Human Rights Law Commons^™

Protecting Humanity's Cradle Of Civilization: Advancing The Right To Self-Determination For Indigenous Peoples In The Middle East & South Caucasus, Lisabelle Panossian

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

During this paper’s drafting, an indigenous people’s independent government collapsed. For over thirty years, the Republic of Artsakh was a de facto independent region inside the internationally-recognized borders of Azerbaijan. The region comprised of an indigenous Armenian majority—until September 2023. In December 2022, Azerbaijani authorities blocked the only road that connected Nagorno-Karabakh to the outside world. This blockade resulted in shortages of food, medical supplies, and fuel, the severity of which was especially felt during a harsh winter.

After experiencing starvation and preventable medical complications under a nine month-long blockade, the Azerbaijani government launched a military incursion on the Republic …

Human Rights Without Borders, Christian Gonzalez Chacon

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

In the current global context, millions of people are forced to migrate

yearly for reasons ranging from persecution and violence, internal armed

conflicts, and forced displacement, to lack of employment and climate

change. In the Americas, we recently witnessed the phenomenon of the

“migrant caravans,” where thousands of people, mostly from the Northern

Triangle of Central America—El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala—

were willing to walk hundreds of miles to enter the U.S.-Mexico border to

escape poverty and violence in their countries. Another caravan of close to

10,000 migrants from the Northern Triangle of Central America including

Guatemala, El Salvador and …

Slapp Suits: An Encroachment On Human Rights Of A Global Proportion And What Can Be Done About It, Laura Lee Prather

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

Freedom of expression is the underpinning of all other freedoms. Yet, increasingly, journalists, citizens, advocacy groups, whistleblowers, academics, and media organizations are being targeted and subjected to judicial harassment for informing the public about matters of public concern, denouncing authoritarian regimes, and exposing wrongdoing. These meritless lawsuits do not seek to right a wrong, but rather to silence and intimidate critics. They are known as “Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation” (“SLAPP” suits) and are on the rise globally. Because SLAPP suits are designed to inhibit ongoing investigations, stifle informed public debate, and prevent legitimate public interest reporting, they present a …

The Rejection Of The Anti-Corruption Principle And Its Effect On Human Rights At Home, Juliet S. Sorensen

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

21st century scholarship analyzing the Framers’ treatment of corruption asserts that their incorporation of anti-corruption means in the Constitution should be interpreted as a framework to inform contemporary judicial review and jurisprudence. Led by Zephyr Teachout’s article “The Anti-Corruption Principle,” this school of thought asserts that the anti-corruption principle should be on par with separation of powers and freedom of expression, a guiding lodestar in interpreting the Constitution.

This article submits that the anti-corruption principle of constitutional interpretation is, in fact, a rights-based approach to corruption, equating freedom from corruption with the other rights and liberties enshrined in the Constitution. …

Promises And Pitfalls In Un Regulation Of Judicial Independence, Martha Kiela

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

This article investigates the current mechanisms and power of the UN to ensure judicial independence in the UN Member States. First, it surveys the UN bodies which play a role in creating international regulations for judicial independence and monitoring Member States’ compliance with them. Second, it analyzes the responses of these bodies to challenges to judicial independence by conducting case studies of Venezuela and Poland, and how these actions compare to those of other international organizations and tribunals. The central questions it seeks to answer are which mechanisms of review and enforcement have so far been the most effective in …

Debt And Dependence: Foreign Interference In Haiti And The Importance Of Non-State Actor Accountability, Sandra Wisner, Brian Concannon

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

Colonialist policies and lending practices by foreign states and non-state actors have led to serious and wide-spread violations of Haitian individuals’ fundamental human rights. In particular, a series of loan conditions imposed by international financial institutions and their members states left Haiti vulnerable to increased food insecurity and a severely diminished social sector. This paper proposes that the imposition of such loan conditions constitutes a violation of foreign actors’ obligations under international law respecting economic, social, cultural, and political rights, as well as their extra-territorial obligations (ETOs) to take joint and separate action to promote and respect human rights beyond …

Treaties As A Tool For Native American Land Reparations, Hannah Friedle

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

"The only compensation for land is land."¹

Hundreds of treaties signed. Hundreds of treaties broken. The juvenile United States grew in size as independent Native nations ceded their territory through treaties. Thirsting for more land, the United States broke its promises and continued its manifest destiny westward. And what of tribes’ treaty rights to land? Some Native nations received financial compensation for treaty violations. But money is crumbs to many whose traditional homelands are still colonized.

