In 25 years national human rights institutions (NHRIs) have evolved from a sparse and diverse phenomenon to a very familiar part of the landscape of human rights protection. This body of work, written over the same period, evaluates the NHRI experience from three different perspectives. First, it maps the development of NHRIs, with a regional focus on Africa and Central and Eastern Europe, tracing the origins of such institutions not only in accessible mechanisms for complaint resolution but also as a way of meeting states' international law obligations for accountability. It discusses the variety of institutional forms and typologies of NHRls. Second, the work anatomizes the role of NHRls as agents of international law - the means by which human rights standards are domesticated. It discusses the increased orientation in recent years of NHRIs towards the international system, as well as an increasing engagement by UN treaty bodies and the Human Rights Council with NHRls. Thirdly, the work discusses criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of NHRIs. It considers how these are distinct from the legal norms that underpin the foundation of national institutions, taking in issues such as accessibility, links with civil society and public legitimacy. It looks in particular at how NHRIs can be an effective resource for meeting obligations in areas such as the human rights of non-nationals and displaced persons. Finally, the work sets out a further agenda for research on the impact of NHRls, proposing an effectiveness framework to evaluate NHRl work and a method for determining the importance of NHRls in torture prevention.

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There is a ‘right to life’ Article in a number of international and regional human rights treaties which is not currently being employed to give the full potential effect to the right. There are issues arising ‘beyond the horizons’, particularly with regard to the identity of the rights-bearer, the ‘human’ in the international law of human rights, that fail to be addressed by a restrictive interpretation. For instance, a failure to recognise the human represented by human genetic material and to record it the respect called for by an expanded notion of human dignity has implications for the future, when ‘new humans’ – clones, hybrids, chimera – might enter the realm of created beings, with, it is argued here, a valid claim to respect for their human rights entitlements, including that their right to life shall be protected by law. In order to establish the potential scope of the right to life treaty provision, the texts are introduced and a case is made for the validity of a dynamic and evolving interpretation of the right, the ‘living instrument’ approach, within the international legal framework established by the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. The human identity is then examined across a number of disciplines, as well as in law, in order to challenge an interpretation that places any requirements on the rights-bearer of ‘personhood’. The proposed solution is to argue for broader definitions, both of the human and of the life protected, than is currently the case, and for a greater realisation of what is at stake in human rights jurisprudence regarding the right, involving issues of the moral nature of the protecting law. A failure to realise and act upon the issues raised will allow intolerable injustice to be perpetrated.

