Human Rights Law Commons^™

Unsettling Human Rights Clinical Pedagogy And Practice In Settler Colonial Contexts, Jocelyn Getgen Kestenbaum, Caroline Bishop Laporte

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

In settler colonial contexts, law and educational institutions operate as structures of oppression, extraction, erasure, disempowerment, and continuing violence against colonized peoples. Consequently, clinical legal advocacy often can reinforce coloniality—the logic that perpetuates structural violence against individuals and groups resisting colonization and struggling for survival as peoples. Critical legal theory, including Third World Approaches to International Law (“TWAIL”), has long exposed colonial laws and practices that entrench discriminatory, racialized power structures and prevent transformative international human rights advocacy. Understanding and responding to these critiques can assist in decolonizing international human rights clinical law teaching and practice but is insufficient in …

Woke Capital Revisited, Jennifer S. Fan

Seattle University Law Review

Inclusive corporate leadership is now at the forefront of discussions related to corporate governance. Two corporate theories help to explain the rise in prominence of diversity, equity, and inclusion (“DEI”) efforts in corporate leadership. First, an expanded definition of corporate purpose which elevated the idea of the importance of stakeholders, contributed to the momentum from business and legal quarters for broader corporate inclusion. Second, the increasing publicness of corporations—the social expectation of how large, typically public corporations should act given their position of power—also led to corporations becoming more active in the DEI space. It is against this backdrop that …

Gender And The Constitutional Theory Of The Firm, Jamee K. Moudud

Seattle University Law Review

This Article adds to the literature that has linked feminist economics to foreign trade and development. It argues that two key factors need to be in place jointly if efforts to promote gender equity are to succeed. On the one hand it argues that foreign debt is an important constraint to domestic progressive social policies of all kinds as it increases the power of international creditors who generally tend to support austerity policies. On the other hand, while alleviating the burden of foreign debt via exportpromotion policies is necessary, it is by no means a sufficient condition to promote domestic …

Court’S Choice Of Law Ruling Undermines Washington Community Property Law: A Critique Of Shanghai Commercial Bank V. Chang, Brian D. Hulse

Seattle University Law Review

This Article deals with the issues that arise when Washington courts face the following scenario. One spouse enters into a contract without the joinder (and perhaps without the knowledge) of the other spouse. Both spouses are domiciled in Washington. The contract has contacts with one or more jurisdictions other than Washington and is generally governed as to validity and interpretation by the law of another jurisdiction. The contracting spouse defaults and the other party to the contract obtains a judgment on the contract. The court confronts a question about the property to which the plaintiff will have recourse to collect …

When Congress Passes The Buck: How Russia’S Invasion Of Ukraine Exposed Flaws In Granting The President Sanctioning Powers, Artem M. Joukov, Samantha M. Caspar

Seattle University Law Review

The United States (U.S.) Constitution provides few limitations on endowing the Executive Branch with powers to govern foreign trade, which was initially granted to the Legislature. In a world where global trade dominates, the power over foreign trade can be more important than the power over domestic matters. Leaving unrestrained trade authority to the Executive Branch may cause hazards for Americans and foreigners alike. Russia’s war in Ukraine demonstrates the flaws in permitting the Executive Branch to unilaterally sanction foreign states. This Article demonstrates how reactive Executive Branch policies infringed on the welfare and safety of American citizens and foreigners …

Pedaling Backwards: Examining The King County Board Of Health’S Choice To Repeal Its Bicycle Helmet Law, Schuyler M. Peters

Seattle University Law Review

In Part I, this Comment will explain the Helmet Law itself and the timeline that ultimately led to its repeal. Part II will focus on the positive impact of the Helmet Law, the dangers associated with the repeal, why the repeal should not have occurred in the manner it did, and what societal costs stem from the BOH’s decision. Part III will address the actions that must be taken to revoke this repeal and the reasons behind these alternative pathways, including an Equity Impact Review study specifically on the consequences of repeal, a collaborative outreach program to bring helmets to …

Esg Challenges And Opportunities In North American Supply Chains: Human Rights, Financial And Natural Sector Dimensions, Selma Lussenburg, Jonathan Drimmer, Fen Hampson, Michael Torrance, Reg Manhas

Canada-United States Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Facial Recognition System Is A Violation Of Human Rights In The Context Of The Echr, Aykhan Dadashov

