SLP 07 (2014)

Fourth chapter analyses the status and the place of human rights within the international legal order. Michaela Rišová elucidates how the international law has changed since the emergence of human rights norms in its corpus and the evolving of the international hierarchical legal order. The chapter reflects on human rights as a part of general international law applicable erga omnes and discusses their possible peremptory nature. In this context, the contribution deals with the legal implications including the interaction of human rights norms with the Article 103 of the UN Charter comming to the conclusion that although basic human rights are a part of the general inernational law, the current international law does not attribute the jus cogens character to all of them. Pavel Bureš focuses on the European Consensus as a special tool used by the European Court of Human Rights for the interpretation of the European Convention on Human Rights. The chapter explains the origin of European consensus, its definion and application and other relative issues. In the sixth chapter, Milan Lipovský discusses the case law of the European Court of Human rights in relation to contemporary issues of wearing religious clothing in schools on the background of the relevant articles dealing with the protection of freedom of religion (Article 9 of the European Convention) and ith the right to education (article 2 of the First Additional Protocol to the European Convention). The next chapter, written by Ľubomír Majerčík , deals with collective complaints against the Czech Republic under the European Social Charter. First, specifics of the monitoringmechanismunder the European Social Charter are examined; its weaknesses and recent trends are highlighted. In the next step, the very first collective complaints lodged against the Czech Republic are analysed, highlighting the fact that theCzech Government is facing expansive interpretation of the Charter by the European Social Rights Committee regarding the explicit ban of the corporal punishment of children. The contribution of Josef Nejedlý focuses on the European Ombudsman as a defender of fundamental rights.The first part of the article addresses theOmbudsman’s institutional characteristics in the context of the protection of fundamental rights, and in particular the scope of the Ombudsman’s competences and its capacity to effectively intervene in human rights cases. The second part considers a number of cases which have recently been handled by the Ombudsman. These cases help to illustrate the Ombudsman’s activities in the field of human rights and show some particularities of this entity. Alla Tymofeyeva provides in her contribution a brief characterization of the status of legal persons in the mechanism of human rights protection under the ECHR. Analysis of the case-law of the ECtHR shows that they may submit applications alleging violations of Art. 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13 and 14 of the ECHR, Art. 1 and 3 of Protocol No. 1, Art. 2, 3 and 4 of Protocol No. 7 and Article 1 of Protocol No. 12 to the ECHR. In certain cases Art. 17 of the ECHR can also be involved. In July 2014, the ECtHR found a violation of the right to life in a case, where the complaint was lodged by a legal person. It is therefore possible to conclude that the list of the above rights

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