Implementation and compliance with human rights law: An exploration of the interplay between the international, regional and national levels

人们普遍认为，“执行危机”正困扰着区域和国际人权机制，包括历史上享有相对较高遵守水平的《欧洲公约》体系。这种情况使长期存在但仍未解决的辩论更加紧迫：遵守国际和区域人权法意味着什么，哪些因素影响国家是否遵守？在现有文献和研究的基础上，这项急需的创新研究将考察影响九个国家（哥伦比亚、危地马拉、加拿大、格鲁吉亚、捷克共和国、芬兰、喀麦隆、阿尔及利亚和坦桑尼亚）执行以下决定的因素：(1)从个人向联合国条约机构投诉中得出的选定决定；（二）三个区域人权系统（欧洲、美洲和非洲）中各机构的部分判决和决定。这是四个主要学术人权中心（布里斯托尔、埃塞克斯、米德尔塞克斯和比勒陀利亚）与开放社会司法倡议之间的合作努力。PI、联合i和伙伴组织在执行人权法方面各自和共同拥有无与伦比的专业知识、人脉和经验。作为执业律师，他们曾在这些地区和联合国机构提起诉讼，组织有影响力的研讨会和其他活动，并就决策和判决的执行提供建议。作为学者，他们在这一领域著述颇丰。开放社会司法倡议（OSJI）在三个地区和联合国拥有令人羡慕的广泛联系，被认为是人权领域民间社会的主要参与者之一。与布里斯托尔协调项目，为比勒陀利亚提供非洲专业知识，米德尔塞克斯的欧洲人权倡导中心提供欧洲专业知识，埃塞克斯的人权中心提供美洲间的贡献，项目团队非常适合将学术和实践背景结合起来，以开展这项创新和雄心勃勃的研究。通过半结构化访谈、参与者观察、讲习班和一系列针对政策和学术受众的出版产出，本研究将试图触及人权法在21世纪的效用和相关性的核心，这是国家行为体（政府、立法机构和司法机构）关注的一个问题；民间社会行动者；人权机构；以及侵犯人权行为的受害者（和潜在受害者）。该研究还希望能够影响国家对选定决定的实际遵守，从而为个别受害者带来更大的正义。

An 'implementation crisis' is widely acknowledged to be afflicting regional and international human rights mechanisms, including the European Convention system which historically enjoyed relatively high levels of compliance. This situation adds urgency to a debate which is long-established but remains unresolved: what does it mean to comply with international and regional human rights law and what factors influence whether states comply or not? Moving beyond existing literature and research, this much-needed and innovative study will examine the factors which impact on the implementation by nine states (Colombia, Guatemala, Canada; Georgia, Czech Republic, Finland; Cameroon, Algeria and Tanzania) of (i) selected decisions deriving from individual complaints to UN treaty bodies; and (ii) selected judgments and decisions of the bodies in the three regional human rights systems (Europe, Americas and Africa).This is a collaborative effort between the four leading academic human rights centres (Bristol, Essex, Middlesex and Pretoria) and the Open Society Justice Initiative. The PI, Co-Is and partner organisation bring individually and collectively unrivalled expertise, contacts and experience in implementation of human rights law. As practitioners they have litigated before these regional and UN bodies, organised influential seminars and other events and provide advice on implementation of decisions and judgments. As academics they have written extensively in the field. The Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI) has an enviable range of contacts across the three regions and at the UN and is considered one of the key civil society players in the human rights field. Together with Bristol coordinating the project and providing African expertise with Pretoria, Middlesex's European Human Rights Advocacy Centre inputting the European expertise and Essex's Human Rights Centre offering the Inter-American contribution, the project team are extremely well placed to combine the academic and practitioner background necessary to carry out this innovative and ambitious research. Through semi-structured interviews, participant observation, workshops and a range of published outputs directed at policy and academic audiences, this research it will attempt to get to the heart of the utility and relevance of human rights law in the 21st century, an issue which is concern to state actors (governments, legislatures and judiciaries); civil society actors; human rights bodies; and victims (and potential) victims of human rights violations. The research also hopes to be able to impact on the actual compliance by the states with selected decisions and thereby resulting in greater justice for the individual victims.