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This page displays publications on human rights topics by academics based in the University of Oxford Faculty of Law.

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N C Bamforth, M. Malik and C. O'Cinneide, Discrimination Law: Theory and Context (Sweet & Maxwell 2008) [...]

A comprehensive co-authored text concerning all aspects of discrimination law, employing comparative analysis and legal philosophy where appropriate.


ISBN: 978-0-421-55440-5

S J Bright, N Hopkins and N Macklam, 'Owning Part but Losing All: Using Human Rights to Protect Home Ownership' in N Hopkins (ed), Modern Studies in Property Law (Hart 2013) (forthcoming) [...]

“Shared ownership” is used to provide an affordable route into home ownership. Yet there is a significant problem with the shared ownership scheme; as Richardson v Midland Heart [2008] L & TR 31 shows, in the event of the home “owner” falling into rent arrears, he or she may lose not simply his or her home, but also the equity in the property. This chapter examines whether there is some way of using existing legal principles to avoid this unjust outcome by either; first, protecting the use value of the home by relying on Convention rights under the Human Rights Act 1998 to prevent termination of the “shared ownership” lease; or, secondly, recouping the investment value of the home by using human rights law to enable the home “owner” to retain the equity even if the home is lost.


ISBN: 1849463212

TAO Endicott, 'Habeas Corpus and Guantanamo Bay: A View from Abroad' (2010) 50 American Journal of Jurisprudence 1

TAO Endicott, 'I diritti umani sono davvero universali? (‘Are human rights really universal?\\\')' in Tecla Mazzarese and Paola Parolari (eds), Diritti fondamentali: le sfide del nuovo millennio (G. Giappichelli Editore, Torino 2009)

TAO Endicott, 'Significado internacional\': la cortesia en la adjudicacion de derechos fundamentales' (2002) Anuario de Derechos Humanos 81 [...]

Spanish translation of '"International Meaning": Comity in Fundamental Rights Adjudication'.


ISBN: 0212-0364

TAO Endicott, 'The Infant in the Snow' in Timothy Endicott, Joshua Getzler, and Edwin Peel (eds), Properties of Law (Oxford University Press 2006) [...]

Suppose that you are wandering across the tundra, and you find an infant, all alone, in the snow. She is incapable of discourse, and yet she has the same human rights as anyone who is capable of discourse. Those rights do not depend on the practices or conventions of your people, or hers. Human discourse and human conventions play no role in human rights. I elaborate these claims through a critique of J.W. Harris’s groundbreaking analytical account of human rights. I conclude that some welfare rights are paradigms of human rights, while rights of freedom of expression, privacy, and assembly, and rights to vote, and rights to independent tribunals are not human rights at all, except in a distantly metaphorical sense. Moreover, human rights can be explained with no reference at all to state authorities (though state authorities may have various special roles in observing and promoting some of them).


ISBN: 0-19-929096-2

TAO Endicott, 'What Human Rights Are There, if Any, and Why?' (2010) 23 Studies in Christian Ethics 172

TAO Endicott, '\"International Meaning\": Comity in Fundamental Rights Adjudication' (2001) 13 International Journal of Refugee Studies 280 [...]

Discusses requirements of comity between courts of different nations that are party to the Geneva Convention on the Status of Refugees; argues that comity does not require deference to authorities in other countries. Addresses possible reasons for establishing an international tribunal.

(pre-publication version)


ISBN: 0953-8186

S Fredman, 'A Comparative Study of Anti-Discrimination and Equality Laws of the US, Canada, South Africa and India' (Office for Official Publications of the European Communities 2012) [...]

DOI: 10.2838/82208

The aim of this study is to compare and contrast anti-discrimination and equality laws in the US, Canada, South Africa and India, with a view to inform future development of EU anti-discrimination laws. Comparative law is of great value, particularly in the equality field, where there is increasing cross-pollination across different jurisdictions. At the same time, comparative law carries with it important challenges, as the harmonising project of the EU has itself demonstrated. The four jurisdictions to be examined here share English as a common language as well as, in varying degrees, a common law heritage. However, there are significant differences in historical, socio-economic and political contexts as well as in legal institutions. The challenge is therefore to illuminate universalisableconceptions while at the same time recognising context specificity.


ISBN: ISBN 978-92-79-23769

S Fredman and Sarah Spencer (eds), Age as an Equality Issue (Hart 2003 2003) [...]

A series of chapters by experts from a wide range of disciplines on age discrimination, considering the central aims of a policy on age equality, as part of the process of implementing EU requirements for age discrimination legislation and moving beyond it.


ISBN: 1-84113-405-8

S Fredman, 'Breaking the Mold: Equality as a Proactive Duty ' (2012) 60 American Journal of Comparative Law 263 [...]

Despite increasingly sophisticated antidiscrimination laws, dis- crimination and inequality have proved remarkably resilient. This prompts questions about the limits of law’s ability to achieve social change. One way forward is to fashion new legal tools, which impose duties to promote or achieve equality, rather than focusing on individual rights against specific perpetrators. In the past decade in Britain, such fourth generation equality laws have been developed in a distinctive format, requiring the decision-maker to “have due regard” to equality, rather than taking action to achieve such objectives. Thisstandard has triggered a spate of judicial review cases, particularly in response to austerity measures imposing deep budgetary cuts on disadvantaged groups. This Paper’s aims are two-fold. The first is to examine the judicial approach to the due regard standard in the light of recent regulatory theory. Do courts consider the due regard standard as a signal for deference, or can it be understood as an example of “reflexive law,” facilitating deliberative decision-making rather than imposing external standards likely to meet with resistance from the regulated body? The Paper concludes that courts have struggled to deal with the regulatory challenges presented by the “due regard” standard, wavering between appropriate and inappropriate intervention. The second aim is an analysis of whether a deliberative standard is appropriate in the equality context. The record of judicial review cases demonstrates that such a standard risks legitimating or simply reconfiguring existing inequalities.


