scholarly journals Religion in the Abortion Discourse in Singapore: A Case Study of the Relevance of Religious Arguments in Law-Making in Multi-Religious Democracies

2010 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 505-539 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seow Hon Tan
Keyword(s):  
Social Issue ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Population Control ◽  
Minority Group ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Full Support ◽  
Liberal Philosophy ◽  
Law Making

I … appeal to hon. Members to face up to the challenge on this important social issue and give their full support to the Bill. I do hope that they will not falter just because of some pressure, social or otherwise, brought to bear on them by some minority groups outside who, on account of their religious dogmas, desire to impose their will on the majority… I am certain that the opposing stand to this Bill taken by this minority group will also in the course of time end up in the dustbins of history.Abortion, along with same-sex unions, is perhaps one of the world's most polarizing issues today. Laws on abortion vary across different jurisdictions, from prohibiting abortion under all circumstances to freely allowing it without restriction as to reason. Unlike rights such as freedom from torture or of speech, failure to recognize abortion rights is not necessarily the product of illiberal governments known to abuse human rights, nor is allowing abortion indicative of a good human rights record. Extensive rights to terminate a pregnancy may be symptomatic of a government's policy for population control, as in the case of China, or it may be an expression of the liberal philosophy of autonomy, as in the case of Canada.

scholarly journals When Human Rights are not Enough

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 236
Author(s):  
Joeni Kurniawan
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Minority Group ◽  
National Commission ◽  
Multicultural Society ◽  
Fellow Citizen ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Human Rights Act ◽  
The Law

Juridically, there have been quite a lot of legal instruments existing in Indonesia to protect human rights. These legal instruments include the Indonesian Constitution, which has special articles regulating about human rights, the Human Rights Act (the Law Number 39 of 1999), the National Commission for Human Rights, etc. Thus, normatively, all those legal instruments should be adequate to protect human rights in Indonesia, including the protection of the minority groups. However, the facts don’t seem in line with such expectation. There have been a lot of cases happened in Indonesia that bring this country into a serious question in its ability to protect the minority groups. The persecutions over the Ahmadiyah and Shia sects, the rejections against non-Muslim worship place establishments, and as the most recent one, the case of Jakarta’s governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, are some of the long sad stories showing how Indonesia is really poor in its performance to protect the minority groups. Identity politics and even a sentiment of racism are re-escalating in Indonesia today, which seems affirming the research findings got by the Wahid Foundation showing that 59.9% of 1520 of respondents from 34 provinces in Indonesia said that they have hatred towards some groups of their fellow citizen, such as those who are non-Muslims, Chinese-descents, communists, etc (Hakim 2016). Among this 59,9% respondents, 92,2% of them said that they highly oppose a person coming from those groups to become a governmental leader, and 82,4% of this people even said that they don’t want to have a neighbor coming from those groups (Hakim 2016). Such re-emergence of identity politics and sentiment of racism, as well as a frightening fact of hatred among people, really give a serious question about why all the human rights instruments which already exist in Indonesia seem to fail in preventing all those things to happen. In this article, I will show my hypothesis that all that sad news that happened in Indonesia in regard to the minority group protection are due to the failure of multiculturalism approach implemented in Indonesia so far. Thus, I will also propose the interculturalism approach to be implemented in Indonesia as the critique and refinement of multiculturalism approach in dealing with the multicultural society, including in regard to the minority groups protection.

Post-withdrawal Prospects for Iraq’s ‘Ultra-minorities’

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Al-Jeloo
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Administrative Law ◽  
Religious Minorities ◽  
Successes And Failures ◽  
The Way

The signing of Iraq's Transitional Administrative Law on 8 March 2004 ushered in a new, more pluralistic era for Iraq. It was now a ‘country of many nationalities’. In addition, all Iraqi citizens were equal in their rights ‘without regard to gender, sect, opinion, belief, nationality, religion, or origin’; ‘discrimination on the basis of gender, nationality, religion, or origin’ was prohibited. However, ‘ultra-minorities’ have been the subjects of sustained oppression and active persecution. This chapter explores the successes and failures with regard to Iraq's ethnic, linguistic and religious minorities, referring especially to recent human rights reports, making for a valuable case study in the way contemporary states deal with their minority groups.

