Digital Commons Network^™

Beyond Territoriality: The Case Of Transnational Human Rights Litigation, Peer Zumbansen

Peer Zumbansen

Cases for civil damages that have been brought before Western courts by victims of torture and persecution against states officials or corporations, challenge the principles of state sovereignty and jurisdictional competence. While national courts can in cases of serious crimes hear cases that grow out of acts committed in another country, the same is not true for cases for civil compensation. A persisting and rising number of private law cases that attempts to empower disenfranchised victims of crime and abuse, points to the necessity of reconsidering the prevailing procedural and substantial obstacles that govern the so-far unsuccessful civil law suits. …

Lochner Disembedded: The Anxieties Of Law In A Global Context, Peer Zumbansen

Peer Zumbansen

This paper explores, in an inevitably cursory manner, some of the main challenges facing a legal theory of transnational governance today. In part building on and responding to William Twining's identification of key problems of law in a global context (2009; 2012), the following paper adopts a two-fold approach. One element is to suggest a conceptual architecture, which captures law in its transformational state through a focus on actors, norms, and processes. Second, the paper proposes case studies as a central methodological device to explore the nature, scope, and function of governance-both legal and nonlegal-in a global context. Through the …

Lochner Disembedded: The Anxieties Of Law In A Global Context, Peer Zumbansen

Peer Zumbansen

This paper explores, in an inevitably cursory manner, some of the main challenges facing a legal theory of transnational governance today. In part building on and responding to William Twining’s identification of key problems of law in a global context (2009, 2012), the following essay adopts a two-fold approach. One element is to suggest a conceptual architecture, which captures law in its transformational state through a focus on 'actors, norms, and processes.' Secondly, the essay proposes 'case studies' as a central methodological device to explore the nature, scope, function of governance – both legal but also non-legal governance – in …

U.S. Support For Democracy In Africa: Discrepant Orientations Of Anglophone And Francophone Africa Towards Democratic Practices, Good Governance & Human Rights, Peter A. Ngwafu

African Social Science Review

President Obama’s first trip to Africa as US President in July 2009 took him to Ghana. The president used his 2009 trip to articulate his broad and ambitious policy of engagement towards sub-Saharan Africa. His pronouncements during the trip to Ghana generated high expectations for a new dawn in the relationship between the United States and Africa.The U.S. President made Ghana his first stop on the continent because he was probably highly impressed by the institutionalization of democratic processes in the country. While in Ghana, the president highlighted that country's commitment to peaceful democratic transition and establishment of effective governance …

Corporate Social Reporting Initiative - Report To Minister Of Finance, Poonam Puri, Edward J. Waitzer, Kevin Ranney, Michael Torrance

Edward J. Waitzer

In response to a Private Member’s Resolution calling upon the Ontario Securities Commission to conduct a consultation on corporate social responsibility and environmental, social and governance reporting standards and to adopt an enhanced standardized reporting framework, the Hennick Centre for Business and Law and Jantzi-Sustainalytics undertook a multi-stakeholder consultation process in respect of requirements regarding corporate social disclosure standards. This report to the Minister of Finance reflects a synthesis of the views that emerged from that process. The recommendations herein complement those contained in the Commission’s report to the Minister of Finance, dated December 18, 2009 (regarding environmental and governance …

Corporate Social Performance: Reporting Roundtable, Poonam Puri, Edward J. Waitzer, Kevin Ranney, Michael Torrance

Edward J. Waitzer

The purpose of this consultation (to take place in Toronto, Canada on December 7, 2009) is to elicit the views of informed stakeholders in a review of reporting and disclosure requirements under Ontario securities legislation for corporate “social” performance. In particular, the Consultation paper considers whether existing reporting and disclosure requirements on corporate social performance are adequate. If change is advisable, the question becomes what regulatory or other measures merit consideration. The Consultation is in response to a private member’s resolution introduced by the Honorable Laurel Broten (Etobicoke-Lakeshore), and passed unanimously by the Ontario Legislature (the “Resolution”). In part, the …

