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Seminário Comentários 30 de Junho, 2009, 10:00, Sala de Seminários do CES Este Seminário realiza-se no âmbito do Projecto de Investigação Reconstruindo Direitos Humanos pelo Uso Transnacional do Direito? Portugal e o Tribunal Europeu de Direitos Humanos (PTDC/SDE/65652/2006), coordenado por Cecília MacDowell Santos e financiado pela Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT). This lecture examines the role of non-governmental organisations (‘NGOs’) in bringing before the European Court of Human Rights cases involving gross and systematic human rights violations. Empirical research highlights the fact that NGOs have a significant role to play in bringing such situations to the Court’s attention. In this paper, the reasons for this are explored through detailed examination of selected cases brought by the Kurdish Human Rights Project and the European Roma Rights Centre. It concludes that as a result of the systematic oppression experienced by minorities such as the Roma and the Kurds, an individualistic conception of litigation is inadequate. Furthermore, it argues that NGOs contribute towards the realisation of the Court’s constitutional function by placing systemic issues of exclusion and discrimination before it. Loveday Hodson is Lecturer in Law at the University of Leicester. She teaches on the Constitutional and Administrative Law and International Law undergraduate modules. She also contributes to the following postgraduate modules: European Convention on Human Rights, Global Protection of Human Rights, Feminist Perspectives on International Law, General Principles of International Law and Socio-Legal Research. Dr. Hodson is the LLM Course Director. She is also the convenor of Global Protection of Human Rights II and Socio-Legal Research, and she is a co-convenor of Feminist Perspectives on International Law. Dr. Hodson´s research interests focus on international human rights law, social movements, human rights and sexuality, particularly the concept of family rights. She is the author of numerous articles on these themes and of the forthcoming book, The Struggle for Rights: The Role of Non-Governmental Organisations in Litigation before the European Court of Human Rights (Hart Publishing, 2010). |