Law Commons^™

The Gaza War Of 2009: Applying International Humanitarian Law To Israel And Hamas, Justus Reid Weiner, Avi Bell

San Diego International Law Journal

This Article explores the many international legal issues raised by the Palestinian-Israeli tension along Gaza's borders. It first examines legal issues raised by Palestinian conduct and then turns to legal issues raised by Israeli conduct. As will be demonstrated, criticisms of Israeli behavior ... lack any basis in international law. By contrast, Palestinian behaviors that are rarely criticized constitute severe violations of international law.

Silencing The Silk Road: China's Language Policy In The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Aurora Elizabeth Bewicke

San Diego International Law Journal

As part of its push for mono-culturalism throughout China in general, and in the XUAR in particular, China's language policy is at the forefront of what some have labeled China's program of "cultural genocide." While most agree that this provocative terminology is overstated, China's language policy may well be at the root of various human rights violations. Part II of this article will describe the historical context and modern realities of China's language policy in the XUAR, which is compromised of both overt policies in the form of laws, regulations, and policy statements as well as more covert policies, which …

Towards A New Transitional Justice Model: Assessing The Serbian Case, Roozbeh (Rudy) B. Baker

San Diego International Law Journal

This Article will survey the key episodes of transitional justice in various countries since the 1970s, and then apply the lessons gleaned to the transition of Serbia during the first five years following the deposition of authoritarian ruler Slobodan Milosevic in October 200, and the subsequent establishment of democratic rule...This article will show that the empirical evidence demonstrates that the outcome of the transitional justice process a country undertakes, upon its political stability, needs to be taken into account when fashioning said process.

De-Cloaking Torture: Boumediene And The Military Commissions Act, Alan W. Clarke

San Diego International Law Journal

The Military Commissions Act of 2006 (MCA) marked the high tide and endgame for hiding torture. It's unraveling did more to uncover the Bush administration's secret interrogation practices than did the political change in Washington. International and domestic backlash against the government's embrace of harsh interrogation techniques, frequently rising to the level of torture, also played a role. However, the Supreme Court's decisions ending in Boumediene v. Bush played the decisive role. Boumediene, and the Supreme Court decisions that led up to it, made inevitable that which politics had left contingent and reversible. It also provided legal and political cover.

From Outrage To Action, Henry Krisch

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Kristof and WuDunn provide a vivid panoramic view of problems faced by women (primarily in the “developing” world), what has been done and what more could be done to help them achieve dignity and autonomy in their lives, and how vindication of their rights could contribute to the broader social development of their societies. In this they provide us with important insights into how human rights might be effectively proclaimed and successfully implemented. In reviewing their considerable contributions, I shall also suggest some limitations on both their analysis and their policy recommendations.

Violence In The House, Katherine Hite

Human Rights & Human Welfare

There was something particularly haunting in reading this Kristof and WuDunn piece during the week’s major US headlines: a girl in California had been imprisoned for eighteen years in the home of a man who kidnapped and raped her, fathered her children, and employed her in his small enterprise—a business card design and printing agency. Business clients interviewed for the story appeared completely taken aback. Clients had always found the now twenty-nine-year-old Jaycee Dugard “professional, polite, and responsive” as well as “creative and talented in her work.” Others expressed similar shock, recounting that Ms. Dugard “was always smiling.” Ms. Dugard’s …

October Roundtable: Introduction

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

The Women's Crusade. By Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. The New York Review of Books. August 17, 2009.

Shattered Hearts (Full Report): The Commercial Sexual Exploitation Of American Indian Women And Girls In Minnesota., Alexandra (Sandi) Pierce

First Annual Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Trafficking, 2009

Table of contents

Acknowledgements iii

Background 1

Organization of the report 3

I The context 4

Native women’s experiences during colonization 5

Native women’s experiences during national expansion 7

Native girls’ boarding school experiences 8

Impact of assimilation policies on Native women 10

The damage caused by life in prostitution 14

II Methods and definitions 16

III Prevalence 28

Involvement in prostitution 28

Involvement in the Internet sex trade 35

IV Patterns in entering the sex trade 36

Age of entry 36

Modes of entry 39

V Factors that facilitate entry 53

Generational trauma 53

Runaway, thrown away, and/or homeless …

Health And Reproductive Rights In The Protocol To The African Charter: Competing Influences And Unsettling Questions, Rachel Rebouché

UF Law Faculty Publications

In 2005, the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (the Protocol) came into force. Since that time, the Protocol has received scant attention in legal scholarship. Where the Protocol has been mentioned, by and large it has received praise as a major step forward for women's rights on the continent. Much of that praise is merited. The Protocol includes broad rights to non-discrimination, equality, and dignity, and it addresses a variety of areas such as labor and employment, marriage and the family, the legal system, the political process and …

"The Female Entrepreneur"?, Cath Collins

Human Rights & Human Welfare

I read the “Women’s Crusade” article that forms the centrepiece of this month’s roundtable with initial interest, gradually turning to a vague sense of disquiet spiced with occasional disbelief. After a few more readings, I tried highlighting the passages that bothered me and stringing them together. Countries “riven by fundamentalism”— that’s presumably the Islamic variety, rather than the Christian variant which holds such sway in the US. The suggestion that “everyone from the World Bank to the US [...] Chiefs of Staff to [...] CARE” now thinks that women are the answer to global extremism hides too many questionable assumptions …

How Can We Ensure Justice To Future Generations?, Marcel Stuessi

Marcel Stüssi

This contribution departs from the premise that in order to do justice to future generations we have to abide by a single rule. That rule stipulates:

Act only according to those norms by which it is guaranteed that the world’s ecosystems are kept sound.

