US aid and substitution of human rights violations

2021 ◽  
pp. 073889422110450
Author(s):  
Ghashia Kiyani
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Relationship

This paper examines the relationship between US aid and human rights violations in autocracies. It argues that autocratic leaders do not want to lose aid owing to their poor human rights records, and yet at the same time, cannot completely stop their rights violations because they often come into power through force. In this situation, the leader acts strategically by substituting the visible rights violations for invisible ones. However, substitution depends on the strategic relationship between the US and the recipient. If the recipient is strategically unimportant, then we can expect substitution; otherwise, it will not be necessary.

Moving towards Complicity as a Criterion of Attribution of Private Conducts: Imputation to States of Corporate Abuses in the US Case Law

2011 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 989-1007
Author(s):  
DANIELE AMOROSO
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
State Involvement ◽  
The Us ◽  
Terrorist Groups ◽  
Traditional Paradigm ◽  
Corporate Liability ◽  
Private Wrongs

AbstractAccording to the agency paradigm enshrined by the 2001 ILC Articles on State Responsibility, private conducts are attributed to a state when they are carried out on the state's behalf or under its tight control. On closer look, this legal framework proves to be unable to deal with state involvement in human-rights violations perpetrated by powerful non-state actors, such as terrorist groups or transnational corporations. These wrongs, indeed, are often put in place with the fundamental contribution of – but not on behalf of (or under the control of) – a state, with the consequence that, under the traditional paradigm, they could not be attributed to the latter. Against this backdrop, the present paper argues that a new secondary norm has been developing that provides that private wrongs are to be imputed to a state if the latter knowingly facilitated (or otherwise co-operated in) their commission. Although international practice will be duly taken into account, the analysis will be focused mainly on US case law concerning corporate liability for international human-rights violations.

Collective Reparations as a Partial Remedy for State-Perpetrated Blanket Violations of the Rights of Targeted Child Asylum Seeker Groups

2019 ◽  
pp. 339-368
Author(s):  
Sonja C. Grover
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Central America ◽  
Asylum Seeker ◽  
Zero Tolerance ◽  
Migration Policy ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
The Us ◽  
Principles Of Justice

This article argues for the entitlement of discrete refugee groups to collective reparations for targeted state-perpetrated blanket grievous human rights violations against their group whether by the home, transit or prospective asylum state. A review of selected international law and international principles of justice are discussed as a grounding for the applicability of collective reparations in such a refugee context. The example is discussed of children from Central America who accompanied their parent or parents to the US-Mexican border in search of refugee asylum most of whom, but not all, crossed the US border irregularly and then were separated from their parents as a result of President Trump’s so-called ‘zero-tolerance’ migration policy and held in US custody. Over 500 of these children are still, at the time of writing, separated from their parents and for a significant number of those, their parents have been deported without them.

The Politics of Human Rights Diplomacy

2020 ◽  
pp. 097359842094343
Author(s):  
Anupama Ghosal ◽  
Sreeja Pal
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
United Nations ◽  
National Security ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
Precise Formulation ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Relationship

The issue of Human Rights features as a prominent agenda of the United Nations and its related international organizations. However, when it comes to precise formulation of a country’s foreign policy in bilateral or multilateral forums, the issues of trade and national security find priority over pressing human rights violations occurring within the countries engaged in the diplomatic dialogue. An often-employed reason behind such an approach is the need to respect sovereignty and non-interference of a country in diplomacy. This article aims at analysing the potential which diplomacy holds to pressurize recalcitrant regimes to respect human rights. In doing so, the article tries to explore the ambit of Human Rights Diplomacy and the relationship between agenda of politics and human rights.

