Uncertainty. This simple word does not sound strong enough to describe all the seriousness and gravity of the consequences of an enforced disappearance. This human rights violation consists of an arrest, detention, abduction or other forms of deprivation of liberty by State agents or persons and groups acting with State authorization, support or acquiescence, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, which place such a person outside the protection of the law. In this context, the meaning of uncertainty goes beyond the lack of information about circumstances of a disappearance and the unknown fate of a missing person. Uncertainty encompasses all the stress, pain, suffering and emotional imbalance caused not only to direct victims but also family members, relatives and others close to the disappeared person.

This chapter assesses the extent to which the emergence of Fridays for Future (FFF) resulted in a politicization of climate change and how this affected climate policy and politics in Germany from 2018 to 2022. We show that the politicization resulted in a situation in which the Merkel government decided to gradually phase out coal-fired power plants as the key climate policy decision of the last few years. While this step was triggered by the EU’s announcement in 2017 that it would adopt stricter emissions standards for large combustion plants burning coal and lignite, FFF increased the pressure on the government to act. The politicization of the issue also resulted in changes to climate politics. The positions of mainstream political parties and their candidates have converged in their positions on climate change and the need for climate action. However, this convergence refers to climate policy in abstract terms and not to the specific policy measures supported by the individual parties. While climate change became depoliticized for a while, geopolitical conflicts are expected to repoliticize it and to have an impact on climate politics and policy.

The concept of enforced disappearance has undergone a multifaceted normative and jurisprudential evolution which occurs, among other areas, in the legal determination of which rights are violated in each case of enforced disappearance. In addition to the rights that were initially protected, other rights have arisen. The International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance has created new rights including the right not to be forcibly disappeared and, the right of the victims of (enforced) disappearance to be searched for. However, neither the Convention as the most modern instrument in this evolving process or the Committee on Enforced Disappearances do not explicitly recognize the violation of economic, social, and cultural rights in cases of disappearances. As the Convention requires the Committee to “cooperate” and “consult” with all the relevant organs, it is crucial to look at the contributions of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in the field.

This chapter explains the various mechanisms for the resolution of disputes, chiefly arising out of violations of the rules of the ITF, ATP and WTA. It focuses on ITF mechanisms, starting with internal processes and on-site quasi adjudicatory mechanisms. It then goes on to examine the ITF’s Internal Adjudication Panel, especially its first-instance, appellate and supervisory function, followed by the Independent Tribunal, which is an arbitral body. It proceeds to look at the various types of powers and functions conferred on the Tribunal and the jurisdiction of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) arising out of appeals against the Independent Tribunal. The chapter examines briefly the very narrow ATP and WTA dispute resolution mechanisms and the role of national courts in dealing with contractual tennis disputes.

The ratification rate of States parties in the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICPPED) ranks as the second lowest among the core UN human rights treaties. Addressing this issue necessitates a systematic approach rather than relying on ambiguous aspirations. Notably, the Asia-Pacific region warrants particular attention due to its relatively low ratification rate, which serves as a focal point of discussion in this chapter. To comprehensively examine the current landscape, this chapter adopts two key perspectives: the motives behind state ratification and the nexus with interpretative challenges concerning the ICPPED. Subsequently, it delves into a spectrum of strategies ranging from basic to nuanced specific approaches, encompassing targeted interventions and persuasive methodologies. Additionally, this chapter explores symptomatic treatments aimed at mitigating enforced disappearances, acknowledging the foreseeable stasis in the expansion of States Parties. Importantly, the broader argument presented in this paper extends beyond the confines of the Asia-Pacific region, underscoring its relevance on a global scale.

Minoritized groups are often portrayed as “hard to reach” by policymakers yet face myriad obstacles in undertaking – and, in particular, shaping – climate action. For many minoritized communities, the pursuit of climate justice is inherently intertwined with achieving other goals, such as economic, gender, and/or social justice. In this chapter, we examine the experiences of climate actors from Muslim communities in the UK, finding that the politicization of climate action may shape the assumptions of policymakers behind the scenes, generating more effective and inclusive policy outputs. However, this strategy faces complex power inequalities, as Muslims face structural inequalities that hinder, or even threaten, involvement. Muslim communities face a higher probability of arrest when participating in political action, alongside worse conditions following such an arrest. Our interviewees tell us that a wider pursuit of societal justice and alternative forms of politicization beyond protests are integral to achieving more representative and effective climate action for Muslim communities.

In 2019, the CED adopted the Guiding Principles on the Search for Disappeared Persons (CED/C/7). This chapter describes the reasons that led to the discussion and adopt this document including the role of so called “Urgent Actions” the Committee had received as well as the dialogues held with states. Both showed, in the vast majority of cases, a serious failure of state authorities to comply with their obligation to search, reflected in deficient norms, inadequate institutions, lack of strategy to search and lack of cooperation with the victims. During three years the Committee collected opinions and proposals from victims organizations, NGOs, States, NHRIs, UN bodies, the ICRC and academics. The final document has been widely disseminated and so far translated into three languages beyond the six official UN languages.

