Human Rights Law Commons^™

State-Building In Afghanistan, Melanie Kawano, Amy Mcguire

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Since the U.S. intervention in Afghanistan in late 2001, Afghan citizens and members of the global community have been grappling with the question of how to build a state that can fill the void created by decades of conflict and violence. However, the concept of “state-building” is complex. The term describes both an internal process and international assistance; it requires short-term action as well as a long-term vision. While no precise formula for state-building exists, there are historical precedents and “models” of state-building expressed by great powers and multilaterals. In reality, however, these are based on best guesses that fail …

Democratization In Bosnia, Melanie Kawano, Amber Goodman, Chris Saeger

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Democratization in post-conflict, post-Dayton Bosnia has been characterized by many scholars as a “noble experiment”: the West’s guinea pig for internationally initiated post-communist democratization. In a state so wearied by war and dictatorship, democracy would be expected to take root quickly and flourish. However, due to various cultural and political influences, what the Dayton Peace Agreement originally intended to quickly lead to Bosnia’s self-governance has instead resulted in the state’s crippling dependence on external actors. The articles in this section of this bibliography explore the myriad influences (primarily under the umbrella of ethnicity) on the process.

Neotrusteeship In Bosnia, Lauren Ingram

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The conflict in Bosnia resulted in 4.3 million displaced people, 250,000 estimated casualties, and more than 200,000 wounded including 50,000 children. (Cousens and Carter 25). In 1995, these facts became known to the world when the U.N. Protection Force (UNPROFOR), NATO, and the United States were able to reach a peace agreement with warring factions. As in World War II, Bosnian-Serbians, Bosnian-Croatians, Croatians, Muslim were active combatants. However, unlike World War II, no single governing authority emerged. Instead, the U.N., with key U.S. involvement, had to institute not only peace but also an administration that could uphold that peace. The …

State-Building In Bosnia, Chris Saeger

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Although the idea of state-building is at least as contentious as the idea of the state itself, international technocrats and foreign policymakers remain resigned to this project. International state-building has been conceived of as maintaining intermestic social order, protecting individual rights, and consolidating transnational linkages of power. Yet whatever the motive, effect or standard form of state-building, some political organization called “the state” is a necessary condition for membership in international society, if not for protecting individual human rights.

Sudan, Alexandra Nichols

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Since independence Sudan has found itself almost constantly embroiled in civil conflict within its own borders. Throughout the 1990’s, Sudan was widely known to sponsor terrorism, having such as including Osama bin Laden from 1991-1996. American sanctions have been in place in Sudan since 1997, the last American ambassador was removed in 1998, and Sudan has been on the U.S. State Departments list of sponsored terrorists since 1993.

Structures Of Violence: The Proliferation Of Atrocity Environments Under The Brazilian Military Government And The Bush Administration, Kara Martinez

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Violence Workers: Police Torturers and Murderers Reconstruct Brazilian Atrocities by Martha K. Huggins, Mika Haritos- Fatouros, and Philip G. Zimbardo. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2002. 293 pp.

Human Rights And Globalization: Is The Shrinking World Expanding Rights?, Zehra F. Kabasakal Arat

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

The Globalization of Human Rights. Edited by Jean-Marc Coicaud, Michael W. Doyle, and Anne-Marie Gardner. Tokyo: United Nations University Press, 2003.

and

Globalization and Human Rights. Edited by Alison Brysk. Berkely: University of California Press, 2002.

Human Rights And Post-War Reconstruction: Introduction, Roberto Belloni

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The expression “post-war reconstruction,” commonly adopted by both practitioners and academics, is somewhat misleading. Reconstruction does not entail rebuilding or return to the pre– war state of affairs as the expression seems to suggest. Rather, reconstruction involves difficult multiple transitions: from war to peace, from a state to a market economy, and from authoritarianism to democracy. Each transition taken by itself would be daunting. Taken together, they can be almost overwhelming.

Background For The “War On Terror”

Human Rights & Human Welfare

September 11 changed the United States’ understanding of terrorism. Prior to these attacks, Americans typically viewed terrorist events and actors through the lens of foreign affairs, quite removed from “everyday” concerns. Terrorist events involving Americans did occur, occasionally on American soil, but a sense of American invulnerability never truly wavered. September 11 challenged this presumption; as well as perspectives on the history of terrorism, compelling some to reexamine past events in order to find portents of the future tragedy.

