scholarly journals Extraterritorial Sanctions, Transnational Corporate Activity, and State’s Duty to Protect

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Bahareh Jafarian

Unilateral (extraterritorial) economic sanctions, that are often imposed on states and non-state actors by another state, are incompatible with international human rights law. Major powers use their dominant positions in the global economy to attempt influence the political behaviour of states by imposing economic measures against them. Nevertheless, the principal Business and Human Rights instruments as well as other International Law instruments do not address extraterritorial sanctions and their negative impacts on the operation of foreign business entities and the consequent human rights violations. These sanctions threaten a wide range of rights and freedoms enshrined in international human rights law and cause irreparable collateral damage. This paper is a critical inquiry into the relationship between extraterritorial sanctions, their negative impacts on the operation of the business entities in sanctioned state, and sender state’s extraterritorial human rights obligations. In order to answer this question, the paper will explore state’s duty to protect in more details in the context of imposition of extraterritorial sanctions.

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-31
Author(s):  
Natalie R. Davidson

How is international human rights law (IHRL) made “everyday” outside of treaty negotiations? Leading socio-legal accounts emphasize transnational civil society activism as a driver of norm change but insufficiently consider power dynamics and the legal-institutional environment. This article sheds light on these dimensions of IHRL by reconstructing how domestic violence came to be included in the prohibition of torture in five international and regional human rights institutions. Through process tracing based on interviews and a vast amount of documentation, the study reveals everyday lawmaking in IHRL as a complex, incremental process in which a wide range of actors negotiate legal outcomes. The political implications of this process are ambiguous as it enables participation while creating hidden sites of power. In addition to challenging existing models of international norm change, this study offers an in-depth empirical exploration of a key development in the international prohibition of torture and demonstrates the benefits of process tracing as a socio-legal methodology.


2020 ◽  
pp. 210-216
Author(s):  
Lea Raible

The conclusion revisits the central tenets and strands of the argument: how to understand interpretation, why jurisdiction is necessary, and how to account for it in international human rights law, how to relate it to territory, and how to apply jurisdiction as political power to a wide range of cases. It futher connects the theory of extraterritoriality developed in the previous chapters to wider considerations and takes stock of which questions have been answered and which questions remain. Finally, we consider why a narrow view of human rights might be our best option if we want to advance claims of global justice.


2015 ◽  
Vol 29 (6) ◽  
pp. 2-8
Author(s):  
Amy Burchfield

Purpose – This selected annotated bibliography guides users to print and online tools for researching international human rights law. Design/methodology/approach – To research international human rights law, users may need to access a wide range of resources that represent varying levels of depth and analysis. Thus, this selected annotated bibliography reviews a selection of dictionaries, handbooks, nutshells, encyclopedias, guides and Web sites that will be useful to scholars, students, practitioners and the general public. The results of a trial search for information on the women’s human rights are included for each resource. Findings – As recent world events such as the Arab Spring and the Syrian Civil War make headlines, the need for understanding international human rights law continues to be essential to life in a just society. The resources reviewed here help researchers, practitioners and the general public better understand the human rights implications of the events happening around them today, as well as past events. Originality/value – This is an original bibliography that aims to select and review tools for researching international human rights law from a variety of types and formats. It may be valuable to librarians working in academic, school and public libraries who handle questions about human rights, legal issues and world events.


AJIL Unbound ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 113 ◽  
pp. 157-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Chachko

The United States has employed targeted sanctions—economic and travel restrictions imposed directly on natural and legal persons—in a wide range of policy areas in the past two decades. This includes counterterrorism, nonproliferation, and cyber, as well as sanctions regimes aimed at changing the behavior of various governments. A substantial literature has considered the compatibility with international human rights law of the targeted sanctions practices of other actors, particularly the UN Security Council and the European Union. But relatively few scholars have examined U.S. targeted sanctions practices from that perspective. This essay argues that in principle, current U.S. designation practices can be reconciled with international standards. However, a more robust conclusion about the practices’ compatibility with international human rights law would require more information on the application of designation procedures in individual cases.


Author(s):  
Björnstjern Baade

This chapter shows that a state’s duty to protect human rights is an obligation that requires due diligence. As a standard of conduct under international human rights law, due diligence demands balancing a foreseeable risk to a protected interest against countervailing interests. The chapter reviews the practice of human rights courts and treaty bodies, concerning gender-based violence, business activities, official misconduct, and natural hazards. It reveals the way that due diligence requirements are operationalised in practice. The chapter argues that, despite occasional arguments to the contrary, due diligence does not dilute established standards of international human rights law but complements them. It serves to effectively mitigate risks to human rights no matter the risks’ source, in a manner that is also able to address systemic problems.


2016 ◽  
Vol 67 (4) ◽  
pp. 409-432
Author(s):  
Brice Dickson ◽  
Conor McCormick

This article begins by briefly surveying relevant international human rights law concerning the right to education and critiques its failure to guarantee children an education which is free from parental and/or religious domination. It then makes a positive case for guaranteeing children the right to ‘education for humanity’, meaning an education which equips them to be citizens of the world rather than captives of a particular creed, view of history or community tradition. It argues that conflicts could be reduced if schools were to focus on conveying an understanding of a wide range of beliefs and cultures. The piece then tests this position by considering the current education system in Northern Ireland, looking at six dimensions to the ongoing influence of religion on that system. It makes some suggestions for reform and ends with a more general proposal for a guaranteed right to education for humanity worldwide.


Author(s):  
John Linarelli ◽  
Margot E Salomon ◽  
Muthucumaraswamy Sornarajah

This chapter interrogates whether international human rights law has settled for preventing and mitigating deprivations without changing the terms under which that suffering is not only made possible but is reproduced, including by reinforcing the structural features that engender it. Human rights exist within an extreme capitalist global economy and their deployment needs to be considered against that backdrop, and not merely as a discrete, benevolent response to it. Taking the inquiry one step further, this chapter considers the ways in which human rights work against a transformative or radical agenda, to the detriment of their own aims and objectives. It explores how international human rights law is not limited to redistribution, but has not gone so far as to effecting ‘predistribution’, that is, making international law just, ex ante, in a structural sense. Moreover, its demands for redistribution in order to realize human rights can also serve to drive the possibility of predistribution further away.


2009 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 345-376 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nura Taefi

AbstractThis paper uses intersectional feminist theory to examine girls' unique positioning at the margins of age and gender. Using a wide range of examples, I consider that girls are marginalised within the category of children as female and within the category of women as children. These intersectional marginalisations reinforce one another and result in a further denial of girls' rights. A study of international human rights law demonstrates that fragmenting girls' identity into the categories of "women" and "children" causes girls to be overlooked in favour of those who are more visible. I suggest that the discourses of women's rights and children's rights must work together to establish an integrated approach to girls' rights. I propose that the appointment of a United Nations Special Rapporteur for the Girl-Child can bring this to effect in international human rights law.


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