Stereotypes and Human Rights Law book published

The Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (SIM) is proud to announce the Intersentia publication of Stereotypes and Human Rights Law edited by Eva Brems (Ghent University) and Alexandra Timmer (Assistant Professor at SIM).

Abstract

Stereotypes are beliefs about groups of people. Some examples, taken from human rights case law, are the notions that ‘Roma are thieves’, ‘women are responsible for childcare’, and ‘people with a mental disability are incapable of forming political opinions’. Increasingly, human rights’ monitoring bodies – including the European and Inter-American human rights courts, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, and the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination – voice concerns about stereotyping and warn States not to enforce harmful stereotypes. Human rights bodies thus appear to start to realize what social psychologists have discovered a long time ago: that stereotypes underlie inequality and discrimination.

Despite their relevance and their legal momentum, stereotypes have so far received little attention from human rights law scholars. This volume is the first one to address stereotypes as a human rights issue in a sustained manner. The scope of the book includes different stereotyping-grounds – such as race, gender, and disability, as well as compounded stereotypes. Moreover, this book examines stereotyping approaches across a broad range of supranational human rights monitoring bodies, including the United Nations human rights treaty system as well as the regional systems that are most developed when it comes to addressing stereotypes: the Council of Europe and the Inter-American system.