Can international law protect half of humanity? A new strategy to stop violence against women

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 88-100
Author(s):  
Riane Eisler
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Race And Ethnicity ◽  
Rome Statute ◽  
Economic Consequences ◽  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Genital Mutilation ◽  
New Strategy ◽  
Women And Girls

Purpose – The Rome Statute, especially Article 7 on Crimes against Humanity, and the principle of Responsibility to Protect (R2P) apply to widespread violations of human rights that a State fails to prohibit or protect against. Yet far too little attention has been paid to systemic crimes that take the lives of many millions of women and girls every year. The purpose of this paper is to detail a proposal to use international law to hold governments and/or their agents accountable when they fail to protect the female half of humanity from widespread and egregious crimes of violence. Design/methodology/approach – To accelerate the movement to make women's human rights a global priority, it examines: first, expanding the interpretation of the Rome statute, particularly Article 7 – Crimes against Humanity. Second, where necessary, amending the statute to include gender in addition to race and ethnicity. Findings – Seven crimes and their personal, social, and economic consequences are analyzed, and legal remedies are detailed: selective female infanticide and denial to girl children of food and health care; the sex trade and sexual slavery; female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C); domestic violence (from murder in the name of honor and bride burning to acid throwing and battery); rape; child marriage and forced marriage. Originality/value – This paper explores a new approach for use by scholars, attorneys, and human rights activists to end the global pandemic of violence against the female half of humanity by invoking the Rome Statute and/or amending it to protect women and girls. It provides a new legal and sociological analysis.

The Puzzle of Atrocity Criminalization

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Mark S. Berlin
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
Criminal Courts ◽  
Qualitative Case Studies ◽  
National Courts ◽  
Domestic Courts ◽  
Quantitative Analyses

Why do governments take atrocity offenses, like genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, from international law and legislate them into domestic criminal law, empowering national courts to prosecute their own, and sometimes other states’, government and military officials? The question is important, because the international community has constructed an international legal regime to prosecute the most serious human rights violations, but that regime is designed to rely primarily on domestic criminal courts to try offenders. To fulfill this role, domestic courts often require specific legislation that defines and criminalizes these offenses in national law. Yet, the adoption of national atrocity laws is puzzling, since in a number of ways, these laws appear to threaten states’ interests. This introductory chapter highlights the puzzle of atrocity criminalization and discusses its importance for the functioning of the international atrocity regime. It then situates this study in existing literatures and highlights the book’s contributions to research on atrocity justice, human rights, and international law. Next, it summarizes the book’s main arguments and details the study’s multi-method research design, which combines quantitative analyses of new, original datasets with in-depth qualitative case studies of Guatemala, Colombia, Poland, and the Maldives.

2 Crimes Against Humanity Under General International Law

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mettraux Guénaël
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Core Values ◽  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
International Crimes ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter discusses crimes against humanity under international law. Crimes against humanity were first introduced at Nuremberg as a means of criminalizing three sorts of criminality that so far had evaded the sanction of international law: atrocities committed outside the context of an armed conflict or independent of it; crimes committed against fellow nationals or nationals of allied nations; and institutionalized discriminatory violence that resulted in individuals being targeted and mistreated by a state because of their identity. Crimes against humanity seek to protect core attributes of all human beings: their dignity; their humanity; and their fundamental human rights. The notion of crimes against humanity reflects the fact that the protection of those interests and the punishment of serious violations of these interests is a matter of universal concern. It also makes it clear that the protection arising from international law does not depend on the nationality of the victim or his membership in a group, nor on his or relationship to the perpetrator. Instead, it is the sheer humanity of the victim that warrants and justifies the criminalization of such acts. And whilst the notion of genocide and crimes against humanity overlap in part in their efforts to protect these core values, unlike genocide, crimes against humanity seek to protect individuals as such, rather than groups of individuals. The chapter then looks at the relationship between crimes against humanity and other international crimes as well as the process of defining crimes against humanity.

scholarly journals Is global poverty a crime against humanity?

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 539-571 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gwilym David Blunt
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
International Criminal Court ◽  
Rome Statute ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International System ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
Global Poverty ◽  
Definition Of

Pogge has repeatedly compared the causes of global poverty with historical crimes against humanity. This claim, however, has been treated as mere rhetoric. This article argues that there are good reasons to take it seriously. It does this by comparing Pogge’s thesis on the causes of global poverty with the baseline definition of crimes against humanity found in international law, especially the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. It argues that the causes of global poverty are comparable with the crimes of slavery and apartheid. This has important consequences for cosmopolitan thought, as it makes the need for practical solutions to global poverty more urgent and raises questions about the global poor’s right to resist the international system by violent means.

