Reservations, human rights treaties in the 21st century from universality to integrity. /

by 1979- Devidal, Pierrick

This thesis is a study of the question of the legality of reservations to international human rights treaties. The evolution of reservations law demonstrates that the system seek to promote universal adherence to multilateral treaties through flexible rules that reflects the superiority of national sovereignty in the international society. However, the flexibility of reservation law as codified in the Vienna Convention of the Law of Treaties has facilitated wide acceptance of multilateral treaties at the cost of their integrity. In the case of human rights treaties, this issue is of paramount importance considering the essentiality of a balance between integrity and universality for human rights norms. There is an urgent necessity to promote adequate reforms of the Vienna Convention system and rely on human rights treaty bodies’ competence and jurisdiction to review the validity of reservations and ensure that universality and integrity are equally respected.