Access to Justice for the Poor: Rethinking the Role of International Human Rights Organizations

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Faizat Badmus-Busari
Author(s):  
Nina I. Karpachova

The task of this paper is to study the role of international human rights organizations in response to the conflict taking place in eastern Ukraine. The study is based on recent reports from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the OSCE on Ukraine. The relevance of the stated topic is determined by the situation with human rights violations in the armed conflict in Ukraine and the significant role of international human rights organizations, making active efforts to resolve it. The purpose of this study is to determine the main aspects of the role that international organizations play in resolving this range of issues. This will help to identify potential opportunities to tackle the problem with human rights violations in the Ukrainian territories. The study combines quantitative and qualitative research of the entire spectrum of issues brought into the subject. The main results obtained are: analysis of the role and place of international human rights organizations in assessing the situation with the conflict in the Ukrainian territories and obtaining statistical information on the current status of human rights violations in these territories. The value of this paper lies in obtaining practical recommendations for finding ways to peacefully resolve the conflict in the East of Ukraine and implementing comprehensive measures to create conditions for the protection of human rights in this region


Author(s):  
Samantha Besson

As a companion to the five regional reports in this volume, this chapter’s aim is a double one: first, to bring the comparison up to the regional level, and second, to analyse the international and domestic institutions, procedures, and mechanisms that affect how international human rights instruments influence domestic law. The chapter is therefore both a study in comparative international human rights law and a contribution to its methodology. Its structure is four-pronged. The first section clarifies the aim, object, and method of the comparison. The second section presents a comparative assessment of the Covenants’ domestic influence across regions and develops a grid of comparative analysis. The third section addresses the authority of the Committees’ interpretations of the Covenants, relying on a bottom-up comparative law argument. The fourth section discusses the role of human rights comparison and of regional human rights law in enhancing the legitimacy of the Committees’ future interpretations.


2021 ◽  
pp. 113-139
Author(s):  
Bruce W. Johnston

Bruce W. Johnston reviews the current state of play in Canada regarding the imposition of civil liability on multinationals for human rights abuses occurring overseas. He explains the bijural nature of the legal system and the consequential developments of civil law in Quebec and common law elsewhere. He outlines, by reference to case law, the relevant law on jurisdiction, including in class actions, and application of forum non conveniens, forum necessitatis, and choice of law, under common and civil law. Regarding causes of action, he considers the corporate veil hurdle and important judgments on direct liability of the parent company, in Choc v. Hudbay Minerals and most strikingly, the direct application of customary international human rights law by the Supreme Court in Nevsun. Equally important in terms of practical access to justice, the chapter outlines the rules on procedures relating to opt-out class actions, legal costs, including litigation funding.


Author(s):  
Michal Cenker ◽  
Daniel Holder

Chapter 10 critically assesses the role of international human rights protections in promoting the rights of migrants and refugees in the context of globalisation, continuing global socio-economic inequalities and global conflict. While the whole concept of human rights rests on humanitarianism and not citizenship, international human rights mechanisms, such as the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), have often allowed states to apply restricted rights to non-citizens and while the UN Migrant Worker Convention exists, it remains the only core UN human rights instrument not to receive widespread ratification. This chapter discusses some of the issues which prevent the establishment of universal human rights protections for migrants and refugees, and how such protections have often been limited by a range of economic, political and security considerations along with prejudicial attitudes in potential host countries.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 241-257
Author(s):  
Rachel Adams ◽  
Nóra Ní Loideáin

Virtual personal assistants (VPAs) are increasingly becoming a common aspect of everyday living. However, with female names, voices and characters, these devices appear to reproduce harmful gender stereotypes about the role of women in society and the type of work women perform. Designed to ‘assist’, VPAs – such as Apple's Siri and Amazon's Alexa – reproduce and reify the idea that women are subordinate to men, and exist to be ‘used’ by men. Despite their ubiquity, these aspects of their design have seen little critical attention in scholarship, and the potential legal responses to this issue have yet to be fully canvassed. Accordingly, this article sets out to critique the reproduction of negative gender stereotypes in VPAs and explores the provisions and findings within international women's rights law to assess both how this constitutes indirect discrimination and possible means for redress. In this regard, this article explores the obligation to protect women from discrimination at the hands of private actors under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, and the work of the Committee on Discrimination Against Women on gender stereotyping. With regard to corporate human rights responsibilities, the role of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights is examined, as well as domestic enforcement mechanisms for international human rights norms and standards, noting the limitations to date in enforcing human rights compliance by multinational private actors.


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