scholarly journals The concept of human rights in practice: civil society

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (151) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aldona Musiał-Kidawa
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil Society

scholarly journals A Rights-Holder View on Human Rights Provisions in Olympic Bidding and Hosting Regulations

AJIL Unbound ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 114 ◽  
pp. 356-361
Author(s):  
Daniela Heerdt
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Olympic Games ◽  
International Olympic Committee ◽  
Winter Olympics ◽  
Potential Benefits

The Paris 2024 Summer Olympics will be the first Olympic Games for which human rights provisions were added to the Host City Contract (HCC). The Milano/Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will be the first edition of the Games that were awarded with human rights requirements forming part of the candidature process. The inclusion of human rights provisions into hosting and bidding regulations can be seen as a reaction of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to the increasing pressure from civil society to address adverse human rights impacts of these events. This essay provides an analysis of the benefits and shortcomings of this development and reveals that from a rights-holder perspective, the benefits are meaningless. More specifically, it argues that potential benefits are cancelled out by the shortcomings and most importantly that there is a mismatch between intended and actual beneficiaries of these provisions.

A National Treasure? The Role of Civil Society in Promoting and Enforcing Human Rights in the United Kingdom

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harriet Samuels
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Negative Attitude ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Economic Rights ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Social And Economic Rights

Abstract The article investigates the negative attitude towards civil society over the last decade in the United Kingdom and the repercussions for human rights. It considers this in the context of the United Kingdom government’s implementation of the policy of austerity. It reflects on the various policy and legal changes, and the impact on the campaigning and advocacy work of civil society organizations, particularly those that work on social and economic rights.

scholarly journals Legal and human rights-based approaches to healthy diets and sustainable food systems

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
D W Patterson ◽  
K Buse ◽  
R Magnusson ◽  
B C A Toebes
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Global Health ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Sustainable Food Systems ◽  
Sustainable Food ◽  
Healthy Diets ◽  
Health And Development ◽  
The Right

Abstract Issue Malnutrition in all its forms poses daunting challenges to global health and development. The agriculture sector is a significant contributor to global warming. COVID-19 has pushed many people into poverty, including food poverty. A radical rethink of business models, food systems, civil society involvement, and national and international governance is required to address the interlinked crises of COVID-19, obesity, undernutrition, and climate change. International human rights law, institutions and mechanisms provide important opportunities for norm setting, advocacy and accountability. Yet these pathways are under-utilised by both governments and civil society. Description The global AIDS response demonstrated the power of a human rights-based approach. United Nations' HIV/AIDS and Human Rights Guidelines greatly influenced the global consensus for effective, evidence-based approaches. The Guidelines also informed resolutions of the UN General Assembly and its Human Rights Council, contributing to more affordable medicines, an unprecedented increase in people on treatment, less stigmatising health services, the empowerment of marginalised groups, and the institutionalisation of norms, including “no one left behind.” Human rights-based approaches have also been successfully utilised in tobacco control. Results In 2019, 180 experts from 38 countries published an open call on WHO and the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to initiate an inclusive process to develop guidelines on human rights, healthy diets and sustainable food systems. Most signatories were from the health and development sectors, demonstrating the increasingly broad interest in using human rights mechanisms to address global health challenges. Lessons Opportunities exist to transform food systems and create healthier food environments and a healthier planet by clarifying existing international obligations to progressively realise the right to food and the right to health. Key messages Market forces, alone, are failing to deliver healthy diets and sustainable food systems. International legal frameworks and accountability mechanisms provide opportunities for engagement and action. Human rights guidelines can help mobilize multisectoral action, strengthen State and private sector accountability, and deepen community engagement in the urgent task of achieving Agenda 2030.

scholarly journals The Implications of and Responses to COVID-19: Localizing Human Rights in the City of York (UK)

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 250-259
Author(s):  
Paul Gready
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
City Council ◽  
Right To Life ◽  
Thick Description ◽  
The Right ◽  
The City ◽  
Dimensional Picture

