Project description
The influence of NGOs on human rights and environment cases in the Americas
In the ever-evolving landscape of human rights and environmental protection, NGOs are crucial players operating behind the scenes. They wield significant normative influence, moulding the jurisprudence of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR). With the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the NGOsteerIACtHR project delves into the uncharted territory of NGOs’ agenda-setting power within the Inter-American Human Rights System. At the heart of the matter lies the intricate relationship between environmental concerns and human rights. As the IACtHR grapples with cases concerning indigenous groups, environmental defenders and the right to a healthy environment, the NGOsteerIACtHR initiative employs an empirically grounded framework to dissect how NGOs shape the court’s case law.
Objective
Through litigation strategies and third-party interventions, non-governmental (NGOs) set the normative agenda of, and thereby constantly (re)shape, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR). Yet most studies on the evolving jurisprudence of the Inter-American Human Rights System (IAS) relating to environmental matters primarily centre on the interpretative innovations made by its judiciary.
NGOsteerIACtHR develops and applies an analytically and empirically grounded framework to examine the influence of NGOs’ agenda-setting power on the IACtHR’s case law, in which environmental protection serves the interests of human rights. Whilst generating up-to-data knowledge on the role of NGOs within the IAS, this projects differs from the state-of-the-art by illustrating to what extent the evolving human rights and environment agenda of NGOs is behind the evolving IACtHR’s jurisprudence on the subject. To this end, it will combine doctrinal and content analysis of selected contentious cases (involving indigenous groups, environmental defenders and the right to a healthy environment) and the Advisory Opinion No. 23 on Human Rights and the Environment.
As children are now getting involved in litigation before the IAS (Soleil v Haiti), NGOsteerIACtHR will provide a better understanding of how and to what extent the human rights and environmental agenda can be incorporated throughout the written and oral phases of contentious cases. Besides, considering that the IACtHR may employ its advisory proceedings to influence state behaviour and address questions that are likely to arise before its contentious jurisdiction, it will offer clear insights into the role (implicitly) played by NGOs in shaping the normative countours of the Advisory Opinion No. 23 and state conduct alike.
Fields of science
Keywords
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Main Programme
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European FellowshipsCoordinator
9000 Gent
Belgium