Chomsky’s Discourse on US Foreign Policy, Media and Human Rights Interface: Implications to Indian Media

2012 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Ashok Antony D’Souza
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
The United States ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
Ruling Elite ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
News Reports ◽  
Propaganda Model ◽  
Noam Chomsky ◽  
Us Imperialism ◽  
The Us

The United States (US) is usually thought of as a nation representing freedom, democracy and human rights. However, as shown by Noam Chomsky and a few others, the US has turned out to be the most dominant imperialist nation as it is a ‘super power’ with immense political and economic clout. The US has been involved in human rights’ violations, Chomsky claims, with an intention of capturing markets for its goods and services, but has been successful in veiling it by shaping popular consciousness through its hegemony over popular media. Chomsky argues that the US has been preparing the ground for human rights’ violations by the use of ‘Propaganda Model’ which ‘filters’ reality in such a way as to give the ‘news’ that is perverted to serve the needs of the ruling elite. For instance, in many of the ‘news’ reports the weapons of mass destruction used by the US are attributed human traits while the citizens of the enemy nation are presented as nameless “aggressors” or “terrorists”. The relevance of the paper rests on working out the implications of Chomsky’s perspectives on the use of media by the US to serve its propagandist model and the implications of such tendencies to nations like India. The paper also tries to work out the possible way out of this impasse. Keywords: Culture of terrorism, human rights, media, propaganda model, US imperialism

scholarly journals Lex Internationalis: Kiobel, Empires and the Color of Human Rights

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Sean Morris
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Supreme Court ◽  
Common Law ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
Modern Conception ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
The Us ◽  
Alien Tort Statute

In this article, I investigate the nature and origin of the Alien Tort Statute (A TS) and its link and application to the modern conception ofhuman rights. In the recent Kiobel decision, the Supreme Court resurrected the A TS and found that the A TS does not apply to human rights violations outside of the US allegedly committed by foreign-based corporations. The Supreme Court held that the presumption against extraterritorially applies to common law causes of action under the A TS, and no evidence exists that the First Congress wanted the A TS to confer jurisdiction over extraterritorial torts. In the article, Idevelop the notion ofthe color ofhuman rights to demonstrate that human rights itself has become a sort of lex internationalis.

scholarly journals Licensed to kill: The United Kingdom's arms export licensing process

2008 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Stavrianakis
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Export Control ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
Regional Stability ◽  
Export Policy ◽  
Arms Trade ◽  
Arms Export ◽  
The Relationship

The article addresses the U.K. government's arms export licensing process to try to account for the discrepancy between its rhetoric of responsibility and practice of ongoing controversial exports. It describes the government's licensing process and demonstrate how this process fails to prevent exports to states engaged in internal repression, human rights violations, or regional stability. It then sets out six reasons for this failure: The vague wording of arms export guidelines; the framing of arms export policy; the limited use (from a control perspective) of a case-by-case approach; the weak role of pro-control departments within government; pre-licensing mechanisms that facilitate exports and a lack of prior parliamentary scrutiny, which means the government's policy can only be examined retrospectively; and the wider context of the relationship between arms companies and the U.K. state. It is concluded that the government's export control guidelines do not restrict the arms trade in any meaningful way but, rather, serve predominantly a legitimating function.

scholarly journals Can positive obligations of States serve as a remedy for human rights violations committed by juristic persons?

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-60
Author(s):  
Pavel Ondrejek
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Major Change ◽  
Case Law ◽  
The State ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
Legal Doctrine ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract: Positive obligations of States to protect and implement human rights are considered a part of various effects of human rights in legislations. In this article, it is argued that a crucial problem arises from the inconsistent practice of addressing violations of human rights committed by juristic persons together with a lack of underlying general theory of liability for human rights violations committed by private entities. Without a major change in the legal doctrine and case-law, we will need to remain focused on the role of the State as a guarantor of human rights, rather than on the imposition of human rights obligations on private-law entities. In this article, it is argued that the nature of the relationship between a juristic person and the State is not the only relevant aspect, as we should also examine the activity of the juristic person in question.Keywords: Positive obligations of States. Juristic persons. State-juristic person nexus. Fundamental rights. Horizontal effect.Resumo: Obrigações estatais positivas de proteger e de implementar direitos humanos são parte dos vários efeitos dos direitos humanos nas legislações nacionais. Neste artigo, argumenta-se que um problema crucial decorre da prática de abordar violações de direitos humanos cometidas por pessoas jurídicas sem uma teoria geral da responsabilidade por violações de direitos humanos cometidas por entidades privadas. Sem uma mudança importante na doutrina e na jurisprudência será preciso permanecer olhando apenas para o papel do Estado como garantidor de direitos humanos. Neste artigo argumenta-se que a natureza da relação entre uma pessoa jurídica e o Estado não é o único aspecto relevante. É preciso examinar também a atividade da pessoa jurídica em questão.Palavras-chave: Obrigações positivas dos Estados. Pessoas jurídicas.

