Human Rights Law Commons^™

Singapore's New Discretionary Death Penalty For Drug Couriers: Public Prosecutor V Chum Tat Suan, Siyuan Chen

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The article offers information on the history, evolution and significance of the new discretionary death penalty legislation for drug couriers in Singapore under the application of the Misuse of Drugs Act (MDA). It discusses the judicial decision of the Singaporean High Court in the case of Public Prosecutor v. Chum Tat Suan in which the Court convicted the accused with chareges of importing of more than 94.96g of diamorphine into Singapore that was punishable under section 33 of the MDA.

Global Rules For Global Health: Why We Need An Independent, Impartial Who, Devi Sridhar, Julio Frenk, Lawrence O. Gostin, Suerie Moon

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Over the past few years the World Health Organization (WHO) has been undergoing a significant reform process. The immediate trigger was a budget crisis in 2010 that spurred massive lay-offs at the global agency. But at a more fundamental level, deeper systematic changes in global health governance have made reform imperative. While WHO reform draws relatively little attention outside diplomatic circles in Geneva, at stake are critical issues that will impact public health everywhere. This article’s key messages are:

• Recent outbreaks of MERS highlight the need for a global response to infectious disease
• The WHO has had a crucial role …

Water In The 21st Century, Grayson Michael Shor

Social Sciences

The aim of this research project is to provide a comprehensive and global analysis of water use in order to provide the reader with a comprehensive grasp of current and impending issues. The included five (5) chapters discuss water distribution, conservation, purification, law, international development, economic debates, ethical consideration, as well as educated estimations of the effects water related issues may cause in the next one-hundred years.

On The Link Between Conflict, Underdevelopment And The Pursuit Of Basic Needs Satisfaction: A Survey Of Haitian Construction Workers In The Dominican Republic, Joseph W. Alliance

Capstone Collection

The purpose of this study was to explore how conflict and underdevelopment impact Haitian construction workers’ experiences and their basic human needs situation in the Dominican Republic. The Basic Human Needs Theory served as the main theoretical background to approach the topic. Qualitative data were gathered by employing a self- administered, one-time survey and conducting semi-structured interviews with 25 Haitian construction workers in sites located in the Distrito Nacional in the capital city, Santo Domingo and the Consuelo municipality in San Pedro de Macoris. Absence of work in Haiti for the very poor, systematic lack of access to social security, …

Aiding And Abetting: The Illegality Of Morocco's Nationalist Expansion Into Western Sahara And Their Support From The United States, Rachid H. Yousfi

Master's Theses

This paper will address the illegality of Morocco’s nationalist annexation of Western Sahara and how the United States plays the accommodating role through the selling of arms, economic aid, and diplomatic support. Considered as Africa’s last colony, the Saharawi people have not experienced the basic human right to self-determination and the right for independence. These rights are continued to be withheld for the sake of Moroccan nationalism and their “rightful and ethnic” claims to the territory, disregarding the International Court of Justice (ICJ)’s advisory opinion ruling in favor of Saharawi self-determination. It explores the chronology of the Saharawi population from …

The Right To Food Under Hugo Chávez, Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann

Human Rights & Human Welfare

This article investigates the right to food in Venezuela under President Hugo Chávez (1999-2013). It argues that although Chávez respected the right of (especially poor) Venezuelans to food, he failed to protect that right at the same time as he tried to fulfill it. In the short term, he fulfilled the right to food by establishing state-run stores where food could be purchased at a substantial discount, and by imposing price controls on food. At the same time, however, he reduced the supply of food by undermining property rights, expropriating large-scale farms and ranches as well as some wholesale and …

Human Trafficking In Maine: Protection, Prevention, And Prosecution: The Need For A Stand-Alone Statute, Laura M. Cyr

Muskie School Capstones and Dissertations

The United States enacted the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) of 2000 to combat the crime of organized firms engaging in the trafficking of humans. The TVPA has resulted in competing definitions and competing agendas which contribute of a public misunderstanding of the nature and scope of human trafficking as a domestic policy issue. Early goals of protection of victims, prevention of future trafficking crimes, and prosecution of traffickers have not been met with empirically driven success. This paper outlines obstacles facing evidence-based legislation in the state of Maine which currently has no stand- alone law protecting victims of sex …

"I Want To Be Brave": A Baseline Study On The Vulnerabilities Of Street-Working Boys In Sihanoukville, Cambodia, Jarrett Davis, Glenn Miles, M’Lop Tapang

Annual Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Trafficking: 6th (2014)

