International Human Rights Law

Do anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions affect human rights? Should fundamental rights constrain climate policies? Scientific evidence demonstrates that anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions contribute to increasing atmospheric temperatures, soon passing the compromising threshold of 2° C. Consequences such as Typhoon Haiyan prove that climate alteration has the potential to significantly impair basic human needs. Although the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and human rights regulatory regimes have so far proceeded separately, awareness is arising about their reciprocal implications. Based on tripartite fundamental obligations, this volume explores the relationship between climate change and interdependent human rights, through the lens of an international and comparative perspective. Along the lines of the metaphor of the ‘wall’, the research ultimately investigates the possibility of overcoming the divide between universal rights and climate change, and underlying barriers. This book aims to be a useful resource not only for practitioners, policymakers, academics, and students in international, comparative, environmental law and politics and human rights, but also for the wider public.

John Gibson, an expert on human rights, discusses the issues and context of rights including the universality of rights, the hierarchy of rights, and conflicts between rights, a discussion that creates the framework for further research. The dictionary entries on the sixty-six rights in international treaties and declarations are divided into five categories: civil and political rights; legal rights; economic, social, and cultural rights; collective rights; and declaratory rights. Each entry contains the treaty definition, other sources and treaties, an expanded definition, historical landmarks in the development of the right, and cross references. Includes an extensive bibliography. An essential, one-of-a-kind reference source for graduate and undergraduate students and professors of law, political science, international relations, and history.

The five-volume Encyclopedia of Human Rights, edited by David Forsythe, offers comprehensive coverage of all aspects of human rights theory, practice, law, and history in over 300 entries signed by leading scholars and human rights experts. The coverage includes major figures, organizations and institutions, human rights events and crises, and human rights norms.

The General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on December 10, 1948. It was heralded as "A common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction." The substance of this text revolves around those groups who have been identified as particularly vulnerable: women, minorities, indigenous people, children, persons with disabilities, refugees, migrant workers, and prisoners. Each chapter sets out the relevant international instruments pertaining to the group in question with some additional critical commentary and analysis.

This textbook explores human rights as a global legal system. Using cases, materials and commentary, it presents human rights law as an active tool. By illustrating how it evolves to address contemporary issues such as terrorism and poverty, it gives a complex subject immediacy and relevance.

The last fifty years have witnessed the development of a global system of human rights promotion and protection. Canada has played a significant role in its growth and will likely continue to do so. Yet until now, there has not existed a comprehensive textbook on international human rights law written for Canadians. International Human Rights Law seeks to meet this need in a way that will encourage greater understanding of, and use of, international human rights law by lawyers, students and others.

This volume explores the principle and history of international human rights law. It addresses questions regarding the sources of human rights, its historical and cultural origins and its universality. It evaluates the effectiveness of procedures and international institutions in enforcing and ensuring compliance with human rights. This volume investigates the underlying structural principles that bind together the internationally-guaranteed rights and provide criteria for the emergence of new rights. It also evaluates whether the international human rights project has made a difference in the lives and well-being of individuals and groups around the world.

The UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights obliges state parties to prohibit any advocacy of religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination or violence. This book traces the origins of this provision and proposes an actus reus for this offence. The question of whether hateful incitement is a prohibition per se or also encapsulates a fundamental 'right to be protected against incitement' is extensively debated. Also addressed is the question of how to judge incitement. Is mens rea required to convict someone of advocating hatred, and if so, for what degree of intent? This analysis also includes the paramount question if and to what extent content and/or context factors ought to be decisive. The author extensively engages with comparative domestic law and compares the workings of the UN Human Rights Committee with those of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and the European Court of Human Rights.

The Sovereignty of Human Rights advances a legal theory of international human rights that defines their nature and purpose in relation to the structure and operation of international law. Professor Macklem argues that the mission of international human rights law is to mitigate adverse consequences produced by the international legal deployment of sovereignty to structure global politics into an international legal order. The book contrasts this legal conception of international human rights with moral conceptions that conceive of human rights as instruments that protect universal features of what it means to be a human being. The book also takes issue with political conceptions of international human rights that focus on the function or role that human rights plays in global political discourse. It demonstrates that human rights traditionally thought to lie at the margins of international human rights law--minority rights, indigenous rights, the right of self-determination, social rights, labor rights, and the right to development--are central to the normative architecture of the field.

There are a multitude of UN legal instruments which pertain to the rights of freedom of expression and information, and this book is the first to comprehensively map them and their function. It details the chequered history of both of these rights within the UN system and evaluates the suitability of the system for overcoming contemporary challenges and threats to the rights. Leading scholars address key issues, such as how the rights to freedom of expression and information can come into conflict with other human rights and with public policy goals, such as counter-terrorism. The book's institutional focus comprises five international treaties, UNESCO and the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression. Relevant for academics, lawyers, policy-makers and civil society actors, it also examines how new communication technologies have prompted fresh thinking about the substance and scope of the rights to freedom of expression and information.