The effect of the 2014 West Africa Ebola virus disease epidemic on multi-level violence against women

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 151-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melanie O’Brien ◽  
Maria Ximena Tolosa
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
West Africa ◽  
Violence Against Women ◽  
Ebola Virus ◽  
Virus Disease ◽  
Right To Health ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Women And Girls

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide an analysis of the disproportionate impact of the 2014 West Africa Ebola virus disease (EVD) epidemic on women, presenting an assessment of how this impact in particular is linked with violence against women and women’s right to health, and a critique of improvements that could avoid discrimination against women in healthcare crises. Design/methodology/approach This paper covers conceptual understandings of, and utilises a human rights law and public health lens to analyse how the EVD epidemic in West Africa both directly and indirectly caused greater harm to women and girls. All these factors which represent intersectional violations of the human rights of women are examined with a focus on violence against women and the right to health. Findings There are multiple reasons why the EVD outbreak harmed women disproportionately, and this intersectionality of discrimination must be considered in any response to a public health crisis. Addressing the vulnerability of women and girls to all forms of violence involves the coordinated efforts of public health, legal and political actors to empower women. Originality/value Specific issues of the 2014 West Africa EVD outbreak have been examined in medical journals, but there have been no academic studies that present a cross-disciplinary analysis of the gender concerns. This paper combines a public health perspective with a human rights law viewpoint in order to consider the impact of the EVD outbreak on women and provide suggestions as to how discrimination and disadvantage of women in such health crises can be avoided.

scholarly journals The problems of violence against women in international law

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 803-819
Author(s):  
Valery V. Chernikov ◽  
◽  
Olga K. Goncharenko ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Domestic Violence ◽  
International Law ◽  
Violence Against Women ◽  
Legal Aspects ◽  
Council Of Europe ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Genital Mutilation ◽  
The Public ◽  
Women And Girls ◽  
Basic Approaches

The problems of violence against women and domestic violence were reflected in Goal No. 5 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which calls for gender equality and empowerment of women and girls while addressing such challenges as elimination of all forms of discrimination against women and girls; eradication of violence against women and girls in the public and private sphere, including human trafficking, sexual and other forms of exploitation; liquidation of all harmful practices, in particular forced marriages and female genital mutilation. In this article, the authors examine existing conventional and doctrinal definitions and qualifications of the terms “violence against women” and “domestic violence” in international law, explore international legal aspects of prevention and combatting violence against women and domestic violence, conduct a comprehensive analysis of a conceptual framework related to these offences, and present basic approaches to the concept of domestic violence. The authors also examine the link between two core international universal and regional legal acts in this field — Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women and Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combatting violence against women and domestic violence. The authors derive a new understanding of the due diligence principle (a well-known principle/standard in international law) with regard to violence against women and domestic violence issues, clarify its key components while codifying states’ main obligations in this sphere. In conclusion, the authors deduce that the questions of elimination of discrimination against women and eradication of violence against women can only be considered collectively, confirming the validity of the theory of a genderbased approach to the issue, which is adhered to by international human rights bodies.

scholarly journals PERBUDAKAN SEKSUAL (SEXUAL SLAVERY) SEBAGAI KEJAHATAN KEMANUSIAAN DAN PERANG DI BAWAH HUKUM INTERNASIONAL

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Arif Rohman
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Rome Statute ◽  
War Crimes ◽  
Internal Conflict ◽  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
Sexual Slavery ◽  
Geneva Conventions ◽  
Set Up ◽  
International Instruments

Abstrac Almost every case of armed conflict both internal conflict and inter-state conflicts, violations that fall into the category of crimes against humanity. One such crime is sexual slavery. Nevertheless, the true multiple instrument products have set about sexual slavery, but in fact violations still occur, so how to regulate the instrument set up and how the application of the instrument. The approach used in this study a statutory approach and approach the case, it is intended to determine the international instruments which regulate and application of the crime of sexual slavery. Sexual slavery has been set up in several instruments and is a violation of the Fourth Geneva Conventions of 1949, Additional Protocol II of 1977, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Rome Statute, anti-torture convention so that it can be regarded as war crimes. Sexual slavery is expressed as slavery not as rape. Evidently some tribunal (ICTY, ICTR, Tokyo Tribunal, and ICC) which has been in effect and entrap the perpetrators of sexual slavery was found guilty.Key words: Sexual slavery, Crime Humanity, War Crimes and International Law

In the Shadow of the International Criminal Court

2016 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin J. Appel
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Criminal Court ◽  
Rome Statute ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
Expected Payoffs

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is responsible for prosecuting crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide. Despite the potential for the ICC to deter human rights abuses, scholars and policy makers are divided on the effectiveness of it. This debate, however, is plagued by some important theoretical and empirical limitations. I address the problems in the literature and evaluate whether the ICC can prevent human rights abuses. I argue that the ICC can deter governments from committing human rights violations by imposing a variety of costs on them throughout their investigations that decrease their expected payoffs for engaging in human rights abuses. Across a variety of statistical estimators that account for standard threats to inference and several anecdotes, I find strong support for my theoretical expectations; leaders from states that have ratified the Rome Statute commit lower levels of human rights abuses than nonratifier leaders.

scholarly journals The Crisis of International Criminal Law in Africa: A Regional Regime in Response?

