The Protection of Vulnerable Groups under International Human Rights Law

The protection of vulnerable groups varies under international human rights law. Depending on the group at stake, protection may be more or less advanced. In some cases, the international community has deemed it necessary to adopt conventions providing for the rights of certain vulnerable groups and establishing mechanisms to verify State compliance. Other groups have not been the focus of States' standard-setting endeavours, but their protection still falls within the scope of human rights treaties of general application and the mandate of their respective monitoring bodies.

Drawing upon case studies regarding groups including ethnic minorities, individuals displaced by natural disasters and victims of human trafficking, this book will review the protection of vulnerable groups under international human rights law. Rather than examining the situation of a number of vulnerable groups and applicable international human rights law conventions, it will take the innovative approach of exploring the overall scope of the international legal protection of vulnerable groups.

The book will conceptualise the protection of vulnerable groups as an underlying and essential component of international human rights law through a systematic and comprehensive analysis of international human rights law instruments and relevant practice of international human rights monitoring bodies and domestic courts. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of international human rights law.