Human Rights Law Commons^™

Commentary To The Recommended Principles And Guidelines On Human Rights And Human Trafficking, Anne T. Gallagher

Anne T Gallagher

Improving The Effectiveness Of The International Law Of Human Trafficking: A Vision For The Future Of The Us Trafficking In Persons Reports, Anne T. Gallagher

Anne T Gallagher

In 2000, the United States Congress passed the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act requiring its State Department to issue annual Trafficking in Persons Reports (TIP Reports) describing “the nature and extent of severe forms of trafficking in persons” and assessing governmental efforts across the world to combat such trafficking against criteria established by US law. This article examines the opportunities and risks presented by the TIP Reports, tracing their evolution over the past decade and considering their impact on the behavior of states. In looking to the future, the article focuses on how this influential unilateral compliance mechanism …

November Roundtable: Multiculturalism And Integration Introduction

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

“Germany's Integration Blinkers. What's So Bad About Parallel Societies?” by Henryk M. Broder, Spiegel Online, November 20, 2010

and

“Angela Merkel: German Multiculturalism has Utterly Failed,” by Matthew Weaver, The Guardian, October 17, 2010

A Protection Post-Mortem On The "Death" Of Multiculturalism In Germany, Erin Mooney

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Noticeably absent from the recent pronouncements of the “death” of multiculturalism in Germany, including Chancellor Angela Merkel’s own conclusion that the policy had “utterly failed,” has been any interest to seriously examine, let alone address, the reasons for such a failure.

Multiculturalism And The Struggle Of National Normative Challenges, Marc Alexander C. Gionet

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Globalization has not translated into a set of universal monolithic values. As populations relocate for various reasons, increasingly less effort is required not only to stay connected, but to remain within the home community via satellite television, radio, telecommunications, and locally concentrated diaspora. Henryk M. Broder has described such a phenomenon as the development of “ parallel societies, ” which result from immigrants’ failure or lack of interest in integrating into a host community. The question that many commentators have attempted to answer is: does the development of parallel societies, or even additional cultural diversity, represent a threat or a …

Citizenship, Rights, And Culture, Alison Brysk

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Shortly after German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s repudiation of multiculturalism, the Soros Foundation announced the winners of its Fellowships for New Americans—an award for graduate study for foreign-born students whose career paths show initiative, accomplishment, and “commitment to the values expressed in the U.S. Constitution.” Dozens of America’s best and brightest are pursuing degrees in law, medicine, public policy, business, and the arts that will immensely enrich our national and global communities.

European Identity Struggles In The Age Of Austerity, Par Engstrom

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The economic crisis has coincided with a discernible rise of right-wing populist parties in a number of European countries. This was most recently seen in elections in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Sweden. Right-wing populist parties also hold parliamentary seats in Austria, Denmark, Finland, and Norway, and they have been part of coalition governments in Italy and Switzerland for some time. In France, Jean-Marie Le Pen’s National Front, although not represented in parliament, wields considerable political influence, and may receive an additional electoral boost should Le Pen’s daughter, Marine Le Pen, inherit the party leadership. True, these parties still enjoy only …

Development As Power, Alison Brysk

Human Rights & Human Welfare

While material progress towards the Millennium Development Goals is laudable, and pledges of new resources are necessary, we can never fully address poverty without talking about power. As Amartya Sen pointed out, true development depends on freedom.

The Misnomer Of Mdgs? When Goals Are Rights, Erin Mooney

Human Rights & Human Welfare

That much more must be done to meet the Millennium Development Goals is evident. The proposals put forth by Douste-Blazy and the new pledges announced at the recent UN MDG Summit are steps in the right direction. More fundamentally, what is required is to recognize that the MDGs are not merely “goals” to aim for, hitting or missing as the case may be. Rather, they are about realizing rights which governments, individually and collectively, have pre-existing legal obligations to uphold and ensure.

Mdg: Reinvigoration Or Mourning?, Marc Alexander C. Gionet

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The United Nations Millennium Development Goals Summit got underway on September 20th in New York. Opening speeches seemed to be a roster of who’s – who of contributors towards global poverty with the IMF and WTO leading the pack. As speeches progressed, a disturbing trend developed which romanticized the pre-recessionary period of progress towards MDG achievement and reducing world poverty.

October Roundtable: Mdgs And Human Rights Introduction

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

“The UN millennium development goals can be put back on track” by Philippe Douste-Blazy. The Guardian. September 5, 2010.

