims to show that cultural heritage is both tangible and intangible, and that the law which protects such heritage is not limited to the law of armed conflict. Cultural heritage also benefits from the protection of other applicable instruments, such as human rights treaties and the UNESCO cultural heritage conventions.

Nationality, State Succession, and the Right of Option: The Case of Québec

1999 ◽  
Vol 36 ◽  
pp. 151-180
Author(s):  
Gibran van Ert
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
The State ◽  
Human Right ◽  
State Practice ◽  
State Succession ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Right ◽  
Nationality Law

SummarySome advocates of Québec separatism claim that Quebecers could retain their Canadian nationality following Québec’s secession from Canada. This article examines international nationality law to test the accuracy of that claim. A device known as an option exists in international law as a means of allowing individuals to determine for themselves the effect of state succession upon their nationality. This article considers the place of options in the law of state succession, both as it now stands and as proposed by the International Law Commission’s Draft Articles on the Nationality of Natural Persons in Relation to the Succession of States, 1997. Four possible arguments in favour of a Québécois option are given, the most convincing of which arises by analogy to state practice in the use of plebiscites. This argument suggests that international law would require the state of Québec to grant all Canadians affected by Québec’s secession a right to opt for Canadian nationality instead of Québécois nationality with the caveat that those opting to retain Canadian nationality could face expulsion from Québec. Finally, the article suggests that the development of human rights in international law should extend to recognize a true human right of option in cases of state succession. Regrettably, the ILC Draft hinders, rather than encourages, this desirable development.

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