5.4.7.5  International Human Rights Protecting the Individual   

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International human rights can reach through national borders to protect individuals:

·      The European Court of Human Rights acts as a court of appeal which, as a condition of EU membership, can override rulings by national courts if necessary (5.3.5.4).  It can also prevent the passing of new legislation that would overturn people€™s human rights.

·      The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights is the UN body which performs a similar service on a global basis.[1]

·      The Human Rights Committee of the UN can be asked to adjudicate.  For example, a group of Cree Indians known as the €˜Lubicon Lake Band€™ referred the Canadian Government to it, under the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, for expropriation of some of their tribal lands; their complaint was upheld.[2]

·      The Rome Statute uses human rights as the criteria by which it can be determined whether a national politician is oppressing a group of people, to enable the International Criminal Court (ICC) to prosecute rights violations (5.3.6.2).

The ICC and the €˜Responsibility to Protect€™ doctrine (5.3.7) are both still evolving, and they require political consensus to become more mature, as discussed at the end of this book (9.5.3).

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