Human Rights Law Commons^™

We Don't Want Dollars, Just Change: Narrative Counter-Terrorism Strategy, An Inclusive Model For Social Healing, And The Truth About Torture Commission, 6 Nw. J. L. & Soc. Pol'y 1 (2011), Kim D. Chanbonpin

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

In 2007, Professor Eric K Yamamoto acknowledged that reparations theory and practice had reached a crossroads and called for a new strategic framework that reparations advocates could utilize in working to achieve redress for social and historical wrongs. This Article attempts to answer Yamamoto's call. In it, I situate my proposal for a truth commission to redress the post-9/11 torture program in a new Inclusive Model for Social Healing. In the past, reparations advocates have relied on litigation-a strategic model that excludes participants other than the named parties-to

obtain redress. By increasing the number of stakeholders in a reparations scheme, …

How Leadership In International Criminal Law Is Shifting From The United States To Europe And Asia: An Analysis Of Spending On And Contributions To International Criminal Courts, 55 St. Louis U. L.J. 953 (2011), Stuart K. Ford

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Criminalizing Hate: America's Legislative Response To Bias Crime, Bryce Therrien, Nadia-Elysse Harris

Tribeca Square Press

No abstract provided.

The Somali Piracy Problem: A Global Puzzle Necessitating A Global Solution, Milena Sterio

American University Law Review

Over the past few years, piracy has exploded off the coast of Somalia. The Somali pirates congregate on a mother ship and then divide into smaller groups that sail out on tiny skiffs. Using potent weapons like AK-47’s and hand-propelled grenades, the Somali pirates then attack civilian ships carrying cargo through the Gulf of Aden, toward South Africa or Asia. Once they have overtaken the victim vessel, pirates typically hijack the vessel’s cargo and crewmembers. The former is often resold to willing buyers (some of which include terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda). The latter are taken to the Somali shore …

The Mystery Of Life In The Laboratory Of Democracy: Personal Autonomy In State Law, Adam J. Macleod

Faculty Articles

Recent controversies, such as enactment of an individual mandate to purchase health insurance and the legalization of assisted suicide in Washington and Montana, have renewed the war over personal autonomy. Debates about the value and limits of personal autonomy also play major roles in the controversies over abortion, same-sex intimacy, and same-sex marriage. On one side of the autonomy war, advocates of unfettered individual freedom assert that by her un-coerced and autonomous choice, the individual person determines the value of human goods such as life, health, and marriage.

On the other side, proponents of strong government restrictions on personal choice …

Proceduralisation's Triumph And Engagement's Promise In Socio-Economic Rights Litigation, Brian E. Ray

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

Three of the Constitutional Court's socio-economic rights decisions of the 2009 term are the culmination of a strong trend towards the proceduralisation of socio-economic rights that many commentators have argued fails to fulfill their original promise. This triumph of proceduralisation undeniably restricts the direct transformative potential of these rights. But there is another aspect to this trend - an aspect reflected in the Court's emphasis on participatory democracy and the ability of procedural remedies to democratise the rights-enforcement process. This article considers what the triumph of proceduralisation means for future social and economic rights litigation and argues that properly developed …

Widening Our Lens: Incorporating Essential Perspectives In The Fight Against Human Trafficking, Jonathan Todres

Michigan Journal of International Law

In 2000, the international community formally launched the modern movement to combat human trafficking with the United Nations' adoption of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, Supplementing the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime (Trafficking Protocol). With the Trafficking Protocol, the international community created a new cornerstone upon which to build a global initiative to combat this modem form of slavery. As the first major international treaty on human trafficking in half a century, the Trafficking Protocol represented a significant step forward. One hundred forty-seven countries are now party to the …

Global Laws, Local Lives: Impact Of The New Regionalism On Human Rights Compliance, Stephen J. Powell, Patricia Camino Pérez

UF Law Faculty Publications

Continuation of the brisk pace of international economic growth with its necessarily increased use of natural resources—often at unsustainable levels—and its higher levels of pollution—often at the cost of citizen health—combine with the rules of the global trading system to threaten human rights to health, to freedom from forced or child labor, to non-discrimination, to a fair wage, to a healthy environment, even to democratic governance and participation in the political process. As a result, in recent years a growing number of economists begrudgingly acknowledge the incontrovertible—although presently dysfunctional—linkage between trade and human rights and the need to integrate these …

Redefining Human Rights Lawyering Through The Lens Of Critical Theory: Lessons For Pedagogy And Practice, Caroline Bettinger-López, Davida Finger, Meetali Jain, Jonel Newman, Sarah Paoletti, Deborah M. Weissman

Articles

No abstract provided.

The Dream Act And The Right To Equal Educational Opportunity: An Analysis Of U.S. And International Human Rights Frameworks As They Relate To Education Rights, Ashley Feasley

St. Thomas Law Review

This article argues that by denying undocumented children access to higher education, the U.S. government is violating their obligations under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights ("UDHR") and Universal Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ("UCCPR"), as they relate to discrimination of social groups on the basis of national origin. Furthermore, by denying undocumented students access to higher education which is afforded to their American contemporaries, and is provided by the DREAM Act, these undocumented students are being discriminated against participating and contributing in American society and civic life and are being denied the equality of educational opportunity. The right …

Introduction: Human Rights And Legal Systems Across The Global South Symposium, Christiana Ochoa, Shane Greene

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

Human Rights and Legal Systems Across the Global South, Symposium, Indiana University Maurer School of Law, Bloomington, Indiana. 9-10 April 2010.