Three Continents, Two Fathers, One Donor: A Non-Puerperal Relactation Case Study

2021 ◽  
pp. 089033442199932
Author(s):  
Indira Lopez-Bassols ◽  
Lara Olchanetzky Duke ◽  
Gayle Subramaniam
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Healthcare Professionals ◽  
The United States ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Knowledge And Skills ◽  
Lactation Consultant ◽  
Full Support ◽  
Specialist Physician ◽  
Male Couple

Introduction A woman was able to relactate 7 years after breastfeeding her children. She donated her expressed milk to her friends, a same-sex male couple, who had a child through surrogacy in the United States. She lived in London and shipped her milk to Hong Kong, where they lived. The infant thrived on the donated expressed milk received during the first 3 months of his life. Main issue This case is unusual because the woman was not breastfeeding at the time, which would have made expressing easier, and she was not adopting. She consulted a National Childbirth Trust Breastfeeding Counsellor and an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant® who helped her explore non-puerperal relactation protocols. Management Her plan started 6 months before the birth and included the use of domperidone, frequent expressing by hand and with a hospital-grade pump. A breastfeeding specialist physician made suggestions on the dosage of domperidone. She donated a total of 35.06 L. She had the full support of her partner and family. Conclusion Non-puerperal induced lactation and relactation offer ways to make human milk accessible to all infants, particularly those from LGBTQ+ families in which no parent is lactating, as was the case with the same-sex male couple participating in this study. It is essential to disseminate the knowledge and skills needed to support non-puerperal induced lactation and relactation among all healthcare professionals involved.

scholarly journals Pacific People in Parliament:  a Case Study of Minority Representation in New Zealand

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Helena Cook
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
Minority Group ◽  
Electoral Reform ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
Pacific People ◽  
The Pacific

<p>Analysing the nature of political representation raises questions about the roles of political representatives: who it is they represent and what they do once in Parliament. However, the roles of MPs can be affected by several factors: institutions; political rules; identity; and the norms, values and expectations of the groups they advocate for. This thesis assumes that all of these factors play an important part in shaping the roles of political representatives and are particularly significant in understanding minority political representation. This case study of political representation of the Pacific Island migrant community in New Zealand analyses the roles and perceptions of minority MPs through their own words. Despite a wealth of literature on the wider subject of political representation, very little takes into account the perspective of the MPs themselves, and this thesis uses in-depth interview data to place the narrative of Pacific political representation in New Zealand into a wider context of the roles of minority MPs in advanced liberal democracies. Arguments for the increased political representation of minority groups are often based on the assumption that achieving a 'politics of presence' is essential for democracies, because minority groups need people from within the group to speak on their behalf. Thus only people with a shared history or shared experiences can adequately represent the needs of a minority group. This thesis shows that Pacific political representation is viewed by the MPs as important, because it reflects the multicultural nature of New Zealand society, allows for issues that affect Pacific people to be addressed in a political forum and enables Pacific MPs to bring a more collective approach to New Zealand's Westminster Parliamentary democracy. Political institutions and electoral reform have all affected Pacific representation in New Zealand, demonstrating that these factors should not be overlooked when considering the roles of minority MPs. New Zealand's experience of electoral reform has seen an increase of minority political representation, and the Maori seats in New Zealand's House of Representatives demonstrate how political representation for indigenous minorities can be implemented. This thesis is an exploratory work into the political journeys of New Zealand's Pacific MPs; an area that has previously been overlooked or neglected, but one that is vital to increase understanding of the roles of minority political representatives.</p>

scholarly journals Same sex relations, state crime and resistance

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Cara Gledhill
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
Sexual Rights ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Global Context ◽  
Lesbian And Gay ◽  
Civil Society Organisations ◽  
International Pressure

