Column<br>Comments on the UN High Commissioner’s Proposals Aimed at Strengthening the UN Human Rights Treaty Body System

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Developing Regional Abortion Jurisprudence: Comparative Lessons for African Charter Organs

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Inhoud: This article is constructed around an appraisal of the decision of the European Court of Human Rights in A, B and C v. Ireland. It seeks to extrapolate comparative lessons for African Charter organs for the development of regional jurisprudence on ...abortion. It is argued that the A, B and C decision offers positive as well as negative lessons. The positive lessons lie in the holding of the European Court that at a procedural level, domestic abortion laws must be transparent in the sense of being formulated clearly and providing an administrative mechanism for review so as to enable women seeking abortion to exercise their rights effectively. The negative lessons lie in the continued reluctance of the European Court to resolutely affirm abortion rights as substantive rights.hide

The Rights for Others: The Contested Homecoming of Human Rights in the Netherlands

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Inhoud: This article describes and explains the historical and current emphasis on human rights as a foreign policy issue in the Netherlands. Whilst human rights have, in the past decades, had a central place in Dutch foreign policy they hardly figure in p...olitical and societal discourse on pressing domestic social problems. In order to explain why this is the case, the article presents a three-fold model of understanding how human rights acquire meaning as a discursive framework. Whilst the legal dispensation is important, attention also has to be paid to legal culture and legal consciousness and the role of actors in rights implementation. Applying this model to the Netherlands, it is noted that there is hardly a country in the world in which human rights have a more privileged legal position. There is, however, a lack of knowledge of human rights combined with a legal culture that privileges consensualism over adversarialism and fears juridification of disputes. Additionally, the many actors involved in policy-making are also considered a factor in explaining the relative lack of reference to human rights in a country that is so active in their formulation and implementation at the international level.hide

Are the Kids All Right? A Child-Centred Approach to Assisted Reproductive Technologies

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Inhoud: This article examines one of the least explored aspects of assisted reproductive technologies (ART) – that is, the rights of ART-born children. Taking an international human rights law perspective, the article considers two arguable clashes of righ...ts that have been raised with regard to ART-born children: the use of ART as child abuse and genetic selection of off spring. It further explores whether and how adding children’s perspective to the discourse may enrich the debates and inform the legal policies to be adopted in this regard. The argument advanced is that the “rights discourse” that has taken center stage in the debate over ART is insufficient to resolve bioethical dilemmas that arise. Including children’s perspectives shows that it is necessary to re-conceptualize the discussion so that it is grounded in and incorporates broader familial interests and relationships, or “ family ethics”. More broadly, the article illuminates the prominent role of the principle of non-discrimination in international human rights law and reinforces the importance of greater social responsibility in promoting sexual health and inclusion.hide