ISBN: 0002-919x

S Fredman, 'Changing the Norm: Positive Duties in Equal Treatment Legislation' (2005) 12 Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law 369 [...]

This paper assesses the emergence of a new proactive model to achieve gender equality, and compares it with the more established complaints led model based on individual rights. While transcending many of the weaknesses of the individual complaints model, the proactive model ains ambiguous in many crucial respects, particularly as to its objectives, its use of participation, and how compliance is to be achieved. The paper aims to shed more light on these key aspects by drawing on the experiences of such models in Canada, Northern Ireland,Britain, and the EU itself. This demonstrates that the location of proactive strategies on the borderline between law and politics makes them highly dependent on political will. The key challenge is therefore to ensure that proactive strategies are based on a ecognition that equality is a fundamental right, not a discretion, without reverting to individualised complaints mechanisms with all their inbuilt weaknesses. I conclude by considering how wemight achieve a fundamental and non-derogable core of rights within a proactive model


ISBN: 1023-263X

S Fredman, 'Discrimination' in P Cane and M Tushnet (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Legal Studies (OUP 2003)

S Fredman, Discrimination Law (Clarendon Series (OUP , 2nd ed) 2011) [...]

Equality is an ideal to which we all aspire. Yet the more closely we examineit, the more its meaning shifts. This book examines the differing conceptions of equality in discrimination law, in the accessible yet challenging format of the Clarendon series. It uses a thematic approach to elucidate the major conceptual issues, while at the same time imparting a detailed understanding of the legal provisions, including the Equality Act 2010, human rights law, and EU law. Particularly illuminating is the comparative approach. By examining comparable law in the US, India, Canada, and South Africa, as well as the UK, the book exposes common problems and canvasses differing solutions.


ISBN: 978-0-19-958443-7

S Fredman, 'Engendering Socio-economic rights ' (2009) 25 South African Journal of Human Rights 410

S Fredman, 'Equality: A New Generation?' (2001) 30 Industrial Law Journal 145

S Fredman, 'From Deference to Democracy: the Role of Equality under the Human Rights Act 1998' (2006) 122(Jan) Law Quarterly Review 53

S Fredman, 'From Dialogue to Deliberation: Human Rights Adjudication and Prisoners’ Rights to Vote' [2013] Public Law 292 [...]

The interpretation of human rights inevitably requires value judgements. But if the power of interpretation and limitation of human rights is left to elected legislators on the basis of majority voting, perpetual minorities may be perpetually subordinated. But leaving judges to make the final decision flies in the face of the basic principle that all fundamental decisions in society should be taken by the people themselves. Prisoners’ voting rights throw the dilemma into particularly sharp relief. Should an elected legislature have the final say on removing the fundamental right to vote from a section of the population, particularly one which is deeply unpopular and which politicians have no natural interest in defending? The most promising way out of this dilemma is to move away from a polarisation between courts and legislatures, and instead regard both as contributing to a democratic resolution of human rights disputes. An increasingly influential stream of thought characterises the relationship as one of dialogue. Rather than courts having the final say, judicial decisions provoke a response from the legislature. In this paper, I aim to go beyond a dialogic model and propose one based on deliberative democracy. Drawing on the distinction between interest bargaining and value-based or deliberative decisions, I argue that human rights can only be properly addressed within a democracy through deliberative means. In other words, the power of the principle should constitute the reason for adopting it, rather than the power of those whose interests it serves. Otherwise, those without political power risk perpetual subordination, undermining the raison d’être of human rights protection. It is here that the courts are in a position to make a unique contribution to the democratic resolution of human rights issues. I argue that courts should ensure that human rights decisions are indeed taken deliberatively within the constraints set by the human rights themselves. I call this a ‘bounded deliberative’ approach. The final section applies these principles to prisoners’ voting rights cases in South Africa and the UK.


S Fredman, 'Human Rights Transformed: Positive Duties and Positive Rights' [2006] 2006(Autumn) Public Law 498

S Fredman, Human Rights Transformed: Positive Rights and Positive Duties (Oxford University Press 2008) [...]

DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199272761.001.0001

Human Rights have traditionally been understood as protecting individual freedom against intrusion by the State. This book argues that human rights are based on a far richer view of freedom, going beyond absence of coercion and focussing on the ability to exercise such freedom. This view means that, as well as restraining the State, human rights require the State to act positively to remove barriers and facilitate the exercise of freedom. But because positive duties have for so long been regarded as a question of policy or aspiration, little sustained attention has been given to their role in actualising human rights. The book moves beyond the artificial boundary between socio-economic and civil and political rights and instead focuses on the positive duties to which all human rights give rise. It draws on political theory and social policy to illuminate important legal issues, and uses comparative material from India, South Africa, Canada, the US, the ECHR and the UK.


S Fredman, 'Making Equality Effective: The Role of Proactive Measures ' (2009)

S Fredman, 'New Horizons: Incorporating Socio-Economic Rights in a British Bill of Rights ' [2010] Public Law 297

S Fredman, 'Positive Duties and Socio-economic Disadvantage: Bringing Disadvantage onto the Equality Agenda ' (2010) European Human Rights Law Review 290

S Fredman, 'Positive Rights and Duties: Addressing Intersectionality' in D. Schiek, V Chege (eds), European Union Non-Discrimination Law: Comparative Perspectives on Multidimensional Equality Law (Routledge-Cavendish 2008)

S Fredman, 'Precarious Norms for Precarious Workers' in J Fudge and R Owens (eds), Precarious Work, Women and the New Economy (Hart Publishing 2006) [...]

The chapter assesses the legal position of precarious workers from a feminist perspective and in the light of the development of flexible working and New Labour and 'Third Way' policies


ISBN: 978-1-84113-616-6

S Fredman, 'Providing Equality: Substantive Equality and the Positive Duty to Provide' (2005) 21 South African Journal on Human Rights 163 [...]

Substantive equality and positive duties to redress disadvantage in society, a critical comparison of South African, Canadian and ECHR approaches to the relationship between substantive equality and socio-economic rights


ISBN: 0258-7203

S Fredman, 'Recognition or Redistribution: Reconciling Inequalities' (2007) 23 South African Journal of Human Rights 214 [...]

