Urgency and Human Rights—Nijmegen, The Netherlands

Urgency and Human Rights Conference

In cooperation with Seconda Università di Napoli, Italy and Ghent Human Rights Centre, Belgium, the Center for State and Law at Radboud University Nijmegen will be hosting an international conference, Urgency and Human Rights, on May 29-30, 2015.

Various international and regional human rights mechanisms have had to deal with urgent situations. These situations may range from imminent extradition or expulsion, risks to health and dignity in detention, threats to human rights defenders, internally displaced persons and others vulnerable to attacks, to indigenous peoples facing destruction of their environment. Sometimes the situation is one of armed conflict. Each type of situation may trigger a different response. Moreover, the responses to urgent cases may differ depending on the role and function of the international and regional monitoring mechanisms.

To address urgent situations pending international litigation, human rights courts and other treaty monitoring bodies often use the tool of provisional measures (interim measures). It is this type of urgent proceedings that is the point of reference for this conference. At the same time it is foreseen that different types of responses to urgent situations, such as urgent appeals by United Nations thematic mechanisms, and their domestic implementation, will be addressed as well.

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