A Global Handbook on National Human Rights Protection Systems

Published under the Auspices of Geneva for Human Rights

The human rights movement strives to develop a universal culture of human rights in all societies, as well as to confront gross violations. This book, the first ever of its kind, is a veritable State of the World Report on Human Rights. It reproduces summaries by UN High Commissioners for Human Rights on the state of the national human rights protection systems of each UN Member State. These summaries were sent following each state’s passage through the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process of the UN Human Rights Council. The summaries identify each state’s constitutional, legal, judicial and institutional architecture, international conventions not yet ratified, areas of progress, problem areas, and problems affecting different parts of the population. The High Commissioners’ summaries reproduced here are preceded by insightful reflections on the concept of a national human rights protection system, and by regional outlines of national human rights protection systems in the Americas and the Caribbean, Europe Africa, Asia and the Pacific. The book also contains some case studies of the national human rights protection systems of sample states such as Australia, Bhutan, Brazil, Canada, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guyana, Portugal, Switzerland, Sweden, and South Africa.
Copyright Year:
2023
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Published
ISBN:
978-90-04-53505-3
Publication:
29 Sep 2023
Hardback
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Temporarily out of stock
ISBN:
978-90-04-53504-6
Publication:
13 Dec 2023
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Front Matter
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Chapter 1 Introduction
Part 1 Reflections on National Human Rights Protection Systems
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Part 2 Outlines of National Human Rights Protection Systems
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Conclusion
Part 3 UN High Commissioner for Human Rights’ Letters to UN Member States on the Strengthening of Their National Protection Systems
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Annexes
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Back Matter
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Bertrand Ramcharan, Seventh Chancellor of the University of Guyana, has been Professor of International Human Rights Law at the Geneva Graduate Institute. He performed the functions of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in 2003-2004 and has been Member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration, and Commissioner of the International Commission of Jurists – of which he remains Honorary Commissioner. In 2019, the Academy of the Caribbean Court of Justice conferred on him the award of Eminent Caribbean International Law Jurist.

Gianni Magazzeni is Former Special Assistant to: Heads of the UN Human Rights Program // DGs, in Geneva; Secretary-General of the Vienna Conference; and first and second UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Chief of the Universal Periodic Review Branch in OHCHR from 2017 to April 2023. Served previously as OiC/Chief of Branch in its field operations Division and as Head of the Human Rights Component in the UN Assistance Mission in Iraq. He joined the UN in New York in 1984, from Yale University/Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, (Pisa) Italy.

Mona M’Bikay is Executive Director of UPR Info. She has a doctorate from the Geneva Graduate Institute and has had several UN assignments in the fields of human rights and development.

Inès French is a Swiss Attorney-at-Law who practiced domestic criminal law and justice before specialising in International Law, specifically International Human Rights Law, International Criminal Law and International Humanitarian Law. She conducted her studies at the University of Geneva and the University of Sydney before undertaking an LL.M. at the Geneva Graduate Institute. She undertook field work in Namibia and Ghana and is a legal advisor to Human Rights NGOs (Ghana and Switzerland).
Foreword

Preface

List of Figures and Tables

Notes on Contributors

1 Introduction

Part 1
Reflections on National Human Rights Protection Systems
2 The Universal Periodic Review and National Protection Systems
  Gianni Magazzeni

3 The Role of Civil Society in National Human Rights Protection Systems Some Dynamic Examples
  Valeria Reyes Menéndez

4 Leveraging International Mechanisms for Human Rights Impact at the National Level A Case Study of Protecting the Right to Conscientious Objection to Military Service in the Republic of Korea
  Ann Harrison, Anna-Karin Holmlund and Tom Rainey-Smith

5 National Human Rights Protection Systems The Dynamic Role of Courts in the Protection of International Human Rights
  Francesca Restifo

6 National Parliaments and the Protection of Human Rights Resolution Adopted by the Human Rights Council on 23 June 2017

7 The Paris Principles Principles Relating to the Status of National Institutions (The Paris Principles) Adopted by General Assembly Resolution 48/134, 20 December 1993


Part 2
Outlines of National Human Rights Protection Systems
8 National Human Rights Protection Systems in Europe
  Inès French and Karim Leu

9 National Human Rights Protection Systems in the Americas and the Caribbean
  Bertrand Ramcharan

10 National Human Rights Protection Systems in Africa

A The African Architecture of Protection
  Bertrand Ramcharan

B Overview of Human Rights Situation and National Protection Systems in Africa
  Mona M’Bikay

C The South African National Human Rights Protection System
  Damian Etone

D The National Human Rights Protection System of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
  Elysée Sindayigaya

11 National Human Rights Protection Systems in Asia and the Pacific
  Robin Ramcharan

B The Australian National Human Rights System: an Overview
  Domenico Zipoli

C The National Human Rights Protection System of Bhutan
  Sunita Giri

 Conclusion


Part 3
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights’ Letters to UN Member States on the Strengthening of Their National Protection Systems

Annexes

Bibliography

Index

UN delegates, Members of NGOs, Academics, human rights institutes, libraries, human rights specialists, post-graduate students, practitioners, educated laymen.
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