Human Rights Law Commons^™

Human Rights Are Mutual Obligations: The Perceptions Of Pakistani Muslim Women About Rights And Freedom, Rashida Qureshi

Book Chapters / Conference Papers

No abstract provided.

Canadian Mining Internationally And The Un Guiding Principles For Business And Human Rights, Sara Seck

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Between 2005 and 2011, there was much debate within Canada and at the United Nations over what role home states should play in the regulation and adjudications of human rights harms associated with transnational corporate conduct. In Canada, this debate focused upon concerns associated with global mining, and led to a series of government, opposition and multi-stakeholder reports and proposals. These culminated in 2010 with the appointment of a Corporate Social Responsibility Counsellor for the Extractive Sector and the defeat of Bill C-300, an act respecting Corporate Accountability for the Activities of Mining, Oil or Gas in Developing Countries. Meanwhile, …

Transnational Business And Environmental Harm: A Twail Analysis Of Home State Obligations, Sara Seck

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Transnational corporate conduct that negatively impacts the environmental human rights of local communities is widespread in the operations of extractive sector companies. Yet, under principles of international environmental law, home states of transnational mining companies are neither obligated nor arguably even permitted to regulate and adjudicate environmental problems in host states. Proposals put forward in developed country home states to address these problems are often met with the claim that such regulations would be an imperialistic violation of host state sovereignty, and would create a competitive disadvantage for home state companies. This article will examine this problem by drawing upon …

Conceptualizing The Home State Duty To Protect Human Rights, Sara L. Seck

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The state duty to protect human rights from abuses by non-state actors including business is one of the three differentiated but complementary pillars that make up the UN Protect, Respect, Remedy Framework for Business and Human Rights. Yet the jurisdictional scope of the duty to protect is disputed. This chapter explores both the permissibility of home state regulation under jurisdictional principles of public international law and the existence of home state obligations to regulate and adjudicate transnational corporations to prevent and remedy human rights violations. Properly understood, the state duty to protect applies to all executive, legislative and judicial organs …

Internet Access Rights: A Brief History And Intellectual Origins, Jonathon Penney

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

If there is anything we have learned from recent protest movements around the world, and the heavy-handed government efforts to block, censor, suspend, and manipulate Internet connectivity, it is that access to the Internet, and its content, is anything but certain, especially when governments feel threatened. Despite these hard truths, the notion that people have a "right" to Internet access gained high-profile international recognition last year. In a report to the United Nations General Assembly in early 2011, Frank La Rue, the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression, held that Internet access should be recognized as a "human right". …

Restorative Justice, Euthanasia, And Assisted Suicide: A New Arena For Restorative Justice And A New Path For End Of Life Law And Policy In Canada, Jennifer Llewellyn, Jocelyn Downie

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This article examines the current Canadian legal approach to euthanasia and assisted suicide, highlights some of the problems with it, and offers a novel alternative to the current traditionally criminalized prohibitive regime. The authors first describe a restorative justice approach and explain the differences between such an approach and the traditional approach currently in use. They then explain how a restorative justice approach could be implemented in the arena of assisted death, acknowledging the potential challenges in implementation. The authors conclude that taking a restorative justice approach to euthanasia and assisted suicide could enable movement in the seemingly intractable public …

Interpreting Judicial Interpretations Of The Criminal Statutes Of The Trafficking Victims Protection Act: Ten Years Later , Mohamed Y. Mattar

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Using Human Rights Mechanisms Of The United Nations To Advance Economic Justice, Risa E. Kaufman, Joann Kamuf Ward

Human Rights Institute

As a growing number of social justice lawyers employ human rights standards and strategies to advocate for their clients. human rights mechanisms of the United Nations have become a promising way for lawyers to work toward economic justice. These mechanisms are not only an alternative to traditional litigation and administrative advocacy but also unique opportunities for collaboration among U.S. civil society groups and engagement with policymakers. Because they are grounded in international human 1ights norms. human rights mechanisms have the potential to deal with social and economic issues beyond the reach of traditional domestic protections. By strategically using these mechanisms. …

