Chapter 10 – Remedies for the Enforcement of Human Rights Treaties and Laws

Every Right has a Remedy

 It is a basic principle of law that for every right violated, there must be an effective
remedy.
 Human rights without effective implementation are shadows without substance.

Remedies Under United Nations Treaties

 Three special cases where an individual may file a complaint for the violation of human
rights protected by treaties:
o The Optional Protocol to International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
o The International Covenant on the Elimination of All Forms of Radical
Discrimination
o Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment
or Punishment
Remedies not covered by UN treaty – The “1503” Procedure
 Any individual or any group of persons who feel that they have been prevented in
exercising their human rights may take their complaint to the UN even on cases not
covered by any UN treaty

It is to be noted that the remedies in the procedures above are not legally bunding. The reports
have only persuasive effect on the offending state.

The International Criminal Court Rome Statute

 The ICC has jurisdiction over persons who have committed the crimes of genocide, war
crimes, or crimes against humanity and the crime of aggression.
 Genocide
o Acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical,
racial, or religious group as such:
 Killing members of the group
 Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group
 Deliberately inflicting on the group condition of life calculated to bring
about its physical destruction in whole or in part
 Imposing measure intended to prvent births within groups
 Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group
 Crimes Against Humanity
o Enumerated crimes:
 Murder
 Extermination
 Enslavement
 Deportation or forcible transfer of population
 Imprisonment or severe deprivation of physical liberty
 Torture
  Rape
 Enforced disappearance of person
 Apartheid
 Ware crimes
o Enumerated crimes:
 Willful killing
 Torture
 Willfully causing great suffering
 Extensive destruction
 Compelling POW to serve in the forces of the hostile power
 Wilfully depriving POW to right to fair trial
 Unlawful deportation
 Taking hostages

Some Selected Cases Referred to the European Court of Human Rights