Human Rights Law Commons^™

Panel 2: How Are Laws Applied And Detention Practices Reformed? Question & Answer Session , Steven Watt, Claudio Grossman, James Ross, Eugene Fidell

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

Luncheon Keynote Address, Mark L. Schneider

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

Panel 3: Transparency And Access Of Independent Experts To All Places Of Detention: Follow-Up Procedures , Felice Gaer

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

Panel 3: Transparency And Access Of Independent Experts To All Places Of Detention: Health-Related Considerations , Nora Sveaass

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

Ensuring Respect: United Nations Compliance With International Humanitarian Law, Peter F. Chapman

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

Opuz V. Turkey: Europe's Landmark Judgment On Violence Against Women, Tarik Abdel-Monem

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

Narratives Of Oppression, Michael Tigar

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

Panel 1: Are Adequate Legal Frameworks In Place At The Domestic Level? Domestic Incorporation Of Obligations Under The Convention Against Torture, Luis Gallegos, Claudio Grossman

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

United Nations And Ngo Updates, Zach Zarnow, Doug Keillor

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

Panel 2: How Are Laws Applied And Detention Practices Reformed? Litigation: Taking Cases And Those Responsible To Court , Steven Watt

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

Updates From The Regional Human Rights Systems, Andrew W. Maki, Whitney Hayes, Daniela X. Cornejo

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

Panel 3: Transparency & Access Of Independent Experts To Places Of Detention: Introductory Remarks And Presentation Of Panelists, Viviana Krsticevic

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

Panel 3: Transparency And Access Of Independent Experts To All Places Of Detention: Oversight Practices Of U.S. Juvenile Facilities , Ted H. Rubin

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

The Regulation Of Armed Non-State Actors: Promoting The Application Of The Laws Of War To Conflicts Involving National Liberation Movements, Noelle Higgins

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

Introduction, Claudia Martin, Diego Rodríguez-Pinzón

American University International Law Review

No abstract provided.

El Establecimiento De La Responsabilidad Internacional Del Estado Por Violacion A Normas Contenidas En La Declaracion Americana De Los Derechos Y Deberes Del Hombre , Julio José Rojas Báez

American University International Law Review

No abstract provided.

Bill C-268: Minimum Sentences For Child Trafficking Needed, Benjamin Perrin

All Faculty Publications

Under-aged girls as young as 12 years old are being subjected to sexual exploitation by traffickers according to a Criminal Intelligence Service of Canada (CISC); this is a pressing national problem, as organized crime networks are actively trafficking Canadian-born women and under-age girls within and between provinces and to the United States, destined for the sex trade. Law enforcement agencies are beginning to investigate and lay human trafficking charges under Canada’s Criminal Code s. 279.01 which carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 14 years, and up to life imprisonment if the accused kidnaps the victim, subjects them to aggravated …

Transcript: Advocacy Before Regional Human Rights Bodies: A Cross-Regional Agenda, Victor Abramovich, Charlotte De Broutelles, Santiago Canton, Paolo Carozza, Andrew Drzemczewski, Jonathan Fanton, Leonardo Franco, Felipe González, Claudio Grossman, Elizabeth Abi-Mershed, Bahame Tom-Mukirya Nyanduga, Diane Orentlicher, Fatsah Ouguergouz, Diego Rodriguez-Pinzón, Sergio Garcia Ramirez, Manuel Ventura Robles, Pablo Saavedra

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Dilemmas Of Cultural Legality: A Comment On Roger Cotterrell's 'The Struggle For Law' And A Criticism Of The House Of Lords' Opinions In Begum, John Mikhail

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In “The Struggle for Law: Some Dilemmas of Cultural Legality,” Professor Roger Cotterrell argues that the law’s most distinctive aspiration is to promote a respectful exchange of ideas among different parts of a multicultural society. He illustrates his thesis with the House of Lords’ decision in Begum, describing it as “a relatively successful contribution to the process by which battlefields of rights are turned into areas of routine structuring” and finding much to admire in the messages communicated by the Lords in this case. I am more troubled by the Lords’ opinions in Begum and less convinced than Cotterrell seems …

Exporting Harshness: How The War On Crime Helped Make The War On Terror Possible, James Forman Jr.

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This Essay responds to a consensus that has formed among many opponents of the Bush administration’s prosecution of the war on terror. The consensus narrative goes like this: America has a long-standing commitment to human rights and due process, reflected in its domestic criminal justice system’s expansive protections. Since September 11, 2001, President Bush, Vice President Cheney, former Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, and their allies have dishonored this tradition. It is too simple, I suggest, to assert that the Bush administration remade our justice system and betrayed American values. This Essay explores the ways in which our approach to the war …

Enforcing Human Rights In U.S. Courts And Abroad: The Alien Tort Statute And Other Approaches, John B. Bellinger, Iii

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

U.S. foreign policy--under every Administration--involves promoting respect for human rights around the world. Most of you probably know that the State Department spends a great deal of time and effort abroad, persuading foreign governments to change their human rights behavior and administering programs to advance the cause of human rights. What many of you may not be aware of, though, is that we are now quite frequently occupied "domestically" with suits by foreign plaintiffs in U.S. courts--often arising from conduct that occurred in other countries and has no significant connection to the U.S., that may not be consistent with our …

