Regional human rights systems are between Scylla and Charybdis: On the one hand they should uphold the states‘ human rights treaty obligations. On the other hand, they should arguably show appropriate respect for value pluralism, for various expressions of the majority‘s conception of national identity, and regionally shared modes of ‘balancing‘ rights and other important...
Do ‘Asian Values‘ on human rights exist?
To scholars and practitioners of international human rights law, the 1990s Asian Values Debate was irrefutably debunked by the Asian Financial Crisis and regional rights progress. Yet ASEAN states are stuck in a strange ‘time-warp‘ and invariably resurrect the Asian values defence to ward off ‘intrusive‘ human rights engagement, consequently preventing them attaining their ironically...
Regional Human Rights Mechanisms as Enforcement Gap-Filling Institutions
This paper offers an account of how we should understand the nature and role of regional human rights mechanisms in Asia. The core thought is that such mechanisms need to be conceived of and operate as enforcement gap-filling institutions, i.e., help fill enforcement gaps in human rights law within the region. At the level of...
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights and its Control over National Practices Concerning Serious Human Rights Violations: Developments, Challenges, and Prospects
In 2001, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) was the first court at the international level that found national legislation, namely, self-amnesty laws on serious violations of human rights, to be null and void. This seminal development was lauded by human rights practitioners and scholars alike. However, subsequent national reactions to the decisions of...
The significance of ‘consensus‘
Why if at all should a perceived (emerging) regional consensus on human rights affect states‘ margin of appreciation? The European Court of Human Rights‘ practice in this regard may respond to a shared regional ‘identity‘ and reduce the fear of supranational interference – but it also runs the risk of failing to uphold human rights.