Social Movement Organization And Robust Action: Creating A Pre-Movement In A Movement-Inhibiting Environment, Yanfei Hu

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Social movements are extra-institutional forces that stimulate institutional and social change. Research has emphasized political opportunities, consciousness and organizational readiness as critical conditions for movements. In this thesis, I argue that such a conceptualization couches agency under structure, and does not explain how activists may create movement potentiality when none of the aforementioned conditions exist. This omission is significant because many movements can be traced to a pre-movement period when one (or a few) activist group(s) operated in movement-inhibiting environments to create conditions that enable future movements. In particular, the current literature lacks insights regarding the following question: How does …

Corporate Social Performance: Reporting Roundtable, Poonam Puri, Edward J. Waitzer, Kevin Ranney, Michael Torrance

Poonam Puri

The purpose of this consultation (to take place in Toronto, Canada on December 7, 2009) is to elicit the views of informed stakeholders in a review of reporting and disclosure requirements under Ontario securities legislation for corporate “social” performance. In particular, the Consultation paper considers whether existing reporting and disclosure requirements on corporate social performance are adequate. If change is advisable, the question becomes what regulatory or other measures merit consideration. The Consultation is in response to a private member’s resolution introduced by the Honorable Laurel Broten (Etobicoke-Lakeshore), and passed unanimously by the Ontario Legislature (the “Resolution”). In part, the …

Corporate Social Reporting Initiative - Report To Minister Of Finance, Poonam Puri, Edward J. Waitzer, Kevin Ranney, Michael Torrance

Poonam Puri

In response to a Private Member’s Resolution calling upon the Ontario Securities Commission to conduct a consultation on corporate social responsibility and environmental, social and governance reporting standards and to adopt an enhanced standardized reporting framework, the Hennick Centre for Business and Law and Jantzi-Sustainalytics undertook a multi-stakeholder consultation process in respect of requirements regarding corporate social disclosure standards. This report to the Minister of Finance reflects a synthesis of the views that emerged from that process. The recommendations herein complement those contained in the Commission’s report to the Minister of Finance, dated December 18, 2009 (regarding environmental and governance …

July 8, 2016: Lack Lives Matter So Much That The Police Are Needed, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Black Lives Matter So Much that the Police are Needed“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

Accommodating Complex Disabilities: Chronic Pain Disorders In The Canadian Workplace, Maia Abbas

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The duty of accommodation has enabled great progress in Canadian human rights law for persons with disabilities, particularly in the workplace. However, persons with chronic pain disorders have faced greater challenges in accessing the accommodation duty’s promise of equality, which is demonstrated through caselaw analysis. To assess the efficacy of the accommodation of persons with chronic pain disorders, we must answer three questions: (1) what is the theoretical understanding of disability and chronic pain disorders; (2) how are chronic pain disorders accommodated practically (using the workplace as our social illustration); and, (3) what happens after accommodation fails. A hierarchy of …

Mapping Mining To The Sustainable Development Goals: An Atlas, Columbia Center On Sustainable Investment, Sustainable Development Solutions Network, United Nations Development Programme, World Economic Forum

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

CCSI has been working with the World Economic Forum, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) to create a shared understanding of how the mining industry can most effectively contribute to the SDGs. The report will help mining companies navigate where their activities – from exploration, through operations and mine closure – can help the world achieve the SDGs. Governments, civil society and other stakeholders can also identify opportunities for shared action and partnership with the industry.

A draft report of Mapping Mining to the Sustainable Development Goals: A Preliminary Atlas was released for …

Employment From Mining And Agricultural Investments: How Much Myth, How Much Reality?, Kaitlin Y. Cordes, Olle Östensson, Perrine Toledano

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

Employment creation is often seen as a key benefit of investment in natural resources. However, this benefit sometimes falls short: job estimates may be inflated, governmental policies may fail to maximize employment generation, and, in some cases, investments may lead to net livelihood losses. A more thorough examination of employment tied to mining and agricultural investments is thus useful for assessing whether and how employment from natural resource investments contributes to sustainable economic development – a particularly timely topic as countries consider how they will achieve the Sustainable Development Goals adopted in 2015.

