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Introduction
The year 2024 has turned out to be an impactful year for human rights. Various developments, some extremely concerning and some maybe reassuring, have shaped how human rights are perceived and practiced in the world. At Human Rights Here (HRH), we have stood still at some of these developments. Departing from our mission statement to support the critical exchange of research, analysis and ideas between scholars, practitioners, and all relevant stakeholders; and to promote strategies resulting in an awareness and culture of human rights; we have tried in the past year to shine a light on human rights developments in research and practice both in the Netherlands and beyond. Today, in celebration of Human Rights Day as well as the 5th Anniversary of the launch of Human Rights Here (in 10 December 2019), we share some reflections on the state of human rights in 2024, and highlight a selection of publications on HRH from this year that tackled a diverse set of human rights issues, both some that were dominantly under public attention this year, and some outside the limelights.
Human Rights under Pressure in 2024
One most glaring ‘battleground’ for human rights this year has been the devastation of the Occupied Palestinian Territories and the various norms and procedures of international law and human rights which took center stage in world politics and (social) media. Against the backdrop of the long history of Palestine’s occupation, the violent October 7th attacks perpetrated by Hamas, and Israel’s all-out military campaign; a crucial legal development was, first, South Africa’s case against Israel before the ICJ, accusing Israel of non-compliance with its obligations under the 1951 Genocide Convention. While this case will continue into 2025 and on, provisional measures were ordered by the Court on multiple occasions: on January 26th (finding prima facie jurisdiction, acknowledging the legal standing of South Africa, finding the a plausible and urgent risk to the rights of Palestinians as a group as protected under the Convention, and ordering various measures (paras. 75-84)), on 28 March (reaffirming earlier measures, paras. 45-46) and on 24 May (ordering Israel to “immediately halt its military offensive, and any other action in the Rafah Governorate, which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part”, para.48).
Meanwhile, upon request by the UN General Assembly on 30 December 2022, the same Court issued its Advisory Opinion on the Legal Consequences Arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including East Jerusalem on 19 July 2024, which found Israel’s occupation to be “unlawful” (para. 261), the systemic discrimination of Palestinians by Israel to constitute a breach of ICESCR Art.3, which condemns “racial segregation or apartheid” (para. 229 of the Advisory Opinion), Israel’s policies and practices to have amounted to the “annexation” (para. 173), and the Palestinians’ right to self-determination to have been obstructed (para. 237-243), along with many other rights violated. The ICJ then went on to specify that Israel was under an obligation to end its occupation (para. 284/4), stop all settlement activities and evict current settlements (para. 285/5), pay reparations (para. 285/6), while all other States and the UN were under an obligation not to recognise as lawful any situation arising from the unlawful occupation and annexation, as well as not to render Israel aid and assistance in these violations (paras. 283/7-8). Finally the International Criminal Court’s Pre-Trial Chamber issued arrest warrants on 21 November 2024 against Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri (“Deif”) for the war crimes and crimes against humanity (of murder, directing attacks against civilian populations, torture, rape, hostage-taking, extermination. cruel treatment), as well as dismissing Israel’s jurisdictional complaints and issuing arrest warrants against Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant for crimes against humanity (murder, persecution, other inhumane acts) and war crimes (starvation as a method of warfare, intentionally directing attacks against civilian populations). These legal developments constituted both landmarks for international law, as well as the ‘crystallised’ tip of the iceberg of heated debates in academic circles, civil society events, mainstream and alternative media and even in the households, on the efficacy and relevance for human rights and international law for protracted violations of international law and in holding strong perpetrators accountable, who happen to be considered “Western”, civilised, and/or former victims of atrocities. The consequences of these paradigm-shifting developments and debates will manifest in years to come, which Human Rights Here will be one further forum to document.
In other human rights news, 2024 was also the year of climate change litigation. The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea delivered an Advisory Opinion at the request of the Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law, which acknowledged that states have legal obligations under the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention to reduce greenhouse gases to protect the sea and marine environment, while noting (albeit briefly) that this also raises human rights concerns. The European Court of Human Rights in its Duarte Agostinho and KlimaSeniorinnen cases extensively discussed and acknowledged the relationship between human rights and climate change in a similar, but decidedly different manner than its previous environmental pollution cases. Meanwhile the ICJ is still deliberating on its Advisory Opinion on the Obligations of States in respect of Climate Change as requested by the UN General Assembly. These cases show the cross-cutting relevance of the largest threat facing humankind – the climate crisis – across our physical and normative world, and have brought about many questions and opportunities for regime interaction across legal fields, including the law of the sea, environmental law, and of course, human rights law. Furthermore, similar to the litigation on Israel-Palestine, the climate crisis constitutes a test for the relevance, flexibility and the efficacy of law, as well as human rights law, in addressing some of the most important challenges of today’s world, and helping offer redress and pathways of change for rights-holders.
