International Humanitarian Law Commons^™

International Accountability In The Implementation Of The Right To Development And The “Wonderful Artificiality” Of Law: An African Perspective, Obiora C. Okafor, Uchechukwu Ngwaba

The Transnational Human Rights Review

The landscape for the implementation of the right to development has undergone significant transformative shifts with the recent establishment of a new expert mechanism on the right to development by the UN Human Rights Council, and the finalisation of a draft treaty on the right to development. Yet, much more can clearly still be done to strengthen UN, state and non-state actors thinking on accountability in the implementation of the right to development, to add to the already considerable progress that has taken place. Our paper explores what can be done, focusing on the African and international context. We conclude …

Implementing Undrip In Canada: Any Role For Corporations?, Basil Ugochukwu

The Transnational Human Rights Review

The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) offers guidance on how the rights of indigenous populations could be protected in the context of member states of the United Nations. While the Declaration prescribes what states need to do to effectively realize its objective, question is whether there are expectations on non-state actors such as corporations to contribute towards attaining those objectives. Though on the one hand the UNDRIP is textually not directed at corporations, on the other hand, corporations are routinely implicated in environments where massive violations of indigenous rights have occurred in various regions of …

Book Review: Irini Papanicolopulu, International Law And The Protection Of People At Sea (Oxford: Oxford University Press) 2018, Ramat Tobi Abudu

The Transnational Human Rights Review

No abstract provided.

When Does A Major Outbreak Become A Public Health Emergency Of International Concern?, David N. Durrheim, Lawrence O. Gostin, Keymanthri Moodley

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The process of determining whether a Public Health Emergencies of International Concern (PHEIC) exists and should be declared has drawn increasing criticism over the past few years with allegations that it is more political than technical. Delaying declaration, where appropriate, means that the opportunity of garnering international solidarity and necessary resources in the early phases of epidemics, when public health measures may be more effective, is lost. A reform agenda aimed at enhancing WHO/Emergency Committee transparency and objectivity for the PHEIC declaration process is required.

Refocusing To Revive: The Responsibility To Protect In International Atrocity Prevention, Sarah Frances Plunkett

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Has Global Health Law Risen To Meet The Covid-19 Challenge? Revisiting The International Health Regulations To Prepare For Future Threats, Lawrence O. Gostin, Roojin Habibi, Benjamin Mason Meier

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Global health law is essential in responding to the infectious disease threats of a globalizing world, where no single country, or border, can wall off disease. Yet, the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) pandemic has tested the essential legal foundations of the global health system. Within weeks, the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus has circumnavigated the globe, bringing the world to a halt and exposing the fragility of the international legal order. Reflecting on how global health law will emerge in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, it will be crucial to examine the lessons learned in the COVID-19 response and the reforms required to …

“[Don’T] Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor...” A Study On The Trump Administration’S Unprecedented Reforms To The U.S. Refugee Admissions Program And Their Implications, Savannah Day

Honors Theses

From 2017 to 2020, the Trump administration cut United States refugee admissions tenfold. These reforms come unprecedented to the 40-year-old resettlement program (USRAP). By critically reviewing literature on this topic as well as conducting eight original interviews with five national nonprofits contracted by the Department of State to do refugee resettlement casework, this study sought to identify the implications of the Trump administration’s reforms to the program. Once implications were identified, I used the applied frameworks of program model as well as Michael Worth’s sociological and political science theories of American nonprofit-government relations to better inform and guide the study. …

The Honduran Exodus: Understanding The Migrant Crisis At The Southwest Border, Ashley Saul

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

No abstract provided.

Child Marriage In The U.S.: Loopholes In State Marriage Laws Perpetuate Child Marriage, Sarah Ochieng

Immigration and Human Rights Law Review

The practice of child marriage is often discussed in the context of developing countries and many people find it unthinkable that child marriage also occurs in developed countries such as the United States of America. However, child marriage is a serious problem in the United States that affects thousands of children each year. This comment reviews the loopholes in state marriage laws. Part II considers the scope of child marriage as a human rights violation and the effects of child marriage. It also provides a background of the loopholes in state marriage laws, and a focus on the marriage laws …