The Mdgs And The (New) International Economic Order, Par Engstrom

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The current economic crisis has indeed had far-reaching consequences beyond the “developed world” where the crisis originated. Yet, significantly, the impact of the crisis on the “developing world” has varied quite considerably. While parts of sub-Saharan Africa may have suffered as a consequence of rising food prices and reduced aid flows, other regions have fared considerably better. It is too early to talk about the decoupling of “frontier markets” (to use investment analyst jargon) from developed markets. Yet the solid performance of most Latin American and Asian economies in recent years raises interesting questions regarding the international economic system and …

The International Law Of Human Trafficking, Anne T. Gallagher

Anne T Gallagher

This book presents the first-ever comprehensive and in-depth analysis of the international law of human trafficking. Anne T. Gallagher calls on her direct experience working within the United Nations to chart the development of new international laws on this issue. She links these rules to the international law of State responsibility , as well as key norms of international human rights law, transnational criminal law, refugee law and international criminal law, in the process identifying and explaining the major legal obligations of States with respect to preventing trafficking, protecting and supporting victims, and prosecuting perpetrators.

Justice For Rwanda: Toward A Universal Law Of Armed Conflict, Heather Alexander

Golden Gate University Law Review

Section I of this Comment provides a history of the Rwandan armed conflict and a description of the laws of armed conflict. It focuses on the basic laws of armed conflict, the Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocols, and describes how these laws have been interpreted by the ICTY and ICTR. Section II addresses the classification of the Rwandan armed conflict as a non-international conflict. This section discusses Ugandan support for the invading Rwandan Patriotic Front ("hereinafter RPF") and the murder of ten Belgian U.N. peacekeepers by Rwandan troops. The Section proposes changing the definition of an international conflict, thereby strengthening …

Regenerating Leadership Or Rhetoric?, Marc Alexander C. Gionet

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The new coalition government in the UK is expediting efforts to mark a differentiation from its predecessor. In regards to foreign policy, the Secretary of State for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs, William Hague, has identified human rights as the “irreducible core” in his initial speech of a four-part series intended to outline the new government’s priorities and approach.

Human Rights At The “Core” Of Uk Foreign Policy Requires Respect For Core Human Rights, Erin Mooney

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The true measure of whether human rights indeed are the "irreducible core" of the UK’s new foreign policy will be the extent to which the coalition government respects and protects “core” human rights.

Uk Foreign Policy And Human Rights, Par Engstrom

Human Rights & Human Welfare

William Hague’s assertion that human rights should constitute the “irreducible core” of foreign policy under the new UK coalition government may seem a radical departure for the new Foreign Secretary. Hague is, after all, a leading figure in the British Conservative Party, which in its recent election manifesto called for the repeal of the UK’s Human Rights Act that incorporates the European Convention on Human Rights into UK law. Given this profound ambivalence over the substantive value of human rights at home, the new UK government is not likely to adopt more assertive human rights policies abroad. Human rights advocates …

August Roundtable: Human Rights And Foreign Policy Introduction

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

“A humane nation is a safer nation” by Tom Porteous. The Guardian. July 7, 2010.

Doing Well By Doing Good, Alison Brysk

Human Rights & Human Welfare

As Tom Porteous contends in The Guardian, "a humane nation is a safer nation"—and ultimately, a more prosperous, healthy, happy, and green one too. My recent book, Global Good Samaritans, explores how half a dozen disparate nations came to adopt relatively humanitarian foreign policies, and how this has benefited global governance and their own development. Let us explore the lessons of history that inspired the real (albeit uneven) contributions of countries like Sweden, Canada, and Costa Rica—and why this should inspire more states like the UK to become active human rights promoters.

All Politics Are Suboptimal, Todd Landman

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Despite its intentions and founding principles, the United Nations is fundamentally a political organization and therefore subject to the machinations of states as they seek to maximize their self interest, protect their reputations, and advance their power. The UN Security Council itself is a product of World War II and reflects a settlement from the end of the war that many perceive as highly inappropriate to the balance of power and global realities of the world today.

Overcoming History And Human Rights At The Un, Sonia Cardenas

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Criticism is most useful when it imagines viable alternatives. This is why the most recent wave of outrage over the elections to the UN Human Rights Council seems counter-productive. Yes, egregious human rights violators have been elected to the Council. Yes, Iran was kept off the Council in exchange for a seat on the women’s rights commission . And, yes, the elections were uncontested, with regional blocs putting forth the same number of candidates as vacancies. These facts have led observers to describe the body as a farce, as all pretense, and to decry US participation in the Council.

