International Humanitarian Law Commons^™

A Structural Solution To Africa’S Wayward Presidents, Devin K. Joshi

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The current crisis in the Ivory Coast unfortunately resembles a number of crises in Western and Central Africa over the last few decades. Whereas the international community has generally been more willing to intervene in Europe and the Middle East, there has been a tendency to “wait and watch” while humanitarian crises unfold in middle Africa. In the last several years, as in the Ivory Coast right now, however, global awareness of the brutality of such crises has expanded tremendously.

Pandora’S Box Of Humanitarian Intervention, Edzia Carvalho

Human Rights & Human Welfare

“The Case for Intervention in the Ivory Coast” reminded me of the discussion that my undergraduate students had during the previous academic term on the conundrums surrounding humanitarian intervention. They innately responded to the intense suffering of individuals and groups facing gross human rights violations and initially argued that inaction in the face of suffering cannot be justified on any grounds. However, with their international relations hats on, many of them soon realized that putting an end to such a state of affairs is not as easy or straightforward as they had hoped.

A Rights-Based Approach To Global Injustice, Brooke Ackerly

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Is reflection on global injustice part of the everyday lives of those who live in global privilege? Or does privilege let us wait to raise concerns about justice only when the media bring the graphic images of genocide and tragedy to our family rooms?

March Roundtable: Libya And The Responsibility To Protect, Introduction, Claudia Fuentes

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

Article under review: “It’s Time to Intervene” by Shadi Hamid. Slate. February 23 2011.

I Will Survive, Robert Funk

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Academics do not often quote 70s disco tunes. At least not in print. But if there is one thing that has been striking about the events in Libya in recent weeks—and indeed looking back over decades—it is the sheer ability of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi to survive. He is, perhaps with Fidel Castro, the world’s greatest survivor. He has indeed learned how to carry on.

Is It Really Time To Intervene In Libya?, Christina Cerna

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Shadi Hamid, in “It’s Time to Intervene,” suggests that the international community—specifically, the United States, the United Nations, and NATO—must intervene in Libya because Muammar Gaddafi has declared that he is ready and willing to slaughter his own people if his survival depends on it. The author considered Gaddafi’s speech otherwise “bizarre” and “incoherent.”

Feminism And Democracy, Louis Edgar Esparza

Human Rights & Human Welfare

After work on December 1, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks walked onto a bus that was to take her home that night. She ended up on a trip to jail instead, for refusing to give her seat to a white passenger. The event triggered resistance to bus segregation, the founding of the Montgomery Improvement Association, and the election of the then-unknown Dr. Martin Luther King as its leader. The success of the campaign is an integral battle in our historical retellings of the US African American Civil Rights Movement. Fewer recount the sexual harassment against black women by white …

We Do Indeed Reap What We Sow, Walter Lotze

Human Rights & Human Welfare

When violence first broke out in Tunisia in January 2011, few observers would have predicted that waves of unrest would engulf North Africa and the Arab world. When demonstrations swiftly spread to Algeria, Sudan, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, and Jordan, observers hastened to place bets on which regime would be the next to fall. That Hosni Mubarak would be felled next came perhaps as no surprise; Egypt had for years been on a knife’s edge, liberalizing and modernizing society while closing all space for political and social participation. Most analysts then turned their attention to Sudan, Yemen, and Bahrain, predicting that …

February Roundtable: The Arab Revolutions And Human Rights, Introduction

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

“The Failure of Governance in the Arab World” by Simon Tisdall. The Guardian. January 11 2011.

He's Our Son Of A Bitch, Robert Funk

Human Rights & Human Welfare

It is said that Franklin Delano Roosevelt defended the US tendency to support dictators by remarking, “He may be a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch.” The recent events in Tunisia and Egypt indicate that almost seventy years later, this unfortunate phrase seems to continue to guide US foreign policy.

