Human Rights Law Commons^™

What The Uk Can Learn From India About Trans Rights And Inclusive Feminism, Ammel Sharon

Popular Media

The article reflects on the UK Supreme Court’s recent interpretation of “woman” under the Equality Act 2010, noting its impact on trans inclusion in public spaces. In contrast, Indian feminist and queer movements have embraced more inclusive, self-reflective approaches to gender, resisting fixed legal definitions. Drawing on examples from sports activism, legal scholarship, and grassroots organising, the author calls for collective ethics that expand rather than restrict the possibilities of belonging.

The Right To Gender-Affirming Care, Justin J. Soulas

Theses and Dissertations

As of recent, twenty-four states have enacted bans on gender-affirming care, restricting minors from accessing medically necessary treatment. Existing scholarship has begun to explore the profound impact of these bans on transgender youth, their parents or guardians, and the medical professionals who support them. However, the body of literature on this rapidly evolving issue remains limited. This thesis aims to fill that gap by offering a legal defense of gender-affirming care, grounded in judicial precedent. It argues that parental rights to make medical decisions for their children—recognized in constitutional jurisprudence—extend to decisions involving gender-affirming treatment. Additionally, it draws on anti-discrimination …

Uncovering The Covered, Matthew Ouellette

The Civil Rights Movement (HIS/BLS 347) Zine Project

No abstract provided.

Inge Viermetz, Woman Acquitted At Nuremberg, Diane Marie Amann

Scholarly Works

Conventional narratives tend to represent the post-World War II international criminal proceedings as a men’s project, thus obscuring the many women who participated, as lawyers, journalists, analysts, interpreters, witnesses, and defendants. Indeed, two women stood trial before Nuremberg Military Tribunals. This article examines the case of the only woman found not-guilty: Inge Viermetz, who had been an administrator at Lebensborn, the Nazi SS adoption and placement agency. The article outlines the prosecution’s child-taking case against Viermetz, as well as her successful gendered self-portrayal as a conventionally feminine caregiver. With references to Professor Megan A. Fairlie, at whose memorial symposium it …

Intergenerational Dialogue And Inquiry For Collective Healing, Social Justice And Communal Well-Being: A Reflection On Conceptions, Processes And Practices, Scherto Gill

The Journal of Social Encounters

This paper explores how intergenerational dialogue and inquiry (IDI) may help break the silence about past brutality and contribute to collective healing, social justice and communal well-being. The specific historical contexts that it is concerned with are transatlantic slavery and colonisation, and the continued legacies of contemporary racism. Global communities impacted by these tragedies often experience silence between the generations about the trauma resulting from the atrocity, often exacerbated by present day discrimination. In considering the case study of IDI in communities on four continents, this paper further analyses the processes involved in breaking the cycles of silence, and remembering …

Right To Education And Access To Schooling: Understanding The Role Of Students’ Transportation Challenges In Selected Junior Secondary Schools In Ilorin, Nigeria, Usman Bolaji Abdulkadir, Egbinola Temitope Anuoluwa

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Public Surveillance And Human Rights: The Chilling Effect Of Surveillance Technologies And Legal Debates In Europe, Anna Calabrese

Graduate Research Conference (GSIS)

The rapid advancement and intense deployment of surveillance technologies pose a profound threat to fundamental human rights and render the balance between national security and rights and freedoms guarantees even more challenging. This paper interrogates the menace that digital tracking such as IMSI-catchers and other sophisticated tools represent to contemporary democracies with a specific focus on their potential to introduce a “chilling effect” to deter individuals in political and social communities from exercising their freedoms of speech, expression, association, thereby endangering the core values of all democracy. This analysis offers an overview of the state-of-the-art in Europe and highlights recent …

Mapping State Reactions To The Icc Arrest Warrants For Netanyahu And Gallant, Rebecca Ingber

Online Publications

On Thursday, the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced it had issued arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, and Yoav Gallant, the former defense minister, in connection with alleged crimes committed in the ongoing armed conflict between Israel and Hamas. In doing so, the Court rejected as premature Israel’s challenge to the Court’s jurisdiction. The Court’s decision to issue a warrant for the sitting Prime Minister of a state, which is notably not a party to the Rome Statute, also demonstrates the Court’s embrace of its prior controversial decision on immunity, namely that customary international law does …

Beyond The Threshold Of Protection: Examining Non-Refoulement's Erosion In Contemporary Refugee Law Through The Eu-Turkey Agreement, Aya Osman

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis examines the contemporary relevance and practical implementation of the principle of non-refoulement as established in the 1951 Refugee Convention. While this fundamental principle of international refugee law prohibits the return of individuals to countries where they face persecution, torture, or human rights violations, its widespread violation by state parties raises critical questions about its continued effectiveness and the broader validity of the Convention's framework in today's global context. Through a methodological approach combining legal analysis and case studies of state practices, this paper investigates whether the 1951 framework remains valid and in effect when addressing refugee and immigration …

