The protection of fundamental human rights in criminal process General report

Abstract

This contribution examines the effect of the uniform standards of human rights in international conventions on criminal process in different countries and identifies factors inherent in national systems that influence the scope of international standards and the way in which they are implemented in a national context. Three overreaching issues influence the reception of international fundamental rights and freedoms in criminal process: constitutional arrangements, legal tradition and culture, and practical circumstances. There is no such thing as the uniform implementation of convention standards; even in Europe where the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and the case law of the European Court play a significant role, there is still much diversity in the actual implementation of international norms due to the influence of legal traditions which form a counterforce to the weight of convention obligations. An even greater counterforce is at work in practical circumstances that can undermine international norms, most especially global issues of security, crime control and combating terrorism. Although convention norms are still in place, there is a very real risk that they are circumvented or at least diluted in order to increase effective crime control.