Kamal Makili-Aliyev

Room: 303

Zoom-link (only for emergency online teaching): https://gu-se.zoom.us/my/kamalmakilialiyev

Slides: (Slides)

In this lecture, we will

Discuss the sources of States' obligations under human rights law
Introduce the main international human rights monitoring mechanisms - their sources of authority, mandates and functions.
Discuss how you might use the findings of mechanisms in your work
Discuss problems for and the potential of such mechanisms

Think about the following questions:

What strengths and weaknesses might there be with these mechanisms?
What would an ideal international system look like (and what would have to be taken into account)?

Overview

1. Sources and mechanisms at the national level (you will discuss this further in lectures 4 and 5)

2. Sources of obligations, functions, and types of mechanism at the international level

- Sources of human rights obligations

- Treaty ratification

- Monist and dualist systems

- Different ways to approach human rights mechanisms

3. Treaty bodies

Judicial mechanisms

Treaty bodies/quasi-judicial mechanisms

4. Political bodies, special procedures, UN secretariat

- General Assembly, ECOSOC, Human Rights Council

- Universal Periodic Review

- Special procedures (Youtube video below)

- UN secretariat

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0vT_1gjdWc

Preparation: Please have ready:

Any questions about international human rights law or mechanisms that came up for you when reading the literature. e.g if something was unclear that you'd like to discuss further, or if you had a question about how a certain mechanism or process functions.
Your thoughts about the following questions (developing the two posed above):

- What strengths and weaknesses might there be with these mechanisms? This can be something from the literature you'd like to discuss or your own ideas. We will use the periodic reporting mechanism to the UN treaty bodies as our example, as it's considered the 'backbone' of international monitoring.
- What reforms would you suggest? e.g. to the periodic reporting process under the UN human rights treaties, or more broadly to the UN human rights system
- What would an ideal international system for human rights monitoring look like? e.g. Should there be a 'world court of human rights'? What major issues need to be considered in such a discussion?

Mandatory readings before the lecture

Smith, R., International Human Rights Law (8th ed., 2018), Oxford University Press, chapter 10 (Monitoring, implementing, and enforcing human rights)
Bantekas & Oette, International Human Rights Law and Practice, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 3rd ed.; chapters 2, 4 & 5

Further suggested reading before the lecture

Bantekas & Oette, International Human Rights Law and Practice, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2nd ed.; chapters 6 & 7

Scheinin, M., “International Mechanisms and Procedures for Monitoring”, in Krause el al, eds., International Protection of Human Rights, pp. 657-677.

Subedi, S., "Protection of human rights through the mechanism of UN Special Rapporteurs", 33 Human Rights Quarterly (2011), pp. 201-228.

Leblanc, L. J., et al., "Compliance with the reporting requirements of human rights conventions", 14(5) The International Journal of Human Rights (2010), pp. 789-807.

Stein, M. A. & Lord, J. E. (2010). Monitoring the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Innovations, Lost Opportunities, and Future Potential. Human Rights Quarterly, vol. 32(3), pp. 689-728.

Connors/Schmidt, 'United Nations' in Moeckli, D., Shah, S., Sivakumaran, S., & Harris, D. (2018). International human rights law (3rd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press, chapter 19

Websites of the UN monitoring bodies: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/Pages/HumanRightsBodies.aspx