Rodriguez V. Swartz: Civil Lawsuit Immunity In Border Shootings, Alexis Woolison

Immigration and Human Rights Law Review

When federal agents exhibit conduct that violates the United States Constitution, the Supreme Court has held that those agents should be held civilly liable for their actions, as shown by its decision in Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. Applicable constitutional violations include those which infringe on any individuals’ constitutional rights. This includes violations of the constitutional rights of noncitizens. Although the Supreme Court disfavors expansion of Bivens claims and has only extended this remedy twice, in Davis v. Passman and Carlson v. Green, the Ninth Circuit Court recently approved such expansion in a …

Grounds For Asylum: How Victims' Rights Laws Confer Particular Social Group Status To Domestic Violence Victims, Jordan Cotleur

Immigration and Human Rights Law Review

Despite an uptake in legislation criminalizing domestic violence since the 1990’s, women in Latin America still face the highest rates of gender-based and domestic violence of any region in the world. In Central America, two-thirds of female homicide victims are killed because of their status as a woman (also known as “femicide”) and half of women face this fate at the hands of a current or former partner. The violence perpetuates at such an alarming rate because investigations into gender-based violence are nearly non-existent in the region. In 2016, it was reported that up to ninety-eight percent of cases involving …

Using Covid-19 To Strengthen The Who: Promoting Health And Science Above Politics, Lawrence O. Gostin, Sarah A. Wetter

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

On April 14, 2020, President Trump announced the suspension of funding for the World Health Organization (WHO) to investigate WHO’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic—citing WHO’s “disastrous decision” to oppose a travel ban on China, and for being slow and “China-centric.” Certainly, China failed in its international duty to respond rapidly and transparently to the novel coronavirus, and it suppressed truthful information, propelling a localized outbreak into a pandemic now in over 210 countries. Yet close examination of WHO’s COVID-19 response reveals that the Organization acted in line with its authority under the International Health Regulations, and using the available …

From Valladolid To Venezuela : The Legacy Of Las Casas, Vitoria, And Sepúlveda In The Current Venezuelan Crisis., C. Evan Clark

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

This thesis analyzes the current Venezuelan crisis and the international legal questions it has posed concerning sovereignty, the responsibility to protect, and international efforts to influence a state’s internal politics. In particular, the thesis expounds the historical and theoretical context behind international legal principles that governments, international organizations, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have invoked in favor of Juan Guaidó or Nicolás Maduro. The thesis’s analysis centers around its examination of the parallels between the international legal principles that relate to the Venezuelan crisis and the political and ethical arguments of the sixteenth-century Spanish social reformer Bartolomé de las Casas and …

Disaggregating The Two Prongs Of Article 13(B) Of The Hague Convention To Cover Unsafe And Unstable Situations, Lauren Cleary

Fordham Law Review

The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction (the “Convention”) is a treaty designed to coordinate a uniform response to international child abductions. It establishes a civil remedy for a left-behind parent seeking the return of his or her child after the child has been wrongfully removed to or retained in another state that is also a party to the Convention. The Convention requires the courts of a signatory state to order the prompt return of a wrongfully removed or retained child to his or her state of habitual residence unless the responding party can prove that …

Business And Human Rights In The Context Of Sanctions: A Road To Filling The Governance Gap, Bahareh Jafarian

LLM Theses

As concerns about the negative impacts of sanctions on the human rights of civilians and the environment increases, it is necessary to reflect upon the lawfulness and legal status of such measures in international law, and their impact on business enterprises and the field of Business and Human Rights (BHR). While current academic literature tends to focus on implementation, enforcement and business compliance with unilateral and multilateral sanctions, the negative impacts of sanctions on non-state actors and resulting human rights violations are overlooked. Specifically, the relationship between sanctions law and the responsibility of businesses to respect human rights and the …

‘Sexualized Slavery’ And Customary International Law, Patricia Viseur Sellers, Jocelyn Getgen Kestenbaum

Book Chapters

This chapter examines the doctrinal avenues for the recognition and prosecution of ‘sexualized slavery’. The Hissène Habré trial and appellate judgments represent watershed legal decisions rendering long-denied justice to victims of the brutal Chadian regime. Delayed charges of credible sexual violence inflicted upon both males and females challenged the judges of the Extraordinary African Chambers (EAC) in Senegal. Legal characterizations of sexual assaults ultimately attributed to Habré represent significant jurisprudential advancements on rape, sexual slavery, and torture as international crimes. The EAC's observations acknowledge that sexual slavery constitutes part of the actus reus of enslavement as crime against humanity and …

