International Humanitarian Law Commons^™

Human Rights Of Conscientious Objectors Vis-À-Vis Armed Non-State Actors And De Facto Authorities, Michael Wiener, Andrew Clapham

International Law Studies

This article aims at elucidating the human rights of conscientious objectors to military service and offers detailed substantive guidance for protecting their rights vis-à-vis armed non-State actors and de facto authorities. Persons who live in territory controlled by armed groups or de facto authorities often face human rights protection gaps, for example their freedom of conscientious objection may not be recognized or fully implemented. This article analyzes the practice by international human rights mechanisms in their engagement with de facto authorities in Afghanistan (Taliban), Cyprus (northern part), the Republic of Moldova (Transnistrian region), and Azerbaijan (Nagorno-Karabakh region), along with the …

Voices From Below—Africa’S Contribution To The Development Of The Norm Of Corporate Responsibility To Respect Human Rights, Akinwumi Olawuyi Ogunranti

PhD Dissertations

The long conversations about corporate responsibility predominantly take place in forums and conferences in the Global North. Yet, the majority of the human rights abuses and their impacts are felt by peasants, farmers, children, and women in local communities in the Global South who do not have a voice in the institutionalized governance systems that animate global affairs. This thesis answers the question of how norms and human rights institutions in Africa can influence the corporate responsibility to respect (CR2R) norm as embedded in pillar II of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. Through the theory …

Free Yezidi Foundation Public Memo – Lafarge Case, Jocelyn Getgen Kestenbaum, Patricia Viseur Sellers

Online Publications

This memorandum supports the Free Yezidi Foundation’s (FYF) filing in the Lafarge Case concerning allegations of complicity in crimes against humanity, including genocide. The Lafarge Corporation continuously operated its factory and, moreover, financially contributed to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (IS, ISIS, Daesh) between 2013 and 2014, inclusive of the period between 3 August 2014 and 19 September 2014. During those weeks, and represented in a timeline annexed to this memorandum, international and French media, international organizations, and governments extensively reported on and condemned IS acts committed against the Yezidi population that could constitute crimes against humanity under …

Minds Circumscribed By Fear. A Review Of Garrisoned Minds: Women And Armed Conflicts In South Asia, Edited By Lazmi Murthy And Mitu Varma, Kushal Srivastava

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

No abstract provided.

International Human Rights, Shekinah Apedo, Daniel L. Appelman, Elena Ateva, Arzu Rana Deuba, Mark Du, Claudia Feldkamp, Federica Dell'orto Hadar, Corinne Lewis, Tschika Mcbean, Sophie Pouget, Caroline Renner, Judith Wood, Constance Z. Wagner

The Year in Review

No abstract provided.

Feminism And The Birth Of Sexual Crime As International Crime And The Challenge Of Its Implementation In The Future, Zunnuraeni Zunnuraeni, Rehulina Tarigan, Erlies Septiana Nurbani, Aisyah Wardatul Jannah

Indonesian Journal of International Law

The existence of international sexual crimes in international court jurisprudence and the international law instruments have evolve as an extensive crime from the abundance crime of outrages upon personal dignity, yet still have to front some challenges to attain triumph in its enforcement. This article aims to observe the sexual crimes as international crime in some aspect, namely, its development and the contribution of feminism, the challenges on the law enforcement against international criminal law and the position of feminism in addressing those challenges. In every stage of sexual crimes evolution as international crimes, feminism hold important contribution. Their impact …

Comment: Understanding Xenophobia As Intersectional Discrimination, Shreya Atrey

Washington and Lee Law Review

This Comment examines the nature of xenophobia and why it seems to fall through the cracks of international human rights law, especially as a form of racial discrimination under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. It considers an understanding of xenophobia as a sui generis case of intersectional discrimination because it has to do with racial grounds but also perhaps other grounds (such as nationality, religion, language, culture, and class), which makes it difficult to disentangle the basis of xenophobic discrimination as based on strictly racial grounds alone.

Rurality As An Intersecting Axis Of Inequality In The Work Of The U.N. Treaty Bodies, Amanda Lyons

Washington and Lee Law Review

Rurality intersects with other identities, power dynamics, and structural inequalities—including those related to gender, race, disability, and age—to create unique patterns of human rights deprivations, violations, and challenges in rural spaces. Therefore, accurately assessing human rights and duties in rural spaces requires attention to the dynamics of rurality in a particular context, the unique nature of diverse rural identities and livelihoods, the systemic forces operating in and on those spaces, and the intersections with other forms of structural discrimination and inequality.

