Showing papers on "Human rights published in 2015"

The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Abstract: As previously discussed, Reyhner and Eder (1989) have divided the history of American Indian educational policy, and indeed Indian policy generally, into six distinct periods or eras, culminating in our current state of Self-Determination. While this seems to be an accurate assessment of the present day, the authors would like to suggest that recent global developments have created considerable impetus for change in Indian Country. The authors believe that Indigenous populations may well be on the cusp of a new day in Indian policy in America, if proper consideration is given to this global imperative.

The Social Responsibility of International Business: From Ethics and the Environment to CSR and Sustainable Development

Abstract: This article examines how the international business (IB) literature has addressed social responsibility issues in the past 50 years, highlighting key developments and implications from a historical perspective. Specific attention is paid to the Journal of World Business (JWB), which has covered the whole period and published relevant articles related to these issues, in comparison to the Journal of International Business Studies (JIBS), the other long-standing IB journal. The article outlines that they illustrate different conceptualizations of IB and social responsibility. The 50-year review shows three subthemes: the (green) environment; ethics, rights and responsibilities; poverty and (sustainable) development. These are discussed consecutively, including main contributions and promising areas to further the field.

Climate Change, Human Rights, and Social Justice.

Abstract: The environmental and health consequences of climate change, which disproportionately affect low-income countries and poor people in high-income countries, profoundly affect human rights and social justice. Environmental consequences include increased temperature, excess precipitation in some areas and droughts in others, extreme weather events, and increased sea level. These consequences adversely affect agricultural production, access to safe water, and worker productivity, and, by inundating land or making land uninhabitable and uncultivatable, will force many people to become environmental refugees. Adverse health effects caused by climate change include heat-related disorders, vector-borne diseases, foodborne and waterborne diseases, respiratory and allergic disorders, malnutrition, collective violence, and mental health problems. These environmental and health consequences threaten civil and political rights and economic, social, and cultural rights, including rights to life, access to safe food and water, health, security, shelter, and culture. On a national or local level, those people who are most vulnerable to the adverse environmental and health consequences of climate change include poor people, members of minority groups, women, children, older people, people with chronic diseases and disabilities, those residing in areas with a high prevalence of climate-related diseases, and workers exposed to extreme heat or increased weather variability. On a global level, there is much inequity, with low-income countries, which produce the least greenhouse gases (GHGs), being more adversely affected by climate change than high-income countries, which produce substantially higher amounts of GHGs yet are less immediately affected. In addition, low-income countries have far less capability to adapt to climate change than high-income countries. Adaptation and mitigation measures to address climate change needed to protect human society must also be planned to protect human rights, promote social justice, and avoid creating new problems or exacerbating existing problems for vulnerable populations.

Economic Impacts of Child Marriage: A Review of the Literature

Abstract: Child marriage is a widespread violation of human rights. It is an impediment to social and economic development, and it is rooted in gender inequality. The low value placed on girls and women perp...

Law and policy on the concept of bullying at school

Abstract: The nationwide effort to reduce bullying in U.S. schools can be regarded as part of larger civil and human rights movements that have provided children with many of the rights afforded to adult citizens, including protection from harm in the workplace. Many bullied children find that their schools are hostile environments, but civil rights protections against harassment apply only to children who fall into protected classes, such as racial and ethnic minorities, students with disabilities, and victims of gender harassment or religious discrimination. This article identifies the conceptual challenges that bullying poses for legal and policy efforts, reviews judicial and legislative efforts to reduce bullying, and makes some recommendations for school policy. Recognition that all children have a right to public education would be one avenue for broadening protection against bullying to all children.

"Bluewashing" the Firm? Voluntary Regulations, Program Design, and Member Compliance with the United Nations Global Compact

Abstract: Voluntary programs have emerged as important instruments of public policy. We explore whether programs lacking monitoring and enforcement mechanisms can curb participants’ shirking with program obligations. Incentive-based approaches to policy see monitoring and enforcement as essential to curb shirking, while norm-based approaches view social mechanisms such as norms and learning as sufficient to serve this purpose. The United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), a prominent international voluntary program, encourages firms to adopt socially responsible policies. Its program design, however, relies primarily on norms and learning to mitigate shirking. Using a panel of roughly 3,000 U.S. firms from 2000 to 2010, and multiple approaches to address endogeneity and selection issues, we examine the effects of Compact membership on members’ human rights and environmental performance. We find that members fare worse than nonmembers on costly and fundamental performance dimensions, while showing improvements only in more superficial dimensions. Exploiting the lack of monitoring and enforcement, UNGC members are able to shirk: enjoying goodwill benefits of program membership without making costly changes to their human rights and environmental practices.

