Latest blog articles

  • Officially supported export credits are instruments that governments can use to boost or support their exports, either through insurances, loans or guarantees. Most governments provide this support through Export Credit Agencies (ECAs), the first of which were founded in the 1920s (Stephens, 1999).

  • In her recent book “The Deficit Myth” star economist Stephanie Kelton tells us why economists should not worry too much about sovereign debt and deficits. But is that the same for lawyers? And are all countries truly treated equally?

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    Jean Monnet

    Jean Monnet (1888-1979) is, in some ways, an unlikely person to be honoured by having a university hall called after him. Indeed, Monnet left school at the age of sixteen, never obtained a university degree, and indeed never started university studies. He grew up in the city of Cognac as the son of...

  • Asylum-seekers at the Greek island of Lesbos are in a vulnerable position. They claim basic human rights and hold the Europeans accountable. What can a human rights scholar do? His role is limited. When there is no political will, compassion and solidarity are gone.

  • The 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 25th anniversary of the Maastricht Centre for Human Rights are a landmark in the development of human rights and a source of inspiration for academic research on new global human rights issues.

  • The US government is breaching its obligation to promote universal respect for human rights by cutting back on its contribution to UNRWA for aid to Palestinian refugees. Other states have extraterritorial human rights obligations to compensate for this reduction.

  • A 83-year-old man suffered severe brain damage due to a fall in a bank. The man was brought to a hospital where he died one week later. A medical report then showed that the lack of assistance did not (even partly) contribute to the man’s unfortunate death. Still, the refusal to help had certain...

  • This contribution argues that the Trump decree to end US financial support for health organisations which provide information about sexual and reproductive health rights is contrary to human rights. The response by the Dutch government is more in line with human rights.

  • The European Union and its member states have failed to comply with their extraterritorial human rights obligations to provide humanitarian aid and fulfil the subsistence rights of asylum-seekers.

  • The aim of this contribution is to assess what has been achieved since the adoption of the 1986 Limburg Principles on the Implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights for the realisation of these human rights.