On the face of it that rule is exceedingly simple. However, when it comes to political philosophy things tend to get messy. First of all, a “philosophy” is a specific set of views or theories held by a person on a particular issue. But history has demonstrated that no philosophy is perfect. The reason philosophers adopt …

From Paradox To Subsidiarity: The United States And Human Rights Treaty Bodies, Tara J. Melish

Contributions to Books

Published as Chapter 8 in The Sword and the Scales: The United States and International Courts and Tribunals, Cesare P.R. Romano, ed.

It is frequently said that the United States has a paradoxical human rights policy. This Article takes a closer look at this vision from the perspective of U.S. engagement with international human rights treaty bodies, the quasi-adjudicatory expert committees or commissions that exercise supervisory jurisdiction over the U.S. human rights record. Contrary to popular perception that the U.S. thumbs its nose at these bodies, the U.S. in fact engages quite actively with their human rights procedures.

To untangle …

September Roundtable: Introduction

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

The Rape of the Congo. By Adam Hochschild. The New York Review of Books. August 13, 2009.

Overcoming Collective Action Failure In The Security Council: Would Direct Regional Representation Better Protect Universal Human Rights?, Noah Bialostozky

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.

Hanging In A Balance: Freedom Of Expression And Religion, Puja Kapai, Anne S Y Cheung

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

When the liberty to freely express oneself is at odds with another's right to freedom of religion, we are confronted with the classic dilemma of choosing between two equally fundamental, constitutionally and internationally protected rights. The contours of the said two rights however, are far from clear. Whilst freedom of expression is not an absolute right, its limits are controversial. Equally, while it is undisputed that freedom of religion is an internationally protected human right enshrined in various international instruments, there is no comprehensive international treaty which addresses as its subject the content and extent of the right of freedom …

Rights And Duties Of Minorities In A Context Of Post-Colonial Self-Determination: Basques And Catalans In Contemporary Spain, Jorge Martínez Paoletti

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.

Power And Cooperation: Understanding The Road Towards A Truth Commission, Ming Zhu

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

Truth commissions, usually described as a softer transitional justice alternative to trials, gained traction in academic circles following the establishment of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Though they are praised for their value in societal reconciliation and widely recognized for their flexibility; little is understood of their causal factors or requirements. This Article turns to this hole in the research and examines the effects of one potential causal variable, the balance of power between the warring parties. Through an in-depth examination of four case studies, El Salvador, Guatemala, Peru, and East Timor, this Article finds that truth commissions are …

From Armchair Reading To Action: Acknowledging Our Role In The Horror Of The Democratic Republic Of The Congo - And Doing Something About It., Shareen Hertel

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Reading Adam Hochschild's extraordinary account of ordinary people caught up in the horrific ravages of a civil war raging in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), I was struck by how incongruous my own encounter with this suffering is. I read his article over lunch, safe in the comfort of my own home. As a woman, I live largely without fear of the kind of brutal sexual violence that Hochschild opens his article with, as he related the story of a Congolese NGO worker who is herself a victim of multiple rapes.

Human Rights Law On Trial In The Drc, William Paul Simmons

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The ongoing tragedy in Eastern Congo contains so many tragic lessons that it should shake to their very foundations all comfortable ideologies about human rights and politics. The atrocities in the DRC should implicate all but have so far resulted in almost limitless impunity. Here, I briefly put human rights law on trial for its role in perpetuating this tragedy.

Natural Resources And Wealth Of The Democratic Republic Of Congo (Drc): Of Benefit To Whom?, Nicola Colbran

Human Rights & Human Welfare

When asked to discuss the humanitarian tragedy in the DRC, the question really is where to start? The article by Adam Hochschild discusses some of the most horrific events and experiences imaginable: widespread killings of unarmed civilians, rape, torture and looting, the recruitment of child soldiers, and the forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of people. The immediate human response is who is to blame, how did it happen and how can the world apparently do nothing?

If They Just Weren't So Rich!, Anja Mihr

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The deadliest war on earth-as it is called-in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will only end when the country's richness fades or is kept under surveillance. Human rights and peace might have a chance if Congo's lucrative diamond, gold or coltan mines were under shared control by non-profit agencies or international organizations with the intention to spread the mines' benefits and wealth among the Congolese people. Wishful thinking? Most likely it is, but what other alternative is there? The country's extraordinary wealth in natural resources is the main reason for the immense corruption, the extermination of entire villages, the …

Application Of International Humanitarian Law By United States Courts

Penn State International Law Review

No abstract provided.

Editor's Note

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Introduction To The Symposium Issue: Reproductive And Sexual Health And The African Women's Protocol, Charles Ngwena

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

An Introduction To The Protocol To The African Charter On Human And Peoples' Rights On The Rights Of Women In Africa, Frans Viljoen

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Stereotyping Women In The Health Sector: Lessons From Cedaw, Simone Cusack, Rebecca J. Cook

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Health And Reproductive Rights In The Protocol To The African Charter: Competing Influences And Unsettling Questions, Rachel Rebouché

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

"The Distant 'Big' Hospital": Linking Development, Poverty And Reproductive Health-A Gender Mainstreaming Approach, Edith Miguda

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Realizing Access To Sexual Health Information And Services For Adolescents Through The Protocol To The African Charter On The Rights Of Women, Ebenezer Durojaye

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

The Women's Protocol To The African Charter And Sexual Violence In The Context Of Armed Conflict Or Other Mass Atrocity, Susana Sácouto, Katherine Cleary

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.