Multilevel protection of Human Rights: concept, theoretical framework and current challenges

Abstract

The use of the term "multi-level protection" is increasingly common both in specialized literature and in official documents of institutions related to the promotion and guarantee of human rights. However, its conceptual delimitation remains essential. In these pages we will try to define this concept in connection with the theoretical framework where it was originated. This relationship will be clarified in view of the current situation of the protection of human rights beyond the borders of sovereign States. The international protection of human rights has made significant progresses since the mid-twentieth century, especially in the European legal space. And for this reason, much of the following pages will focus on the European regional system. We cannot ignore the challenges that the system of the Rome Convention is facing nowadays, and those that are trying to move in the same direction, as the Inter-American System.

doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.20318/eunomia.2016.3288