This report aims to clarify the processes …

Citizens Of Sinking Islands: Early Victims Of Climate Change, Erin Halstead

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

This Note discusses the effects of climate change that threaten Small Island Developing States (SIDS). Specifically, with increasing global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions resulting in rising sea levels and higher frequency of extreme weather events, many citizens of SIDS are forced abandon their homelands, which are no longer livable. Although SIDS are some of the smallest contributors to GHG emissions, and therefore contribute the least to climate change, SIDS are some of the countries most heavily affected by the negative effects of climate change. The global community has an obligation to accommodate these displaced people, partially due to the significant …

Sangar & Nasira, Sangar, Nasira, Tsos

TSOS Interview Gallery

Sangar and his family are from Iran but are originally Turkish. In Iran they faced a psychological war and many problems that stemmed from discrimination. He points out how many are oppressed or discriminated against, but he and his family were singled out for their ethnicity. There was no hope for a bright future, and they decided to flee the country for the benefit of their children.

They fled to Greece through Turkey and had many issues with human traffickers, robbery, a treacherous journey across the sea, and problems in Moria refugee camp where his wife couldn’t get the care …

The Challenge Of Adopting Sexual Orientation Resolutions At The Un Human Rights Council, Eduard Jordaan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Since the mid-1990s, UN special procedures reports have increasingly addressed human rights violations related to sexual orientation. However, it was not until 2011 that the first UN resolution on human rights and sexual orientation was adopted. After considerable difficulty, a follow-up resolution was adopted in late 2014. This policy and practice note examines the challenges of adopting sexual orientation resolutions at the UN Human Rights Council. The discussion is organized around six challenges: the need for Southern leadership, the strong counter-reaction that sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) issues generate at the UN, finding a strong leader, divisions within civil …

Just Hospitality: Wage Theft, Grassroots Labor Organizing, And Activist Research In Nashville, Tennessee, Rachel Tyree

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This politically engaged project locally grounds the efforts of low-wage workers in the United States who are addressing the nationwide epidemic of wage theft by focusing on the particular experience of organized hospitality cleaning workers at a worker center in Nashville, Tennessee. While being both collaborative and reflexive, this activist anthropological research utilizes observant participation, in-depth interviews, and organizational and archival research to explore the issues identified by members and organizers at the worker center, illustrate the alternative theories of change being generated from grassroots labor organizing efforts in light of state mechanisms that do not protect all workers, and …

Outlining The Case For A Common Law Duty Of Care Of Business To Exercise Human Rights Due Diligence, Douglass Cassell

Journal Articles

This article outlines the case for a business duty of care to exercise human rights due diligence, judicially enforceable in common law countries by tort suits for negligence brought by persons whose potential injuries were reasonably foreseeable. A parent company’s duty of care would extend to the human rights impacts of all entities in the enterprise, including subsidiaries. A company would not be liable for breach of the duty of care if it proves that it reasonably exercised due diligence as set forth in the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. On the other hand, a company’s failure to …

Indigenous Movements In Southeast Asia: An Analysis Based On The Concept Of ‘Resonance’, Isabel Inguanzo, Claire Wright

Asia-Pacific Social Science Review

This paper analyses the different indigenous movements that have been active in Southeast Asia over the past 30 years. For that purpose, the concept of “resonance” is used, due to its versatility as a perspective for the study of social movements. The analysis is descriptive and longitudinal given that the resonance of indigenous mobilization is analyzed in each one of the seven Southeast Asian territories, from 1980 until 2010. It is worth highlighting that the information used in the analysis comes mainly from in-depth interviews with members of organizations advocating the rights of indigenous peoples in the region. Consequently, this …

The Lived Experience Of Brazilian Immigrants In Connecticut And Crimmigration, Walter John Belsito Jr.

