Human Rights Law Commons^™

The Shibboleth Of Human Rights In Public Health, Lawrence O. Gostin, Tamira Daniely, Hanna E. Huffstetler, Caitlin R. Williams, Benjamin Mason Meier

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Human rights discourse has greatly influenced advocacy for justice in public health. Yet, beyond rhetorical claims, how can we employ human rights to achieve the aspiration of health with justice? Without human rights education to support public health practice, human rights have become a shibboleth of public health—raised frequently to signal devotion to justice, but employed rarely in policy, programming, or practice. As advocates respond to the public health injustices of populist nationalism during an unprecedented pandemic, human rights education must be an essential foundation to hold governments accountable for implementing rights to safeguard public health.

Increasing Case Traffic: Expanding The International Criminal Court's Focus On Human Trafficking Cases, Nadia Alhadi

Michigan Journal of International Law

Human trafficking falls within the jurisdictional competence of the International Criminal Court (“ICC”) as one of the article 7 crimes against humanity, whether committed in an atmosphere of conflict or in times of relative peace. Despite the ICC’s jurisdiction, as well as the globally pervasive nature of peacetime trafficking in particular, the ICC has not yet heard a human trafficking case.

Accountability at the international level, however, is crucial, and the ICC’s oversight has the potential to fill gaps in the current anti-trafficking regime. This note explores this potential, and then examines whether the text of the Rome Statute or …

Unmuddying The Waters: Evaluating The Legal Basis Of The Human Right To Water Under Treaty Law, Customary International Law, And The General Principles Of Law, Ndjodi Ndeunyema

Michigan Journal of International Law

This article evaluates the existence of a freestanding, general human right to water under each of the three principal sources of international law: treaty, customary international law, and the general principles of law. To date, the right to water has been derived from treaty law, most prominently as part of the right to an adequate standard of living in article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (as implied by General Comment 15 to the ICESCR). The potential importance of a non-treaty based right to water––as a matter of customary international law or a general principle …

Authority And The Globalisation Of Inclusion And Exclusion: Author Meets Readers, Hand Lindahl, Christine Bell Prof, Friedrich Kratochwil, Hans-W. Micklitz, Carlos Thiebaut, Bert Van Roermund

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

Authority is written against the background of intense resistance to globalization processes by a range of political movements and grassroots organizations. These processes are complex and have a variety of dimensions. One of these is the emergence of global legal orders, which I define, in a rough and ready manner, as relatively autonomous legal orders that claim or aspire to claim global validity for themselves. They too-most obviously the World Trade Organization (WTO)-are the butt of resistance. Whatever its forms and aspirations, resistance to globalization is fueled by their peculiar dynamic. Indeed, emergent global legal orders spawn massive exclusion when …

Finding International Law In Private Governance: How Codes Of Conduct In The Apparel Industry Refer To International Instruments, Phillip Paiement, Sophie Melchers

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

Multinational enterprises increasingly use Codes of Conduct to govern the conditions of labor and production among their suppliers' operations around the globe. These Codes of Conduct, produced unilaterally by companies as well as by multi-stakeholder bodies, often include references to public international law instruments. This article takes a closer look at thirty-eight Codes of Conduct from the global apparel industry and uses social network analysis to identify the patterns in these Codes and how they refer to international legal instruments. Although some international legal instruments stipulate rules that can be directly transposed into the private context of supply chains, this …

When Freedom Of Speech Comes At A Cost: A Case Study Of E.S. V. Austria, Rachael Taylor

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

In the fall of 2018, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) issued a decision upholding the criminal conviction of an Austrian national (E.S.) in violation of Austria's Criminal Code against the disparagement of religious doctrines. Her initial conviction in the Austrian court was based on statements she made about the Prophet Muhammad while teaching a series of seminars entitled "Basic Information on Islam." In upholding her conviction, the ECtHR found that there had been no violation of the Austrian's right to freedom of expression under Article 10 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights (Convention), and …

Professor Katherine Franke Joins Supreme Court Brief Urging Limits To Religious Exemptions In Same-Sex Parenting Case, Law, Rights, And Religion Project

Center for Gender & Sexuality Law

New York, New York — Yesterday, Professor Katherine Franke (Faculty Director of the Law, Rights, and Religion Project and James L. Dohr Professor of Law) and 8 other scholars of law and religion filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in Fulton v. City of Philadelphia. The case raises the question of whether a Catholic social service agency that accepts public funding from the City of Philadelphia to provide child welfare services, can use that funding to deny services to same-sex couples seeking to adopt or foster children.

Thailand V. Does 1-5 Of The Organization For Thai Federation, Human Rights Institute, Demetra Sorvatzioti

Human Rights Institute

From November 2019 to January 2020, the Human Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School monitored the trial of five individuals on charges of sedition and membership in a secret society, the latter predicated on the defendants’ alleged affiliation with the Organization for Thai Federation (OTF), an organization whose political platform includes changing the existing political system from a constitutional monarchy to republicanism. Specifically, the defendants were accused of a range of nonviolent activities in support of OTF, from distributing flyers and t-shirts to communicating with other supporters of OTF — all activities protected by their right to freedom of expression …

Turkey Vs. Ahmet Tuna Altınel, René Provost, Human Rights Institute

Human Rights Institute

Ahmet Tuna Altınel is a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Lyon-1 in France. During a visit to Turkey, his passport was seized. When he inquired as to its whereabouts, he was arrested on suspicion of “propaganda for a terrorist organization,” soon thereafter charged with “membership in a terrorist organization,” and detained for nearly three months. The predicate for this charge was social media posts inviting attendance at an event in France entitled “Cizre — the Story of a Massacre” and interpretation assistance Mr. Altınel provided at the event. After his eventual release from pre-trial detention, the prosecution again …

