scholarly journals Genetic Discrimination in Access to Life Insurance: Does Ukrainian Legislation Offer Sufficient Protection against the Adverse Consequences of the Genetic Revolution to Insurance Applicants?

Laws ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 2
Author(s):  
Mykhailo Arych ◽  
Yann Joly
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Family History ◽  
Life Insurance ◽  
Genetic Information ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Genetic Discrimination ◽  
Insurance Companies ◽  
European Convention ◽  
Genetic Characteristics ◽  
Application Forms

This paper presents an inter-disciplinary study of the risk for, and protections against, genetic discrimination in access to life insurance in Ukraine. It aims (i) to review questions related to genetic information, health status, and family history currently included in Ukrainian life insurance application forms; (ii) to analyze the Ukrainian legislation related to equity and nondiscrimination and to determine whether it provides adequate protection against genetic discrimination (GD). Research findings of our insurance application forms review show that Ukrainian life insurance companies ask broad questions about health and family history that may be perceived by applicants as requiring the disclosure of their genetic information. Our legal analysis shows that today there are no genetic specific law protecting Ukrainians people against GD in insurance. However, Ukrainian human rights legislation provides some protection against multiple grounds of discrimination and given the ratification by Ukraine of the European Convention on Human Rights it is possible that these grounds could be interpreted by tribunals as also including genetic characteristics. As a next step, Ukrainian researchers should develop a survey to obtain much needed data on the incidence and impact of GD in Ukraine. Following this it will be possible for policymakers to better assess whether there is a need for an explicit non-GD law in this country. Such a law would have the benefit of explicitly aligning Ukraine’s legal framework with that of many of its European partners.

Genomics, Insurance and Human Rights: Is there a Place for Regulatory Frameworks in Africa?

2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-34
Author(s):  
Vincent O. Nmehielle
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Health Insurance ◽  
Genetic Information ◽  
Insurance Industry ◽  
Genetic Discrimination ◽  
Insurance Companies ◽  
Genetic Profile ◽  
Regulatory Frameworks ◽  
Health Care Context ◽  
Insurance Decisions

AbstractThis article examines the human rights dimension of genetic discrimination in Africa, exploring the place of regulatory frameworks while taking into account the disadvantaged position of the average African. This is in response to the tendency of insurance companies toward making health insurance decisions on the basis of individual genetic information, which could result in genetic discrimination or health insurance discrimination based on a person's genetic profile. The author considers such questions as the intersection between human rights (right to life, health, privacy, human dignity and against genetic discrimination) in relation to the insurance industry, as well as the obligations of state and non-state actors to promote, respect, and protect the enjoyment of these rights. The article argues that African nations should not stand aloof in trying to balance the competing interests (scientific, economic and social) presented by the use of genetic information in the health care context and that ultimately it is the responsibility of states to develop domestic policies to protect their most vulnerable citizens and to prevent entrenched private discrimination based on an individual's genes.

scholarly journals Genetic discrimination: emerging ethical challenges in the context of advancing technology

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolyn Riley Chapman ◽  
Kripa Sanjay Mehta ◽  
Brendan Parent ◽  
Arthur L Caplan
Keyword(s):  
Health Insurance ◽  
Genetic Testing ◽  
Genetic Information ◽  
Predictive Power ◽  
The United States ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Genetic Discrimination ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Discrimination In Employment

Abstract Genetic testing is becoming more widespread, and its capabilities and predictive power are growing. In this paper, we evaluate the ethical justifications for and strength of the US legal framework that aims to protect patients, research participants, and consumers from genetic discrimination in employment and health insurance settings in the context of advancing genetic technology. The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) and other laws prohibit genetic and other health-related discrimination in the United States, but these laws have significant limitations, and some provisions are under threat. If accuracy and predictive power increase, specific instances of use of genetic information by employers may indeed become ethically justifiable; however, any changes to laws would need to be adopted cautiously, if at all, given that people have consented to genetic testing with the expectation that there would be no genetic discrimination in employment or health insurance settings. However, if our society values access to healthcare for both the healthy and the sick, we should uphold strict and broad prohibitions against genetic and health-related discrimination in the context of health insurance, including employer-based health insurance. This is an extremely important but often overlooked consideration in the current US debate on healthcare.