Focusing on street-working boys in Sihanoukville, this study partnered with social workers and child protection officers from M’lop Tapang (a key social service provider in Sihanoukville) to identify locations where young boys were known to be working along the beaches and within the town center. In recent years, Sihanoukville has become known as a rapidly developing commercial beach area, which has received increasing attention from foreign tourists, backpackers, and ex-patriots. Within this context, it has become a destination for migrant workers from surrounding provinces who have hopes of generating income through selling, begging, and other various means. The study conducted …

Global Health And The Law, Lawrence O. Gostin, Devi Sridhar

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The last two decades have brought revolutionary changes in global health, driven by popular concern over AIDS, novel influenzas, and maternal mortality. Given the rapid globalization that is a defining feature of today’s world, the need for a robust system of global health law has never been greater. Global health law has been defined as the legal norms, processes, and institutions designed primarily to attain the highest possible standard of physical and mental health for the world’s population. Global health law is not an organized legal system, with a unified treaty monitoring body, such as the World Trade Organization. There …

Slides: “Human Sustainability” In Natural Resources Industries: The New Frontier In Compliance, Social Responsibility, Disclosure, And Transparency, T. Markus Funk

Natural Resource Industries and the Sustainability Challenge (Martz Winter Symposium, February 27-28)

Presenter: T. Markus Funk, Partner, Perkins Coie

21 slides

Review Of Global Coloniality And Power In Guatemala By Egla Martínez-Salazar, Andrew Crookston

Societies Without Borders

No abstract provided.

African American Women, Hiv/Aids, And Human Rights In The Us, Monica L. Melton

Societies Without Borders

In the US alone, 84 percent of women’s HIV infections are due to heterosexual contact (CDC 2013). Fifty percent of all people globally who are living with HIV/AIDS are women (UNAIDS 2009), yet, HIV-positive women’s perspectives on prevention are mostly missing from the trajectory of scholarly literature on HIV/AIDS. I thought it imperative to go to the source (women living with HIV/AIDS) to get an insiders perspective on HIV prevention. Thirty HIV-positive Black women were recruited to participate in the study, which lasted seven months. These women live in a Florida innercity and range in age from 21 to 60. …

Transwomen, The Prison-Industrial Complex, And Human Rights: Neoliberalism And Trans-Resistance, Emmi Bevensee

Societies Without Borders

This article introduces complexity into understandings around the relationships between human rights, being transgender, and interacting with the prison-industrial complex. It looks at struggles and interventions against neoliberal mainstream agendas that do not address the underlying causes of state violence against transpeople, especially trans women of color. This essay employs in-depth research and analysis primarily employing the lens and tools of intersectional subalternity, personal experience, and extensive community activism around these complex issues to show that human rights struggles that do not challenge neoliberal politics generally fail to meet the needs of trans people facing massive structural violence with the …

A Word From The New Editors, Bruce Friesen, Brian K. Gran

Societies Without Borders

No abstract provided.

Rules Vs. Rights? Social Control, Dignity, And The Right To Housing In The Shelter System, Barret Katuna, Davita Silfen-Glasberg

Societies Without Borders

Sometimes the mechanisms that are in place to protect human rights lead to human rights violations. Drawing on data from ten months of fieldwork at a homeless shelter’s women’s program in a New England city. The authors trace the compromise of human dignity that accompanies one shelter’s effort to help clients fulfill their human right to housing.

Political Battles On Women’S Bodies: Post-Election Conflicts And Violence Against Women In Internally Displaced Persons Camps In Kenya, Roseanne Njeri Njiru

Societies Without Borders

The Kenya 2007 December presidential election results were violently challenged. For months, political protests accompanied by violent attacks and violent reaction by government security forces, led to “ethnic cleansing” particularly in the Rift Valley region resulting in deaths of more than 1,500 people and internal displacement of about 450,000 others. Women and young girls experienced various forms of gender violence during and after the conflicts in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps. Using in-depth interviews with women living in a camp, NGOs and government agencies, this article focuses on the continuing bodily violence that internally displaced women face in their everyday …

Insiderness, Outsiderness, And Situated Accessibility – How Women Activists Navigate Un’S Commission On The Status Of Women, Daniela Jauk

Societies Without Borders

The goal of this article is to explain micro-political aspects of women’s participation within the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) by explicating how NonGovernmental Organization’s (NGO) representatives negotiate and perceive their work. Data from ethnographic participant observation of CSW meetings between 2009 and 2012 demonstrate the simultaneity of both clear insider/outsider distinctions as well as blurred and permeable boundaries between the intergovernmental body of the CSW and civil society in the form of women’s rights activists who attempt to shape CSW outcomes. Concepts of fluid insiderness and outsiderness (Naples 1996) help explain that women activists perceive themselves simultaneously …

Pride In Istanbul, Susan C. Pearce

Societies Without Borders

In June of 2013, Istanbul, Turkey held its annual Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Pride parade. This year’s parade was performed in a particular historical context: in the midst of an anti-government uprising that had begun in Istanbul and spread throughout Turkey. This context loaned a particular flavor to the Pride parade, and there was a reciprocity between the recent protest movement and LGBT activism. These field notes describe the June 2013 parade and its relationship to the socio-political context, drawing from these observations some preliminary conclusions regarding human rights and gender as Turkey interacts with transnational human rights regimes such …

Review Of Edges Of Global Justice: The World Social Forum And Its “Others” By Janet M. Conway, Manisha Desai

Societies Without Borders

No abstract provided.

