Human Rights Law Commons^™

The Low-Hanging Fruit: Health, Rights, And The Commission, Bright Nkrumah

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

The year 2022 marked the 35th anniversary of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. As it is a custom in many communities, when one reaches this milestone, it is an opportune time to introspect and reflect on the successes and challenges encountered in one’s journey. It is this template that the paper adopts to measure the prospects and setbacks of the African Commission in the advancement of the right to health. The Article argues that while the body remains the poster child of the continent’s human rights architecture, its inability to clearly articulate how states ought to advance …

Is A Duty To Pay Tax Inherent In Affirmations Of Human Rights?, Jonathan M. Barrett

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

The United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948 (the Universal Declaration), as the preeminent statement of human rights, informs numerous cognate covenants and declarations of rights, and charters of rights included in national constitutions. Unlike the rights declarations of the Enlightenment, the Universal Declaration affirms broad welfare rights, in addition to civil and political rights. No right or set of rights is superior to another; they are indivisible, interdependent and interrelated.

Declarations of rights may also include duties. The Organization of American States’ American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man 1948 (“the American Declaration”), for example, includes …

International Rights Affecting The Covid–19 Vaccine Race, Samantha Johnson

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

The impact of the COVID–19 pandemic has been felt world-wide, and despite having several vaccines in the market at this point, there are still issues of accessibility for certain countries. International intellectual property law has been a breeding ground for the exploration of intellectual curiosity and creation as it provides strong protections to creators. These strong protections have allowed for the monopolization of certain goods, such as vaccines, under the concept of patents. While patents are important to incentivize pharmaceutical companies to create life–saving medicines, these protections have also become a barrier for access to medicines, especially in less–developed countries. …

Taxonomy And Restorative Justice: Can We Even See The Problem?, Dominique Day

Journal of Race, Gender, and Ethnicity

No abstract provided.

Investors As International Law Intermediaries: Using Shareholder Proposals To Enforce Human Rights, Kishanthi Parella

Scholarly Articles

One of the biggest challenges with international law remains its enforcement. This challenge grows when it comes to enforcing international law norms against corporations and other business organizations. The United Nations Guiding Principles recognizes the “corporate responsibility to respect human rights,” which includes human rights due diligence practices that are adequate for “assessing actual and potential human rights impacts, integrating and acting upon the findings, tracking responses, and communicating how impacts are addressed.” Unfortunately, many corporations around the world are failing to implement adequate human rights due diligence practices in their supply chains. This inattention leads to significant harms for …

Reclaiming Refugee Rights As Human Rights, Roni Amit

Pace International Law Review

On April 5, 2019, PILR held their triennial symposium titled: Revisiting Human Rights: The Universal Declaration at 70. As a reflection of the event, a few panelists composed contribution pieces reflecting on the topic.

Book Review: Not Enough: Human Rights In An Unequal World, Harlan G. Cohen

Scholarly Works

Review of the book Not Enough: Human Rights in an Unequal World. By Samuel Moyn. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press 2018. Pp. ix, 220. Index.

The Human Rights Movement And The Prevention Of Evil: The Need To Look Inward As Well As Out, Jeffrey A. Brauch

Catholic University Law Review

The modern human rights movement began as a response to great evil perpetrated by individuals and nations against others during and preceding World War II. The movement has been dedicated to protecting the rights of individuals by confronting evil and holding nations accountable should efforts to prevent it fail.

This article contends that while the human rights movement is good at confronting evil “out there,” it has failed in important ways to recognize flaws within itself. In particular, it displays a hubris that shows itself in two ways. First, the movement has embraced a utopian expansion of rights to be …

The Uncertain Future Of Australia’S Pacific Solution, Chandra Roam

San Diego International Law Journal

The plight of a refugee is one that many of us will never understand. However, the ugly truth is that there is a global rise in the number of displaced persons seeking asylum. By the end of 2015, the number of displaced persons surpassed post World War II numbers, prompting developed nations around the world to enforce, amend, or implement policies targeted at controlling the flood of refugees at their borders. This Comment examines the policies of Australia, a nation that has had strict immigration policies in place for decades. Specifically, it discusses the Australian stance on refugee migration and …

Refugees In The European Union: The Harsh Reality Of The Dublin Regulation, Lana Maani

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

The refugee crisis is a highly contested and controversial issue. The world, and specifically Europe, has seen a rapid increase in the number of refugees applying for asylum. In fact, the European Union (“EU”) has received well over one million refugees: the highest number of refugees since the Second World War. The crisis is testing the EU’s main building blocks, including, most importantly, its Member States’ notion of an ever-closer union. Some Member States have been more responsive to the crisis than others. For example, Germany is the highest refugee hosting country in the EU. On the other hand, Hungary …

Standard Setting In Human Rights: Critique And Prognosis, Makau Mutua

Makau Mutua

This article interrogates the processes and politics of standard setting in human rights. It traces the history of the human rights project and critically explores how the norms of the human rights movement have been created. This article looks at how those norms are made, who makes them, and why. It focuses attention on the deficits of the international order, and how that order - which is defined by multiple asymmetries - determines the norms and the purposes they serve. It identifies areas for further norm development and concludes that norm-creating processes must be inclusive and participatory to garner legitimacy …

Why We Must Oppose The Full Decriminalization Of Prostitution, Taina Bien-Aime

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

No abstract provided.

