• E4J University Module Series: Counter-Terrorism

• Module 8: Right to Life

• Introduction and learning outcomes

• Key issues

• • International human rights instruments
  • Regional human rights instruments
  • International humanitarian law
  • Extra-territorial application of the right to life
  • Arbitrary deprivation of life
  • The death penalty
  • Enforced disappearances
  • Armed conflict context

• Exercises and case studies

• Possible class structure

• Core reading

• Advanced reading

• Student assessment

• Additional teaching tools

• References

 

Published in July 2018.

 

 

  This module is a resource for lecturers  

 

Advanced reading

 

This section recommends advanced readings for students interested in exploring the topic(s) of this Module in more detail, and for lecturers teaching the Module.

International/regional human rights treaties

• Buckley, Carla M., Alice Donald, and Philip Leach (2016). Towards Convergence in International Human Rights Law: Approaches of Regional and International Systems. Leiden: Brill Niljhoff.
• Martin, Francisco F., Stephen J. Schnably, Richard J. Wilson, Jonathan S. Simon, and Mark V. Tushnet (2011). International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law: Treaties, Cases and Analysis . New York: Cambridge University Press.
• Wicks, Elizabeth (2012). " The Meaning of Life: Dignity and the Right to Life in International Human Rights Treaties." Human Rights Law Review, vol. 12, issue 2, pp. 199-219.
• Asia Pacific Forum (2012). Promoting and Protecting the Rights of Migrant Workers: The Role of National Human Rights Institutions . Sydney: Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions.  
• Ebert, Franz C., and Romina I. Sijniensky (2015). " Preventing Violations of the Right to Life in the European and the Inter-American Human Rights Systems: From the Osman Test to a Coherent Doctrine on Risk Prevention?" Human Rights Law Review, vol. 15, issue 2, pp. 343-368.
• Sang, Brian (2015). " The Right to Life in International Law: Emanation of a Unitary Concept in Comparative Adjudicatory Practice." Africa Nazarene University Law Journal, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 1-40.
• Sang, Brian (2012). " Improving the Protection of Human Rights in Africa: Reflections from the Yogogombaye Case." African Journal of International and Comparative Law, vol. 20, pp. 341-364.
• Sang, Brian (2017). " International Humanitarian Law in the Work of Regional Human Rights Courts: African and Comparative Trends." Journal of Comparative Law in Africa, vol. 4, no. 3 (forthcoming).
• Buis, Emiliano J. (2008). "The Implementation of International Humanitarian Law by Human Rights Courts: The Example of the Inter-American Human Rights System." In Roberta Arnold, and Noelle Quenivet, eds. International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights Law: Towards A New Merger in International Law. Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff. Ch. IX, pp. 269-293.
• Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (2002). Report on Terrorism and Human Rights . 22 October. OEA/Ser.L/V/II.116, Doc. 5 rev. 1 corr.

 

Armed conflict/international humanitarian law/extra-territorial application

• Alston, Philip, Jagon Morgan-Foster, and William Abresch (2008). " The Competence of the UN Human Rights Council and its Special Procedures in relation to Armed Conflicts: Extrajudicial Executions in the 'War on Terror'." European Journal of International Law, vol. 19, no.1, pp.183-209.
• Centre for Governance and Human Rights (2014). " Unlawful Killings in Africa: A Study Prepared for the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions." Centre for Governance and Human Rights, University of Cambridge.
• Berlin, Eric (2013). " The Israeli Supreme Court's Targeted Killings Judgment: A Reaffirmation of the Rule of Law during War." Michigan State International Law Review, vol. 21, issue 2, pp. 517-546.
• Sang, Brian (2011). "Clearing the Fog of War over Combating Terrorists on the Frontiers of International Law: Targeted Killing and International Humanitarian Law." African Yearbook on International Humanitarian Law, pp. 1-46.
• Chevalier-Watts, Juliet (2010). " Has Human Rights Law become Lex Specialis for the European Court of Human Rights in Right to Life Cases Arising from Internal Armed Conflicts?" The International Journal of Human Rights, vol. 14, issue 4, pp. 584-602.
• Oberleitner, Gerd (2015). Human Rights in Armed Conflict. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Dehn, John C. (2012). " Targeted Killing, Human Rights and Ungoverned Spaces: Considering Territorial State Human Rights Obligations." Harvard International Law Journal Online, vol. 54, pp. 84-91.
• Van Schaack, Beth (2014). " The United States Position on the Extraterritorial Application of Human Rights Obligations: Now is the Time for Change." International Law Studies, vol. 90, pp. 20-65.
• Lubell, Noam (2010) . Extraterritorial Use of Force Against Non-State Actors . Oxford University Press.
• Milanovic, Marko (2016). "Extraterritorial Derogations from Human Rights Treaties in Armed Conflict." In Nehal Bhuta ed. The Frontiers of Human Rights: Extraterritoriality and its Challenges. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

 

Arbitrary deprivation of life/death penalty/enforced disappearance

• United Nations, General Assembly (2017). Unlawful Death of Refugees and Migrants . 15 August. A/72/335.
• Acheson, Ray, Richard Moyes, and Thomas Nash (2014). Sex and Drone Strikes: Gender and Identity in Targeting and Casualty Analysis . New York: Reaching Critical Will, London: Article 36.
• Amnesty USA (2011). Death Penalty Facts . Washington, DC. 
• United Nations, General Assembly (2014). Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions . 6 August. A/69/265.
• United Nations, Economic and Social Council, Commission on Human Rights (2006). Civil and Political Rights, Including the Questions of Disappearances and Summary Executions: Extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Report of the Special Rapporteur, Philip Alston. Transparency and the Imposition of the Death Penalty . 24 March. E/CN.4/2006/53/Add.3.
• Bessler, John (2017). The Death Penalty as Torture: From the Dark Ages to Abolition. Durham: Carolina Academic Press.
• Kalin, Walter (2010). " 'Death is different' - The Death Penalty and the Right to a Fair Trial." In Christian Tomuschat, Evelyne Lagrange, and Stefan Oeter, eds. The Right to Life.Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. Pp. 21-40.
• McCloskey, Justice B. (2012). " The death penalty and the right to life." Commonwealth Law Bulletin, vol. 38, issue 3, pp. 485-508.
• Purwantoro, Kailani F. (2016) " Regulation Capital Punishment Criminal Acts of Terrorism Based on Law Number 15 of 2003 and Islamic Law." Journal of Law, Policy and Globalization, vol. 52, pp. 51-56.
• Gaitan, Aniceth (2009). " Tanzania's death penalty debate: An epilogue on Republic v Mbushuu." African Human Rights Law Journal, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 459-481.
• United Nations, General Assembly, Human Rights Council (2014). Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances . 1 October. A/HRC/RES/27/1.
• United Nations, General Assembly, Human Rights Council (2017). Report of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances on Enforced Disappearances in the Context of Migration . 28 July. A/HRC/36/39/Add.2.
• United Nations, General Assembly (2006). Protecting Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms while Countering Terrorism . 11 September. A/61/353.
• Mhango, Mtendeweka O. (2010). Taking Human Rights Higher in the Fight Against Terrorism in South Africa. Michigan State Journal of International Law, vol. 19(1), pp. 105-118.
• Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) (2007). Countering Terrorism, Protecting Human Rights: A Manual . Warsaw: OSCE ODIHR.

 

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