The Prevention of Gross Human Rights Violations Under International Human Rights Law

This book contains a systematic assessment of the content and scope of obligations 

to prevent gross human rights violations. There has been a great deal of attention for 

concepts aiming to prevent gross human rights violations, such as conflict prevention 

and the responsibility to protect. Yet despite this shift in attention towards prevention, 

it has remained unclear what legal obligations states have to prevent gross human rights 

violations under international human rights law.

The focus in this book is on three specific types of injury prohibited under international 

human rights law: torture, arbitrary death and genocide. Further distinctions are made 

between four temporal phases (long-term prevention, short-term prevention, preventing 

continuation, preventing recurrence) and territorial and extraterritorial obligations.

The structure of the book allows academics and practitioners to learn about obligations 

to prevent gross human rights violations in a general sense, as well as find targeted 

information on the content and scope of obligations in specific settings.

Nienke van der Have recently completed her Ph.D. at the Amsterdam Center for 

International Law, which forms part of the University of Amsterdam’s Faculty 

of Law, and currently works as Senior legal specialist at the department of 

Constitutional Affairs and Legislation of the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom 

Relations of The Netherlands.