Detention Of Asylum-Seekers: Comparison Of The Asylum And Detention Practices In United States And Sweden, Yuliia Pohorilets

International Studies (MA) Theses

Refugees are both an urgent humanitarian issue and the subject of much political debate in the U.S. and Europe. This research paper compares and contrasts the asylum process in US and Sweden. It analyzes the similarities and differences in their refugee policies and how asylumseeker rights are undermined or supported in the detention centers. The research discusses the historical origin of the contemporary asylum/immigration policies, international standards on detention, their implication, and key contemporary policy trends in US and Sweden. The selection of US and Sweden was not random. Both countries are highly influential in different ways in shaping global …

The Language Of International Human Rights Law As A Foundation For The Prevention, And Peaceful Resolution Of Ethnic, And Political Conflicts In Bolivia, Yuri Mantilla

Pace International Law Review

Since the Spanish conquest of the New World, the systematic dehumanization of indigenous communities has been part of a culture of economic exploitation and ethnic discrimination against indigenous peoples such as the Aymara, Quechua, and Guarani. In Bolivia, indigenous people successfully resisted the efforts to undermine their cultural identities. As a result, Bolivia is one of the most indigenous countries in the world and its indigenous cultures are one of its greatest assets. Despite this reality, indigenous people have been marginalized and discriminated against in a country that has embraced ethnic stereotypes regarding the supposed “superiority” of people of Spanish …

Finding Refuge: Blockchain Technology As The Solution To The Syrian Identification Crisis, Victoria Heather Barbino

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

The Legal Characterization Of Lethal Autonomous Maritime Systems: Warship, Torpedo, Or Naval Mine?, Hitoshi Nasu, David Letts

International Law Studies

With the rapid advances in autonomous navigation and artificial intelligence technology, naval industries are edging closer to the development of unmanned maritime platforms with lethal autonomous capability—lethal autonomous maritime systems (LAMS). The emergence of LAMS as a sui generis hybrid weapon system will almost certainly generate disagreement on their legal status. Currently, there is no agreement among States as to whether LAMS should legally be characterized as warships or other means of warfare, such as torpedoes and naval mines. This lack of certainty represents a significant deficiency with potential strategic and operational implications if left unresolved. To assist States in …

Exploring The Overlap: Women Now’S Feminist Humanitarian Support And The Community Of Practice, Judith Bruce, Aisha Dennis

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This conversation took place between Judith Bruce, Senior Associate and Policy Analyst of the Population Council, and Aisha Dennis, former Program Director for Women Now for Development. Women Now for Development’s mission is to initiate programs led by Syrian women that protect Syrian women and children across socioeconomic backgrounds and empower women to find their political voice and participate in building a new, peaceful Syria that respects and safeguards equal rights for all its citizens. Aisha’s impressive breadth of expertise includes conflict resolution and the application of international law through strategic litigation, as well as practical experience in supporting Syrian …

Introductory Note: Georgia V. Russia (European Court Of Human Rights), Milena Sterio

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

In a January 31, 2019 decision, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR, or Court) held that Russia, the respondent state, should pay Georgia, the applicant state, 10 million euros as just satisfaction for violations committed by Russia against Georgian nationals; these violations had previously been established in the Court's main judgment in 2014 (Georgia v. Russia). The Court also held that Georgia should distribute this amount to approximately fifteen hundred Georgian victims, which had been identified in the Court's main judgment in 2014. In this important decision, the ECtHR continued to build on its recent case law, in holding …

Islam, Democracy, And The Leadership Role Of Women In Government, Leea Collard

Senior Honors Theses

This thesis examines the relationship between Islam, democratic government, and the governmental leadership of women in the Middle East, North Africa, and Turkey (MENAT). In order to understand female leadership in this region, the compatibility between Islam and democracy is analyzed. This occurs through the examination of Sharia Law and democratic principles within Islam. Furthermore, a statistical analysis of the successes of democracies in the region will be presented. Each nation will be categorized by the constitutional provisions entrusted to its female citizens. Thus, this thesis will present the legality of the political participation of women in each of the …

Comment On Us Trade And Investment Agreements Submitted To Ustr, Columbia Center On Sustainable Investment

