scholarly journals In the Northern Territory Intervention, What is Saved or Rescued and at What Cost?

1970 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Irene Watson

The foundation of the Australian colonial project lies within an ‘originary violence’, in which the state retains a vested interest in maintaining the founding order of things. Inequalities and iniquities are maintained for the purpose of sustaining the life and continuity of the state. The Australian state, founder of a violent (dis)order is called upon by the international community to conform and uphold ‘human rights’, but what does this call to conformity require, particularly when the call comes from states which are also founded upon colonial violence? This article argumes that very little is required beyond the masquerade that ‘equality’ for Aboriginal peoples is an on-going project of the state. So for what purpose does the masquerade continue?

Author(s):  
Allison Christians

This chapter explores the prospects for bringing legal claims seeking accountability for human rights harms due to tax policies and practices. There are a number of ways in which an individual may raise a claim that their rights have been violated in connection with taxation, each of which generally depends on some recognized relationship between the claimant and the person, entity, or institution being asked to remedy the perceived wrong. Meanwhile, there are at least three distinct kinds of relationships involving the state that could theoretically give rise to human rights claims in respect of tax. These three relationships are those among, first, individuals and their own states; second, individuals and foreign states; and, third, states among themselves as members of the international community. In each case, organizations may be formed to represent the interests of individuals, but at stake in all cases is the protection of individual rights.


2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-126
Author(s):  
André Luiz Olivier da Silva

Resumo: Neste trabalho analisam-se as exigências por direitos humanos enunciados a partir de uma perspectiva universal, segundo a qual esses direitos se constituem dentro de obrigações gerais e são válidos para todas as pessoas do mundo. Mas podemos falar em direitos humanos considerados gerais e absolutos mesmo quando não se consegue especificar o detentor e o destinatário dos direitos em uma relação obrigacional específica? Com base em um procedimento de observação e na explicitação de algumas exigências por direitos humanos no mundo contemporâneo, aborda-se a natureza dos direitos a partir da correlação obrigacional entre direitos e deveres, bem como a distinção entre direitos especiais e direitos gerais, destacando que os direitos humanos são reivindicados como direitos gerais e universais, embora não se possa afirmar que sejam universais em si mesmos. A hipótese  neste artigo é a de que os direitos humanos são reivindicados “como se” fossem “gerais” dentro de obrigações específicas, seja em um conflito entre cidadãos e o Estado, seja a partir das relações dos países na comunidade internacional. Quando não estão especificados em obrigações concretas, esses direitos apresentam dificuldades quanto à sua efetividade justamente porque não se consegue identificar e especificar sujeitos e destinatários – que não são exatamente o Estado ou o cidadão deste ou daquele país, mas, sim, a pessoa humana. Nesse sentido, ainda estamos longe do ideal de universalização dos direitos humanos na comunidade internacional, e esses direitos só podem ser exercidos quando incorporados a um ordenamento jurídico ou, ao menos, inseridos em práticas morais e sociais.Palavras-chave: Direitos humanos. Direitos gerais. Universalidade. Obrigações específicas. Abstract: This paper discusses the claims by human rights from a universal perspective, according to which human rights constitute general obligations and are valid for all people of the world. Can we talk about human rights considered general and valid for all human beings even when we can not specify the holder and the addressee of rights in a specific obligational relationship? Based on a procedure of observation and explanation of some claims for human rights in the contemporary world, this article aims to approach the nature of these rights from the obligational correlation between rights and duties, as well as the distinction between special rights and general rights, highlighting that human rights are claimed as general rights, emphasizing its “universal” character, although we can’t ensure that these rights are universal in themselves. Our hypothesis is that human rights are claimed “as if” they were “general” within specific obligations, whether in a conflict between citizens and the state, as based on the relations of countries in the international community. When not specified in concrete obligations, human rights have doubts as to its effectiveness precisely because it is not easy to identify and specify recipients and subject of rights – which are not exactly state or country, but rather the human person. In this sense, we are still far from the ideal of universal human rights in the international community, and these rights may be exercised only when incorporated into a law, or at least, embedded in moral and social practices.Keywords: Human Rights. General rights. Universality. Specific obligations.


2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 69-89
Author(s):  
Anna Plunkett

Myanmar has a history of state sanctioned violence against its own people. However, as the regime transition occurs the methods of conducting such violence have also changed. This has not led to an end to violence but an alteration in the methods used by the state. What can be identified is the use of democratic regime transition to legitimise the state’s actions whilst delegitimising the plight of communities that have historically resisted the state. By engaging in the minimal standards of democratic practice whilst developing relations with the international community on the basis of trade, Myanmar has been able to create a protective layering system for its continued human rights abuses within its borderlands. This paper will analyse how Myanmar has effectively coopted the international community into ignoring the continuation of human rights abuses by creating an effectives market for its valuable resources. It will focus on the cases in Karen and Kachin State, two sub-regions within Myanmar that have experienced prolonged conflict and where human rights abuses continue with little oversight from the international community.