Abstract This essay attempts to capture the human rights implications of COVID-19, and responses to it, in the city of York (UK). Three human rights contributions are identified: ensuring that responses enhance dignity, the right to life, non-discrimination, and protect the most vulnerable; using human rights when balancing priorities and making difficult decisions; and optimizing the link between disease and democracy. The overarching aim is to localize and contextualize human rights in a meaningful way in the city, and thereby to provide meaningful guidance to the City Council and statutory agencies when implementing the difficult measures required by the pandemic, and to support civil society advocacy and monitoring. This work, led by the York Human Rights City (YHRC) network, illustrates the value of a localized ‘thick description’ of human rights and the multi-dimensional picture of challenges, innovations and solutions facilitated by such an approach.

scholarly journals The Party’s Turn to Public Repression: An Analysis of the ‘709’ Crackdown on Human Rights Lawyers in China

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva Pils
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
The Political ◽  
Rational Argument ◽  
Political Emotions ◽  
Legal Advocacy ◽  
Human Rights Advocacy ◽  
Party State

The intensified and more public repression of civil society in China is part of a global shift toward deepened and technologically smarter dictatorship. This article uses the example of the ‘709’ government campaign against Chinese human rights lawyers to discuss this shift. It argues that the Party-State adopted more public and sophisticated forms of repression in reaction to smarter forms and techniques of human rights advocacy. In contrast to liberal legal advocacy, however, the Party-State’s authoritarian (or neo-totalitarian) propaganda is not bounded by rational argument. It can more fully exploit the potential of the political emotions it creates. Along with other forms of public repression, the crackdown indicates a rise of anti-liberal and anti-rationalist conceptions of law and governance and a return to the romanticisation of power.

Child Combatants of the Maoist People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in Nepal: A Human Rights Perspective, 1996–2013

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-60
Author(s):  
Rajesh Kumar Meher
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Vulnerable Groups ◽  
People's Liberation Army ◽  
Disadvantaged Children ◽  
The Poor ◽  
People’S Liberation Army ◽  
Human Rights Violation ◽  
Major Target

The study analyzes involvement of children in the decade-long Maoist armed conflict in Nepal, an issue of grave human rights violations. An armed conflict affects all sections of the society irrespective of caste, class, gender, region, and religion. However, children have been one of the most vulnerable groups in the Maoist conflict in Nepal. The decade-long Maoist conflict in Nepal has various implications on children such as disruption of education, separation from families, killing and maiming, illegal detention, disability resulting from the conflict, etc. Thus, there has been gross human rights violation of children during the conflict. But one of the worst forms of implications of the Maoist conflict has been the recruitment of children as combatants by the Maoist Army, otherwise known as the People’s Liberation Army, formed in 2001, in their fight against the state forces, which is the focus of this study. The article explores how the poor disadvantaged children have been the major target of recruitment by the Maoist. It discusses the role played by the child recruits during the conflict. Besides, it examines the role played particularly by the United Nations as well as the Nepali civil societies in the protection, rehabilitation, and reintegration of children into the civil society.

scholarly journals Religion and Education in Romania: Social Mobilization and the “Shadow” of the European Court of Human Rights

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (S1) ◽  
pp. S79-S102
Author(s):  
Mihai Popa ◽  
Liviu Andreescu
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Public Education ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Symbolic Capital ◽  
Social Mobilization ◽  
European Court

AbstractIn this article, we discuss the relation between the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and its jurisprudence and social mobilizations around the place of religion in the society. We focus on the struggles to define the intersection of religion and public education in Romania after the fall of communism. We show that secularist and counter-secularist civil society activists contending for the place of religion in public education in this country have made strategic use of the ECtHR and its case law, both in legal battles and in debates within the national public sphere. We argue that, since references to the ECtHR and its jurisprudence can be used in discursive battles as a form of symbolic “capital”, the strategies of mobilizing actors are at times more important than the strict doctrinal content of the ECtHR's judgments for understanding if and how the ECtHR's “shadow” is cast over religion-related mobilizations.

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