Interim Measures in International Human Rights: Evolution and Harmonization

Abstract

In this Article, the Author undertakes a comprehensive study of interim measures ordered in human rights cases before six international enforcement bodies-the International Court of Justice, the European Court of Human Rights, the InterAmerican Court of Human Rights, the United Nations Human Rights Committee, the United Nations Committee against Torture, and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. An order of interim measures may require that the State take positive action, such as providing protection for human rights activists or journalists, or it may call upon the State to refrain from taking action, such as not extraditing a person or delaying the execution of prisoners until their cases have been resolved before the international body. The purpose of interim measures in international human rights law is most often to protect persons involved in a case from urgent danger of * Professor of Law, University of South Dakota School of Law; S.J.D. International and Comparative Law, George Washington University Law School; J.D., University of Wisconsin. The author wishes to thank the H. Lauren Lewis Faculty Research Fellowship of the University of South Dakota Foundation for a grant that supported