Human Rights Law Commons^™

Democracy, Education, And Free Speech: The Importance Of #Feesmustfall For Transnational Activism, Lindsey Peterson Ph.D, Kentse Radebe, Somya Mohanty Ph.D

Societies Without Borders

South African students across numerous university campuses joined together in the second half of 2015 to protest the rising cost of higher education. In addition to on-campus protesting, activists utilized Twitter to mobilize and communicate with each other, and, as the protests drew national attention, the hashtag #FeesMustFall began trending on Twitter. Then, what began as a localized movement against tuition increases became a global issue when a court interdict was granted by a South African court against the use of the #FeesMustFall hashtag. This paper traces that global spread of the #FeesMustFall hashtag on Twitter as a response to …

The Technology Bias: What Google Teaches Us About Child Rights, Yvonne Vissing Ph.D, Sarah Burris M.A., Quixada Moore-Vissing Ph.D

Societies Without Borders

Technology both helps and hinders what we know about human rights. Use of Google is of central importance to both the Sociology of Knowledge and the creation of internet literacy. In this study, different search engines are compared regarding content of “child rights” in the fifty United States. Findings include: importance of algorithmic loading of sites; number of hits may not reflect the importance or accuracy of a topic; different search engines produce different findings; and personalized searches result in different results. Personalization of searches in accordance to one’s previous search history may result in people being given information that …

The Impact Of Rural Poverty On Women’S Health Outcomes In Ethiopia: A Review Of A Walk To Beautiful, Christine A. Wernet Ph.D

Societies Without Borders

No abstract provided.

A Dismal Day For Human Rights In The Us, Lauren Carasik

Media Presence

No abstract provided.

Soldier 2.0: Military Human Enhancement And International Law, Heather A. Harrison Dinniss, Jann K. Kleffner

International Law Studies

Advances in technologies that could endow humans with physical or mental abilities that go beyond the statistically normal level of functioning are occurring at an incredible pace. The use of these human enhancement technologies by the military, for instance in the spheres of biotechnology, cybernetics and prosthetics, raise a number of questions under the international legal frameworks governing military technology, namely the law of armed conflict and human rights law. The article examines these frameworks with a focus on weapons law, the law pertaining to the detention of and by “enhanced individuals,” the human rights of those individuals and their …

Why Kim Davis Is Being Sued To Pay Gay, Straight Couples' Legal Fees, David Laconangelo

Media Collection

No abstract provided.

Amnesty International's Empty Promises: Decriminalization, Prostituted Women, And Sex Trafficking, Darren Geist

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

Through a close examination of Amnesty International’s (Amnesty) own arguments and sources, this paper demonstrates that Amnesty’s proposal to decriminalize prostitution or “sex work” will harm those it claims to help. It concludes that the best available evidence indicates that decriminalization of prostitution would: increase sex trafficking, leave prostituted women or “sex workers” more vulnerable to violence, and reduce access to healthcare, protection, and services. Prostituted women primarily enter the industry at a young age, often suffering from a history of sexual and physical abuse, coming from marginalized and vulnerable communities, and driven by emotional and economic desperation. It is …

The Influence Of Exile, Sara K. Rankin

Maryland Law Review

Belonging is a fundamental human need, but human instincts are Janus-faced and equally strong is the drive to exclude. This exclusive impulse, which this Article calls “the influence of exile,” reaches beyond interpersonal dynamics when empowered groups use laws and policies to restrict marginalized groups’ access to public space. Jim Crow, Anti-Okie, and Sundown Town laws are among many notorious examples. But the influence of exile perseveres today: it has found a new incarnation in the stigmatization and spatial regulation of visible poverty, as laws that criminalize and eject visibly poor people from public space proliferate across the nation. These …

Accountabilitea: Assam Tea Workers Demand Action From The World Bank And Tata, Promotion And Advancement Of Justice, Harmony And Rights Of Adivasis (Pajhra), People's Action For Development (Pad), Accountability Counsel, Nazdeek, Human Rights Clinic

Human Rights Institute

New Delhi, India, November 7, 2016 – An investigation published today on Tata’s tea plantations in Assam vindicates the claims of Indian NGOs documenting the failure of the World Bank and Tata to uphold the fundamental rights of workers and their families. Over 155,000 people live and work on tea plantations run by Amalgamated Plantations Private Limited (APPL), the second largest tea producer in Assam. The project has the potential to significantly improve thousands of lives, however the Bank’s initial response to the investigation fails to make the most of this opportunity.