Gender Justice In The Americas: A Transnational Dialogue On Violence, Sexuality, Reproduction, And Human Rights University, Human Rights Clinic, Centro De Derechos Humanos De La Universidad Diego Portales, Center For Reproductive Rights

Human Rights Institute

On February 23-25, 2011, over 100 women's rights, gender, and sexuality advocates and scholars from twenty countries in North, South, and Central America and the Caribbean gathered at the University of Miami in Miami, Florida to attend a groundbreaking convening, Gender Justice in the Americas: A Transnational Dialogue on Violence, Sexuality, Reproduction, and Human Rights. The Convening, hosted by the University of Miami School of Law Human Rights Clinic, University of Diego Portales Human Rights Center, the Center for Reproductive Rights, and Columbia Law School Human Rights Institute, brought together key players in the region to exchange views and …

Enforcing The Rules: Government And Citizen Oversight Of Mining, Erin Smith, Peter Rosenblum

Human Rights Institute

In recent history, mining has failed to deliver many of the benefits citizens expect, particularly in poorer nations rich in natural resources and high in hopes. Many of the reasons remain unclear. In some cases, the problem is linked to bad deals with mining companies. But no matter the quality of the deal, other problems arise from failure to effectively monitor and enforce the existing obligations. This report examines the monitoring of mining obligations, characterizes the main gaps, identifies policy options and good practices, and proposes practical ways for both government and civil society to improve monitoring and enforcement.

America's "Dirty Little Secret": Domestic Sex Trafficking Of Minors And A Call For State Action, Caitlin Casey

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Paper Thin: Freedom And Re-Enslavement In The Diaspora Of The Haitian Revolution, Rebecca J. Scott

Articles

In the summer of 1809 a flotilla of boats arrived in New Orleans carrying more than 9,000 Saint-Domingue refugees recently expelled from the Spanish colony of Cuba. These migrants nearly doubled the population of New Orleans, renewing its Francophone character and populating the neighborhoods of the Vieux Carre and Faubourg Marigny. At the heart of the story of their disembarkation, however, is a legal puzzle. Historians generally tell us that the arriving refugees numbered 2,731 whites, 3,102 free people of color, and 3,226 slaves. But slavery had been abolished in Saint-Domingue by decree in 1793, and abolition had been ratified …

Slavery And The Law In Atlantic Perspective: Jurisdiction, Jurisprudence, And Justice, Rebecca J. Scott

Articles

The four articles in this special issue experiment with an innovative set of questions and a variety of methods in order to push the analysis of slavery and the law into new territory. Their scope is broadly Atlantic, encompassing Suriname and Saint-Domingue/Haiti, New York and New Orleans, port cities and coffee plantations. Each essay deals with named individuals in complex circumstances, conveying their predicaments as fine-grained microhistories rather than as shocking anecdotes. Each author, moreover, demonstrates that the moments when law engaged slavery not only reflected but also influenced larger dynamics of sovereignty and jurisprudence.

Between Minimum And Optimum World Public Order: An Ethical Path For The Future, Steven Ratner

Book Chapters

Among the most significant contributions of policy-oriented jurisprudence to our understanding of international legal process is its identification of minimum and optimum world public order as the overarching goals of international law. Minimum public order in its essence refers to the global state of affairs with limited recourse to unauthorized violence to solve disputes, while optimum public order is synonymous with a world in which human dignity is maximally protected. These two concepts, augmented by other pairings now second-nature to us (for example, authority and control, and myth system and operational code), have also permeated—in the latter case, germinated in—the …

Examining The Reality Of Foreign National Child Victims Of Human Trafficking In The United States, Bridgette A. Carr