This paper examines the traditional dichotomy between measures addressing socio-economic inequalities and those aimed at inequality based on status, such as race, gender, disability or sexual orientation. Using the conceptual framework of recognition and redistribution developed by Nancy Fraser and others, I argue that it is no longer tenable to keep the two spheres separate. Constructing a concept of socio-economic equality without considering the implications for status-based inequality can be damaging and ineffective. Conversely, status-based measures are limited by their inability to mobilise the redistributive measures necessary to make real equality of opportunity and genuine choice possible. The paper begins by examining the interaction between socio-economic and status-based equality. I then sketch out a multi-dimensional notion of substantive equality which attempts to create a synthesis between the aims of both spheres. In the final part, I make some very tentative suggestions as to how the interpenetration can be more meaningfully captured in legal frameworks.


S Fredman, 'Reforming equal pay laws' (2008) 37 Industrial Law Journal 193 [...]

Despite 33 years of equal pay legislation, the gender pay gap remains stubbornly high. Multiple equal pay claims in the public sector have forcefully exposed the weaknesses, both of the Equal Pay Act and of the complaints-led model of enforcement on which it is based. This article argues that the equal pay apparatus is in need of radical reform. Single Equality legislation, due to be introduced in the autumn, is the ideal forum to do so. Substantively, it is essential to move beyond the current narrow range of comparison, the limited definition of equality and the lack of a collective dimension. So far as enforcement is concerned, the way forward lies in a positive duty to eliminate pay discrimination, which builds on and strengthens the current gender duty. Women's right to equal pay for equal work is often represented as an unreasonable demand on resources, carrying with it an unsustainable cost. In fact, it is a fundamental right recognised by major human rights instruments and the International Labour Organization (ILO). It is to be hoped that the Single Equality Bill will give equal pay reform the serious attention so urgently needed.


S Fredman, 'Sceptism under Scrutiny: Labour Law and Human Rights' in T Campbell, K D Ewing and A Tomkins (eds), Sceptical Essays in Human Rights (OUP 2001) [...]

An examination of sceptical approaches to human rights, in order to move through sceptism towards a possible reconstruction of human rights in a social democratic context


ISBN: 0-19-923669-6/0-19-924668-8

S Fredman, 'Social, Economic and Cultural Rights' in D Feldman (ed), English Public Law (Oxford University Press 2004) [...]

This chapter examines the nature of socio-economic rights and challenges the contrast with civil and political rights. It argues that the focus should be on differences in the nature of the duty, and particularly the differences between duties to refrain from infringing on a right, duties to protect against infringement by others, and duties to take active measures to facilitate or promote the exercise of teh right. It examines sources of socio-economic rights, and assesses the contribution of domestic courts to the development of such rights.


ISBN: 0-19-876551-7

S Fredman and M. Wesson, 'Social, Economic and Cultural Rights' in David Feldman (ed), English Public Law ( 2009)

S Fredman, 'The Age of Equality' in S Fredman and S Spencer (eds), Age as an Equality Issue (Hart 2003) [...]

A critical examination of the meaning of age discrimination and an exploration of possible legislative frameworks to implement age discrimination legislation.


ISBN: 1-84113-405-8

S Fredman, 'The Future of Equality in Great Britain' (2002) No. 5 Equal Opportunities Commission Working Paper Series 1 [...]

This paper was commissioned by the Equal Opportunities Commission as an independent contribution to the debate around the single equality body. Its focus is on the vision and objectives such a body might pursue, and in particular, on the principles of equality informing policy decisions.


ISBN: 1 84206 038 4

S Fredman, 'The Ideology of New Labour Law' in C Barnard, S Deakin and G Morris (eds), The Future of Labour Law: Liber Amicorum Sir Bob Hepple (Hart 2004) [...]

A critical analysis of third way ideology in the field of labour law.


S Fredman, 'The Positive Right to Security' in B J Goold and L Lazarus (eds), Security and Human Rights (Hart 2007) [...]

This chapter examines the notion of a positive right to security. I argue that the right arises from a deeper understanding of human freedom, one which does not simply prevent interference in free choice but instead seeks actively to remove constraints on choice. The right to security is a right not just to non-interference but to state action, that aims to protect the individual from risks to the person, whether caused by fellow citizens, poverty or the state itself.


ISBN: 13:978-1-84113-608-0

S Fredman, 'The Potential and Limits of An Equal Rights Paradigm In Addressing Poverty ' (2011) 22 Stellenbosch Law Review [...]

Poverty is increasingly a human rights issue. The aim of this paper is to consider what role the right to equality can and should play in relation to poverty. It draws on the experience in Britain, Canada, the US and South Africa to develop several ways in which equality could function in relation to poverty. It concludes that while the right to equality can make a valuable contribution to apsects of pvoerty based on misrecognition and oscial exclusion, it has not yet been sufficiently developed to address distributive inequalities in its own right.


ISBN: 1016-4359

S Fredman, 'The Public Sector Equality Duty' (2011) 40 Industrial Law Journal 405 [...]

A key advance of the Equality Act 2010 is its introduction of a single equality duty. The new ‘public sector equality duty’ harmonises the earlier duties and extends its coverage to include other protected characteristics. In addition, the statutory aims have been deepened to reflect a substantive conception of equality. However, the core of the duty is unchanged. It is a duty to ‘have due regard’, not to take steps or to achieve equality. Is this an attempt to incorporate a deliberative, reflexive approach to achieving equality, recognising that a straightforward command and control approach might encounter unproductive resistance? Or does it reflect a fundamental ambivalence as to the importance of equality issues? Section 2 below examines the structure of the statutory provisions. Section 3 asks whether the statutory provision is an example of reflexive law. Particular attention is paid to the spate of judicial review cases relying on the equality duty to challenge a range of budget cuts. It is argued that courts have struggled to deal with the regulatory challenges presented by the equality duties. Nor is it clear that a reflexive approach is appropriate to achieve substantive equality.


