Securing Human Rights?

Achievements and Challenges of the UN Security Council

Edited by Bardo Fassbender

Collected Courses of the Academy of European Law

Provides a topical examination of the controversial record of the UN Security Council in serving to protect and uphold human rights values
Offers diverse opinions on the recent actions of the UN Security Council, particularly the targeted sanctions against Iraq and the Taliban and other supporters of Al Qaida
Contributions from leading writers in the field of international human rights law, including Annalisa Campi, Erika de Wet, Bardo Fassbender, Vera Gowlland-Debbas, Daphna Shraga, and Salvatore Zappala

Securing Human Rights?

Achievements and Challenges of the UN Security Council

Edited by Bardo Fassbender

Collected Courses of the Academy of European Law

Description

Throughout the first decades of its existence, many held the view that the UN Security Council would in some senses automatically encourage the protection of human rights by maintaining international peace. However since the end of the Cold War there have been growing concerns that the Council is a force with the potential to do harm to the cause of human rights, even to the extent of violating the rights of individuals. The chapters of this volume take a closer look at these two sides of the Security Council's involvement in human rights; both its efforts to promote and enforce human rights, and its actions that, with the intention of maintaining and restoring international peace, also have the potential to jeopardize human rights.

This book represents a collection of individual views and appraisals of how the Council has dealt with human rights issues in the post-Cold War period, particularly in the cases of the economic sanctions imposed on Iraq and the targeted sanctions directed against the Taliban and supporters of the Al Qaida network. Written by experts in the field of international law, they are both positive and negative, critical and analytical. Together they offer a selection of different perspectives and evaluate the contribution of the Security Council to the promotion of human rights, highlighting possible avenue for improvement.

Securing Human Rights?

Achievements and Challenges of the UN Security Council

Edited by Bardo Fassbender

Collected Courses of the Academy of European Law

1. Introduction, Bardo Fassbender
2. The Security Council and Human Rights - From Discretion to Promote to Obligation to Protect, Daphna Shraga
3. The Security Council as Enforcer of Human Rights, Vera Gowlland-Debbas
4. The Role for Human Rights in the Decision-making Process of the Security Council, Bardo Fassbender
5. Security Council Targeted Sanctions and Human Rights, Annalisa Ciampi
6. Human Rights Considerations and the Enforcement of Targeted Sanctions in Europe: The Emergence of Core Standards of Judicial Protection, Erika de Wet
7. Reviewing Security Council Measures in the Light of International Human Rights Principles, Salvatore Zappala
Annex 1: Guidelines of the Committee for the Conduct of its Work (Security Council Committee established Pursuant to Resolution 1267 (1999) concerning Al Qaida and the Taliban and Associated Individuals and Entities)

Securing Human Rights?

Achievements and Challenges of the UN Security Council

Edited by Bardo Fassbender

Collected Courses of the Academy of European Law

Author Information

Bardo Fassbender is Professor of International Law at the Bundeswehr University in Munich. He studied at the University of Bonn and holds an LL.M from Yale Law School and a Doctor iuris from the Humboldt University in Berlin. Before joining the Bundeswehr University, he taught in Berlin, St Gallen, and Munich (Ludwig Maximilians University). His principal fields of research are international law, United Nations law, German constitutional law, comparative constitutional law and theory, and the history of international and constitutional law. Among his many publications are the books UN Security Council and the Right of Veto: A Constitutional Perspective (The Hague/London/Boston, 1998), Der offene Bundesstaat: Studien zur auswartigen Gewalt und zur Volkerrechtssubjektivitat bundesstaatlicher Teilstaaten in Europa (Tubingen, 2007), and The United Nations Charter as the Constitution of the International Community (Leiden/Boston, 2009).

Contributors:

Annalisa Ciampi, Professor of International Law at the University of Verona
Erika de Wet, Director of the Institute for International and Comparative Law in Africa and Professor of International Law at the Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria
Bardo Fassbender, Professor of International Law at the Bundeswehr University in Munich
Vera Gowlland-Debbas, Honorary Professor of Public International Law at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva
Daphna Shraga, Principal Legal Officer, Office of the Legal Counsel, Office of Legal Affairs, United Nations
Salvatore Zappalà, Professor of International Law at the University of Catania (Italy)