Human Rights Law Commons^™

Compensatory Women's Rights Legal Education In Eastern Europe: The Women's Human Rights Training Institute, Isabel Marcus

Journal Articles

To compensate for the absence/minimization of women's rights in the law faculty curriculum in post-socialist states, in 2002 a coalition of women's rights NGOs, funded by OSI, developed a Women's Human Rights Training Institute (WHRTI) in Sofia, Bulgaria. Now embarking on its sixth cycle and having graduated more than 100 lawyers (mostly working in NGOs in post-socialist states), WHRTI has developed a women's rights legal education and training program triad consisting of feminist legal theory, women's rights legal practice, and feminist legal pedagogy. The goal of the program is to educate and train lawyers to understand and use various domestic, …

A Legal Pluralist Approach To The Use Of Cultural Perspectives In The Implementation And Adjudication Of Human Rights Norms, Valeska David, Julie Fraser

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.

Modem Day Slavery: A Socio-Legal Analysis Of Slavery-Like Offences In Charismatic Cults, Hava Dayan

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.

No Rest For The Wicked: Civil Liability Against Hotels In Cases Of Sex Trafficking, Gallant Fish

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.

Strength Of Review And Scale Of Response: A Quantitative Analysis Of Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review On China, Junxiang Mao, Xi Sheng

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Great Sioux Nation V. The "Black Snake": Native American Rights And The Keystone Xl Pipeline, Cindy S. Woods

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

The Keystone XL Pipeline has been shrouded in controversy almost since its conception. As a structure intending to cross the Canadian border into the United States, the Pipeline must receive presidential approval before construction can commence. Since 2008, TransCanada has at- tempted to obtain this approval unsuccessfully. Criticism against the Pipe- line has focused largely on the negative environmental impacts that will likely accompany its construction and utilization, and it is precisely these environmental concerns that have ultimately stymied presidential approval and made international headlines. In November 2015, the U.S. government denied TransCanada's application, effectively killing the Keystone XL pro- …

Back To Politics: Lessons From The Crisis Of The Inter-American Commission On Human Rights, Ignacio A. Boulin Victoria

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.

The North Korea Human Rights Act: South Korean And International Efforts And The Necessity For The Law, Shinbum Han

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.

Justice In Dire Straits: Unlawful Pretrial Detainees, Family Members And Legal Remedies, Danushka S. Medawatte

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.

Justice Brennan And The Foundations Of Human Rights Federalism, James A. Gardner

Journal Articles

In a well-known and widely cited 1977 law review article, Justice William J. Brennan called on state courts to “step into the breach” and use their authority as independent interpreters of state constitutions to continue on the state level the expansion of individual liberties begun on the national level by the Warren Court. Justice Brennan was right about the importance of independent state constitutional law, but he was wrong about the reason. The benefits of independent state constitutional law have little to do with expanding human rights and everything to do with federalism. The confusion is understandable; both individual rights …

Human Rights In Nigeria's External Relations: Exigency, Methods, And Rebuttable Objections, Philip C. Aka

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.

Aiding Transitional Justice In Solomon Islands, Nicole Dicker

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

Overall in Solomon Islands, foreign aid donors have neither engaged effectively with transitional justice itself nor leveraged transitional justice in support of broader development outcomes. Transitional justice in Solomon Islands responds to the five-year period of violent civil conflict, the Tensions, which devastated the Pacific Island nation of Solomon Islands from 1998 to 2003. The Tensions resulted in the deaths of an estimated 200 people and left some 35,000 people displaced; many suffered abductions, illegal detentions, torture and ill-treatment, sexual violence, and property violations. To remedy past human rights abuses, several transitional justice measures have been implemented in Solomon Islands, …

Genocide Denial And The Law: A Critical Appraisal, Paul Behrens

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

Genocide denial carries particular relevance for international law: it is the negation of international crimes, and it can prepare the ground for new crimes of this kind. But its criminalization raises concerns as well. The danger of a clash with human rights, particularly with the freedom of ex- pression, cannot be dismissed lightly. This article explores reasons for and repercussions of the criminalization of denial. It also investigates alterna- tives, including the use of truth and reconciliation, and evaluates methods that focus on direct confrontation of the deniers.

What Is The Future Of Transitional Justice?, Makau Wa Mutua

Journal Articles

This piece explores and critiques the project of transitional justice. It has been more than a quarter of a century since transitional justice burst onto the global stage. Over the years it has come to be billed as a panacea for addressing deeply embedded social and political dysfunction after periods of mass repression and violence. Many theorists and policy makers have argued that it is a key bridge to sustainable peace, democracy and human rights. But the historical record is not clear about a direct causal relationship between transitional justice mechanisms and specific outcomes in post-conflict societies. In some cases, …

Human Rights Provisions In Free Trade Agreements: Do The Ends Justify The Means?, Meredith Kolsky Lewis