Handling Facebook: social media in the light of human rights violations

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 59-76
Author(s):  
Gleb Bogush ◽  
Olga Kudinova
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
The Gambia ◽  
International Justice ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Us ◽  
Media Corporations

International justice does not remain on the sidelines from the intensive development of social media: the data stored on the social media possesses great evidentiary value in international courts. The dispute over the disclosure of information by Facebook for use in the Gambia v. Myanmar dispute before the International Court of Justice raises a broader issue of the international legal status of telecommunications companies, obligations of companies and states in relation to the use of social media for human rights violations and commission of international crimes. The article assesses the existing international legal regime of human rights obligations of global social media corporations, as well as their role in administration of international justice, by examining the case of the use of Facebook disseminating hate speech and inciting violence against the discriminated group of Rohingya in Myanmar. The authors analyze the report of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar, Facebook’s reaction to the information of its influence on the situation with Rohingya, and measures taken by the company to reduce the negative impact of its business activity on human rights. The article draws attention to the inconsistent position of Facebook with regard to facilitating the investigation of violations of international law committed through the social media. In particular, the authors comment on the dispute between the Gambia and Facebook before the U.S. Courts arising from the request on disclosure of materials forming evidence in the case of the Gambia v. Myanmar, and lack of action from the US with respect to human rights violations and genocide committed with resources of the US-based social media company. The authors underscore the uncertainty of international legal regulation that impedes effective international investigations of serious human rights violations. Non-state actors remain outside the reach of international justice and international accountability mechanisms, especially when they operate in jurisdictions of states that ignore their positive human rights obligations. The authors conclude that it is necessary to develop effective mechanisms for cooperation and accountability of social media corporations in the field of international justice, as they play an increasing role in the investigation of serious violations of human rights.

Human rights in an age of distant witnesses: remixed lives, reincarnated images and live-streamed co-presence

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sam Gregory
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
Ethical Considerations ◽  
Shared Experience ◽  
Human Rights Practice ◽  
The Us ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities

This chapter explores the practical challenges and opportunities of the current moment in visual activism. Via a series of situated observations from Syria, Burma, the US and elsewhere, it focuses particularly on the ways in which videos, testimonies and imagery of human rights violations are shared from sites of crisis, remixed, and re-purposed by both ‘distant witnesses’ and NGOs. The chapter considers how these image operations reflect the increasingly porous, expanding boundaries of participation in the field of human rights and their impact on issues of representation, unexpected circulation, and other ethical considerations in human rights practice. It also explores how the concept of the live news broadcast is being up-ended and up-dated through the practice of livestreaming from situations in Egypt, Burma, Africa, and Brazil. Within this context the author discusses the possibilities of live and immersive witnessing for human rights, and the conceptual, ethical and practical possibilities of image and experience-based activism at the intersection of trends in live and immersive video, ‘co-presence’ technologies for shared experience at a distance, task-routing technologies and distributed movement technologies.

The Effect of US Troop Deployments on Human Rights

2016 ◽  
Vol 61 (10) ◽  
pp. 2020-2042 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sam R. Bell ◽  
K. Chad Clay ◽  
Carla Martinez Machain
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Host Country ◽  
The United States ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
Host State ◽  
Local Populations ◽  
External Threats ◽  
High Security ◽  
The Us

US noninvasion troops deployed abroad often try to promote greater respect for human rights in the host country. The host country, having an incentive to retain the troop presence, may choose to comply with these requests. We argue that this effect will not be at play in states with high security salience for the United States (US) (for which the US may not be able to credibly threaten to remove the troops). In these cases, US deployments will provide the leader with security from both internal and external threats that is independent of the local population’s support for the leader. Host state leaders thus become less reliant on (and potentially less responsive to) their local populations, which in turn may lead to increased human rights violations. In this article, we use data on both US troop deployments abroad and on human rights violations to test these arguments from 1982 to 2005.

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