<p>This thesis explores the criminalisation of same sex relations in a global context, using a framework which centres the state as criminal. It argues that criminalising laws serve as hegemonic dictates, which condone and encourage violence perpetrated by state officials, as well as private individuals. The form of these laws, the punishments they mandate and the harms that lesbian and gay individuals suffer due to the existence of criminalisation is critically examined. The thesis shows that international legal progress in the area of 'sexual rights' has been painstakingly slow and that civil society organisations (CSOs) have been the driving force behind much of the change that has occurred. States have also been able to deny, minimise and neutralise challenges by the UN concerning criminalisation. Jamaica, a state which criminalises consensual sex between men, is provided as a case study in order to examine the ways in which criminalisation laws emerge, and the contemporary social and cultural context which supports their continued existence. Despite the climate of heterosexism in Jamaica, the continued work of CSOs means that information about human rights violations can be dispersed through a number of networks, allowing challenges to take place in the international arena. The thesis concludes by arguing that, while the work of CSOs offers great potential for change in the area, international pressure to repeal criminalising laws and address related human rights violations must continue.</p>

scholarly journals The legalisation of same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland

2020 ◽  
Vol 71 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Conor McCormick ◽  
Thomas Stewart
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Northern Ireland ◽  
European Convention ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Same Sex Marriage ◽  
High Court ◽  
Legal Challenges ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Court Of Appeal ◽  
Law Making

The saga which led to the legalisation of same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland offers some important lessons about the processes of law-making for that jurisdiction, together with broader lessons about how the European Convention on Human Rights could be applied in strategic litigation elsewhere. This commentary analyses four episodes in that saga. It begins by evaluating several failed attempts to achieve legalisation at the Northern Ireland Assembly, before considering two legal challenges which also failed in the High Court of Northern Ireland. The developments which eventually led to legal change through the Parliament of the UK are assessed thereafter, followed by an appraisal of the most significant legal features in a set of judgments handed down by the Court of Appeal in Northern Ireland shortly afterwards. It is concluded, in particular, that lessons in connection with how petitions of concern are deployed in the devolved legislature, as well as lessons about how the prohibition on discrimination contained in Article 14 of the Convention has been interpreted, are deserving of wider circulation and appreciation among LGBT rights campaigners in Northern Ireland and beyond.

scholarly journals Pacific People in Parliament:  a Case Study of Minority Representation in New Zealand

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Helena Cook
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
Minority Group ◽  
Electoral Reform ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
Pacific People ◽  
The Pacific

<p>Analysing the nature of political representation raises questions about the roles of political representatives: who it is they represent and what they do once in Parliament. However, the roles of MPs can be affected by several factors: institutions; political rules; identity; and the norms, values and expectations of the groups they advocate for. This thesis assumes that all of these factors play an important part in shaping the roles of political representatives and are particularly significant in understanding minority political representation. This case study of political representation of the Pacific Island migrant community in New Zealand analyses the roles and perceptions of minority MPs through their own words. Despite a wealth of literature on the wider subject of political representation, very little takes into account the perspective of the MPs themselves, and this thesis uses in-depth interview data to place the narrative of Pacific political representation in New Zealand into a wider context of the roles of minority MPs in advanced liberal democracies. Arguments for the increased political representation of minority groups are often based on the assumption that achieving a 'politics of presence' is essential for democracies, because minority groups need people from within the group to speak on their behalf. Thus only people with a shared history or shared experiences can adequately represent the needs of a minority group. This thesis shows that Pacific political representation is viewed by the MPs as important, because it reflects the multicultural nature of New Zealand society, allows for issues that affect Pacific people to be addressed in a political forum and enables Pacific MPs to bring a more collective approach to New Zealand's Westminster Parliamentary democracy. Political institutions and electoral reform have all affected Pacific representation in New Zealand, demonstrating that these factors should not be overlooked when considering the roles of minority MPs. New Zealand's experience of electoral reform has seen an increase of minority political representation, and the Maori seats in New Zealand's House of Representatives demonstrate how political representation for indigenous minorities can be implemented. This thesis is an exploratory work into the political journeys of New Zealand's Pacific MPs; an area that has previously been overlooked or neglected, but one that is vital to increase understanding of the roles of minority political representatives.</p>

