Recent publications in international human rights law
| Published date | 01 June 2020 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0924051920924591 |
| Date | 01 June 2020 |
| Subject Matter | Recent publications |
Recent publications
Recent publications in
international human
rights law
Bantekas I and Lumina C, Sovereign debt and human rights (Oxford University Press 2019). ISBN
9780191847783
Sovereign debt is necessary for the functioning of many modern states, yet its impact on human
rights is underexplored in academic literature. This volume provides the reader with a step-by-step
analysis of the debt phenomenon and how it affects human rights. Beginning by setting out the
historical, political and economic context of sovereign debt, the book goes on to address the human
rights dimension of the policies and activities of the three types of sovereign lenders: international
financial institutions (IFIs), sovereigns and private lenders. Bantekas and Lumina, along with a
team of global experts, establish the link between debt and the manner in which the accumulation
of sovereign debt violates human rights, examining some of the conditions imposed by structural
adjustment programs on debtor states with a view to servicing their debt. They outline how such
conditions have been shown to exacerbate the debt itself at the expense of economic sovereignty,
concluding that such measures worsen the borrower’s economic situation, and are injurious to the
entrenched rights of peoples.
***
Ben-Nun G, The fourth Geneva Convention for civilians: The history of international humanitar-
ian law (I.B. Tauris 2020). ISBN 9781838604301
The Fourth Geneva Convention, signed on 12th August 1949, defines necessary humanitarian
protections for civilians during armed conflict and occupation. One-hundred-and-ninety-six coun-
tries are signatories to the Geneva Conventions, and this particular facet has laid the foundations
for all subsequent humanitarian global law. How did the world – against seemingly insurmountable
odds – draft and legislate this landmark in humanitarian international law? The Fourth Geneva
Convention for Civilians draws on archival research across seven countries to bring together the
Cold War interventions, founding motives and global idealisms that shaped its conception. Gilad
Ben-Nun draws on the three key principles that the convention brought about to consider the recent
events where its application has either been successfully applied or circumvented, from the 2009
Gaza War, the war crimes tribunal in the former Yugoslavia and Nicaragua vs. the United States to
the contemporary conflict in Syria. Weaving historical archival research, a grounding in the
Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights
2020, Vol. 38(2) 156–160
ªThe Author(s) 2020
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DOI: 10.1177/0924051920924591
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