scholarly journals Legal Activism for Ensuring Environmental Justice

2012 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 1-44
Author(s):  
Saiful Karim ◽  
Okechukwu Benjamin Vincents ◽  
Mia Mahmudur Rahim

AbstractThis article reviews some of the roles environmental lawyers have played in ensuring environmental justice in Bangladesh. It leans on law and social movement theories to explicate the choice (and ensuing success) of litigation as a movement strategy in Bangladesh. The activists successfully moved the courts to read the right to a decent environment into the fundamental right to life, and this has had the far-reaching effect ofconstituting a basis forstanding forthe activists and other civil society organisations. The activists have also sought to introduce emerging international law principles into the jurisprudence of the courts. These achievements notwithstanding, the paper notes that litigation is not a sustainable way to institute enduring environmental protection in any jurisdiction and recommends the utilisation of the reputation and recognition gained through litigation to deploy or encourage more sustainable strategies.

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 49
Author(s):  
Deky Yoga Irawan ◽  
Akhmad Ganefo

The phenomenon of social movement in Tanah Pusaka region locates in Grajagan village of Banyuwangi regency. The campaign appeared due to Tanah Pusaka community sense of injustice in Grajagan village regarding the land status that they used. This research aims to know and to describe what form of movement strategy and what obstacles in implementing the strategy for struggling. This study used the theory of resource mobilization as well as the method used was descriptive qualitative located in Tanah Pusaka Grajagan village Purwoharjo district of Banyuwangi regency. The research results obtained that the group of Tanah Pusaka Care Forum was formed due to injustice felt by the community of Tanah Pusaka regarding the right status of land ownership. Thus, Tanah Pusaka Care Forum became a social group striving for community goals of Tanah Pusaka community, namely, establishing the indigenous villages in the region of Tanah Pusaka, and creating the prosperous citizens of Tanah Pusaka. Tanah Pusaka Care Forum, organized, attached ideology, gave identity and mobilized the resources. Several strategies that used in maintaining their awareness and developing their networks are field action, lobbying, members’ consolidation, istighosah, mapping the area, and regeneration. The obstacles experienced by Tanah Pusaka Care Forum in the form of the weakening from the external and appearing the restlessness from internal in Tanah Pusaka Care Forum. Keywords: indigenous villager, social movement strategy, and Tanah Pusaka Care Forum. Referensi: Budihardja, Miriam. 2010. Dasar-Dasar Ilmu Politik. Jakarta: PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama.             Gardono, Sujatmiko. 2006. Gerakan Sosial, Wahana Civil Society Bagi Demokrasi. Jakarta: LP3ES.        Harahap, A. 2004. Hukum Acara Perdata. Jakarta: PT Sinar Grafika. Horton, Paul B. dan Hunt, Chester L.,. 1993. Sosiologi, Terjemahan Aminuddin Ram dan Tita Sobari. Jakarta: Erlangga.        Kartasapoetra, G dan Kreimers, LJ. B. 1987. Sosiologi Umum. Jakarta: Bina Aksara.        Maarif, Syamsul. 2010. Perilaku Kolektif dan Gerakan Sosial. Yogyakarta: Gress Publishing. Suharko. 2006. Gerakan Sosial Konsep, Strategi, Aktor, Hambatan dan Tantangan Gerakan Sosial di Indonesia. Malang: Averroes Press. Skripsi: Aini, Fadlilathul. 2008. Stretegi dan Platform Gerakan Masyarakat Sipil dalam Situasi Politik Lokal dan Nasional di Yogyakarta. Bogor: Institut Pertanian Bogor.    


2013 ◽  
Vol 164 (8) ◽  
pp. 236-239
Author(s):  
Werner Schärer

Sustainability in forest and society despite “overmaturity” and “lack of regeneration” (essay) This essay compares efforts to move towards sustainability in the forests with those in the care for the elderly in Switzerland, and tries to draw conclusions which may promote sustainability. It is wrong, for forests and human populations, to talk of “overmaturity”, as this assumes the primacy of economic reasoning. To guarantee sustainability, the balance between all aspects is crucial. To attain true sustainability, we need binding guidelines and the “right” scale of implementation programme. Civil society organisations have been working for decades – often longer than the state itself – to improve sustainability. In many different areas, good cooperation and effective distribution of tasks between these institutions can be observed. This is important, among other things, because the ever greater speed of technical progress may overwhelm the adaptive capacity of both forests and people, which would influence sustainability in a negative way.


Author(s):  
Ian Park

There is a difference between a State’s substantive and procedural right to life obligations. This chapter explores what amount to a state’s substantive right to life obligations with reference to Article 2, ECHR and Article 6, ICCPR. The respective provisions are analysed to determine the extent of a state’s substantive right to life obligations during armed conflict and then a comparison between the two international law instruments is undertaken. In order to undertake such a comparison, the exceptions to the right to life in both the ECHR and ICCPR are examined. Once determined, the planning and conduct of a military operation are considered, to assess the extent to which, in general terms, right to life obligations are considered in these areas.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 250-259
Author(s):  
Paul Gready

Abstract This essay attempts to capture the human rights implications of COVID-19, and responses to it, in the city of York (UK). Three human rights contributions are identified: ensuring that responses enhance dignity, the right to life, non-discrimination, and protect the most vulnerable; using human rights when balancing priorities and making difficult decisions; and optimizing the link between disease and democracy. The overarching aim is to localize and contextualize human rights in a meaningful way in the city, and thereby to provide meaningful guidance to the City Council and statutory agencies when implementing the difficult measures required by the pandemic, and to support civil society advocacy and monitoring. This work, led by the York Human Rights City (YHRC) network, illustrates the value of a localized ‘thick description’ of human rights and the multi-dimensional picture of challenges, innovations and solutions facilitated by such an approach.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (3.30) ◽  
pp. 182
Author(s):  
Syafiq Sulaiman ◽  
Salawati Mat Basir ◽  
Mohd Zamre Mohd Zahir

