Human Rights Law Commons^™

Challenging Solitary Confinement Through State Constitutions, Alison Gordon

University of Cincinnati Law Review

Eighth Amendment jurisprudence has resulted in limited scrutiny of solitary confinement despite the known harms associated with the practice. The two-part test established by the federal courts to evaluate Eighth Amendment claims and limitations on challenging prison conditions under the Prison Litigation Reform Act can make it difficult to establish that solitary confinement is cruel and unusual punishment.

State constitutional challenges to solitary confinement are underexplored. Nearly all state constitutions contain an equivalent provision to the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. State courts need not be bound by federal jurisprudence in interpreting the scope of the state …

Creating Cautionary Tales: Institutional, Judicial, And Societal Indifference To The Lives Of Incarcerated Individuals, Nicole B. Godfrey

Arkansas Law Review

It has long been said that a society’s worth can be judged by taking stock of its prisons. That is all the truer in this pandemic, where inmates everywhere have been rendered vulnerable and often powerless to protect themselves from harm. May we hope that our country’s facilities serve as models rather than cautionary tales. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, issued the above-quoted clarion call to protect the lives of incarcerated people on May 14, 2020. At that point, the COVID-19 pandemic had brought American society to a standstill for a little more than two months, …

Korematsu’S Ancestors, Mark A. Graber

Arkansas Law Review

Mark Killenbeck’s Korematsu v. United States has important affinities with Dred Scott v. Sandford. Both decisions by promoting and justifying white supremacy far beyond what was absolutely mandated by the constitutional text merit their uncontroversial inclusion in the anticanon of American constitutional law.3 Dred Scott held that former slaves and their descendants could not be citizens of the United States and that Congress could not ban slavery in American territories acquired after the Constitution was ratified.5 Korematsu held that the military could exclude all Japanese Americans from portions of the West Coast during World War II.6 Both decisions nevertheless provided …

Covid–19, Housing And Evictions: A Comparative Case Study Of Housing Law And Policy In The United States And Argentina Through An International Human Rights Lens, Lily Frances Fontenot

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

This Note seeks to address the impact of international human rights obligations on domestic housing laws and policies through a comparative case study of Argentina and the United States. Specifically, it will discuss each country’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, their housing obligations under international human rights law, and how each country is addressing their own unique housing and eviction crises. Finally, this Note will offer recommendations on how each country should modify their housing policies in light of the pandemic in order to comply with international human rights standards.

Prosecutorial Supervisions Of The Implementation Of Anti-Torture Legislation: An Analysis Of International Law And National Legislation, Barno Kadirova

ProAcademy

This article examines the analysis of national legislation and international law on the prevention of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, international standards, principles of responsibility and the improvement of prosecutorial control over the implementation of anti-torture legislation. In addition, the role of prosecutorial oversight in the prevention of torture is based on the views of legal scholars and practitioners, as well as appeals to the prosecutor's office by the Prosecutor General's Office about illegal actions by law enforcement officers and torture by the Supreme Court. Information on criminal cases on torture is provided. The author …

Procedural Order Of Carrying Out Expertise On Criminal Cases, Istam Rustamovich Astanov

ProAcademy

Production of expertise on a scene in parallel with its survey in most cases is impossible for the reasons of procedural character: inspection of a scene is, as a rule, performed before initiation of legal proceedings that doesn't allow the investigator before making decision on its excitement to appoint expertise. At the same time to reveal signs of a crime and to fix traces it according to law requirements sometimes happens it is simply impossible without carrying out expert research. It was the cause of statement by us of a question of possibility of purpose of expertise before initiation of …

Legal Nature, Historical Developments Of Expertise And Comparative Analysis Of The Legislation Of Foreign Countries, Astanov Istam Rustamovich, Astanov Shuxrat Rustamovich

ProAcademy

This article is About expertise on criminal affairs is the separate give special status a type of the expertise, different carrying out research from the person possessing special knowledge. Expertise on criminal affairs differs from other types of expertise by that it is appointed and carried out according to strictly and precisely established Code of criminal procedure rather. The part second of article 153 Criminal Procedure Code of Moldova, devote interrogation the expert, consolidates norm on which it is forbidden to make interrogation before submission of the expert opinion and its studying. Fixing of such rule in part the second …