Although much of the work of the U.N. treaty bodies has in fact addressed human rights situations in rural …

Cities Of God Under Occupation: Settler Colonial Practices And Pacification In The Favelas Of Rio De Janeiro And The Occupied Palestinian Territories, Amanda Pimenta Da Silva

Theses and Dissertations

The 2002 film ‘City of God’ tells an anecdotal story of violence in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, and is a reminder that the societies we tend to take for granted can actually be a luxury. The film portrays the daily life of the peripheries of Rio and its relation with drug trafficking, crime, and poverty, and how it has deteriorated into a war zone so dangerous that anyone risk being shot to death. Thousands of miles away from the Brazilian slums there is another so-called city of God, or the city chosen by God to be the home’s …

The Violence In Our Humanity: Principles, Action, And The Erosion Of State Sovereignty, Rasheed Idou

Theses and Dissertations

The past two decades have witnessed an increasing number of armed conflicts, both inter- and intra-nationally, and an even more increasing number of multilateral military interventions without UN Security Council authorization. Central to the discussion of these interventions are the themes of humanitarianism and state sovereignty. The aim of this thesis is to investigate the relationship between humanitarian imperatives and principles of sovereignty within the context of armed conflict to better understand the tensions that have led to the current global outcomes. In so doing, it identifies how humanitarian principles, imperatives, and actions have affected the contemporary conception of state …

Taking Responsibility Under International Law: Human Trafficking And Colombia’S Venezuelan Migration Crisis, Luz Estella Nagle, Juan Manuel Zarama

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

For more than six million Venezuelans, crossing international borders has become imperative to ensuring security and a livelihood that their country has failed to assure. These migrants and refugees, particularly young women and children, are vulnerable to many depredations, criminal acts, and the risk of becoming trafficking victims for forced labor and sexual slavery. This article focuses on State responsibility for migrant populations and analyzes conditions in Venezuela that caused a massive migration, the conditions in Colombia as a host State, the uncertain status of Venezuelan migrants in Colombia, and human trafficking and its impact on the migrant population.

The Effectiveness Of Inter-American Commission’S Reports On Capital Punishment Petitions Against The United States: Where Do We Go From Here?, Alexandria Faura

Loyola of Los Angeles International and Comparative Law Review

No abstract provided.

Patents And Plants: Rethinking The Role Of International Law In Relation To The Appropriation Of Traditional Knowledge Of The Uses Of Plants (Tkup), Ikechi Mgbeoji

PhD Dissertations

Legal control and ownership of plants and traditional knowledge of the uses of plants (TKUP) is often a vexed issue, particularly at the international level because of the conflicting interests of states or groups of states in the matter. The most widely used form of juridical control of plants and TKUP is the patent system which originated in Europe. This thesis rethinks the role of international law and legal concepts, the major patent systems of the world and international agricultural research institutions as they affect legal ownership and control of plants and TKUP. The analysis is cast in various contexts …

Non-State Actors "Under Color Of Law": Closing A Gap In Protection Under The Convention Against Torture, Anna R. Welch, Sangyeob Kim

Faculty Publications

The world is experiencing a global restructuring that poses a serious threat to international efforts to prevent and protect against torture. The rise of powerful transnational non-state actors such as gangs, drug cartels, militias, and terrorist organizations is challenging states’ authority to control and govern torture committed within their territory.

In the United States, those seeking protection against deportation under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”) must establish a likelihood of torture at the instigation of or by consent or acquiescence of a public official acting in an official capacity or other person acting in an official capacity. However, what is …

Disaggregating Slavery And The Slave Trade, Jocelyn Getgen Kestenbaum

Articles

International law prohibits slavery and the slave trade as peremptory norms, customary international law prohibitions and crimes, humanitarian law prohibitions, and non-derogable human rights. Human rights bodies, however, focus on human trafficking, even when slavery and the slave trade—and not human trafficking—are enumerated within their mandates. International human rights law has conflated human trafficking with slavery and the slave trade. Consequently, human trafficking has subsumed the slave trade and, at times, slavery prohibitions, increasing perpetrator impunity for slavery and the slave trade abuses and denying full expressive justice to survivors.