Journal Articles

Numerous Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) contain provisions imposing human rights-related obligations, particularly in the case of agreements between the European Union and a developing country (often a former colony). Such obligations often consist of hortatory “best endeavors” language rather than legally binding provisions. Even the small number of provisions that are binding are very rarely enforced. Furthermore, even if an FTA features human rights-related provisions, it may contain other terms that have negative implications for human rights. Thus, including human rights provisions in FTAs will not necessarily result in better human rights outcomes. There are additional reasons to be cautious …

What Do Human Rights Lawyers Do: Examining Practice And Expertise In The Field, Elizabeth Bruch

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Chaplaincy Exception In International Humanitarian Law: "American-Born Cleric" Anwar Awlaki And The Global War On Terror, K. Benson

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

Anwar al-Awlaki, frequently described by the media as an "Ameri- can-born cleric," was the first American citizen to be targeted for extrajudicial assassination by the Obama administration as part of the Global War on Terror (GWOT). While there have been scholarly works considering the legality of his killing under domestic law, none have examined his status as a chaplain under International Humanita- rian Law (IHL), what this designation could mean for the legality of Anwar al-Alwaki's killing, or what his killing could mean for the GWOT in general. This paper provides a necessarily brief history of Al Qaeda in the …

The Abu Ghraib Convictions: A Miscarriage Of Justice, Robert Bejesky

Buffalo Public Interest Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Stoney Road Out Of Eden: The Struggle To Recover Insurance For Armenian Genocide Deaths And Its Implications For The Future Of State Authority, Contract Rights, And Human Rights, Jeffrey W. Stempel, Sarig Armenian, David Mcclure

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.

Keeping The Promise: Improving Access To Socioeconomic Rights In Africa, Nsongurua J. Udombana

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.

Sana Crítica: The System For Weighing Evidence Utilized By The Inter-American Court Of Human Rights, Álvaro Paúl

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

The Spanish version of the case law of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights often states that this tribunal's as- sessment of evidence is ruled by saia crilica, a notion which has received several translations in the English ver- sion of the Court's case law. This concept has a clear mean- ing in the Hispanic civil law tradition. Sana critica is a system for evaluating the weight of evidence whereby a court or tribunal is not constrained by the evidentiary rules of legal proo but must judge in accordance with the rules of logic and experience, and state the grounds …

Jurisdiction Over American Private Military Contractors: The Illusion Of A Loophole In The Law And The Reality Of No Oversight, Ryan Larose

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.

Pirates Incorporated: Kiobel V. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co. And The Uncertain State Of Corporate Liability For Human Rights Violations Under The Alien Tort Statute, Jennifer L. Karnes

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Prisoner-On-Prisoner Sexual Harassment: The Prevalence, Severity, And Lack Of Legal Recourse, Jayla Burton

Buffalo Journal of Gender, Law & Social Policy

No abstract provided.

Global Laws, Local Lives: Impact Of The New Regionalism On Human Rights Compliance, Stephen Joseph Powell, Patricia Camino Pérez

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.

Human Trafficking For Begging, Iveta Cherneva

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

Beggars are a part of the street landscape of any major city. However, many of the children and elderly women begging on the streets are forced beggars: victims of trafficking in persons who are part of a beggars ring with an organizational complexity comparable to that of a medium-size business enterprise. The present work focuses on the phenomenon of trafficking in persons for the purpose of begging, arguing for its legal conceptualization under international law. Although it is occasionally mentioned in a limited number of international reports and legal documents as a form of trafficking-related exploitation, forced begging is a …

Samantar V. Yousuf: Recent Developments In The Laws Governing Civil Torture Claims In U.S. Courts, Solomon B. Shinerock

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.

"Death To Gays!" Uganda's 'One Step Forward, One Step Back' Approach To Human Rights, Tiffany M. Lebrón

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Critique Of Rights In Transitional Justice: The African Experience, Makau Wa Mutua

Contributions to Books

Published in Rethinking Transitions: Equality and Social Justice in Societies Emerging from Conflict, Gaby Oré Aguilar & Felipe Gómez Isa, eds.

This chapter interrogates the concept and application of transitional justice as a medium for the reclamation of post-conflict states in Africa. While it argues that transitional justice is an important – often indispensable – process in reconstructing post-despotic and battered societies, it nevertheless casts a jaundiced eye at traditionalist human rights approaches. It contends that individualist, non-collective, or non-community, approaches to transitional justice have serious limitations. It posits that the Nuremberg model, on which the ICTR and ICTY were …

What Should Organized Human Rights Activism In Africa Become? Contributory Insights From A Comparison Of Ngos And Labor-Led Movements In Nigeria, Obiora Chinedu Okafor

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

What, if anything, might the significantly greater success of Labor-led human rights movements in Nigeria, as compared to the performance of the self-described human rights NGOs that also operate in that country, tell us about the ways to optimize organized human rights activism in Nigeria, and perhaps in the rest of the African continent? This is the central question that animates this article. After a review of the character of and modes of struggle employed by, both kinds of human rights groups, the article argues that the important institutional and conceptual differences that exist between Labor and the NGOs explain …