scholarly journals Pre-Trial Detention and Control Orders Under British Anti-Terror Legislation Post 9/11: Balancing a Need for Security with the European Convention on Human Rights – An Overview

2010 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sascha-Dominik Bachmann ◽  
Peter Galvin
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
European Convention ◽  
Foreign National ◽  
House Arrest ◽  
Indefinite Detention ◽  
Control Orders ◽  
And Control ◽  
Article 5

Contemporary British anti-terror legislation has been characterised by an extensive use of extra-ordinary detention measures: the Terrorism Act 2000 and Terrorism Act 2006 contain provisions, which enable the extended pre-charge detention of terror suspects beyond the limits of normal criminal procedure. The now repealed provisions of Part IV of the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 allowed the indefinite detention of foreign national terror suspects on a quasi-judicial basis. Its successor, the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005, enables the use of Control Orders, effectively a form of house arrest characterised by restrictions on an individual’s liberty. In short, these measures have in common the extensive limitation of the individual’s right to liberty under Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Whilst the judiciary have curtailed the most abhorrent manifestations of such extraordinary measures, as detailed, the legal framework as it exists today, still raises ECHR compliancy issues. Legal reformation should be sought to end such an impasse by amending at the very least the statutory framework already in place. Ideally anti-terror detention provisions should be brought back within the sphere of criminal law and in compliance with the ECHR.La législation contemporaine anti-terroriste britannique a été caractérisée par l’utilisation considérable de mesures extraordinaires de détention : la Terrorism Act 2000 et la Terrorism Act 2006 contiennent des dispositions qui permettent la détention prolongée préalable à l’accusation de personnes soupçonnées de terrorisme au-delà des limites de la procédure criminelle normale. Les dispositions, maintenant abrogées, de la Partie IV de la Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 permettaient la détention indéfinie de ressortissants étrangers soupçonnés de terrorisme sur une base quasi-judiciaire. Son successeur, la Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005, permet l’utilisation d’Ordonnances de contrôle, qui sont effectivement une forme de détention à domicile caractérisée par des restrictions sur la liberté d’un individu. En bref, ces mesures ont en commun de limiter considérablement le droit de l’individu à la liberté énoncé à l’Article 5 de la Convention européenne des droits de l’homme. Bien que l’appareil judiciaire ait restreint les manifestations les plus odieuses de mesures extraordinaires du genre, tel que détaillé, le contexte judiciaire tel qu’il existe aujourd’hui soulève encore des questions de conformité à la CEDH. Il faudrait préconiser des réformes juridiques pour mettre fin à une telle impasse, en modifiant tout au moins le cadre statutaire déjà en place. Idéalement, les dispositions de détention anti-terroristes devraient être ramenées dans la sphère du droit criminel et en conformité à la CEDH. 

Freedom of Religion in the Workplace

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Nedim Begović
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Bosnia And Herzegovina ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
The State ◽  
European Convention ◽  
Freedom Of Religion ◽  
European Court

Abstract The article analyses the case law of the European Court of Human Rights on accommodation of Islamic observances in the workplace. The author argues that the Court has not hitherto provided adequate incentives to the states party to the European Convention on Human Rights to accommodate the religious needs of Muslim employees in the workplace. Given this finding, the author proposes that the accommodation of Islam in the workplace should, as a matter of priority, be provided within a national legal framework. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, this could be achieved through an instrument of contracting agreement between the state and the Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The normative framework of the EU’s commitment to human rights

2020 ◽  
pp. 79-116
Author(s):  
Chiara Altafin ◽  
Karin Lukas ◽  
Manfred Nowak
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
European Convention ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Member States ◽  
Double Standards ◽  
Human Rights Protection ◽  
Normative Framework ◽  
The Eu