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

Comments to USTR Re: U.S.-Kenya Trade Agreement (April 28, 2020): CCSI, in response to the United States Trade Representative’s request for public comment to inform its approach to a U.S.-Kenya Trade Agreement, submitted Comments elaborating on our main points that (1) investor-state dispute settlement should not be included in any U.S.-Kenya agreement and (2) principles that should guide an investment chapter or investment provisions in any such agreement should (a) strategically support cross-border investment that produces positive development outcomes for the U.S. and Kenya, (b) facilitate and support good governance of investment projects, and (c) enhance cooperation to solve challenges …

The Lancet–O’Neill Institute/Georgetown University Commission On Global Health And Law: The Power Of Law To Advance The Right To Health, Jenny Kaldor, Lawrence O. Gostin, John T. Monahan, Katie Gottschalk

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The Lancet–O’Neill Institute/Georgetown University Commission on Global Health and Law published its report on the Legal Determinants of Health in 2019. The term ‘legal determinants of health’ draws attention to the power of law to influence upstream social and economic influences on population health. In this article, we introduce the Commission, including its background and rationale, set out its methodology, summarize its key findings and recommendations and reflect on its impact since publication. We also look to the future, making suggestions as to how the global health community can make the best use of the Commission’s momentum in relation …

North Korean Refugees Along The Route To Freedom: Challenges Of Geopolitics, Deborah Da Sol Jeong

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This Independent Study Project conducts an analysis of the North Korean Refugee Crisis by following the refugees along their escape route from the North Korean regime. By following a common escape route that includes China, Laos, Thailand, and finally, South Korea, this study unpacks the geopolitical factors and diplomatic relations that hinder and improve the progress of these refugees. Afterward, this study analyzes the resettlement process that North Korean refugees undergo in South Korea and the challenges that remain even after gaining South Korean citizenship. Finally, this project concludes by suggesting that the international community actively endeavor to establish a …

Ensuring Accountability To Affected Populations In Humanitarian Settings: "Holding Humanitarian Organizations Accountable To People.", Jazmin Williamson

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Aim: This research aims to examine what guidelines and regulations help ensure that humanitarian organizations are held accountable to their beneficiary populations.

Background: Although people have always been the focus of humanitarian aid, their voice and participation didn't become a centralized part of the conversation until the 1990s and later gained real traction in the early 2000s. During these times, many new foundational documents were created to highlight the "centrality of local participation in aid." Among the documents that enshrined this new principle of population participation included the 1992 Code of Conduct for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent …

Trafficking To The Rescue?, Julie A. Dahlstrom

Faculty Scholarship

Since before the dawn of the #MeToo Movement, civil litigators have been confronted with imperfect legal responses to gender-based harms. Some have sought to envision and develop innovative legal strategies. One new, increasingly successful tactic has been the deployment of federal anti-trafficking law in certain cases of domestic violence and sexual assault. In 2017, for example, victims of sexual assault filed federal civil suits under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (“TVPRA”) against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. Plaintiffs argued that the alleged sexual assault conduct amounted to “commercial sex acts” and sex trafficking. Other plaintiffs’ lawyers have similarly invoked trafficking …

Regulating Medicines In A Globalized World With Increased Recognition And Reliance Among Regulators: A National Academies Report, Lawrence O. Gostin, Alastair J. Wood, Patricia A. Cuff

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Research and development of pharmaceuticals are now complex global endeavors, with drug companies operating worldwide using global supply chains. Pharmaceutical companies source their products from many countries, conduct trials in multiple sites, and market essential drugs and vaccines globally. Yet oversight of drug safety and effectiveness is primarily the responsibility of national regulators of variable capacities. National agencies often undertake product reviews without recognizing that similar reviews are occurring elsewhere, sometimes simultaneously. The result is duplication and redundancy, which benefits neither national nor global public health. Supported by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the National Academies of Sciences, …

The (Erroneous) Requirement For Human Judgment (And Error) In The Law Of Armed Conflict, Eric Talbot Jensen

International Law Studies

One of the most intriguing and important discussions in international law is the potential impact of emerging technologies on the law of armed conflict (LOAC), including weapons that incorporate machine learning and/or artificial intelligence. Because one of the likely characteristics of these advanced weapons would be the ability to make decisions implicating life and death on the battlefield, these discussions have highlighted a fundamental question concerning the LOAC: Does the law regulating armed conflict require human input in selecting and engaging targets or can that decision be made without human input? This article analyzes views expressed by scholars and NGOs, …