The contributions to this book, which are based on lectures delivered at the Academy of European Law in Florence, take a closer look at the two sides of the United Nations Security Council's involvement in human rights — its efforts to promote and enforce human rights on the one hand, and the imperiling of those same rights by action of the Council meant to maintain or restore international peace and security, on the other hand. The book offers a collection of individual views and appraisals, presented by leading experts in international law, of how the Council has dealt with human rights issu ... More

The contributions to this book, which are based on lectures delivered at the Academy of European Law in Florence, take a closer look at the two sides of the United Nations Security Council's involvement in human rights — its efforts to promote and enforce human rights on the one hand, and the imperiling of those same rights by action of the Council meant to maintain or restore international peace and security, on the other hand. The book offers a collection of individual views and appraisals, presented by leading experts in international law, of how the Council has dealt with human rights issues, especially in the post-Cold War phase of its life, and of possible avenues for improvement. The opening chapter analyses how the role of the Council in the promotion and protection of human rights has developed since 1945: an organ not endowed with any specific powers in the field of human rights became the ‘centre-piece of the human rights protection system’ of the international community. Another chapter focuses on the legal issues of the Council's actions in favour of human rights. In particular, the legal problems of a qualification of human rights violations as a threat to international peace are addressed. Procedural questions take centre stage in a contribution on the role for human rights in the decision-making process of the Security Council. The following chapters then turn to a practice of the Council which has been sharply criticized because of its negative effects on human rights — ‘targeted sanctions’ imposed on individuals in the form of travel bans, arms embargoes, and the freezing of financial assets. In no other area of its work has the Security Council been so vulnerable to attack by human rights activists and lawyers. In particular, the enforcement of targeted sanctions in Europe and its supervision by European courts is closely analysed.