Corporate Accountability In Transitional Justice: Reflections On An Ongoing Social Lab (Roundtable), Tatiana Devia, Avery Kelly, Kaushik Sunder Rajan

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

This roundtable describes and reflects upon the Corporate Liability and Sustainable Peace (CLASP) Lab, a “social lab” convened to advance corporate accountability in post-conflict and transitional justice settings around the world. Launched in February 2021, the CLASP Lab is a virtual forum in three languages, bringing together more than 40 lawyers and community activists from 25 countries in Latin America, Africa and the Middle East to share experiences and devise strategies for holding corporations accountable for human rights violations, as part of processes of transitional justice.

The Shortcomings Of Corporate Accountability In Post-Conflict Colombia: Land, Rivers And Animals, Isabella Ariza Buitrago, Luisa Gomez Betancur

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Although the notion of sustainable peace requires acknowledging the role played by all actors, transitional processes around the world have inadequately addressed or completely ignored the direct and indirect participation of economic actors. In particular, Colombia's transitional justice regime left out corporations entirely. A skillshare between Colombian lawyers and US-based human rights attorneys showed some of the gaps that let corporations continue in impunity for profiting, benefiting from, or directly financing the conflict. Other than harming and deeply fracturing communities, the shortcomings of corporate accountability in post-conflict Colombia also leave land, rivers, and animals without redress. This paper explores some …

Documenting Human Rights Violations: An Analysis Of Press Reporting On The Mexican Disappearance Crisis, Maria Terra, Yolanda Burckhardt

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

The global pandemic has transformed many structures, including the way in which human rights academics and practitioners carry out their work. This project is an example of human rights research using methods that can be applied remotely from any part of the world, and even replicated in other contexts or experiences.

The initiative is one of the projects from the Observatory on Disappearances and Impunity in Mexico led by Barbara Frey (University of Minnesota), Leigh Payne (Oxford University), and Karina Ansolabehere (UNAM-México), focused on the enforced disappearances crisis occurring in Mexico. The work included an extensive database created by coding …

Protection Of Internally Displaced Persons In Darfur: A Dilemma And Failure Of Responsibility To Protect., Assad Salih

Archived Theses and Dissertations

One of the new emerging debatable topics is protection of Internally Displaced Persons [IDPs] from suppression of their governments. The topic has not been discussed extensively. Writings that discuss protection of IDPs are not extensive and discuss it rhetorically without defining protection mechanisms. This thesis adds to the ongoing discussion by defining and examining these protection mechanisms. It will include the emergence of new concepts like â â human securityâ â and â â responsibility to protectâ â which have changed the conceptualization of state sovereignty. The thesis will use Darfur as a case study a place where many scholars …

Detention As A Deterrent: The Legal Framework And Practices Of Migration Related Detention In Germany And Austria, Henriette Hã¤Nsch

Archived Theses and Dissertations

The detention of migrants and asylum-seekers on administrative grounds is common practice in Germany and Austria. Administrative detention in migration settings mainly aims at facilitating deportation procedures but can also lead to deterrence. A definition for deterrence in pre-deportation detention settings is developed in this paper and applied to three German and three Austrian court cases. In this way, it is possible to show how deterrence occurs and what it looks like. Broad discretionary powers and insufficient training for law enforcement agents, such as the immigration police, as well as vague standards and procedures, play a role in the occurrence …

Durable Solutions For Stateless Persons In Egypt, Kelly Mcbride

Archived Theses and Dissertations

This piece focuses on stateless persons outside their country of origin/habitual residence who are now in Egypt. A number of stateless persons have been detained because of their illegal entry into Egypt, and because of their lack of deportability, their detention becomes indefinite. There are also a number of stateless persons who are not under the protection of the UNHCR Cairo living in Cairo, who are at risk of indefinite detention because of their lack of documentation. This is a critical analysis of the UNHCR's role in implementing their mandate, and also an understanding that ultimately it is up to …

