scholarly journals Human rights litigation and the ‘war on terror’

2008 ◽  
Vol 90 (871) ◽  
pp. 573-597 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen Duffy

AbstractThe ‘war on terror’ has led to grave human rights violations and, in response, to a growing volume of human rights litigation. This article provides an overview of litigation that has unfolded in recent years in relation to issues such as arbitrary detention, torture and ill-treatment, extraordinary rendition, extraterritorial application of human rights norms and the creeping reach of the ‘terrorism’ label. These cases provide a prism through which are displayed key characteristics of the war on terror as it affects human rights, and enables us to begin to ask questions regarding the role of the courts and the impact of human rights litigation in this area.

2020 ◽  
pp. 147737082095823
Author(s):  
Bronwyn Naylor

Australia has recently ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT) in order to improve the oversight of Australia’s prisons and detention centres, following major human rights violations exposed in them in 2016. Ratification offers an opportunity to appraise the effectiveness of monitoring and oversight in Australia, and the limitations of human rights protections in the Australian context. Australia’s prisons and youth detention centres are to be monitored by a network of independent inspecting bodies, which are likely to include existing Ombudsman and human rights bodies. The Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman has the task of coordinating the new inspection bodies. This article reviews the existing protections of rights in Australia and considers the implications of ratification of OPCAT. The article concludes that implementation will require consideration of the effectiveness of the current bodies monitoring prisons and youth detention and their capacity to take on the role of preventing human rights violations, including their independence from government, as the states and territories decide on the establishment of their National Preventive Mechanisms. Implementation will also require an understanding of Australia’s historical ambivalence towards international human rights engagement and the impact of its federated system.


Laws ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 58
Author(s):  
Verónica Michel

In 2007 the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala began working to support the work of the Public Prosecutor’s Office to investigate and prosecute cases of corruption. In this short article, I address three questions: What was the design of CICIG? What were its results? How did the institutional design contribute to the impact it had in Guatemala? To answer these questions, I first discuss the problem of impunity and provide an interdisciplinary review of the factors that impact when a state punishes crime. In the following section, I briefly explain the institutionalist framework that guides my analysis of the work of CICIG and explain the theoretical importance of institutional design in the functioning of prosecutorial organs. In the third section I describe the institutional design of CICIG, its impact, and its limitations. In this section I explain how key characteristics in its design made this international commission a creative solution against impunity in a context where prosecuting state agents for human rights violations or corruption was virtually impossible. I conclude this article highlighting some key lessons from CICIG on matters of institutional design.


2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
ANWAR HAFIDZI

Until now several media in Indonesia is still preaching about violence in the name of religion, the burning of places of worship, Lapindo victims are still homeless, and many more events that involve the community in large numbers. Every human being has the right to live, but whether the appropriate law enforcement or still need improvement. This brief article will look at the impact of Law Number 26 on 2000 regarding Human Rights Court and its relevance to law enforcement. With the enactment of this Act, at least provides an opportunity to take back the cases of gross human rights violations that had occurred before the article appeared 43,44,46 of the Ad-hoc human rights court. Of course in the end, it is required for the support of law enforcement of?cials, political in?uence and a role of the community to criminalize of human rights although it is still the absence of explicit provisions in its implementation.


2021 ◽  
pp. 103985622110054
Author(s):  
Sarah Mares ◽  
Kym Jenkins ◽  
Susan Lutton ◽  
Louise Newman AM

Objective: This paper highlights the significant mental health vulnerabilities of people who have sought asylum in Australia and their additional adversities as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Conclusions: Australia’s policies in relation to asylum seekers result in multiple human rights violations and add significantly to mental health vulnerabilities. Despite a majority being identified as refugees, people spend years in personal and administrative limbo and are denied resettlement in Australia. Social isolation and other restrictions associated with Covid-19 and recent reductions in welfare and housing support compound their difficulties. The clinical challenges in working with people impacted by these circumstances and the role of psychiatrists and the RANZCP in advocacy are identified.


