The Effects of Violence on Communities: The Violence Matrix as a Tool for Advancing More Just Policies

In this essay, I illustrate how discussions of the effects of violence on communities are enhanced by the use of a critical framework that links various microvariables with macro-institutional processes. Drawing upon my work on the issue of violent victimization toward African American women and how conventional justice policies have failed to bring effective remedy in situations of extreme danger and degradation, I argue that a broader conceptual framework is required to fully understand the profound and persistent impact that violence has on individuals embedded in communities that are experiencing the most adverse social injustices. I use my work as a case in point to illustrate how complex community dynamics, ineffective institutional responses, and broader societal forces of systemic violence intersect to further the impact of individual victimization. In the end, I argue that understanding the impact of all forms of violence would be better served by a more intersectional and critical interdisciplinary framework.

Withaferin A: From Ancient Remedy to Potential Drug Candidate

Withaferin A (WA) is a pivotal withanolide that has conquered a conspicuous place in research, owning to its multidimensional biological properties. It is an abundant constituent in Withania somnifera Dunal. (Ashwagandha, WS) that is one of the prehistoric pivotal remedies in Ayurveda. This article reviews the literature about the pharmacological profile of WA with special emphasis on its anticancer aspect. We reviewed research publications concerning WA through four databases and provided a descriptive analysis of literature without statistical or qualitative analysis. WA has been found as an effective remedy with multifaceted mechanisms and a broad spectrum of pharmacological profiles. It has anticancer, anti-inflammatory, antiherpetic, antifibrotic, antiplatelet, profibrinolytic, immunosuppressive, antipigmentation, antileishmanial, and healing potentials. Evidence for wide pharmacological actions of WA has been established by both in vivo and in vitro studies. Further, the scientific literature accentuates the role of WA harboring a variable therapeutic spectrum for integrative cancer chemoprevention and cure. WA is a modern drug from traditional medicine that is necessary to be advanced to clinical trials for advocating its utility as a commercial drug.

Interstate Application on Behalf of Organisations Lacking Non-governmental Status is Inadmissible. Comment on ECtHR Decision in Slovenia v. Croatia (Application No. 54155/16)

The present commentary concerns the claims alleging a violation under Article 6(1) (right to a fair trial), Article 14 (Prohibition of Discrimination) and Article 13 (Right to an Effective Remedy) of the European Convention on Human Rights as well as Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 (Peaceful Enjoyment of Possessions) to the European Conventionon Human Rights by preventing Ljubljana Bank (a Slovenian bank) from enforcing and collecting the debts of its Croatian debtors in Croatia by the Croatian authorities. The case under discussion is an inter-state case and the applicant was the Republic of Slovenia. The decision is significant from the perspective of the development of case law in inter-state cases, which are still rare in the practice of the European Court of Human Rights. It has been confirmed that inter-state applications are additional measures for the protection of the rights of individuals which cannot be used to protect State interests.

The confounding effects of eye blinking on pupillometry, and their remedy

Pupillometry, thanks to its strong relationship with cognitive factors and recent advancements in measuring techniques, has become popular among cognitive or neural scientists as a tool for studying the physiological processes involved in mental or neural processes. Despite this growing popularity of pupillometry, the methodological understanding of pupillometry is limited, especially regarding potential factors that may threaten pupillary measurements’ validity. Eye blinking can be a factor because it frequently occurs in a manner dependent on many cognitive components and induces a pulse-like pupillary change consisting of constriction and dilation with substantive magnitude and length. We set out to characterize the basic properties of this “blink-locked pupillary response (BPR),” including the shape and magnitude of BPR and their variability across subjects and blinks, as the first step of studying the confounding nature of eye blinking. Then, we demonstrated how the dependency of eye blinking on cognitive factors could confound, via BPR, the pupillary responses that are supposed to reflect the cognitive states of interest. By building a statistical model of how the confounding effects of eye blinking occur, we proposed a probabilistic-inference algorithm of de-confounding raw pupillary measurements and showed that the proposed algorithm selectively removed BPR and enhanced the statistical power of pupillometry experiments. Our findings call for attention to the presence and confounding nature of BPR in pupillometry. The algorithm we developed here can be used as an effective remedy for the confounding effects of BPR on pupillometry.