2019 ◽  
Vol 66 (2) ◽  
pp. 287-311
Author(s):  
Eki Yemisi Omorogbe
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
Rome Statute ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
War Crimes ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
International Crimes

Abstract This article considers the African Union’s (AU) proposal for a regional court for international crimes under the Malabo Protocol 2014 (Protocol). It places that within the AU’s rejection of the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) arrest warrants for African Heads of States that are not party to the Rome Statute and a more general protection of incumbents. It argues that the enthusiasm for establishing a regional criminal court, which lacks jurisdiction to prosecute incumbents, has not been sustained and African states remain committed to the ICC. It shows that nevertheless the Protocol’s provisions on genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, although imperfect, better address the specific character of armed conflicts in Africa than current international law, including the Rome Statute of the ICC. It concludes that the regional court for international crimes is unlikely to be established unless the ICC takes further action against incumbent leaders but that the Protocol’s provisions could be used in the development of a more Africa-centric international law.

It's just another war!

2008 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 366-377
Author(s):  
Pauline Collins
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Use Of Force ◽  
Transnational Corporations ◽  
Historical Overview ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Case Examples ◽  
New Development ◽  
Practical Implications

PurposeThis paper aims to raise awareness and the level of debate on a significant new development in international law.Design/methodology/approachThe paper takes a historical overview in considering current approaches to the phenomenon of private military corporations (PMCs) and uses case examples to discuss the issues raised.FindingsThe paper concludes that the phenomenon raises many issues that need further analysis, such as the outcome of this phenomenon on the future of democracy in sovereign states.Research limitations/implicationsThe topic allows for much further research into such matters as definitional, jurisdictional and enforceability issues with regard to corporate entities known as PMCs.Practical implicationsFor peace and human rights to prevail in democracies in which the state maintains the monopoly on the use of force, the paper argues that PMCs should be prohibited rather than subjected to mere regulation.Originality/valueThe paper is the first to use the term “preyfits” in describing the actions of transnational corporations. While most scholars argue for regulation of PMCs, this paper argues for their total prohibition.

scholarly journals PEMULIHAN (REPARATIONS) KORBAN PELANGGARAN BERAT HAK ASASI MANUSIA DI ARGENTINA DAN CILE

Asy-Syari ah ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-196
Author(s):  
Andrey Sujatmoko
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Rome Statute ◽  
State Responsibility ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
Legal Obligation ◽  
Military Dictatorship ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Military

AbstractReparation is an integral part of state responsibility for the past of gross human rights violations committed in any country and it is also legal obligation under international law. Those violations have ever committed in Argentina (1976-1983) and Chile (1973-1990) during the military dictatorship regime. The applied method in this study is descriptive-analytic with historical approach to the reparation efforts for the victims of the past gross human rights violations in those countries. The author concludes that the characteristic of the gross human rights violations committed in Argentina and Chile can be categorized as crime against humanity based on the Rome Statute 1998. Reparations programs by fullfiling economic and social rights of the victims of gross human rights violations have been done by both countries as well.  Keywords: Reparation, Victim, Violation AbstrakPemulihan adalah bagian integral dari tanggung jawab negara atas pelanggaran berat HAM masa lalu yang terjadi di dalam suatu negara dan hal itu juga merupakan kewajiban hukum menurut hukum internasional. Pelanggaran-pelanggaran tersebut pernah terjadi di Argentina (1976-1983) dan Chile (1973-1990) selama rezim diktator militer berkuasa. Metode yang digunakan dalam kajian ini adalah deskriptif analitis dengan pendekatan historis terhadap upaya upaya-upaya pemulihan terhadap para korban pelanggaran berat HAM masa lalu di kedua negara tersebut. Penulis menyimpulkan bahwa karakteristik pelanggaran berat HAM yang terjadi di Argentina dan Cile dapat dikategorikan sebagai kejahatan terhadap kemanusiaan berdasarkan Statuta Roma 1998. Program-program pemulihan dengan memenuhi hak-hak ekonomi dan sosial dari para korban pelanggaran juga telah dilakukan oleh kedua negara itu. Kata Kunci: Pemulihan, Korban, Pelanggaran

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