Solving the “Life of the Nation” Conundrum – Extraterritorial Derogations in International Military Operations

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In recent years, human rights bodies, such as the European Court of Human Rights, have shown greater willingness to extend the reach of their human rights treaties to a broad range of actions that states may undertake abroad, including overseas military missions. What remains much less clear is whether states can also derogate from their human rights obligations in response to the challenging security situations they may face abroad. In fact, both the ECHR and the ICCPR allow states to take emergency measures only if the ‘life of the nation’ is at risk. It is therefore debatable whether derogations can be invoked where the emergency in question takes place exclusively abroad (e.g. in Mali), without posing a real threat to the ‘home nation’ (e.g. Denmark). This chapter seeks to solve this ‘life of the nation’ conundrum and examines three possible models of extraterritorial derogations.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationHuman Rights and International Humanitarian Law : Challenges Ahead
EditorsAndreas Zimmermann, Norman Weiß
PublisherEdward Elgar Publishing
Publication date2022
Pages76-94
ISBN (Print)9781839108266
ISBN (Electronic)9781839108273
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2022

ID: 336822320