Tribes are entitled to the land promised to them under treaties—instruments supposedly carrying the force of federal law. Land reparations are a partial …

Managing Misinformation On Social Media: Targeted Newsfeed Interventions And Freedom Of Thought, Richard Mackenzie-Gray Scott

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

Whether it is being told a particular politician consumes children, or drinking cow urine will cure your disease, or that Jimi Hendrix is alive and well living the good life in Drumnadrochit, misinformation affects societies in myriad ways. Its spread online via social media platforms raises questions concerning how it can be addressed. This article engages with a related problem: Can the use of targeted behavioral interventions on social media newsfeeds to reduce the spread of misinformation be reconciled with the human right to freedom of thought?

A Chinese Law Wedge Into The Hong Kong Common Law System: A Legal Appraisal Of The Hong Kong National Security Law, Han Zhu

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

This paper is the first to comprehensively analyze the key legal controversies surrounding the Hong Kong National Security Law (NSL) and its implementation. Based on doctrinal analysis, case studies, and the most up-to-date statistics, this study centers on three categories of legal disputes: (1) the constitutionality and legality of the NSL; (2) the disputed content of the NSL; and (3) the legislative procedural issues involving the NSL. The study shows that the enactment of the NSL is not only an unprecedented crisis facing the “one country, two systems” framework, but also marks a culmination of the intersection and conflict between …

The Rise And Fall Of Section 502b, John Ramming Chappell

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

The first major foreign policy legislation of the human rights revolution of the 1970s,1 Section 502B of the Foreign Assistance Act (FAA) is a latent oversight tool that Congress could use to promote human rights in U.S. security assistance. Section 502B may be the most potent provision of law regarding human rights and security assistance that has never been used. The provision prohibits U.S. security assistance to governments that engage in a consistent pattern of gross violations of human rights, requires the State Department to report on human rights issues, and provides Congress with a mechanism to enforce the statute’s …

Empowering Women's Land Rights As A Climate Change Mitigation Strategy In Nigeria, Cate Baskin

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

This article focuses on the intersection between gender and land rights as they relate to climate change in Nigeria. Decisions about land use, such as biodiversity management and farming techniques, impact the quality of the land and peoples’ ability to live off it. This article will show that women are better situated to utilize techniques which sustain the land. Despite this, women have historically been denied land rights in Nigeria, creating a disconnect between the women who cultivate the land and the men who own it and leading to unsustainable use of agricultural land in Nigeria. Climate change is only …

Convergence & Conflict: Reflections On Global And Regional Human Rights Standards On Hate Speech, Evelyn Aswad, David Kaye

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

What is hate speech under international human rights law? And how do key international adjudicators interpret the law governing it? This Article seeks to illuminate two countervailing and under-reported trends: on the one hand, a growing consensus among U.N. experts and treaty bodies concerning interpretations of “hate speech” prohibitions in international law; and on the other, a failure of several regional human rights bodies to develop approaches to hate speech that are consistent with the U.N.’s universal standards. The Article begins by analyzing the U.N.’s approach to freedom of expression and hate speech and examining how, in the last decade, …

Professional Indifference?: How One Case Improves Protection For Immigrant Children In United States Detention Centers, Caitlin Fernandez Zamora

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

This Article discusses the case Doe 4 ex rel. Lopez v. Shenandoah Valley Juvenile Center Commission. This case was a class action brought by unaccompanied immigrant children against the Shenandoah Valley Juvenile Center Commission under § 1983 protection for adequate medical care. The plaintiff class alleged that, among other things, the Commission failed to (i) provide adequate mental health care due to punitive practices; and (ii) implement trauma-informed care. The plaintiffs were immigrant children who fled their native countries due to harrowing circumstances, many of whom struggled with severe mental illness. The district court granted the defendant’s motion for summary …

The Healthcare Legacy Of The Mission Civilisatrice In Unincorporated U.S. Territories, Sam F. Halabi

