Human Rights Law Commons^™

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 …

Break Their Lineage, Break Their Roots: Investigating The Chinese Government’S Relationship With The Uyghur Population To Determine The Potential For Terrorism And Genocide, Anya Veinberg

Helm's School of Government Conference - 2021-2024

History is wrought with war, crime, and persecution. After nearly every conflict, world leaders vow to never let something similar happen again. Yet, history seems to repeat itself, and so do its conflicts. The Holocaust claimed the lives of millions of Jews and seemed to set a precedent of a modern threshold of evil. How many people would argue that an event strikingly similar to the Holocaust is happening right now in China?

The Chinese government is currently committing acts of violence and faith and race-based discrimination against the Uyghur population.

This work analyzes the interaction between the Chinese government …

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 …

Empowering Nigerian Youths For Social Change: The Convergence Of Civic Education, Media, Art, And Activism, Zainab Onuh-Yahaya

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

This paper examines the intersection of civic education, art, and the media as powerful tools for activism, social change, resistance, and transformation, particularly in the context of Nigerian youths. Over the past few years, young Nigerians have emerged as a formidable force in advocating for social justice and good governance in what they have describes as fighting for their lives. Drawing on interdisciplinary perspectives, this study explores how the integration of civic education, media, art, and activism empowers Nigerian youths to address social injustices and inequalities, challenge the generations that have come before, and drive meaningful transformations.

The paper then …

Prostitution And Pornography: Reforming A Perspective, Mayce Combs

Helm's School of Government Conference - 2021-2024

Happiness is a subjective emotion that can quickly be twisted by the depravity of humanity’s sinful nature. Human trafficking deprives an individual’s natural right to life, liberty, and their pursuit to happiness. Of the two divisions of human trafficking, sex trafficking, especially involving children, is the most despicable and most evolved. The United States and further the state of Virginia is a crucial player in combating human trafficking. While there are currently many successful tactics state governments and nonprofit groups are utilizing in order eliminate human trafficking there are further more intense strategies the Virginia State Government should implement. One …

Eugenics Not Eradication: How People With Disabilities Have Lost The Right To Life, Ava Standish

Helm's School of Government Conference - 2021-2024

Disability-selective abortion stems from a eugenical philosophy not a hope of eradication. Disabilities cannot be eradicated because they are not diseases. Eugenics seeks to purify society from those who are considered “inferior” and to encourage the rate of births considered “superior.” Eugenics continues today through selective abortion of children with disabilities. These children deserve the right to life guaranteed by natural rights, human rights, and the laws of the United States. Children with disabilities, particularly Down Syndrome, have lost this right to life in the United States and abroad. In the United States, 67% of children with Down Syndrome are …

Christian Influence On Roman Natural Law In The Corpus Juris Civilis, Bryce Tenberg

Helm's School of Government Conference - 2021-2024

Few civilizations have influenced the contemporary world more than the Romans, and the same can be said regarding the field of law. Today, legal foundations throughout the West are built upon the Roman legal system, with the Code of Justinian—also known as the Corpus Juris Civilis—being arguably the most influential. This work compiled and simplified centuries of Roman law to ensure a more efficient jurisprudence, and due to its survival, it would form the foundation of the modern jurisprudence. However, at the same time this work was written, the empire had changed significantly with the adoption of Christianity. This …

The Unethical Use Of Children In War, Mariana Davis

Helm's School of Government Conference - 2021-2024

This paper examines the role the nature of children has in the immorality of their use in warfare. The exploitation of children in war is a long, pervasive issue that is primarily documented in third-world countries with ongoing conflicts. This paper details the developments in the legality of the use of children in war. It expounds upon the current and historical use of child soldiers and the horrors that come with it. Evidence was taken from the consequences to the children and the nations that use them to demonstrate why this practice is unethical and immoral. This paper studies why …

Mentoring Programs: An Answer To The Cultural & Social Challenge Of Juvenile Rehabilitation, Isaiah Franqui

