Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights

Publisher:
Sage Publications, Inc.
Publication date:
2021-09-06
ISBN:
0924-0519

Issue Number

Latest documents

  • Cross-border surrogacy and the European Convention on Human Rights: The Strasbourg Court caught between “fait accompli”, “ordre public”, and the best interest of the child

    Surrogacy is a form of family creation that raises many medical, ethical, and legal questions. This article examines how the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) deals with the issue of cross-border surrogacy and its legal consequences in its recent case law. It will demonstrated that the Strasbourg Court has developed a nuanced case law that leaves it in the first place to the national authorities to deal with the complex issue of surrogacy, whereby it is nevertheless clear that further to the Strasbourg case law even if legislators rule out the possibility of surrogacy on their territory, they will have to find solutions to “‘regularise”’ the de facto situation of the child, taking into account its best interests.

  • Facial recognition and the end of human rights as we know them?
  • The right to science or to Wissenschaft? Five lessons from the travaux préparatoires

    This article identifies novel insights from a detailed analysis of the travaux préparatoires of the right to science provisions in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). It makes five main contributions. First, it demonstrates the bidirectional influence between the UDHR and the earlier American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man in the formulation of the right to science, as opposed to unidirectional borrowing. Second, it traces the origins of Article 15 ICESCR to the UNESCO Constitution and argues that Article 15, specifically subclauses 2–4, were intended as implementation measures, though Article 15(3) was elevated into a separate and additional obligation due to its perceived importance for scientific and creative progress. Third, it clarifies an apparent conflict between drafting history and subsequent instruments concerning scientific purpose by distinguishing the development and use of science. Fourth, it suggests facilitating the search for truth as an unarticulated object and purpose of these provisions. Finally, it shows that many drafters acknowledged a broad scope of ‘science’ beyond the natural sciences. Overall, this article elucidates overlooked aspects of the travaux to inform contemporary debates on this important yet obscure right.

  • Berlin techno goes intangible cultural heritage: Modern music, the cultural appropriation debate, and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination

    This paper argues that cultural appropriation can – but does not always – constitute a human rights incompatibility precluding a classification as intangible cultural heritage (ICH) pursuant to Art. 2(1) Sentence 3 of the Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage (CSICH). To set up this argument, the paper first addresses whether and in how far the human rights compatibility test is exercised in the realm of the CSICH. Subsequently, it seeks to analyse whether cultural appropriation violates that test. To this end, the paper first develops an understanding of cultural appropriation informed by insights ranging from philosophy to anthropology. It then raises the question in how far cultural appropriation and protection therefrom is covered by the IHRL canon, most importantly the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. Using Berlin Techno as an example, the aim of this contribution is to reveal the limits of cultural appropriation in the legal field and to initiate a legally sound discussion on the relationship between culture, appropriation, and human rights that has thus far been absent.

  • Recent publications June 2024
  • Facial recognition and the end of human rights as we know them?
  • The right to science or to Wissenschaft? Five lessons from the travaux préparatoires

    This article identifies novel insights from a detailed analysis of the travaux préparatoires of the right to science provisions in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). It makes five main contributions. First, it demonstrates the bidirectional influence between the UDHR and the earlier American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man in the formulation of the right to science, as opposed to unidirectional borrowing. Second, it traces the origins of Article 15 ICESCR to the UNESCO Constitution and argues that Article 15, specifically subclauses 2–4, were intended as implementation measures, though Article 15(3) was elevated into a separate and additional obligation due to its perceived importance for scientific and creative progress. Third, it clarifies an apparent conflict between drafting history and subsequent instruments concerning scientific purpose by distinguishing the development and use of science. Fourth, it suggests facilitating the search for truth as an unarticulated object and purpose of these provisions. Finally, it shows that many drafters acknowledged a broad scope of ‘science’ beyond the natural sciences. Overall, this article elucidates overlooked aspects of the travaux to inform contemporary debates on this important yet obscure right.

  • Recent publications June 2024
  • Cross-border surrogacy and the European Convention on Human Rights: The Strasbourg Court caught between “fait accompli”, “ordre public”, and the best interest of the child

    Surrogacy is a form of family creation that raises many medical, ethical, and legal questions. This article examines how the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) deals with the issue of cross-border surrogacy and its legal consequences in its recent case law. It will demonstrated that the Strasbourg Court has developed a nuanced case law that leaves it in the first place to the national authorities to deal with the complex issue of surrogacy, whereby it is nevertheless clear that further to the Strasbourg case law even if legislators rule out the possibility of surrogacy on their territory, they will have to find solutions to “‘regularise”’ the de facto situation of the child, taking into account its best interests.

  • Berlin techno goes intangible cultural heritage: Modern music, the cultural appropriation debate, and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination

    This paper argues that cultural appropriation can – but does not always – constitute a human rights incompatibility precluding a classification as intangible cultural heritage (ICH) pursuant to Art. 2(1) Sentence 3 of the Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage (CSICH). To set up this argument, the paper first addresses whether and in how far the human rights compatibility test is exercised in the realm of the CSICH. Subsequently, it seeks to analyse whether cultural appropriation violates that test. To this end, the paper first develops an understanding of cultural appropriation informed by insights ranging from philosophy to anthropology. It then raises the question in how far cultural appropriation and protection therefrom is covered by the IHRL canon, most importantly the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. Using Berlin Techno as an example, the aim of this contribution is to reveal the limits of cultural appropriation in the legal field and to initiate a legally sound discussion on the relationship between culture, appropriation, and human rights that has thus far been absent.

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