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

Individual and population health in unincorporated U.S. territories – American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands – lag terribly behind those in the 50 U.S. states and D.C. The populations in the territories – with drastically higher rates of poverty – suffer and die from chronic conditions like cancer, diabetes, and heart disease at far higher rates; must find facilities and doctors thousands of miles away for even moderately complex cases; and perpetually struggle to make access to basic services available. While scholars have long pointed to the disparate treatment of these populations …

Human Rights Council's Universal Periodic Review As A Forum Of Fighting For Borderline Recommendations? Lessons Learned From The Ground, Kazuo Fukuda

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

Highly acclaimed as a key innovation of the United Nations Human Rights Council, the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) was created in 2006 as a cooperative, peer-review mechanism to shift away from the highly politicized Commission on Human Rights. Despite the significance and hope attached to the UPR, it has been conspicuously under-examined in the U.S. legal scholarship. And most relevant literature elsewhere has avoided directly addressing the fundamental question of exactly what the UPR’s added value is to the global human rights regime in terms of its direct contribution to improving human rights situations on the ground. This is mainly …

Euphemism And Jus Cogens, G. Alex Sinha

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

Jus cogens norms of international law encompass the most stringent prohibitions of the law of nations. They reflect a global—and typically moral—consensus about impermissible conduct so complete and forceful that no derogation is permissible under any circumstances. Yet states derogate nevertheless. Lacking any valid legal justification for violating jus cogens norms, derogating states instead seek to euphemize their unlawful conduct. Doing so appears at a glance to be a calculated choice that allows States to have their cake and eat it too—to acknowledge the peremptory norms that purportedly bind all sovereigns while acting freely in violation of those norms by …

Constitutional Rights Without Effective And Enforceable Constitutional Remedies: The Case Of Ethiopia, Mizanie A. Tadesse

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

The Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia guarantees a broad range of human rights in its Bill of Rights chapter. However, constitutional remedies for infringement of constitutional rights are rarely applied notwithstanding that the Constitution has been in enforcement for close to twenty-five years. The author of this article contends that lack of a clear and comprehensive Bill of Rights litigation procedure and lack of redress for violations of constitutional rights are contributing factors to the unacceptably low enforcement of the Bill of Rights via constitutional litigation. To augment his position and show the legal gaps and challenges …

Fighting The Resource Curse: The Rights Of Citizens Over Natural Resources, Leif Wenar, Jeremie Gilbert

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

Respect for the rights of peoples over natural resources is crucial for the flourishing of communities and states. This article confirms that international law ascribes robust resource rights both to indigenous peoples and to citizens of independent states. These resource rights include indigenous peoples’ right to free, prior, and informed consent and citizens’ rights that resource revenues are never used corruptly but are used first to secure their means of subsistence. Resource rights are human rights, respect for which requires substantial reforms in the practices of corporations and investors as well as in the laws of resource-importing and resource-exporting states.

Debunking The Deathbed Analysis: Exploring A New Approach To Article 3 Health Cases, Meredith Heim

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

This essay will explore Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) as it has been applied to deportation cases of persons in poor health, with the ultimate goal of answering the following question: Whether the deportation of a person to a place where she or he will not receive adequate health care should constitute a violation of ECHR Article 3. Further, this article will suggest how the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and the national courts below them can better review such cases in order to provide more meaningful protection to those inflicted. In doing so, …

Dusting Off The Law Books: Recognizing Gender Persecution In Conflicts And Atrocities, Lisa Davis

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

War-time abuses against women, girls, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer (LGBTIQ), non-binary and gender non-conforming persons are not new. They are as old as human history, appearing in modern international criminal law records as far back as World War II (WWII). In conflicts across the globe, from Iraq to Colombia, armed actors have perpetrated gender-based crimes amounting to persecution in an effort to reinforce oppressive, discriminatory gender narratives. Rarely documented when they happen, perpetrators are hardly ever held accountable for these crimes. As a result, the crimes are often excluded from consideration by international and domestic tribunals, and in …

Introduction To Symposium, "Human Rights And Access To Justice In Ethiopia", Thomas Geraghty

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

No abstract provided.

Remedies For Human Rights Violations: A Reform Proposal For Addressing Victims Of Criminal Proceedings In Ethiopia, Abdi Jibril Ali

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

No abstract provided.