Defining The End Of New Wars, Jeroen Jansen

Archived Theses and Dissertations

New wars are defined by their innate disposition to blur distinctions and human rights violations while structurally undermining the enjoyment of human rights. These wars are self-fueling human rights cataclysms that destroy society and its social contract by blurring the distinction between government, army and people. These characteristics prolong into what is perceived as post-conflict and blur the distinction between war and peace. The lack of acknowledgment and understanding of these characteristics among the actors who provide relief and seek resolution to the conflict undermines the effectiveness of their actions and the coordination among them resulting in aid gaps. The …

Should The Right To Strike Be Justified As A Civil Or Political Right?, Elham Eidarous Al-Kassir

Archived Theses and Dissertations

The recognition and protection of the right to strike have seen huge developments since the beginning of the twentieth century. The traditional basis upon which this right was based on the international arena and in national jurisdictions is one that views the right to strike as an essential tool in the hands of workers and their representative organizations to strengthen their bargaining power against employers, which means that the right to strike is one of economic and social rights enjoyed by humans in their capacity as workers. Yet, there are calls for widening the basis of recognition of this right …

Rethinking Norms On Return To Urban Refugee Situations: Sub-Saharan African Refugees In Cairo And Irregular Secondary Movement To Israel, Mallory Charlotte Wankel

Archived Theses and Dissertations

The long-running controversy in international refugee law over the concept of safe third countries is particularly challenging when refugees migrate irregularly from urban settings. While urban-based refugees often face a distinct set of human rights violations, the complexity that characterizes how these abuses fit into the larger picture of urban poverty and state ineffectiveness, combined with continued ambiguity concerning the minimal standards of protection necessary to allow a state to return a refugee to a first country of asylum, allows receiving states to deny protection obligations by relying on the argument that the hardships compelling movement, if they did not …

Refugee Homes And The Right To Property: Sunk Costs And Networked Mobility, Jordan Hayes

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

For refugees outside their state of origin, access to humanitarian protection can come at the cost of the right to own a home. Following Anneke Smit’s scholarship on the possible contradictions between humanitarian protection and property rights, this paper explores the case of refugee homes built in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) by Syrian asylum seekers. Interviews with Syrian refugees collected in Iraq from 2018-2019 reveal the paradoxical situation faced by refugees who invest time, expertise, memory, hope, and money in a house—yet do not own it. While non-citizens in the KRI rarely have the chance to secure legal …

Developing A Practice In Remote Sensing For Next-Generation Human Rights Researchers, Theresa Harris, Jonathan Drake, Umesh K. Haritashya, Wumi Asubiaro Dada, Fredy Cumes

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Remote sensing is increasingly recognized as an important tool for documenting human rights abuses. When used alongside interviews, case studies, surveys, forensic science, and other well-established research methods in human rights and humanitarian practice, remotely sensed data can effectively geolocate and establish chronologies for mass graves, forced displacement, destruction of cultural heritage sites, and other violations. But as a highly technical field of science that relies on ever-changing technologies, remote sensing and geospatial analysis are not readily accessible for human rights and humanitarian practitioners. The community of practice grew out of innovative work by practitioners at NGOs and specialized inter-governmental …

The Good, The Bad, And The Historically Anti-Semitic: An Analytical Comparison Of Anti-Hate Laws In Germany And The United States, Jamie Rauch

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

Confronted every day with drastically increasing accounts of hate crimes and hate speech, nations’ legislators have routinely tried and subsequently failed to implement effective legislation capable of curbing the hatred epidemic currently sweeping the globe. This failure is due in large part to the lack of a universal stance on hate crime regulation and criminalization. Two countries in particular, the United States and Germany, embody two diametrically opposing approaches taken by nations in the present-day war on hate speech. This Note explores the dramatic dichotomy between the legislative framework surrounding the regulation of hate speech in these two countries. This …

The Right To Food Comes To America, Wendy Heipt

Journal of Food Law & Policy

The people of Maine recently exercised an opportunity no citizen of this country has ever had before: the ability to vote on whether to enshrine a right to food in their state constitution. This Essay provides an overview of Maine’s experience with food rights in order to explain how the state came to occupy this unique position.