Transnational Migration Contesting Borders of Responsibility for Justice

2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (6) ◽  
pp. 799-814
Author(s):  
Zuzana Uhde
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Global Justice ◽  
Transnational Migration ◽  
Global Capitalism ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
Structural Group ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Human Rights Regime ◽  
Transnational Migrants

The article focuses on structural causes of migration, putting forward an argument that such analysis sheds light on key shortcomings of today’s global geopolitical regime. First the author analyzes structural causes of transnational migration in global capitalism. She argues that transnational migrants represent a structural group of people who find themselves in a similar position in relation to social structures of current global economic architecture even though they do not necessarily have a collective identity. Second, the author discusses the methodological and practical limits of the current nation-state defined framework of responsibility for global justice which does not respond to structural causes of transnational migration and reproduces the internal contradictions of the international human rights regime. Following this critical analysis, the author focuses on the possibilities of extraterritorial obligations for justice, which are partly embedded in the current international law. Then she outlines an argument for a differentiated responsibility for global justice.

Conclusion: Human Rights Treaties (Sometimes) Protect Rights

2019 ◽  
pp. 193-224
Author(s):  
Courtenay R. Conrad ◽  
Emily Hencken Ritter
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
International Institutions ◽  
Domestic Institutions ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Human Rights Regime ◽  
Human Rights Treaties ◽  
International Human

This chapter highlights the conclusions and contributions of theresearch: obligation to international law can constrain leaders from violating human rights-and encourage potential dissidents to revolt against their governments. The argument that human rights treaties "work" is contrary to the explanations of a wide variety of scholars who maintain that the international human rights regime has been an abject failure. Although scholars have found evidence that domestic institutions can lead to decreased repression, there has been little support for the argument that international institutions do so.In contrast, this book finds that-if international law creates even the smallest shift in assumptions over domestic consequences for repressive authorities-these effects can yield a substantively meaningful reduction in rights violations when leaders have significant stakes in domestic conflicts.

scholarly journals International Constitutional Law and Judicial Review of Domestic Human Rights Legislation

ICL Journal ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 87-118
Author(s):  
Laura-Stella Enonchong
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Constitutional Law ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Domestic Sphere ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Human Rights Regime ◽  
International Human ◽  
Human Rights Norms

Abstract This article discusses the idea of international human rights law as ‘constitutional law’. It applies the French concept of Le contrôle de conventionnalité des lois, to demonstrate the constitutional potentials of international human rights law in the domestic sphere. In most monist constitutional systems based on the French civilian model, international law takes precedence over acts of parliament and other domestic legislation. Due in part to that hierarchy, conventionnalité permits the courts to review domestic law for compatibility with international law. From that perspective, international human rights norms can be said to have assumed a ‘para-constitutional’ function. Using two case studies from francophone Africa, this article argues that conventionnalité has the potential to play a significant role in the domestic implementation of international human rights and ultimately contributing to a more comprehensive domestic human rights regime.

scholarly journals Reflections on researching transnational migrants and the fieldwork challenges of studying co-nationals abroad

2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Angelo Martins Jr. ◽  
Caroline Knowles
Keyword(s):  
Transnational Migration ◽  
Research Process ◽  
The Other ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
Everyday Lives ◽  
Transnational Migrants

This article offers reflections on the process of researchingtransnational migration, and particularly the fieldworkchallenges and difficulties that can emerge when studyingco-nationals abroad. Based on two distinct research projectson transnational migration (one on Brazilians in Londonand the other on Britons in Beijing), which used similarmethodological tools and faced similar challenges, we arguethatcombining a mobile ethnographic methodologicaltool (documenting journeys) with in-depth biographicalinterviews and historical and contextual analyses, makes ourdata open to analyse migration as a translocal process at thesame time that provides a connection between both macroand micro scales of analysis. Our methodological tools allowedus to understand how people speak of, engage with andnegotiate mobile experiences in their everyday lives, in themacro political and social structures organising immigrationand emigration.We conclude by reflecting on the challengesof researching co-nationals abroad,our own positionalityin relation to our fieldwork and the multi-layered powerrelations involved in our respective research process.

Signaling commitments, making concessions: Democratization and state ratification of international human rights treaties, 1966–2006

2014 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 475-508 ◽  
Author(s):  
Min Zhou
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Political Competition ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Dynamic State ◽  
Promoting Effect ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Human Rights Regime ◽  
Human Rights Treaties ◽  
International Human

How is the establishment of the international human rights regime possible in the first place? Bringing together theories from international law, political science, and sociology, I revisit the argument that global efforts to institutionalize human rights into international law are mainly driven by states undergoing democratization. Political democratization is crucial to the creation of the international human rights regime, because it generates “commitment” and “concession” mechanisms that motivate states to support human rights treaties. Analyzed by Cox event history models, the data on state ratification of the core United Nations human rights treaties from 1966 through 2006 are consistent with this argument. Improvement in human rights and increased political competition do significantly increase the rate of state ratification of human rights treaties. The ratification-promoting effect of democratization also operates in an immediate fashion. Overall, this study provides empirical support for the dynamic state-oriented explanation for global legalization of human rights and suggests a close connection between global democratization waves and the establishment of the human rights regime.

