States' Practices Before Human Rights Courts. A Nordic Perspective

Vrije Universiteit Amesterdam | OZW Building, 10th floor | Room Alma 1 & 2

This event will also be live-streamed via Zoom.

Please register by 20.11.2023 (in-person registration | online registration).

The interdisciplinary Research Group “Human Rights Discourse in Migration Societies” (MeDiMi) studies the scope, forms, and consequences of the expansion of human rights discourse in migration societies. We aim to develop a theory of the dynamic interplay of legalization, politicization, and everyday practice of Human Rights.

In the legal context, international legal standards of Human Rights provide important benchmarks for migration law practice. The last decades have further seen a significant expansion of migration case law by international Human Rights courts and treaty bodies. They therefore constitute key fora for the “humanrightization” in legal discourse on migration. In studying practices before Human Rights courts, previous research has mainly focused on analyzing the strategic litigation of advocacy groups. The (subtle) mechanisms that States use to influence the court’s decisions have hardly been studied so far. One of the core questions for MeDiMi is therefore: How do governments – be it as responding parties in pending cases, as third-party intervenors or otherwise – act in those fora? What are States’ practices before Human Rights courts? What type of arguments are used to mitigate constraints on migration policy?

MeDiMi has invited Thomas Gammeltoft-Hansen, distinguished legal scholar and expert in the field of Human Rights and migration law, to provide a Nordic perspective on these questions. Nordic countries, in particular Denmark and Sweden, have featured prominently in international human rights case law. In his talk, Thomas Gammeltoft-Hansen will provide an empirical overview of this development, its implications for policy-making and how Nordic states have politically responded to growing international judicialization in the migration domain.

Thomas Gammeltoft-Hansen holds a PhD in International Law and has worked at esteemed academic institutions, including the Danish Institute for Human Rights and the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights. Gammeltoft-Hansen is a prolific author in migration, asylum, and refugee law, particularly within the European context. He currently serves as the Director of MOBILE, the Centre of Excellence on Global Mobility Law, and leads the Nordic Asylum Law & Data Lab, pioneering interdisciplinary research in computer science and migration law. As a Professor of International Refugee and Migration Law at the University of Copenhagen, he continues to shape academic discourse and policy development in this crucial field.

This event is co-hosted with the VU Interdisciplinary Centre for European Studies (VICES) and the Amsterdam Centre for Migration and Refugee Law (ACMRL).