Inter State Accountability For Violations Of Human Rights

2 The United Nations

With the proliferation of international organizations and their ever increasing role in a wide range of policy fields, situations multiply in which human rights are threatened or violated through the actions, operations, or policies of such organizations. This book is the first to explore these problems in a comprehensive manner and to examine the accountability mechanisms that are available. In the first section, the contributions study general concepts, such as the accountability of international organizations as an evolving legal concept, international organizations as independent actors, the logic of sliding scales in the law of international responsibility, and the relations between the international organizations and their Member States in regard to their respective obligations and responsibilities. Subsequent parts of the book focus on the accountability for human rights violations attributable to international organizations in four areas: peace and humanitarian operations, international civil administration, economic governance, and the staff of international organizations.

With the proliferation of international organizations and their ever increasing role in a wide range of policy fields, situations multiply in which human rights are threatened or violated through the actions, operations, or policies of such organizations. This book is the first to explore these problems in a comprehensive manner and to examine the accountability mechanisms that are available. In the first section, the contributions study general concepts, such as the accountability of international organizations as an evolving legal concept, international organizations as independent actors, the logic of sliding scales in the law of international responsibility, and the relations between the international organizations and their Member States in regard to their respective obligations and responsibilities. Subsequent parts of the book focus on the accountability for human rights violations attributable to international organizations in four areas: peace and humanitarian operations, international civil administration, economic governance, and the staff of international organizations.

This book analyses the use of the expression 'serious violations of human rights', and similar ones, such as 'gross' or 'grave', in international practice. It highlights some of the recurring responses and consequences to such violations and suggests that a new special regime - eponymous to the above-mentioned expression - was formed. This special regime is understood as substantively limited to a very specific issue-area of human rights violations. Within this regime, a series of monitoring mechanisms and procedures are in place to highlight, document, and record such violations; specific measures are taken to enforce compliance; and certain consequences arise focused on remedying the victims of such violations. As such, this special regime is comprised of at least four thinly interconnected components: the substantive, the monitoring, the enforcement, and the remedial ones. This monograph constitutes a first step towards the recognition of such a regime, allowing far more constructive and coherent elaboration in the future. Practice around this category of violations may well evolve in a different direction than the one suggested here. However, what becomes apparent from this work is that the serious violations of human rights are a key notion in the international legal order as it allows the international community to depict those factual situations requiring its attention and action.

The book investigates the development under international human rights law with regards to human rights protection with the overall objective to develop an argument for a future international regime of civil liability for individual and corporate perpetrator of gross human violations.

Within and outside the legal and academic professions, it is now increasingly recognised that the human rights consequences of states' actions are not limited to the domestic sphere but quite often transcend national borders. This is a challenge to the human rights community, which up to the present time has focused almost exclusively on human rights violations and protections solely within a national setting. The term "extraterritorial" effect/application/obligation in international law refers to acts that are taken by one actor (state) that have some kind of effect within another country's territory, with or without this second country's implicit or explicit agreement. Extraterritoriality within international human rights law, then, concerns actions or omissions by one state that have an effect on the human rights of individuals in another state - with or without this other state's agreement. This effect may be positive or negative in that such actions or omissions by foreign states may contribute positively to the enjoyment of human rights; or alternatively, they may result in a deteriorated human rights situation, and even human rights violations. This book gives, for the first time, a comprehensive analysis of extraterritorial obligations in international human rights law by placing the discussion in a larger international law context, interpreting obligations in the various sources of international human rights law, and discussing the way in which extraterritoriality has been approached by international courts and human rights implementation bodies in the United Nations and regional systems.

Rebecca J. Cook and the contributors to this volume seek to analyze how international human rights law applies specifically to women in various cultures worldwide, and to develop strategies to promote equitable application of human rights law at the international, regional, and domestic levels. Their essays present a compelling mixture of reports and case studies from various regions in the world, combined with scholarly assessments of international law as these rights specifically apply to women.