ISBN: 1464-366

S Fredman, 'The Shape of Things to Come: Substantive Equality under the Spotlight ' in O. Dupper and C Garbers (eds), Equality in the Workplace: Reflections from South Africa and Beyond (Juta 2009)

S Fredman, 'Transformation or Dilution: Fundamental Rights in the EU Social Space' (2006) 12(1) European Law Journal 41

S Fredman, 'Women at Work: The Broken Promise of Flexicurity' (2004) 33 Industrial Law Journal 299 [...]

DOI: 10.1093/ilj/33.4.299

This article argues that it is no accident that the flexible workforce is largely made up of women in precarious jobs. The change in women's role, as both breadwinners and home-makers, has not been matched by changes in the legal structure of employyment law, and particularly the contract, with its assumption of bilateral, mutual, transactional exchange. Rights should be afforded to all who participate in the paid workshop, however marginally.


ISBN: 0305 9332

S Fredman, '‘Disability Equality: A Challenge to the Existing Anti-Discrimination Paradigm’' in A Lawson and C Gooding (eds), Disability Rights in Europe: From Theory to Practice (Hart 2005) [...]

This chapter assesses existing discrimination paradigms and their applicability to disability discrimination.It argues that a possible way forward lies in a duty to promote equality based on social rights.


ISBN: 1-84113-486-4

N Ghanea and L Rahmani, 'A review of the 60th session of the commission on human rights' (2005) International Journal of Human Rights 125

N Ghanea and A Melchiorre, 'A Review of the 61st Session of the Commission on Human Rights' (2005) International Journal of Human Rights 507 [...]

DOI: 10.1080/13642980500350004

This report seeks to analyse the main highlights of this year's session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. The Commission was set up in 1947 and is the UN's principal human rights body. It is currently the subject of major reform proposals stemming primarily from the UN Secretary-General and agreed upon, in general terms by member states at the 14–16 September 2005 World Summit. The review below, focusing on the main country and thematic issues discussed at the March–April 2005 session, will be indicative of how badly and in what ways reform of the Commission on Human Rights is required.


ISBN: ISSN 1364-2987

N Ghanea, 'Are Religious Minorities Really Minorities?' (2012) Oxford Journal of Law and Religion 1 [...]

DOI: 10.1093/ojlr/rwr029

This article will argue that although, historically, religious minorities were the primary trigger for the institutionalization of the international framework of minority rights, they have long since been sidelined from its protections. This sidelining is evident in a variety of international human rights norms and mechanisms, the focus below being on the jurisprudence of the UN Human Rights Committee. The article offers a number of explanations for this diversion of religious minorities away from the international minority rights regime. It also argues for a cautious reintegration of religious minorities within the minority rights regime after having sought understanding with regard to some issues of concern.


ISBN: ISSN 2047-0770

N Ghanea (ed), Does God Believe in Human Rights?, (Martinus Nijhoff 2007) [...]

Where can religions find sources of legitimacy for human rights? How do, and how should, religious leaders and communities respond to human rights as defined in modern International Law? When religious precepts contradict human rights standards - for example in relation to freedom of expression or in relation to punishments - which should trump the other, and why? Can human rights and religious teachings be interpreted in a manner which brings reconciliation closer? Do the modern concept and system of human rights undermine the very vision of society that religions aim to impart? Is a … read morereference to God in the discussion of human rights misplaced? Do human fallibilities with respect to interpretation, judicial reasoning and the understanding of human oneness and dignity provide the key to the undeniable and sometimes devastating conflicts that have arisen between, and within, religions and the human rights movement? In this volume, academics and lawyers tackle these most difficult questions head-on, with candour and creativity, and the collection is rendered unique by the further contributions of a remarkable range of other professionals, including senior religious leaders and representatives, journalists, diplomats and civil servants, both national and international. Most notably, the contributors do not shy away from the boldest question of all - summed up in the book's title. The thoroughly edited and revised papers which make up this collection were originally prepared for a ground-breaking conference organised by the Clemens Nathan Research Centre, the University of London Institute of Commonwealth Studies and Martinus Nijhoff/Brill.


ISBN: ISBN13:9789004152540

N Ghanea, 'Educational Reform in Iran: Human Rights Perspectives' , paper presented at

N Ghanea, 'Expert workshops on the prohibition of incitement to national, racial or religious hatred (February 2011, Vienna) ' , paper presented at United Nations [...]

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has organised, in 2011, a series of expert workshops on the prohibition of incitement to national, racial or religious hatred, as reflected in international human rights law. The objectives of the expert workshops are: •To gain a better understanding of legislative patterns, judicial practices and different types of policies, in countries of the various regions of the world, with regard to prohibiting incitement to national, racial, or religious hatred, while ensuring full respect for freedom of expression as outlined in articles 19 and 20 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; •to arrive at a comprehensive assessment of the state of implementation of this prohibition of incitement in conformity with international human rights law and; •to identify possible actions at all levels.


N Ghanea, 'Facilitating Freedom of Religion and Belief: Perspectives, Impulses and Recommendations from the Oslo Coalition' in Cole Durham, Tore Lindholm and Bahia Tahzib-Lie (eds), Apostasy and Freedom to Change Religion or Belief (Martinus Nijhoff 2004)

N Ghanea, 'Faith in Human Rights, Human Rights in Faith' in Nazila Ghanea (ed), The Challenge of Religious Discrimination at the Dawn of the New Millennium (Martinus Nijhoff 2003)

N Ghanea, 'FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AND ADVOCACY OF RELIGIOUS HATRED THAT CONSTITUTES INCITEMENT TO DISCRIMINATION, HOSTILITY OR VIOLENCE: Articles 19 and 20 of the ICCPR' , paper presented at United Nations 47

N Ghanea, 'Intersectionality and the Spectrum of Racist Hate Speech: Proposals to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination' (2013) Human Rights Quarterly (forthcoming)

N Ghanea, 'Minorities and Hatred: Protections and Implications' (2010) 17.3 International Journal of Minority and Group Rights 423 [...]

