Human Rights Law Commons^™

Conditionality And Constitutional Change, Felix B. Chang

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

The burgeoning field of Critical Romani Studies explores the persistent subjugation of Europe’s largest minority, the Roma. Within this field, it has become fashionable to draw parallels to the U.S. Civil Rights Movement. Yet the comparisons are often one-sided; lessons tend to flow from Civil Rights to Roma Rights more than the other way around. It is an all-too-common hagiography of Civil Rights, where our history becomes a blueprint for other movements for racial equality.

To correct this trend, this Essay reveals what American scholars can learn from Roma Rights. Specifically, this Essay argues that the European Union’s Roma integration …

Unsung Heroes In Sa And Beyond Help Immigrants Find Hope, Erica B. Schommer

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

The Legal Determinants Of Health: Harnessing The Power Of Law For Global Health And Sustainable Development, Lawrence O. Gostin, John T. Monahan, Jenny Kaldor, Mary Debartolo, Eric A. Friedman, Katie Gottschalk, Susan C. Kim, Ala Alwan, Agnes Binagwaho, Gian Luca Burci, Luisa Cabal, Katherine Deland, Timothy Grant Evans, Eric Goosby, Sara Hossain, Howard Koh, Gorik Ooms, Mirta Roses Periago, Rodrigo Uprimny, Alicia E. Yamin

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Health risks in the 21st century are beyond the control of any country. In an era of globalization, promoting public health and equity requires cooperation and coordination both within and among states. Law can be a powerful tool for advancing global health, yet it remains significantly underutilised and poorly understood. Working in partnership, public health lawyers and health professionals can become champions for evidence-based laws to ensure the public’s health and safety.

The O'Neill Institute/Georgetown University Lancet Commission on Law and Global Health articulates the vital role of law – through legal instruments, legal capacities, and institutional reforms, as well …

Navigating The Moral Minefields Of Human Rights Advocacy In The Global South, Sandra L. Babcock

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

No abstract provided.

North Korean Defectors In South Korea And Asylum Seekers In The United States: A Comparison, Emma Poorman

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

North Korean defectors are considered citizens of South Korea under the South Korean Constitution, while others that flee violence gain the legal status of “refugee.” North Korean defectors, who attempt to escape one of the worst human rights crises in the world, find themselves in a unique situation. What benefits does this status have? How are refugees typically treated abroad, such as in the United States? This Comment will explore this unique status, how it differs from refugee status in the United States, and the challenges North Korean defectors face in South Korea.

Deliberation And Decision-Making Process In The Inter-American Court Of Human Rights: Do Individual Opinions Matter?, Ranieri L. Resende

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

The work is focused on the adjudicatory nature of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and investigates its model of deliberation, considering three basic schemes: per curiam, seriatim and hybrid. In order to identify an institutional pattern, the importance of individual opinions is analyzed through the quantitative performance of each category of judge (ad hoc and regular), as well as each type of adjudicative activity (judgments and advisory opinions). The quantitative data is also useful to better understand the explicit assimilation of separate opinions to the core reasoning of future cases. As a result, it has been possible to identify …

A Theoretical Framework For The Protection Of Environmental Refugees In International Law, Mathias Sahinkuye

The Transnational Human Rights Review

This article analyzes the reality and the criteria for the legal protection of environmental refugees. Using an interdisciplinary approach, it addresses questions about the existence, nature, universality, justification, and legal status of environmental refugees. Despite the lively debates within the community of experts and scientists specializing in migration and/or environmental issues, there is no consensus today on a definition of the term “environmental refugees” since 1985 when it officially appeared. Several descriptions such as ecological refugees, environmental refugees, climate refugees, eco-refugees, climate évacué, environmental migrants, displaced persons due to a natural disaster, environmentally displaced persons, etc. have been used without …

“There’S Voices In The Night Trying To Be Heard”: The Potential Impact Of The Convention On The Rights Of Persons With Disabilities On Domestic Mental Disability Law, Michael L. Perlin, Naomi M. Weinstein

Brooklyn Law Review

This article carefully examines, through a therapeutic jurisprudence framework, the likely impact of the United States’ ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) on U.S. society’s sanist attitudes towards persons with mental disabilities. Although the United Nations ratified the CRPD—the most significant historical development in the recognition of the human rights of persons with mental disabilities— in 2008, the United States has yet to ratify it. In this article, we consider whether the CRPD, if ratified, is likely to finally extinguish the toxic stench of sanism that permeates all levels of society. We …

Taxation And Human Rights: A Delicate Balance, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah, Gianluca Mazzoni

Book Chapters

This chapter assesses the appropriate balance between strengthening tax revenue collection tools to ensure states have adequate resources to meet their human rights obligations, and protecting taxpayer rights to privacy and data security. On the one hand, the ability of rich residents of developing countries and multinational corporations operating in those countries to evade or avoid taxation is directly linked to violations of human rights in those countries, especially from the perspective of social and economic rights like health and education. Providing such countries with the means to fight back and collect adequate revenues is essential in advancing such rights. …

Flushed And Forgotten: Sanitation And Wastewater In Rural Communities In The United States, Alabama Center For Rural Enterprise (Acre), Human Rights Institute, Institute For The Study Of Human Rights

Human Rights Institute

This report seeks to bring attention to the unique plight of rural U.S. communities struggling to secure basic sanitation and wastewater. The problem of inadequate and unaffordable water services has received increasing coverage in recent years, and the focus here is on bringing attention to less well-known structural challenges that impede access to sanitation, and the unique ways they impact rural residents.

