Piracy, International Law and Human Rights

The rise of piracy activity off the coast of Somalia has led the UN Security Council to pass a number of resolutions, under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, authorizing states to exercise police powers exceeding those traditionally deriving from customary international law as reflected in UNCLOS. Section 1 of the chapter deals with these developments and analyses them against the background of the existing legal framework governing acts of violence at sea. Section 2 discusses the legal issues arising from the need to respect human rights in counter-piracy activities, from capture to prosecution. After reviewing issues of applicability and attribution in the light of the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights and of domestic courts, it addresses the standards applicable to respect for the right to life and to personal liberty and the limits on transferral of suspected pirates to third states for prosecution.