Human Rights Law Commons^™

Unsex Cedaw, Or What's Wrong With Women's Rights, Darren Rosenblum

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Part I discusses why CEDAW continues to be relevant as the primary source of international law on sex discrimination. Until the advent of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), CEDAW was the most widely-subscribed international treaty. Some of the draft language of CEDAW reflects the tension between category and identity and how "women" won the debate. Part II contrasts CEDAW with the Convention for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD). It points to the identitarian focus of CEDAW as a core reason for its failures. Had CEDAW reflected a category focus, as CERD did, it would more …

Successes And Failures In International Human Trafficking Law, Luis Cdebaca

Michigan Journal of International Law

Professor Carr yesterday remarked that human trafficking is too often discussed only in theoretical or academic ways. I've spent most of my career in the field, where interactions with victims, traffickers, and defense attorneys are anything but theoretical. But as keynote speaker for an academic symposium this morning, I'm going to try to lay out a bit of the conceptual state of play from my current vantage point. The title of this symposium, "Successes and Failures in International Human Trafficking Law," is a bit binary. Perhaps, in the best diplomatic tradition, we can temper that to "Limitations and Opportunities in …

Latin America’S Indigenous Women, Courtney Hall

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Latin America’s indigenous women are as diverse as the land they inhabit. Their uniqueness is shaped by belonging to groups that have their own distinct history, traditions, and identity. Yet despite this diversity, indigenous women confront the same human rights challenges: racial, gender, and socio-economic discrimination. Without ignoring the diversity of indigenous women, a better understanding of their fundamental struggles can be gained by weaving these issues together in a comprehensive narrative.

Peeking Out From Behind The Curtain, Ian Reese

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Absconded by airport security to middle-of-nowhere Russia, Nikolai Alexeyev sat for several days in early September 2010 unaware of his infractions or of his fate. Like a page from a Cold-War spy novel, the point of his abduction was to terrorize; Alexeyev’s abductors psychologically tortured and berated him with homophobic remarks. Nikolai Alexeyev is the leading gay rights activist in Russia and has been a twisting thorn in the side of local and national government for several years. Upon his release, he resolved to agitate further by leading a public demonstration to boycott the Swiss International Air Lines for its …

Book Review Of The Contemporary U.S. Peace Movement, Emily Regan Wills

Societies Without Borders

No abstract provided.

The Deliberative School Approach To Human Rights, Demond Miller, Jason Rivera, Christopher Gonzalez

Societies Without Borders

Over the past few decades, certain currents in higher education have been engaged in a paradigm shift that highlights the importance of civic engagement and experimental learning as means to a comprehensive, holistic education in the service of social change. In this article, we argue that community-based research, as a component of service-learning, constitutes a vehicle through which we can address the topic of human rights—in much the same way as W. E. B. DuBois recognized both universal human rights for all people and case-specific human rights for particular individuals (Elias 2009). To this end, we offer a brief discussion …

Understanding And Eliminating Discrimination Against Blacks, Douglas Parker

Societies Without Borders

This paper discusses the US history of discrimination against blacks which should be understood by students and others who are concerned with human rights and who want to participate in some form of civic engagement for the realization of these rights. The first part of this paper examines slavery, an extreme form of racial discrimination, and its repetition as involuntary servitude in earlier historical periods in the US. The second part of the paper examines recent and current severe, though not extreme, forms of racial discrimination such as residential segregation and the workfare and imprisonment imposed by the emerging US …

Employment Discrimination Against Lgbt Utahns, Clifford Rosky, Christy Mallory, Jenni Smith, M.V Lee Badgett

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

Utah does not have a statewide law that prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in employment. This report gathers together all existing data on the prevalence of discrimination in Utah to examine how frequently lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Utahns experience employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and assess the likely impact of passing a statewide nondiscrimination law.

The report begins by analyzing the data collected through a 2010 survey conducted by Equality Utah, which is the state’s first survey on discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in employment. The data show …

Internal Colonization And The International System: Gender Stratification In The U. S. And Its Global Implications, Muhammed Asadi

Societies Without Borders

My purpose in this paper is to critically review various theoretical perspectives contained in the literature to come up with implications for a comprehensive model that captures the intersectionality of race, gender and class in the International System with special emphasis on gender. My theoretical model links the U.S. gender ‘project’ post World War II: the construction of the post war ‘nuclear family’ and the reinvention of women’s ‘sacred domestic sphere’ to the maintenance of gender oppression globally by the U.S. in a world dominated by it. The common ingredient in such oppression is the use of women as productive …

The Oromo In Exile: Creating Knowledge And Promoting Social Justice, Asafa Jalata

Societies Without Borders

This paper explains how some Oromos who were forced to leave their country, Oromia, by successive colonial Ethiopian governments and live in exile have been organized in foreign lands to liberate their people and country by supporting the Oromo national movement. By demonstrating how global and regional forces have collaborated in the colonization, continued subjugation and dehumanization of the Oromo people, the paper illustrates how the Oromo people have lost their cultural, political, and social rights that are enshrined in the UN Universal Declaration of human rights and the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and how they are still facing state …