DOI: 10.1163/157181110X512151

The international concern with minorities has benefitted from a range of rationales and gone through a number of permutations over recent decades. Within these are included a wide spectrum of objectives from concern with their very obliteration covered under genocide instruments to soft law instruments concerned with their positive flourishing. This article will address just one aspect of those concerns – those protecting minorities from hate speech.


N Ghanea (ed), Minorities, Peoples and Self-Determination: Essays in Honour of Patrick Thornberry (Martinus Nijhoff 2004) [...]

The present volume, in honour of Professor Patrick Thornberry, presents new thinking on minority and indigenous rights in international law. Contributors to this 17 chapter volume include an impressive range of academics, thinkers, practitioners and international civil servants with a number of different approaches to this complex area. Not all of them take a legal approach, and this exploration benefits from the variety of frameworks utilised in contributing to the controversial area of minority and indigenous rights. Debates that receive attention in this volume include self-determination, … read moredefinitional issues, collective rights and rights to natural resources. Other chapters unravel challenges that have not attracted sufficient attention to date, such as multiculturalism, integration, colour as a ground for discrimination and the economic and social rights of minorities. The volume also looks critically at the work of the World Bank, the African Union, the Council of Europe and the OSCE in this arena. Finally, case studies highlight the regrettable similarities in the suffering of groups in different parts of the world as well as the stark contrast between state claims and their actual practice. The contributors are: Gudmundur Alfredsson, Michael Banton, Joshua Castellino, Erica‑lrene A. Daes, María-Amor Estébanez, Nazila Ghanea, Geoff Gilbert, Bülent Gökay, Tom Hadden, Dominic McGoldrick, Timothy Murithi, John Packer, Chandra K. Roy, Malcolm N. Shaw, Martin Scheinin, Sia Spiliopoulou Åkermark, and Alexandra Xanthaki.


ISBN: ISBN13: 978900414301

N Ghanea, 'Phantom Minorities and Religions Denied: Muslims, Bahá’ís and International Human Rights' (2009) Shia Affairs Journal [...]

The protection of the human rights of all without discrimination on the basis inter alia of religion or belief, the protection of religious minorities, and manifestation of religion or belief in association with others - these are all well-established norms of international human rights law. Yet violations continue world-wide, and new manifestations of these age-old problems continue to multiply.[1] All Muslim states have ratified, and therefore voluntary adopted, legal commitments with regards to these obligations. Nevertheless, these protections remain very much wanting in many instances with respect to both Muslim and non-Muslim minorities in Muslim states. In fact, freedom of religion or belief and religious minority rights have long been recognised as being amongst the most pressing of human rights concerns in these states. Whilst the need to enhance the protection of freedom of religion or belief and religious minority rights (ForbRM rights) within Muslim states has been much written about, few publications have extended their focus to Muslim minorities in Muslim states. This article seeks to establish that enhanced respect for the legal rights of non-Muslim minorities would, by default, also benefit ‘Muslim minorities’ within Muslim states. The contention of this article is that if sufficient progress were made regarding the respect of ForbRM rights for non-Muslims, Muslim religious minorities would see their own situations improved and claims addressed. The article will take one of the most entrenched of such cases – snapshots of the case of the Bahá’ís of Iran over the past 30 years – as its main illustration of this point.


N Ghanea, 'Phobias and ‘Isms’: Recognition of Difference or the Slippery Slope of Particularisms?' in Nazila Ghanea, Raphael Walden and Alan Stephens (eds), Does God Believe in Human Rights? (Martinus Nijhoff 2007)

N Ghanea, 'Preaching and Practising: Freedom of Religion or Belief in the Commonwealth' (Report Commissioned by the Commonwealth Advisory Bureau, which in turn was commissioned and funded by the Canadian High Commission, London 2012) [...]

An examination of freedom of religion or belief as upheld in the constitutions of Commonwealth Member States and why the Commonwealth should hitherto acknowledge freedom of religion or belief more fully as part of the spectrum of Commonwealth concerns.


N Ghanea (ed), Religion and Human Rights, Vol. I, Vol. II, Vol. III, Vol. IV (Routledge 2010) [...]

Hardly a week goes by without some world event relating to the burgeoning field of religion and human rights. Whether attacks carried out in the name of religion by individuals or states, violations of the rights of individuals or communities due to their religious or other beliefs, or clashes between religious and other competing rights (most notably, freedom of speech), matters relating to religion and human rights are not only an area of expert and academic interest, but also of increasing interest to policy-makers, governments, international organizations, and NGOs. This new four-volume Major Work collection from Routledge examines the background, history, and nature of human rights—both individual and collective—as well as economic, social, and cultural rights; and also civil and political rights. Standards, mechanisms, and jurisprudence at international and national levels are included, and form part of the discussion of the conflict of rights and freedom of religion or belief. Religions featured include Islam, Christianity, Judaism, and African religions, and the persecution or discrimination of religious or belief communities are discussed. Relevant human rights documents are also included. The range of subject areas that contribute to discussions on religion and human rights are many, and include: political science; law; international relations; anthropology; philosophy; religious studies; sociology of religion; and theology. Students, scholars, teachers, and practitioners from these and other disciplines will welcome this collection as a vital one-stop compendium of the very best canonical and cutting-edge research.


ISBN: ISBN 9708-0-415-5436

N Ghanea, 'Religion and Human Rights: An Introduction' in John Witte, Jr. and M. Christian Green (eds), Religion, Equality, and Non-Discrimination (Oxford University Press 2011)

N Ghanea and Farah Ahmed, 'Religion and Human Rights: Conflicts and Connections' in Paul Hedges (ed), Controversies in Contemporary Religions, Volume 2: Public and Ethical Controversies (Praeger Publishers 2013)

Paul Weller, Kingsley Purdam, N Ghanea and Sariya Contractor, Religion or Belief, Discrimination and Equality: Britain in Global Contexts (Continuum, London and New York 2013) (forthcoming) [...]