Making The Case For A Right To A Healthy Environment For The Protection Of Vulnerable Communities: A Case Of Coal-Ash Disaster In Puerto Rico, Sarah Dávila-Ruhaak

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

The connection between the environment and human rights is not a surprising one. The enjoyment of human rights depends on a person’s ability to live free from interference and to have his or her rights protected. The interdependence of human rights and the protection of the environment is manifested in the full and effective enjoyment of the right to a healthy environment. This article argues that in order to protect vulnerable persons and communities facing environmental harm, a human rights framework—specifically the right to a healthy environment—must be applied. A human rights approach complements environmental justice work, recognizing that individuals …

Money For Justice: Plaintiffs' Lawyers And Social Justice Tort Litigation, Gilat J. Bachar

Cardozo Law Review

Tort lawsuits brought in response to social injustice occasionally generate incentives for entrepreneurial plaintiffs' lawyers to get involved in the litigation. What ethical responsibilities do such lawyers navigate in this space? And to what extent are they interested in, and well-positioned to produce, social change? The Article addresses these questions using a previously uncharted case study on civil actions for damages filed by Palestinians against the Israeli government. Through fifty-five in-depth, semi structured interviews with the various types of lawyers involved in the litigation, alongside quantitative analysis of an original dataset of 300 judicial opinions, the Article reveals how fee-for-service …

Consensus Statement From The Santa Cruz Summit On Solitary Confinement And Health

Northwestern University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Oppression Or Occupation: An International Analysis Of Sex Work And Sex Trafficking, Carver Wolfe

International Relations Summer Fellows

Although there is some debate over the exact number of victims of sex trafficking, it is agreed that it is an issue that affects primarily women and girls around the world. This paper will examine modern-day slavery and the unresolved, century-old debate surrounding sex trafficking and sex work. While abolitionists advocate for the total eradication of all sex work, whether it is consensual or not, libertarians support the right to voluntary sex work while condemning the coercion and exploitation that surrounds all forms of trafficking. I will use an analysis of international conventions and will begin a comparative analysis by …

Oppression Or Occupation: Conflicting Views On The Nature Of Sex Work In France And Under International Law, Carver Wolfe

Politics and International Relations Presentations

Although there is some debate over the exact number of victims of sex trafficking, it is agreed upon that it is an issue that affect primarily women and girls around the world. This paper will examine modern day slavery and the unresolved, century-old debate surrounding sex trafficking and sex work. While abolitionists advocate for total eradication of all sex work, whether it is consensual or not, libertarians support the right to voluntary sex work while condemning the coercion and exploitation that surrounds all forms of trafficking. I will use an analysis of international conventions and will begin a comparative analysis …

Border Babies — Medical Ethics And Human Rights In Immigrant Detention Centers, Sondra S. Crosby, George J. Annas

Faculty Scholarship

Providing decent medical care for families in U.S. detention centers near the Mexican border has become exceedingly difficult over the past 2 years. Trauma was inflicted on migrants to deter others from attempting to enter the United States. A cornerstone of deterrence was the “zero tolerance” policy that forcibly separated children from their parents at the border. Photographs of children confined in cages horrified Americans, who demanded that the policy be rescinded. It was, but family separations continue and have been made even worse by the Migrant Protection Protocol (MPP) — which the U.S. Supreme Court will most likely review …

Human Supremacy As Posthuman Risk, Daniel Estrada

The Journal of Sociotechnical Critique

Human supremacy is the widely held view that human interests ought to be privileged over other interests as a matter of ethics and public policy. Posthumanism is the historical situation characterized by a critical reevaluation of anthropocentrist theory and practice. This paper draws on animal studies, critical posthumanism, and the critique of ideal theory in Charles Mills and Serene Khader to address the appeal to human supremacist rhetoric in AI ethics and policy discussions, particularly in the work of Joanna Bryson. This analysis identifies a specific risk posed by human supremacist policy in a posthuman context, namely the classification of …

“Do My Complaints Matter?" Child Participation And Child-Friendliness Of Complaint Mechanisms In European Independent Children's Rights Institutions, Agnes Lux Phd

Societies Without Borders

The protection of children’s rights is an obvious task of independent children’s rights institutions (ICRIs), though achieved through a variety of means. Based on the guiding principles of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UN CRC), the best interests of the child must be a primary consideration in protecting these fundamental rights, including the right to be heard. ICRIs carefully examine children’s rights through investigation and research. But are rights-defenders upholding these principles in their own work? In this brief article I examine the requirements of being a child-friendly and participatory ICRI, and through a three-element comparison …

The Detention-To-Deportation Pipeline And Local Policies Of Resistance: A Case Study Of Santa Clara County, California, Matt Bakker Phd

Societies Without Borders

Deportation has reached record levels in the United States over the last decade. A major reason for this is that the federal government began using integrated databases and biometric surveillance technologies to identify deportable migrants whenever they come into contact with law enforcement officials. Implementing this enforcement technology in all jurisdictions across the country, the federal government undermined local inclusionary policies and brought state and local police into the work of federal immigration enforcement. This article examines efforts in one locality – Santa Clara County, California – to limit cooperation with this federal deportation machine. Drawing on documentary evidence and …

A Difficult Time, Brian Gran Phd

Societies Without Borders

No abstract provided.

Independent Children's Rights Institutions: Their Contribution To Human Rights Of Children, Agnes Lux Phd

Societies Without Borders

No abstract provided.