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10 - National Parliaments: Obstacles or Aid to the Impact of International Human Rights Bodies?

from Part II

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 June 2018

By
Jasper Krommendijk
Edited by
Marlene Wind
Marlene Wind
Affiliation:
University of Copenhagen
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Summary

This chapter argues that parliaments are an important actor facilitating the realisation of human rights. It shows that some recommendations of UN human rights treaty bodies (COs) have been effective and resulted in change as a result of the efforts of Members of Parliament (MPs) in the Netherlands, New Zealand and Finland. Nonetheless, parliaments can also pose an obstacle to the implementation of international human rights and COs. A wide parliamentary consensus on a certain practice is sometimes used as a simple excuse (by the government) for not acting upon the recommendations put forward in the COs. At the same time, MPs can be self-righteous and critical about the quality of UN human rights treaty bodies and hence argue against the implementation of COs. The last part of this chapter presents a tentative list of domestic variables conditioning the (difference) in the engagement of parliaments with COs.

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Chapter
Information
International Courts and Domestic Politics , pp. 227 - 261
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2018

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