Les bouleversements en Europe à la fin des années 1980 n’ont pas épargné l’Afrique subsaharienne. Si au niveau mondial ces bouleversements ont conduit à la dislocation du bloc de l’Est et à la remise en cause des équilibres géostratégiques, en Afrique noire, ils ont permis la chute des régimes autoritaires et dictatoriaux. L’Afrique noire francophone qui fait l’objet de cette étude n’est pas restée en marge de cette évolution. C’est au niveau constitutionnel, plus précisément, dans le domaine de la protection des droits de l’homme que l’on constate le changement le plus significatif. Celui-ci est marqué par l’adoption de nouvelles constitutions à tendance libérale, la création des juridictions constitutionnelles autonomes et spécialisées, la reconnaissance des communautés ethnoculturelles qui constituent le substrat humain de l’État. Cette thèse qui porte sur « la protection constitutionnelle des droits de l’homme dans les États d’Afrique noire francophone » depuis 1990 veut justement montrer que la garantie des droits et libertés dans cette zone géographique vise le respect de la dignité humaine, que cette garantie relève en partie du droit positif à travers notamment la Constitution, la loi et les instruments juridiques auxquels les États africains souscrivent, ce qui semble conférer au système africain de protection des droits de l’homme une dimension universelle. Mais il s’agit aussi de convaincre dans cette étude que la norme juridique n’est pas le seul élément qui participe à la protection des droits de l’homme dans les États d’Afrique noire francophone : les us, les coutumes, la pratique, les usages et les traditions en vigueur dans la société participent aussi, à certains égards, à la protection des droits de l’homme. Pour cette raison, l’universalité des droits de l’homme qui apparaît dans le nouveau constitutionnalisme africain doit être relativisée à cause de la prégnance du droit traditionnel, et, surtout, de l’influence des facteurs anthropologiques (culture, religion, tradition…) dans la société. Le constituant africain semble de plus en plus tenir compte de cette influence. Depuis 1990, il intègre les règles traditionnelles dans la Constitution, ce qui confère au droit constitutionnel africain toute son originalité et un caractère dualiste. Ce dualisme se traduit particulièrement par la conciliation entre le droit moderne et le droit traditionnel. / Upheavals in Europe at the end of 1980s did not save (spare) sub-Saharan Africa. If at the world level these upheavals led (drove) to the dislocation of the east block and to the questioning of the geostrategic balances, in Black Africa, they allowed the fall of the authoritarian and dictatorial diets (regimes). French-speaking Black Africa which is the object of this study did not stay outside this evolution. It is at the constitutional level, more exactly, in the field of the protection of the human rights that we notice the most significant change. This one is marked by the adoption of new constitutions with liberal trend (tendency), the creation of the autonomous and specialized constitutional jurisdictions, the gratitude (recognition) of the ethnocultural communities which establish (constitute) the human substratum of the State.This thesis which carries (wears) “the constitutional protection of human rights in the States of French-speaking Black Africa” since 1990 exactly wants to show that the guarantee of the rights and the liberties in this geographical zone aims at the respect for the human dignity, that this guarantee is partially (is partially a matter) of the substantive law through in particular the Constitution, the law and the legal instruments to which the African States subscribe, what seems to confer on the African system of protection of human rights a universal dimensions.But it is also a question of convincing in this study that the legal rule is not the only element which participates in the protection of human rights in the States of French-speaking Black Africa : customs (US), customs, practice, uses (practices) and current traditions in the society participate so, in some respects, in the protection of human rights. For that reason, the universality of the human rights which appears in the new African constitutionalism must be put in perspective because of the prégnance of the traditional right (law), and, especially, the influence of the anthropological factors (culture, religion, tradition…) in the society.The African constituent seems more and more to take into account this influence. Since 1990, he integrates (joins) the traditional rules into the Constitution, what confers on the African constitutional law all its originality and a dualistic character. This dualism is particularly translated by the conciliation between the modern right (law) and the traditional right (law).

This thesis is a critique of the European Court of Human Rights’ case law on the right to a fair trial in criminal cases. It is the result of a focussed and extensive survey of Article 6 case law, and, unlike other work on Article6, does not analyse each component right of Article 6 one-by-one. Instead, the thesis considers ‘cross-cutting’ themes common to all, or many, of the Article 6 component rights: how the Court interprets Article 6, how the Court sees its role in Article 6 cases, how the Court approaches Article 6’s internal structure, the Court’s implied rights jurisprudence, and how the Court assesses alleged Article 6 violations. In considering how the Court assesses alleged violations of Article 6, the thesis charts the Court’s attempts to solve ‘the puzzle of Article 6’: how should violations of Article 6 be assessed in the absence of an express metaprinciple? In this regard the thesis examines notions such as the proceedings as a whole test, counterbalancing and defect-curing, the ‘never fair’ jurisprudence, and the extent to which the public interest may justify restrictions on Article 6. The thesis uses a rule of law framework to test the Article 6 case law for its ability to provide guidance to citizens, lawyers and officials. It argues that the case law is marked by considerable uncertainty, inconsistency, and incoherence, with the result that the ability of that case law to provide guidance is significantly undermined. Indeed, the thesis establishes that there is inconsistency and uncertainty within the various tools and approaches used by the Court, and that there is significant incoherence between those approaches. To the extent the thesis makes a normative argument, it constitutes a robust and targeted call for the Court to adopt in this area of law a renewed, rejuvenated approach that is more consistent, more coherent, and better explained.