ESIL Monthly Breakfast Session: 'The Five-Year Rule and its Discontents' by Sarah Thin [Online, Free; 29 July 2026]

The European Society of International Law (ESIL) brings together scholars and practitioners of international law across Europe and beyond. Within it, the ESIL Interest Group on International Human Rights Law runs its own programme of academic events for researchers working on international human rights law. This session is part of that Interest Group's online series.

Sarah Thin (Radboud University) will present on The Five-Year Rule and its Discontents: Delay as an Abuse of the Right of Submission before the UN Human Rights Committee.

The presentation examines the emergence and practical operation of the Human Rights Committee's five-year rule under Article 3 of the First Optional Protocol to the ICCPR. Although the Optional Protocol contains no explicit time limit, the Committee has developed a presumption that communications submitted more than five years after the exhaustion of domestic remedies constitute an abuse of the right of submission and are therefore inadmissible.

Tracing the jurisprudential evolution of this approach and its codification in Article 99(c) of the Rules of Procedure, the presentation analyses how the rule is applied in practice and critically assesses the Committee's approach from interlinked doctrinal and institutional perspectives. It considers whether the Committee is correct to label these instances of delay as abuse, whether in doing so it has exceeded its mandate, and what consequences may follow for the transparency, fairness and legitimacy of the individual complaints procedure.

The Monthly Breakfast Sessions are an initiative of the ESIL Interest Group on International Human Rights Law, designed as an informal and constructive space for the community to discuss developments in international human rights law.

• Sessions run on the last Wednesday of every month, from 8:00 AM to 9:00 AM CET (the timing can be adjusted for a speaker's needs).
• Each session lasts one hour and is held entirely online.
• The format is deliberately relaxed. The organisers invite participants to join while commuting or starting the day, with no need to be at a desk.
• The aim is to share ongoing research, debate current issues and support members' ideas, including work at the earliest stages.

• Date: 29 July 2026 (Wednesday)
• Time: 08:00 AM CET, as stated by the organiser. Participants in India should convert this to local time before joining.
• Duration: one hour
• Mode: Online

The organisers state that everyone is welcome. Early-career researchers, broadly understood, are particularly encouraged to take part and to use the platform to present unfinished work and gather insights from the wider Interest Group community. The official notice does not impose an ESIL membership requirement for attending a Breakfast Session.

Presenters have up to 30 minutes to present, followed by questions and comments from the Interest Group community.

There is no participation fee. The session is free to join.

The official event page carries a JOIN HERE link, which opens the Interest Group's shared calendar entry for the session. Use that link from the official ESIL page to access the session on the day.

Anyone interested in presenting at a future Monthly Breakfast Session should write to esilighumanrightslaw@gmail.com, specifying the topic of the proposed presentation and their availability.