Policing the Police: Independent Investigation for Victoria

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  

In Victoria, complaints against the police made by members of the public are predominantly investigated and determined by serving police officers. Such police-dominated complaints mechanisms are widely considered to be ineffective, and are being increasingly abandoned the world over. With reference to the obligations imposed by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, this article critically examines Victoria’s police-dominated complaints mechanism and argues that it violates the right to an effective remedy contained in article 2 paragraph 3 of the Covenant. As a constituent state of a state party to the Covenant, Victoria is obliged to give effect to the Covenant’s obligations, and so must create an independent police complaints mechanism tasked with investigating complaints made against the police involving allegations of breaches of the Covenant’s protected rights.

2020 ◽  
pp. 207-246
Author(s):  
Derrick Darby

This chapter reconstructs W. E. B. Du Bois’s defense of democracy in “Of the Ruling of Men,” a chapter in his neglected work Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil. Du Bois’s examination of why blacks and other citizens were denied the right to vote, how this contributes to democratic failure, and how this can be averted provides useful insight as we look for ways to address the current crisis of democratic rule in America and around the world. Du Bois proposes that the way to avert democratic failure is to guarantee civil and political rights, social equality, and economic justice for every citizen.


2021 ◽  
Vol 193 ◽  
pp. 317-331

317Human rights — Tribunals — United Nations Human Rights Committee — Minority rights — Indigenous peoples — Members of indigenous community constituting a minority — Author member of ethnic minority — Right to enjoy own culture — Indigenous peoples — Indigenous community land in the Andes in Peru — State project to divert water from Andes to provide water for city of Tacna — Community land in the Andes — Degradation of author’s land — Death of livestock — State activities — Whether substantially compromising or interfering with culturally significant economic activities of a minority — Right of minority to participate in decision-making process — Proportionality — Right to effective remedy — Admissibility of author’s complaint — Article 5(2)(a) of Optional Protocol to International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 1966 — Whether same matter being examined under another international procedure — Whether referral to Commission on Human Rights constituting another international procedure within meaning of Article 5(2)(a) — Whether State Party violating its obligations under Articles 27 and 2(3)(a) of CovenantEnvironment — Alleged damage to ecosystem — Indigenous community land — Degradation of author’s land due to water diversion operations — Indigenous peoples — Rights of minorities — Right to enjoy own culture — Traditional customs — Whether State Party violating its obligations under Article 27 of International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 1966Damages — Reparation — Reparation commensurate to harm sustained — Obligation on State to provide authors of complaint with effective remedy — Article 2(3)(a) of International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 1966 — United Nations Human Rights Committee


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  

The COVID-19 outbreak has affected the world in all respects, including democracy and fundamental freedoms such as the freedoms of expression and movement, and the right to health. This presents a central challenge for democracies: how to balance mitigating the outbreak and at the same time respecting democratic principles such as accountability, transparency and respect for civil and political rights. Many countries have implemented stringent restrictions to contain the virus, which have implications for human rights and freedoms. The Embassy of Sweden to the Republic of Korea and International IDEA co-organized a webinar on 9 June 2020 to examine the pandemic’s potential consequences for democracy worldwide using the case studies of Australia, the Republic of Korea and Sweden.


Sexes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-162
Author(s):  
Bruno Ferreira Costa

The debate around the principle of equality and the theme of discrimination around sexual orientation has been one of the most relevant in the process of ensuring the spread of human rights. After ensuring a set of civil and political rights, several groups and social movements have warned political actors of the need to look at each citizen’s individuality and guarantee through legislation and daily practices, respect for that individuality. This process is being conducted around the dichotomy between the concepts of equality and difference. It is from this analysis of the two concepts that we come across the theme of the rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transvestite, transexual and transgender (LGBTQ+) community. With a qualitative approach, and while referring to the historical path of this theme, we review the central concepts in the promotion of equality and analyze the dichotomy between equality and difference. We ask, in an increasingly globalized world, does it make sense to point out difference as a mechanism for the defense of equality? Using semiotics, we approach the two central concepts and the political effort to normalize this theme to the public, using the Portuguese case (law and Non-Governmental organizations action) to characterize the central debate on equality and difference.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 187-202
Author(s):  
Zonke Majodina

As part of the ongoing movement in support of the abolition of the death penalty across the world, this article presents a selection of cases brought before the United Nations Human Rights Committee (the Committee) on violations of the right to life. With a special focus on Zambian cases, the objective is to demonstrate how the Committee’s views reflect its longstanding jurisprudence that the death penalty should only be applied in the most exceptional circumstances.


