Rights of Nature to Protect Human Rights in Times of Environmental Crisis

2020 ◽  
pp. 38-65
Author(s):  
Susana Borràs
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Environmental Crisis ◽  
Legal Systems ◽  
Environmental Laws ◽  
For Profit ◽  
Rights Of Nature ◽  
The Right

The well-being of humans and nature are inextricably linked. Nature is particularly mistreated in light of its characterization as merely “property” to be bought, sold, and ultimately degraded for profit. Reinforcing this misperception is the fact that modern environmental laws themselves implicitly accept this claim of “nature as property.” They legalize nature's destruction by dictating how much of the environment can be exploited and degraded, rather than as an integral ecological partner with its own rights to exist and thrive. Instead, we need laws grounded in the inherent rights of natural world to exist, thrive, and evolve. The article focuses on the transition from the ‘right to the environment' to a biocentric approach constructed around ‘rights of nature.' This transition is evident in various new legal instruments, which serve as models for legal systems that can steer us towards more robust and effective environmental laws.

Rights of Nature to Protect Human Rights in Times of Environmental Crisis

2017 ◽  
pp. 225-261
Author(s):  
Susana Borràs
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Environmental Crisis ◽  
Legal Systems ◽  
Environmental Laws ◽  
For Profit ◽  
Rights Of Nature ◽  
The Right

The well-being of humans and nature are inextricably linked. Nature is particularly mistreated in light of its characterization as merely “property” to be bought, sold, and ultimately degraded for profit. Reinforcing this misperception is the fact that modern environmental laws themselves implicitly accept this claim of “nature as property.” They legalize nature's destruction by dictating how much of the environment can be exploited and degraded, rather than as an integral ecological partner with its own rights to exist and thrive. Instead, we need laws grounded in the inherent rights of natural world to exist, thrive, and evolve. The article focuses on the transition from the ‘right to the environment' to a biocentric approach constructed around ‘rights of nature.' This transition is evident in various new legal instruments, which serve as models for legal systems that can steer us towards more robust and effective environmental laws.

New Transitions from Human Rights to the Environment to the Rights of Nature

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susana Borràs
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
The United States ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Legal Rights ◽  
Legal Systems ◽  
Environmental Laws ◽  
Rights Of Nature ◽  
The Right ◽  
New Generation

AbstractThe weaknesses of our environmental laws stem in large part from the fact that legal systems treat the natural world as property that can be exploited and degraded, rather than as an integral ecological partner with its own rights to exist and thrive. This article analyzes the recent rise of a new generation of environmental laws which reject the ‘false dogma’ of ‘humans over nature’ and instead recognize our interconnectedness with the natural world and acknowledge its rights to exist, persist, and maintain its vital cycles. The article focuses on the transition from an anthropocentric approach, denoted by the ‘right to the environment’, to a biocentric approach constructed around ‘rights of nature’. This transition is evident in various new legal instruments – the Ecuadorian Constitution, certain Bolivian laws, and numerous ordinances of the United States – which incorporate and respect rights of nature, and grant legal rights to the natural world and enforcement rights to affected communities. These instruments serve as models for legal systems which can steer us towards more robust and effective environmental laws.

Procedural fairness: Between human rights law and social psychology

2021 ◽  
pp. 092405192199274
Author(s):  
Cathérine Van de Graaf
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Procedural Justice ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Fair Trial ◽  
European Convention ◽  
Public Confidence ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Justice Research ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Impact

Fair procedures have long been a topic of great interest for human rights lawyers. Yet, few authors have drawn on research from other disciplines to enrich the discussion. Social psychological procedural justice research has demonstrated in various applications that, besides the final outcome, the manner in which one’s case is handled matters to people as well. Such research has shown the impact of procedural justice on individuals’ well-being, their acceptance of unfavourable decisions, perceptions of legitimacy and public confidence. The ECtHR has confirmed the desirability of these effects in its fair trial jurisprudence. Thus far, it remains unclear to what extent the guarantees offered by Article 6(1) of the European Convention on Human Rights (the right to a fair trial) coincide with the findings of empirical procedural justice research. This article aims to rectify this and uncover similarities between the two disciplines.

The Post-Deportation Human Rights Project: Participatory Action Research with Maya Transnational Families

2012 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Lykes ◽  
Erin McDonald ◽  
Cesar Boc
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
New England ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Immigrant Parents ◽  
Transnational Families ◽  
Southern New England ◽  
Immigrant Organizations ◽  
The Right

As the number of immigrants in the United States has increased dramatically in recent decades, so has the number of human rights violations against immigrants in the form of arrests without warrants, detention and deportation of parents without consideration of the well-being of their children, and incarceration without bail or the right to a public attorney. The Post-Deportation Human Rights Project (PDHRP) at Boston College was developed to investigate and respond to the legal and psychological effects of deportation policies on migrants living in or deported from the United States. This unique multidisciplinary project involves lawyers, social science faculty, and graduate students—all of whom are bilingual, one of whom is trilingual, and many of whom are bicultural—working together in partnership with local immigrant organizations to address the psychosocial impact of deportation on Latino and Maya families and communities. Our work includes psycho-educational and rights education workshops with immigrant parents and their children in southern New England as well as a cross-national project based in the U.S. and Guatemala supporting transnational families through participatory research, educational workshops, and legal resources.

