Time at STIAS will be devoted to the final updating and revision of a syllabus entitled "The International Protection of Human Rights: A Critical Approach", which was used in 2015 at the College of Law of the National University of Taiwan in Taipei, to be published as a book in 2016 by Intersentia (Antwerp, Cambridge, Portland). The book will contain a short survey of the institutional framework (universal and regional), as well as of questions about the concept of human rights and the principle of equality. Attention is also given to the contribution of the South African Constitutional Court with respect to social rights and by the U.S. Supreme Court with respect to the concepts of affirmative action and "self-executing treaties". Brief references are also given to relevant EU-law.
In the second part, specific issues are dealt with, such as procedural issues at the World Conference on Racism in Durban, the internal applicability of international human rights provisions, the death penalty and irreducible life sentences and the interpretation of the European Convention on Human Rights by the Strasbourg Court. Attention is also given to some specific legal regimes set up for refugees, minorities and victims of armed conflicts.
In addition work will continue on an article on "The judgments of the European Court of Human Rights finding a violation of the prohibition of torture with respect to asylum seekers since 2012" (more than 100 judgments up to now); and an article on the case-law of the African Court of Human and People's Rights (2011-2015).