The Convention on Jurisdiction, Applicable Law, Recognition, Enforcement and Co-operation in Respect of Parental Responsibility and Measures for the Protection of Children of 19 October 19961 is the third Hague Convention on the subject of guardianship and protection of children. It is undoubtedly the most extensive and elaborate of the three efforts, as its very title indicates. In order to understand what the 1996 Protection Convention seeks to achieve and what some of its provisions mean, it is useful to look briefly at the previous Conventions in this area.

Although many of the difficulties of working with the anti-discrimination principle are generally well-known infields such as employment law and social security, less is known about how the principle works and what difficulties can be encountered in practice in the field of family law. In recent times there has been an increased tendency to invoke the anti-discrimination principle in family law, not always to good effect. This article, which is based on a study of Dutch, German and European Court and Commission of Human Rights case law, explores the various practical and theoretical aspects.

On 1 November 1998 the long-awaited revision of the supervisory mechanism of the European Convention on Human Rights (hereinafter: Convention or ECHR) will be put into effect. On that date Protocol No. 11 to the ECHR will enter into force.

Legal assistance to the two Ad Hoc Tribunals1 is a prerequisite for their effective achievement. The obligation to provide the Tribunals with legal assistance has been outlined in the Security Council Resolutions establishing the Tribunals, the Statutes of the Tribunals, and their Rules of Procedure and Evidence.