Ix: Story About The Law Of Non-Discrimination - Documentary, Denzel Jenkins

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this project is to provide historical awareness for how Title IX, the anti-gender discrimination law in education, evolved to where it is today and the impact it has on universities in the United States. Strong-willed individuals sought change in the late 1960s and 1970s to prevent gender discrimination in education, thus beginning the creation of the law and making it a powerful tool for women’s rights. As Title IX expanded its reach, universities have been shaped by gender discrimination in athletics, sexual assault, harassment and rape. This project outlines the evolution of Title IX through research based …

Clark Memorandum: Spring 2019, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Byu Law School Alumni Association, J. Reuben Clark Law Society

The Clark Memorandum

• Declaring Human Dignity (Photographs by Steve McCurry)
• How Not to Be Stupid (Michael Mosman)
• Religion, Democracy, and the Habits of the Heart (Elder Bruce C. Hafen)
• Loving Our Neighbors (D. Carolina Núñez)
• Memoranda

Just Care: A Relational Approach To Autonomy And Decision Making Of Parents Committed To Religious Or Indigenous Traditional Practices, Tu-Quynh Trinh

LLM Theses

Hamilton Health Sciences Corp. v. D.H. and B. (R.) v. Children’s Aid Society of Metropolitan Toronto tell important stories about people and relationships—and about parenthood; autonomy; religious believers and cultural communities; and the role of the state in family, culture, and religion. Their narratives were influenced by liberalism and emphasize a degree of individualism that is incongruous given the subject matter of parent child relationships and their place within communities and the law. This thesis explores the application of relational theory and the integrated principles of justice and care to these issues. Ultimately, the stories these judicial opinions tell help …

Transitional Equality, Suzanne A. Kim

University of Richmond Law Review

Legal discussions of inequality often focus on the virtues of one legal status or regulatory structure over another, but a guarantee of the right to a particular legal status does not ensure a lived experience of equality in that status. In moments of legal change, when a person or class of persons obtain a new status or gain rights that had previously been denied to them, the path from one legal status to another becomes critically important and may itself be impacted by race, gender, age, and other factors. The process of transitioning to a new status can be complex …

Catholic Social Teaching And Neo-Abolitionism: Tearing Down The House Of The Rising Sun, Elizabeth M. Donovan

Cleveland State Law Review

Catholic Social Teaching (“CST”) is the body of literature written in the modern era by papal and episcopal teachers in response to current political, economic, and social issues. CST views individuals in the sex trade as victims, however they arrived in the trade. Prostitution abolitionists, called neo-abolitionists, because their current efforts to wipe out sex trafficking and prostitution mirror similar efforts by reformers in the early twentieth century, also view individuals in the sex trade as victims. A coalition of feminists and Christians developed neo-abolitionist social policy during the late twentieth and early twenty-first century. CST and neo-abolitionist social policy …

"Elimination Of Culture Based Discrimination Against Women In Indonesia: An Assessment Of The Implementation Of State Parties’ Obligations Under Article 5(A) Of The Women’S Convention", Widya Naseva Tuslian

Indonesia Law Review

The notion of cultural relativism has always been a fundamental challenge to upholding human rights values, especially regarding gender mainstreaming and the equality of both sexes. In this sense, there is a view that cross-cultural moral values are not acceptable given thecultural traits that produce their own modes of thinking and ideology. It is thus understandable that Article 5(a) of the Women’s Convention (i.e.,The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women), which is the only provision in international law that seeks to modify cultures that prejudice women, will deal with constant hurdles in countries like Indonesia …

2nd Annual Stonewall Lecture 04-16-2019, Roger Williams University School Of Law

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

Leveling The Playing Field: Advancing Free Legal Aid For The Family Law Claims Of Ethiopian Women, Maereg Tewoldebirhan Alemayehu

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Russian Politics Of Masculinity And The Decay Of Feminism: The Role Of Dissent In Creating New "Local Norms", Alexandra V. Orlova

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

Over the past decade, the Russian state has been deliberately pursuing politics of masculinity that aim to actively undermine feminist dissenting voices by presenting feminism as something that is foreign and inappropriate for the Russian context. This Article examines why Russian domestic feminism has failed to generate a re-examination of entrenched gender stereotypes and barriers in Russia. The Article concludes that in order to effectively combat gender stereotyping and reduce structural barriers that continuously relegate women to the private sphere, new "local norms" based on gender equality need to develop. In order for these new local norms to gain public …

If Animals Are Like Our Children Let Us Treat Them Alike: Creating Tests Of An Animal's Intelligence For Determinations Of Legal Personhood, Paul J. Mclaughlin

Library Faculty Publications

The notion that animals could be granted rights under the law was once ridiculed, but now courts and legislatures have begun to move towards granting animals greater protections from cruelty and emotional trauma. Animal law as a course of study was not available in law schools until the early 1970's. It has since grown into a field of debate and study that has drawn in experts from around the world." The rules of law that treat animals as property have been fought by animal rights advocates as being archaic similarly to the laws that once allowed for slavery. Animal owners …