Identifying Intangible And Biocultural Heritage Elements Toward Environmental Understanding: Engaging Stakeholders Through Art, Martha B. Lerski

Publications and Research

Grounded in a case study in Barbuda in the Caribbean, this research examines sustainability from the perspective of what arts and heritage can contribute to community engagement and local and broader understandings about the environment. This article documents a growing body of literature recognizing the role of arts and culture, including local knowledge and traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), in climate change endeavors. Art and TEK present expansive world views. Contextual information situates research done on the island of Barbuda pre- and post-Hurricane Irma. Visual arts workshops engaged community members in mixed methods research. Results documented cultural elements, particularly intangible and …

The Inextricable Link Between Gendered Security And State Stability: Strategic Costs Of U.S. Humanitarian Retrenchment, Kirby Eh Kimball

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis examines the strategic consequences of the 2025 U.S. foreign aid freeze on gendered security in conflict-affected states, focusing on Sudan, Syria, and Ukraine. It argues that gendered security—the protection, empowerment, and rights of women and girls—is not a peripheral humanitarian concern but a foundational determinant of state stability, development, and democratic resilience. Through a qualitative comparative case study methodology, the research synthesizes empirical literature, United Nations reports, human rights documentation, and cross-national statistical analyses to demonstrate how the collapse of gender-focused humanitarian programs following the aid freeze will critically exacerbate conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV), weaken state institutions, and …

Preventing Chemical And Biological Attacks: Enhanced Threats Requiring Enhanced Solutions, Alex Elliot Ottoni-Belval

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Chemical weapons (CW) and biological weapons (BW) are becoming more dangerous for experts to employ and more accessible to amateurs. Despite CW and BW attacks throughout history that killed and maimed millions of people, the international community has failed to establish meaningful consequences to prevent them. Agreements such as the Chemical Weapons Convention and the Biological Weapons Convention vow to eliminate and reduce the effects of CWs and BWs but lack respected response precedents and capabilities. The limited and inconsistent enforcement has inadvertently allowed CWs and BWs to become plausible weapons, especially to gain asymmetric advantages, while modern developments exasperate …

Let's Talk About Sex: Investigating Radical Feminist Theories On Prostitution In The United States, Anna E. Peterson

Scripps Senior Theses

This paper explores the feminist debates surrounding prostitution through an analysis of Catharine MacKinnon and Andrea Dworkin’s abolitionist theories, juxtaposed with critiques from Wendy Brown, Janet Halley, Susie Bright, and Marxist feminist abolitionist Esperanza Fonseca. The text examines the systemic forces of patriarchy and capitalism that commodify women’s bodies and the challenges of legislative approaches to the sex trade. While MacKinnon and Dworkin identify the structural inequalities underpinning prostitution, their legislative proposals often fail to address the stigma and systemic conditions that perpetuate the marginalization of prostituted people. Critics like Brown and Halley highlight the limitations of punitive measures, calling …

The Position Of The United States Of America Vis-A-Vis The Question Of Western Sahara: Assessing The Role Of Think Tanks In The Conflict, Hamid Baadeche

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

ABSTRACT

The Position of the United States of America Vis-à-vis the Question of Western Sahara: Assessing the Role of Think Tanks in the Conflict

Hamid Baadeche

Think tank organizations, particularly in the United States, have become a prominent feature of the political landscape. They act as advocates for specific policies that they consider beneficial for the country or a particular societal group. They function as a primary source of information, which they then aim to transform into well-informed policies and sound decisions. They are referred to as "the revolving doors," "idea brokers," and "idea factory." As such, their foremost objective …

Placing The Four Rounds Of Israeli Palestinian Negotiations In The Twenty-First Century In The Context Of Ir Theory, Notably Realism Theory, Michael J. Reimer Dr

Department of Political Science and Law Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

On October 7, 2023, Hamas unleashed a vicious attack on Israeli civilians in the southern part of Israel. The plans for this attack were likely many years in the making. Nine hundred miles of tunnels crisscrossed Gaza with the terrorist infrastructure coinciding with the location of hospitals, school, Mosques and shelters above. On October 6, 2023, the history of the four rounds of Israeli Palestinian negotiations of the earlier part of the twenty-first century had been largely forgotten and completely ignored. The Likud coalition in Israel in 2023 - 2024 was in complete agreement with Hamas’ sponsor that no negotiations …

Placing The Four Rounds Of Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations In The Twenty-First Century In A Historical And Philosophical Context, Michael J. Reimer Dr

