Human Rights Law Commons^™

In Land We Trust': The Endorois' Communication And The Quest For Indigenous Peoples' Rights In Africa, Korir Sing' Oei A., Jared Shepherd

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

This article examines Communication 276/2003, Center for Minority Rights Development (Kenya) and Minority Rights Group International on behalf of the Endorois Welfare Council v. Kenya, argued before the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights. The Endorois Communication is one of the first indigenous rights claims to be examined by an international body after the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

This article begins by placing the Communication within the context of the international indigenous rights movement. The authors then explore the Commission's historical use of Articles 60 and 61 of the African Charter …

Returning Home: The Challenge Of Repatriating Foreign Born Child Victims Of Forced Labor From India, Kathleen Kerr

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.

Reevaluating Self-Determination In A Post-Colonial World, Joshua Dilk

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.

To Return Or Stay?, John Harland Giammatteo

Other Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Women Lawyers, Women’S Rights In Senegal: The Association Of Senegalese Women Lawyers, Judy Scales-Trent

Journal Articles

L'Association des Femmes Juristes Sénégalaises (The Association of Senegalese Women Lawyers) has been working to improve the lives of women in Senegal for almost forty years. In a predominantly Muslim country where most women do not even attend high school, these women have used their legal skills to make change. With little money, no paid attorneys on staff, and using a borrowed room in a law firm as an office, they have successfully pushed the government to make positive changes in the Family Code and other laws and have played an important role in the development of human rights consciousness …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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.

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.

The Detainees' Dilemma: The Virtues And Vices Of Advocacy Strategies In The War On Terror, Peter Margulies

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Introductory Note To The Optional Protocol To The International Covenant On Economic, Social And Cultural Rights, Tara J. Melish

Journal Articles

This Introductory Note to the publication in ILM of the newly-adopted Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (OP-ICESCR) seeks to put the primary source document in proper context by briefly explaining its history, content, and significance in international law. The Note is accompanied by the text of the OP-ICESCR, adopted by the U.N. General Assembly on December 10, 2008 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The OP creates an individual complaints procedure for alleged violations of the ICESCR, rectifying a thirty year asymmetry in human rights treaty law.

Human Rights And Powerlessness: Pathologies Of Choice And Substance, Makau Mutua

Journal Articles

The human rights corpus is a bundle of pathologies of choice and substance. But these pathologies are ideologically driven and inhere in the human rights movement because of the political choices and biases that are part of the cultural universe of human rights. In particular, the corpus is captive to thin notions of human rights that tend not to challenge deeply embedded social and economic assumptions and systems. The historical narrative of the human rights movement closely parallels the hegemonic rise of the West and hence the movement’s imprisonment in an intellectual project that casts the human being in the …

Romance Is Dead: Mail Order Bridges As Surrogate Corpses, Daniel Epstein

Buffalo Journal of Gender, Law & Social Policy

No abstract provided.

Empowering Victims, Opening Borders Preventing Human Trafficking By Adjusting Immigration Laws To Accommodate The Supply And Demand Of Migrant Workers, Julie Krüger

Buffalo Journal of Gender, Law & Social Policy

No abstract provided.

Tracing The Contours Of Transnational Corporations' Human Rights Obligations In The Twenty-First Century, Iris Halpern

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.

Poverty And Fundamental Rights: The Justification And Enforcement Of Socio-Economic Rights By David Bilchitz, Gregory Stein

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.

Towards The Criminalization Of Dictatorship: A Draft Proposal For An International Convention On Dictatorship, Patrick J. Glen

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.

Human Rights: A Very Short Introduction By Andrew Clapham, Elsa Hernandez

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Rule Of Law And The Politics Of Fear: Human Rights In The Twenty-First Century, Irene Zubaida Khan

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.

Duress, Demanding Heroism And Proportionality, Luis E. Chiesa

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

James Dawes's That The World May Know: Bearing Witness To Atrocity (Book Review), Makau Wa Mutua

Book Reviews

No abstract provided.

The Illusion Of Transformative Conflict Resolution: Mediating Domestic Violence In Nicaragua, Raquel Aldana, Leticia M. Saucedo

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Just Back From The Human Rights Council, Makau Mutua

Journal Articles

The piece critically looks at the transition from the UN Commission on Human Rights to the UN Human Rights Council in 2006 and questions whether the change is one of substance or form. It argues that the same paralysis that dogged the Commission will continue to afflict the Council because power politics and regional blocs - fueled by the global asymmetries of power - will not go away. The piece also contends that the charge by the West that the Commission was utterly compromised by the Third World was without merit because it was the one forum where developing could …

Human Rights Ngos In East Africa: Defining The Challenges, Makau Wa Mutua

Contributions to Books

Published as Chapter 1 in Human Rights NGOS in East Africa: Political and Normative Tensions, Makau Mutua, ed.

Moral Relativism And Human Rights, Torben Spaak

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.

Lipstick On A Caterpillar? Assessing The New U.N. Human Rights Council Through Historical Reflection, Balakrishnan Rajagopal

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.

How Japan's Recent Efforts To Reduce Sex Trafficking Can Be Improved Through International Human Rights Enforcement Mechanisms: Fulfilling Japan's Global Legal Obligations, Kerry E. Yun

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Kurds In Turkey: Eu Accession And Human Rights, Khurram Khan

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

Book review of Kerim Yildiz's The Kurds in Turkey: EU Accession and Human Rights

State Responsibility For Extraterritorial Human Rights Violations, Damira Kamchibekova

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.