The Need for a World Court of Human Rights

Citation:

Nowak M. The Need for a World Court of Human Rights. Human Rights Law Review. 2007;7 (1) :251-259.

Abstract:

http://hrlr.oxfordjournals.org/content/7/1/251.full

*The full article is available through this link. This article may be available free of charge to those with university credentials.

The very notion of human rights implies that rights-holders must have some possibility to hold duty bearers accountable for not living up to their legally binding human rights obligations. This basic insight has found legal expression in the right to an effective remedy against violations of human rights, as laid down in Article 2(3) of the CCPR. This right to an effective remedy and reparation has been further developed by the so-called van Boven/Bassiouni Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation, which were adopted by the General Assembly on 16 December 2005. By far the most effective method to implement the right to an effective remedy on the international level is to allow direct access of the rights holders to a fully independent international human rights court with the power to render binding judgments and to grant adequate reparation to the victims of human rights violations.

The establishment of the Human Rights Council seems to be the right moment to start seriously thinking about the creation of a World Court of Human Rights as its independent counter-part!

Publisher's Version

Last updated on 12/18/2015