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We conclude this year with some good news from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in Costa Rica, which just handed down a landmark case regarding the human rights of irregular migrants. In the case Vélez Loor v. Panamá, published 10 December 2010, the Court held that Panamá was liable for a breach of the [...]
Filed under: Human Rights, Regional Human Rights, Regional Human Rights Protection | Leave a Comment »
Yesterday, on 12 September 2010, new global capital requirements for banks were announced. The new standard (“Basel III”) was adopted by the Group of Governors and Heads of Supervision, the oversight body of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. This body is generally considered the World’s main body for financial rules and supervision standards and [...]
Filed under: Public International Law | Leave a Comment »
Carolina León Bastos: La interpretación de los derechos fundamentales según los tratados internacionales sobre derechos humanos. Un estudio de la jurisprudencia en España y Costa Rica (English translation of the title: The Interpretation of Fundamental Rights in Accordance with International Human Rights Treaties. A Study of the Spanish and Costa Rican Jurisprudence). Madrid. Reus. 328 [...]
Filed under: Book review, Comparative law, Constitutional Law, Human Rights | Leave a Comment »
Yesterday, on 28 July 2010, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution introduced by Bolivia on the human right to access to clean water and sanitation. The Resolution was adopted by 122 in favour, no votes against and 41 abstentions (for the press release of the UN General Assembly see here, for the text of [...]
Filed under: Human Rights, United Nations | 1 Comment »
On Thursday 7 July 2010, the European Parliament approved the new SWIFT-Agreement on bank data transfers to the United States for counter-terrorist purposes (see the press release of the European Parliament). The Draft Agreement provides for mass bank data transfers upon request by the US authorities with a view to identifying suspected terrorists. It is [...]
Filed under: EU Common Foreign and Security Policy, EU-Law, EU/EC Law | 2 Comments »
From 17 to 28 May 2010, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights is holding ordinary sessions at its seat in Costa Rica. These sessions will include public hearings, deliberations of judgments to be handed down as well as hearings on and deliberations of provisional measures potentially to be granted by the Court. Also, sessions regarding [...]
Filed under: Human Rights, Public International Law, Regional Human Rights, Regional Human Rights Protection | Leave a Comment »
Yesterday, 22 February, 25 Latin-American and Caribbean government representatives gathered, according to El País, in Mexico to discuss the possible creation of an American regional organisation without the United States and Canada (for the full article see here). Among the diplomats present were, among others, the Bolivian, Brazilian, Cuban, Haitian and Venezuelan heads of State. [...]
Filed under: Regional Human Rights Protection | 1 Comment »
Today, the first of two weeks of auditions has ended which the Inter-American Court of Human Rights is holding from 25 January to 4 February. On this occasion, the Court hears the victims, witnesses and expert witnesses as well as the parties’ oral submissions on two cases. The first one, Cepeda Vargas vs. Colombia, deals [...]
Filed under: Public International Law | 1 Comment »
Yesterday, 21 December, Brasil’s President Lula da Silva presented a human rights action plan which includes the creation of a national truth commission. The Commission will have the purpose to elucidate the human rights violations during the military dictatorship between 1964 and 1985. Since the end of the dictatorship in 1985, no systematic investigation of [...]
Filed under: Public International Law | 1 Comment »
A brief follow-up on the ECJ’s Kadi decision and the Court of First Instance’s (CFI) – slightly less famous – PMOI decisions we reported earlier on (see here, here and here). The Kadi decision dealt with an EU regulation implementing a UN blacklist which provided for the freezing of financial means of suspected Al Quaida [...]
Filed under: EC-Law, ECJ, ECtHR, Environmental Law, EU-Law, EU/EC Law, Human Rights, Regional Human Rights, Regional Human Rights Protection | Leave a Comment »
One of the most striking problems for the enforcement of labour standards in developing countries is the huge informal sector that is to be found in most of the labour markets in the Southern hemisphere. In a number of Latin-American countries the percentage of formal employment is below 50 per cent. This means that not [...]
Filed under: International Labour Organization, United Nations | Leave a Comment »
From 3 June to 19 June, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) hosts this year’s International Labour Conference (ILC). The ILC, also referred to as the “international parliament of labour” is the main legislative body of the ILO which has the competence to adopt Conventions and Recommendations on international labour standards. The ILC can also adopt [...]
Filed under: Human Rights, International and national law, Public International Law, United Nations | 1 Comment »
According to the Annual Report 2008 of the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights, Colombia, Cuba, Venezuela and Haiti continue to have serious human rights problems (see here for the report). The Commission’s Report, which was presented to the Committee on Juridical and Political Affairs of the Organization of American States on 8 May of this [...]