Department of Political Science and Law Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

This paper will take a three-pronged approach to the analysis of prior treaty negotiations and their comparison to the Israeli Palestinian conflict. The first prong, which will be addressed in the next section, will be a historical analysis of other treaty negotiations which resulted in end of conflict treaties. These examinations will include The Congress of Vienna, 1814-1815; the Portsmouth Treaty, 1905 which involved a Treaty between a European and a non-European state2 negotiated by the President of the United States and American Diplomats; the Paris Peace Conferences of 19193 ; and Multiparty Mediation in Cyprus, 1963-1965. In each of …

Conceptualizing Great Power Perpetrators, Federica D'Alessandra

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

For over a decade, shifting geopolitics, a changed global security environment, and countless failures of diplomacy have raised important questions on how to collectively grapple with a widely-perceived “crisis of multilateralism,” and reignited debate on the fitness of the UN Security Council to deliver on its mandate under these circumstances. Among other issues, ongoing polarization when not outright “gridlock” among the Permanent Members (P5) has fueled the Council’s apparent inability to respond to threats to civilian life and to countless mass atrocities around the world. Even worse, as this article argues, some P5 today possess both the willingness and unprecedented …

Governance And Islam In East Africa: Muslims And The State In Kenya And Tanzania, Farouk Topan, Kai Kresse, Erin E. Stiles, Hassan Mwakimako

Exploring Muslim Contexts

Explores the relationship between Muslim communities and the State in East Africa in political, institutional and legal contexts

• Focuses on the relationship between Muslims and the State in Kenya and Tanzania
• Asks which factors, both within and outside the Muslim community, shape and affect this relationship in contemporary times
• Presents 13 case studies exploring governance issues within and across the categories of politics, institutions and law in Kenya and Tanzania
• Identifies cross-cutting issues of governance and Muslim communities which are relevant beyond East Africa

Recent studies of Muslims in Kenya and Tanzania have tended either to examine governance of Muslims …

The Politics Of Gender Affirming Healthcare: A New Battleground For Morality Policy?, Reaves Robinson

Political Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Morality policy as a discipline saw its peak during the transformative years at the turn of the 21^st century; however, there has been very little scholarship to follow new social policy issues that have arisen in the past two decades. Anti-transgender policy, specifically, can be considered under the morality policy scope following years of LGBTQ+ scholarship that fell under the morality policy umbrella. In 2023 alone, more than 200 pieces of anti-transgender legislation were introduced in state legislatures across the nation. A trend among the increasingly popular policy realm can be seen from gender affirming healthcare bans, where almost …

“Home Court Advantage: Comparing International Criminal Tribunals To Domestically-Grown Reconciliation”, Elise Treon

Honors Thesis

Scholars have studied wars and their causes for centuries, but what happens when the tanks roll out and the guns stop firing? The concept of reconciliation is a relatively new field of study in international relations, and the scholarship of specific transitional justice mechanisms remains underdeveloped. I comparatively analyze the differences between external and internal peacebuilding strategies – specifically the effectiveness of international tribunals in establishing long term deep reconciliation. In defining internal and external transitional justice mechanisms, I differentiate between a reconciliation process that prioritizes rebuilding citizens’ lives over one that prioritizes the desires of the international community. It …

What's Next: How And Why States Strengthen Treaties Through Deepening Commitments, Joseph Maestas

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

States take many post-ratification actions with most designed to weaken the application of the treaty against the state. However, nearly all treaties offer ways for states to strengthen it: deepening commitments. Deepening commitments are optional post-ratification actions that allow a state to strengthen and shape implementation of the treaty. This dissertation examines deepening commitments through analysis the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (Rome Statute), and the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW).

In Chapter 2, through a typology and process tracing cases, I argue that states influence international law …

Establishing Consent: The Role Of Women Representatives In Passing Informed Consent Laws, Sophia Stockham

Department of Political Science: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

What predicts the adoption of informed consent laws for pelvic exams within the United States? As of January 2023, 22 states have adopted informed consent laws for pelvic examinations on women, with eleven being under Democratic control, six being Republican control, and five with divided control between the legislature and gubernatorial level at the time of adoption. Little attention, however, has been given to women’s health mandates outside the issue of abortion and to variation among state partisan adoption regarding informed consent for pelvic exams. This paper examines the impact of partisanship, the percentage of women in the legislature, and …

Containerization Of Seafarers In The International Shipping Industry: Contemporary Seamanship, Maritime Social Infrastructures, And Mobility Politics Of Global Logistics, Liang Wu

