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The Human Rights Research Series’ central research theme is the nature and meaning of international standards in the field of human rights, their application and promotion in the national legal order, their interplay with national standards, and the international supervision of such application. Anyone directly involved in the definition, study, implementation, monitoring, or enforcement of human rights will find this series an indispensable reference tool. <br><br>The Series is published together with the world famous Netherlands Network for Human Rights Research (formerly School of Human Rights Research), a joint effort by human rights researchers in the Netherlands.

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20 results in Human Rights Research Series

Fundamental Rights Violations by Private Actors and the Procedure before the European Court of Human Rights
  • A Study of Verticalised Cases
  • Claire Loven
  • Published by:
    Intersentia
    Published online:
    29 February 2024
    Print publication:
    01 October 2022
  • Article 34 of the European Convention on Human Rights prescribes that individual applications must be directed against one of the Convention States. Consequently, private actors involved in proceedings against other private actors before domestic courts must complain about State (in)action in their application to the European Court of Human Rights. In other words, originally 'horizontal' conflicts must be 'verticalised' in order to be admissible. Although such verticalised cases make up a large portion of the Court's case law, the particular nature of these cases, as well as procedural issues that may arise in them, has not received much attention. To fill this gap, this book offers a detailed examination of verticalised cases coming before the Court. The characteristics of and the Court's approach to verticalised cases are explored by means of an in-depth analysis of four types of verticalised cases (cases related to one's surroundings; cases involving a conflict between the right to reputation and private life and the right to freedom of expression; family life cases; and employer-employee cases). On the basis of this analysis, it is argued that the Court's current approach to verticalised cases poses problems for private actors, Convention States and the Court itself. In presenting recommendations for the resolution of these problems, the book concludes with a proposal for a new approach to verticalised cases, consisting of a redesigned third-party intervention procedure.

Prevention of Genocide Under International Law
  • An Analysis of the Obligations of States and the United Nations to Prevent Genocide at the Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Levels
  • Etienne Ruvebana
  • Published by:
    Intersentia
    Published online:
    24 November 2022
    Print publication:
    31 October 2014
  • This book studies the pivotal obligation to prevent genocide under international law and more particularly the extent of that obligation under the Genocide Convention and customary international law. The author puts forward a distinction between primary, secondary and tertiary levels of prevention.

At the Frontiers of State Responsibility
  • Socio-economic Rights and Cooperation on Migration
  • Annick Pijnenburg
  • Published by:
    Intersentia
    Published online:
    19 November 2022
    Print publication:
    19 May 2021
  • States cooperate to stem irregular migration flows, yet migration control agreements often result in widespread violations of the socio-economic rights of people on the move contained in the Global South. This book examines the States that are responsible for these violations.

Labour Exploitation in Human Trafficking Law
  • Amy Weatherburn
  • Published by:
    Intersentia
    Published online:
    10 December 2021
    Print publication:
    16 June 2021
  • The 2000 Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime provides the first internationally agreed definition of the human trafficking. However, in failings to clarify the exact scope and meaning of exploitation, it has created an ambiguity as to what constitutes exploitation of labour in criminal law.
    The international definition's preference for an enumerative approach has been replicated in most regional and domestic legal instruments, making it difficult to draw the line between exploitation in terms of violations of labour rights and extreme forms of exploitation such as those listed in the Protocol.

    This book addresses this legal gap by seeking to conceptualise labour exploitation in criminal law.

The Transformative Potential of a Vulnerability Focus in Basic Assistance Policies
  • A Study on UNHCR and IOM in Sudan
  • Veronika Flegar
  • Published by:
    Intersentia
    Published online:
    11 November 2021
    Print publication:
    22 October 2020
  • The term 'vulnerability' is often used in law and policy to refer to disadvantaged, marginalized or excluded human beings. This book explores how a vulnerability focus in basic assistance policies can contribute to substantive equality and therefore to the realization of universal human rights in the migration context. It concentrates on the potential that such a vulnerability focus can have to mitigate stigmatization and stereotyping and to facilitate socio-economic participation.

