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CRIMINAL LAW, HUMAN RIGHTS AND A PARADOX
——o—
HANS-JÖRG ALBRECHT"
A paradox was discovered in the 1980s when protection of human rights by
criminal punishment was raised as an issue. However, a closer look at the course of
invoking criminal law to respond to human rights violations reveals that criminal
law in fact has gained in importance not only in the form of genuine international
criminal law. International conventions tend to strengthen obligations to introduce
criminal law as an effective remedy against old problems reframed as human rights
violations and in particular against hatred and hostility emerging in the wake
of growing cultural and religious diversity and fueled by social media. Growing
reliance on criminal law here results in conflicts which are not outweighed by
positive effects.
A PARADOX?
Sometime in the 1980s, it seems, a paradox emerged when criminal law and
punishment were discovered as an effective tool in the enterprise of protecting
human rights.” Indeed, others proclaimed a “paradigmatic change” and held
that criminal punishment is accepted and acceptable as a decisive device in
containing oppression and violence, and implementing justice and peace.
Criminal law thus appeared to be both, a protection and a threat for fundamental
' Emeritierter Direktor am Max-Planck-Institut zur Erforschung von Kriminalität,
Sicherheit und Recht in Freiburg i.Br. sowie Honorarprofessor und Mitglied der
Rechtswissenschaftlichen Fakultät der Albert-Ludwigs- Universitat Freiburg.
Francoise Tulkens — Michel van de Kerchove, Les droits de |’ homme: bonne ou mauvaise
conscience du droit pénal?, in Frank Verbruggen et al. (eds.), Strafrecht als roeping. Liber
amicorum Lieven Dupont, Leuven, Universitaire Pers Leuven, 2005, 949-968; Mireille
Delmas-Marty, Le paradoxe penal, in Mireille Delmas-Marty, Claude Lucas de Leyssac
(eds.), Libertes et droits fondamentaux, Paris, Seuil, 1996, 368-392.
Mattia Pinto, Awakening the Leviathan through Human Rights Law - How Human Rights
Bodies Trigger the Application of Criminal Law, Utrecht Journal of International and
European Law 2 (2018), 161-184.
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