Periodic Reporting for period 2 - DISSECT (DISSECT: Evidence in International Human Rights Adjudication)
Reporting period: 2022-04-01 to 2023-09-30
Evidence is at the heart of adjudication, and adjudication at the heart of the international protection of human rights. Yet evidence in international human rights (IHR) adjudication has never been comprehensively studied. Benefiting from the support of highest-level figures in the relevant institutions, DISSECT is a ground-breaking research programme which captures the evidentiary regimes in place in the world’s three regional human rights courts and in UN human rights quasi-judicial bodies. First, DISSECT examines from a purely legal perspective the formal and informal rules and practices (‘regime’) which govern the treatment of evidence in IHR adjudication - burden and standard of proof and evidence admissibility, collection, submission, assessment and scope. It does so across institutions, types of complaints and time. Second, it examines the political underpinnings and uses of the IHR evidentiary regime, including dismissals of politically sensitive complaints on the pretext that they are not sufficiently evidenced by the victim. Third, it identifies ‘best’ and ‘worst’ practices and generate specific recommendations for use in IHR adjudication. Fourth, it develops new insights on evidence, truth and power and thus create a new strand in Critical Legal Studies. These ambitious aims are achieved by harnessing not only legal doctrinal methods of research but also, and crucially, the PI’s rare double training as a lawyer and an anthropologist. This allows the IHR evidentiary regime to be studied as a social phenomenon (rather than merely ‘in context’). DISSECT is urgently needed by victims of human rights abuse who seek international redress without knowing exactly what evidence is required of them, as well as by IHR adjudicatory bodies at risk of losing their legitimacy if they cannot demonstrate that they are acting logically, consistently and fairly. Current concerns over ‘truth decay’ make it particularly timely.
At time of reporting, a team of eleven researchers is completing the DISSECT project.
Each of the three regional courts of human rights has its evidence regime studied in both its legal doctrinal aspects and its political underpinnings by one PhD researcher. Anne-Katrin Speck is focusing on the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), Genaro Manrique Giacoman on the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and Edward Murimi on the African Court of Human and People's Rights.
Specific thematic aspects of evidence in international human rights adjudication are being explored by one post-doctoral fellow and four PhD researchers. Maybritt Jill Alpes is looking at the brokering of evidence related to Mediterranean pushbacks; Ruwadzano Makumbe at the promises and challenges of digital open-source evidence; Nina Kolowratnik at the way Indigenous Peoples’ knowledge can be put across in court; Nele Schuldt (FWO funded) at the encounter between science and law in climate change human rights litigation; and Emma Varnagy (whose main affiliation is to the iBOF ‘Future-Proofing Human Rights’ project) on the impact of non-evidencing police Roma abuse.
Research training has included, amongst other activities, the PhD researchers following bespoke courses on ‘Ethnographic methods of data collection’ (spring 2021, taught by Professor Jane K. Cowan) and ‘Developing academic writing skills’ (spring 2022, taught by Professor Gina Wisker).
Despite early difficulties and delays due to the Covid crisis, fieldwork has taken place or is ongoing at the European Court of Human Rights, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the Inter-American system of Human Rights, in Ecuador in relation to the Tagaeri-Taromenane Indigenous Peoples vs. Ecuador case pending before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and at EU borders in relation to Mediterranean pushbacks. It is also planned in other locations.
On 5 July 2021, DISSECT organised a one-day webinar on ‘Evidence and Proof in Proceedings before the European Court of Human Rights’, which is giving rise to the preparation of a special issue of the European Convention on Human Rights law Review. On 2 March 2023, a symposium entitled ‘Translating Climate Science of the Human Rights Court: An interdisciplinary Encounter between Science and law’ took place in a hybrid form (University of Strasbourg and online), which had been instigated and co-organised (with Professor Elisabeth Lambert) by Nele Schuldt. On 15-16 May 2023, a symposium organised by DISSECT’s PI and post-doctoral researchers Cornelia Clocker and Deborah Casalin gathered in Ghent over 20 experts who discussed the evidentiary regime(s) of the UN Treaty Bodies.
Each of the three regional courts of human rights has its evidence regime studied in both its legal doctrinal aspects and its political underpinnings by one PhD researcher. Anne-Katrin Speck is focusing on the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), Genaro Manrique Giacoman on the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and Edward Murimi on the African Court of Human and People's Rights.
Specific thematic aspects of evidence in international human rights adjudication are being explored by one post-doctoral fellow and four PhD researchers. Maybritt Jill Alpes is looking at the brokering of evidence related to Mediterranean pushbacks; Ruwadzano Makumbe at the promises and challenges of digital open-source evidence; Nina Kolowratnik at the way Indigenous Peoples’ knowledge can be put across in court; Nele Schuldt (FWO funded) at the encounter between science and law in climate change human rights litigation; and Emma Varnagy (whose main affiliation is to the iBOF ‘Future-Proofing Human Rights’ project) on the impact of non-evidencing police Roma abuse.
Research training has included, amongst other activities, the PhD researchers following bespoke courses on ‘Ethnographic methods of data collection’ (spring 2021, taught by Professor Jane K. Cowan) and ‘Developing academic writing skills’ (spring 2022, taught by Professor Gina Wisker).
Despite early difficulties and delays due to the Covid crisis, fieldwork has taken place or is ongoing at the European Court of Human Rights, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the Inter-American system of Human Rights, in Ecuador in relation to the Tagaeri-Taromenane Indigenous Peoples vs. Ecuador case pending before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and at EU borders in relation to Mediterranean pushbacks. It is also planned in other locations.
On 5 July 2021, DISSECT organised a one-day webinar on ‘Evidence and Proof in Proceedings before the European Court of Human Rights’, which is giving rise to the preparation of a special issue of the European Convention on Human Rights law Review. On 2 March 2023, a symposium entitled ‘Translating Climate Science of the Human Rights Court: An interdisciplinary Encounter between Science and law’ took place in a hybrid form (University of Strasbourg and online), which had been instigated and co-organised (with Professor Elisabeth Lambert) by Nele Schuldt. On 15-16 May 2023, a symposium organised by DISSECT’s PI and post-doctoral researchers Cornelia Clocker and Deborah Casalin gathered in Ghent over 20 experts who discussed the evidentiary regime(s) of the UN Treaty Bodies.
DISSECT is expected to deliver an impact at five different levels. It will 1) clarify the ‘messy’ IHR evidentiary regime with benefit for the scholarly community and practitioners; 2) influence judicial practice through offering recommendations; 3) contribute to the development of IHR comparative studies; 4) refine and articulate further the PI's anthropologically-informed ‘dissecting’ method of case law analysis; and 5) offer reflections and insights on how to handle factual uncertainty and approach truth in our ‘alt-truth’ political era.