Contributions from Human Rights Here: Looking under and beyond the Spotlight
This year, a wide and large selection of our contributions have engaged with key human rights issues, helping HRH keeps its finger on the pulse when it comes to bringing to light and helping tackle some of the most pressing human rights issues: from the implications of digital technologies and artificial intelligence on human rights, including the use of technology to facilitate human trafficking and child sexual abuse, and the challenges in moderating hate speech on social media, to the impact on human rights in conflict zones, such as children’s rights in South Sudan. Taking into account the vast array of publications on the HRH platform over the past 12 months, in the remainder of this post, members of the HRH Editorial Board share a handful of themes and publications that have particularly left an impression, which in no way detracts from the relevance and pertinence of the remaining contributions from 2024 – 39 in total.
Palestine has appeared in HRH blogs through various perspectives: Academics, legal practitioners, and activists (especially within the Legal Mobilization Platform) shared their insights on the rising pressure on the right to protest in The Netherlands against the backdrop of the ongoing situation in Palestine-Israel. Shraddha Dubey explored the destruction in Gaza from the perspective of urbicide, domicide, the losses of memory, the right to the city and infrastructure, along with relevant international law. Ashwin Goel explored Israel’s legal responsibility to protect the environment in Gaza using the notions of active and passive environmental warfare, and the intersection of IHL and environmental law.
Climate change through a human rights lens has also been a frequently explored topic, with contributions about the (on-going) International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion on state’s legal obligations regarding climate change, climate anxiety in human rights teaching, climate migration, climate litigation, and the human rights impacts of energy transition projects. In addition to diverse topics, the blog has reached a global scale, with submissions about the African context, the EU, the Netherlands, India, Georgia, and Gaza.
Aside from this, 2024 also encouraged us to revisit and challenge assumptions we may have once taken for granted, particularly in the field of human rights. One such issue is the traditional labelling of the architects of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) as the “founding fathers”. The recent discussion of Hélène de Suzannet, highlighted in HRH, invites us to reconsider this narrative. Often overlooked, de Suzannet made significant contributions to the ECHR project, and acknowledging her role challenges the conventional, male-dominated historical accounts of human rights law’s establishment. As we commemorate Human Rights Day, this revisionist perspective brings valuable insights into the more inclusive and collaborative nature of international human rights law (IHRL) history.
The year 2024 also allowed us to delve into the IHRL practice. Through the blog series "Behind the Scenes of ECtHR Practice," the experiences of ECHR historian Dr. Marco Duranti, UK Barrister and lawyer in the first case of the Court on extraterritorial application and its first interim measures Piers Gardner, REDRESS legal expert on third party interventions before the ECtHR Chris Esdaile, and European Implementation Network (EIN) officer Ioana Iliescu offer a richer understanding of how the ECHR system functions in practice. These interviews, conducted by postgraduate students, not only contribute to HRH’s mission of empowering the next generation of human rights researchers but also underscore the significance of practice-oriented learning, especially in the Netherlands' human rights education system.
In addition to contributions that reflect the state of human rights, and as part of our mission to shine a light on the research outputs of the Netherlands Network for Human Rights Research (NNHRR), in 2024, we have continued to publish reports written by NNHRR Members who have organised events, workshops, symposiums, and conferences on topical human rights related issues, and launched a new initiative that seeks to offer NNHRR Members to write reflective blogs on the occasion of international human rights days that relate to their own area of expertise (see here and here).
Looking Ahead
In 2025 and the years ahead, we at Human Rights Here aim to not only continue providing a space for exchange, dissemination, contestation and debate on human rights issues (in research and in practice, in The Netherlands and beyond); but we also hope to further invite contributors to/who engage more critically with human rights norms, application, research and practice, including by amplifying more critical voices – such as de- and anti-colonial-, feminist- and TWAIL-perspectives – and more diverse authors from “every organ of society” that the preamble of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights entrusts with the realisation of human rights. Thereby, we remain committed to our mission to contribute to cultivating and strengthening a culture of human rights, as a set of minimum safeguards for all individuals and communities, as a fundamental element of the rule of law at all levels of governance, and as a tool for the fight for empowerment and social justice locally and globally.
The Editorial Board