A Human Rights Handbook for Judges and Lawyers

The Human Rights Handbook for Judges and Lawyers explores the challenges judges and lawyers face in working for just, peaceful and inclusive societies worldwide. It offers foundational insights from the international human rights community as practical tools to meet them. Reiterating that under the UN Charter, every Government has legal obligations to uphold fundamental human rights, the Handbook recalls that the international community has elevated some international human rights norms to peremptory norms of international law, among which the absolute prohibition of slavery and of torture. The selection of human rights norms that have now attained the status of customary international law is one of the Handbook’s pioneering features. Clear, expert analysis of concepts and principles is supplied; solemn declarations on the rule of law adopted by the UN, such as on the independence of the judiciary and on principles of remedies and reparations, are also listed. Authoritative, concise and easily accessible, the Handbook reflects its author’s decades of expertise serving and writing on the causes of peace and human rights. It is an essential tool for judges and lawyers, as well as for all human rights defenders.Published under the auspices of the University for Peace