Helm's School of Government Conference - 2021-2024

The juvenile delinquency epidemic in the United States has been approached using many methods. This paper is an attempt to showcase one method that is often glanced over, but may provide the best solution yet. A new promising outlook for the overall well-being of juveniles within the criminal justice system is the formation of mentoring programs. These programs connect at-risk youth and/or current juvenile delinquents to a mentor who, in turn, can help shift the direction of their lives. They often take place within community centers throughout the day and can present themselves in a number of different methods. Through …

Do Adolescent Patients Have A Right To Be Informed About Fertility Preservation Options By Virtue Of The Conventions On The Rights Of The Child?, Giulia Adele Dinicola

Graduate Student Research Symposium

The 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child not only states that children should be heard in matters of their concern according to their age and maturity, but also that children should have a right to have access to information. However, when it comes to medical indications, a consensus has not been reached on whether parents should disclose healthcare complications to their adolescent child. Adolescent disclosure becomes even more controversial when related to non-lifesaving procedures. In the United States, one child in 285 children is diagnosed with cancer every year, but thanks to improvements in medicine, the …

The Declaration Of Independence, Constitution, And Slavery, Johnny B. Davis

Helm's School of Government Conference - 2021-2024

The paper address the nature of the principles of the Declaration and the Declaration's relationship to the Constitution and how these related to slavery. The argument is that the Declaration did stand for universal equality of the individual before God and the law and therefore its principles condemned slavery. The Constitution did not embrace slavery even though it failed to ban slavery but did set the foundation for the end of slavery.

Judges 20:48, Dorien Porter

Helm's School of Government Conference - 2021-2024

No abstract provided.

Jus Gentium, Natural Law, And Grotius’ Treatise: The Impact Of International Law’S Classical Heritage On Today’S Enforcement Dilemma, Faith Chudkowski

Helm's School of Government Conference - 2021-2024

No abstract provided.

Opening Remarks, Danielle Kerker Goldstein, Mary Anne Bobinski, Samantha Harrell

Randolph W. Thrower Symposium

No abstract provided.

2022 Mlk Keynote Address: Eddie Glaude Jr. Pre-Event Presentation, Center For Social Equity & Inclusion, Eddie Glaude Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Series

One of the nation’s most prominent scholars, Eddie Glaude, Jr. is an author, political commentator, public intellectual and passionate educator who examines the complex dynamics of the American experience. His writings, including his most recent—the New York Times bestseller Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for our Own—take a wide look at Black communities, the difficulties of race in the United States and the challenges we face as a democracy.

In his writing and speaking, Glaude is an American critic in the tradition of James Baldwin and Ralph Waldo Emerson, confronting history and bringing our nation’s …

2022 Mlk Keynote Address: Eddie Glaude Jr. Presentation, Center For Social Equity & Inclusion, Eddie Glaude Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Series

One of the nation’s most prominent scholars, Eddie Glaude, Jr. is an author, political commentator, public intellectual and passionate educator who examines the complex dynamics of the American experience. His writings, including his most recent—the New York Times bestseller Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for our Own—take a wide look at Black communities, the difficulties of race in the United States and the challenges we face as a democracy.

In his writing and speaking, Glaude is an American critic in the tradition of James Baldwin and Ralph Waldo Emerson, confronting history and bringing our nation’s …

Never Again? The United Nations And Genocide: A Doomed Mission?, Maria Terrinoni

Capstone Showcase

Despite their commitment to international peace and security and to the concept of “never again,” the United Nations has failed to end the many genocides of the late 20th century. In this thesis, I use the genocides in Rwanda (1994) and in the Yugoslav Wars (1991-1999) as case studies to understand the UN’s response to genocide and to attempt to understand why the UN cannot effectively respond to and end genocide. I discover that issues such as the limitations of the Genocide Convention, the importance of state sovereignty, and overall institutional failures of the United Nation make any attempt to …

Corporate Accountability In Transitional Justice: Reflections On An Ongoing Social Lab (Roundtable), Tatiana Devia, Avery Kelly, Kaushik Sunder Rajan

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

This roundtable describes and reflects upon the Corporate Liability and Sustainable Peace (CLASP) Lab, a “social lab” convened to advance corporate accountability in post-conflict and transitional justice settings around the world. Launched in February 2021, the CLASP Lab is a virtual forum in three languages, bringing together more than 40 lawyers and community activists from 25 countries in Latin America, Africa and the Middle East to share experiences and devise strategies for holding corporations accountable for human rights violations, as part of processes of transitional justice.

