The present book aims at assisting judges and lawyers, diplomats and other civil servants, professors and students alike, to become more familiar with the rapid developing field of the international protection of human rights. First, in order to better understand the normative framework, some fundamental questions are raised about the concept of (the different categories of) human rights and about the fundamental principle of equality and non-discrimination, including an analysis of the concept of affirmative action. Second, a short survey is given of the institutional framework (a true labyrinth) both at the universal level (UN Charter-based organs and UN treaty bodies) and at the regional level (Council of Europe, Organisation of American States and African Union).

To show the interrelatedness between the international and the national protection of human rights, attention has also been given to the contribution of national courts to human rights protection. This is in particular the case of the South African Constitutional Court with respect to social rights and the US Supreme Court with respect to the concept of affirmative action and (in the second part of this book) with respect to “self-executing” provisions of international human rights treaties. Brief references are also given to the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxembourg, with respect to affirmative action, and (in the second part of this book) to EU Regulations and Directives in the framework of the Common European Asylum System.

In the second part of the present book some specific issues are dealt with. Some of them are procedural, such as the detailed analysis of the final day of the World Conference on Racism and the question of the internal applicability of international human rights provisions, while others are more substantive such as the issue of the death penalty and irreducible life sentences and the question of the interpretation of the European Convention on Human Rights by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg with respect to both the scope of its jurisdiction and the normative provisions of the Convention to which it attributes positive obligations. Finally, attention is given to some specific legal regimes set up for refugees, minorities and victims of armed conflicts which are somewhat at the periphery of the international protection of human rights.