This book will present and analyse key results of the Religion and Society programme (Arts and Humanities Research Council/Economic and Social Research Council) research project “Religion and Belief, Discrimination and Equality: Theory, Policy and Practice, 2000-2010” research project. Reflecting on a decade of change, the book will compare these results with those of a 1999-2001 Home Office commissioned research on “Religious Discrimination in England and Wales”. These findings will include data from a national questionnaire survey; the reported experiences of individuals interviewed during the project’s fieldwork; and the perspectives of those who understand themselves not be to be of any religion and who took part in project focus groups. The book will set these findings within the context of a broader consideration of the impact of legal and policy developments on religion and human rights in which, over the last decade, the category of religious discrimination has become more widely accepted, while modified by reference to belief, and also in relation to a shifting policy focus around shared values and social cohesion. The proposed book will therefore be a groundbreaking, benchmark, seminal and interdisciplinary contribution to both public and academic debate about these issues.


N Ghanea, 'Religious Minorities and human rights: Bridging international and domestic perspectives on the rights of persons belonging to religious minorities under English law' (2010) European Yearbook of Minority Issues [...]

This paper considers minorities in English law through the prism of international standards related to both freedom of religion or belief and minority rights. These two sets of international normative standards are brought together in order to emphasize the fact that persons belonging to religious minorities have access not only to general human rights standards including freedom of religion or belief, but also to minority rights. Combining the implications of these applicable rights, the paper will suggest that ‘religious minorities’ should be (i) taken to include persons belonging to minorities on grounds of both religion or belief; (ii) that their religious practice should not only be considered ‘manifestation’ of religion or belief but also the practice of a minority culture; and that (iii) States have a duty to protect the survival and continued development of the identity of religious minorities and allow such persons to enjoy their culture. The paper will then move to considering a few recent cases in English law, in order to examine the extent to which these three implications are realized within them.


ISBN: ISBN 978-90-04-19521

N Ghanea, 'Religious or Minority? Examining the Realization of International Standards in Relation to Religious Minorities in the Middle East' (2008) Religion, State and Society 303 [...]

DOI: 10.1080/09637490802260385

The Middle East region has had a long, and periodically impressive, record of religious diversity, yet there is much concern regarding the contemporary standing of its religious minorities. Rather than assessing the chequered historical record of religious minorities in the Middle East, the purpose of this article is to provide an assessment of how international human rights standards may best be utilised to advance their rights. The contention of this article is that the human rights of religious minorities in the Middle East have primarily been considered under the lens of freedom of religion or belief. Relevant though this framework is to their concerns, it will be suggested that promoting the rights of the Middle East's religious minorities through the framework of minority rights may provide a more promising avenue for their protection. The purpose of the article is therefore to provide a reassessment of how best to negotiate the rights of religious minorities in the Middle East. The focus will be on formal legal and political obstacles to the enjoyment of their rights entitlements. Though a broader contextual analysis also assessing economic, cultural and sociological factors would be highly informative, it lies beyond the scope of this article. Despite the fact that minority rights provisions apply to members of minorities alongside all other human rights – among them freedom of religion or belief – the two lenses of minority rights and freedom of religion or belief highlight somewhat different provisions and protections. The two are certainly not mutually exclusive or in contradiction with one another, but a state that prioritises one set of legal and policy options over the other will arrive in different places.


ISBN: ISSN 0963-7494

N Ghanea, 'Repressing Minorities and getting away with it? A consideration of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights' in Nazila Ghanea and Alexandra Xanthaki (eds), Minorities, Peoples and Self-Determination (Martinus Nijhoff 2005)

N Ghanea and B Hass, 'Seeking justice and an end to neglect: Iran\'s minorities today' (Minority Rights Group International 2011) [...]

DOI: www.minorityrights.org/download.php?id=939

Violations of minority rights in Iran take place within a wider, well-documented context of human rights violations, and intolerance of dissent and difference. Against this background, this briefing reflects on the historical and current situation of Iran’s ethnic, religious and linguistic minority groups, which are typified in Iran by their lack of political power and influence. It also considers the new popular and political consciousness that is emerging in Iran in regard to human rights in general, and minority rights in particular, following the political debates leading up to the disputed 2009 elections, and the popular protests that came afterwards. This shift may represent an opportunity for members of minority groups in Iran at long last to enjoy equal citizenship rights, educational and economic opportunities, and the right to maintain their cultural identity.


N Ghanea, 'Sisters in Islam' (ESRC research paper RES-155-25-0042 on South-North non-governmental networks, policy processes and policy outcomes, NGPA Paper Series by the ESRC 47 pages 2009)

N Ghanea, 'The 1981 UN Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief' in Nazila Ghanea (ed), The Challenge of Religious Discrimination at the Dawn of the New Millennium (Martinus Nijhoff 2003)

N Ghanea, 'The 53rd Session of the Commission on Human Rights' (1997) Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights

N Ghanea, 'The 54th Session of the Commission on Human Rights' (1998) Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights

N Ghanea (ed), The Challenge of Religious Discrimination at the Dawn of the New Millennium (Martinus Nijhoff 2004) [...]

The themes and issues explored in this book - religion, human rights, politics and society could not be more relevant to the post 11 September 2001 world. They lie at the heart of global political debate today. The collection explores these issues after the passing of just over two decades from the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of all Forms of Intolerance and Discrimination based on Religion or Belief. That declaration set out minimum international standards for the elimination of such discrimination. Sadly the challenge of intolerance on the basis of religion … read moreor belief continues to plague us, and tackling it seems to have become increasingly entrenched. The complexity of this phenomenon requires expertise from different quarters. This collection draws from diplomatic, activist and theological quarters and benefits from the analysis of scholars of law, history, religious studies and sociology. The ten chapters of this collection examine the relationship between human rights, law and religion; offer a typology for the study of religious persecution; problematise the consequences flowing from religious establishment in religiously plural society; analyse the implications of the directions being taken by the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights and the protections offered by the European Commission council Directive 2000/43/EC outlawing workplace discrimination; study the 1981 Declaration and its promotion through the work of the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief; and explore the intricacies of this freedom in detail from within the context of the United Kingdom and The Netherlands.


