Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights

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

ISBN:: 0924-0519

Issue Number

Latest documents

Intergenerational rights are children's rights: Upholding the right to a healthy environment through the UNCRC
This article reflects on intersections between intergenerational equity, children's rights and the rights of future generations. Recent climate cases involving children and youth are considered, and the fact that few rely on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is analysed. It is emphasised that intergenerational rights are children's rights – children are a crucial link between current and future generations. In particular the principle of the best interests of the child, which is widespread in national legal systems, should be relied upon more frequently in climate cases. Arguments can be made that failing to accord sufficient attention to children's rights and interests in climate policies violates the best interests principle. Relying on the CRC may increase the chance of successful outcomes in environmental and climate cases; progressing the right to a healthy environment for all. It will also ensure that adequate attention for children's rights is embedded in such cases.
Treaty flexibility unilaterally boosted: Reservations to European Social Charters
Thus far, research into reservations to treaties has often overlooked reservations formulated to both European Social Charters (and its Protocols) and the relevant European Committee of Social Rights practices. There are several pressing reasons to further explore this gap in existing literature. First, an analysis of practices within the European Social Charters (and Protocols) will provide a fuller picture of the reservations and responses of treaty bodies. Second, in the context of previous landmark events it is worth noting the practices of another human rights treaty monitoring body that is often omitted from analyses. Third, the very fact that the formulation of reservations to treaties gives parties such far-reaching flexibility to shape their contractual obligations (à la carte) is surprising. An important outcome of the research is the finding that, despite the far-reaching flexibility present in the treaties analysed, both the States Parties and the European Committee of Social Rights generally treat them as conventional treaties to which the general rules on reservations apply. Consequently, there is no basis for assuming that the mere fact of adopting the à la carte system in a treaty with no reservation clause implies a formal prohibition of reservations or otherwise discourages their formulation.
Towards 2122 and beyond: Developing the human rights of future generations
Human rights and the cost-of-living crisis
This column explores the intersection between human rights and the ongoing cost-of-living crisis. It opens with an overview of the crisis before turning to the current global state of affairs’ impact on human rights enjoyment. Having addressed key issues that arise in terms of State obligations and how international human rights law as it stands might be deployed to address them, it focuses on how the crisis constitutes an opportunity to advance new horizons in human rights, particularly those related to energy and the implications of responses to crises for the right to a safe, clean, healthy, and sustainable environment. The piece makes clear that if they are to remain effective and relevant, human rights, and those responsible for applying and enforcing them, need to engage with the cost-of-living crisis head-on.
Recent publications in international human rights law
Age-based triage and human rights
The article provides the first comprehensive assessment of age-based triage from the perspective of human rights. Triage, that is the sorting of patients into categories of priority of treatment, has been known for decades. It has however got larger prominence during the Covid-19 crisis. The crisis has exposed healthcare systems in many countries to a critical shortage of resources, forcing them to consider resorting to triage. The absence of legal rules has been compensated by non-binding triage guidelines, adopted by professional medical and ethical associations. This article analyses 11 guidelines, showing that none of them is truly age neutral. Some use allocation criteria that entail disparate treatment of older persons, consisting of their de-prioritization or exclusion from access to life-saving treatment on account of their age. Others rely on allocation criteria whose application has disparate effects on older persons. The article argues that whereas the latter approach could be compatible with human rights standards, the former entails violations of the principle of non-discrimination and of several other human rights (the right to life, the prohibition of inhuman and degrading treatment, the right to private life, and the right to health).
Treaty flexibility unilaterally boosted: Reservations to European Social Charters
Thus far, research into reservations to treaties has often overlooked reservations formulated to both European Social Charters (and its Protocols) and the relevant European Committee of Social Rights practices. There are several pressing reasons to further explore this gap in existing literature. First, an analysis of practices within the European Social Charters (and Protocols) will provide a fuller picture of the reservations and responses of treaty bodies. Second, in the context of previous landmark events it is worth noting the practices of another human rights treaty monitoring body that is often omitted from analyses. Third, the very fact that the formulation of reservations to treaties gives parties such far-reaching flexibility to shape their contractual obligations (à la carte) is surprising. An important outcome of the research is the finding that, despite the far-reaching flexibility present in the treaties analysed, both the States Parties and the European Committee of Social Rights generally treat them as conventional treaties to which the general rules on reservations apply. Consequently, there is no basis for assuming that the mere fact of adopting the à la carte system in a treaty with no reservation clause implies a formal prohibition of reservations or otherwise discourages their formulation.
Towards 2122 and beyond: Developing the human rights of future generations
Human rights and the cost-of-living crisis
This column explores the intersection between human rights and the ongoing cost-of-living crisis. It opens with an overview of the crisis before turning to the current global state of affairs’ impact on human rights enjoyment. Having addressed key issues that arise in terms of State obligations and how international human rights law as it stands might be deployed to address them, it focuses on how the crisis constitutes an opportunity to advance new horizons in human rights, particularly those related to energy and the implications of responses to crises for the right to a safe, clean, healthy, and sustainable environment. The piece makes clear that if they are to remain effective and relevant, human rights, and those responsible for applying and enforcing them, need to engage with the cost-of-living crisis head-on.
Recent publications in international human rights law