Mikel Mancisidor

Professor Mikel Mancisidor is the Vice-President of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of the United Nations Organization. He has a PhD in International Relations from the Diplomatic School of Geneva (DIR GSD) and is notably known for being the former Director of UNESCO Etxea-UNESCO Center of the Basque Country (2004-2014) and honorary Research Member of the Globecraft® Institute-Geneva. Professor Mancisidor was awarded the Gold Medal of Human Rights 2013, granted by the Spanish League of Pro-Human Rights.

CourSe

ESTUDIOS AVANZADOS EN DERECHOS HUMANOS (ADVANCED HUMAN RIGHTS) (LAW-739E-002) (Fall) (Spanish only) The goal of the seminar is to study the scope of a selected group of relevant human rights recognized in international conventions and to analyze how the protections afforded by those treaties operate in actual practice. To accomplish that goal, we will analyze the case law developed by international supervisory bodies, such as the Human Rights Committee, under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Inter-American Commission and Court of Human Rights, under the American Convention on Human Rights, and the European Court of Human Rights, under the European Convention on Human Rights. Also, we will study selected decisions of domestic courts that apply international human rights law or raise human rights issues relevant for the topics covered in class. During the first two classes we will explore the relevance of international law and review basic concepts that constitute the foundations for studying international human rights law, such as sources of law and the concept of state responsibility. Next, we will proceed to study the scope of the restrictions applicable to human rights obligations as well as the doctrines of deference applied by certain international bodies when supervising state compliance with those obligations. As part of this section, we will study the notion of state of emergency and derogation of human rights obligations. Third, we will analyze the scope of core rights protected by civil and political rights conventions, namely the right to liberty and security of person, the right not to be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, the right to a remedy and the right to a fair trial. As part of the existing challenges to the protection of human rights, we will explore the concept of universal jurisdiction. We will also analyze several cases decided and initiatives adopted in the context of the “war against terrorism” in light of international human rights law and humanitarian law.