Universal-Womens-accesss-to-justice-Publications-Practitioners-Guide-Series-2016-ENG

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WOMEN’S ACCESS TO JUSTICE FOR GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE 251
this take place. In some rare cases, the desperate story of one
woman or girl can lead to an outcry that ends in changing laws
and practices.
Laying the foundations for international accountability
Using this manual is predicated on the idea that international
human rights law and standards should, both as a matter of
legal obligation and to ensure effective enjoyment of human
rights in real terms, be implemented in national law and
practice.
Each national jurisdiction has its own practice regarding the
implementation of international law. In “monist” States, where
international and national law are viewed in unity, international
legal obligations of a state are directly incorporated into
national law and can typically be applied in national courts. This
is the case even in the absence of implementing legislation,
although even monist States usually will adopt such legislation.
Dualist States, on the other hand, require that international
legal obligations be incorporated into the body of domestic law
via national legislation. It may be that such dualist States fail
to do so, which will place limits on how international law may
be invoked in judicial procedures. Even where international
laws have not been so incorporated, or have been only partially
or incorrectly incorporated, lawyers may be able to raise
international law before courts as an interpretive aid to
analogous or related domestic provisions, with the argument
that it should be presumed that State authorities are not
seeking to act in contravention of their international legal
obligations. In this regard, it should be recalled that on the
international plane, domestic law may not be invoked as an
excuse for failure to discharge international legal obligations.
The Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties provides in
article 26 that treaties (including human rights treaties) must
be performed in good faith, and Article 27 recognizes that
failure to perform a treaty obligation cannot be justified by
reference to national law.