Filed under: Human Rights, Public International Law, Regional Human Rights, Regional Human Rights Protection | Leave a Comment »
This week, on 22 April 2009, the European Parliament approved an interim trade agreement with Turkmenistan (for the full text of the resolution see here). Such an agreement would facilitate market access of Turkmen goods to the European Community and vice versa. This information would probably not be worthy of more than a minor note [...]
Filed under: EC-Law, EU-Law, EU/EC Law, Human Rights, Regional Human Rights | Leave a Comment »
As the shadow of the financial crisis looms over national economies, government’s worries about protectionist measures of their trade partners spread. A recent example for this can be found in the China’s recent displeasure about the US rules on Chinese poultry. This regulation blocks imports of Chinese poultry products because of the alleged health risk [...]
Filed under: Public International Law, World Trade Organization | Leave a Comment »
Today, on Tuesday 17 February at 9 p.m. the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) open their first trial (see the court schedule on the ECCC website). With a delay of several decades the first Khmer Rouge will be tried for his involvement in crimes against humanity committed under the Pol Pot regime, [...]
Filed under: Human Rights, International Courts, International Criminal Law, international justice, Public International Law | 1 Comment »
After a battle of several year the Iranian opposition group People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (“PMOI”) has succeeded in getting its name off the EU’s black list of terrorist organisations. As EUobserver reported on Tuesday, the EU Foreign Ministers agreed to remove the name of the organization from the list due to a lack of evidence [...]
Filed under: EC-Law, ECJ, EU Common Foreign and Security Policy, EU-Law, EU/EC Law, International terrorism, Public International Law | Leave a Comment »
It seems that the disputed military attacks led on Gaza by Israel in the past weeks have caused first tangible consequences for its external economic relations. Last week, it was reported that EU Commissioner Benita Ferrero Waldner froze the plans to upgrade its economic relations with Israel (for further information, see the following article in [...]
Filed under: EC-Law, EU-Law, EU/EC Law, Human Rights, Middle East Crisis, Public International Law | 1 Comment »
On 12 January 2009, the Human Rights Council adopted a resolution on the human rights situation in the Gaza strip. The Resolution is entitled “The Grave Violations of Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory particularly due to the recent Israeli military attacks against the occupied Gaza Strip”. As the title indicates, the Resolution contains [...]
Filed under: Human Rights, International Humanitarian Law, Middle East Crisis, Public International Law, United Nations | 1 Comment »
On 9 December 2008 the European Commission stated that the products from 16 developing countries will benefit from duty-free access to the European Union under the “special incentive arrangement for sustainable development and good governance” (GSP+). The GSP+ is a specific tariff arrangement in the context of the Scheme of Generalised Tariff Preferences. It provides [...]
Filed under: EC-Law, EU-Law, EU/EC Law, Human Rights, Public International Law | Leave a Comment »
On 4 December the Court of First Instance delivered its judgment in the matter People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (“PMOI”) v Council of the European Union (Case T‑284/08), where it declares one of the EU’s key instruments for the “fight against terrorism” partly unlawful. This case concerns Council Decision 2008/583/EC of 15 July 2008 which [...]
Filed under: EC-Law, EU Common Foreign and Security Policy, EU-Law, EU/EC Law, Human Rights, Public International Law | 1 Comment »
While a number of European governments are preparing the EU’s mission against rampant pirate activities around the shore of Somalia, officials increasingly pose the question of what should be done with the pirates once they have been caught. This question has recently caused practical problems for a number of countries. It is reported that the [...]
Filed under: International Courts, International Criminal Law, Law of the sea, Public International Law | 2 Comments »
The EU’s external relations with third countries have always offered excellent object lessons with respect to the omnipresent tension between the promotion of the EU’s essential moral values and the political and economic interests of its Member States. Most recent evidence to this effect can be found in the 2897th External Relations meeting of the [...]
Filed under: EU Common Foreign and Security Policy, EU-Law, EU/EC Law, Human Rights, Public International Law | 1 Comment »
On October 13th, the Highest Electoral Tribunal of Ecuador announced that the new Ecuadorian Constitution has been approved in the referendum held on September 28th. With 63.93 per cent of the votes in favor compared to 28.1 per cent of the votes against the new constitution was clearly endorsed by the people. With the official confirmation [...]
Filed under: Human Rights, Public International Law | 1 Comment »