To The Orphaned, Dispossessed, And Illegitimate Children: Human Rights Beyond Republican And Liberal Traditions, Siba N. Grovogui

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

After the Helsinki Accords, the collapse of the Soviet Union and its empire, and the collapse of states in Africa and elsewhere, many in the West have come to envisage the enforcement of human rights as a practical matter. Human rights are thus incorporated in normative regimes under the rubrics of either the rule of law or the responsibility to protect to be held against the purveyors of violence. I do not discount the normative underpinnings of the related stands taken today by states and transnational and national civil society organizations. I wish to insist on the futility of envisaging …

The Human Right To Health And Hiv/Aids: South Africa And South-South Cooperation To Reframe Global Intellectual Property Principles And Promote Access To Essential Medicines, Erika George

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

The HIV/AIDS pandemic has had a devastating and disproportionate impact in countries of the Global South. The experience of an individual infected with HIV in Africa is very different than that of an individual infected with HIV in America. Life expectancy varies sharply. The ability or inability to access medicines essential for treatment accounts for much of the variance. This article examines how the rhetoric of human rights used in the context of South Africa's AIDS crisis resonated across the Global South, resulted in a powerful social movement for access to medicines, and contributed to important changes in international intellectual …

Rehabilitating Territoriality In Human Rights, Austen L. Parrish

Articles by Maurer Faculty

For many years, territorial principles anchored an international system organized around nation-states. Recently, however, the human rights movement has sought to change the state-centric focus of international law and overcome the limitations of a system where the territorial state is the primary actor. The field of human rights has promoted a new legal orthodoxy that places the person at the center of the international legal system. Within this orthodoxy, non-state actors play a prominent role, unilateral domestic lawsuits are promoted, and territorial borders give way when necessary for humanitarian intervention. In contrast, territorial conceptions of international law are viewed as …

Human Rights Are Mutual Obligations: The Perceptions Of Pakistani Muslim Women About Rights And Freedom, Rashida Qureshi

Book Chapters / Conference Papers

No abstract provided.

Indefinite Detention Under The Laws Of War, Chris Jenks, Eric Talbot Jensen

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

The recent acquittal of the first Guantanamo Bay detainee to stand trial in U.S. federal court on all but one of the 286 charges he faced stemming from the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa has reinvigorated the discussion on indefinite detention under the laws of war. While the issue has been raised in the past, the discussion hasn’t extended beyond stating that the law of war, or law of armed conflict (LOAC) as it is often called, provides a legal basis for detention, including detention for the duration of hostilities. In fact, the Obama Administration has made …

Canadian Mining Internationally And The Un Guiding Principles For Business And Human Rights, Sara Seck

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Between 2005 and 2011, there was much debate within Canada and at the United Nations over what role home states should play in the regulation and adjudications of human rights harms associated with transnational corporate conduct. In Canada, this debate focused upon concerns associated with global mining, and led to a series of government, opposition and multi-stakeholder reports and proposals. These culminated in 2010 with the appointment of a Corporate Social Responsibility Counsellor for the Extractive Sector and the defeat of Bill C-300, an act respecting Corporate Accountability for the Activities of Mining, Oil or Gas in Developing Countries. Meanwhile, …

Transnational Business And Environmental Harm: A Twail Analysis Of Home State Obligations, Sara Seck

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Transnational corporate conduct that negatively impacts the environmental human rights of local communities is widespread in the operations of extractive sector companies. Yet, under principles of international environmental law, home states of transnational mining companies are neither obligated nor arguably even permitted to regulate and adjudicate environmental problems in host states. Proposals put forward in developed country home states to address these problems are often met with the claim that such regulations would be an imperialistic violation of host state sovereignty, and would create a competitive disadvantage for home state companies. This article will examine this problem by drawing upon …

Conceptualizing The Home State Duty To Protect Human Rights, Sara L. Seck

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The state duty to protect human rights from abuses by non-state actors including business is one of the three differentiated but complementary pillars that make up the UN Protect, Respect, Remedy Framework for Business and Human Rights. Yet the jurisdictional scope of the duty to protect is disputed. This chapter explores both the permissibility of home state regulation under jurisdictional principles of public international law and the existence of home state obligations to regulate and adjudicate transnational corporations to prevent and remedy human rights violations. Properly understood, the state duty to protect applies to all executive, legislative and judicial organs …

Internet Access Rights: A Brief History And Intellectual Origins, Jonathon Penney

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

If there is anything we have learned from recent protest movements around the world, and the heavy-handed government efforts to block, censor, suspend, and manipulate Internet connectivity, it is that access to the Internet, and its content, is anything but certain, especially when governments feel threatened. Despite these hard truths, the notion that people have a "right" to Internet access gained high-profile international recognition last year. In a report to the United Nations General Assembly in early 2011, Frank La Rue, the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression, held that Internet access should be recognized as a "human right". …