Sri Lanka, Amanda Donahoe

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Sri Lanka has been entrenched in a civil war for two decades. As in ethnic conflicts in many other post-colonial countries, the different groups of Sri Lanka give loyalty primarily to the group, rather than to the entire country. The Sinhalese majority have slowly populated the government and treated the Tamil minority as a threat to national stability, instead of as candidates for conciliation and power sharing. Consequently, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has taken up arms against the Sinhalese controlled government to fight for an independent homeland in the north and north-east parts of the country in …

Making Work Pay: Promoting Employment And Better Child Support Outcomes For Low-Income And Incarcerated Parents, Ann Cammett

Scholarly Works

The New Jersey Institute for Social Justice prepared this report in response to concerns about child support debt—in particular as it creates a barrier to employment for low-income parents and works at cross-purposes with the goals of the child support program. Drawing on examples from other states, this report identifies a range of policies that inform child support practice in New Jersey and offers administrative, legislative, and programmatic solutions to address child support arrears owed by low-income and incarcerated parents.

Book Review, Michael Kagan

Scholarly Works

There is a frequent critique of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees’ protection role, which goes like this: as UNHCR has grown as a humanitarian aid delivery agency, law and human rights have lost currency. In Rights in Exile: Janus-Faced Humanitarianism, Guglielmo Verdirame and Barbara Harrell-Bond (with Zachary Lomo and Hannah Garry) take this as a starting point from which to reach a far more searing conclusion: UNHCR itself directly violates the human rights of the people it is supposed to protect. Detailed, direct and at times passionate, this book should be required reading for anyone who wants to …

Redressing Colonial Genocide: The Hereros' Cause Of Action Against Germany, Rachel J. Anderson

Scholarly Works

In February 2003, the Herero People's Reparations Corporation filed a complaint against Germany in the District Court of the District of Columbia alleging violations of international law, crimes against humanity, genocide, slavery, and forced labor before, during, and after the German-Herero War (1904-07). The German government, modern scholars, and other commentators have long taken the position that genocides committed by colonial governments in the nineteenth century did not violate international law at that time. Arguments for this position rely, inter alia, on the belief that all forms of genocide were first criminalized and made punishable by the 1948 U.N. Convention …

Do Constitutions Requiring Adherence To Shari`A Threaten Human Rights? How Egypt’S Constitutional Court Reconciles Islamic Law With The Liberal Rule Of Law, Clark B. Lombardi, Nathan J. Brown

Articles

Over the last thirty years, a number of Muslim countries, including most recently Afghanistan and Iraq, have adopted constitutions that require the law of the state to respect fundamental Islamic legal norms. What happens when countries with a secular legal system adopt these "constitutional Islamization" provisions? How do courts interpret them? This article will present a case study of constitutional Islamization in one important and influential country, Egypt. In interpreting Egypt's constitutional Islamization provision, the Supreme Constitutional Court of Egypt has interpreted Shari'a norms to be consistent with international human rights norms and with liberal economic policies. The experience of …

Is There A Subjective Element In The Refugee Convention's Requirement Of 'Well-Founded Fear'?, James C. Hathaway, William S. Hicks

Articles

Linguistic ambiguity in the refugee definition's requirement of "well-founded fear" of being persecuted has given rise to a wide range of interpretations. There is general agreement that a fear is "well-founded" only if the refugee claimant faces an actual, forward-looking risk of being persecuted in her country of origin (the "objective element"). But it is less clear whether the well-founded "fear" standard also requires a showing that the applicant is not only genuinely at risk, but also stands in trepidation of being persecuted. Beyond vague references to the subjective quality of "fear," few courts or commentators have undertaken the task …

Legal "Black Hole"? Extraterritorial State Action And International Treaty Law On Civil And Political Rights, Ralph Wilde

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Article considers the significant role that extraterritorial activity is playing in the post-9/11 foreign policy of some States and the idea that this activity somehow takes place "outside" the law or, at least, outside an arena where legal norms apply as a matter of course rather than only when and to the extent that the State involved decides these norms will apply. It begins in Section II by mapping out the extraterritorial state activities conducted since 9/11, covering activities with a personalized object-such as the military action taken in Afghanistan against Al Qaeda-and activities with a spatial (territorial) object-such …

Plea Bargaining At The International Criminal Tribunal For The Former Yugoslavia, Ralph Henham, Mark Drumbl

Scholarly Articles

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) increasingly has turned to plea bargains to resolve the cases before it. A number of factors motor this trend. One is administrative: the ICTY has been subject to considerable pressure from the United Nations Security Council and donor states to accelerate its work. Another is the desire to obtain acknowledgements of responsibility from perpetrators. Moreover, there is concern that, as time passes, the memories of witnesses dim. The rigours of direct and cross-examination may retraumatise those who have survived mass atrocity. ICTY judges also have expressed their understanding that guilty pleas …

Globalized Citizenship: Sovereignty, Security And Soul, Berta E. Hernández-Truyol