A Little Respect, Please, Christina Cerna

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Simon Tisdall suggests that last month, when Mohammed Bouazizi (twenty-six years old), “an unemployed graduate, set himself on fire outside a government building in protest at police harassment,” his act became the “rallying cause for Tunisia’s disaffected legions of unemployed students, impoverished workers, trade unionists, lawyers and human rights activists.” The reaction to his act of self-immolation and death on January 4th led to the flight of President Ben Ali ten days later to Saudi Arabia and to the end of Ali's twenty-three-year rule of Tunisia. Time reported the event as follows: “When Mohamed Bouazizi set himself alight on Dec. …

Abeyance And Spontaneity In Tunisia, Louis Edgar Esparza

Human Rights & Human Welfare

On August 16, 1819, tens of thousands of workers gathered in what is now St. Peter’s Square in Manchester to demand suffrage. Entire families, parishes, and townships assembled, fueled by increasing commodity prices and political disenfranchisement. They had spread the word from town to town, and from church to church, that this previously banned meeting was indeed to occur. It was the culmination of months of agitation on the part of common people to achieve economic and political reform. The government responded violently to the challenge of its authority, as governments so often do, leading to a score of deaths …

Those Pesky Winds Of Change..., Walter Lotze

Human Rights & Human Welfare

When a police officer slapped a fruit seller by the name of Mohammed Bouazizi in the Tunisian town of Sidi Bouzid, nobody could have anticipated that a revolution had commenced. Bouazizi, a twenty-six-year-old computer science graduate unable to find work, had resorted to selling fruit from a street cart in an attempt to support himself and his seven siblings. Slapped by the police officer and ordered to pack up his goods, Bouazizi himself snapped. He marched to the local governor’s office and demanded an appointment, threatening to set himself alight if the governor did not meet with him. In frustration, …

A Fine Line, Redefined: Moving Toward More Equitable Asylum Policies, Heather M. Kolinsky

Scholarly Articles

This article is an exploration of the inequities that still remain in asylum claims, with particular reference to the experience of Chinese citizens seeking asylum and Cuban refugees.

Obama And Libya, Benjamin G. Davis

Florida A & M University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Obama's Africa Policy On Human Rights, Use Of Force And Humanitarian Intervention: In Whose Interest, Vincent O. Nmehielle, John-Mark Iyi

Florida A & M University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Making Wto Remedies Work For Developing Nations: The Need For Class Actions, Phoenix X.F. Cai

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

At the heart of the WTO lies a set of rules and negotiated trade terms, such as tariffs, designed to promote trade liberalization or the removal of barriers to free trade. When a WTO member nation violates a rule or trade term, the affected nation or nations may bring a complaint under the dispute settlement procedures of the WTO.2 When nations win cases at the WTO, the preferred remedy is that the losing nation withdraws the offending measure or rule. This action is akin to stopping the embezzlement going forward. The remedy is purely prospective. If withdrawal occurs, the suit …

A Critical Resource Or Just A Wishing Well? A Proposal To Codify The Law On Transboundary Aquifers And Establish An Explicit Human Right To Water, Justin Carlson

American University International Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Dean F. Herzog Memorial Lecture: Religious Freedom Under Assault In The Middle East: An Imperative For The U.S. And International Community To Hold Governments To Account, 45 J. Marshall L. Rev. Iii (2011), Dwight Bashir

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Women, Vulnerability, And Humanitarian Emergencies, Fionnuala Ni Aolain

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

The catastrophic dimensions of humanitarian emergencies are increasingly understood and more visible to states and international institutions. There is greater appreciation for the social, economic and political effects that follow in the short to long term from the devastating consequences of humanitarian emergencies. There is also recognition of the gendered dimensions of humanitarian emergencies in policy and institutional contexts. It is generally acknowledged that women are overrepresented in the refugee and internally displaced communities that typically result from many humanitarian crises. Women bear acute care responsibilities in most societies and also disproportionately bear familial and communal care responsibilities in communities …