Conference Report: Climate Change And Sustainable Investment In Natural Resources: From Consensus To Action, Columbia Center On Sustainable Investment, Sustainable Development Solutions Network, Sabin Center For Climate Change Law

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

The Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment has produced this conference report on CCSI’s Conference on Climate Change and Sustainable Investment in Natural Resources: From Consensus to Action. A shorter outcome document, which was disseminated at COP22, is also available. These documents summarize the discussions at the eleventh annual Columbia International Investment Conference, which took place on November 2-3, 2016, at Columbia University. The Conference offered a high-level opportunity to discuss how countries can reduce their greenhouse gas emissions in accordance with the Paris Agreement, while also advancing the Sustainable Development Goals, and in particular the important implications for the …

Outcome Report Of Workshop On International Investment And The Rights Of Indigenous Peoples, Kaitlin Y. Cordes, Jesse Coleman

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

On May 12, 2016, the United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, and the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment hosted a one-day workshop on international investment and the rights of indigenous peoples. This outcome document synthesizes the discussions that took place during the May 12 workshop.

The workshop was part of a series of consultations undertaken to support the Special Rapporteur's Second Thematic Analysis on the Impact of International Investment Agreements on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Held at the Ford Foundation in New York, the workshop brought together 53 academics, practitioners, indigenous …

Human Rights, Religious Freedom, And Peace, David Little

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Jennings V. Rodriguez: Brief Of Amici Curiae Human Rights First And International Law Scholars William Aceves, Denise Gilman, Guy S. Goodwin-Gill, James C. Hathaway, Manfred Nowak, Sarah Paoletti, Nigel Rodley, And Martin Scheinin In Support Of Respondents, James C. Hathaway

Appellate Briefs

Human Rights First is a non-governmental organization established in 1978 that works to ensure U.S. leadership on human rights globally and compliance domestically with this country's human rights commitments. Human Rights First operates one of the largest programs for pro bono legal representation of refugees, working in partnership with volunteer lawyers at leading law firms to provide legal representation without charge to thousands of indigent asylum applicants, including some detained in immigration detention facilities across the United States. Human Rights First has conducted research, issued reports and provided recommendations to the United States Government regarding compliance with its legal obligations …

Administrative Narratives, Human Rights, And Public Ethics: The Detroit Water-Shutoff Case, Richard K. Ghere

Political Science Faculty Publications

This inquiry focuses specifically on administrative (local official) narratives that speak to contentious issue contexts of social conflict. Specifically, it draws upon a theoretical connection between hermeneutics and the sociology of knowledge to interpret narrative passages of local officials and others related to a contentious public action—the Detroit Water and Sewerage District’s stepped-up water-discontinuation efforts (2014 and 2015) that left thousands of inner-city residents with “delinquent” accounts and no access to water service. Selected narratives from this case are interpreted on the basis of their literary and social functions. The interpretations support a subsequent determination of whether and how the …

Rethinking Body Property, Kara W. Swanson

Florida State University Law Review

Body products, including blood, gametes, and kidneys, are a routine part of contemporary medicine. They are also controversial. There is a strong preference for donated gifts, based on an intuition that gifts are pure, altruistic, and healthy, and that purchased products (commodities) are tainted, exploitative, and dangerous. Law and policy reflect this dichotomy, preventing market exchanges either by declaring body products non-property or banning sales by the supplying body. Yet with growing scarcity leading to injustice in the allocation and harvesting of body products, calls to allow sales have been increasing, motivating proposals to increase supplies by compensating bone marrow …

Europe & Central Asia Coverage, Human Rights Brief

Human Rights Brief Fall 2016 Regional Coverage

No abstract provided.

Asia & Oceania Coverage, Human Rights Brief

Human Rights Brief Fall 2016 Regional Coverage

No abstract provided.

Americas Coverage, Human Rights Brief

Human Rights Brief Fall 2016 Regional Coverage

No abstract provided.

Unpacking Affirmative Consent: Not As Great As You Hope, Not As Bad As You Fear, Jonathan Witmer-Rich

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This Article aims to “unpack” the concept of affirmative consent by identifying common assertions about affirmative consent that are false or misleading and by separating issues that are commonly conflated. The goal here is not to advocate either for or against the notion of affirmative consent but to clarify the concept to show what is at stake (and what is not at stake) in these debates.

Part II of this Article sets forth definitions of affirmative consent, particularly noting the difference between policies that require unambiguous agreements and those that do not. Part III addresses the various misconceptions identified above. …

Implementation Of Executive Order Of July 1, 2016, Human Rights Institute

Human Rights Institute

October 6, 2016, NEW YORK – The Columbia Law School Human Rights Clinic today urged the Obama Administration to fulfill its promises of transparency and accountability for U.S. drone strikes. Over the past decade, the U.S. government has killed thousands of people around the world in a program largely cloaked in secrecy. Together with a group of leading non-governmental organizations, the Clinic called on the government to act on promises it made over the summer to investigate drone strikes and compensate victims.