scholarly journals Collaboration in the process of legislative lobbying: A study of a disabled peoples organisation lobbying for change in New Zealand 1989-1993

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Nicholas Ruane
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Minority Group ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Disabled Persons ◽  
The Political ◽  
Disability Rights ◽  
Bill Of Rights ◽  
Human Rights Act

<p>This thesis examines lobbying from the disabled people’s organisation Disabled Persons Assembly (DPA) NZ from 1989 until 1993. It explores how the organisation conducted lobbying activities with respect to two pieces of New Zealand legislation with constitutional significance: The New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 and the Human Rights Act 1993.  This thesis places the plight of minority groups within the political process squarely under the research microscope and asks: what factors explain the different outcomes to the DPA’s lobbying efforts to the Bill of Rights in 1990 and the Human Rights Act in 1993?  More specifically it examines the DPA’s decision to collaborate with the New Zealand Aids Foundation (AF) during the 1993 Human Rights Act campaign. Collaboration with the AF was a controversial decision that resulted in heated discussions within DPA. Some members were concerned about the political risks of aligning with the AF. DPA leadership however saw a possibility for broad human rights legislation, and took the decision to collaborate. They were convinced that collaboration would bring benefits in the form of greater resources, access to Parliament and better relationships with the media which would all lead to an enhanced capacity to make the case to the public.  The thesis argues that by working with the AF, DPA was able to change its lobbying narrative from one solely focussed upon disability rights to one that broadened out to broader human rights protections. DPA was not positioning itself as a minority group arguing for narrow exceptions to existing legislation, a tactic it had pursued in previous campaigns. The campaign proved successful, gaining support from MP’s, as the Human Rights Act was perceived to have public support.  The thesis also shows that to understand DPA’s successful strategy it needs to be seen in the context of a failed effort from a previous campaign. DPA’s campaign to lobby for the 1993 Human Rights Act began from the point of an unsuccessful fight to have disability rights included in the 1990 Bill of Rights. DPA was, in effect, ‘locked in’ to fighting the 1993 campaign from that point.</p>

scholarly journals Protection of civilians in the law of war: A case study of Myanmar

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 124-138
Author(s):  
Ahmed Arafa A. Hammad ◽  
Guo Dexiang
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Minority Group ◽  
Transition To Democracy ◽  
Law Of War ◽  
Human Rights Organizations ◽  
Muslim Minority ◽  
International Attention ◽  
The Law ◽  
Muslim Minorities

The paper is aimed to analyses the Law of War violation in Myanmar. Current communal conflicts in Myanmar among Buddhists and Muslims have cast a pall over the country's transition to democracy. The Rohingya, a Muslim minority group, has been disproportionately affected by the recent round of violence. The Rohingya have been subjected to many human rights violations, which has drawn international attention to the situation. Because the Myanmar government does not recognize Rohingya as a separate ethnic group, they are effectively stateless. Rohingya claim to be indigenous people of Myanmar, despite the government's statements that they came from Bangladesh. The research concludes that as positive as the recent political change has been, the Rohingya's future development does not appear bright. International human rights organizations are urging the global community to pressure Myanmar's administration to amend the Citizenship Law, which effectively makes the Rohingya homeless. The end of this article will give a solution for the Myanmar conflict and protect the Muslim minorities.

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