The chapter presents and assesses the various normative layers—domestic, European, regional, international—on which the European Union’s (EU’s) commitment to human rights is built. It analyses the interaction of EU primary law, general principles of law derived from constitutional traditions of Member States, and international human rights law, including relevant regional instruments such as the European Convention on Human Rights, the European Social Charter, and the Istanbul Convention. It is contended that, despite an impressive and pioneering normative framework on human rights, the EU currently faces a number of challenges that call for a strong stance on human rights realisation in all areas of its competence and influence. Enduring deficiencies in the relevant normative framework include the absence of a fully fledged EU competence to legislate in the area of human rights protection and the application of ‘double standards’ in the EU’s approach to human rights internally and externally, leading to a deep divide between internal and external policies guided by starkly different logics. Further areas of concern include the difficulties of the Charter of Fundamental Rights implementation in view of EU institutions and Member States’ competencies, which have become particularly apparent in the EU’s response to the Eurozone crisis and the arising tensions between EU and Member States’ austerity measures, as well as the uneven nature of the EU and Member States’ human rights obligations with regard to the international legal framework, leading to gaps and overlaps.

scholarly journals United Kingdom Criminal Records Scheme: a case of discrimination without justification?

IusLabor ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iris Rosario
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
European Convention ◽  
International Labor Organization ◽  
Criminal Records ◽  
Social Reintegration ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
International Labor ◽  
Undue Burden

This paper critically examines criminal records policies in the United Kingdom and explains how they constitute an undue burden on the convicted in their path to social reintegration. It shows the limits of the European Convention of Human Rights, the European Charter of Human Rights and the International Labor Organization legal framework to accomplish the reintegration of ex-offenders into society. Finally, it proposes the reevaluation of these types of schemes, since they do not achieves their principal objective of make our societies more secure places.

scholarly journals A Conceptual Legal Framework for privacy, accountability and transparency in visual surveillance systems.

2011 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 455-470 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nick Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Video Surveillance ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Visual Surveillance ◽  
European Convention ◽  
Surveillance Systems ◽  
The United Kingdom

The United Kingdom uses visual surveillnace techniques on a huge scale, but its rewgulation of those techniques has been sadly lacking. This paper seeks to consider the extent to which the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) provides an overarching framework for the regulation of visual surveillance practices, both overt and covert, thereby bringing about the conditions for accountability and transparency, and to critically analyse the extent to which UK law operates within that framework so far as it applies to video surveillance.

scholarly journals Believer beware: The Challenges of Commercial Religion

Legal Studies ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 382-406
Author(s):  
Peter W. Edge
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
The Other ◽  
European Convention ◽  
Religious Activity ◽  
Commercial Activity ◽  
Consumer Law ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Religious Elements

In a wide range of circumstances religious activity and commercial activity may overlap, leading to what may fairly, albeit novelly, be categorised as commercial religion. This overlap is potentially problematic to law, raising as it does the possibility of inappropriate over-regulation of religious activity and religious claims and the possibility of inappropriate under-regulation of commercial activity and claims. One way to solve this problem is to create a binary divide between the commercial and the religious, so that any situation might be categorised as one or the other, and the appropriate legal framework and philosophies applied. This is the preferred route under the European Convention on Human Rights. Such a separation does not, however, address the complexity of regulating commercial religion in practice, as demonstrated by considering the regulation of commercial religion in UK consumer law. There are, however, strategies which may serve to reblend the commercial and religious elements.

The Oviedo Convention: A European Legal Framework at the Intersection of Human Rights and Health Law

2005 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberto Andorno
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
European Convention ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
General Terms ◽  
Human Rights Treaties ◽  
Protection Of Human Rights ◽  
History Of ◽  
Degrading Treatment ◽  
First Time

AbstractIntroductionThe European Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine of 1997 (“Oviedo Convention“) is the best current example of how to promote the protection of human rights in the biomedical field at a transnational level. The importance of this instrument lies in the fact that it is the first comprehensive multilateral treaty addressing biomedical human rights issues. Certainly, some of the principles it contains were already included in more general terms in previous international human rights treaties, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 1966 and the European Convention on Human Rights of 1950 (e.g. the rights to life, to physical integrity and to privacy, the prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment and of any form of discrimination). However, this is the first time that these rights have been developed and assembled in one single multilateral binding instrument entirely devoted to biomedical issues.The purpose of this paper is, first, to give an overview of the history of the Convention; second, to present its general characteristics; and finally to summarize its key provisions.

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