The protection of the right to life and the duty to rescue persons in distress at sea are the fundamental obligations under two specialized international law regimes which are the international human rights law and the law of the sea. These rules when read together form a strong protection of the human rights of the asylum-seekers stranded at sea. However, often states failed to honour this obligation for various reasons ranging from national security to economic reasons. This article will analyse Malaysia’s responsibilities as regards the right to life and the duty to rescue of these asylum-seekers. It will also identify the existing international and domestic legal framework relevant to the application of these obligations upon Malaysia and whether it has acted in breach of such obligations. The article then proceeded with suggestions for further improvement that Malaysia can adopt in order to better perform its obligations. This study is a pure doctrinal legal research which is qualitative in nature. The data used in this research is collected from library-based resources. These data were then analyzed by using methods of content analysis as well as critical analysis. The article found that Malaysia has a duty to protect the right to life under international human rights law. Additionally, Malaysia is also bound under the law of the sea to perform its duty to rescue. In view of Malaysia’s failure to perform these duties in two occasions in the past consequently had resulted in a violation of international law. Therefore, it is suggested that Malaysia should initiate a revision of its national laws and policies regarding treatment of asylum-seekers stranded at sea to be in line with Malaysia’s duty under international law. Besides, the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency is call upon to comply with the international standards of treatment of persons in distress at sea which includes the asylum-seekers.  


Author(s):  
Kuldeep Mathur

This chapter examines administrative accountability through the democratic pillar of public transparency. One of the pillars of democratic accountability is the availability of adequate information in the public domain about the functioning government. It has taken a social movement for transparency in government to establish people’s right to information through the passage of the Right to Information Act in 2005. However, traditional administration has not reconciled to its demands and PPPs are kept out of its purview on the plea that they are not public authorities. The Lok Pal (ombudsman) Bill has been passed in response to another struggle of civil society.


2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-45
Author(s):  
Alvine Longla Boma

Civil Society organisations play key roles in African countries. This is not an exception in the Cameroonian dispensation. Indeed, the existence and operation of civil societies in this jurisdiction is legitimated by a 1990 law allowing the free formation of associations. Even though the state has the primary obligation to promote and protect human rights, there also exists a plethora of associations with the same interest. This paper is motivated by the state’s wanton failure in ensuring the enjoyment and fulfilment of the right. For one thing, the state has maintained a stronghold on the Civil Society through legislation which gives public authorities a leverage over human rights defenders. Moreover, an analysis of existing legal and institutional frameworks available to allow human rights non-governmental organisations thrive, leaves much to be desired. Findings reveal that though there are adequate laws and institutions which ensure the creation and functioning of Civil Society organisations in Cameroon, there are also contradictory laws which give the public authority an edge over these organisations and allow them to sanction the activities of some human rights defenders under the guise of maintaining public order. We argue that there should be adequate protection offered to human rights defenders as well as the relaxation of laws permitting public authorities to illegally sanction the activities of relevant non-governmental organisations.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bartosz Pacholski

The subject matter of this commentary, which instigates the Views of the Human Rights Committee of 27 January 2021, is the protection of one of the fundamental human rights – the right to life. The Committee, as an authority appointed to oversee compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, had to decide on the issue of Italy’s responsibility for failing to provide assistance to a boat in distress, even if the area in which the vessel was located was not within the territory of this state and other acts of international law attribute the responsibility for executing the rescue operation to a third country. According to the Committee’s views, which applied extraterritorial approach to the protection of the right to life, whenever states have the opportunity to take action for the protection of human rights they should do everything possible in a given situation to help people in need.


Author(s):  
Alec Stone Sweet ◽  
Clare Ryan

This chapter charts the growing capacity of the European Court to protect the rights of those who are not citizens of member states of the Council of Europe. The Court’s sustained commitment to robustly enforcing the right to life, the prohibition of torture and inhuman treatment, and the right to a court and judicial remedy facilitated the development of three strains of cosmopolitan jurisprudence. The first operationalizes the Kantian principle of hospitality, covering expulsion, extradition, and the treatment of refugees. The second extends protections to persons whose rights have been violated by states who are not parties to the Convention, or by state parties exercising jurisdiction outside of Convention territory. The third instantiates dialogues with other treaty-based regimes when it comes to overlapping obligations to protect rights. These dialogues suggest that constitutional pluralism is an emergent property of the structure of international law beyond Europe.


2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 425-454
Author(s):  
Sarah M. Field

International law’s affirmation of everyone’s right to have rights came into being through a peacemaking process. Its deprivation continues to typify the emergent context that brings peace processes into being – and for some cohorts of the people, namely children, the process itself. The right is intuitively seductive. It resonates as self-evident: an inexorable abstraction of having rights. Yet it is also enigmatic and challenging to concretise. What is its content? What substantive rights are expressive of this right? What is their scope in peacemaking? And why is it – above for example more corporeal rights – so fundamental? Guided by these questions, the paper begins by reflecting on the right as crystallised by Hannah Arendt: it then shifts to reflecting on, first, its expression in international law and, second, its interrelations with the law of peace. In doing so, it yields legal and political opportunities for ensuring the right in peacemaking, and imagines a framework of evolving measures for bringing the right to life in the staged process. The paper concludes by arguing renewing engagement with this understated right offers a beacon for guiding responses to the complex child rights challenges yielded by peacemaking – and our interdependent and fragile twenty-first century world more generally.


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