Human Rights Law And Racial Hate Speech Regulation In Australia: Reform And Replace?, Dr. Alan Berman

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

The Failure Of The Universal Declaration Of Human Rights, Jacob Dolinger

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

The UN Human Rights Commission dedicated over two years to the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was approved by the General Assembly in 1948.

The underlying reason for the Declaration was the genocide executed by Hitler’s Nazi Germany against the Jewish people throughout Europe during the Second World War. The fundamental mistake of the Commission was that the persecution by the Nazis was not directed against individual persons, but against an entire people, whereas the Declaration deals exclusively with the rights of the individual human being, no reference whatsoever made in the document to collectivities.

Moreover, …

Child Marriage In Yemen: A Violation Of International Law, Elizabeth Verner

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Children, Diane Marie Amann

Scholarly Works

This chapter, which appears in The Cambridge Companion to International Criminal Law (William A. Schabas ed. 2016), discusses how international criminal law instruments and institutions address crimes against and affecting children. It contrasts the absence of express attention in the post-World War II era with the multiple provisions pertaining to children in the 1998 Statute of the International Criminal Court. The chapter examines key judgments in that court and in the Special Court for Sierra Leone, as well as the ICC’s current, comprehensive approach to the effects that crimes within its jurisdiction have on children. The chapter concludes with a …

The International Law Of Torture: From Universal Proscription To Effective Application And Enforcement, Winston P. Nagan, Lucie Atkins

Winston P Nagan

This Article presents a comprehensive review of world torture and the efforts to eradicate it through both official and unofficial strategies of intervention, with special emphasis on the legal strategies. This Article recognizes the complexity of these strategies as they form a vast number of initiatives emerging from various elements of the international community. Part II of the Article touches on matters of definition and legal history. This enables the examination of the inherent characteristics of torture as they impact issues of governance, social control, and principles of basic respect and human dignity. Part III examines the efforts to universally …

Filartiga V. Pena-Irala: Comments On Sources Of Human Rights Law And Means Of Redress For Violations Of Human Rights, Gabriel M. Wilner

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Conscientious Objection To Military Service: A Report To The United Nations Division Of Human Rights, Jonathan M. Engram

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Coping With Non-International Armed Conflicts: The Borderline Between National And International Law, Bart De Schutter, Christine Van De Wyngaert

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

The Status Of The Universal Declaration Of Human Rights In National And International Law, Hurst Hannum

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Human Rights And State "Sovereignty", Louis Henkin

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

The Growing Importance Of Customary International Human Rights Law, Richard B. Lillich

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Restrictions On Humanitarian Aid In Darfur: The Role Of The International Criminal Court, Mominah Usmani

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Official, National, Common Or Unifying: Do Words Giving Legal Status To Language Diminish Linguistic Human Rights?, Paul C. Hale

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Public Sector Labor Policy: A Human Rights Approach, Robert Hebdon

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

King Tut And Tahrir Square: The Egyptian Revolution Of 2011 And The Advantage Of Viewing Cultural Heritage Destruction Through A Right To Culture Lens, Zoe Niesel

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

Protecting Women Under The International Humanitarian Law: A Study Of The Social, Cultural, And Political Conditions In Iraq And Palestine That Have An Adverse Affect On Women, Nour Mawloud Najeeb Fnish

Theses and Dissertations

This doctoral dissertation examines and studies the protection of women rights under International Humanitarian Law, (also “IHL”) within the context of the social, cultural and political and political conditions with particular reference to the women of Iraq and Palestine. Women in these two countries have suffered unparalleled difficulties that have been afflicted upon them by conditions of war. For a long period in the history of those countries, women as indispensable managers of their families have had to contend with varying challenges necessitating protection under international humanitarian law. This is even more required during periods of war and armed conflicts. …

In The Interests Of Justice: Human Rights And The Right To Counsel In Civil Cases, Martha F. Davis

Touro Law Review

This report examines the international human rights treaties binding on the United States as well as other non-binding international human rights documents to ascertain the status of the right to counsel in civil cases, the so-called "Civil Gideon" right. The United Nations treaty monitoring bodies responsible for the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination have both indicated that legal assistance may be required to ensure fairness in civil cases. The Charter of the Organization of American States, to which the United States is a party, goes farther …

The Global Market And Human Rights: Trading Away The Human Rights Principle, Frank J. Garcia

Frank J. Garcia

No abstract provided.