Articles

Human traffickers prey on the vulnerabilities of other people. Poverty, lack of education, and language barriers are keys that human traffickers use to successfully exploit others. For foreign national children who have been trafficked in the United States, these same vulnerabilities are often ignored by the immigration system. From its inception, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) has been touted as a tool to combat grave human rights violations that affect children. In fact, the TVPA's legislative history is rife with stories, statistics, and anecdotes involving children-often young girls. The TVPA has always recognized the failure of a one-size-fits-all approach …

African Customary Law, Customs, And Women's Rights, Muna Ndulo

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

The sources of law in most African countries are customary law, the common law and legislation both colonial and post-independence. In a typical African country, the great majority of the people conduct their personal activities in accordance with and subject to customary law. Customary law has great impact in the area of personal law in regard to matters such as marriage, inheritance and traditional authority, and because it developed in an era dominated by patriarchy some of its norms conflict with human rights norms guaranteeing equality between men and women. While recognizing the role of legislation in reform, it is …

Convergences And Divergences In International Legal Norms On Migrant Labor, Chantal Thomas

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

This essay will argue that even where disparate treaties converge doctrinally, they may diverge normatively and that normative divergence may be significant in its own right. Section I of this essay seeks to chart out an initial such analysis, conducting a concise comparison of particular rules affecting migrant workers from different realms of international law. Section I concludes with both a graphic representation of doctrinal convergences and divergences, and a further discussion the doctrinal relationships among treaties as elucidated through consideration of hypothetical legal disputes.

Section II considers the normative implications of divergent rule systems. In particular, Section II raises …

Child Soldiers And The Duty Of Nations To Protect Children From Participation In Armed Conflict, Luz E. Nagle

Cardozo Journal of International and Comparative Law

The article advocates for enhanced international cooperation and stricter enforcement mechanisms to protect child soldiers, emphasizing the need to address both legal and societal challenges to end their exploitation in conflicts.

An Emerging Mandate For International Courts: Victim-Centered Remedies And Restorative Justice, Thomas M. Antkowiak

Faculty Articles

More than ever, international attention has been directed to the needs of those who have suffered human rights violations. Nevertheless, the chasm between what victims want and what they obtain is still vast. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights, unlike most tribunals, has sought to narrow this gap by ordering remedies that respond to victims’ demands for recognition, restoration, and accountability.

In contrast, for decades the European Court of Human Rights has applied a restrictive remedial model. The European Court, inordinately concerned about its institutional integrity, curtails remedies — often delivering only declaratory relief and monetary damages. Since the Inter-American …

An Emerging Norm - Determining The Meaning And Legal Status Of The Responsibility To Protect, Jonah Eaton

Michigan Journal of International Law

The responsibility to protect, from its recent nativity in the 2001 report of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS), is the latest round in an old debate pitting the principle of nonintervention in the internal affairs of states against allowing such intervention to prevent gross and systematic violations of human rights. Advocates for the concept see it as an important new commitment by the international community, injecting new meaning into the tragically threadbare promise to never again allow mass atrocities to occur unchallenged. ICISS offered the concept of responsibility to protect as a new way to confront …

Esperienza Elementare E Dritto = Elementary Experience And Law, Paolo G. Carozza, Andrea Simoncini, Lorenza Violini, Marta Cartabia

Books

Translated by Mariangela Sullivan

Preface by Julián Carrón

...The essays making up this book reveal that law finds itself at a crossroads that is more anthropological than juridical. Indeed one’s concept of law flows directly from one’s concept of humanity. For this reason it seems to me entirely appropriate that the authors have refused to reduce elementary experience to doctrine or other abstract formulas to be imposed mechanically upon reality. Only an individual capable of feeling one’s own elementary experience alive within herself can make a valuable contribution to the debate that will lead us through this crossroads in the …

An Unintended Casualty Of The War On Terror, Aya Gruber

Publications

As the dust of the Bush administration's war on terror settles, casualties are starting to appear on the legal battlefield. The United States' human rights reputation and the Supreme Court's international influence lay wounded in the wake of U.S. policies that flouted international law by advocating torture, suborning indefinite detention, and erecting irregular tribunals. Through declining citation, the courts of the world are telling the Supreme Court that if it does not respect international and foreign law, international and foreign courts will not respect it. Some might object that the Supreme Court should not be lumped with the Bush administration …

