scholarly journals Weaponisation of the war on terror and the sidestepping of human rights norms: Seeking a balance between the terrorism (prevention) (amendment) act 2013 and Nigeria’s obligation under international human rights law

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-134
Author(s):  
Olusola Babatunde Adegbite
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
War On Terror ◽  
International System ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
International Human ◽  
Human Rights Norms ◽  
Democratic Norms ◽  
Terrorism Prevention

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

Municipal Courts and the International Interpretive Principle: Al-Kateb v Godwin

2020 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Kirby
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Common Law ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Global Problems ◽  
The Common ◽  
International Human ◽  
Human Rights Norms ◽  
Constitutional Adjudication

This article examines the decision in Al-Kateb v Godwin (2004) 219 CLR 562. It revisits the suggested ‘heresy‘ that international human rights law may influence the interpretation of the Australian Constitution and other legal texts. Accessing universal human rights law, including in constitutional adjudication, was endorsed in the Bangalore Principles on the Domestic Application of International Human Rights Norms 1988. The author suggests that interpreting statutory language in this way is not dissimilar to the common-law principle of interpreting statutes so as to uphold basic rights. But should an analogous approach be permissible in deciding the meaning of constitutional language? Although arguably invoked by the majority of the High Court in Mabo v Queensland [No 2] (1992) 175 CLR 1, in the context of declaring the common-law, so far this approach has not been accepted for constitutional elaboration in Australia. But should this be so in the age of global problems and internationalism?

scholarly journals International Constitutional Law and Judicial Review of Domestic Human Rights Legislation

ICL Journal ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 87-118
Author(s):  
Laura-Stella Enonchong
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Constitutional Law ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Domestic Sphere ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Human Rights Regime ◽  
International Human ◽  
Human Rights Norms

Abstract This article discusses the idea of international human rights law as ‘constitutional law’. It applies the French concept of Le contrôle de conventionnalité des lois, to demonstrate the constitutional potentials of international human rights law in the domestic sphere. In most monist constitutional systems based on the French civilian model, international law takes precedence over acts of parliament and other domestic legislation. Due in part to that hierarchy, conventionnalité permits the courts to review domestic law for compatibility with international law. From that perspective, international human rights norms can be said to have assumed a ‘para-constitutional’ function. Using two case studies from francophone Africa, this article argues that conventionnalité has the potential to play a significant role in the domestic implementation of international human rights and ultimately contributing to a more comprehensive domestic human rights regime.

International Human Rights Law and Practice in Latin America

2000 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 633-659 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen L. Lutz ◽  
Kathryn Sikkink
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Latin America ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
International Consensus ◽  
State Compliance ◽  
International Human ◽  
Human Rights Norms ◽  
The Right

Human rights practices have improved significantly throughout Latin America during the 1990s, but different degrees of legalization are not the main explanation for these changes. We examine state compliance with three primary norms of international human rights law: the prohibition against torture, the prohibition against disappearance, and the right to democratic governance. Although these norms vary in their degree of obligation, precision, and delegation, states have improved their practices in all three issue-areas. The least amount of change has occurred in the most highly legalized issue-area—the prohibition against torture. We argue that a broad regional norm shift—a “norms cascade”—has led to increased regional and international consensus with respect to an interconnected bundle of human rights norms, including the three discussed in this article. These norms are reinforced by diverse legal and political enforcement mechanisms that help to implement and ensure compliance with them.

The Paris Agreement as a Human Rights Treaty

2020 ◽  
pp. 323-347
Author(s):  
John H Knox
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Paris Agreement ◽  
Environmental Harm ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Previous Decade ◽  
International Human ◽  
Human Rights Norms

This chapter examines the Paris Agreement on climate change in light of international human rights law, with particular attention to the human rights language included in the Paris Agreement. The chapter reviews the efforts over the previous decade to characterize climate change as a threat to human rights; describes the evolution of human rights obligations relating to environmental harm in general and to climate change in particular; and assesses the new climate regime in light of these norms. It concludes that the Paris Agreement is consistent with the human rights obligations relating to climate change in many respects, but that states must strengthen their commitments in order to fulfil those obligations completely. Finally, the chapter examines how human rights norms may influence climate policy in the future.

scholarly journals Legalities Unbound?