Conditions Of Human Rights In Ethiopia In The Aftermath Of Political Reform, Andinet Adinew Tesfaye, Endalkachew Abera Mekuriya

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

No abstract provided.

Multiple Legal Orders In Ethiopia: An Impediment On The Enforcement Of Women Rights, Daniel E. Alemayehu

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

No abstract provided.

Disability Rights Are Human Rights: Pushing Ethiopia Towards A Rights-Based Movement, Sirak Akalu Iyassu, Fiona Mckinnon

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

Official estimates suggest that 95 percent of Ethiopia’s disabled live under the poverty line and are unemployed. To get by, many must beg or depend on family and friends. The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, the ministry responsible for enforcing rights of disabled people, is a paper tiger, toothless at that. Recent data suggest that only one percent of Ethiopian buildings and roads are fully accessible to the disabled. Yet accessibility is not only a physical, but also a social, cultural, and political sine qua non—and so a matter of human rights.

Rights of Ethiopia’s disabled have been …

Reform Of Regulation Of Legal Practice In Ethiopia: Does It Improve Access To Justice?, Tewodros Meheret

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

Legal practice has been one of the focus areas of the reform agenda following the appointment of Abiy Ahmed (PhD) as the new Prime Minister of Ethiopia on April 2, 2018 following the resignation of his predecessor. As a response to public discontent which led to the change in leadership, he promised and commenced sweeping changes. Accordingly, working teams were formed under the Advisory Council organized under the auspice of the Attorney General and one of them has been working on regulation of legal practice. It submitted a draft bill to the Office of the Attorney General months back and …

Empowering Persons With Disabilities: Socio-Economic Rights As A Pathway To Personal Autonomy And Independence, Francesco Seatzu

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

Recent years have witnessed a growing awareness of the importance of the status of persons with disabilities as right-holders, and increasing linkages being made between human rights and persons with disabilities’ vulnerabilities in the development context. Stimulated by mounting concerns about the impact of the financial crisis of 2007–2008 on persons with disabilities, these changes have unsurprisingly catalyzed attention on those rights of persons with disabilities that are most closely connected to ensuring persons with disabilities’ development needs—namely their social and economic rights. Focusing on the content of, and duties imposed by, persons with disabilities’ socio-economic rights, this article starts …

International Lawyers As Disrupters Of Corruption: Business And Human Rights In Africa’S Most Populous Country—Nigeria, Jayanth K. Krishnan

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

Be it bribery, embezzlement, or the abuse of public trust, corruption poses a major challenge to global security and democratic governance, along with undermining the rule of law, especially within the Global South. Key to this phenomenon is understanding how lawyers are enabling but also disrupting this epidemic. Unfortunately, the literature on this subject is lacking. This study, therefore, offers a nuanced story of globalization and the complicated role that lawyers play in corruption, by relying on the case study of Nigeria—a crucial Global South market that has the largest population on the African continent. While Nigeria has been able …

Elusive Justice: Reflections On The Tenth Anniversary Of Afghanistan's Law On Elimination Of Violence Against Women, Mehdi J. Hakimi

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

The Taliban’s fall in 2001 elevated hopes for improving the plight of women and girls in Afghanistan. Those aspirations were bolstered with the promulgation of the country’s landmark Law on the Elimination of Violence against Women (EVAW) in 2009. The tenth anniversary of Afghanistan’s EVAW Law, however, offers little cause for celebration. This essay examines Afghanistan’s legal framework on combating gender-based violence against women, and the mounting challenges on the ground. The ongoing rampant violence against women, pervasive use of mediation in criminal cases, and violations perpetrated by State agents have made Afghan women’s quest for justice increasingly more elusive. …

A "Dignified Life" And The Resurgence Of Social Rights, Thomas M. Antkowiak

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

The international human rights movement and its institutions have faced searing criticism that they have abandoned social, economic, and cultural rights (“social rights”). While favorable treaties and constitutions have proliferated over the last decades, grave poverty, inequality, and disease still run rampant across the globe. Many have attributed the latest rise of demagogues and terrorist groups to this widespread social disenfranchisement.

The supranational human rights courts have historically avoided social rights enforcement due to limited subject-matter jurisdiction. Yet more recently the Inter-American Court of Human Rights introduced a conceptual breakthrough to assess social rights, which was affirmed by the U.N. …