Process-based Fundamental Rights Review
  • Practice, Concept, and Theory
  • Leonie Huijbers
  • Published by:
    Intersentia
    Published online:
    11 November 2021
    Print publication:
    16 June 2021
  • Courts often rely on process-based fundamental rights review. This means that they examine the diligence, fairness, and quality of legislative, administrative, and judicial procedures to determine whether fundamental rights have been violated. This book offers an in-depth and nuanced understanding of process-based fundamental rights review which will support courts in developing well-balanced procedural approaches, and will assist scholars in studying procedural reasoning more systematically.

Culture in the State Reporting Procedure of the UN Human Rights Treaty Bodies
  • How the HRC, the CESCR and the CEDAWCee use human rights as a sword to protect and promote culture, and as a shield to protect against harmful culture
  • Vincent Willem Vleugel
  • Published by:
    Intersentia
    Published online:
    11 November 2021
    Print publication:
    24 November 2020
  • Ever since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 there has been a debate on the issue of universality and cultural diversity. The UN human rights treaty bodies have an important role to play in ensuring a proper balance between safeguarding the universality of the rights, while at the same time leaving room for cultural particularities. This book examines how the UN treaty bodies, in particular the Human Rights Committee, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, fulfil this role.

Looking at Law through Children's Eyes
  • Marieke J. Hopman
  • Published by:
    Intersentia
    Published online:
    25 May 2021
    Print publication:
    04 January 2021
  • Since the adoption of the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, all children in the world have rights that are protected by states - at least in theory. In practice, children's rights are grossly violated on a daily basis and on a global scale. Studies in children's rights struggle to find why this is the case, and what can be possibly done to change this situation. This publication proposes that a better understanding of children's rights violations may be achieved if looking at law from a child's perspective. This means that a researcher has to go beyond the analysis of international conventions and national law, to include what is perceived as law by children. This book presents a new theoretical framework and methodology for finding law for children, combining legal pluralism, law and sociology, philosophy of law and legal empirical research. This framework is then put to the test in three case studies, all which include empirical research data. The book explores the possible legal orders that arise when looking at law through children's eyes, such as the household and the classroom. These legal orders, that we find when looking at law through children's eyes, have to be recognized as part of a complete picture of law influencing the protection and/or violation of children's rights.

A Re-examination of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in a Political Society in the Light of the Principle of Human Dignity
  • Getahun A. Mosissa
  • Published by:
    Intersentia
    Published online:
    25 May 2021
    Print publication:
    15 October 2020
  • The principal question investigated in this book is what normative justification can be provided for economic, social and cultural rights (ESC rights) guaranteed under international law and how this justification can or should impact the State obligations emerging from these rights. In particular, it seeks to answer whether and in what manner human dignity provides a viable normative justification for ESC rights guaranteed under international law, what kind of concrete legal obligations of the State party flow from these rights, and the way these obligations are reflected in the jurisprudence of international human rights monitoring bodies from across jurisdictions. It also examines the kind of legal obligations the State bears towards vulnerable persons within its jurisdiction. These are questions born out of the current limitations and lack of substantive progress in both the academic debate and practical enforcement of ESC rights. In order to give answers to these questions, this book has adopted two levels of inquiry. First, it discusses the theoretical problems affecting the effective realisation of ESC rights. Secondly, it takes an inductive approach in analysing ESC rights jurisprudence from African, Inter-American, European and UN human rights systems. Thus, having identified the critical limitations of traditional human rights theories, the book introduces the idea of the social conception of human rights, that is, human rights as being rooted in and essentially concerned with the practical and complex social relations and therewith the protection, preservation and promotion of the life and value of human beings. It is argued that human dignity constitutes an underlying moral principle behind the social relations and the normative justification of all human rights. As a normative principle, human dignity entails the State obligation to ensure an unconditional respect for the moral and biological being of humans. In the context of ESC rights, this obligation influences the State's obligation to respect and ensure essential procedural and substantive conditions required to live a dignified human life. The study therefore offers a fresh perspective on the way we should approach the justification, nature and legal implications of ESC rights both generally and in the specific context of vulnerable persons. It is hoped that beyond inspiring further academic discourse on ESC rights the book serves as a useful reference material for courts, human rights monitoring bodies, policy makers and civil societies concerned with the realisation of ESC rights both at the national and international level.