Chronic Illness

2020 ◽  
pp. 285-306
Author(s):  
Oliver Lewis ◽  
Soumitra Pathare
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Independent Living ◽  
People With Disabilities ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Persons With Disabilities ◽  
Implementation Challenges ◽  
National Implementation ◽  
The Right ◽  
Models Of Service Delivery

This chapter sets out the connection between disability and human rights, examining how persons with disabilities (including those with physical disabilities, sensory disabilities, psychosocial or mental health disabilities, and intellectual disabilities) are particularly vulnerable to exclusion and discrimination, leading to human rights violations across the world. It has been a long global struggle to recognize the rights of people with disabilities and realize the highest attainable standard of physical, mental, and social well-being, a struggle evolving across countries and culminating in the 2006 adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). The provisions of the CRPD relate to three specific rights that are of particular importance to people with disabilities: legal capacity, the right to health, and the right to independent living. Yet, national implementation challenges remain, including finding space for mental health and disability in policymaking and developing models of service delivery that advance human rights.

Well-Being and Human Rights

2019 ◽  
pp. 116-145
Author(s):  
Madison Powers
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
Institutional Agents ◽  
Pragmatic Approach ◽  
Nation States ◽  
The Right ◽  
Crucial Part ◽  
Control Theories

This chapter demonstrates how the conception of well-being developed in this book is a crucial part of the rationale for human rights. A variant of interest-based theories of human rights is defended against a number of objections. These objections include criticisms raised by proponents of control theories, dignity-based theories, and critics who maintain that the function of human rights is not limited to considerations of how human rights matter to the right-holder. The argument builds on an account of the contingent, but widespread linkage between structural unfairness and human rights violations to defend a pragmatic approach to problems of assigning responsibility for human rights. It addresses the specification of counterpart duties that correlate with human rights claims, and it offers guidance on questions pertaining to the more general responsibilities of institutional agents, paradigmatically nation-states, for maintaining background conditions of structural fairness.

scholarly journals Freedom of Religion and Freedom from Religion

2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (01) ◽  
pp. 3-13 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Religious Freedom ◽  
Well Being ◽  
European Convention ◽  
Freedom Of Religion ◽  
Religious Expression ◽  
European Court ◽  
Religious Extremism ◽  
Domestic Courts ◽  
The Right

The right to freedom of religion, enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights has been frequently tested, both in UK courts and in the European Court of Human Rights, where successive decisions over a number of years led to the establishment of several well-known principles. However, in recent years religious extremism has brought into focus a tension between the right of freedom of religious expression and the well-being of individuals (not least children) and society. The Strasbourg court requires neutrality on the part of the state and its courts. However, unlike the European Court of Human Rights, the domestic courts have had to face situations where religious observance can be seen to be causing serious harm and where interference in religious freedom and family life has been shown to be justified.

Part III The Right to Justice, C Restrictions on Rules of Law Justified By Action to Combat Impunity, Principle 22 Nature of Restrictive Measures

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pinzauti Giulia
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
Criminal Prosecution ◽  
Legal Systems ◽  
Domestic Courts ◽  
Rules And Principles ◽  
The Right ◽  
Restrictive Measures

Principle 22 is an overarching guideline to states on the nature of the safeguards and restrictions that they may need to adopt and enforce in order to counter impunity more effectively. It is an umbrella provision listing certain rules or principles in national legal systems which might impede the criminal prosecution or other scrutiny of human rights violations by domestic courts. These rules and principles include those regulating amnesty, prescription (statutory limitations), extradition, the right to asylum, due obedience, repentance, the jurisdiction of military courts and the irremovability of judges. This chapter first provides a contextual and historical background on Principle 22 before discussing its theoretical framework and how the safeguards or restrictive measures outlined in Principle 22 have been applied in practice.

Does Self-isolation Violate the Right to Liberty? An Analysis of the European Court of Human Rights’ Practice in Light of the Ukrainian Experience

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 368-385
Author(s):  
Yana Litins’ka ◽  
Oleksandra Karpenko
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Stress Test ◽  
European Convention ◽  
Legal Systems ◽  
Human Rights Practice ◽  
Rapid Action ◽  
European Court ◽  
Fundamental Freedoms ◽  
Protection Of Human Rights ◽  
The Right

Abstract COVID-19 became a stress-test for many legal systems because it required that a balance be found between rapid action to prevent the spread of the disease, and continued respect for human rights. Many states in Europe, including Ukraine, chose to enforce an obligation to self-isolate. In this article we review what the obligation to self-isolate entails in the case of Ukraine. We also analyse whether such an obligation should be viewed as a deprivation or a mere restriction of liberty, and if it is permissible under the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

scholarly journals A Brief Analysis on Human Rights from Hannah Arendt’s Criticism

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 95
Author(s):  
Janilce Silva Praseres ◽  
Marcelo Ramos Saldanha
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Hannah Arendt ◽  
Ethical Values ◽  
Legal Systems ◽  
Right To Life ◽  
Human Rights Protection ◽  
Rights Protection ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Right

Abstract: human rights are a set of ethical values whose purpose is to protect and enable the realization of human dignity in its various dimensions and also prevent the reduction of the individual to the condition of object or, above all, the reduction of his condition as subject of rights, such as the right to life, freedom, security, equality. The universal character of human rights protection demonstrates some weaknesses, especially in the transposition into concrete legal systems, so what we propose is a brief analysis of human rights from Hannah Arendt.Uma Breve Análise Acerca dos Direitos Humanos a partir da Crítica de Hannah ArendtResumo: os direitos humanos são um conjunto de valores éticos que têm por finalidade proteger e possibilitar a realização da dignidade humana em suas várias dimensões e, ainda, impedir a redução do indivíduo à condição de objeto ou, sobretudo, a diminuição da sua condição na qualidade de sujeito de direitos, a exemplo o direito à vida, à liberdade, à segurança, à igualdade. O caráter universal de proteção aos direitos humanos demonstra algumas fragilidades, principalmente, na transposição para ordenamentos jurídicos concretos, assim, o que propomos é uma breve análise acerca dos direitos humanos a partir de Hannah Arendt.

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