The Human Rights Covenants at 50 ― Their Past, Present, and Future

Half a century ago, on 16 December 1966, the UN General Assembly adopted the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). While the adoption of the two UN human rights covenants was celebrated all over the world, their 50th anniversary has received very little attention from the international community. The present book marks this anniversary by taking stock of the first half-century of the existence of what are probably the world's two most important human rights treaties. It does so by reflecting on what the covenants have achieved (or failed to achieve) in the years that have passed, by determining and comparing their current influence in the various regions of the world, and by assessing their potential roles in the future.

The book contains papers that were presented during a symposium held in Zurich in 2016, which brought together experts and stakeholders from a range of disciplines and world regions. Some fundamental issues that are addressed by the contributors are as old as the two covenants themselves. They concern, for example, the division of human rights into first- and second-generation rights, and the question of whether there should be one central monitoring body - possibly a world court - or more than just one. However, the contributors go beyond such questions that have been explored before; they develop new answers to old questions and point to new challenges.

Daniel Moeckli, Assistant Professor of Public International Law and Constitutional Law, University of Zurich, Helen Keller, Professor of Public Law, European and Public International Law and Judge, University of Zurich and the European Court of Human Rights

Daniel Moeckli is Assistant Professor of Public International Law and Constitutional Law at the University of Zurich and Fellow of the University of Nottingham Human Rights Law Centre. He is the author of Human Rights and Non-discrimination in the 'War on Terror' (OUP, 2008), for which he was awarded the Paul Guggenheim Prize, and Exclusion from Public Space (CUP, 2016) as well as co-editor of International Human Rights Law (OUP, 2017). Before joining the University of Zurich, he was a Lecturer at the University of Nottingham and worked for the International Bar Association, Amnesty International, and the Supreme Court of the Canton of Berne.

Helen Keller is Professor of Public Law, European and Public International Law at the University of Zurich and serves as a Judge at the European Court of Human Rights. Keller's research focuses on international human rights law, paying particular attention to the European Convention on Human Rights. She is, inter alia, the author of The Reception of International Law (2003; in German), the co-author of Friendly Settlements before the European Court of Human Rights (OUP, 2010) as well as the co-editor of Family Forms and Parenthood (2016), UN Human Rights Treaty Bodies - Law and Legitimacy (CUP, 2012), and A Europe of Rights: the Impact of the ECHR on National Legal Systems (OUP, 2008). In addition, she has published numerous articles in international peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes.