Rien que des mots: Counteracting homophobic speech in European and U.S. law

Adopting a comparative perspective, this article examines legal means and practices of challenging homophobic speech in European and U.S. law. This exercise revolves around the study of major cases concerning homophobic speech from the law of the European Court of Human Rights and broader legal framework within the Council of Europe (the CoE), the Court of Justice of the European Union (EU) as well as the United States Supreme Court (along with a broader scrutiny of U.S. law in comparative perspective with European (CoE and EU law) in recent years. The article concludes that the concepts of (1) hate speech (in constitutional, administrative and criminal settings) (2) direct discrimination and (3) harassment (in labour and anti-discrimination law) will be central in the strategic litigation of LGBT organizations seeking to redress the climate of homophobia via various legal avenues in both Europe and the U.S. While in the settings of European law, all three concepts – depending on the context – can benefit victims of homophobia in their judicial redress, U.S. law offers coherent protection in its employment law framework, even though this remains in need of further strengthening.

Combating workplace discrimination on the basis of HIV status through disability law in Zambia

Zambia has within the last two decades enacted several pieces of legislation aimed at enhancing equality in the labour market and the workplace. However, despite being one of the countries that has been severely devastated by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, Zambia does not yet have specific legislation targeted at HIV-related stigma and discrimination in the labour market and workplace. Apart from the general prohibitions against discrimination on the basis of health or social status, it remains to be seen whether concepts such as reasonable accommodation have a place in the fight against discrimination and stigma of HIV/AIDS in the Zambian workplace. The purpose of this article is not to argue for the enactment of HIV/AIDS specific legislation in Zambia but to instead argue that despite the absence of such legislation, HIV/AIDS discrimination and stigma can be addressed within the context of the Country’s existing disability discrimination law. The arguments advanced in this article are considered largely within the context of the Zambian High Court case of Stanley Kingaipe & Another v The Attorney General.

Access to justice for Nigerian women: A veritable tool to achieving sustainable development

Access to justice promotes the achievement of sustainable development as it promotes the participation of citizens of a country, reduces poverty, increases the productivity of persons and strengthens the peace and development of nations. In Nigeria, however, most women are deprived of justice in several ways. Using the doctrinal method of study, this article examines the concept of access to justice and its importance to the achievement of sustainable development in Nigeria. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) five and 16 are discussed as well as the various ways in which women are deprived of justice and barriers to such access. The study discovers that women have limited access to justice as a result of challenges plaguing Nigeria’s justice system. The study concludes that urgent steps must be taken to solve these challenges so that the SDGs will stand a better chance of being achieved by 2030.

Religious freedom and the right against religious discrimination: Democracy as the missing link

The article puts forward a novel democratic framework to rethink the relationships between religious freedom and religious discrimination. First, it makes a case for a unifying normative basis for all religious interests grounded in a democratic framework, which emphasises the dual dimension of religious interests, both as negative rights protecting individual autonomy against interferences as well as positive rights of participation. Second, it builds upon this democratic framework to revisit the relationships between discrimination law and religious freedom and guard against trends to subject discrimination law claims to preliminary (higher) thresholds. Third, the article examines how contextual balancing exercises between competing interests should (and to a large extent have) become a key unifying feature of both routes and draws from the democratic framework insights as to how these balancing exercises should be carried out.

Institutional vulnerabilities, COVID-19, resilience mechanisms and societal relationships in developing countries

In this article the author submits that COVID-19 pandemic challenges could be utilised as an opportunity to reform government institutions to develop resilience measures that would potentially meet contemporary and future challenges. It will highlight that the current approach of institutions has failed to meet societal need. It focuses on developing countries, particularly the continent of Africa, drawing on results from a qualitative study of a justice institution of Uganda as a case study that explored how institutions coped to maintain societal relationship during the pandemic. Results suggested that, despite the pandemic challenges, institutions suffer epistemic issues that require critical examination for states to develop policies that would facilitate institutional reform to gain resilience mechanisms needed to meet contemporary and future societal challenges. A vulnerability theoretical framework is introduced and suggested as the remedy.

COVID-19 magnifies the vulnerabilities: The Brazilian case

This paper discusses inequalities of the health system in Brazil and advocates that now, more than ever in light of the Covid-19 pandemic, the world needs to put in place a more collaborative and egalitarian way of financing health research and investments in public health systems. The role of the state and institutions in the design of public policies for the realization of social rights is debated in the face of the economic and political crisis. Here we draw upon Martha Fineman’s vulnerability theory and Thomas Pogge’s view on justice with regard to health.

Reimagining state responsibility for workers following COVID-19: A vulnerability approach

In this article it is argued that the COVID-19 crisis offers an important opportunity for engagement and reflection on the operation and effectiveness of laws regarding the workplace in the UK and beyond. The crisis underscores the temporality and partiality of labour law measures, and the need for a reimagining of that law based on more sustainable principles. I argue that this reimagination should coalesce around a human-centric approach to law, and the recognition of the need for deep and varied institutional support for workers. It is argued that these principles have been adopted historically in the context of health and safety law, but have not always been well applied, particularly in the context of the pandemic. In any event, the adoption of these principles and the greater integration of health and safety and labour law would encourage states to better promote worker agency and resilience and hence move towards meeting the aspirations of vulnerability theory.