Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Acknowledgement
- Contents
- List of Abbreviations
- List of Instruments
- List of Cases
- Introduction
- PART I PROGRESSIVITY AND NON-REGRESSION IN INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAW: GOING UP ON THE ESCALATOR
- PART II PROGRESSIVE OBLIGATIONS AND NON-REGRESSION IN ENVIRONMENTAL TREATY REGIMES: GOING UP THE DOWN ESCALATOR
- PART III NON-REGRESSION AND THE PROMISES OF COMPARATIVE INTERNATIONAL LAW
- Bibliography
- Index
- About the Author
PART I - PROGRESSIVITY AND NON-REGRESSION IN INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAW: GOING UP ON THE ESCALATOR
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2021
- Frontmatter
- Acknowledgement
- Contents
- List of Abbreviations
- List of Instruments
- List of Cases
- Introduction
- PART I PROGRESSIVITY AND NON-REGRESSION IN INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAW: GOING UP ON THE ESCALATOR
- PART II PROGRESSIVE OBLIGATIONS AND NON-REGRESSION IN ENVIRONMENTAL TREATY REGIMES: GOING UP THE DOWN ESCALATOR
- PART III NON-REGRESSION AND THE PROMISES OF COMPARATIVE INTERNATIONAL LAW
- Bibliography
- Index
- About the Author
Summary
From the above-mentioned literature that advocates an environmental nonregression principle, it is evident that such suggestions are often modelled on the human rights notion of non-regression. Hence, before returning to the question of a non-regression principle within the framework of IEL in Part II, it will be useful to provide some context by looking into international human rights law in greater detail.
A survey of human rights law is likely to be illuminating in the present context for at least two reasons: First, on a doctrinal level, it will be seen in the following chapters how a human rights concept of non-regression has developed and that it has largely evolved in conjunction with – and perhaps as the flipside to – the understanding of human rights obligations as ‘progressive’ obligations. Second, on a more theoretical level, human rights law provides perhaps the chief subject-area of international law where the very idea of ‘progress’ is deeply woven into legal scholarship and discourse. It is often suggested, for example, that international human rights law, from its relatively modest beginnings under the auspices of the League of Nations, has made considerable headway in the aftermath of the Second World War. For example, Thomas Buergenthal observed that the development of a significant body of human rights law throughout the second half of the 20th century
has led to a steady improvement of the human rights situation in many parts of the world, obviously not without setbacks from time to time. Of course, it would be naïve not to expect such setbacks, but it would be equally wrong to assume that no progress has been made. …
By and large, … we have made very substantial progress when it comes to the protection of human rights in the world. And this is due in part to the ever more important role international human rights law is playing as a political force to be reckoned with.
While this observation of a continuous progress towards an ever better human rights situation may or may not be true on an empirical level, there is arguably a deeper meaning that is accorded to progress as an overarching theme, narrative or motif of human rights law.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Non-Regression in International Environmental LawHuman Rights Doctrine and the Promises of Comparative International Law, pp. 33 - 36Publisher: IntersentiaPrint publication year: 2020