International Humanitarian Law Commons^™

Rehabilitation Or Revenge: Prosecuting Child Soldiers For Human Rights Violations, Nienke Grossman

All Faculty Scholarship

International law provides no explicit guidelines for whether or at what age child soldiers should be prosecuted for grave violations of international humanitarian and human rights law such as genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. This paper argues that the hundreds of thousands of children under age eighteen participating in armed conflicts around the globe should be treated primarily as victims, not perpetrators, of human rights violations and that international law may support this conclusion. In the case of children, the world community should choose rehabilitation and reintegration over criminal prosecution because of children's unique psychological and moral development, …

The Priority Of The Person: Some Critical Challenges Facing International Human Rights In The Next Generation, Paolo G. Carozza

Book Chapters

From the Introduction

One of the great pleasures for me of teaching regularly at ASERI has been the chance to interact with a marvellous cross-section of young people from all of Europe and beyond. In them I have found a hope, enthusiasm, openness and dynamism that transcends their languages and nationalities. One can only hope that they will keep those qualities alive as they are called to face the challenges that the world of international affairs will bring to their generation, demands that will be as multifaceted and cross-cultural as they themselves are. Many of the issues that they will …

Hamdan, Lebanon, And The Regulation Of Hostilities, Geoffrey S. Corn

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

For more than fifty years following the 1949 revision of the Geneva Conventions, legal scholars, government experts, and military practitioners understood the articles that defined when the protections of these treaties came into force--Common Articles 2 and 3--as the exclusive criteria which triggered the laws of war. From these two articles emerged an "either/or" law-applicability paradigm: inter-state, or international, armed conflicts triggered the full corpus of the laws of war, whereas intra-state, or internal, armed conflicts triggered the limited humanitarian protection reflected in the terms of Common Article 3. Because many military operations during the past two decades did not …

An Ounce Of Prevention: Improving The Preventative Measures Of The Trafficking Victims Protection Act, Takiyah R. Mcclain

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Trafficking is a multi-billion dollar industry that affects the lives of millions of people, especially young girls and women. In an effort to combat this issue, the United States enacted the Trafficking Victims Protection Act in 2000. The Act has had some positive effects on the trafficking industry, but its preventative measures overlook or fail to deal sufficiently with some key factors: human rights issues, gender and economic inequalities, and sensationalism of the sex industry.

This Note discusses these three issues and their importance in establishing more effective preventative measures. Additionally, this Note looks to two approaches to trafficking, the …

Humanitarian Intervention: The New Missing Link In The Fight To Prevent Crimes Against Humanity And Genocide, Paul Williams

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Catching Up With The Past: Recent Decisions Of The Inter-American Court Of Human Rights Addressing Gross Human Rights Violations Perpetrated During The 1970-1980s, Claudia Martin

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Remarks On Intervention, Juan E. Mendez

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Advances And Missed Opportunities In The International Prosecution Of Gender-Based Crimes, Susana Sacouto

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

INTRODUCTION: In the past decade, and particularly since 1998, there has been an incredible transformation in the treatment of sex-based and gender- based violence' in the fields of international humanitarian law and international criminal law. Before this, crimes committed exclusively or disproportionately against women and girls, in times of conflict, were largely either ignored, or at most, treated as secondary to other crimes. Despite the fact that rape and other forms of sexual violence had been widely reported during World War HI, for instance, the crime of rape was not expressly included in either the London Charter, establishing the International …

War, Technology, And The Law Of Armed Conflict, Michael N. Schmitt

International Law Studies

No abstract provided.

Legitimacy As An Assessment Of Existing Legal Standards: The Case Of The 2003 Iraq War, Charlotte Ku

Faculty Scholarship

The Iraq war was a multiple assault on the foundations and rules of the existing UN-centered world order. It called into question the adequacy of the existing institutions for articulating global norms and enforcing compliance with the demands of the international community. It highlighted also the unwillingness of some key countries to wait until definitive proof before acting to meet the danger of the world's most destructive weapons falling into the hands of the world's most dangerous regimes. It was simultaneously a test of the UN's willingness and ability to deal with brutal dictatorships and a searching scrutiny of the …

Beyond Bankovic: Extraterritorial Application Of The European Convention On Human Rights, Federico Sperotto

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The obligations set forth in the international and regional instruments on human rights are considered as having a strictly territorial scope. States parties have the duty to guarantee the rights recognized in the treaties to all individuals within their territories. The territorial reach of these obligations is expanding by way of interpretation. In its decision on Bankovic, the European Court reduced the impact of this international trend toward a progressive enlargement of the protection granted by human rights treaties, affirming those attacks conducted by NATO against Yugoslavia in 1999 fell out of the extraterritorial reach of the European Convention. After …

Full Volume 81: International Law Challenges: Homeland Security And Combating Terrorism

International Law Studies

No abstract provided.

