I Book Review: How to Complain to the UN Human Rights Treaty System
| Date | 01 March 2006 |
| Published date | 01 March 2006 |
| DOI | 10.1177/016934410602400113 |
| Subject Matter | Part D: DocumentationI Book Review |
Dowell-Jones’ book has – perhaps unintentionally – reinserted politics into the
economic and social rights. She tries to combine a serious regard for economic and
social rights with a neoliberal orthodoxy on optimal economic policies. The book
raises important questions about whether such a combination is ultimately possible.
It deserves to be read and critiqued on political-economic grounds, not just with a
restatement of legal doctrine. Armed with such critiques, the Committee and the
economic and social rights community generally would be better prepared to join
the wider social justice movement in contesting the economic creed that remains
dominant both in domestic and international financial institutions.
Anne F. Bayefsky,
How to Complain to the UN Human Rights Treaty System
,
Brill Academic Publishers, Leiden/Boston, 2002, 358 p., ISBN: 90-411-1911-6
(hardbound) and Ardsley, N.Y., Transnational Publishers, 2002, 397 p., ISBN:
1-57105-283-6 (softbound)*
This book from the hand of Canadian professor, barrister and solicitor Anne
Bayefsky, focuses on the Human Rights Treaty-based System within the United
Nations, and more specifically on the complaint procedures under the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the Convention Against Torture,
and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT), the
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination (CERD) and the
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women
(CEDAW). The remaining major UN human rights treaties, i.e. the International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), the Convention on
the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the Convention on the Protection of the Rights of
All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (CMW), are only briefly
mentioned, as they do not contain complaint mechanisms or contain complaint
mechanisms which are not in force yet. The book is the printed version of the well-
known manual available on the website of the author (www.bayefsky.com), where
also other very useful and updated information on the UN Human Rights Treaty
System is made available (for example, an update on the working methods of the
treaty bodies, documents on the reform of the UN Human Rights Treaty System,
etc.).
Bayefsky’s book is intended to make the international complaints procedures
available to lawyers, non-governmental organisations, human rights advocates and
even individuals. Individual human rights victims may indeed be tempted to take a
look at the Bayefsky’s book in order to see whether they can petition the UN Human
Rights Treaty-based System, as the book is extremely user-friendly and has been
written in such language which makes it quite accessible for non-legally schooled
persons. For example, before even introducing the main UN human rights
conventions, the book starts with a list of words and terms commonly used in
international public law and international human rights law. Each term or word is
carefully defined and explained in easily understandable language. This glossary is
an invaluable help for the inexperienced (and even the less inexperienced) reader
when going through the following chapters of the book.
I Book Reviews
Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights, Vol. 24/1 (2006) 167
* Yves Haeck, Senior Researcher, Department of Constitutional Law and Human Rights Centre,
Ghent University, Belgium.
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