Towards a Regime of Responsibility of Armed Groups in International Law
  • Laura Inigo Alvarez
  • Published by:
    Intersentia
    Published online:
    22 December 2020
    Print publication:
    02 July 2020
  • Armed groups have played a predominant role in the violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law committed in conflict settings. The increase in the number of non-international armed conflicts during the past decades has emphasised the need to address the multiple legal challenges posed by the actions of armed groups. In particular, there is considerable uncertainty regarding the framework of responsibility for armed groups in international law. While much has been written regarding their international (primary) obligations, the possibility of developing a responsibility framework for armed groups under international law has been underexplored. Consequently, the aim of this book is to examine how the principles of international responsibility could be developed and adjusted to account for armed groups as collective entities. This general aim has been divided into three specific objectives. First, the book analyses the concept of responsibility in international law and assesses the legal and practical reasons in favour of developing such a regime for armed groups. Second, it examines the viability of establishing a responsibility regime for armed groups based on rules of attribution. Third, it explores the possible legal consequences of responsibility applicable to armed groups, with a particular focus on the obligation to provide reparations to victims. In doing so, this book will argue that certain non-traditional sources of international law could be used to interpret and adapt international law to the current conditions of contemporary armed conflict.

Trapped in a Religious Marriage
  • A Human Rights Perspective on the Phenomenon of Marital Captivity
  • Benedicta Deogratias
  • Published by:
    Intersentia
    Published online:
    22 December 2020
    Print publication:
    30 June 2020
  • This book offers a human rights perspective of the phenomenon of marital captivity within Christian, Jewish, Hindu and Muslim communities in both secular and non-secular States. Marital captivity is a complex social phenomenon that, predominantly, affects women. It involves a situation wherein the dissolution of a religious and/or legal marriage is obscured for religious reasons, consequently forcing the spouse(s) to remain in the marriage against their will. It involves multiple stakeholders (i.e. the trapped spouse, the opposing or recalcitrant spouse, the religious communities and one or more States). Within situations of marital captivity, all involved stakeholders have rights and interests which are often in conflict with one another. Unfortunately, holistic and effective solutions to end existing situations of marital captivity and prevent new situations from arising have yet to be developed. The human rights discourse advanced in this book shows that a human rights centred approach is imperative for the process of finding effective solutions to end marital captivity. Applying the human rights legal framework enables to objectively consider, balance and resolve the conflicting rights and interests inherent within situations of marital captivity. It also reveals how a select number of human rights and principles are affected within situations of marital captivity and offers an overview of States' positive obligations to protect and ensure these rights. The implied human rights obligations are discussed within the context of marital captivity so as to identify and formulate specific States' obligations to address marital captivity. This enables the author to produce guidelines for legal and non-legal measures that States should consider adopting in their efforts to combat marital captivity and to comply with their human rights obligations.

Towards a Sustainable Human Right to Water
  • Supporting Vulnerable People and Protecting Water Resources
  • Volume 85
  • Daphina Misiedjan
  • Published by:
    Intersentia
    Published online:
    30 March 2019
    Print publication:
    07 March 2019
  • Towards a Sustainable Human Right to Water is a timely examination of a critical and time-sensitive subject in the field of human rights law. Aside from being a basic necessity for human survival, the United Nations identifies water as being a keystone of sustainable development and at the very heart of healthy ecosystems and socio-economic development. Thus, the book poses the critical question how the concept of sustainable development can contribute to the sustainable realisation of the human right to water for vulnerable people. It takes a three step approach in providing an answer to this fundamental question of our time. Firstly, the case is made for a broadening of the scope of vulnerability to include environmental factors and it is argued that the notion of vulnerability, as it is currently understood within the human rights discourse, is too limited. It should not only be assessed by looking at the social and economic circumstances of people or at specific groups, but also by looking at the environment that one lives in. This is certainly important for the realisation of the human right to water, which impacts the unserved or underserved to greater effect as they are directly dependent on their environment. Widening the scope of vulnerability would allow for more specific targeted measures when environmental problems are considered in connection with social vulnerability. Secondly, principles of sustainable development can be used to shape and further develop the human right to water. This would allow for the right to be realised in a sustainable manner and states could comply with both international human rights legislation and international environmental legislation. While these two fields of law have developed separately, their perspectives can nevertheless be reconciled if their different interests are balanced. Finally, an assessment framework is developed to analyze how states can implement the human right to water in a sustainable way. Bringing together the different disciplines of law, economics and public administration, it provides for basic water system knowledge which is required for a comprehensive exploration of the main challenges, and for offering recommendations specific to a national or regional context. This framework has been applied to the situation in Suriname, demonstrating the need for multi-level interventions.