Social Movement Unionism And Neoliberalism In São Paulo, Brazil: Shifting Logics Of Collective Action In Telemarketing Labor Unions, David Flores, Fábio P. M. Silva, Vitor C. Vaneti, Ray Braga, Ray Braga

Societies Without Borders

Neoliberal policies have radically altered the global economy. This is particularly evident in São Paulo, Brazil, which has undergone the rapid privatization of resources and services since the 1990s, as well as a major shift from an industrial to a service economy. How do new labor unions responding to a new service -based economy differ from those that have traditionally focused on an industrialized work force? How are labor unions in the global south meeting the challenge of unionizing under neoliberal policies? Finally, how do labor unions build solidarity for collective action among a new and demographically diverse working class? …

Notes From The Field: 'Breathing Life' Into The Declaration On The Rights Of Indigenous Peoples, Keri E. Iyall Smith

Societies Without Borders

With the passage of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, indigenous movements are now armed with doctrine to protect their human rights. How is this impacting disputes with international governments, regional gov- erning organizations, and state governments? I examine two cases at each of these levels of governance and find mixed results. In each context, one case is successful and one case is (thus far) a failure. This highlights the importance of the role of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, but it also suggests there may be limits to the power it has …

Book Review Of The Leading Rogue State: The U.S. And Human Rights, Omar Shaukat

Societies Without Borders

No abstract provided.

Sociology And Human Rights Education: Beyond The Three Generations?, Mark Frezzo

Societies Without Borders

This article examines the uses and limitations of the prevailing classificatory schema in the field of human rights—a tripartite framework that delineates first-generation civil and political rights ensuring liberty, second-generation economic and social rights promoting equality, and third-generation group and cultural rights supporting solidarity. When applied strictly, the framework runs the risk of reifying the three categories, exaggerating the impact of the European Enlightenment on contemporary norms, and overlooking the historical contexts in which rights-claims emerge. Though useful for analytic and pedagogical purposes, the existing paradigm fails to capture the full spectrum of human rights violations and solutions in the …

Human Rights Pedagogies In The Classroom: Social Justice, Us Indigenous Communities And Csl Projects, Sylvanna M. Falcón, Michelle M. Jacob

Societies Without Borders

Community service-learning (CSL) courses provide opportunities in which students engage in learning outside of the normative college classroom and are sites in which students can learn as a collective. In this article, we argue for a human rights pedagogy that considers how a critical engagement of CSL projects has fostered a bridging moment between academic and non-academic communities and offers new possibili- ties for building community. We analyze CSL projects with the American Indian Recruitment Programs - a grassroots, non-profit organization based in San Diego, California. We conclude our article with a human rights-based pedagogical model that is built upon …

Feminist Social Justice Work: Moving Toward Solidarity, Katherine O'Donnell

Societies Without Borders

This article analyzes grassroots, feminist, and Freirean community-organizing as platforms for community-based service-learning (CBSL) and human rights work. CBSL is conceptualized as alignment, a first step in the long haul of working with community members in a solidarity relationship to create social justice.

Notes From The Field: Implementing Human Rights Education In Service-Learning Courses, Lindsay Padilla

Societies Without Borders

In an attempt to understand the potential impact of Human Rights Education (HRE) at community colleges, this article calls for an open discussion of human rights and service-learning. I argue that framing my Social Problems course with a service- learning requirement from a human rights perspective offers students a formative educational experience that fosters respect for humanity and introduces the struggle for human rights at home and abroad. Working with vulnerable populations in the community, students can experience the ways in which local organizations and agencies promote human rights. In providing access to my teaching plan, I hope that other …

Notes From The Field: After All, Where Do Human Rights Begin? The Case Of Two Small Cities In North Carolina, Judith Blau, Manuel Rafael Gallegos Lerma

Societies Without Borders

Judith Blau and Manuel Rafael Gallegos Lerma teach Soc 273 together at the University of North Carolina (UNC). This course is devoted to human rights. From the very beginning, Judith and Rafael worked to establish the Human Rights Center of Chapel Hill and Carrboro (HRC). Since Fall of 2010 the students in the class have been integrated into the activities of the HRC, through service-learning. This is a note from the field on their experiences with the HRC.

Commentary Sociology And Human Rights: Building Professional Association Capital For Improving The Human Condition, Steven J. Picou

Societies Without Borders

No abstract provided.

Patient Navigation Through The Justice System: A Response To The High Infant Mortality Rate In One Community, Susan Holsapple

Societies Without Borders

The purpose of this evaluative study was two-fold; one was to evaluate a grant supported program that used the justice system to offer patient navigation services and the second goal was to provide a qualitative evaluation of the women’s health care experiences as they went through a court mandated drug program. Primary data was obtained from interviews with forty-seven program participants (n=47) from March, 2008 until January, 2010, and participant observation was used to explore treatment modalities and options available to these women. Secondary data was obtained from program staff as well as a review of the survey evaluation process …