Human Rights Law Commons^™

Neurorights For Incarcerated Persons: Should We Curb Inflation?, Shannon Fyfe, Elizabeth Lanphier, Andrew Peterson

Scholarly Articles

We support protecting privacy and freedom, both generally and in carceral settings. Yet we remain skeptical that expanding so-called “neurorights” achieves these aims (cf. Bublitz 2022). Instead, it may inflate human rights in ways that diminish the ability to enforce them, overlook the ways in which incarceration is at odds with other human rights, and raise questions of whether neurotechnologies can violate such rights in the ways Ligthart et al. imply.

"Only To Have A Say In The Way He Dies": Bodily Autonomy And Methods Of Execution, Alexandra L. Klein

Scholarly Articles

Capital punishment is one of the most significant intrusions into a person's bodily autonomy; the state takes a person's life. Even though the state has stripped a person on death row of much of their autonomy and intends to kill them, removing all autonomy, a person sentenced to death may, in some circumstances, choose how they will die. While most states rely on a single method of execution, some states permit a condemned person to choose among two or more methods of execution. Constitutional challenges to methods of execution requires the challenger to demonstrate a substantial risk of severe pain …

The Visualities And Aesthetics Of Prosecuting Aged Defendants, Mark Drumbl, Caroline Fournet

Scholarly Articles

The prosecution—whether domestic or international—of international crimes and atrocities may implicate extremely aged defendants. Much has been written about the legalisms that inhere (or not) in trying these barely alive individuals. Very little however has been written about the aesthetics the barely alive encrust into the architecture of courtrooms, the optics these defendants suffuse into the trial process, and the expressive value of punishing them. This is what we seek to do in this project.

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 …

Gender Discrimination And Wrongful Termination During The Covid-19 Pandemic And The Age Of The At-Home Workplace, Lauren Saxe

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

How The Many Recent Deaths Of Malaysian Citizens Expose The Country's Corrupt Police System, Amy P. Lyons

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

Protections Against Inhuman Punishment Fail Migrants With Mental Illnesses In Europe, Hannah Friedrich

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

Reimagining The Refugee & Asylee Experience Through Law: Exploring U.S. Culpability And (Un) Exceptionalism, Thea Cabrera Montejo, Angela Altieri, Katherine Pratty, Alexandra Curbelo

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

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.

The Racial Justice Imperative To Reimagine Immigrant Children's Rights: Special Immigrant Juveniles As A Case Study, Dalia Castillo-Granados, Rachel Leya Davidson, Laila L. Hlass, Rebecca Scholtz

American University Law Review

The immigration legal system has codified and perpetuated racial violence in many ways, yet the experiences of young people of color in this system have yet to be deeply examined. This Article surfaces the distinct and varied racialized harms that children experience in the immigration system through the example of Special Immigrant Juveniles. Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) is the only immigration status created for and limited to children. A child—defined in immigration law as someone who is under twenty-one years of age and unmarried—is eligible to seek SIJS with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) if a state court …

When Jail & Prison Sentences Become Death Sentences: How Willfully Exposing Incarcerated Persons To Covid-19 Amounts To Cruel & Unusual Punishment, Arielle Aboulafia

Human Rights Brief

Eric Warner called his older brother Hank from San Quentin State Prison almost every Sunday. Though the prison only allowed the brothers to speak for fifteen minutes each week, the two spoke about their lives. In June 2021, Eric stopped calling, and Hank became worried. Hank tried to get in touch with the prison. However, his calls were met with a dead-end voicemail each time. He recalls that he “knew, by not hearing anything, that something was not good.” The following month, prison personnel returned Hank’s calls and told him that his brother Eric had been hospitalized. Later that month, …

What Remains Of The Alien Tort Statute After Nestlé Usa, Inc. V. Doe?, Clara Petch

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

Abstract

The Alien Tort Statute (ATS), which provides U.S. courts with jurisdiction over violations of the law of nations, has been a crucial mechanism for obtaining redress for international human rights abuses. However, over the past four decades, the Supreme Court has continually chipped away at the jurisdictional reach of the statute. Most recently, in June 2021, the Supreme Court addressed the scope of the ATS in two consolidated cases: Nestlé USA, Inc. v. Doe and Cargill, Inc. v. Doe. Plaintiffs were former trafficked and enslaved children forced to work on cocoa farms in Ivory Coast under grueling conditions. Plaintiffs …

Locked Up And Locked Down In The Land Of Free: A Look At The United States' Prisons And Covid-19'S Disproportionate Effect On Black Americans' Right To Health, Zachary Parrish

American University International Law Review

The United States is infamous for having a large percentage of its population in prison. Each year since 2002, the United States has reported a higher incarceration rate than any other country in the world. Another unfortunate but widely prevalent issue that the United States has is systemic racism. The combination of the United States’ struggles with systemic racism and mass incarceration makes for a disproportionately devastating impact on Black Americans. As a result, Black Americans make up a disproportionate amount of the prisoners that fill American prisons.

El Control Estatal De La (Des)Informacion En Internet En El Contexto De La Pandemia: Un Analisis De Las Tendencias Regionales Bajo Una Perspectiva De Libertad De Expresion, Paula Roko

American University International Law Review

El 3 de mayo de 2020, en el marco del Día Mundial de la Libertad de Prensa, el secretario general de la Organización de las Naciones Unidas (ONU) afirmó que la desinformación se ha convertido en la “segunda pandemia”. Unos meses antes, el Director General de la Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS) ya había señalado que “las noticias falsas se difunden más rápido y con más facilidad que el virus, y que son igual de peligrosas”. Estos fueron comentarios recurrentes durante el 2020, un año que será recordado por el estallido de una pandemia mundial sin precedentes. Teorías conspirativas …

Introduction Human Rights And States Of Emergency: Unexpected Crisis And New Challenges, Claudia Martin, Diego Rodriguez-Pinzon

American University International Law Review

We are delighted to present this year’s special issue of the American University International Law Review and the Academy on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, which includes two of the best essays in English and in Spanish recognized in the 2021 Human Rights Essay Award competition. It is satisfying to think that this competition allowed a number of participants an opportunity to expound their thoughts on so many important topics, regarding so many areas of the world. We hope these participants are able to use their articles as mechanisms for change.

Letter From The Editors, Madison Bingle, Nora Elmubarak

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

The Invasion Of Ukraine: A Gross Violation Of International Law, Claudio Grossman

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

Restorative Justice: Uplifting Human Rights For The Marginalized, Vulnerable, Victimized, And The United States As A Whole, Meghana Vodela

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.