Human Rights in the Private Sphere

by Andrew Clapham

The application of international human rights law to the private sphere has implications for the worlds of labor relations, race relations, discrimination and violence against women, and for victims of indignities everywhere. This study shows that respect for privacy need not mean excluding
wrongs in the private sphere from the world of human rights. Concentrating on the rights contained in the European Convention on Human Rights, and their enforcement in the courts of the United Kingdom, it develops a coherent approach to human rights in the private sphere. In particular it challenges
the presumption that the fundamental rights and freedoms contained in the European Convention on Human Rights are irrelevant for cases which concern the sphere of relations between individuals.

422 pages, Hardcover

First published February 17, 1994

About the author

Andrew Clapham is Professor of Public International Law at the Graduate Institute, Geneva and the Director of the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights. He teaches international human rights law and public international law. Prior to coming to the Institute in 1997, he was the Representative of Amnesty International at the United Nations in New York. Andrew Clapham has worked as Special Adviser on Corporate Responsibility to High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson, and Adviser on International Humanitarian Law to Sergio Vieira de Mello, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General in Iraq.