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Full-Text Articles in Law
International Child Abduction And Children's Rights: Two Means To The Same End, Eran Sthoeger
International Child Abduction And Children's Rights: Two Means To The Same End, Eran Sthoeger
Michigan Journal of International Law
The Hague Convention aims to deter future abductors and demonstrate mutual respect for the laws of its member states, while presumably serving the best interests of the child. It operates as a jurisdictional mechanism by reinstating the status quo prior to the removal through the prompt return of the child to his or her place of habitual residence. This return, as clearly stated in the Hague Convention itself, bears no effect on the merits of any existing or future custody dispute between the parents. The Hague Convention demands that contracting states respect past or future decisions pertaining to custody decided …
Widening Our Lens: Incorporating Essential Perspectives In The Fight Against Human Trafficking, Jonathan Todres
Widening Our Lens: Incorporating Essential Perspectives In The Fight Against Human Trafficking, Jonathan Todres
Michigan Journal of International Law
In 2000, the international community formally launched the modern movement to combat human trafficking with the United Nations' adoption of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, Supplementing the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime (Trafficking Protocol). With the Trafficking Protocol, the international community created a new cornerstone upon which to build a global initiative to combat this modem form of slavery. As the first major international treaty on human trafficking in half a century, the Trafficking Protocol represented a significant step forward. One hundred forty-seven countries are now party to the …
Challenging Monohumanism: An Argument For Changing The Way We Think About Intercountry Adoption, Shani King
Challenging Monohumanism: An Argument For Changing The Way We Think About Intercountry Adoption, Shani King
Michigan Journal of International Law
In Part I, this Article provides a brief history of ICA. In Part II, using a post-colonialist theoretical framework, the work of legal scholars from the past twenty years on the subject of ICA is explored. This analysis exposes the centrality of MonoHumanism to our discourse on ICA. In Part III, this Article illustrates how our discourse regarding intercountry adoption contributes to our violating the rights of children (and families) as they are defined in the CRC. Lastly, in Part IV, this Article explores how this argument fits into the current and somewhat polarized debate on ICA and how the …
Custody, Maintenance, And Succession: The Internalization Of Women's And Children's Rights Under Customary Law In Africa, Allison D. Kent
Custody, Maintenance, And Succession: The Internalization Of Women's And Children's Rights Under Customary Law In Africa, Allison D. Kent
Michigan Journal of International Law
In this Note, the author examines the process of international human rights norm internalization into areas traditionally governed exclusively by customary law, and the resulting evolution of customary law. Assuming, arguendo, that customary law is to be modified, I argue that a societal norm internalization approach is the most effective means to bring customary law into conformity with international human rights law. After a brief discussion of the fieldwork on which I rely, this Note describes the historical influence of colonialism on the development of customary law in Africa, with a particular focus on the repugnancy clauses of the …
Technological Advancement And International Human Rights: Is Science Improving Human Life Or Perpetuating Human Rights Violations?, Christine A. Khalili-Borna
Technological Advancement And International Human Rights: Is Science Improving Human Life Or Perpetuating Human Rights Violations?, Christine A. Khalili-Borna
Michigan Journal of International Law
This Note assesses the practices of pre-implantation and prenatal genetic screening and sex-determination through an international human rights framework founded in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Universal Declaration), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
The Universal Declaration On Bioethics And Human Rights: Promoting International Discussion On The Morality Of Non-Therapeutic Research On Children, Anna Gercas
Michigan Journal of International Law
After describing the Declaration and its drafting history, this Note will summarize several international, national, and regional guidelines regarding children as research subjects. The Note then argues for a prohibition of non-therapeutic research on children and concludes that international human rights law offers the most appropriate basis for the development of regulations on human experimentation.