Human Rights Brief

On January 31, 2020, Nikolay Sergeyevich Glukhin lodged a complaint to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) arguing that the Russian government violated his right to respect for private life (Article 8) and freedom of expression (Article 10) under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Glukhin held a banner in metro station of Moscow to protest the detention and criminal proceedings against a political activist. Using CCTV cameras and videos taken by a passersby on an app called Telegram, the police managed to identify and arrest Glukhin. It investigated CCTV cameras installed in other stations for further inquiry …

Women, International Human Rights Law, And The Right To Adequate Housing In Africa, John Mukum Mbaku

Emory International Law Review

In many African countries, the rights of women and girls to adequate housing are under threat and remain vulnerable to violation by state- and non-state actors. This is so even though these rights are guaranteed by international human rights instruments and national constitutions. Of particular note is the existence of customary laws that discriminate against women and frustrate their ability to realize the right to adequate housing. To enhance the ability of women to realize their right to adequate housing, each African State must domesticate the various international and regional human rights instruments that guarantee this right in order to …

Submission Of Amici Briefs In Arbitration Related To Environmental Concerns: Developing A Better Framework For Their Consideration Under Icsid Rule 37(2), Clarissa Galaviz Lizarraga

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

This note examines the consideration of amicus curiae briefs in international arbitration matters under the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (“ICSID”), specifically focusing on arbitration cases involving environmental concerns. The note explores trends in consideration of amicus briefs in environmental arbitration by taking a historical look at cases and the rationales behind the decisions of the tribunals to consider amicus briefs and raises concerns regarding a better, uniform approach to amicus briefs.

To achieve a better system of consideration of amicus briefs when environmental concerns are at play, given their public and ecologic interest, the author suggests reworking …

Opening Speech, Claudio Grossman

American University International Law Review

Good morning and good afternoon, depending on your time zone. It is a great pleasure to introduce this conference on “Sea Level Rise and International Law: Assessing its Impacts on the Americas.” Sea level rise is a pressing global challenge that could generate catastrophic effects, including in the Americas, which are surrounded by four oceans: the Arctic, the Antarctic, the Atlantic, and the Pacific. Several of the countries in the Region could suffer disproportionately from the consequences of this serious phenomenon. The implications for States and people all over the world are devastating, making rising sea levels a matter of …

When The Race To Net Zero Becomes A Race To The Bottom: Human Rights Violations In The Renewable Energy Transition And The Extraterritorial Obligation To Protect Human Rights, Yogi Bratajaya

American University International Law Review

Recent reports published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have shed light on and confirmed the extent of damages that will result if the world fails to keep global warming below 2°C. Irreversible adverse impacts on our ecosystems and the increasing frequency and intensity of natural disasters will have a significant negative effect on the enjoyment of human rights worldwide. Climate change is already affecting food security through increasing temperatures, changing precipitation patterns, and greater frequency of some extreme events. Additionally, the deteriorating conditions caused by climate change will cause millions of people to leave their homes and …

The Art Of International Law, Hilary Charlesworth

American University International Law Review

International lawyers study international law primarily through its written texts—treaties, official documents, judgments, and scholarly works. Critical to being an international lawyer, it seems, is access to the written word, whether in hard copy or online. Indeed, as Jesse Hohmann observes, “the production of text can come to feel like the very purpose of international law.”

Former Peruvian President Fujimori's Forced Sterilization Program Faces Prosecution 26 Years Later, Taylor Potenziano

Human Rights Brief

In 1996, the Peruvian government under President Alberto Fujimori launched the National Reproductive Health and Family Planning Program (PNSRPF). While the government pitched the program as a way to promote access to family planning for low-income families and a way for women to be “masters of their own destiny,” the PNSRPF functioned as a forced sterilization program. From 1996 to 2001, 272,028 people were forcibly sterilized, the majority of them impoverished indigenous women from rural areas.

China's Violation Of Refugee Rights: Repatriation Of North Korean Refugees, Ellery Saluck

Human Rights Brief

The concept of the North Korean defector is so pervasive that it tends to eclipse the legal reality: she is also a refugee. While the urgent economic prerogative for defecting has waned since the widespread North Korean famine of the 1990s, North Koreans continue to escape for various reasons, such as seeking a better standard of living, enjoying freedom of movement, and pursuing freedom of political and religious affiliation. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) legislates serious, and even fatal, retribution for the crime of defecting. Yet, Chinese authorities refuse to acknowledge the refugee sur place status of the …

Violating The Protections Of International Law: Examining Methods To Combat The Practice Of Female, Angel R. Gardner

Human Rights Brief

In 2021, the women’s rights non-governmental organization (“NGO”), Equality Now, filed a lawsuit alongside other organizations1 challenging Mali’s failure to outlaw the practice of female genital mutilation (“FGM”). FGM involves the partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to female genital organs for non-medical purposes. The practice of FGM traces back to an ancient ritual, however, current research reveals that it causes serious health problems. The case brought by these NGOs has the potential to create binding precedent against the practice of FGM across all the African States.