Labor’S Human Rights: A Review Of The Nature And Status Of Core Labor Rights As Human Rights, Roy J. Adams

Human Rights & Human Welfare

© Roy J. Adams. All rights reserved.

This paper may be freely circulated in electronic or hard copy provided it is not modified in any way, the rights of the author not infringed, and the paper is not quoted or cited without express permission of the author. The editors cannot guarantee a stable URL for any paper posted here, nor will they be responsible for notifying others if the URL is changed or the paper is taken off the site. Electronic copies of this paper may not be posted on any other website without express permission of the author.

Doomed Internationalist, Kenneth Anderson

Popular Media

Introduction. The neoconservative influence on American foreign policy has not had an enthusiastic response outside the United States. Its failure to bring peace and democracy to Iraq has now resulted in a spate of critiques in America itself, even from within the policy establishment. The highest-level defection has been that of Francis Fukuyama, author of The End of History and the Last Man (1992), the paean to the triumph of capitalism that became a canonical neoconservative text of the 1990's, articulating the transition from the Clinton administration to that of George W. Bush. In his new book, After the Neocons, …

Richard Burchill On International Human Rights And Humanitarian Law: Treaties, Cases And Analysis By Francisco Forrest Martin, Stephen J. Schnably, Richard J. Wilson, Jonathan S. Simon, And Mark V. Tushnet. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. 1022 Pp., Richard Burchill

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law: Treaties, Cases and Analysis by Francisco Forrest Martin, Stephen J. Schnably, Richard J. Wilson, Jonathan S. Simon, and Mark V. Tushnet. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. 1022 pp.

Ieepa's Override Authority: Potential For A Violation Of The Geneva Conventions' Right To Access For Humanitarian Organizations?, Jennifer R. White

Michigan Law Review

This Note argues that, should the President exercise his override authority to prohibit or restrict the donation of humanitarian articles during an armed conflict involving the United States, the resulting prohibition or restriction would cause the United States to violate its obligations under the Conventions. This Note does not assert that the United States should not have the ability to put in place controls to prevent terrorists from benefiting from donations of funds and other humanitarian items; instead, it asserts that domestic law must tread as lightly and narrowly as possible where a widely accepted multilateral treaty exists and that …

Some Modest Uses Of Transnational Legal Perspectives In First-Year Constitutional Law, Neil S. Siegel

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Adalah Legal Center For Arab Minority Rights In Israel V. Minister Of Interior, Aharon Barak, Mishael Cheshin, Dorit Beinisch, Salim Joubran, Esther Hayut, Ayala Procaccia, Asher Grunis, Miriam Naor, Yonatan Adiel, Edmond E. Levy

Translated Opinions

Facts: Since September 2000, Palestinians have mounted a barrage of terror attacks on the State of Israel and its citizens and residents. The intensity of these attacks led the government to adopt various measures to protect the security and safety of Israeli citizens and residents. Because some of the terror attacks were perpetrated with the assistance of persons who were originally Palestinians living in the occupied territories and had received permission to live in Israel within the framework of family reunifications, the government decided in 2002 to stop giving permits to Palestinians from the occupied territories to live in Israel. …

Christiane Wilke On Global Justice Or Global Revenge? International Criminal Justice At The Crossroads By Hans Köchler. New York: Springer, 2003., Christiane Wilke

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Global Justice or Global Revenge? International Criminal Justice at the Crossroads by Hans Köchler. New York: Springer, 2003.

