I Book Review: Integrating Human Rights into Development Co-Operation: The Case of the Lomé Convention
| Published date | 01 March 2004 |
| DOI | 10.1177/016934410402200112 |
| Date | 01 March 2004 |
| Subject Matter | Part C: DocumentationI Book Review |
be combined with the political-legal elements of a minority rights codex as
outlined by Henrard.
Next to the conclusion that minority studies also at the beginning of the
21st century thrive in Europe and in the Netherlands, what has been the
impact on governments and policy makers so far? Taking once more the
Netherlands as an example, signs are not yet promising. In 2003 and during
the first half of 2004 the Netherlands have been OSCE Chaiman-in-Office
and are Chairman of the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers, the
two organisations uniquely suited to further the cause of minority
protection. However, despite a strong Dutch commitment to the HCNM’s
work, ‘being a key to comprehensive long-term security’ in the words of
special envoy Daan Everts, letters to Parliament in 2003 reporting on the
chairmanship contained a technical reference to co-operation with the
HCNM only. As to the Chairmanship of the Council of Europe’s Committee
of Ministers the Dutch Government speaks mainly of priorities directed at
streamlining the implementation process of human rights and uplifting the
efficiency of the European Court of Human Rights. The plight of minorities
is hardly mentioned except for a call for their ‘better integration’. This
apparent negligence (not the same as discrete silence a
`la Van der Stoel)
hardly matches the Dutch decisiveness of the 1990s but the decade is still
young and the abundance of in-house knowledge allows for further
progress.
Karin Arts,
Integrating Human Rights into Development Co-opera-
tion: The Case of the Lome
´Convention,
Kluwer Law International,
The Hague, 2000, viii + 452 p., ISBN 90-4111-356-8*
The book was originally defended as a Ph.D. at the Free University of
Amsterdam. The author currently teaches at the Institute of Social Studies in
The Hague.
The year of publication is 2000. On 23 June of that year, the Cotonou
Agreement, the new 10-year partnership agreement between the ACP States,
the European Community and its Member States was signed in Benin. The
book thoroughly investigates the predecessors of the Cotonou Agreement,
but does not deal with the current convention. The wisdom of the timing of
the publication should be seriously questioned. Would this not have been a
much more useful book if its analysis could have started from the text of the
Agreement that was in the making at the time of writing, and, as the
publisher must have realised, would be with us for a decade? As soon as the
book was out, it was outdated. Of course, the text remains valid as a piece of
legal history, and as a background to the development of current provisions,
I Book Reviews
Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights, Vol. 22/1 (2004) 153
* Koen de Feyter is Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Development Policy and Management,
University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium and at the Centre for Human Rights, University of
Maastricht, Maastricht, the Netherlands.
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