PAIL Institute Publications

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Guide to International Human Rights Practice

Author(s): Hannum, Hurst

Hardcover - 350 pages; Softcover - 350 pages (3rd edition, 1999)
ISBN: 1-57105-56-6

Price: US $95.00 (Hardcover); US $24.95 (Softcover)

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About This Publication

Thoroughly revised and updated, this is the latest edition of what has become the standard work in its field. It is an eminently practical, "nuts-and-bolts" guide to international human rights law and practice.

The authors describe in detail the most recent developments in human rights law, such as the increasing focus on women's and children's rights; new norms related to the protection of minorities; and the new procedures of the European Court of Human Rights. They also describe and evaluate several other institutions and procedures that exist within the United Nations and regional systems, offering practical advice as to how they may be used most effectively.

The fifteen contributors, all specialists in their areas of expertise, offer a panoramic yet meticulously detailed survey of the many techniques now available to protect human rights at global, regional, and national levels. A fully revised and updated set of appendices includes a bibliographic essay that serves as a mini-guide to contemporary human rights literature, in both print and online sources.

The Guide is an essential tool for human rights lawyers, nongovernmental organizations, academics, diplomats, and others interested in making the promotion and protection of human rights a reality. As the post-Cold War era draws to a close and international intervention becomes more common — for better or for worse — the Guide seeks to ensure that human rights will retain the central place in international affairs that was envisioned by those who drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights more than fifty years ago.

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About The Author(s)

Hurst Hannum is Professor of International Law at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy of Tufts University. A graduate of Boalt School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley, he served as Executive Director of The PAIL Institute from 1980 to 1989 and was a Jennings Randolph Peace Fellow of the United States Institute of Peace. He has served as counsel in cases before the European, Inter-American, and UN human rights bodies and has been interviewed frequently by national and international media on human rights and international legal issues.

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Reviews

Jeane Rehberg, International Journal of Legal Information
Why review the third edition of a respected book that is already owned by many libraries? With this latest edition of Guide to International Human Rights Practice, it is well to note again its value to librarians and to researchers exploring this field for the first time. In addition, there were apparently no reviews of the second edition (1992), which was marked by a more logical structure now carried over to the third edition. For example, the distinct UN treaty-based procedures and non-treaty procedures are now presented in two separate chapters, and scattered material on strategies for implementing human rights has been consolidated in one chapter. . . .

The contributors have written with a pleasing combination of expertise and clarity so that the reader with no prior knowledge of international human rights practice will find this a good starting place. The text is footnoted, and the contributors have provided a fair amount of bibliographic clues, such as where, it at all, the researcher might expect to locate documentation from a particular procedure . . .

As a handbook . . . it continues admirably to fill the need recognized in the Foreword to the first edition "for a publication which describes all the major human rights procedures in one understandable, comprehensive, and practice-oriented package.

American Society of International Law
A work of great distinction.

International Journal of Legal Information
This is destined to become the Bible of the human rights activist. Guide to International Human Rights Practice is a first-rate, how-to-do-it examination of procedures for the promotion and protection of human rights. . . . The most important and useful human rights book published in many years.

International Lawyer
An excellent one-volume road map to the available procedures and techniques for enforcing international human rights law. . . . A significant and timely contribution to the 'global struggle for human rights.'

New York University Journal of International Law and Politics
As a practitioner's tool, the Guide is excellent. Besides offering a general overview of major human rights laws and organizations, it outlines strategies and policies for selecting specific cases or issues to pursue. The authors take into account political as well as legal considerations and recognize the need to make the most efficient use of limited resources.

Colin Warbrick, Book Note, 42 Int'l & Comp. L.Q. 987 (1993)
The first edition [of the Guide] has established itself as the leading handbook for human rights activists. This second edition will confirm that reputation. Its objective is to inform about processes and method rather than the substance of human rights law. It is as concerned about institutional violations as individual complaints. There is assistance with making effective use of what procedures are available in the form of a model communication and a very practical bibliography. Though the form of this edition follows much the pattern of the first, eight of the original contributors have been replaced and some of the other matters reorganised. The authority of the book comes from the practical experience and success of the authors. Its appeal arises out of their efficient accounts of human rights procedures and their realistic assessment of what might be done. There are chapters on treaty and non-treaty procedures within the UN, on the ILO and UNESCO, on regional human rights bodies, on reporting procedures, on "soft" law, on refugees and on domestic courts (largely the US ones).

Valerie Epps, Book Review, 6 Harv. Hum. Rts. J. 267 (1993)
The second edition of the Guide to International Human Rights Practice is a most welcome updated and expanded version of the original Guide. The first edition appeared in 1984 as a project of the International Human Rights Law Group, headquartered in Washington, D.C. This Group was a spin-off of the Procedural Aspects of International Law Institute, . . . whose principal aim is to research various procedural aspects of international law. The Guide was designed to fill the "critical need for a publication describing the major human rights procedures in one comprehensive, understandable, and practice-oriented package.

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Availability

Guide to International Human Rights Practice is available from:

Transnational Publishers, Inc.
Ardsley Park Science & Technology Center
410 Saw Mill River Road
Ardsley, New York 10502-2615

(914) 693-5100
(800) 914-8186 (toll free)
(914) 693-4430 (fax)
email: transbooks@aol.com

Guide to International Human Rights Practice is also available from Amazon.com.

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Table of Contents

Foreword (Richard B. Lillich)			xi
Acknowledgments (Hurst Hannum)			xii
PART I.   Preliminary Considerations
1.	An Overview of International Human Rights Law (Richard Bilder)		3
2.	Implementing Human Rights: an Overview of Strategies and Procedures (Hurst Hannum)		19
PART II.   International Procedures for Making Human Rights Complaints                    Within the UN System
3.	Treaty-Based Procedures for Making Human Rights Complaints within the UN System (Siân Lewis-Anthony)		41
4.	United Nations Non-Treaty Procedures for Dealing with Human Rights Violations (Nigel Rodley)		60
5.	The Complaint Procedure of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Steven P. Marks)		86
6.	Human Rights Complaint Procedures of the International Labor Organization (Lee Swepston)		99
PART III.   Regional Systems for the Protection of Human Rights
7.	The Inter-American Human Rights System (Dinah L. Shelton)		119
8.	Europe: The Council of Europe, The CSCE, and the European Community (Kevin Boyle)		133
9.	The African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights (Cees Flinterman and Evelyn Ankumah)		159
PART IV.   Other Techniques and Forums for Protecting Rights
10.	International Reporting Procedures (Sandra Coliver)		173
11.	Quasi-Legal Standards and Guidelines for Protecting Human Rights (Jiri Toman)		192
12.	The International and National Protection of Refugees (Maryellen Fullerton)		211
13.	The Domestic Enforcement of International Human Rights Norms (Richard Lillich)		228
Appendices
A.	Bibliographic Essay (Diana Vincent-Davis)		249
B.	Checklist to Help Select the Most Appropriate Forum		267
C.	Model Communication		271
D.	Addresses of Intergovernmental Organizations		276
E.	Ratifications of Selected Human Rights Instruments		280
F.	Citations for Major International Human Rights Instruments		291
Contributors			295
Index			299