ISBN: ISBN13: 978900413641

N Ghanea, 'The concept of racist hate speech and its evolution over time, contribution to UN CERD session' , paper presented at

L Lazarus and others, 'The Evolution of Fundamental Rights Charters and Case Law: A Comparison of the United Nations, Council of Europe and the European Union systems of human rights Protection' (European Parliament 2011) [...]

This report examines the human rights protection systems of the United Nations, the Council of Europe and the European Union. It explores the substantive rights, protection mechanisms, modes of engagement within, and the interactions between each system. The report also outlines the protection of minority rights, and the political processes through which human rights and institutions evolve and interact. A series of recommendations are made on how to advance the EU human rights system.


Nicholas Bamforth and Laura Hoyano, Human Rights Law and Principles in the United Kingdom (OUP 2013) (forthcoming) [...]

This Textbook, designed for postgraduates andsenior undergraduates, will provide an accessible but intellectually rigorous text book which addresses how human rights issues are configured and adjudicated in the specific British context, exploring the multiple dimensions of the European Convention on Human Rights, the European Union, international law, and national legislation and common law, and an introduction to human rights theory , integrating this into the legal analysis.


Laura Hoyano, 'What Is Balanced on the Scales of Justice? In Search of the Essence of the Right to a Fair Trial' [2012] Criminal Law Review (forthcoming) [...]

This article contests the notion, prevalent in British jurisprudence regarding ECHR Article 6, and recently adopted by the Grand Chamber in Al-Khawaja v UK, that the right to a fair trial involves the 'balancing' of the rights of the defendant against the rights of the prosecution, the complainant and other witnesses, and the community at large. It argues that the whole notion of balancing is fundamentally misconceived, setting up a conflictual trap whereby defence rights are always seen as being in antithesis to those of the prosecution representing the overarching public interest. Instead, I propose a model embodying a sense of objective fairness predicated upon the right to a verdict with integrity; as such this right is not allocated to any one participant in the trial but is a common good, erasing any perceived antitheses within Article 6. The article goes on to explore the concept of "the essence of the right" in Article 6(3) caselaw, and explains why this has been extinguished by the approach to Article 6 of the Grand Chamber in Al-Khawaja, sacrificing principle to juridical, and possibly political, expediency. The consequence is that Article 6 now only serves to protect the right to a 'fair-ish' trial.


T Khaitan, 'Dignity as an Expressive Norm: Neither Vacuous nor a Panacea' (2012) 32 Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 1 [...]

DOI: 10.1093/ojls/gqr024

Proponents of dignity see it as a useful tool which solves the most important (if not all) of the practical and theoretical problems in human rights law. Arguing against this sympathetic position on the other side of the debate are the sceptics, who have raised troubling questions about dignity’s alleged indeterminacy, as well as about the illiberal role that it has allegedly played in certain contexts. In this paper, I argue that designing a defensible and useful conception of dignity which is distinguishable from other values such as equality and autonomy may be possible, but not without addressing some genuine infirmities that the critics have pointed out. If there is indeed such a conception of dignity, it is likely to be "expressive" in character. I therefore argue that the legal ideal of dignity is best understood as an expressive norm: whether an act disrespects someone’s dignity depends on the meaning that such act expresses, rather than its consequences or any other attribute of that act.


Sandra Fredman, L Lazarus and Chris McConnachie, 'Comparative Hate Speech Law: Oxford Pro Bono Publico Memorandum for the Legal Resources Centre (South Africa)' (2011) [...]

This memorandum was prepared for the Legal Resources Centre, South Africa to assist in the preparation of submissions in two hate speech cases to be heard by the Supreme Court of Appeal: Herselman v Geleba and Afriforum v Malema


L Lazarus, 'Conceptions of Liberty Deprivation' (2006) 69 Modern Law Review 738

L Lazarus, Contrasting Prisoners' Rights: A Comparative Examination of England and Germany (OUP 2004)

Veronika Fikfak and L Lazarus, 'Legal Research to assist with the drafting of Amendments to the Law on Criminal Procedure of Bosnia-Herzegovina - Report by Oxford Pro Bono Publico for Judge Malik Hadziomeragic, Supreme Court of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina' (2005) [...]

This legal research was provided to Judge Malik Hadziomeragic, Judge of the Supreme Court of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and member of Work Group for making a Draft on Amendments to the Law on Criminal Procedure of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Judge Hadziomeragic asked for assistance with several specific research questions about English criminal procedure, as the Work Group is trying to incorporate as much as possible elements of English criminal procedure into its Draft on Amendments.


L Lazarus, 'Mapping the Right to Security' in Benjamin J Goold and Liora Lazarus (eds), Security and Human Rights (Hart Publishing 2007)

Miles Jackson, Patricia Jimenez Kwast and L Lazarus, 'Oxford Pro Bono Publico Memorandum for Reprieve UK and Clive Stafford Smith on Kiyemba v Obama ' (2009) [...]

This research concerned the content of the writ of habeus corpus as it existed in the UK in 1789


L Lazarus, 'Positive Obligations and Criminal Justice: Duties to Protect or Coerce' in Julian Roberts and Lucia Zedner (eds), Principled Approaches to Criminal Law and Criminal Justice: Essays in Honour of Professor Andrew Ashworth (Oxford University Press 2012) [...]