The Shortcomings Of Corporate Accountability In Post-Conflict Colombia: Land, Rivers And Animals, Isabella Ariza Buitrago, Luisa Gomez Betancur

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Although the notion of sustainable peace requires acknowledging the role played by all actors, transitional processes around the world have inadequately addressed or completely ignored the direct and indirect participation of economic actors. In particular, Colombia's transitional justice regime left out corporations entirely. A skillshare between Colombian lawyers and US-based human rights attorneys showed some of the gaps that let corporations continue in impunity for profiting, benefiting from, or directly financing the conflict. Other than harming and deeply fracturing communities, the shortcomings of corporate accountability in post-conflict Colombia also leave land, rivers, and animals without redress. This paper explores some …

Documenting Human Rights Violations: An Analysis Of Press Reporting On The Mexican Disappearance Crisis, Maria Terra, Yolanda Burckhardt

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

The global pandemic has transformed many structures, including the way in which human rights academics and practitioners carry out their work. This project is an example of human rights research using methods that can be applied remotely from any part of the world, and even replicated in other contexts or experiences.

The initiative is one of the projects from the Observatory on Disappearances and Impunity in Mexico led by Barbara Frey (University of Minnesota), Leigh Payne (Oxford University), and Karina Ansolabehere (UNAM-México), focused on the enforced disappearances crisis occurring in Mexico. The work included an extensive database created by coding …

Refugee Homes And The Right To Property: Sunk Costs And Networked Mobility, Jordan Hayes

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

For refugees outside their state of origin, access to humanitarian protection can come at the cost of the right to own a home. Following Anneke Smit’s scholarship on the possible contradictions between humanitarian protection and property rights, this paper explores the case of refugee homes built in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) by Syrian asylum seekers. Interviews with Syrian refugees collected in Iraq from 2018-2019 reveal the paradoxical situation faced by refugees who invest time, expertise, memory, hope, and money in a house—yet do not own it. While non-citizens in the KRI rarely have the chance to secure legal …

Developing A Practice In Remote Sensing For Next-Generation Human Rights Researchers, Theresa Harris, Jonathan Drake, Umesh K. Haritashya, Wumi Asubiaro Dada, Fredy Cumes

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Remote sensing is increasingly recognized as an important tool for documenting human rights abuses. When used alongside interviews, case studies, surveys, forensic science, and other well-established research methods in human rights and humanitarian practice, remotely sensed data can effectively geolocate and establish chronologies for mass graves, forced displacement, destruction of cultural heritage sites, and other violations. But as a highly technical field of science that relies on ever-changing technologies, remote sensing and geospatial analysis are not readily accessible for human rights and humanitarian practitioners. The community of practice grew out of innovative work by practitioners at NGOs and specialized inter-governmental …

Coronavirus Communication: Interaction Of Church, State, And Constitution In The Pandemic Environment, Valeriia Manchak

Helm's School of Government Conference - 2021-2024

This paper investigates the response to Covid-19 by examining the communication problem between the government and religious institutions. During the outbreak, some faith-based organizations used religion-abetted value judgments which affected viral spread (Whitehead and Perry 2020). Religious institutions can also inspire people to be supportive while the world endures hard times. (Wildman, Bulbulia and et al. 2020). This paper will explain where churches have contributed to the challenges of dealing with the COVID virus and provide recommendations for the better response (Wildman, Bulbulia and et al. 2020). This paper also discusses where the government violated constitutional rights and how to …

Pornography: Social, Emotional And Mental Implications Among Adolescents, William Kelly Canady

National Youth Advocacy & Resilience Conference

This presentation will explain the historical development of pornography. It will highlight four segments: 1- Porn’s impact on brain development of reward pathways, ultimately increasing the appetite for more porn. 2- Porn can be a false substitute for real intimacy, resulting in decreased sexual satisfaction with a real person and increased verbal and physical aggression. 3- Porn promotes sex trafficking, promotes multiple sex partners and reduced STD prevention. 4- A review of interventions available to assist clients in navigating a lifestyle away from pornography.