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-88
Author(s):  
Helge Årsheim
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
International Courts ◽  
International Human ◽  
Human Rights Norms ◽  
Domestic Level ◽  
Monitoring Practice

International human rights law (ihrl) has traditionally enjoyed an uneasy relationship with customary, religious, and indigenous forms of law. International courts and tribunals have considered these non-state forms of law to represent both structural and material challenges to the implementation of human rights norms at the domestic level. Over the course of the last decades, however, the theory and practice of human rights has increasingly started recognizing and accommodating multiple legal orders. This article traces the gradually increasing accommodation of legal pluralism in ihrl in the monitoring practice of four un human rights committees over a period of 20 years, looking in particular at the increasing recognition of religious forms of legality across the committees.

scholarly journals Navigating Human Rights in a ‘Post-Human Rights’ Era

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-194
Author(s):  
Rhona Smith ◽  
Sean Molloy
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
State Compliance ◽  
International Human ◽  
Human Rights Norms ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract International human rights law and mechanisms tasked with promoting state compliance with it are being increasingly challenged. Opposition is originating from, amongst others, countries that have historically supported the global human rights project. These new trends and sites of contestation bolster opposition from other countries and regions that have consistently diverged from international human rights norms. Examining the relationship between the United Nations human rights system and states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in this broader context of opposition to human rights, this article argues that existing theories on why states do, or ought to, comply with international human rights law are often inadequate to either explain or inspire state adherence to human rights norms. What is required, this article will argue, is not another theory but rather more targeted and incremental efforts to address the gap between rhetoric and compliance.

Part III Structural Principles, Ch.16 Sovereignty

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Van Der Vyver Johan D
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
State Sovereignty ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Fundamental Freedoms ◽  
Structural Principles ◽  
International Human ◽  
Human Rights Norms ◽  
The Impact

This article examines the impact of the principle of state sovereignty on the enforcement of international human rights law. It contends that while state sovereignty may still be an obstacle to the implementation of human rights and fundamental freedoms within many municipal legal systems, governments that engage in serious violations of the internationally accepted human rights norms will inevitably bear the brunt of their unbecoming laws and practices. This article also argues that state sovereignty is thus no longer an absolute right and that its implementation has become subordinate to the values imbedded in the human rights doctrine.

The No-Gaps Approach to Parallel Application in the Context of the War on Terror

2007 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 563-591 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fionnuala Ni Aolàin
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
War On Terror ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Parallel Application ◽  
Legal Norms ◽  
International Human

This article asserts that a challenge exists in deflecting the prevailing view that a general gap of legal applicability exists in respect of legal regulation of the war on terror. This “gap” is articulated by a focus on a new phenomena—namely the emergence of Al Qaeda as a non-nationally motivated, transnational terrorist organization whose actions and actors do not “fit” existing legal norms and sanctions. In addressing that challenge, this article will rebut the argument that suggests a legal lacuna exists, and that no appropriate legal tools are available to states and international organizations as they confront the post September 11thcontext. In particular, the argument asserts that existing legal norms provide sufficient coverage to respond to the conflicts experienced in the contemporary moment, as well as to the state and non-state entities participating in them. The article suggests that clarity about the boundaries between the legal regime of international human rights law and international humanitarian law would assist closing off perceived regulatory gaps. It contends that the usual rationale given in favor of parallel application, namely higher protection for the victims of conflict, substantially underestimates its other valuable policy and instrumental benefits. Specifically, the traditionally vaunted victim centered rationale does not sufficiently weigh the value of affirming consistent rule of law coverage to situations of conflict. The article asserts that while further regulatory measures may be possible and even desirable to confront the contemporary challenges of conflict forms (including terrorism), a combined or dynamic approach to the law of war and international human rights law provides sufficient traction and norm content to address and be relevant to present needs.

scholarly journals Human Rights Education for Lawyers: A Case Study into Universality and Its Relativism

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Liudmila Ulyashyna
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
International Human ◽  
Legal Contexts ◽  
Human Rights Norms ◽  
Human Rights Standards ◽  
Implementation Status

Normative universality in the international human rights law shall be rooted into national legal contexts for its effective implementation. Human Rights training for lawyers ensures that lawyers receive appropriate education for the practical application of the principle of universality. The case study shows that learners often lack the knowledge of the peculiarities of international human rights law, which differ from the ”classical” public law notions. Human rights training curricula should include topics, which form lawyers’ understanding of international and national legal regimes in their interdependency. Concepts of ”International Human Rights Standards”, ”Implementation and de facto implementation”, ”Status and Role of Individual/Human Rights Defender” being delivered to learners increase their knowledge and awareness of the direct applicability of international human rights norms and make them effective actors of the two-way process facilitating “a cross-fertilization” between national law and international human rights standards.

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