The Protection of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples in International Law: A Comparative Temporal Analysis

2010 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 393-422
Author(s):  
Joshua Castellino
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Minority Rights ◽  
Temporal Analysis ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Human Rights Regime ◽  
International Human

AbstractIt is easy to detect a sense of achievement with the extent to which the human rights regime has progressed 60 years after the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The relative international successes suggest a bright outlook for the future of the human rights regime. However, an important lacuna remains in the attention that ought to be paid to minorities, indigenous peoples and others in vulnerable situations, including in some instances, women. This paper argues that despite the creation of sophisticated systems of international human rights law, the regimes for the protection of minority rights were stronger before the United Nations (UN) era. In support of this argument it seeks to assess regimes that existed at three different times, attempting to extrapolate and analyse the snapshots presented by these through the lens of evolving human rights law.

scholarly journals ‘Non-Religion’ as Part of the ‘Religion’ Category in International Human Rights

Religions ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 79
Author(s):  
Alan G. Nixon
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Religious People ◽  
International Human ◽  
Civil And Political Rights ◽  
Human Rights Standards

‘Religion’ still occupies and maintains a position of formal and informal privilege in many current societies. It retains these privileges despite the increasing numbers of people who label themselves ‘non-religious’. There is also evidence that overtly non-religious people are being persecuted due to the continuation of these privileges. This paper will examine such treatment of the non-religious in the context of human rights instruments and laws. It lays out the international law case for the rights of the non-religious. It also discusses the extent to which state actors have or have not ignored human rights standards in their persecution or deprivileging of non-religious people. This paper will proceed through a three-step analysis. Step 1 is to examine the aspirational Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in relation to the non-religious. The relevant sections of the UDHR and interpretations that they have received will be discussed. Step 2 is to do the same with the binding International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Finally, Step 3 is to give examples of lower-level and local laws, where I shall examine the extent to which individual countries’ laws and practices toward non-religious people support or contradict the treaty commitments that those countries have made. The continuation in coercion/persecution cases suggests that something is amiss with human rights protections being provided to the non-religious. If we are to create social structures that are more inclusive of the non-religious and to advocate for non-religious rights, it is necessary to examine the societal power and privilege still held by ‘religion’. It is hoped that this article can inform and encourage further similar engagements among sociologists, religious studies scholars, activists and lay-people interested in the treatment of non-religious peoples.

scholarly journals A Theory of Joint-Stock Citizenship and its Consequences on the Brain Drain, Sovereignty, and State Responsibility

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Raul Magni-Berton
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Brain Drain ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Global Justice ◽  
State Responsibility ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
Psychological Concept ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Specific Country

Recent discussions about global justice have focused on arguments that favor the inclusion of political and social rights within the set of human rights. By doing so, these discussions raise the issue of the existence of specific rights enjoyed exclusively by citizens of a given community. This article deals with the problem of distinguishing between human and citizen rights. Specifically, it proposes a new concept of citizen rights that is based on what I call ‘the stockholder principle’: a principle of solidarity that holds within a specific country. This concept, the paper goes on to argue, is compatible with a broad idea of human rights defined by international law and enforced according to territorial authority. The stockholder principle is further compatible with the psychological concept of citizenship based on a specific collective identity and it leads to fair consequences at the domestic and global levels.

Conceptions And Interpretations of Human Rights in Europe and Asia: Normative Aspects

2010 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 117-135
Author(s):  
Bożena Drzewicka
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
The West ◽  
Human Rights Protection ◽  
Rights Protection ◽  
The World ◽  
International Human

Conceptions And Interpretations of Human Rights in Europe and Asia: Normative AspectsThe issue of confronting values between civilizations has become very important. It influences not only the level of international politics but also the international normative activity. It is very interesting for the modern international law and its doctrine. The most important factor of causing huge changes in the system of international law is still the international human rights protection and the international humanitarian law which is related to it. It is very difficult to create one catalogue of executive instruments and procedures but it is possible to influence the attitude toward the basic paradigms. The frictions appear from time to time and move to other planes. The West and Asia are still antagonists in the dialogue on the future of the world. The article is a contribution to the intercivilizational dialogue.

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