Category Archives: Laws

02Oct/21

A Critical Reflection on the Right to the Truth about Gross Human Rights Violations

Abstract

The right to the truth about gross human rights violations is gradually becoming more firmly entrenched in international human rights law. However, the content and contours of the right to the truth are not without controversy. Some of the most pressing issues that have arisen are the extent of society’s right to the truth, the scope of the truth that it pursues (fact-finding or broader historical truth) and the relationship between truth seeking and official acknowledgment.This article turns to multidisciplinary research about truth seeking and memory with regard to gross human rights violations, which provides rich insights into the role of truth in the aftermath of mass atrocities that can shed light on the possible implications of the right to the truth. It thus provides a critical reflection on the right to the truth, in order to consider how it could perform a valuable function.

02Oct/21

Poverty as Misrecognition: What Role for Antidiscrimination Law in Europe?

Abstract

It is widely agreed that victims of discrimination on traditional status grounds such as gender and race are overrepresented among the poor and undereducated. People living in poverty also face discrimination because of their socioeconomic situation. Many national, European and international antidiscrimination provisions prohibit discrimination on grounds that are related to a person’s socioeconomic situation. It is striking, however, that this is hardly applied in practice. On the basis of domestic—Belgian, French and British—and European material, this paper argues that the prohibition of discrimination on grounds of social condition is an empowering legal tool in the protection of disadvantaged people, especially regarding issues of misrecognition. Four reasons for this are considered: the determining role of the prohibition of discrimination on grounds of social condition in applying a direct scrutiny of the socioeconomic underprivileged situation of the applicants, its role in combating stereotypes and stigma against poor people, its important cross-cutting function in cases of multiple discrimination, and its exclusive applicability in some occurrences of discrimination.