July Roundtable: The Un And Human Rights Introduction

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

“Another human-rights irony at the U.N.” by Anne Applebaum. The Washington Post. May 4, 2010.

and

“UN elects rights violators to Human Rights Council” by Edith M. Lederer. Associated Press. May 13, 2010.

Perpetrators In Their Midst, David Akerson

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The two articles, “Another Human-Rights Irony at the U.N.” by Anne Applebaum and “UN Elects Rights Violators to Human Rights Council” by Edith Lederer, both set forth the problems encountered by the UN Human Rights Council and its predecessor, the Human Rights Commission. Namely, that member states with notorious human rights records will exploit the Council to their political advantage. As Applebaum points out in her article, “authoritarian regimes have long battled to join the council...the better to prevent any outsiders from investigating their own governments.”

Human Rights Abusers, The Human Rights Council, And The Un, James Pattison

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The predecessor to the Human Rights Council, the Commission on Human Rights, had several notable failings. These included double standards in the selection of which states were to be subject to scrutiny, membership of the Commission by states notable for their egregious human rights records, and the shielding of the P5 members of the Security Council and their allies from criticism. The Human Rights Council, it was hoped, would avoid these flaws and, in doing so, push human rights further up the UN agenda. For instance, the General Assembly Resolution A/RES/60/251, which set up the Council, claimed that the Council’s …

At The Intersection Of Neoliberal Development, Scarce Resources, And Human Rights: Enforcing The Right To Water In South Africa, Elizabeth A. Larson

International Studies Honors Projects

The competing ideals of international human rights and global economic neoliberalism come into conflict when developing countries try to enforce socio-economic rights. This paper explores the intersection of economic globalization and the enforcement of 2nd generation human rights. The focus of this exploration is the right to water in South Africa, specifically the recent Constitutional Court case Mazibuko v City of Johannesburg. While a right to water can be constructed at the international level, the right disappears in the face of neoliberal development measures such as those that are instituted by democratic governments in developing nations faced with limited resources.

May Roundtable: The Downfall Of Human Rights? Introduction

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

“The Downfall of Human Rights” by Joshua Kurlantzick. Newsweek. February 19, 2010.

A Positive View Of The Trajectory Of The Human Rights Movement, David Akerson

Human Rights & Human Welfare

In 1988, during the waning days of apartheid in South Africa, I was a young American lawyer working for South African Lawyers for Human Rights in Pretoria. On one occasion, I accompanied some of my African colleagues to a conference, the purpose of which was to begin visualizing post-apartheid South Africa. While the apartheid regime was still in power, it was clearly in hasty retreat, and it was equally clear that its days were numbered. The African majority would soon be taking over the reigns of power, and they were excited to begin visualizing what freedom and human rights might …

Hope, Despair, And Human Rights, James Pattison

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Joshua Kurlantzick's “The Downfall of Human Rights” in Newsweek makes for a sobering read. The major Western states, he argues, are no longer interested in the promotion of human rights, but are instead focused on rebuilding themselves after the global recession. Kurlantzick notes further that the Obama administration avoids strong criticism of China, Russia, and other human rights violators because of its desire to demarcate itself from the previous administration's moralizing democracy promotion. To add to Kurlantzick's case for the West's lack of concern about human rights, one could cite the recent and blatantly human rights-violating anti-terror laws of several …

Premature Judgment, Todd Landman

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Just as Mark Twain said in 1897, “The report of my death was an exaggeration,” many commentators have prematurely reported the death of human rights. For example, in 1999, in The Theory and Reality of the Protection of International Human Rights , J. Shand Watson sees human rights as a “mere fiction” in light of a century of state-sponsored killing. One year later, Costas Douzinas, through an appeal to history, philosophy, and psychoanalysis proclaimed the “end of human rights.” It is thus no surprise that the article by Joshua Kurlantzick is yet another attempt to warn us that human rights …

Human Rights Pragmatism Under Obama, Sonia Cardenas

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Bypassing realists and idealists, President Obama has staked out a boldly pragmatic approach to human rights. Critics depict the policy shift as “the downfall of human rights” and a set of “empty promises.” The problem is not with Obama’s embrace of pragmatism, or his rejection of ideology, to advance human rights. The problem is in the emphasis: human rights pragmatism should not privilege external inducements over vital on-the-ground domestic realities.