ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the realisation of a prohibition of collective punishment under human rights law, in particular the European Convention on Human Rights. Gathering support from a broad range, the chapter starts with a review of other human rights instruments adopted by the Council of Europe. These are the European Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities and the revised European Social Charter. Although neither deals with collective punishment, they address situations with a collective dimension. The Framework Convention encompasses rights for national minorities and encourages an assessment of the broader social context of cases. The European Social Charter holds rights which can only be claimed by groups through a collective complaints procedure. Supported by those findings and the state consent behind the adoption of these instruments, the chapter proceeds to the European Convention on Human Rights. It concludes that the Convention in its current form is unable to address collective punishment and that a new rule containing a prohibition would be feasible: The prohibition of collective punishment is situated in the realm of civil and political rights as opposed to social rights, sufficiently precise to create obligations and not limited to specific groups such as national minorities.
