Chapter V. Triggering State Obligations Extraterritorially: the Spatial Test in Certain Human Rights Treaties

2008 ◽  
pp. 133-153 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Human Rights Treaties ◽  
State Obligations ◽  
Spatial Test

State Compliance with the Recommendations of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, 1994-2004

2007 ◽  
Vol 101 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frans Viljoen ◽  
Lirette Louw
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Human Rights Treaties ◽  
State Compliance ◽  
State Obligations ◽  
Legal Position ◽  
International Human ◽  
The Impact ◽  
African Commission

Current discourse on international human rights leaves little room for self-satisfaction about near-universal acceptance of wide-ranging normative frameworks with a global and regional scope. Recent times have witnessed growing academic concern with the “impact” or “effect” of international human rights treaties on the de jure and de facto legal position in state parties. These concerns are embedded in bigger and more enduring questions about the nature of state obligations under international law (including those derived from “nonbinding norms”) and compliance with them. However, general questions about obedience to international law have been replaced by attempts to answer the question whether human rights treaties in fact “make a difference.”

Triggering State Obligations Extraterritoriality: The Spatial Test in Certain Human Rights Treaties

2007 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 503-526 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ralph Wilde
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Critical Evaluation ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
State Obligations ◽  
Civil And Political Rights ◽  
Territorial Control ◽  
The Law ◽  
Spatial Test ◽  
Judicial Determinations

The spatial test for triggering the extraterritorial application of the main treaties on civil and political rights law has been the subject of significant judicial comment in recent years. This piece offers a critical evaluation of an important common theme in these judicial determinations: the suggestion that the spatial test is to be understood in a manner that covers a sub-set of extraterritorial activity involving territorial control occurring as a matter of fact. It provides a sustained explanation and critical evaluation of four different ways such a suggestion can be identified in some of the key judicial determinations on the issue of the extraterritorial application of treaties on civil and political rights generally. Since one of the other main areas of law potentially relevant to extraterritorial activity—the law of occupation—also uses a test of territorial control as a trigger for application, the interplay between the approaches taken in each area of law on the question of what type of control is required mediates the extent to which the fields of activity covered by the two areas of law overlap. Understanding the merit of the determinations concerning human rights law discussed in this piece is significant, then, not only on its own terms, but also because of its significance to the broader question of the overlap between human rights law and the law of occupation.

scholarly journals The Implications of the NGO Law on the Right to Freedom of Association of Human Rights Defenders in Cambodia

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 200
Author(s):  
Boravin Tann
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Political Climate ◽  
Freedom Of Association ◽  
Government Organizations ◽  
Human Rights Treaties ◽  
Regulatory Guidelines ◽  
Fundamental Freedoms ◽  
Core Elements ◽  
State Obligations ◽  
The Right

The right to freedom of association is of particular importance for human rights defenders. Freedom of association is an indispensable agent for human rights change that permits human rights defenders to maintain their civic space and pursue their mission in promoting and protecting rights and fundamental freedoms in a democratic society. In the current legal and political climate, human rights defenders face increasing challenges in the exercise of their freedom of association and other nexus rights vis-à-vis fulfilling their mission to advocate for other peoples’ rights. The Law on Associations and Non-Government Organizations, also known as LANGO, marks a significant turning point for the de jure and de facto exercise of the freedom of association, in particular for the most vocal and active human rights defenders and human rights organizations in Cambodia. This article first explores core elements, limitations and state obligations concerning the right to freedom of association provided by the international human rights treaties that Cambodia has ratified. It further examines key provisions of LANGO regarding the right to freedom of association of human rights defenders. It highlights that LANGO presents a critical challenge to the freedom of association due to its fundamental flaws, ambiguities and inconsistencies concerning its provisions on establishment, operation and suspension or dissolution of associations. This article concludes that LANGO offers extensive regulatory guidelines for all associations and NGOs in Cambodia; yet it also trigger concerns not due to the details, but the lack thereof which could undermine the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of association and other universally recognized human rights and fundamental freedoms in Cambodia as a whole.

The Idea of International Human Rights Law

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Wheatley
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Moral Concept ◽  
Customary International Law ◽  
Human Rights Treaties ◽  
International Human ◽  
Fragmentation Of International Law

International Human Rights Law has emerged as an academic subject in its own right, separate from, but still related to, International Law. This book explains the distinctive nature of the new discipline by examining the influence of the moral concept of human rights on general international law. Rather than make use of moral philosophy or political theory, the work explains the term ‘human rights’ by examining its usage in international law practice, on the understanding that words are given meaning through their use. Relying on complexity theory to make sense of the legal practice in the United Nations, the core human rights treaties, and customary international law, The Idea of International Human Rights Law shows how a moral concept of human rights emerged, and then influenced the international law doctrine and practice on human rights, a fact that explains the fragmentation of international law and the special nature of International Human Rights Law.

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