The last fifty years have witnessed the development of a global system of human rights promotion and protection. Canada has played a significant role in its growth and will likely continue to do so. Yet until now, there has not existed a comprehensive textbook on international human rights law written for Canadians. International Human Rights Law seeks to meet this need in a way that will encourage greater understanding of, and use of, international human rights law by lawyers, students and others.

Part One introduces the international law of human rights, including the related areas of international labour, refugee, humanitarian, and criminal law. The history and sources of international human rights are described and the leading treaties discussed.

Part Two addresses the reception of international human rights norms in Canadian domestic law. After introducing Canadian reception law and the leading Canadian human rights laws, this part embarks on an ambitious survey of the means by which the Charter and other laws implement—or fail to implement—Canadian human rights obligations.

Part Three is devoted to the promotion and protection of human rights in Canadian, international, and (to a lesser extent) foreign law. This part emphasises remedial measures available to victims of human rights abuses, whether suffered in Canada or abroad.

Finally, the conclusion considers contemporary trends and issues in human rights law, including terrorism, humanitarian intervention, transitional justice, and domestic reception.

The book also includes a foreword by the incoming UN Human Rights Commissioner, the Hon. Madam Justice Louise Arbour, and useful appendices on Canadian human rights treaty obligations.

Mark Freeman holds a BA in liberal arts from McGill University, an LL.B from the University of Ottawa, and an LL.M from Columbia University. He is a former senior associate at the International Center for Transitional Justice. He has published extensively on human rights topics and is currently co-authoring two other books: a casebook on transitional justice and a treatise on international standards of due process for fact-finding bodies. Based in Toronto, he actively consults on human rights issues in transitional and post-conflict contexts around the world.

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Gibran van Ert holds a BA in history from McGill University, an MA in law from Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, and an LL.M from the University of Toronto. He is a former law clerk to Madam Justice Prowse of the Court of Appeal for British Columbia and to Justices Gonthier and Fish of the Supreme Court of Canada. He is the author of Using International Law in Canadian Courts (Kluwer Law International, 2002). He practises civil litigation and administrative law with Hunter Voith Litigation Counsel in Vancouver.

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LOUISE ARBOUR’s career of public service includes sitting on the Supreme Court of Canada from 1999 to 2004, acting as the Chief Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, and serving as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. From 2009 to 2014 she was CEO of the renowned International Crisis Group. Arbour is a Companion of the Order of Canada and the recipient of twenty-seven honorary degrees. She is currently a jurist in residence at Borden Ladner Gervais LLP.

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"This book deserves a very warm reception. It is timely and relevant, appearing as international human rights law itself is promoting and shaping the globalisation of a culture of rights. As the first comprehensive Canadian international human rights law text, this volume provides a particularly illuminating Canadian perspective and approach to the subject, including a very useful chapter on our domestic reception of international human rights law. In filling this lacuna in the literature, I expect this work to reduce the reliance previously placed by Canadian students and instructors on materials developed with American and British audiences in mind. As if this were not enough, compounding the value of the text's unique Canadian perspective, timeliness and relevance, is the obvious care and exhaustiveness with which it has been researched and the accessible style in which it is written."

Hon. Louise Arbour, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (from the Foreword)