Serious Violations of Human Rights: On the Emergence of a New Special Regime

by Ilia Siatitsa

Overview

This book analyses the use of the expression 'serious violations of human rights', and similar ones, such as 'gross' or 'grave', in international practice. It highlights some of the recurring responses and consequences to such violations and suggests that a new special regime - eponymous to the above-mentioned expression - was formed.

This special regime is understood as substantively limited to a very specific issue-area of human rights violations. Within this regime, a series of monitoring mechanisms and procedures are in place to highlight, document, and record such violations; specific measures are taken to enforce compliance; and certain consequences arise focused on remedying the victims of such violations. As such, this special regime is comprised of at least four thinly interconnected components: the substantive, the monitoring, the enforcement, and the remedial ones.

This monograph constitutes a first step towards the recognition of such a regime, allowing far more constructive and coherent elaboration in the future. Practice around this category of violations may well evolve in a different direction than the one suggested here. However, what becomes apparent from this work is that the serious violations of human rights are a key notion in the international legal order as it allows the international community to depict those factual situations requiring its attention and action.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780192863041
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	10/31/2022
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	9.32(w) x 6.39(h) x 0.77(d)

About the Author

Dr Ilia Siatitsa is currently Programme Director and Senior Legal Officer at Privacy International (PI) and her work focuses on research and litigation on the impact of new technologies on human rights. She is a qualified lawyer in Greece and has a PhD in International Law from the Faculty of Law of the University of Geneva. Before joining PI, Ilia was a Research Fellow at the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights leading the research on human rights in the digital age. She was also a member of the research team of the Big Data, Human Rights and Technology Project housed at the Human Rights Centre of the University of Essex. She also holds an LLM in International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights from the Law School, University of Geneva, and the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, an LLM in Public International Law from the University of Athens, and a Law Degree from the Democritus University, Greece.

Table of Contents

Brief SummaryIntroduction: The Origins of the Regime1. The you evolution of a legal regime2. Connection of serious violations of human rights to other notions3. Shaping the special regime4. The relationship between the special and the (general) human rights law regimes5. 'Serious' versus 'gross' and other similar expressions6. Structuring the special regimeChapter 1: The Substantive Component Identifying a Serious Violation of Human Rights1. The elements forming a serious violation of human rights2. The external elements3. The involvement of the state4. The contextual aspect5. The 'iceberg' of serious violations of human rightsChapter 2: The Monitoring Component1. Country-specific inter-governmental procedures2. Extra-conventional international inquiry and fact-finding mechanisms4. The treaty-based inquiry mechanisms3. The national monitoring mechanisms5. A multilateral network of monitoring responsesChapter 3: The Enforcement Component1. 'Threat to the peace' and serious violations of human rights2. Other responses to serious violations of human rights3. Responsibility to protect4. Enforcement in pursuit of the common purposeChapter 4: The Remedial Component1. Instruments specific to serious violations of human rights2. Adjudicating serious violations of human rights3. A victim-oriented but not individualistic approach to remediesConclusion