This is the first comprehensive treatment of the topic of the Rights of the Child as reflected in the jurisprudence of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. It reviews all decisions of the Inter-American Court relating to the Rights of the Child and analyses the principles held therein making them available to practitioners, academics and students of this area of the law.

This is a book that students and professionals from different disciplines and backgrounds, including from academia, international organisations, non-governmental organisations, the medical community, governments, etc., will find to be a valuable resource in their quest to learn more about an area of study that has long been neglected. 2 Volume set.

Working with progressive conceptual categories relating to indigenous property, cultural identity, the right to an adequate standard of living and healthcare, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights continues to build a justiciability to determine the social rights of marginalised individuals and groups in the Americas. In a context of interpretative tensions of the social rights as political goals and direct effects provisions, Isaac de Paz González unveils the abilities, and the practices of the Inter-American Court’s contribution to the human rights practice in the Global South.

Doctrine, Practice and Advocacy in the Inter-American Human Rights System is the first casebook to focus on the Inter-American human rights system, the primary system for advancing and protecting rights in the Western hemisphere. Created by the Organization of American States, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights are autonomous and independent bodies that make up the Inter-American system. Together, they play a vital role, working closely with victims, civil society, and states to protect fundamental human rights in the Western hemisphere, particularly in Latin America. While the system is relatively unknown in legal academia in the United States and Canada, its study is mandatory in most law schools in the Americas. Government appointees, civil servants, high level actors, private attorneys, judges and legal scholars, and media regularly engage with the system in Latin America, implementing its determinations and applying its rulings and interpretations concerning the human rights of their citizens. Thus critical matters affecting vital rights, such as the peace process in Colombia, disappearances in Mexico, gang violence in the Northern Triangle (El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala) or trials for perpetrators of crimes against humanity in Argentina, all directly involve the rulings and actors of the Inter-American system. Increasingly, the Inter-American system has advanced rights protection in the United States and Canada. The statements and determinations of the Inter-American Commission on the detention center at Guantanamo, for example, led to a global consensus opposing the prolonged use of pretrial detention at that site, while the Commission's ruling on the juvenile death penalty was cited by the United States Supreme Court in its holding finding that practice unconstitutional. A report by the Commission on murdered and missing indigenous women in British Columbia led to the creation of a National Commission of Inquiry on the subject by Canada. This book provides analysis on a wide range of practical issues that advocates face when interacting with the Commission or Court and explores current debates on possible reforms of the system. At the same time, it provides materials that consider the political dynamics that empower and constrain the system. Doctrine, Practice and Advocacy in the Inter-American Human Rights System takes as its point of departure a critical look at the real-world successes and failures of the system and human rights advocates in the Americas, including the tensions and trade-offs commonly confronted by activists as they seek to advance human rights.

Now in its fourth edition, this well-respected textbook blends the theory of human rights with its context, debates and practice.

This book examines selected legal complexities of the notion of torture and the issue of the proper foundation for legally characterizing certain acts as torture, especially when children are the targeted victims of torture. ICC case law is used to highlight the International Criminal Court’s reluctance in practice to prosecute as a separable offence the crime of torture as set out in one or more of the relevant provisions of the Rome Statute where children are the particularized targets as part of a common plan during armed conflict. Also addressed is the failure of the ICC to consider that the young age of the victims of torture (i.e. children) should be an aggravating factor taken into account in determining the ICC sentence for those convicted of the torture of civilians, including children, in the context of armed conflict as part of a common plan. The six UN-designated grave crimes against children (including child soldiering for State or non-State forces perpetrating mass atrocities, and sexual violence perpetrated on a systematic and widespread basis against children including child soldiers), it is argued, are also instances of the torture of children as part of a common plan such that separate charges of torture are legally supportable (along with the other charges relating to additional Rome Statute offences involved in such circumstances). Useful legal perspectives on the issue of the torture of children in its various manifestations gleaned from the case law of other international judicial forums such as the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the ICTY are also examined.

The present volume focuses on the jurisprudence of national, supranational and international jurisdictions (and quasi-juridictions) as regards the legal status of same-sex couples. Its aim is to explore the content, rationale, functioning and potential of the different jurisdictions’ reasonings and their contribution to the strengthening of LGBTI rights (and duties). As a consequence, the book tries to convey the complexities and controversies that derive from the judicial recognition of same-sex couples across the world, taking always into account the relationship of the judiciary with the executive and the legislature and the related problems of legitimacy and democracy. The volume deals with this issue and considers it as a crucial test for modern democracies and contemporary societies.

This book examines the impact of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) on national and international jurisprudence, since its adoption in 1989. It offers state of the art knowledge on the functions, challenges and limitations of the CRC in domestic, regional and international children’s rights litigation. Litigating the Rights of the Child provides insight in the role of the CRC in domestic jurisprudence in ten countries from different parts of the world, with civil law, common law and Islamic law systems. In addition, it offers analyses of the jurisprudence of regional courts, in Europe and the Americas, and of human rights treaty bodies, including the Human Rights Committee, Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. This book presents a global and comparative picture on the use of the CRC in litigation and identifies emerging trends. This book serves as an important source of reference and inspiration for academics, students, legal professionals, including judges and lawyers, and (inter)national organisations working in the area of children’s rights.

This book offers a distinctive approach to the right not to be subjected to enforced disappearance. Over the last decade, the entry into force of the UN Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance has brought to the forefront of legal discussion the need to effectively address the practice of disappearance. Yet, there are still obstacles to combatting it, which are in part due to a limited understanding of the right’s underlying concept, content and scope. This book examines the phenomenon and definition of enforced disappearance and sheds new light on the right against disappearance. Presenting a doctrinal appraisal of the norm’s legal value, it suggests that the right against enforced disappearance holds a customary value, while also arguing that it has since attained a jus cogens status. Lastly, it examines in detail the rights to truth and reparation and how regional and national courts have interpreted these norms. It assesses the UN Convention’s dynamics and considers whether the lack of a right against disappearance embedded in regional human rights systems affects individuals’ protection. The book provides an overview of key jurisprudence on disappearances, making it of benefit to both practitioners and theorists of international law.

Since the adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) children’s rights have assumed a central position in a wide variety of disciplines and policies. This handbook offers an engaging overview of the contemporary research landscape for those people in the theory and practice of children’s rights. The volume offers a multidisciplinary approach to children’s rights, as well as key thematic issues in children’s rights at the intersection of global and local concerns. The main approaches and topics within the volume are: • Law, social work, and the sociology of childhood and anthropology • Geography, childhood studies, gender studies and citizenship studies • Participation, education and health • Juvenile justice and alternative care • Violence against children and female genital mutilation • Child labour, working children and child poverty • Migration, indigenous children and resource exploitation The specially commissioned chapters have been written by renowned scholars and researchers and come together to provide a critical and invaluable guide to the challenges and dilemmas currently facing children’s rights.