This Article disaggregates slavery from the slave trade and slavery …

Transnational Migrant Deterrence, Anita Sinha

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

The governance of global migration increasingly relies on what critical migration scholarship refers to as externalized control. Externalization encompasses limiting human mobility through the imposition of migration control measures by transit states, as well as by states that are geographically proximate to destination states. Destination states are at a minimum complicit in the creation and operation of these externalized migration control systems. To capture this phenomenon, this Article offers a reconceptualization of externalization as transnational migration deterrence. The objective ofthis nomenclature is to provide a framework that highlights the role of destination states, to build a lexicon of accountability for …

The Human Rights Due Diligence Standard-Setting In The European Union: Bridging The Gap Between Ambition And Reality, Jernej Letnar Černič

Global Business Law Review

Globalization has, over the past decades, erased borders between continents and countries. It has propelled international trade to previously unforeseen heights. Nonetheless, it has brought about not only positive impact, but also negative consequences for individuals and communities worldwide. Businesses have often been alleged to have been directly or indirectly involved in human rights violations. On the other hand, rights-holders have often found it difficult to enforce corporate human rights obligations and accountability either at home or abroad. Nonetheless, the field of business and human rights has in recent years witnessed seminal developments from the adoption of binding laws in …

Canadian Corporations Bound By The Phoenix: Setting The Path For The United States, Kelly Brickman

Global Business Law Review

This Note argues that the United States courts have jurisdiction to consider corporate liability for international law violations of human rights under the reasoning of the Supreme Court of Canada, in Nevsun Resources Ltd. v. Araya. The United States Supreme Court has escaped holding such liability exists, but Canada has outlined how countries, such as the United States, no longer can avoid holding corporations liable under customary international law. Corporate liability for human rights violations committed abroad is a cutting-edge issue. The United States Supreme Court has considered the issue before, but the Court used different analyses and was …

Business, Human Rights, And Transitional Justice: Overcoming The Regulatory Dysfunction Of International Law, Jelena Aparac

Global Business Law Review

It is said that traditional international public law is state-centric and concerns mostly State obligations and responsibility. For this, it excluded corporate actors from any accountability mechanism, even when the corporations contribute to armed conflicts and international crimes. International law does not provide a clear definition of what amounts to “subjects” under this set of rules or criteria for how to determine legal personality. At the same time, some branches of international public law directly regulate corporate actions, namely international economic law and international humanitarian law. Conversely, international courts and tribunals have accepted the corporate jus standi, in some …

The Global Practice Of Systematic Enforced Disappearances Of Children In International Law: Strategies For Preventing Future Occurrences And Solving Past Cases, Jeremy J. Sarkin, Elisenda Calvet Martinez

Catholic University Law Review

The aim of this article is to first investigate and understand the widespread and systematic practice of enforced disappearances against children around the world, with a key purpose being to show that it is a regular occurrence. The article reviews the systematic disappearances of children in their historical context, beginning from the Second World War. A variety of country examples –some historical and some contemporary –are discussed to indicate the widespread nature of the practice. The variety of cases is used to understand why states participate in such practices and why children specifically are targeted as victims of enforced disappearances. …

Legal Primer: Respecting The Human Rights Of Communities In Wind And Solar Project Deployment, Sarah Dolton-Zborowski, Sam Szoke-Burke

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

As a companion to the Business Guide, the Legal Risk Primer is geared towards general counsels and corporate legal teams, as well as internal and external stakeholders. It provides an overview of the wide range of potential legal risks for wind and solar energy companies associated with community-related adverse human rights impacts. The legal risks outlined arise from home and host government laws, community litigators, financiers, and power purchase agreements.

Together, these two resources support wind and solar energy companies – as well as external stakeholders seeking to influence companies, including investors, civil society organizations, and project-affected communities – …

Business Guide: Respecting The Human Rights Of Communities In Wind And Solar Project Deployment, Sarah Dolton-Zborowski, Sam Szoke-Burke

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

Companies involved in commercial wind and solar projects are facing heightened scrutiny of their human rights performance. This Business Guide provides companies with information and strategies to identify, prevent, mitigate, and account for adverse human rights impacts that they cause, contribute to, or are directly linked to through their operations, products, or services by virtue of their business relationships. It may also be useful for investors, business partners, government actors, civil society organizations, communities, and other stakeholders.

