'The immunity of States and international organizations in the face of employment disputes: the new human rights dilemma?' by Dr Philippa Webb

Duration: 31 mins 48 secs
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Description: The Lauterpacht Centre for International Law (LCIL), University of Cambridge hosts a regular Friday lunchtime lecture series on key areas of International Law. Previous subjects have included UN peacekeeping operations, the advisory jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice, the crime of aggression, whaling, children and military tribunals, and theories and practices for proving individual responsibility criminal responsibility for genocide and crimes against humanity.

This lecture, entitled 'The immunity of States and international organizations in the face of employment disputes: the new human rights dilemma?', was delivered at the Lauterpacht Centre on Friday, 6 March 2015 by Dr Philippa Webb, The Dickson Poon School of Law, King's College London

Please note, the question and answer sections of LCIL lectures are omitted to facilitate a free and frank discussion with participants.

For more information about the series, please see the Lauterpacht Centre website at http://www.lcil.cam.ac.uk
 
Created: 2015-04-02 16:09
Collection: LCIL International Law Seminar Series MOVED
Publisher: University of Cambridge
Copyright: University of Cambridge
Language: eng (English)
Keywords: international law; State immunity; human rights;
 
Abstract: At the end of 2014, it appeared that there was little hope for an exception to State immunity for grave violations of human rights. A succession of decisions by international, regional and national courts – Jurisdictional Immunities (ICJ), Jones v UK (ECtHR) and Kazemi v Iran (Supreme Court of Canada) - rejected the existence of such an exception under customary international law.

Although the door may be closed on the possibility of lifting State immunity for human rights violations on the basis of a jus cogens exception, I wish to explore whether the employment exception to immunity might open up possibilities for relief. It provides a tool for holding States and international organizations accountable for human rights violations that occur in the course of employment. Cases include claims of human trafficking brought against embassies and allegations of discrimination and harassment in the workplace of the UN and NATO. Although the commercial activity exception to State immunity is well understood and a potential human rights exception has been the subject of extensive commentary, the related employment exception has been less studied.
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