2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-227 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendy O’Brien ◽  
Kate Fitz-Gibbon

Recent practices in the administration of youth justice across Australian state and territory jurisdictions reveal a powerful tension between the punitive imperative of “tough on crime” political populism, and internationally agreed minimum standards relevant to the treatment of children. In questioning the extent to which human rights standards can and should be used as a useful tool to counter punitive youth justice practices, this article identifies major points of discrepancy between Australia’s international legal obligations and the doctrine and operation of domestic criminal law as it applies to children in conflict with the law. Examining youth justice “crises” in two Australian states, the Northern Territory and Victoria, the article concludes that while child rights are not directly justiciable in Australia, global standards on youth justice provide a unifying discourse that is resistant to the vagaries of populism, and which can guide reform for child rights compliant youth justice legislation and practice.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdul Basit Naik

Kashmir predicament is not merely the problem of men but women are more pretentious as compared to men. The Kashmir crisis started after the British withdrew from the Indian subcontinent in 1947, but real chaos started from 1989 onwards. This paper will analyze the varied atrocities and assorted extent of violence committed against women from 1989 to 2011. Violence against women (VAW) was not acknowledged as a human rights violation by the domestic and international community for a number of years. It was first addressed at the United Nations Nairobi conference in 1985. Women have been subjugated in Kashmir from last two decades by Security forces. Hundreds of victims were raped, tortured and murdered in reprisal attacks. Violence against women in valley exists in various forms. They are often beaten, mutilated, burned, sexually abused and raped. Such violence is a major obstacle in achieving peace and harmony in the state.


1997 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 267-290 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kurt Mills

The balance between traditional conceptions of sovereignty and human rights is changing. This article argues that developments in the area of human rights and humanitarian assistance are forcing a reconceptualisation of the rights and duties inherent in claims to sovereign authority. Further, from a normative political theory perspective, this article maintains that by investigating the social purpose of the State, we can identify’ three essential building blocks of sovereignty – human rights, popular sovereignty, and self-determination. In addition, this same analysis leads to the conclusion that the international community has not only a right but a duty to ensure that human rights are protected. In other words, a reconceptualisation of the relationship between individuals, groups, the State, and the international community is put forth which is more ambiguous than traditional formulations.


Author(s):  
Marina Aleksandrovna Kalievskaya

In this article, a model of the mechanism of ensuring public security and orderliness in accordance with the principles and tasks of the relevant institu- tions in public administration, taking into account resources, technologies, mea- sures for the state policy implementation in the spheres of ensuring the protection of human rights and freedoms, the interests of society and the state, combating crime, maintaining public security and order. It was found that ensuring public security and order in Ukraine is a mechanism for the implementation of national goals of state policy in the areas of ensuring the protection of human rights and freedoms, the interests of society and the state, combating crime, maintaining public security and order, by defining tasks according to certain principles. The idea is that if one considers the state policy in the spheres of ensuring the protec- tion of human rights and freedoms, the interests of society and the state, combat- ing crime, maintaining public security and order as a national priority (purpose, task), then the mechanism of ensuring public security and order in Ukraine needs coordination with the state development strategy. From the point of view of the implementation of the state policy in the areas of ensuring the protection of hu- man rights and freedoms, the interests of society and the state, combating crime, maintaining public security and order, the mechanism of ensuring public security and order in Ukraine can be considered as the main system providing intercon- nection such elements as institutions (implementing the specified state policy), resources (human resources, logistical, natural and so on, with the help of which it is possible to implement state policy), technologies (skills, knowledge, means and so on the implementation of state policy), measures (action plans), as well as external (internal) threats.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 88-93
Author(s):  
K.N. Golikov ◽  

The subject of this article is the problems of the nature, essence and purpose of prosecutorial activity. The purpose of the article is to study and justify the role of the human rights function in prosecutorial activities in the concept of a modern legal state. At the heart of prosecutorial activity is the implementation of the main function of the Prosecutor’s office – its rights and freedoms, their protection. This means that any type (branch) of Prosecutor's supervision is permeated with human rights content in relation to a citizen, society, or the state. This is confirmed by the fact that the Federal law “On the Prosecutor's office of the Russian Federation” establishes an independent type of Prosecutor's supervision-supervision over the observance of human and civil rights and freedoms. It is argued that the legislation enshrines the human rights activities of the Prosecutor's office as its most important function. It is proposed to add this to the Law “On the Prosecutor's office of the Russian Federation”.


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