This is an introduction to some relevant aspects regarding human rights treaties.

1. Sources and treaty interpretation

Watch the recording by Damon Barrett, link below (about 25 min).

TOPIC: How do we interpret human rights treaties? How can we say something is a violation or that one side of a dispute is correct? In this lecture we focus on treaty interpretation, and the kinds of sources and materials that can be used.

Importance of justifying your legal claims & interpretation in a nutshell
Sources
Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, general rule of interpretation and supplementary means
Dynamic interpretation
Interpretation as persuasion: Principled, practical and effective, coherent
Beyond 'coherence' - Critiquing the practical effects of law

2. Reservations to human rights treaties

Watch the recording by Karen da Costa, below (about 30 min).

TOPIC: How strong are the international legal commitments of states towards human rights? How much flexibility is allowed to states when joining international human rights treaties, and what are the consequences regarding the effective protection of human rights? In other words, can states cherry pick articles they wish to be bound and release themselves from others considered as less appealing by them? Do other states parties to human rights treaties have a say in such an exercise? Is there a role for monitoring bodies in such situations? The session engages with the challenge of achieving universality in terms of geographic coverage of human rights treaties whereas preserving the essence of treaties.

Keypoints

General introduction and universality
Definition of reservations
Justification, time, limits, where to find reservations
Dilemmas and practical issues
Key aspects of reservations, including the position of the Human Rights Committee
Practical examples
Material for our in-class discussion

3. LIVE DISCUSSION: In class. Check the course schedule for venue.

STUDENTS PREPARATION FOR DISCUSSION DURING THE CLASS DISCUSSION.

See slides (number 19-26) in the 'Reservations' recorded presentation.

Readings:

Smith, R., Textbook on International Human Rights (7th ed., 2016), Oxford University Press, chapter 11 (Substantive rights - general comments); OR Smith, R., International Human Rights Law (8th ed., 2018), Oxford University Press, chapter 11 (Substantive rights - general comments).

Scheinin, Martin (2017). The art and science of interpretation in human rights law (chapter 2), pp. 17-37. In: Andreassen, B., Sano, H., & Mclnerney-Lankford, S. Research methods in human rights: A handbook (Handbooks of research methods in law), Cheltenham: Elgar.

Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. Adopted at Vienna on 23 May 1969. Entered into force on 27 January

1980. United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 1155, p. 331

Giegerich, Thomas (2010), ‘Treaties, Multilateral, Reservations to’, in Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law. Available online through the GU library databases website.

UN Human Rights Committee (HRC), CCPR General Comment No. 24: Issues Relating to Reservations Made upon Ratification or Accession to the Covenant or the Optional Protocols thereto, or in Relation to Declarations under Article 41 of the Covenant, 4 November 1994, CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add.6, available at:

https://www.refworld.org/docid/453883fc11.html

Further suggested readings:

Bondevik, Hilde and Inga Bostad (2017). Core principles in argumentation and understanding: hermeneutics and human rights, (chapter 4), pp. 68-93. In: Andreassen, B., Sano, H., & Mclnerney-Lankford, S. Research methods in human rights : A handbook (Handbooks of research methods in law), Cheltenham: Elgar.

Mechlem, Kerstin. (2009). Treaty bodies and the interpretation of human rights. Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law, 42(3), 905.