One Of Many: The Power Of Publication In The Human Rights Regime, Amanda Lorenzo

Human Rights Brief

On September 19, 2011, the High Court of Tanzania found Ghati Mwita guilty of murder for a February 4, 2008 homicide, sentencing her to hang pursuant to Tanzania’s mandatory death sentence. The domestic Court of Appeal sitting at Mwanza dismissed Mwita’s appeal on March 11, 2013 and rejected her application for review on that decision on March 19, 2015. Mwita then brought the case to the African Court of Human Rights (the Court) alleging that the conviction and sentencing procedures violated her fundamental rights under the Banjul Charter (the Charter).

The Failure Of The Italian Government To Honor The Human Rights Of Migrants, John Kerins

Human Rights Brief

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s Parliament, feckless in the harsh waters of European politics, looks to be breaking on the very beaches where Allied forces once landed almost 80 years ago. The small island of Lampedusa remains a pricking thorn in the Italian government’s side, further complicating the testy waters with migrants coming in from the Mediterranean. To solve this, the Italian government has begun to violate the human rights of migrants and workers alike. Giorgia Meloni’s government has called for an ‘EU Naval Blockade’ of the Mediterranean, prompting outcry from human rights groups who correctly see what the rest …

Impact Of Extreme Hindutva Ideology On Freedom Of Speech In India, Meher Shah

Human Rights Brief

In the last decade, India has seen a rise of extreme far-right nationalism often referred to as the “Hindutva movement.” While the movement existed even before India obtained its independence in 1947, it recently gained unprecedented popularity and support among Indian citizens and non-resident Indians. Among the factors responsible for the Hindutva movement’s current popularity is blatant support and affiliation from the ruling political party, the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP). The BJP has been a leading endorser of the Hindutva ideology, bringing it back to the center stage of Indian politics.1 The rise and spread of the ideology and its …

2023 Winter - Clihhr Newsletter, Cardozo Law Institute In Holocaust And Human Rights (Clihhr)

CLIHHR Newsletters

This Winter 2023 issue of the CLIHHR Newsletter highlights the Institute’s work in solidarity with communities affected by identity-based violence and mass atrocities. It features updates from the Benjamin B. Ferencz Human Rights and Atrocity Prevention Clinic, student and fellowship spotlights, international collaborations in Argentina, major public events including the Lemkin Award Ceremony, and faculty engagement in global human rights and humanitarian law forums. The newsletter reflects CLIHHR’s commitment to survivor-centered justice, Indigenous rights, restorative justice, and international accountability.

Climate Change And Sea Level Rise: Assessing Their Impacts On Belize, Carlos Fuller

American University International Law Review

First of all, as we all know, there are three aspects of climate change that we know occur. The first is the increase of global temperatures because of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere. As a result of the warming of the oceans, sea levels rise; but even more importantly, additional fresh water is entering the oceans, which is now the predominant factor leading to increased sea-level rates. Finally, a change of the hydrological cycle—because of warmer temperatures, we are seeing more extreme weather events and shifts in precipitation patterns.

The impacts, however, are more important—for example, the impacts of …

Legal Cooperation Issues On Sea Level Rise, Maria Teresa Infante

American University International Law Review

This is a very timely event. Although there have been several cases in which experts—both academics and governments—discuss the connection between sea-level rise and the legal framework, this event is important because it will bring to the forefront the fact that the practice in the Americas and the Caribbean should be analyzed when discussing this pressing topic. This is a very important initiative; I encourage the Inter-American system and the juridical committee to tackle this issue. I hope it will be in connection with the work that is being conducted by the International Law Commission itself.

