WheatleySteven, The Idea of International Human Rights Law (Oxford University Press, 2019, xiii +215 pp, £70.00) ISBN 9780198749844 (hb)

A. Brysk and M. Stohl (eds), Contesting Human Rights: Norms, Institutions and Practice (Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, 2019, 256pp)

Powered by WPeMatico

The European Court of Human Rights increasingly deals with migrants’ complaints about destitution in their host state under Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (the prohibition of inhuman and degrading treatment). This case law has been criticized for not being consistent and/or for not providing migrants with enough protection. Based on a systematic case law search, in this article, I analyse Article 3 case law on migrants’ destitution from a new perspective: the concept of freedom as non-domination, as developed in (neo) republican theory. It will argue that, seen through this lens, many tendencies in the Court’s case law can be explained and constructed as consistent, and it is submitted that in this way the Court does provide migrants with important protection against unfreedom. Nevertheless, I also argue in the article that the case law could be improved in a number of ways in order to provide more effective and robust protection against domination.

Powered by WPeMatico

This article discusses the turn to a focus on criminal prosecution and custodial sentencing in international human rights law. Although it shares the concerns of many critics of the ‘turn’, it does not reject the orientation outright, arguing instead for the role of criminal justice to be seen holistically, encompassing proper consideration of the varied aims it can pursue and be geared towards countering inherent discrimination in criminal justice systems. The analysis is situated in the context of the 2016 peace agreement in Colombia and the attitude taken by human rights groups towards its transitional justice provisions, noting that criticisms raised by one prominent human rights group converged with a campaign against the agreement centred on a right-wing politician hostile to human rights, equality and redistribution. In light of the nuanced views of local civil society actors, it questions whether anti-impunity specifically requires custodial punishment for all international crimes, before assessing the benefits and drawbacks of individual accountability through trials. Finally, it discusses obstacles to the prosecution of powerful state agents and the relationship of the anti-impunity drive with state power.

Powered by WPeMatico