Non-Refoulement: The Search For A Consistent Interpretation Of Article 33, Ellen F. D'Angelo

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The international community rose to the challenge of addressing mass migration with the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (1951 Convention). The 1951 Convention established several important concepts as binding international law, including the requirements for refugee classification and the principle of non-refoulement. The duty of non-refoulement prohibits state-parties from expelling or returning a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers or territories where his life or freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion. According to the definition in Article 33, non-refoulement is applicable …

Treaty Bodies And The Interpretation Of Human Rights, Kerstin Mechlem

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The eight United Nations human rights treaty bodies play an important role in establishing the normative content of human rights and in giving concrete meaning to individual rights and state obligations. Unfortunately, their output often suffers from methodological weaknesses and lack of coherence and analytical rigor, which compromise its legitimacy.

This Article suggests that these deficits could in large part be addressed if the committees applied the customary legal rules of interpretation codified in Articles 31 and 32 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (Vienna Convention), which requires attention to the text, context, and object and purpose …

The Emperor Is Still Naked: Why The Protocol On The Rights Of Women In Africa Leaves Women Exposed To More Discrimination, Kristin Davis

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa entered into force in 2005. Met with much celebration for the protection it would provide African women, the Protocol was heralded as one of the most forward-looking human rights instruments. Now, fifteen years after it was conceived, the Protocol deserves a full assessment of the issues that it has faced in accession and will face in implementation. This Note analyzes the way in which the Protocol was developed and the effect the Protocol's language will have on its ability to achieve its …

Treason In The Age Of Terrorism: An Explanation And Evaluation Of Treason's Return In Democratic States, Kristen E. Eichensehr

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Treason is an ancient crime, but it fell into disuse in most Western democratic states after World War I. Now it is making a comeback with prosecutions or threatened prosecutions against a new type of enemy--accused terrorists--in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Israel. In the postwar period, commentators wrongly argued that treason would no longer be prosecuted because it is antiliberal, too difficult to prove, unnecessary because modern democracies are stable and secure, and premised on an extinct sense of loyalty to the state. This Article begins by debunking these claims and explaining treason's recent reappearance. First, democratic …

The Crisis Of International Law, Rafael Domingo

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article delves into the reasons for the current crisis in the traditional international law system, considering how the system developed through the centuries in order to respond to the needs and circumstances of past historical epochs, as well as how the system is no longer capable of meeting the unique developments and needs of life in the Third Millennium. The Article considers the fundamental problems of a state-based system of international law that--rather than focusing on the prime actor and focus of the law, the human person, and his inherent dignity--concentrates on and gives enormous power to the artificial …

Socio-Economic Rights And Refugee Status: Deepening The Dialogue Between Human Rights And Refugee Law, Fatma E. Marouf, Deborah Anker

Scholarly Works

Over the past two decades, international human rights law has provided an increasingly useful framework for interpreting key criteria of the definition of a refugee. A human rights-based approach to analyzing refugee status helps to increase consistency and uniformity in decision making by state parties regarding who qualifies for international protection.

Michelle Foster's book, International Refugee Law and Socio-economic Rights: Refuge from Deprivation (Cambridge U. Press 2007), comes at a critical time, not only because of increasing acceptance of the connection between refugee law and human rights law and significant developments in the current understanding of economic and social rights, …

Secondary Human Rights Law, Monica Hakimi

Faculty Scholarship

In recent years, the United States has appeared before four different treaty bodies to defend its human rights record. The process is part of the human rights enforcement structure: each of the major universal treaties has an expert body that reviews and comments on compliance reports that states must periodically submit. What's striking about the treaty bodies' dialogues with the United States is not that they criticized it or disagreed with it on the content of certain substantive rules. (That was all expected.) It's the extent to which the two sides talked past each other. Each presumed a different set …

A House With Two Rooms: Final Report Of The Truth And Reconciliation Commission Of Liberia Diaspora Project, Dulce Foster, Dianne Heins, Mark Kalla, Michelle Garnett Mckenzie, James O'Neal, Rosalyn Park, Robin Phillips, Jennifer Prestholdt, Ahmed K. Sirleaf Ii, Laura A. Young

DRI Press

From 1979 to 2003, more than 1.5 million Liberians were forced from their homes to escape from the violence and destruction of a protracted civil conflict. Hundreds of thousands became refugees and many eventually made their way to countries of resettlement including the United States and the United Kingdom. Most of their stories have never been told. This report on the experience of the Liberian diaspora, entitled A House with Two Rooms, is the culmination of three years of work in the United States, the United Kingdom and Buduburam Refugee Settlement in Ghana. The report has been submitted to the …

United Nations Collective Security And The United States Security Guarantee In An Age Of Rising Multipolarity: The Security Council As The Talking Shop Of The Nations, Kenneth Anderson

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

This essay considers the respective roles of the United Nations and the United States in a world of rising multipolarity and rising new (or old) Great Powers. It asks why UN collective security as a concept persists, despite the well-known failures, both practical and theoretical, and why it remains anchored to the UN Security Council. The persistence is owed, according to the essay, to the fact of a parallel US security guarantee that offers much of the world (in descending degrees starting with NATO and close US allies such as Japan, but even extending to non-allies and even enemies who …