Centre for Fundamental Rights awarded grant to research UN Human Rights Treaty Body case law

Centre for Fundamental Rights Co-director Prof. Başak Çalı was awarded a grant of 513,000 euros by the German Research Foundation (DFG) to lead research into United Nations Human Rights Treaty Body (UNTB) case law starting from spring 2023.

For the project, titled ‘Deep Impact through Soft Jurisprudence? The Contribution of United Nations Treaty Body Case Law to the Development of International Human Rights Law’, Çalı will investigate the impact of UNTB decisions on the development of international human rights law.

UNTBs are at the vanguard of international human rights law, increasingly called on to adjudicate on today’s major contemporary and emerging human rights challenges, which range from the rights of refugees and undocumented migrants to gender equality and racial discrimination, as well as human rights in the context of the climate crisis.

The collection of UNTB decisions is burgeoning but poorly understood. This project aims to systematise knowledge about UNTB case law and its contribution to human rights law. The project reflects one of the main research themes of the Centre for Fundamental Rights – the role of international institutions in addressing current and future challenges to human rights protections. The study’s results will benefit both scholars and practitioners of human rights law, including judges, lawyers, advocates and researchers.