The Nordic Journal of Human Rights is very pleased to publish the first in a series of three articles on a subject of human rights that has received scant attention in research and public discourse: can a human being waive his or her fundamental human right? Intuitively and at first sight, waiving a fundamental and inalienable right seems to be a contradiction in terms. On the other hand, as Jørgen Aall suggests, personal self-determination raises important principle questions about the freedom to waive rights under certain conditions. The lead article of this issue of the Journal explores these conditions and their limits in great detail. The subject is not just of academic interest; in everyday life citizens are increasingly subject to situations where the waiver issue occurs, for instance when employees are subject to what a few years ago was considered improper surveillance.

The Journal finds this examination of the issue of waiving rights as pertinent and highly deserving of a thorough legal analysis. We have therefore decided to publish Aall’s analysis despite it exceeding the usual length of articles for the journal. The analysis will appear in three parts, published in this and the two following issues. We invite authors to submit analytical comments to the topic and plan to publish selected comments in a subsequent issue.

Other articles in this issue address the new complaint procedure for the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which offers the perhaps the first academic evaluation of the procedures having just concluded in Geneva; the use of the European Social Charter by domestic courts; and duties of staff in refugee centers to respect human rights.

We welcome articles in all areas of human rights, including the rapidly expanding fields of international criminal law, economic and social rights, the justification and legitimacy of human rights, and new challenges to human rights protection. The NJHR sees human rights as a thoroughly interdisciplinary field of inquiry and invites authors to submit contributions based on legal as well as humanist and social science scholarship.

The Editors