Instructions In Inequality: Development, Human Rights, Capabilities, And Gender Violence In School, Erika George
Instructions In Inequality: Development, Human Rights, Capabilities, And Gender Violence In School, Erika George
Michigan Journal of International Law
This Article argues that the international community's gender equality targets will not be realized by 2015 because the problems associated with sexual violence against girls in schools are situated at an intersection of contested conceptual divides between human rights (civil and political liberties) and development aims (social and economic needs). Cracks in the conceptual foundations of both the liberal and utilitarian theories of justice and equality, which support traditional human rights advocacy and economic development plans, respectively render each approach inadequate to fully identify and address the grave danger sexual violence and harassment in schools pose to educational equality. In …
Pornography As Trafficking, Catharine A. Mackinnon
Pornography As Trafficking, Catharine A. Mackinnon
Michigan Journal of International Law
In material reality, pornography is one way women and children are trafficked for sex. To make visual pornography, the bulk of the industry's products, real women and children, and some men, are rented out for use in commercial sex acts. In the resulting materials, these people are then conveyed and sold for a buyer's sexual use. Obscenity laws, the traditional legal approach to the problem, do not care about these realities at all. The morality of what is said and shown remains their focus and concern. The injuries inflicted on real people to make the materials, or because they are …
Trafficking As A Human Rights Violation: The Complex Intersection Of Legal Frameworks For Conceptualizing And Combating Trafficking, Joan Fitzpatrick
Trafficking As A Human Rights Violation: The Complex Intersection Of Legal Frameworks For Conceptualizing And Combating Trafficking, Joan Fitzpatrick
Michigan Journal of International Law
The author will focus on three legal instruments: (1) the 2000 Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime (the Trafficking Protocol); (2) the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act (VTVPA), enacted by the U.S. Congress in 2000; and (3) the regulations issued in 2002 by the U.S. Department of Justice to implement the T visa for trafficking victims. The U.S. response to trafficking illustrates the difficulties faced by human rights advocates in source, transit, and destination countries to insure that anti-trafficking and other migration …
The Impact Of Family Paradigms, Domestic Constitutions, And International Conventions On Disclosure Of An Adopted Person's Identities And Heritage: A Comparative Examination, D. Marianne Brower Blair
The Impact Of Family Paradigms, Domestic Constitutions, And International Conventions On Disclosure Of An Adopted Person's Identities And Heritage: A Comparative Examination, D. Marianne Brower Blair
Michigan Journal of International Law
This article examines the extent to which international law has and will potentially influence the direction of the reform and implementation of adoption disclosure norms. Though it does not yet appear that international law mandates recognition of an absolute right to identifying information when such disclosure is opposed by a birth parent or adoptee, examination of these conventions and the response of the international community underscores the critical importance of identifying information to many adoptees, and a growing movement to afford primacy to their interests.
Child Welfare Legislation In India: Will Indian Children Benefit From The United Nations Convention On The Rights Of The Child, Shahana Dasgupta
Child Welfare Legislation In India: Will Indian Children Benefit From The United Nations Convention On The Rights Of The Child, Shahana Dasgupta
Michigan Journal of International Law
The subject of children's rights has been dealt with both directly and indirectly in a number of international legal instruments over the years. Initially, there were differences concerning the need for a Convention over and above the already existing legislation. Some countries felt that children should not be treated as a category set apart from other human beings and thereby be the object of a separate legal document. On the other hand, countries in favor of a Convention wanted to create a single legal instrument which would take into account children's requirements on a universal scale. They also saw the …
Special Problems Of Custody For Unaccompanied Refugee Children In The United States, Ellen J. Durkee
Special Problems Of Custody For Unaccompanied Refugee Children In The United States, Ellen J. Durkee
Michigan Journal of International Law
Part I of this note provides an overview of federal legislation regarding admissions of unaccompanied refugee children. Part II describes various obstacles to a smooth transition from the child's admission into the United States to his or her placement by a state court with a permanent legal custodian who ensures that the child receives care and supervision. Problems in this area frequently result from uncertainties regarding long-term financial responsibility for the child. Also common are procedural difficulties in introducing unaccompanied refugee children into state child welfare systems. Part III then focuses on conflicts arising after the child's placement, when the …