International Human Rights Protection

"[This book] is based on the author's personal research and personal involvement with a wide range of subjects, such as: the basic concepts of civil and social rights; discrimination and affirmative action; issues of procedure and jurisdiction; the death penalty; and issues such as the protection of refugees, minorities and victims of armed conflicts. At the universal level, the book introduces the reader to the labyrinth of United Nations Charter-based and treaty-based procedures. As well as an overview of the Inter-American and African systems, it deals at the regional level-particularly with the case law of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, and also looks at the national level at the case law of the US Supreme Court and the South African Constitutional Court. This book adopts a particularly critical approach to the so-called 'dynamic' interpretation of the European Convention on Human Rights by the Court of Strasbourg. It is the author's feeling that judges, in particular those belonging to courts specialising in human rights, have a tendency to systematically support interpretations benefiting the applicants, while overlooking too easily the far-reaching implications of judgments for society as a whole. The author, instead, puts forward a more balanced and more realistic approach which takes into account the difficulties democratic governments face in coping with the challenges of our present time and with the pressing needs of the realities of today's world."--