He Said, She Said: Assessing The Post-Colonial Legacy On Somalia’S Rape Laws, Natalia W. Nyczak

Emory International Law Review

Most jurisdictions have adopted changes in legislation within the past fifty years that reflect the evolution and advancement of women’s legal rights. Somalia, however, has not undergone a significant change in its legal regime since the 1960s. Somalia’s penal code and criminal procedure code are based on laws that were written in the late 1800s to early 1900s. When it comes to rape, judges harbor the beliefs that women must “put up a fight” against their assailants and doubt the inherent trustworthiness of women. These prevailing gender myths prevent women from accessing justice and infringe on their rights to equality …

Privatizing International Governance, Melissa J. Durkee

Scholarly Works

The theme of this panel is “Privatizing International Governance.” As the opening vignettes should make clear, public-private partnerships of all kinds are increasingly common in the international system. Since United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan's launch of the Global Compact in 2000, the United Nations has increasingly opened up to business entities. Now, the Sustainable Development Goals, the Global Compact, and the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights all encourage engaging with business entities as partners in developing and executing global governance agendas. These partnerships are seen by some as indispensable to sustainable development, international business regulation, climate change mitigation, …

Stars, Stripes, And Surveillance: The United States' Failure To Regulate Data Privacy, Sam Begland

American University International Law Review

In the wake of the United States Supreme Court's devastating decision to strip Americans of their constitutional right to abortion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, data privacy is more salient than ever. Without adequate data regulations, state governments and anti-abortion activists alike can harass and prosecute pregnant people attempting to exercise their bodily autonomy. This comment argues that the United States has violated its obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) Article 17 by failing to protect against interference with the use and collection of reproductive health data. Further, this comment analyzes interpretations of …

The New Pornography Wars, Julie A. Dahlstrom

Faculty Scholarship

The world’s largest online pornography conglomerate, MindGeek, has come under fire for the publishing of “rape videos,” child pornography, and nonconsensual pornography on its website, Pornhub. As in the “pornography wars” of the 1970s and 1980s, lawyers and activists have now turned to civil remedies and filed creative anti-trafficking lawsuits against MindGeek and third parties, like payment processing company, Visa. These lawsuits seek not only to achieve legal accountability for online sex trafficking but also to reframe a broader array of online harms as sex trafficking.

This Article explores what these new trafficking lawsuits mean for the future regulation of …

Report Of The International Commission Of Human Rights Experts On Ethiopia, Mohamed Chande Othman, Steven Ratner, Radhika Coomaraswamy

Other Publications

In the present report, submitted pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 51/27, the International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia provides an overview of the human rights situation in Ethiopia. It identifies grave and systematic violations of international law and crimes committed in Tigray, as well as in Amhara, Afar and Oromia. Violations include mass killings, rape, starvation, forced displacement and arbitrary detention. The conflict in Tigray has not ended, with Eritrean troops and Amhara militias engaging in ongoing violations. Past and current violations and abuses in the four regions mentioned above demand further investigation. The Government of Ethiopia …

Playing God In The 21st Century: How The Push For Human Embryonic Germline Gene Editing Sidelines Individual And Generational Autonomy, Anna E. Melo

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

Every four and a half minutes a child with a genetic birth defect is born in the United States. For some, these conditions are treatable and manageable, but sadly for others, they are a death sentence. Congenital malformations and chromosomal abnormalities are the leading cause of infant mortality. CRISPR-Cas9 presents hope for the future, a liberation from the heritable genetic shackles that a child would otherwise be trapped in. With such optimism for future applications of germline gene editing, there are also great concerns with what national and global limitations and auditing must be in place to permit “genetic hedging.” …

Rethinking 'What Counts' As Accountability, Jonathan Fox

Perspectives

The current accountability impasse suggests it may be time to rethink core concepts, as well as the field’s underlying theories of change. The idea of accountability is malleable, ambiguous — and contested. This fuzziness poses challenges for both theory and practice – how do we know what strategies bolster accountability – or whether accountability produces its expected effects? This think piece recognizes the challenge of defining ‘what counts’ as accountability, unpacks a longstanding theory of change - that sunshine is the best disinfectant - and considers some information-based reform initiatives to identify missing links in the causal chain between transparency …

Labor Rights And Dispute System Design: Assessing The Legal Legacy Of The 2022 Qatar World Cup, Zachary R. Calo

Scholarly Works

The aim of this paper is not to relitigate Qatar’s human rights record but to assess the effectiveness of its labor reforms: the principal concern is dispute resolution and enforceability. While Qatar instituted a broad suite of labor law reforms in the years preceding the World Cup, questions remain about whether they have improved access to justice for migrant workers. More attention needs to be given to the dispute settlement system established by Law No. 13 of 2017 to assess if new legal norms translate into enforceable rights. It is argued that the labor dispute system has largely failed by …