"Forced Separation: Do We Need a New Legal Concept? Or Just a New World?"
On 7 May 206, Dr Rainer Huhle, of the Nuremberg Human Rights Centre (NMRZ) and the FAU Center for Human Rights Erlangen-Nürnberg (CHREN), gave a presentation titled "Forced Separation: Do We Need a New Legal Concept? Or Just a New World?".
In his talk, Dr Huhle examined whether the phenomenon of forced separation, the coercive separation of family members by state or non-state actors, warrants recognition as a distinct legal concept in international human rights law, or whether existing normative frameworks are sufficient to address it.
Taking the historical emergence of "enforced disappearance" as a legal term as his point of departure, Dr Huhle traced the conditions under which new human rights concepts arise. He surveyed the diverse historical and contemporary contexts in which the phenomenon occurs before turning to the legal provisions that partially address it, including the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, the Genocide Convention, and the Rome Statute's provisions on crimes against humanity.
Finally, Dr Huhle brought a human rights perspective to the topic of forced separation by addressing the question of reparations and the challenges that might arise and the normative boundaries of the concept, in particular the tension between the right of families to truth and justice and the right of formerly separated children, now adults, to self-determination of their personal identity.
As a concluding reflection, Dr Huhle presented an image encountered in Mexico bearing the inscription "Once upon a time there was humanity", a reminder of the human stakes that underlie the legal debate.
Dr Rainer Huhle is a political scientist and internationally recognised expert in human rights and transitional justice. He teaches at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) and is affiliated with the FAU Center of Human Rights Erlangen-Nürnberg. A co-founder of the Nürnberg Human Rights Centre, he has held key roles within the United Nations system and the German Institute for Human Rights and served as Vice-President of the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances. His research focuses on enforced disappearance, transitional justice, and the protection of human rights.
The Talk was chaired by Dr Viviane Dittrich, Deputy Director of the International Nuremberg Principles Academy. (ah)