The second part of the chapter looks into the impact and influence the Principles have had so far in different countries and with different stakeholders explaining how quickly the Principles were adopted not only by civil society but also by different state institutions, including legislation and court judgments.

In armed conflicts, when people massively go missing, enforced disappearance is prohibited both by the ICPPED and customary international humanitarian law (IHL). While IHL is the primary regulator in armed conflicts, ICPPED complements and reinforces IHL protection from enforced disappearance including by providing more direct legal basis for the State Parties then customary nature of the matching IHL provisions which are often elusive for national practitioners. Obligation under ICPPED to introduce enforced disappearance as an autonomous and continuous domestic crime should provide potentially strong accountability mechanism given the absence of enforced disappearance from underlying offences considered war crimes and the contextual limitations of enforced disappearance as a crime against humanity and may also help break the silence about the disappeared. Limitation of the ICPPED’s definition of enforced disappearance as state-sponsored crime may be overcome in armed conflicts by the commensurate IHL prohibition which applies to non-state actors too.

Policy stability and politicization are not dichotomous. Rather, both disruption of the carbon lock-in status quo and the generation of policy stability around transformation toward decarbonization are inherently political. The desired relationship between policy stability and politicization changes depending on the structural and institutional conditions in place that reinforce carbon lock-in or catalyze and scale decarbonization. In this chapter, we elaborate on the relationship between stability and politicization and discuss how these dynamics are captured by a phenomenon we call the carbon trap. We conclude with the suggestion that the concept and politics of just transition offer ways to understand and pursue desirable politicized disruption of carbon lock-in and to catalyze stable policies and systems around decarbonization.

The chapter explores the regulation of professional tennis as a sub-species of transnational law and as part of the lex sportiva. It goes on to show how this transnational character plays out in disputes arising from regulatory matters and then moves on to ascertain the relationship among the three key tennis actors, namely the ITF, WTA and ATP. The chapter next explores the relationship between professional tennis and domestic law, including governance of the sport globally, as well as the relationship between national tennis federations and the ITF, and the latter’s relationship with the International Olympic Committee. The chapter further delves into the labor status of professional tennis players, as well as the relevance of international law in professional tennis, including the sport’s status in the Olympic Movement, as well as the human rights standard-setting role of transnational tennis entities.

Norway is an active player in international climate politics, with strong consensus on the issue underpinned by cross-party Climate Settlements. Despite this, Norway has only marginally reduced its domestic greenhouse gas emissions. Moreover, attempts to establish a new Climate Settlement in 2021 failed. Does this failure constitute a break with Norway’s consensual climate tradition, and is this good or bad news for climate policy? In this chapter, we investigate whether and to what extent the consensus characterizing the 2000s and 2010s contributed to climate policy development or stasis. Focusing on two key sectors – petroleum and transport – we find that key Norwegian climate policies have developed through a dynamic tension of depoliticization and repoliticization over time, with mixed effects. We identify reasons for depoliticization and repoliticization and argue that it is useful to embrace agnosticism in the debate over politicization versus policy stability, instead exploring this on an empirical and contextual basis. Moreover, we uncover a dynamic of politicization in one policy area affecting policy development in another, arguing that such spillover effects warrant analytical attention.

How can the state make durable policies and control resistance of incumbent fossil fuel interests for rapid decarbonization? Through the lens of policy feedback and coalitions, we argue that in certain contexts the state can manage political conflicts to ensure durable policies for decarbonization. We use the case of China – the world’s largest carbon emitter with a political economy system where the state has large influence on the market – to illustrate the possibility of conflict management for energy transition. We show how the central government has used regulatory power to induce big power companies to shift away from fossil fuels toward renewable energies. Reflecting upon the Chinese case, we identify some conditions under which the state can redirect the interest of incumbent actors toward net zero transition. Our study suggests that while political conflicts are inevitable to combat climate change, policymakers can strategically manage them to deepen and accelerate transition.

A global resurgence of industrial policymaking has been evident in low-carbon industries. These sectors – renewable energy, battery storage, and electric vehicles, among others – have seen levels of state intervention rarely witnessed outside of late economic development. But because of China’s dominant position in manufacturing such products, industrial policies for clean energy industries have been accompanied by calls for a reshoring of manufacturing, including in the United States, which is examined in this chapter. While such reshoring may be politically expedient, it presents obstacles to global emissions reductions. First, calls for reshoring likely understate the extent to which the world must rely on Chinese manufacturing capacity for clean energy technologies, until alternative supply chains are established elsewhere. Second, these competitive approaches to industrial policymaking put government measures in explicit tension with the need for global collaboration to meet transnational decarbonization goals. The politicization of clean energy industrial policies may yield short-term political successes but risks long-term instability on emissions reductions and decarbonization.