2020 Mlk Keynote Address: Michelle Alexander Presentation, Center For Social Equity & Inclusion, Michelle Alexander, Rosanne Somerson, Matthew Shenoda

Martin Luther King, Jr. Series

2020 MLK Series Keynote Michelle Alexander brings audiences profoundly necessary and meaningful insights on the practice of mass incarceration that plagues the US justice system, as well as eye-opening conversation on how we can end racial caste in America. Lecture Wednesday, January 22, 2020 at 5:30pm, RISD Auditorium, 17 Canal Walk, Providence, RI.

In her acclaimed bestseller The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Alexander peels back the curtain on systemic racism in the US prison system in a work that the New York Review of Books describes as "striking in the intelligence of her …

Ethics And Methods Of Human Rights Work: Exploring Both Theoretical And Practical Approaches, Shayna Plaut, Maritza Felices Luna, Christina Clark Kazak, Neil Bilotta, Lara Rosenoff Gauvin

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

This workshop will explore both theoretical and practical approaches to methodologies and ethics as it relates to human rights work.

The goal of the workshop is to create a dynamic space that encourages participants to share and learn from our own experiences navigating the messiness of human rights ethics and methods. We specifically address formal education and systems and structures so that we may all design, do and teach research and practice related to human rights in a more critical and sustainable manner. We recognize the tensions of creating research, programs and advocacy that is seen as “legitimate” to educational …

Toward A Human Rights Impact Assessment Tool, Mona Younis

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Human rights organizations are increasingly questioned about impact, which is particularly challenging for overextended and under-resourced groups that tackle complex issues requiring a long view to be achieved. They would greatly benefit from a manageable assessment tool to capture how well they are doing on key dimensions that are essential for that long-view impact. Building on my experience with the Ford Foundation’s Organizational Mapping Tool designed to assess organizational capacity, I propose to develop a tool to assess human rights impact.

The tool will enable any human rights organization to assess how it is doing in areas that are essential …

International Surrogacy Arrangements: A Human Rights Case, Marisa Araújo

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

The scientific development in Artificial Reproductive Technology (ART), especially IFV solutions, are promoting the development of our reproductive options. Surrogacy is now one of these solutions and new ethical and legal problems arise.

Domestic Laws have the most different positions. If there are countries that admit surrogacy arrangements, even commercial ones like the Florida State in the USA (and the particular case of India); others criminalize these procedures and others, like the UK (and Portugal), have a middle term position.

Considering the frontier zone in which surrogacy takes its place, the debate is more exuberant since the concrete legal solution …

Using A Human Rights Framework For Regulating The Internet Of Things: The Critical Role Of Human Rights Advocacy, Adam Todd

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

The Internet of Things (IoT) refers to the billions of technical devices around the globe that connect to and communicate through the Internet. These devices collect, store and share vast amounts of valuable data. With the advent of 5G (fifth generation cellular network technology), IoT is expected to grow even more dramatically over the coming decade and likely to change our lives in ways we have yet to imagine.

IoT holds the promise of advancing human rights by facilitating the technology that can lead to a healthier, cleaner, and more sustainable environment, and greater access to education, better healthcare, capital, …

Rights In Small Places? Participation, Rights And Power In Northern Ireland, Nicola Browne

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

That a disconnect exists between ordinary people and the world of human rights academia, NGOs and INGOs and the marginalised communities they are intended to serve is undisputed. As the years preceding and following the financial crash have been characterised by increased economic inequality and concentration of power and influence in the hands of a ever-shrinking coterie of elites, human rights as a tool of change have seemed increasingly legalistic, irrelevant and divorced from the people. A case study will be presented of Belfast based rights organisation (Participation and the Practice of Rights - PPR) set up to develop and …