Author(s):  
Harriet Samuels

Abstract The article investigates the negative attitude towards civil society over the last decade in the United Kingdom and the repercussions for human rights. It considers this in the context of the United Kingdom government’s implementation of the policy of austerity. It reflects on the various policy and legal changes, and the impact on the campaigning and advocacy work of civil society organizations, particularly those that work on social and economic rights.


2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. 626-644 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizaveta Sivak ◽  
Maria Yudkevich

This paper studies the dynamics of key characteristics of the academic profession in Russia based on the analysis of university faculty in the two largest cities in Russia – Moscow and St Petersburg. We use data on Russian university faculty from two large-scale comparative studies of the academic profession (‘The Carnegie Study’ carried out in 1992 in 14 countries, including Russia, and ‘The Changing Academic Profession Study’, 2007–2012, with 19 participating countries and which Russia joined in 2012) to look at how faculty’s characteristics and attitudes toward different aspects of their academic life changed over 20 years (1992–2011) such as faculty’s views on reasons to leave or to stay at a university, on university’s management and the role of faculty in decision making. Using the example of universities in the two largest Russian cities, we demonstrate that the high degree of overall centralization of governance in Russian universities barely changed in 20 years. Our paper provides comparisons of teaching/research preferences and views on statements concerning personal strain associated with work, academic career perspectives, etc., not only in Russian universities between the years 1992 and 2012, but also in Russia and other ‘Changing Academic Profession’ countries.


2004 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oliver Gerstenberg

In this paper I want to address, against the background of the ECtHR’s recent attempt to resolve the clash between property rights and the right to freedom of expression in its decision in Appleby v. UK, two questions, both of which I take to be related to the overarching theme of “social democracy”. First, there is the problem of the influence of “higher law”-of human rights norms and constitutional norms-on private law norms; second, the question of the role of adjudication in “constitutionalizing” private law, in other words, the question of the “judicial cognizability” of constitutional norms within private law.


Author(s):  
Nina I. Karpachova

The task of this paper is to study the role of international human rights organizations in response to the conflict taking place in eastern Ukraine. The study is based on recent reports from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the OSCE on Ukraine. The relevance of the stated topic is determined by the situation with human rights violations in the armed conflict in Ukraine and the significant role of international human rights organizations, making active efforts to resolve it. The purpose of this study is to determine the main aspects of the role that international organizations play in resolving this range of issues. This will help to identify potential opportunities to tackle the problem with human rights violations in the Ukrainian territories. The study combines quantitative and qualitative research of the entire spectrum of issues brought into the subject. The main results obtained are: analysis of the role and place of international human rights organizations in assessing the situation with the conflict in the Ukrainian territories and obtaining statistical information on the current status of human rights violations in these territories. The value of this paper lies in obtaining practical recommendations for finding ways to peacefully resolve the conflict in the East of Ukraine and implementing comprehensive measures to create conditions for the protection of human rights in this region


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ma. Rhea Gretchen Arevalo Abuso

The 2016 national elections in the Philippines have been regarded as the most revealing and consequential democratic practice to the human rights situation in the country for two reasons. First, the overwhelming election of Rodrigo Duterte to the presidency was because of his campaign promise to rid the country of drugs and criminality within “3 to 6 months” through bloody and violent means. Second, the son and namesake of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, whose authoritarian regime in the 1970’s was responsible for countless human rights violations, narrowly lost his vice-presidential bid by a mere 270,000 votes. These turns of events beg the question: how could Filipinos, who experienced a bloody and violent regime at the hands of a dictator, choose to elect national leaders widely associated with human rights violations? This paper addresses this question through the use of in-depth interviews with Filipino college students in key cities in the Philippines in order to describe the Marcos regime from the perspective of the generation that did not experience the period. The research aimed to understand how memories of past human rights violations are formed and shaped, how these memories are crucial to the improvement of the human rights situation in society, and how to ensure that mistakes of the past are not repeated. The study found that widespread revisionist notions about the Marcos regime can be attributed to the absence of meaningful martial law and human rights education in the country.  However, the study also found that young Filipinos regard the social institution of education as the most trustworthy bearer of information on human rights and violent regimes. This highlights the crucial role of schools and educators in promoting human rights in society.


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