Drawing on the UN Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights, the Guide provides practical recommendations, with over 40 examples from peer companies …

Cyber Peacekeeping Operations And The Regulation Of The Use Of Lethal Force, Nicholas Tsagourias, Giacomo Biggio

International Law Studies

Peacekeeping is an essential tool at the disposal of the United Nations for the maintenance of international peace and security. The growing relevance of cyber technologies presents itself as an opportunity to adapt peacekeeping to the challenges of a rapidly evolving security landscape. This article introduces the notion of "cyber-peacekeeping," defined as the incorporation and use of cyber capabilities by peacekeepers. It discusses the legal basis for cyber-peacekeeping and the foundational principles of consent, impartiality, and use of defensive force. The article examines the use of lethal force by cyber-peacekeepers under the law of armed conflict paradigm. It considers the …

Good Governance And Civil Service Reform In Egypt, Ahmed Atef Labib

Theses and Dissertations

Governments in different states and even different governments within the same state may pursue different goals. To achieve their goals they apply administrative reforms, including civil service reforms, to adjust the government for achieving the intended goals. Pursuing different goals entails applying different administrative reforms. In the 2000s, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) suggested the Egyptian government, through loan conditionality, an administrative and civil service reform to promote economic growth based on their concept of good governance. In this paper, I argue that the suggested reform does not target economic growth but targets debt repayment. To …

Yom Ha’Shoah In An Even More Special Context, Richard Weisberg

Online Publications

This always precious day of mournful memory is linked in 2022 to the 80^th anniversary of the event that gave birth to all that unutterable sadness: the Wannsee Conference of 1942. In an otherwise innocuous building you can visit anytime you are in Berlin, a handful of men, over cakes and liqueur, devised the “Final Solution”. It took them around two days, well heated and protected from the ice and snow outdoors, to list mechanically their estimates of how many Jews lived in Europe’s various countries and how these Jews might be – though their written minutes never use …

Customer Transparency Can Dampen The Growing Human Trafficking Problem, Colin Martell

The Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship & the Law

The beginning of this comment will discuss an abbreviated economic analysis on the business of human trafficking: who the participants are, why they participate, and their pressure points. Section II of this paper will discuss the current state of trafficking and the economic incentives that drive participants into the market. Section III and Section IV will examine what the government and businesses are doing to stop human trafficking. Section V will analyze several policy proposals and consider the solutions and unintended consequences of each.

Refugees Under Duress: International Law And The Serious Nonpolitical Crime Bar, David Baluarte

Scholarly Articles

Congress intended that the serious nonpolitical crime bar under United States asylum law have the same meaning and scope as the 1F(b) Refugee Convention exclusion clause. The Supreme Court has repeatedly held that it was the intent of Congress to not only replicate the language of the provisions of the Refugee Convention in United States law, but to incorporate the full extent of the meaning of such language and bring the United States into compliance with its treaty obligations. Accordingly, when Congress reproduced exactly the language of the Article 1F(b) exclusion clause in the INA, it intended for that provision …

Estados De Emergencia En El Sistenma Interamericano De Derechos Humanos: Los Principales Retos De La Pandemia De Covid-19, Maria Agustina Bonella

American University International Law Review

En las Américas, a medida que avanzaba la crisis sanitaria producida por la primera ola de la pandemia de COVID-19, los Estados han ido adoptando distintas medidas para ralentizar la propagación del virus y evitar el colapso de sus sistemas sanitarios, en miras a salvaguardar el derecho a la vida, a la integridad personal y a la salud de las personas que se encontraban sometidas a su jurisdicción. Estas medidas han incluido desde campañas de concientización sobre el lavado de manos, el distanciamiento social o el uso del barbijo, hasta medidas más extremas, como el cierre de escuelas y universidades; …

Reducing The Negative Effects Of Counterterrorism Frameworks And Other Restrictive Measures On Humanitarian Action And Enforcing The Obligations Of States In Relation To The Covid-19 Vaccine, Claudio Cerqueira Bastos Netto

American University International Law Review

Countering terrorism has been a priority agenda point for the international community, especially after the September 11th attacks. As the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) points out, “States have had to confront a threat emanating from individuals and non-State armed groups [(NSAGs)] that resort to acts of terrorism. In response, States and international organizations have developed increasingly robust counterterrorism measures.”

Sexual Violence As A Weapon Of War In Ethiopia's Tigray Region And The Developing Adjudication Of Violations Of The Protocol On The Rights Of Women In Africa, Valerie R. Cook

American University International Law Review

On November 4, 2020, a civil war broke out in the Tigray region of Ethiopia between joint Ethiopian and Eritrean military forces and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (“TPLF”). The war is in part an ethnic conflict between the newly centralized nationalist government under Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and the once politically dominant beneficiaries of a federalist system, the TPLF. Sexual violence as a method of war has become a hallmark of this conflict as reports of rape by Ethiopian and Eritrean soldiers against Tigrayan women have increased.