This chapter introduces the concept of regulatory contestation as a lens for analysing the development of transnational normative orders. It critiques mainstream conceptualisations of regulation in International Relations (IR) and international law as unnecessarily narrow and advances a broader definition of regulatory governance as actions that steer the flow of events towards specified regulatory goals. This definition allows for the analysis of the creative and generative function of regulation and shows that the process of regulatory contestation facilitates the mediation of international norms into varied social and political contexts. Studying regulatory contestation provides insight into the power dynamics that are shaping fundamental institutions of international order at a micro-level. The chapter illustrates this process through a case study of the accountability turn in the implementation of human protection norms. The recent proliferation of juridical and institutional mechanisms to prevent, protect and prosecute mass violations of human rights is indicative of an emergent transnational human protection order. It applies the lens of regulatory contestation to these global efforts. It concludes by considering the value of regulatory contestation as an analytical lens in IR, contributing to an understanding of constitutive processes that build transnational normative orders.

Far from resulting from a rational design, the Human Rights Council is in fact a perpetual work in progress. In terms of policymaking practices, the level of open-endedness and the role of trial and error in the institutionalization of this UN body is particularly striking. The making of the HRC is testimony to the prevalence of bricolage in global public policymaking: even its anchoring practice, the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), is subject to unending revisions. In terms of value debates, this chapter shows how the consensus against the politicization of human rights, which originally led to the demise of the COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS, actually hides deep cleavages over universality, equal treatment, and dialog. A lot of these debates pit the North against the South, although the lines demarcating these two camps are often blurred. Today’s HRC forms an amazing bricolage of governance practices and universal values, one characterized by constant adaptation and constructive ambiguity.

This chapter deals with Germany’s perspective on and activities in the United Nations and other international organisations. Germany announced that it would run again for membership of the Human Rights Council. Although Germany was elected, there are signs that not every State supports the country’s human rights policy. Criticism of Syria by the German ambassador to the UN during a session on the USA’s recognition of Israel’s annexation of the occupied Syrian Golan is found to be rather unusual. In declining to regard a Ukrainian language law as a matter of international peace and security, Germany inconsistently adopts a restrictive view on what falls within the mandate of the Security Council. Additionally, Germany’s attempts to put the human rights situation in the DPRK and climate change on the Security Council agenda are covered. Also discussed are Germany’s insistence on the immunity of a German-Tunisian UN arms expert; and Germany voting against an anti-Israel decision at the World Health Assembly in a move towards a new German policy on resolving the Middle East situation in UN bodies.

The human rights to water and sanitation (HRtWS) have their genesis, history and interpretations. They are also subject to tension, controversy and dispute. A studied approach to these foundations is necessary in order to ensure a basis for their formulation, implementation, evaluation and monitoring. For the approach to the three dimensions that make up the analytical framework used in this book, an understanding of these aspects is not only desirable but necessary. Understanding the factors involved in the realization or violation of HRtWS, the ways in which the policies actually reach them, to a greater or lesser degree, and the population groups at particular risk, pre-supposes clarity regarding the different approaches for the rights and the elements that underlie each of these. In this context, the objective of this part of the book is to provide elements for the reader to get a closer view of these fundamentals, to get a more complete understanding of the topic and, from there, to have a theoretical-conceptual basis to address drivers, policies and people.

This chapter assesses international law-based possibilities to hold corporations accountable for their human rights impacts.The negotiations by the UN Human Rights Council on a binding international treaty on BHR is the most significant development in this regard. This chapter takes a detailed look at the idea and prospect of such a binding legal framework. Before doing so, some other potential accountability mechanisms in the realm of international law are assessed – namely, international investment law and international arbitration. The chapter takes a thorough look at international investment agreements and bilateral investment treaties and how these instruments could be improved to account for human rights. It also explores arbitration as an instrument to deal with BHR disputes. Finally, it briefly touches on the idea of a world court of human rights.

Within the United Nations, the Human Rights Committee and the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions are most heavily engaged in the promotion of the right to life, but many other treaty bodies and special procedures address the right to life in some form. In a number of instances, this is because the relevant treaty specifically provides for the right to life (the case with respect to children, international migrants, and persons with disabilities). In others, it is because the customary right to life is not respected whether as a result of a form of discrimination (whether racial or gender-based) or because it and related rights are implicitly protected by the treaty in question (enforced disappearance).

This chapter summarizes developments in international human rights law, mechanisms, and policies since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted. We first describe the nine core human rights treaties, including the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which together converted the Declaration’s ideals into international law, and the seven conventions with the goals of eliminating racial discrimination, discrimination against women, torture, and enforced disappearances, and protecting the rights of children, migrant workers, and their families, as well as persons with disabilities. We follow with summaries of the Genocide Convention and of the UN declarations proclaiming the rights of indigenous peoples and LGBTI individuals. We next describe the UN mechanisms for advancing human rights, including the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Human Rights Council, and International Criminal Court. These are followed by summaries of UN policies for protecting persons from governmental abuses, ending the world’s worst poverty and suffering, and providing human rights guides for businesses. We then summarize developments in international humanitarian law (the laws of war) and conclude with a brief overview of the five regional human rights systems.

The UN Charter and its human rights mandate, along with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, marked watershed moments in international (legal) history. However, while the international community has made significant progress in the drafting and adopting of human rights norms since, woefully inadequate reforms of and investment in their implementation and in the international human rights architecture have taken place. Respect for fundamental human rights was considered to be a key component in the maintenance of a peaceful and stable international order. Modern experts note the current great danger, including cross-border spillover effects, if the international community turns a blind eye to or inadequately addresses systemic human rights violations in various nations throughout the world. The UN Human Rights Council should be significantly reformed to become a credible institution, capable of fulfilling its mandate with impartiality and independence. A workable and practical design for an International Human Rights Tribunal, and pathways to the implementation of such a tribunal, must be forged. Additionally, as UN powers are significantly enhanced (as proposed in this book through comprehensive Charter review), a new Bill of Rights applicable primarily to UN action and to protect individual rights should also be developed.

There is arbitrary detention in every country in the world today. It knows no boundaries and countless people are subjected to arbitrary detention every year. But what is detention and what makes it arbitrary? The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) declares that “[n]o one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.”1 The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), a multilateral treaty, goes further: “[e]veryone has the right to liberty and security of the person. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest or detention. No one shall be deprived of his liberty except on such grounds and in accordance with such procedure as are establishment by law.”2