Rethinking the management of transboundary freshwater resources: a critical examination of modern international law and practice

2000 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Albert
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Critical Examination ◽  
Freshwater Resources

What’s in a name? ‘Refugees’, ‘migrants’ and the politics of labelling

Race & Class ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 40-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tazreena Sajjad
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Migration Policy ◽  
Critical Examination ◽  
Security Threats ◽  
European Continent ◽  
The Past ◽  
Refugee Protection ◽  
European Immigration ◽  
European Migration

Through a critical examination of European immigration policy and using the case of Afghan asylum seekers in the European continent, this article argues that the politics of labelling and the criminalisation and securitisation of migration undermine the protection framework for the globally displaced. However, the issue goes deeper than state politicking to circumvent responsibilities under international law. The construction of migrants as victims at best, and as cultural and security threats at worst, particularly in the case of Muslim refugees, not only assists in their dehumanisation, it also legitimises actions taken against them through the perpetuation of a particular discourse on the European Self and the non-European Other. At one level, such a dynamic underscores the long-standing struggle of Europe to articulate its identity within the economic, demographic and cultural anxieties produced by the dynamics of globalisation. At another, these existing constructions, which hierarchise ‘worthiness’, are limited in their reflection of the complex realities that force people to seek refuge. Simultaneously, the labels, and the discourse of which they are part, make it possible for Europe to deny asylum claims and expedite deportations while being globally accepted as a human rights champion. This process also makes it possible for Europe to categorise turbulent contexts such as Afghanistan as a ‘safe country’, even at a time when the global refugee protection regime demands creative expansion. Ultimately, the politics of European migration policy illustrates the evolution of European Orientalist discourse – utilised in the past to legitimise colonisation and domination, now used to legitimise incarceration and deportation.

Moving Ahead in Protecting Freshwater Resources: The International Law Commission's Draft Articles on Transboundary Aquifers

2009 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 801-821 ◽  
Author(s):  
KERSTIN MECHLEM
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Groundwater Resources ◽  
Water Law ◽  
Polar Ice ◽  
Freshwater Resources ◽  
Un General Assembly ◽  
International Water Law ◽  
International Water ◽  
International Law Commission ◽  
Transboundary Aquifers

AbstractOn 11 December 2008 the UN General Assembly adopted a set of draft articles on the law of transboundary aquifers which had been prepared by the International Law Commission (ILC) between 2002 and August 2008. These draft articles are the first official instrument that lays down rules of international law for the management and protection of groundwater, which makes up 97 per cent of the Earth's freshwater resources, excluding the resources locked in polar ice. This article discusses the contribution of the draft articles to the development of international water law. It first provides some background on the importance of shared groundwater resources, then describes the ILC's work on transboundary aquifers, and finally assesses in detail the draft articles and the way ahead.

Part I Introduction, 1 Human Use of Fresh Water and the Era of Water Scarcity

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
McCaffrey Stephen C
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Fresh Water ◽  
Water Scarcity ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Natural Conditions ◽  
Freshwater Resources ◽  
Human Use ◽  
Valuable Role

This introductory chapter discusses the importance of water to humans, its growing scarcity relative to human populations, and, consequently, the increasing potential for water-related conflicts between States. Humans are straining the limits of a resource essential to their survival. Moreover, humans are capable of altering natural conditions to the point that their neighbors are deprived of fresh water they need and have historically relied upon. While international law plays an important role in resolving conflicts between states, it can play an even more valuable role in preventing them, in establishing conditions that are conducive to cooperation among states sharing freshwater resources. Indeed, cooperation is itself a logical outgrowth of rules of international law applicable in this field.

scholarly journals The Efficacy of Water Treaties in the Eastern Nile Basin

2014 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wuhibegezer Ferede ◽  
Sheferawu Abebe
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Critical Examination ◽  
Nile Basin ◽  
Water Treaties

This paper attempts to analyse the efficacy of the water treaties of the Nile in light of the principles of international law. The following critical examination of the treaties brings to light numerous legal defects associated with fraud, coercion, exclusivity and the deficiency of many of the precepts of the international law. Moreover, the lower riparian states’ advocacy for the succession of colonial treaties, which is branded as the re-affirmation of colonialism, is found to be incompatible with the principles of the clean-slate theory adopted by the upper riparian states. Therefore, the region lacks an efficacious regime that could address the interests of all riparian states.

Sovereignty, International Law, and the Uneven Development of the International Refugee Regime

2014 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 439-468 ◽  
Author(s):  
GLEN PETERSON
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Uneven Development ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Critical Examination ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Alternative Pathways ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Chinese Migrants ◽  
History Of ◽  
International Refugee Regime

AbstractWhen we think about the history of the international refugee regime, why is it that—with a few carefully delineated exceptions—there were no non-European ‘refugees’ until the 1950s? This article offers a critical examination of existing scholarship on the history of the international refugee regime and suggests some alternative pathways for future research. The article has three broad objectives. The first is to propose an outline for an alternative history of the international refugee regime, one in which the non-European and colonial worlds are not invisible or peripheral but rather central to the main narrative. The second is to ask what place Chinese migrants might occupy in such an alternative history of human displacement, stretching over the course of the twentieth century. Finally, this article tries to show that the period from 1945 to the early 1960s was an especially critical one in the history of the international refugee regime, one in which refugee movements bothout ofandintothe People's Republic of China were critical in generating the kinds of tensions and contradictions that emerged when the international refugee regime was transposed from Europe onto colonial and post-colonial Asia.

Do Religion and Human Rights Interact?

2008 ◽  
Vol 15 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 403-411
Author(s):  
Natan Lerner
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
International Law ◽  
Significant Contribution ◽  
Critical Examination ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
World War ◽  
Considerable Part ◽  
Individual Contributions ◽  
The Subject

AbstractThe two reviewed books belong to a series of “Studies in Religion, Secular Beliefs and Human Rights” published by Martinus Nijhoff. Both constitute a significant contribution to the literature on religion and human rights that developed in the last decade, after many years of neglect of the subject. Both are collective books and the outcome of international conferences. They deal with diverse aspects of the interaction between religion and human rights and international law. A recurrent question is to what extent has religion influenced human rights or if these are a post World War II and post-Holocaust phenomenon, strictly secular. Does God Believe in Human Rights? contains an introduction and 14 essays. The volume Religion, Human Rights and International Law is subtitled A Critical Examination of Islamic State Practices, a subject to which a considerable part of the volume is devoted. It contains 18 individual contributions, in addition to introductory reflections by the editors.

scholarly journals Critical perspectives on environmental protection in non-international armed conflict: Developing the principles of distinction, proportionality and necessity

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 759-779
Author(s):  
Tara Smith
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Environmental Protection ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Critical Examination ◽  
Ongoing Debate ◽  
Customary International Law ◽  
Military Necessity ◽  
International Law Commission ◽  
Law Commission ◽  
Critical Perspectives

AbstractThis article presents a timely and relevant critical examination of the customary international law principles of distinction and proportionality, and the doctrine of military necessity and the extent to which they can be better interpreted to protect the environment during the conduct of hostilities in non-international armed conflict. In so doing, this article contributes new perspectives to the ongoing debate on how environmental protection ought to be enhanced during non-international armed conflict. The article also suggests ways in which the International Law Commission (ILC) might approach the development of draft principles based on these customary principles as part of their current programme of work.

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