Doctoral Dissertations

Crimmigration, or the criminalization of immigration that intensified after the attacks of September 11, 2001, has impacted the lives of many immigrants living in the United States. After 9/11 there was an acceleration of the merger of immigration law and criminal law, and its enforcement, at the local, state, and federal levels. These restrictive laws have resulted in the increased incarceration, detainment, and mass deportation of immigrants throughout the United States. This qualitative study focused on the lived experience of Brazilian immigrants living in Connecticut.

A critical phenomenological design was used to understand how crimmigration and other factors such as …

Autonomy, Standing, And Children's Rights, Stephen R. Arnott

Stephen Arnott

No abstract provided.

June 22, 2016: Purposeful Obfuscation On Gun Control, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Purposeful Obfuscation on Gun Control“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

June 16, 2016: How Heller Resolves The Gun Issue, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “How Heller Resolves the Gun Issue“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

Slides: The Nsw Aboriginal Land Council (Nswalc) And Aboriginal Land Rights In Nsw, New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council

Indigenous Water Justice Symposium (June 6)

Presenter: Phil Duncan, Gomeroi Nation, New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council

19 slides

Why We Had To Leave; A Study Of Human Rights & Refugees (9th-12th Grade), Marisa C. Cavin

Understanding by Design: Complete Collection

This unit was designed around 9th grade accelerated learners in a World Geography classroom at an international school. Prior to this unit, we connected national boundary changes and economic power shifts in Europe, the Middle East, and Central Asia to decolonization and WWII. The goal of this unit is to humanize the “refugee” and to understand the far-reaching and immediate causes and consequences of mass migrations in the modern world in geo-politically significant regions. To accomplish this, the unit prepares students to understand how the world defines human rights and the ways these “rights” are protected or, in the case …

Prosecuting Rape Victims While Rapists Run Free: The Consequences Of Police Failure To Investigate Sex Crimes In Britain And The United States, Lisa Avalos

Lisa Avalos

Bridging The Gap Between Human Rights And Peace: An Analysis Of Ngos And The United Nations Human Rights Council, Charity Butcher, Maia Carter Hallward

Faculty and Research Publications

While the concepts of human rights and peace are increasingly linked in the study and practice of International Relations, there is great variance and inconsistency in how the concept of peace is discussed in the study and practice of human rights. We conduct an examination of the websites of human rights nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) affiliated with the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, to explore whether and how human rights and peace are linked. Religiously-affiliated and women’s NGOs typically link these concepts, while non-Western NGOs stress peace over human rights.

Educational Opportunities For Adolescent Girls' Empowerment In Developing Countries, Mary J. Kober

Master's Theses

Adolescent girls’ in developing countries coming from impoverished backgrounds face the added challenge of societies that marginalize the value of education for girls. Complex economic, social and cultural barriers to access secondary education pose challenges and obstacles to their human rights to education, equality and dignity. This study provides an analysis of the relationship between education and empowerment by looking at five innovative non-governmental formal and non-formal educational programs in Guatemala, sub-Saharan Africa, and Bangladesh. The theoretical framework focuses on the empowerment process, transformative agency, intrinsic empowerment, and the conditions and competencies that support education and leadership. The purpose of …

Homelessness, Shelter, And Human Rights In California And New York, Rebecca Wilson

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

The purpose of this project is to discuss the issues of homelessness and lack of shelter in the United States, specifically in the states of California and New York, as a human right. Due to the majority of California’s homeless population going unsheltered and the large majority of New York’s homeless population receiving shelter, there are ways that California can learn from the system that New York has developed in order to more efficiently and justly provide shelter to its homeless population. This paper analyzes what has worked and what has not worked in either state in providing the human …

U.S. Policy And Civil Liberties In Cuba: A Qualitative Analysis, Jason E. Mann

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

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