2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 9-18
Author(s):  
Peter Crowley

Northern Ireland’s Troubles conflict, like many complex conflicts through the world, has often been conceived as considerably motivated by religious differences. This paper demonstrates that religion was often integrated into an ethno-religious identity that fueled sectarian conflict between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland during the Troubles period. Instead of being a religious-based conflict, the conflict derived from historical divides of power, land ownership, and civil and political rights in Ireland over several centuries. It relies on 12 interviews, six Protestants and six Catholics, to measure their use of religious references when referring to their religious other. The paper concludes that in the overwhelming majority of cases, both groups did not use religious references, supporting the hypothesis on the integrated nature of ethnicity and religion during the Troubles. It offers grounding for looking into the complex nature of sectarian and seemingly religious conflicts throughout the world, including cases in which religion acts as more of a veneer to deeply rooted identities and historical narratives.


1978 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 145-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vicente Navarro

This paper presents an analysis and critique of the U.S. government's current emphasis on human rights; and (a) its limited focus on only some civil and political components of the original U.N. Declaration of Human Rights, and (b) its disregard for economic and social rights such as the rights to work, fair wages, health, education, and social security. The paper discusses the reasons for that limited focus and argues that, contrary to what is widely presented in the media and academe: (1) civil and political rights are highly restricted in the U.S.; (2) those rights are further restricted in the U.S. when analyzed in their social and economic dimensions; (3) civil and political rights are not independent of but rather intrinsically related to and dependent on the existence of socioeconomic rights; (4) the definition of the nature and extension of human rights in their civil, political, social, and economic dimensions is not universal, but rather depends on the pattern of economic and political power relations particular to each society; and (5) the pattern of power relations in the U.S. society and the western system of power, based on the right to individual property and its concomitant class structure and relations, is incompatible with the full realization of human rights in their economic, social, political, and civil dimensions. This paper further indicates that U.S. financial and corporate capital, through its overwhelming influence over the organs of political power in the U.S. and over international bodies and agencies, is primarily responsible for the denial of the human rights of the U.S. population and many populations throughout the world as well.


2021 ◽  
Vol 74 (2) ◽  
pp. 72-79
Author(s):  
A. Zhusupova ◽  
◽  

The article deals with the problems of patriotism education in Kazakhstan, associated with the radical socio-economic transformations taking place in the world and in our country. All these changes have caused great changes in the public consciousness and spiritual life of society. With the acquisition of Kazakhstan's status as a sovereign state, the education of patriotism among the younger generation requires a special approach and interpretation, in consequence of the multinational nature of this state. It is necessary to form the right attitude to their Homeland and this should engage society, as patriotism is not inherent in the genes, it is not hereditary, and social quality. Love for the Motherland is the deepest of human feelings, which are the spiritual Foundation of social and state development. Patriotism can become a criterion for assessing the essence and the whole life of a person. Patriotism is presented as a form of axiological development of personality.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-123
Author(s):  
Jamil Ddamulira Mujuzi

Abstract Article 12(4) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (iccpr) provides that ‘[n]o one shall be arbitrarily deprived of the right to enter his own country.’ The jurisprudence of the Human Rights Committee shows that Committee members have often disagreed on the question of whether the right under Article 12(4) is reserved for citizens only or it can be claimed by non-citizens who consider the countries in which they were born or they have lived for longer periods as their own. In its earlier case law, the Committee held that Article 12(4) is applicable to nationals only. Since 1999, when General Comment No.27 was adopted, the Committee has moved towards extending the right under Article 12(4) to non-nationals. Its latest case law appears to have supported the Committee’s position that Article 12(4) is applicable to non-nationals. Central to both majority and minority decisions in which the Committee has dealt with Article 12(4), is whether the travaux préparatoires of Article 12(4) support either view. This article relies on the travaux préparatoires of Article 12(4) to argue that it does not support the view that Article 12(4) is applicable to non-nationals.


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