scholarly journals Navigating the Moral Minefields of Human Rights Advocacy in the Global South

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra L. Babcock
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Global South ◽  
Foreign Assistance ◽  
Government Accountability ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Foreign Countries ◽  
Human Rights Advocacy ◽  
International Human ◽  
Moral Choices ◽  
The Impact

Northwestern University Journal of International Human Rights, Vol. 17, No. 1, 2019Human rights advocacy in foreign countries raises complex ethical, moral, and political questions. Legal scholars have challenged the legitimacy and accountability of international human rights activists that impose foreign agendas on local partners in the Global South. Development economists have raised related concerns about the impact of foreign assistance on government accountability. In this article, I use narrative storytelling techniques to illustrate the fraught strategic judgments and moral choices that permeate human rights advocacy. These narratives are drawn from my international human rights clinic’s twelve-year engagement in justice reform work in Malawi, where my students and I have been instrumental in the release of nearly 300 prisoners from Malawian prisons. Over more than a decade, we have periodically fallen prey to cultural misperceptions and ethical dilemmas that threatened to derail our success. The lessons derived from these experiences underscore the value of a long-term, incremental approach to human rights advocacy that prioritizes deep collaboration over short-term success.

Influence of the ICCPR in Asia

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yogesh Tyagi
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Judicial Discourse ◽  
International Human ◽  
Golden Jubilee ◽  
Civil And Political Rights ◽  
The Impact

The golden jubilee of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) coincides with the emergence of Asia as a centre of global attention. However, greater attention to Asia has been accompanied by some scepticism over its attitude towards human rights. The chapter provides an overall assessment of the impact of the ICCPR on the major Asian States, with an analysis of the factors affecting such influence. The chapter considers the involvement in, observance of, and compliance with the provisions of the ICCPR by these States. It further delves into the academic and judicial discourse on the ICCPR within these States, recording the domestic disposition towards judgments of foreign courts, the output of the Human Rights Committee, and the work of other international human rights bodies. It makes suggestions for developing mechanisms to improve the effectiveness of the ICCPR and for creating databases to perform further research in the area.

scholarly journals Criminalization and International Human Rights

2018 ◽  
Vol 112 ◽  
pp. 83-84
Author(s):  
Alice M. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Sexual And Reproductive Health ◽  
Hiv Transmission ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
Human Rights Advocacy ◽  
International Human ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
And Gender

Human rights advocacy today engages with criminal law at international and national levels with a new and rather conflicted posture. It is reorienting from an approach that primarily treated human rights as a shield from (unjust) prosecutorial and carceral power, and toward one calling for criminal penalties and vigorous prosecutions as a remedy for harms. The human rights abuses for which state prosecution is invoked today include not only past and present state violations, such as torture, but crimes by non-state actors, such as sexual and gender-based violence. At the same time, paradoxically, many rights groups are calling for the review and reduction of criminal regulation of a range of sexual and reproductive health practices, including abortion, consensual sexual conduct outside of marriage (same sex, heterosexual, and sex for money), and HIV transmission.

Hong Kong's Bill of Rights: Its Reception of and Contribution to International and Comparative Jurisprudence

1998 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 306-336 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johannes M. M. Chan
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Hong Kong ◽  
Interesting Case ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Bill Of Rights ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
International Human ◽  
The Impact

The Hong Kong Bill of Rights Ordinance entered into force on 8 June 1991. Its purpose is to incorporate into the law of Hong Kong the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (“the ICCPR”) as applied to Hong Kong. Being one of the first occasions where the ICCPR has been given direct legal force in a common law jurisdiction, the Hong Kong experience will provide an interesting case study on how an international human rights instrument is received and interpreted in domestic law. Indeed, shortly after the coming into operation of the Hong Kong Bill of Rights Ordinance, the late Professor Opsahl predicted that it would give the ICCPR, and by implication the Human Rights Committee, a potential impact on the Hong Kong domestic legal system which could hardly be expected in other countries. He even suggested that, in dealing with matters which the Human Rights Committee has not yet considered, the interpretation of the Hong Kong courts in applying the Bill of Rights may provide a useful supplement to international human rights law. The Bill of Rights Ordinance is now seven years old. This article will address two issues: first, the impact international and comparative jurisprudence has had on the interpretation of the Hong Kong Bill of Rights and, second, the contribution the Hong Kong jurisprudence on the Bill of Rights has or could have made to the development of international and comparative human rights law.

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