First, Do No Harm: Response To “If You Prick Me”, Patricia A. Broussard

Journal Publications

Brianna Lennon makes several cogent and persuasive arguments about Female Genital Mutilation (“FGM”) in her recently published Student Note entitled, If You Prick Me: The American Academy of Pediatrics’ Female Genital Cutting Policy Turnabout. She successfully articulates why she believes that by prohibiting FGM, opponents are in effect reinforcing it as a tie to the former culture or country. However, although Ms. Lennon makes some sound points, she overlooks and thereby, fails to answer the most obvious question which is, who owns a woman’s body? If one reaches the conclusion that a woman owns her body, then the logical extension …

Reflections On The Special Humanitarian Parole Program For Haitian Orphans, Whitney A. Reitz

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Imperfect Remedies: The Arsenal Of Criminal Statutes Available To Prosecute International Adoption Fraud In The United States, Katie Rasor, Richard M. Rothblatt, Elizabeth A. Russo, Julie A. Turner

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Embryo “Adoption”? The Rhetoric, The Law, And The Legal Consequences, Polina M. Dostalik

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Meaning Of 'Sphere Of Influence' In Iso 26000, Stepan Wood

All Faculty Publications

The relationship between a company’s influence and its social responsibilities is the subject of persistent controversy, manifested for example in the debate over the use of the concept of “sphere of influence” (SOI) to define the scope of a company’s social responsibility. Early drafts of the ISO 26000 guide on social responsibility employed SOI in this way, stating among other things that influence can give rise to responsibility and that generally, the greater the ability to influence, the greater the responsibility. The UN Special Representative on business and human rights, John Ruggie, rejected this use of SOI as ambiguous, misleading, …

When Men Are Harmed: Feminism, Queer Theory, And Torture At Abu Ghraib, Aziza Ahmed

Faculty Scholarship

In this Article I explore the assertions of "anti-imperialist" feminist scholars who critique "imperial feminism" for its support of the war on terror (WOT). I bring into this analysis the proposition by queer theorists that feminist reliance on male/ female subordination has the potential to not only obscure harm in times of war but also to perpetuate it. As a case study, I focus on the Abu Ghraib prison photos that depict, in part, female soldiers torturing male Iraqi prisoners. In conducting this analysis, I reveal the analytical limitations of dominance and cultural feminists, particularly with regard to male harm …

Have Truth And Reconciliation Commissions Helped Remediate Human Rights Violations Against Women? An Analysis Of The Past And Formula For The Future, Peggy Maisel

Faculty Scholarship

Truth and Reconciliation Commissions (TRCs) have investigated human rights violations and abuses in a wide range of countries and communities over the last thirty-five years. Created by people who believe finding truth through an examination of the past is necessary to build social and political trust, the goal of these processes has been to make findings and recommendations in order to strengthen or aid the transition to democracy, reduce conflict and create a basis for long term reconciliation, facilitate some form of transitional or restorative justice, and begin the process of change needed to avoid similar human rights violations in …

Political Protest, Mass Arrests, And Mass Detention: Fundamental Freedoms And (Un)Common Criminals, Debra Parkes, Meaghan Daniel

All Faculty Publications

“No Justice. No Peace.” The mass arrest and detention of over 1,105 people during the Toronto G20 summit in June 2010, including author Meaghan Daniel, prompted reflection on the connections between justice and peace and in particular, between peaceful protest, policing, detention and the justice system. The record breaking weekend of mass arrests and temporary detention of people described as “innocent bystanders” and “peaceful protestors” provoked an ongoing conversation about the criminalization of protest. It is the authors’ hope to extend this conversation beyond these (un)common criminals to the “every day” processes of criminalization and imprisonment that go largely unquestioned …