INTRAlaw (International and Transnational Tendencies in Law) is organising an academic workshop on the theme of "Interaction between human rights: 50 years of the Covenants". See programme and speakers here.

2016.03.01

Date	Thu 29 Sep
Time	09:00 — 18:00
Location	Aarhus University

INTRAlaw (International and Transnational Tendencies in Law) is organising an academic workshop on 29–30 September 2016 on the theme of Interaction between human rights: 50 years of the Covenants.

The colloquium will bring together scholars working on the interaction within the human rights regime on the international, regional and domestic planes. What is of interest is the way that the two covenants have influenced each other in their legal development; and, significantly, the way that different human rights systems have influenced each other in the definition and implementation of these rights.

Particular attention will be given to the activities of the Human Rights Committee and the Committee on Economic Social and Cultural Rights, and their role in interpreting and driving implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).

Guest speakers

Guest speakers include Prof. Sir Nigel Rodley, Prof. Xavier Groussot, Prof. Janelle Diller, Dr. Jonas Christoffersen, Prof. Sarah Cleveland, Prof. Mikael Rask Madsen, Prof. Geir Ulfstein, Prof. Kjetil Mujezinović Larsen and Prof. Gregor Noll.

Programme on day 1

09.00–09.30: Coffee & Registration

09.30–11.00: Opening plenary: the Covenants at 50   

• Chair: Tara Van Ho
• Welcome – Tine Sommer, Head of Department of Law, Aarhus University
• Introduction – Jens Vedsted-Hansen                                   

Speakers:

• Sir Nigel Rodley, Human Rights Committee member & Human Rights Centre, Essex University
• Janelle Diller, University of Windsor, on leave from the International Labour Organization

11.00–11.15: Coffee

11.15–12.30: Panel sessions (two in parallel)

1. Relationship between PIL and IHRL

Chair: Gregor Noll 

• Phattharaphong Saengkrai, The Impact of Human Rights Treaties on the Law of International Responsibility: The Consolidation of the Concept ‘Obligations Erga Omnes Partes’
• Vito Todeschini, The Relationship between Human Rights Law and International Humanitarian Law: A Theoretical Framework
• Gudrun Zagel, The Applicability of the UN Covenants to International Organizations: A Proposal to Overcome the Legal Gap

2. Implementation and enforcement of the ICCPR and ICESCR at the domestic and regional levels

Chair: Xavier Groussot 

• Antonia Baraggia & Maria Elena Gennusa, The Social Rights Protection challenge: Issues of Policies v. Issues of Rights. The case of Europe in time of crisis
• Abdi Jibril Ali, Re-writing the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights based on the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
• Jorge Contesse, The International Covenants’ influence on inter­American human rights law

12.30–13.30: Lunch 

13.30–14.45: Panel sessions (two in parallel)

3. Interaction between UN processes and regional and domestic human rights systems 1

Chair: Sarah Cleveland

• Machiko Kantake, The Interactions between UN Human Rights Treaty-Monitoring Bodies and Domestic Courts
• Matthew Saul, UN Treaty Bodies and National Parliaments
• Sara Bertotti, The Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review and the ICCPR and ICESCR: how do they relate?

4. Interaction between UN processes and regional and domestic human rights systems 2

Chair: Geir Ulfstein

• Elena Abrusci, A tale of convergence? Sexual orientation issues in the case-law of regional human rights bodies and UN HRC
• Zubair Kasem Khan, Conflicts over enforcement of e-surveillance and protection of privacy rights in transnational levels: a critical analysis on EU and international treaties
• Nikolas Kyriakou, Enforced disappearance in the work of three human rights bodies

14.45–15.15: Afternoon Tea & Coffee

15.15–16.30: Panel sessions (three in parallel)

5. Interaction between and within regional human rights systems

Chair: Louise Halleskov Storgaard

• Helena De Vylder, The right to individual petition in the European and Inter-American human rights system: guaranteeing access to justice on the international level?
• Vincenzo Lorubbio, ‘The Best Interests of the Child’: a comparative jurisprudential analysis to a conceptual deepening
• Begüm Bulak Uygun, CJEU and ECtHR: Two Sides of the Same Coin or Different Currencies?

6. Indivisibility and interrelatedness of rights, in particular within and between the Covenants

Chair: Jens Vedsted-Hansen 

• Sophie Pollak, Water for Life: Does the Right to Life Include Access to Water? A Discussion of the Relationship Between the Right to Water and the Right to Life
• Shreya Atrey, Fifty years on: The Curious Case of Intersectional Discrimination in ICCPR
• Jakob Lohmann, The ICCPR as hindrance for the self-execution of ICESCR

7. Business and Finance – Part 1

Chair: Tara Van Ho

• Ludovica Chiussi, Looking for Corporate Accountability in the ICCPR and ICESCR: Do we Need a Treaty on Business and Human Rights?
• Chiara Macchi, Protecting the Right to Water from the harmful impacts of business activities: a forward-looking assessment of the contribution of the Covenants through the work of their treaty bodies
• Tara Van Ho, The Covenants’ Treaty Bodies and the Proposed Business and Human Rights Treaty

16.30–16.45: Break

16.45–18.00: Plenary: the Covenants and Crisis

Chair: Fenella Billing

Speakers:

• Gregor Noll, Faculty of Law, Lund University
• Kjetil Larsen, Norwegian Centre for Human Rights, University of Oslo

Modalities – Organising Committee representative 

View the programme for day 2

Organising committee

Fenella Billing, Nikolas Feith Tan, Louise Halleskov Storgaard, Lauren Neumann, Vito Todeschini, Tara Van Ho, Jens Vedsted-Hansen.

About INTRAlaw

INTRAlaw is a research centre established within the Department of Law at Aarhus University in Denmark. INTRAlaw research takes as its point of departure the fact that sovereign states are no longer solely in charge of defining, implementing and enforcing legal norms. To an increasing extent, legal norms are created as a result of activities in international and supranational organisations, transnational corporations and through collaborations between public-law and private-law agencies on a national, regional and international level.

Visit the INTRAlaw website