Human rights advocates internationally, and supporters of socio-economic rights, have battled for many years to get States and courts to accept that human rights give rise to positive obligations upon States and that such obligations ought to be justiciable in principle. Much of the rhetoric deployed in this campaign has focused on the importance of protecting and respecting basic human needs and capabilities, and ensuring that individuals enjoy a basic level of subsistence in order to secure the enjoyment of all rights. In the context of criminal justice and criminal law: positive obligations are very often cast as duties on the State to protect individuals from the criminal acts of others (protective duties). Very little attention is paid however to the potential for such positive obligations to give rise to what I term ‘coercive duties’. In other words, duties upon the State to coerce individuals through the criminal law, or criminal justice mechanisms, in the name of protecting others from their criminal acts. The coercive aspect of positive obligations comes more sharply into focus when we look at the rhetoric around, and judicial enforcement of ,the right to security. But the development of coercive duties are evident in the positive aspect of other rights too. This chapter explores the ambiguity involved in the growing development of positive rights in the field of criminal law and criminal justice. It dwells briefly on the emerging right to security case law and rhetoric internationally, and goes on to examine cases within the UK and ECHR. The thesis of the chapter is that while some protective duties arising from human rights may be a positive development, the extension of coercive duties on the State to coerce others in the name of another individual’s rights is an overseen and more pernicious part of this development of human rights. The chapter will end by exploring how we reconcile coercive duties arising out of human rights with opposing negative rights protections, or even other protective duties.


Laura Hilly, Lawrence Hill-Cawthorne and L Lazarus, 'Reconciling domestic superior courts with the ECHR and the ECtHR: A Comparative Perspective - Oxford Pro Bono Publico Report submitted to the British Bill of Rights Commission' (2011)

L Lazarus, 'Rights Persuasion: A response to Jeremy Waldron' in Kate Tunstall (ed), Self Evident Truths?: Human Rights and the Enlightenment (Bloomsbury 2012) [...]

Response to Jeremy Waldron's Amnesty Lecture on Hate Speech.


L Lazarus and BJ Goold (eds), Security and Human Rights (Hart 2007)

L Lazarus and BJ Goold, 'Security and Human Rights: The Search for a Language of Reconcilliation' in Benjamin J Goold and Liora Lazarus (eds), Security and Human Rights (Hart Publishing 2007)

Alecia Johns, Hayley Hooper and L Lazarus, 'Supplementary Comparative Research on the use of Secret Evidence in the United States - Oxford Pro Bono Publico Report for the UK Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights' (2011) [...]

This was a follow-up to the 2011 comparative report on secret evidence, requested by the JCHR. It focused on the operation of security-cleared counsel in US habeas corpus proceedings as well as the US doctrine of State secrets privilege in order to help the JCHR whether those aspects of US practice should be adopted in the UK.


L Lazarus, Adam Tomkins and Helen Fenwick, 'Terrorist asset-freezing - Continuing flaws in the current scheme' (2011) 25 International Review of Law, Computers and Technology 117 [...]

The Terrorist Asset-Freezing etc Act 2010 came into force on 17 December 2010. The 2010 Act repealed the previous Temporary Provisions Act. This article does not purport to provide comprehensive coverage of the Act; it outlines four main areas of concern that arose in respect of the Draft Terrorist Asset-Freezing Bill and that now arise in respect of the Terrorist Asset-Freezing etc Act 2010. In summary, these are as follows: problems of parliamentary scrutiny relating to the scope of the Act; problems relating to the reasonable suspicion test; problems relating to judicial process; problems relating to ECHR rights.


L Lazarus, 'The Composition of the UK Bill of Rights Commission' (2011) UK Constitutional Law Group Blog

L Lazarus and others, 'The Evolution of Fundamental Rights Charters and Case Law: A Comparison of the United Nations, Council of Europe and European Union Systems' (European Parliament Directorate General for Internal Policies 2011) [...]

This report examines the human rights protection systems of the United Nations, the Council of Europe and the European Union. It explores the substantive rights, protection mechanisms, modes of engagement within, and the interactions between each system. The report also outlines the protection of minority rights, and the political processes through which human rights and institutions evolve and interact. A series of recommendations are made on how to advance the EU human rights system.


L Lazarus, 'The Human Rights Framework Relating to the Handling, Investigation and Prosecution of Rape Complaints, Annex A to the Stern Report on The Handling of Rape Complaints' (2010)

L Lazarus, 'The Right to Security - Securing Rights or Securitizing Rights' in Dickinson et al (ed), Examining Critical Perspectives on Human Rights (Cambridge University Press 2012) [...]

This paper examines the rise of the right to security within human rights discourse and its potential to erode human rights more generally. It argues that political discourse around the apparent conflict between security and rights since 9/11 has been complicated by an emerging notion of the 'right to security' as the meta-right (the right of rights). This claim (and the inherent ambiguity of what the right to security requires) has the potential to lead to a 'securitization' of human rights, a process that threatens to erode the traditional foundations of human rights, and human rights themselves. Operating in tandem with this 'securitization' process, the discourse of the right to security has been used to sanitize, or at least to legitimate, coercive security measures. This is a process I refer to as 'righting' security. These two processes combine in complex ways to give security an effective trump claim over other rights.


Anne Carter, Nabiya Syed, Ryan Goss and L Lazarus, 'The Use of Secret Evidence in Judicial Proceedings: A Comparative Survey - Report for the UK Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights' (2011) [...]

On 19 October 2011 the Government published a Green Paper on Justice and Security that proposes reforms to the use of secret evidence. This research paper by Oxford Pro Bono Publico (OPBP) is intended to assist the Joint Committee of Human Rights (JCHR) in its scrutiny of the Government's proposals in the Green Paper.


Sarah McCosker, Ben Saul, Deborah Sandler and L Lazarus, 'US v AL QOSI Privileged Memo by Oxford Public Interest Lawyers (OXPIL) for Clive Stafford Smith ' (2004) [...]

This report included specific research questions set to OXPIL by Clive Stafford Smith regarding the charges against Mr. Al Qosi in the Guantanamo Bay military tribunal.


Wheatle, 'The Rights to Equality and Non-Discrimination and the Jamaican Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms ' (2012) (Jubilee Edition) West Indian Law Journal 126

A L Young, 'K Ewing, "Bonfire of the Liberties": Book Review' (2010) 6 European Human Rights Law Review 659   [Review]