Review Of The Anti-Slavery Project: From The Slave Trade To Human Trafficking By Joel Quirk, Annie Isabel Fukushima

Societies Without Borders

No abstract provided.

Review Of Forgotten Genocides: Oblivion, Denial, And Memory By Rene Lemarchand (Editor), Nicole Fox

Societies Without Borders

No abstract provided.

Review Of Heart Of Sky, Heart Of Earth Directed By Frauke Sandig And Eric Black, Beth Williford

Societies Without Borders

No abstract provided.

Our Years As Editors, David L. Brunsma, Keri E. Iyall Smith, Mark Frezzo

Societies Without Borders

No abstract provided.

Indigenous Methodology In Practice: Starting A Community-Based Research Center On The Yakama Reservation, Michelle M. Jacob, Sarah Augustine, Corey Hodge, Mary James

Societies Without Borders

In our paper, we examine the process, possibilities, and tensions of building a new community-based research center at a small liberal arts college on the Yakama Reservation. We view our work with the Center for Native Health & Culture as an example of human rights-based educational transformation, as our work is about honoring indigenous land, community, and values. This mission stands at odds with Western educational approaches, which typically view indigenous peoples, cultures, and well-being as a side note to frequently marginalized campus diversity initiatives. Our work to establish the new research center takes up the challenge of placing indigenous …

“It Is Laced With Faults”: American Indians, Public Participation And The Politics Of Siting A High-Level Nuclear Waste Repository, Jesse P. Van Gerven

Societies Without Borders

In this article I analyze American Indian claims made during the siting process for a high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. By utilizing the concepts of distribution and recognition (Fraser 2003) to analyze American Indian claims for financial compensation, cultural artifact/resource protection, and environmental justice I reveal the existence and extent of both objective and intersubjective obstacles preventing greater public participation in environmental decision-making. Through a textual/discourse analysis of public documents associated with the Yucca Mountain Project, my analysis demonstrates how distributive and recognitional injustices impede democratic participation in environmental decision-making, which contributes to the continuation of environmental …

The Rise Of Human Rights Education: Opportunities, Challenges, And Future Possibilities, Lindsey N. Kingston

Societies Without Borders

Human rights education (HRE) has gained increasing support as a tool for promoting social responsibility and global respect for international human rights standards. Many schools and universities include HRE in their curricula in an attempt to foster a sense of global citizenship among students, yet educators still grapple with how to most effectively include human rights in undergraduate programs. In an attempt to provide resources and to promote effective HRE, this article examines the rise of human rights education and analyzes its potential for positive change. In particular, high impact learning practices (such as community partnerships and short-term study abroad …

Making Visible The Invisible: Nighttime Lights Data And The Closing Of The Human Rights Information Gap, Xi Chen

Societies Without Borders

War, poverty, geographical remoteness and political isolation all contribute to unreliable or non-existent data for developing regions of the world. As a consequence, research within these areas has been hampered by an abject lack of data in underdeveloped regions. The satellite-based nighttime lights data introduced here may hold the potential to overcome this problem by providing a proxy measure for large numbers of variables dealing with second and third generation human rights issues. The images presented here represent some of the newest forms of data available to social science investigations and those interested in human rights studies, and are already …

Review Of A Quiet Revolution: The Veil’S Resurgence, From The Middle East To America By Leila Ahmed, Mohammand Salehin

Societies Without Borders

No abstract provided.

Review Of Torture: A Sociology Of Violence And Human Rights By Lisa Hajjar, Jared Del Rosso

Societies Without Borders

No abstract provided.

Trafficking In Child Labor In Ghana And Senegal, Steven Brandt

Annual Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Trafficking: 6th (2014)

The goal of this paper is to determine the efficacy of anti-trafficking governance in Senegal and Ghana and what social, political, legal and economic factors work for or against those policies such as: - social policies for and against the growth of the NGO community - enforcement of anti-trafficking laws - economic policies for impoverished urban and rural communities - government rehabilitation policies for minors - federal, state and local corruption - border security/immigration - religious and political freedom This research comprises a comprehensive literature analysis as to the current state of trafficking of minors in Ghana and Senegal. First …