United Nations And The Rule Of Law (With A Special Focus On Relevant Human Rights
Committees And Special Rapporteurs)
OUTLINE
1. Concepts
2. Enforcement
3. Sanctions
CONCEPTS
- UN
• Political organization
• Intergovernmental organization
• Cooperation, international justice and peace
- Rule of Law
• Justice, equality, accountability
• For the United Nations, the rule of law refers to a principle of governance in
which all persons, institutions, and entities, public and private, including the
State itself, are accountable to laws that are publicly promulgated, equally
enforced and independently adjudicated, and which are consistent with
international human rights norms and standards. It requires, as well, measures
to ensure adherence to the principles of supremacy of law, equality before the
law, accountability to the law, fairness in the application of the law, separation
of powers, participation in decision-making, legal certainty, avoidance of
arbitrariness and procedural and legal transparency (Kofi Annan, 2004)
• General principle of law? (art. 38 ICJ Statute)
• Rule of law extends to UN dedication to human rights (security, justice, human
rights and gender, and emerging challenges
- Human Rights Committees and Special Rapporteurs
• human rights in UN Charter?
• human rights „lenses" (all the main human bodies including)
- Charter based mechanism
• HR Commission (country and topic special rapporteurs)
• HR Council (country and topic special rapporteurs)
- Treaty based bodies
• network of HR Committees
ENFORCEMENT
- Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (hereafter CERD,
adopted in 1965, in force since 1969),
- Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment (hereinafter CAT, adopted in 1984, in force since 1987),
- Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women
(hereinafter CEDAW, adopted in 1979, in force since 1981),
- Convention on the Rights of the Child (hereinafter CRC, adopted in 1989, in force since
1990),
- Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of
Their Families (hereinafter also CMW, adopted in 1990, in force since 2003),
- Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (hereinafter referred to as CRPD,
adopted in 2006, in force since 2008),
- Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (hereinafter
also CED, adopted in 2006, in force since 2010).
- Committees (control mechanisms):
• Country reports
• Individual petitions
• General recommendations
- Committees decisions:
• not legally binding!
• politically persuasive...
Sanctions
- Recommendations
• not legally binding (interpretation of treaties, comparison of treaties - CEDAW-
ECHR)
• understanding by individual States (Spain, Slovakia)
• relation between international and national legal framework
• Human Rights Violations and International Peace and Security
• Impact of UN Sanctions
UN SC resolution 2664 adopted on 9 December 2022, S/RES/2664
(2022)
humanitarian exceptions (delivery of essential aid to civilian populations
in sanctioned regions)