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation discusses the mobility politics of container shipping and argues that technological development, political-economic order, and social infrastructure co-produce one another. Containerization, the use of standardized containers to carry cargo across modes of transportation that is said to have revolutionized and globalized international trade since the late 1950s, has served to expand and extend the power of international coalitions of states and corporations to control the movements of commodities (shipments) and labor (seafarers). The advent and development of containerization was driven by a sociotechnical imaginary and international social contract of seamless shipping and cargo flows. In practice, this liberal, …

Migrant Children And Legislation: Integrating Knowledge About Trauma Into Policy, Yolennys E. Albornoz

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study seeks to integrate some knowledge about trauma into migration policies in the U.S. regarding children. Migration is not a novel concept; it is a dynamic phenomenon that experiences continuous changes and constantly increases in numbers. Globally, the United States has been the primary destination for foreign migrants for a long time, and most of them are Latinos who cross the U.S. and Mexico border. Here, I explore how children face trauma in their home country, which forces them to migrate. Also, while they migrate and after they have migrated, exposing the three stages of trauma for migrant children. …

Global Criminal Justice Practices And Public Safety, Rachel Hwang

Posters-at-the-Capitol

Popular political discourse in the U.S. assumes that more funding for law enforcement and prison facilities will make civilians safer, presumably by reducing crime and sense of disorder. However, studies have shown that the relationship between these factors may not be as straightforward. With the killing of George Floyd and increased media coverage of police brutality, existing literature focuses mainly on the relationship between police and crime in the U.S. The impact of incarceration (the result of procedural justice) on the community (for whom procedural justice exists) is less known, especially on a global scale. We argue that cycling people …

Boiling Behind Bars: Exploring The Hidden Toll Of Extreme Heat On Mental Health In Texas Prisons, Sandra K. Miller

Social Work Theses - Archive

The State of Texas supports the largest prison system in the US and held 132,859 people in 100 units scattered across the state as of December 2023. Approximately 70% of Texas prison beds are not air conditioned, despite the state’s reputation for dangerously hot, humid summers. The State has officially recorded temperatures inside Texas prison facilities as high as 120 degrees with heat index values of over 150. Although there is a growing body of research on the negative physiological and psychological consequences of extreme heat among the general public, little is known about the physical and emotional toll of …

Body. Freedom. Choice: Creating Artwork In Post-Roe America, Erin Sedra

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

I knew from a young age that I never wanted children. Whenever I expressed my disinterest in motherhood, I was often met with bewilderment, disapproval, and hostility. The church I was raised in taught me that my value and worth as a woman directly correlated with the power of my birthing hips. This fundamentalist upbringing has significantly shaped my relationship with my femininity, my body, and my artwork. When I feel powerless, turning to my art gives me a sense of control and self-expression. This body of work began as a reaction to the overturning of Roe v. Wade and …

Evidence-Based Transitional Justice: Incorporating Public Opinion Into The Field, With New Data From Iraq And Ukraine, Mara Revkin, Ala Alrababah, Rachel Myrick

Faculty Scholarship

The field of “transitional justice” refers to a range of processes and mechanisms for accountability, truth-seeking, and reconciliation that governments and communities pursue in the aftermath of major societal traumas, including civil war, mass atrocities, and authoritarianism. This relatively new field emerged in the 1980s as scholars, practitioners, and policymakers looked for guidance to support post-authoritarian and post-communist transitions to democracy in Eastern Europe and Latin America. Since then, the field has grown rapidly—so rapidly that it is outpacing its capacity to learn from past mistakes. Recent methodological advances in the study of public attitudes about transitional justice through quantitative …

Megaproyectos Y Su Impacto En Derechos Humanos En Una Comunidad De Origen Maya: Yaxhá, Yucatán, México., Gonzalo Manuel Herrera Canché

Journal of Maya Heritage

Abstract: The current development of extractive megaprojects in Latin American countries has had a significant impact on their societies and environments. This research addresses the issue of the impacts of extractive agricultural megaprojects on the environment, society and the economy, specifically the case of a pig farm in the community of Yaxhá, located in the municipality of Muna, Yucatán. The identified impacts are mainly attributed to the lack of strong and committed political institutions, lax environmental legislation, and the absence of an operating system, which facilitates human rights violations related to the environment, society, and access to information. In this …

Press Freedom Under Threat In Europe: Slapps And Democracy, Maya Oleary-Cyr

Claremont-UC Undergraduate Research Conference on the European Union

This paper critically examines the legal systems of European countries and their relationship to press freedom, particularly the vexatious legal threats used by government officials and corporations to silence journalists. These legal threats are known as SLAPPs (strategic lawsuits against public participation) and their use has increased exponentially in the last decade. Although the issue is global, this research analyzes the issue through the lens of Greece, Italy, and Hungary. As member states, each one of these countries has an obligation to uphold the democratic standards put forth by the EU. Journalists are a vital aspect of the democratic process …