Danish Institute for Human Rights

Abstract This article examines institutional and ideological shifts in Danish welfare surveillance, focusing on the transition from traditional, direct control to semi-automated, remote welfare eligibility assessments. Drawing on the Pragmatic Sociology of Critique, we conceptualize welfare eligibility assessments as control tests rooted in competing ideological worlds: a domestic world of proximity and discretion, and an industrial world of professional detachment and standardization. Based on interviews and observations in municipalities and at the central payment authority, we show how the controversy surrounding municipal control tests contributed to the marginalization of face-to-face practices. We argue that the reconfiguration of control tests—rather than technologies alone—plays a central role in reshaping the conditions under which welfare eligibility control may adopt criminalizing logics.

Abstract A new chapter on international crimes was introduced in the Danish Criminal Code on 1 January 2025. The new chapter offers a modernized definition of international crimes, which possibly could inspire other states and contribute to the development of customary international law in this area. The article reviews the new Chapter 13a of the Danish Criminal Code, which contains independent criminal provisions relating to crimes of aggression, genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and torture. It also briefly discusses Denmark’s decision to ratify Article 8bis of the Rome Statute concerning the crime of aggression. The appendix to the article provides an unofficial translation of Chapter 13a of the Danish Criminal Code.

ABSTRACT Economic, social and cultural rights (ESCRs) depend on a healthy environment. Environmental degradation, climate change, and limited natural resources affect the realization of these rights and necessitate a reinterpretation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (‘the Covenant’). As a living instrument, the Covenant must evolve and adapt to present-day environmental crises that threaten the full enjoyment of these rights. This paper proposes a teleological and evolutive interpretation of the general obligations on states parties in article 2(1) that takes the environment into account. Drawing from the established practice of the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the paper proposes a reinterpretation and greening of the following key doctrines in the Covenant: the use of the maximum available resources; progressive realization and non-retrogression; and core obligations. The proposed interpretation recognizes the value of natural resources and the environment; respects environmental limits and planetary boundaries; and ensures that the environmental foundation on which ESCRs depend is protected with the requisite priority and urgency. The rights in the Covenant will be undermined and rendered obsolete if their interpretation does not evolve to confront the urgent environmental challenges of our time.

Abstract This article problematises the current understanding of sex and gender in international human rights law, especially as it manifests itself in its treatment of the ‘women’ category. The problematic nature of the current state of international human rights law in this regard came recently to light in two cases: the majority judgment in the Y v France case of the European Court for Human Rights and the dissenting opinions in the Vicky Hernández case of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Arguments and statements emerging from these two authoritative recent sources coming from two arguably progressive jurisdictions exemplify continuing inadequacies of the dominant approach. Through a critical engagement with these arguments, supplemented by the discussion of the broader framework of international human rights law, the article not only points out the precise nature of the existing shortcomings but also formulates strategies for overcoming them.