UF Law Faculty Publications

Human rights law has redefined the concepts of sovereignty and citizenship. Just as transnationalization has weakened the hegemony of the political elites (corporate economic elites and domestic ruling classes) by strengthening citizenship claims of all persons, so, too, a globalized citizenship grounded on a human rights model will strengthen personhood by denationalizing states' claims on individuals' rights. The human rights narrative has been imagined, crafted and delivered by Northern/Western powers--the hegemon--however, for the human rights model to be of utility to the globalized citizen project, it must be reconstituted with an antisubordination agenda. It must include the voices of the …

Law Is Not Enough, Berta E. Hernández-Truyol

UF Law Faculty Publications

In 1995, the United Nations reported “in no society today do women enjoy the same opportunities as men.” The condition and status of women worldwide was one of social, political, educational, legal, and economic inequality. Ten years later, women's economic disparities persist. In Gender Injustice: An International Comparative Analysis of Equality in Employment, Dr. Anne-Marie Mooney Cotter focuses on women's global inequality in employment. The book's in-depth examination of women's second-class, subordinated status in the workplace around the world provides invaluable insights into the complexities of gender inequality.

Improving Legislation Through Social Analysis: A Case Study In Methodology From The Water Sector In Uzbekistan, Jonathan Brown, Ayse Kudat, Kristen Mcgeeney

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Editors' Note, Kelly Rain, Kirk Herbertson

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Post-Conflict Convergence Of Development Planning: Implementation Of The Sustainable Development Related Millennium Development Goals In Afghanistan, Belinda Bowling, Asif Ali Zaidi

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

The Millennium Challenge Account: A Critical Look At The Newly Focused Development Approach And Its Potential Impact On The U.S Agency For International Development , Melanie Nakagawa

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

The Anti-Prostitution Pledge: Limiting Speech And Development , Rachael Moshman

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

World News, Blase Kornacki, Abby Okrent, Jennifer Rohleder, Mauro Zinner

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Traveling The Boundaries Of Statelessness: Global Passports And Citizenship, Berta E. Hernández-Truyol, Matthew Hawk

UF Law Faculty Publications

An independent global citizenship without a local component and in the absence of the much-feared global government creates two concerns. One, an individual may imperil the rights of others, without a structure that can impose sanctions for the heinous conduct. Two, an individual's rights may be imperiled, and there may be no entity to provide protection. This essay proposes a model of a formal global citizenship that will alleviate these concerns and prove both practically and theoretically feasible. The model flows from the concept of dual or multiple nationality and offers global citizenship only as an elective nationality. Such citizenship …

Regional Economic Arrangements And The Rule Of Law In The Americas: The Human Rights Face Of Free Trade Agreements, Stephen J. Powell

UF Law Faculty Publications

We have addressed the widespread criticism that international trade rules are insensitive to basic human rights and that globalization has done little with its enormous power to preserve exhaustible natural resources and otherwise promote sustainable development, to alleviate the gap between rich and poor, to encourage states to grant their citizens basic human rights contained in the U.N. Covenant on Human Rights and other treaties, to resolve the often conflicting policies underlying essential human rights and trade goals, and, in general, to integrate trade and critical human rights law on the global front.

Our focus in this Essay is on …

Globalizing What: Education As A Human Right Or As A Traded Service?, Katarina Tomasevski

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

Globalization and Education Symposium

Note: Minnesota’S Proposed Same-Sex Marriage Amendment: A Flamingly Unconstitutional Violation Of Full Faith And Credit, Due Process, And Equal Protection, Jolynn M. Schlichting

William Mitchell Law Review

This note examines the constitutionality of Minnesota’s proposed marriage amendment. The note begins with a description of the recent national events leading up to the amendment’s proposal, followed by a discussion of the history of marriage in Minnesota, including passage of the Defense of Marriage Act in May 1997. Next, the note examines the language of Minnesota’s proposed marriage amendment and briefly addresses the process of amending state constitutional provisions. It then analyzes the proposed amendment’s constitutionality under the Full Faith and Credit Clause, the Due Process Clause, and the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution. Finally, the …

Student Freedom Of Expression: Violent Content And The Safe School Balance, A. Wayne Mackay, Janet Burt-Gerrans

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The authors begin with a discussion of of the duality in how children are viewed in both international and domestic law. Children are viewed as both under the protection and authority of adults, at the same time as being rights bearing individuals. Following recognition of the difficult tension created by this duality, these authors focus on its application in the balancing of the safe school environment with student freedom of expression. In particular these authors examine cases and scenarios that highlight the complex relationships that result when student expression contains violent content. This timely examination gives consideration to the contemporary …