Collective Reparations
  • Tensions and Dilemmas between Collective Reparations with the Individual Right to Receive Reparations
  • Volume 84
  • Diana Odier Contreras-Garduno
  • Published by:
    Intersentia
    Published online:
    31 January 2019
    Print publication:
    28 September 2018
  • Although international human rights law establishes the individual right to receive reparations, collective reparations have been considered a common response from judicial and non-judicial bodies to reparations for victims of gross violations of human rights. As such, collective reparations have been awarded within the field of international human rights law, international criminal law and transitional justice. Yet the concept, content and scope of collective reparations are rather unspecified. To date, neither the judicial nor the non-judicial bodies that have granted this kind of reparations have ever defined them.This book presents the first study on collective reparations. It aims to shed light on the legal framework, content and scope of collective reparations, and to the relationship between collective reparations and the individual right to reparations. In order to do so, the book analyses specific case law from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the International Criminal Court and the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia. Additionally, the practices of non-judicial mechanisms were examined, specifically those of the Peruvian and Moroccan Truth Commissions and of two mass claims compensation commissions (the United Nations Compensation Commission and the Eritrea-Ethiopia Claims Commission). Finally, it provides an overview of the challenges that collective reparations present to the fields of international human rights law and international criminal law, including in their implementation.

Situation Selection Regime at the International Criminal Court
  • Law, Policy, Practice
  • Volume 82
  • Mohammad Hadi Zakerhossein
  • Published by:
    Intersentia
    Published online:
    13 October 2018
    Print publication:
    15 December 2017
  • The International Criminal Court (the Court) in The Hague, in fulfilling its mandate to put an end to impunity for the perpetrators of the most serious international crimes of concern to the international community as a whole, is neither able nor intended to investigate all situations of crisis across the world. Selectivity is unavoidable for the operation of this international organization. However, the authority of the Prosecutor of the Court to select and prioritize a situation over other situations is not unfettered. This book studies the situation selection regime at the International Criminal Court. In doing so, it first clarifies the notion of situation under the constituent instrument of the Court, the Rome Statute. In addition to this conceptualization, through describing the situation selection process and criteria, the Court's law, policies and practices in this regard are examined. Dealing with the misunderstanding of the Court's selectivity, this book reads the situation selection regime from the lens of expressivism. This theory justifies the selectivity in the Court's operation. The book is a resource for anyone who seeks more insight into the situation selection regime of the Court.

Privacy as Virtue
  • Moving Beyond the Individual in the Age of Big Data
  • Volume 81
  • Bart van der Sloot
  • Published by:
    Intersentia
    Published online:
    12 October 2018
    Print publication:
    30 June 2017
  • Privacy as Virtue discusses whether a rights-based approach to privacy regulation still suffices to address the challenges triggered by new data processing techniques such as Big Data and mass surveillance. A rights-based approach generally grants subjective rights to individuals to protect their personal interests. However, large-scale data processing techniques often transcend the individual and their interests. Virtue ethics is used to reflect on this problem and open up new ways of thinking. A virtuous agent not only respects the rights and interests of others, but also has a broader duty to act in the most careful, just and temperate way. This applies to citizens, to companies such as Apple, Google and Facebook and to governmental organizations that are involved with large scale data processing alike. The author develops a three-layered model for privacy regulation in the Big Data era. The first layer consists of minimum obligations that are independent of individual interests and rights. Virtuous agents have to respect the procedural pre-conditions for the exercise of power. The second layer echoes the current paradigm, the respect for individual rights and interests. While the third layer is the obligation of aspiration: a virtuous agent designs the data process in such a way that human flourishing, equality and individual freedom are promoted.