Administrative and judicial remedies of EU on civil servants’ rights protection

Problem setting. The modern pandemic reality makes all the citizens of the European Union vulnerable, especially in terms of employment and employment disputes. European civil service framework has been existing for more than 50 years, but until now some fundamental issues need to be tackled. Transparency is what the international community is striving for nowadays. The numerous tools for legal protection available to the EU servants offer completely different solutions to the one problem. Therefore, it is crucial to maintain the sound practice, according to the principle of sustainable development. The problems of the pre-trial administrative disputes resolution are questioning the mere ability of this mechanism to provide protection impartially and within sound terms. On the one hand, European Court of Justice stands as an effective remedy, which compensates the drawbacks of administrative way of rights protection. But on the other hand, the European Ombudsman institute shows, that both of the aforementioned remedies are not capable of giving up-to-date protection to the EU servants. That’s why substantial changes in this framework are needed, including reconsideration of the procedure of appeals prescribed under the Council of the EU Staff Regulation. Target of research is to evaluate the effectiveness of each of the remedies available to the EU servants for today in the EU acquis framework. Article’s main body. The article is devoted to the research of administrative and judicial means of remedies available to the EU servants. The analysis of the Court of Justice of the European Union case practice has been conducted. The procedure of resolution of administrative disputes between the EU servants and the EU institutions via the European Ombudsman institute has been investigated. The analysis of disputes concerning the protection of EU servants’ rights within the administrative framework within the institutions has been carried out. Conclusions. After analyzing various types of remedies on the protection of civil servants’ rights, a couple of issues to tackle has been revealed. The administrative remedies under Staff Regulations of the Council are not transparent enough to consider them sufficient for being the main way of protecting Staff rights prescribed in the Regulation. The European Ombudsman, along with judicial practice of the Court of Justice of the European Union might be the relief for the institutional mechanism of civil servants rights protection due to the strategic investigations the European Ombudsman is capable to undertake. Further recap of the administrative means of remedies available under the Staff Regulation is explicitly urgent to conduct as soon as possible.

Reasons behind Child Labor in Bangladesh: Case & Policy Analysis

Bangladesh's socioeconomic realities include the problem of child labor. This is a huge problem that cannot be overlooked. In this study, I looked at the elements that contribute to child labor in Bangladesh. Poverty is the primary cause of children working as child laborers. The issue of child labor has become one of the most prominent challenges in developing countries. To put an end to this, societies and governments must act together. The government, in particular, must ensure that citizens' basic rights are protected. Following that, the implementation of child labor legislation and a social boycott of child work would be an effective remedy.

Is the Provision of Art. 301 of the Bulgarian Code of Administrative Procedure Just Legislative Logorrhea?

Logorrhea (from Ancient Greek λόγος logos ‘word’ and ῥέω rheo ‘to flow’) is a communication disorder that causes excessive wordiness and repetitiveness which can lead to incoherence. The article justifies the assumption that, without legal guarantees, Article 301 of the Bulgarian Code of Administrative Procedure (CAP) could be a meaningless flow of words. When the administrative act is revoked after commencement of the enforcement, the administrative authority should restore the violated right within one month, or satisfy the injured party in another legal manner when this is possible. Insofar as there are no legal mechanisms to oblige the authority to perform its public duty, the person concerned is entitled only to compensation, which is not always an effective remedy. Based on the litigation, conclusions and recommendations are made for improving the restoration and compensation measures of Art. 301 of the CAP.

Mechanism to protect human rights from illegal activities of FRONTEX within the EU

The article is devoted to the study of mechanisms to protection human rights from illegal activities of FRONTEX within the EU. The author notes that with the adoption of Regulation 2019/1896 the mandate of the Agency was significantly expanded, including by giving its staff executive powers. At the same time, the Agency has negative and positive human rights obligations, which stipulate that FRONTEX staff must not only refrain from committing violations, but also take all possible measures to ensure the fundamental rights of each participant in joint operations. However, the complex nature and lack of transparency in the Agency's operational activities increase the risk of serious incidents. In view of this, an important guarantee of respect for fundamental rights is the development of effective protection mechanisms. The article analyzes the grounds and procedure for appealing to the European Ombudsman, the European Court of Justice, as well as the use by victims of a complaint mechanism within the Agency. Attention is drawn to the shortcomings of out-of-court mechanisms for the protection of human rights, primarily due to the recommendatory nature of the conclusions adopted as a result of complaints. The functioning of the internal mechanism for consideration of individual complaints by the Agency is positively assessed, but attention is also paid to the need to increase its autonomy and develop an appellate procedure for appealing decisions. It is concluded that the most effective remedy within the EU for victims of misconduct as a result of FRONTEX's unlawful act is the Court of Justice. The use of this mechanism requires a more careful collection of evidence to prove the causal link between unlawful act and harmful consequences, which is a difficult task for migrants who have been victims of violations.

Procedural Rights Supporting Expeditious Trials for Juveniles

Delays pending trials can negatively impact juveniles. Encouragingly, the right of juvenile defendants to be tried within a reasonable time has been enshrined in international and regional human rights instruments. To support and strengthen the realisation of this specific right, several additional procedural entitlements, to which existing scholarship has paid limited attention, are of importance. This article focuses on how the rights to an effective remedy and legal representation can support the fulfilment of expeditious trials for juveniles. Furthermore, it analyses to what extent these two identified rights have been incorporated into significant international human rights standards and, specifically, in the Cambodian, Philippine and Vietnamese legislative frameworks. It identifies lessons Cambodia can draw from the latter two countries.