Litigating Child Recruitment Before The Special Court For Sierra Leone, Noah B. Novogrodsky

San Diego International Law Journal

In May 2004, the Special Court for Sierra Leone issued a landmark decision finding that an individual may be held criminally responsible for the offense of recruiting child soldiers into armed conflict. As a hybrid tribunal established by the United Nations and the Government of Sierra Leone to try those who "bear the greatest responsibility" for serious violations of international humanitarian law committed during the country's civil war after November 1996, the Special Court is the first international criminal body to indict a person for the crime of recruiting and employing children in war. The decision in the case of …

Brief Of The University Of Toronto International Human Rights Clinic As Amicus Curiae To The Special Court For Sierra Leone, Noah B. Novogrodsky

San Diego International Law Journal

This brief addresses three questions: 1) the illegality of recruiting child soldiers into armed conflict; 2) the application of penal sanctions in international humanitarian law; and 3) the proper application of the principle of nullum crimen sine lege. Part I of our argument will establish that the recruitment of children into armed conflict is and was unquestionably a violation of international humanitarian law at the time the alleged offences took place. Part II will explain when international law permits prosecution of violations of international humanitarian law irrespective of whether penal sanctions are attached. Amici conclude that such prosecutions are permitted …

The Obligation To Use Force To Stop Acts Of Genocide: An Overview Of Legal Precedents, Customary Norms, And State Responsibility, Joshua M. Kagan

San Diego International Law Journal

Though the Genocide Convention was created to "liberate mankind from [the] odious scourge" of genocide, the dreams of its drafters have still not come to fruition. The commission of genocide, widely considered the most appalling of all crimes, did not end with the signing and ratification of the Convention in 1948. Genocide continues in the world today. While its sentiments were noble and its aims commendable, the Genocide Convention as it is interpreted and applied today is insufficient to stop the commission of genocide in the world. In order to rid the world of this crime, a new interpretation of …

Christina M. Cerna On The Torture Papers: The Road To Abu Ghraib. Edited By Karen J. Greenberg And Joshua L. Dratel. Cambridge, Ma: Cambridge University Press, 2005. 1249 Pp., Christina M. Cerna

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

The Torture Papers: The Road to Abu Ghraib. Edited by Karen J. Greenberg and Joshua L. Dratel. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 2005. 1249 pp.

The Vexing Problem Of Authority In Humanitarian Intervention: A Proposal, Fernando R. Tesón

Scholarly Publications

As is well known, the doctrine of humanitarian intervention raises a host of thorny issues: the threshold for intervention, the question of proportionality, the problem of last resort, the dilemma of whether or not to codify standards and procedures, and so forth. In this paper I will not address those issues; crucial and controversial as they are; I will assume that they have been somehow settled. I will also assume that it is desirable to find alternatives to unilateral intervention. The question, then, becomes this: who should authorize humanitarian intervention? Any acceptable authorizing procedure must avoid over-intervention and abuse on …

The French "Headscarves Ban": Intolerance Or Necessity?, 40 J. Marshall L. Rev. 235 (2006), Reuven (Ruvi) Ziegler

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Reconceptualizing The Boundaries Of "Humanitarian" Assistance: "What's In A Name" Or "The Importance Of Being 'Earnest'"?, 40 J. Marshall L. Rev. 195 (2006), Surabhi Ranganathan

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Right To Food: Holding Global Actors Accountable Under International Law, Smita Narula

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Economic globalization represents both an unmet opportunity and a significant challenge for the fulfillment of social and economic rights, including the right to food. While corporate sector accountability and the responsibility of international financial institutions (IFIs) to ensure social and economic rights are now at the forefront of the globalization discourse, greater attention must be paid to how these actors can be held accountable under international law. The existing human rights legal framework is ill-equipped to deal with violations committed by non-state actors, such as transnational corporations (TNCs), and multi-state actors, such as IFIs. Using the right to food as …

Polemics In The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Jerome Slater

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

The Case for Israel by Alan Dershowitz. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2003. 264pp.

and

Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History by Norman G. Finkelstein. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005. 332pp.

Human Rights In Guatemala, Jennifer Archibald

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Thirty six years of civil war affected human rights negatively in Guatemala. Many actors that violated human rights were also victims of human rights violations; a complex series of events that has still not been fully resolved today.

Human Rights In Honduras, Andrea Degaetani

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Honduras’ history of human rights violations is rooted in a political culture of militarization. Following a military coup in 1963, Honduras faced strengthened military authority and a decade of harsh military rule. It was also during this time that the United States used the country as a base for Contras fighting leftist Sandinistas in Nicaragua. In 1981 Honduras returned to a parliamentary democracy, electing Roberto Suazo Cordova as president. However, by then the process of militarization had been so heavily funded by the U.S and had made such a significant impact on public policy that little changed for the better. …