OxBHR Network - Vertical Policy Coherence in Human Rights: A Treaty Law Perspective

Abstract

Debates about policy coherence in the protection of human rights have often focused on horizontal coherence, this is, according to the UN Working Group on BHR, the consistency of policies across functional areas of government with the State’s human rights obligations. Despite its critical importance, vertical coherence (understood as the establishment of necessary policies and laws to implement international human rights law obligations according to UNGP 8) has received much less attention. This presentation will aim to explore how the concept of vertical policy coherence can be understood in tandem with good faith performance of treaties, underscoring its importance as a matter of treaty law.

Speaker

Antonio Guzmán Mutis is a Junior Researcher in International Human Rights Law at the T.M.C. Asser Institute and an Editor of the Völkerrechtsblog. Previously, Antonio was a Legal Research Assistant to Professor Sandesh Sivakumaran at the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law and a General Editor of the Cambridge International Law Journal. He has conducted internships at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg, and at Colombia’s Truth Commission, in matters related to comparative human rights law and the application of IHL during the Colombian armed conflict, respectively. Before that, he also worked as a Research Assistant and Student Researcher at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, where he supported several projects related to Business and Human Rights, International Investment Law and Public International Law in general, all of which were led by former Dean Amb. Carolina Olarte-Bácares.

Antonio holds an LL.M. in International Law from the University of Cambridge (2023), a Certificate in Transnational Legal Studies from Georgetown University (2022), and an LL.B. from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (2021).

Antonio’s primary research interests lie within International Human Rights law, Business and Human Rights, International Investment Law and State Responsibility. Antonio's work at the Institute focuses on the human rights implications of irresponsible arms exports, the impact of arms transfers on human rights, the consistency of arms export regimes and treaties with international human rights obligations and the implications of the existing Business and Human Rights framework to arms companies.