B009869 - INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAW

Italian

In the 1st and 2nd parts(prof.Frulli), the focus will be the protection of human rights within the UN system (HR Council and the 2 1966 Covenants). The Convention against Torture will be closely examined.In the 3rd part (prof.Vierucci), the course will examine the European Court of Human Rights through the case-law concerning the territorial extension of the protection afforded by the ECHR and will then focus on the prohibition of torture as developed by the Court

The first section of the course will briefly introduce the development of human rights in an historical and philosopical perspective. Afterwards the focus of this section will be the protection and promotion of human rights within the United Nations system, starting with the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and ending with the Human Rights Council. Both political and quasi-juridical monitoring systems will be analysed. In the first place, the role of the UN Human Rights Commission (now Human Rights Council), including the Thematic mandates will be discussed. Then the course will focus on the mechanisms established by human rights treaties (the so-called treaty-bodies), in particular those provided for by the two 1966 Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights, as well as by some specific conventions concluded under the UN auspices, in particular the 1984 Convention against Torture.
The third part of the course will offer an overview on the system for the protection of human rights in created in Europe by the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights. Selected judgments of the European Court of Human Rights concerning the extra-territorial application of the Convention and the prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment will be discussed in class taking as a starting point for the debate the presentation made by students. Particular attention will be given to the question of the prohibition of torture