Limits of Fundamental Rights Protection by the EU
  • The Scope for the Development of Positive Obligations
  • Volume 79
  • Malu Beijer
  • Published by:
    Intersentia
    Published online:
    27 September 2018
    Print publication:
    01 February 2017
  • The concept of positive obligations is familiar to various legal systems which seek to protect fundamental rights. This concept means that states are required to take active measures to protect fundamental rights, such as, for example, adopting a general legal framework to regulate same-sex relationships in order to ensure protection of the right to private life. In Europe, positive obligations have, in particular, been developed in the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) from the 1970s onwards. The ECtHR has explained that positive obligations are necessary to ensure that fundamental rights are of practical value and effective for everyone.The ECtHR is not the only supranational court in Europe that protects fundamental rights. The Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) also protects fundamental rights within the scope of EU law. So far, no concept of positive obligations has been developed by this Court, and the question has been asked whether such a development can indeed occur under EU law. After all, the EU is a rather special international organisation which has specific, mainly economic, interests to protect. It is also unclear whether the EU has competence to undertake regulatory action to actively protect fundamental rightsBased on the insights obtained from the development of positive obligations by the ECtHR, this volume analyses whether and how positive obligations could be incorporated into EU law. The relevant provisions laid down in the EU Treaties and the EU Charter, the case-law of the ECJ and the specificities of the EU system are studied to find out where there is scope for recognition of the concept of positive obligations under EU law, and what limitations would apply to this.

Human Rights and Drug Control
  • Access to Controlled Essential Medicines in Resource-Constrained Countries
  • Volume 80
  • Marie Elske Gispen
  • Published by:
    Intersentia
    Published online:
    27 September 2018
    Print publication:
    27 January 2017
  • Globally, millions of people suffer health and socio-economic related problems due to the unavailability of controlled essential medicines such as morphine for pain treatment, which leaves them in disabling and sometimes degrading situations. Controlled essential medicines are medicines included in the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines, and whose active substance is listed under the international drug-control treaties. Their availability and accessibility therefore fall within the remit of both human rights and international drug-control law. Even though the unavailability of controlled essential medicines is generally caused by a multifaceted and complex interplay of factors, the current international drug-control framework paradoxically hinders rather than fosters the access to medicines.Human Rights and Drug Control analyses a human rights interpretation of the international drug-control framework with an emphasis on advancing the access to controlled essential medicines in resource-constrained countries. Its approach goes beyond the more conventional legal analysis and includes an ethical analysis as well as two case studies in Uganda and Latvia. It first aims to identify a human rights foundation of drug control by examining how human rights norms would balance the underlying tension: some controlled substances have a clear, evidence-based medical benefit, yet also have the potential to be misused, which may lead to dependency disorders. This makes it evident that States should regulate this delicate equilibrium, the challenge being how they can do so legitimately in light of human rights norms.Having explored this premise in the context of human rights law and theory, this book then applies these findings to Uganda and Latvia, - two 'best practice' countries - when it comes to improving the accessibility of morphine for pain treatment. Relying on qualitative research methods, the study explores whether the human rights basis of drug-control regulation may be adequately integrated into the structures of the present international drug-control system. It specifically deals with various technical, administrative and procedural obligations relating to the import/export and retail trade of controlled medicines. The book concludes with a proposal on how a human rights approach to drug-control may be advanced, specifically highlighting the importance of reconciling international obligations with the local reality in which these obligations come into play.

The Killing of Death
  • Denying the Genocide Against the Tutsi
  • Volume 73
  • Moerland Roland
  • Published by:
    Intersentia
    Published online:
    21 September 2018
    Print publication:
    05 February 2016
  • This study deals with the phenomenon of genocide denialism, and in particular how it operates in the context of the genocide against the Tutsi. The term genocide denialism denotes that we are not dealing with a single act or type of (genocide) denial but with a more elaborate process of denial that involves a variety of denialist and denial-like acts that are part of the process of genocide. From this study it becomes clear that the process of genocide thrives on a more elaborate denial dynamic than recognized in expert literature until now. This study consists of three parts. The first theoretical part analyses what the elements of denial and genocide entail and how they are (inter)related. The exploration results in a typology of genocide denialism. This model clarifies the different functions denial performs throughout the process of genocide. It furthermore explains how actors engage in denial and on which rhetorical devices speech acts of denial rely. The second part of the study focuses on denial in practice and it analyses how denial operates in the particular case of the genocide against the Tutsi. The analysis reveals a complex denial dynamic: not only those who perpetrated the genocide are involved in its denial, but also certain Western scholars, journalists, lawyers, etc. The latter were originally not involved in the genocide but recycle (elements of) the denial discourse of the perpetrators. The study addresses the implications of such recycling and discusses whether these actors actually have become involved in the genocidal process. This sheds light on the complex relationship between genocide and denial. The insights gained throughout the first two parts of this study have significant implications for many other actors that through their actions engage with the flow of meaning concerning the specific events in Rwanda or genocide in general. The final part of this study critically reflects on the actions of a variety of actors and their significance in terms of genocide denialism. These actors include scholars from various fields, human rights organisations, the ICTR, and the government of Rwanda. On a more fundamental level this study critically highlights how the revisionist scientific climate, in which knowledge and truth claims are constantly questioned, is favourable to genocide denialism and how the post-modern turn in academia has exacerbated this climate. Ultimately, this study reveals that the phenomenon of genocide denial involves more than perpetrators denying their genocidal crimes and the scope of actors and actions relevant in terms of genocide denialism is much broader than generally assumed.

