Abstract: Ethical tensions are inherent in international human rights work. Fact-finding, investigations, and rights advocacy in “foreign” contexts1 are core elements of the work of international human rights organizations. These are all potentially problematic endeavors, fraught with power hierarchies, linguistic barriers, and cultural differences that often lead to intense criticisms not only of individual actions and organizations, but also the very idea of cross-boundary engagement to promote social justice.As this article discusses, human rights advocates and investigators have been individually and systematically criticized for inappropriate interventions into affected communities. These interventions can reinforce ... Read More PubDate: 2020-05-13T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: Transitional justice in the aftermath of internal conflict has taken many forms across the globe. Most often, these initiatives seek to reconcile wartime indulgences against humanitarian and human rights law with post-conflict promises of a turn or a return to peaceful, juridical rule. Beginning in the late twentieth century, the modern conception of forensic investigation into the forced disappearance of “subversives” by the state has featured amongst reparative efforts. This forensic component of transitional justice seeks to assist in combating state impunity and the prevention of future abuses through both collecting evidence of atrocity for judicial purposes and by facilitating the humanitarian repatriation of ... Read More PubDate: 2020-05-13T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: The phenomenon of modern slavery has emerged over the last twenty years as a significant subset of human rights that has garnered increasing international attention. Long thought to be a thing of the past, scholars and practitioners variously working on forced labor, human trafficking, sexual exploitation, and forced marriage, have drawn together common themes and attributes under the overall rubric of “modern slavery.”2 The United Nations has embraced this agenda, which has been articulated through the promulgation of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8.7, which demands that states “[t]ake immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking and secure the ... Read More PubDate: 2020-05-13T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: “[Everyone has the right] to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its applications.”2“Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.”3Is there a human right to science (RtS)'4 According to Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) from 1948, everyone has the right “to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.” Likewise, the 1966 International Covenant of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) recognizes the right of everyone “to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its applications” in Article 15(1)(b).5 So yes, there is a human RtS—a right that has ... Read More PubDate: 2020-05-13T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: As one of the earliest UN human rights mechanisms, the Special Procedures is considered essential to effective human rights protection and thus has been called the “crown jewel” of the UN human rights system.1 As a body of independent experts, mandated by the Human Rights Council, in the forms of Special Rapporteurs, independent experts, or working groups, the Special Procedures have multiple advantages. For example, Special Procedures is systematically and operationally flexible in terms of the issues covered and the fact that mandate holders are independent individuals.2 Sometimes, “Special Procedures is the only mechanism . . . alert[ing] the international community to certain human rights issues.”3 ... Read More PubDate: 2020-05-13T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: In this article, I engage critically with the idea that compliance rates alone can be used to gauge the effectiveness of an international human rights court. I highlight several conceptual and practical difficulties encountered in trying to measure compliance and in trying to use it to evaluate international human rights courts. Ultimately, I hold that compliance is too narrow an indicator of the impact that these courts have because it looks at the way that rulings affect only one stakeholder in the international adjudicative process: the state. I hold that in order to understand the dynamics through which human rights courts impact realities on the ground, it is important to widen the scope of study to include ... Read More PubDate: 2020-05-13T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: As I see it, one important intellectual advance made in our century is the . . . growing willingness to neglect the question “What is our nature'” and to substitute the question “What can we make of ourselves'” . . . We are coming to think of ourselves as the flexible, protean, self-shaping animal rather than as the rational animal or the cruel animal. . . . If we can work together, we can make ourselves into whatever we are clever and courageous enough to imagine ourselves becoming. This sets aside Kant’s question “What is man'” and substitutes the question “What sort of world can we prepare for our great-grandchildren'”1 The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the General Assembly of the United ... Read More PubDate: 2020-05-13T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: “[T]he United Nations [and regional organizations] can benefit immensely from a plethora of technologies to assist its peace operations. Missing such opportunities means missing chances for peace.”2The Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe’s (OSCE) Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine has been deployed since March 2014 and entrusted by the OSCE’s fifty-seven participating states “with a mandate to contribute to reducing tensions and to help foster peace, stability, and security.”3 The mandate clarifies that the SMM is required to uphold the principles of the UN Charter and to cooperate with the United Nations and other relevant actors of the international community.4 With the underlying ... Read More PubDate: 2020-05-13T00:00:00-05:00
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