The Theory, Potential and Practice of Procedural Dialogue in the European Convention on Human Rights System
  • Volume 77
  • R. Glas Lize
  • Published by:
    Intersentia
    Published online:
    21 September 2018
    Print publication:
    18 February 2016
  • Winner of the 2016 Max van der Stoel Human Rights Award Dialogue is the new buzzword for the European Convention on Human Rights (Convention) system. Judges throughout Europe have welcomed and encouraged dialogue, and references to the notion have become commonplace at conferences and in academic writing. Yet although the buzz has intensified, exactly why dialogue can be of added value is not often examined. Nor do those who rely on the notion usually explain how exactly it can be operationalised in a practical sense. This volume dissects the common-sense realisation that dialogue adds value to the Convention system, within which the State Parties, the Court, the Committee of Ministers (Committee), the Parliamentary Assembly (Assembly), and the Commissioner for Human Rights (Commissioner) interact. The question of why dialogue should occur is answered through an account of the way the system is established and how it functions, and of the developments and reform it has experienced. The second aim of the volume is to establish whether Convention dialogue does indeed live up to its potential added value. For this purpose, 26 procedures and 'procedural steps' are investigated in the light of 'indicators of dialogue'. The procedures include third-party interventions, the pilot-judgment procedure, and the Committee's Human Rights meetings. Both the procedures' dialogic potential on paper and their 'dialogicness' in practice are assessed, based in part on interviews with inter alia the Court's judges, agents representing the states before the Court, and persons monitoring the execution of the Court's judgments. This volume will be of use to those who are interested in the notion of (Convention) dialogue and its theoretical underpinnings, and those who would like to know more about Convention-related procedures, the execution of the Court's judgments, and the role that the Assembly and the Commissioner can play in the Convention system.

Advancing the Right to Health Care in China
  • Towards Accountability
  • Volume 83
  • Yi Zhang
  • Published by:
    Intersentia
    Published online:
    11 October 2018
    Print publication:
    15 September 2018
  • Health is indispensable for living a life of dignity. Currently, there is an almost universal commitment to the right to health (care). However, despite the growing legal recognition of this right, empirical evidence suggests that, as a whole, the implementation of the right to health (care) remains largely rhetorical at the domestic level. For example, although China ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in 2001, relatively little attention has been paid to the domestic implementation of the right to health (care). Violations of this right were also identified in reality. Given that China's health care reform is entering the so-called 'deep-water' zone, it is essential for the Chinese government to investigate how to guarantee everyone equal access to health care. Advancing the Right to Health Care in China analyses the role of accountability, a Western concept that has recently been introduced to China, in advancing the right to health care in light of China's unique political, legal and social background. In doing so, this book synthesises two different concepts: (1) the right to health; and (2) accountability, and integrates them into an analytical framework for 'right to health-based accountability'. It further provides a greater understanding of accountability and the various forms of accountability mechanisms that should be established by States. More specifically, it establishes a constructive accountability model that can be applied to specific health concerns in China, as well as in other countries, particularly those with non-electoral regimes. This book first systematically evaluates the status quo of the legislative and policy measures China has taken to give effect to the right to health care within its jurisdiction. It then identifies the shortcomings in China's domestic implementation of this right and seeks to address the remaining challenges through the lens of accountability. This book concludes with a set of recommendations for Chinese law- and policy-makers for implementing China's obligations under the right to health care through its draft Basic Health Law.