European Court of Human Rights. ECHR 2015/17 Case of Temchenko v. Ukraine, 16 July 2015, no. 30579/10 (Fifth Section).

Abstract: The applicant had been arrested in 1997 on suspicion of carrying out a number of armed robberies on mini-cab drivers. He agreed to participate in identification parades but failed to attend on the day on which they were due to take place. Instead he sent a doctor’s note stating that he was too ill to go to work. The parades were rearranged and notice to that effect was sent to the applicant’s home address. The applicant did not attend the rearranged parade, stating that he had not received notification as he had changed address. A further robbery then occurred for which the applicant was arrested. The applicant again agreed to stand on an identification parade, but again failed to attend on the day that it was to take place. Following this failure to attend two more robberies were committed with which the applicant was subsequently charged. The mainstay of the prosecution’s case against the applicant would be the ability of a number of witnesses to make visual identifications and for this reason submitting the applicant to an identification parade was of great importance. In light of the applicant’s failure to attend the parades that had been arranged, the police decided to arrange a video identification. Permission to film the applicant covertly for this purpose was sought from the Deputy Chief Constable under Home Office guidelines. The applicant was taken from prison, where he was being detained in relation to another matter, to a police station. Both the applicant and the prison authorities had been informed that this was for identification purposes and further interviews regarding the armed robberies. On arrival at the police station he was invited to participate in an identification parade but refused. The custody suite at the police station was fitted with a camera which was kept running at all times and covered an area in which police officers and other suspects came and went. Before the applicant arrived at the police station an engineer made adjustments to the camera to ensure that clear images were obtained that were suitable for use in a video identification. The footage of the applicant was then used in a compilation with footage of 11 other volunteers who imitated the actions of the applicant. Two of the witnesses who viewed the video compilation picked out the applicant. Neither the applicant nor his solicitor were informed that a tape had been made or used for identification purposes and were, therefore, not given an opportunity to view it prior to its use.

Transnational Legal Orders

Abstract: 1. Transnational legal orders Terence Halliday and Gregory Shaffer Part I. Transnational Legal Orders and Business Law: 2. Settling in transnational legal orders: corporate bankruptcy law and international trade by sea Susan Block-Lieb and Terrence Halliday 3. When lenders have too much cash and borrowers have too little law: the emergence of secured-transactions transnational legal orders Roderick Macdonald 4. Settling and unsettling the transnational legal order of international taxation Philip Genschel and Thomas Rixen Part II. Transnational Legal Orders and Regulatory Law: 5. The alignment of the transnational legal orders for monetary and trade law Gregory Shaffer and Michael Waibel 6. The emergence and limits of the transnational financial legal order: regulating the regulators Eric Helleiner 7. Institutionalization and its consequences: the TLO(s) for food safety Tim Buthe 8. Climate change: bottom-up evolution or international failure? Daniel Bodansky Part III. Transnational Legal Orders and Human Rights Law: 9. Pharmaceutical patents and the human right to health: the contested evolution of the transnational legal order on access to medicines Laurence Helfer 10. 'Rule of law' as transnational legal order Jothie Rajah 11. Firming up soft law: the impact of indicators on transnational human rights legal orders Sally Merry 12. Framing and transnational legal organization: the case of human trafficking Paulette Lloyd and Beth Simmons 13. The justice paradox?: transnational legal orders and accountability for past human rights violations Leigh Payne 14. Researching transnational legal orders Terence Halliday and Gregory Shaffer.

International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination

Abstract: The Chairperson welcomed all participants to the thematic discussion on racist hate speech, the aim of which was to stimulate reflection and enhance understanding of the causes and consequences of racist hate speech and how the resources of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination could be harnessed to combat it. The day of discussion would focus on the following themes: the concept of racist hate speech and its evolution over time; combating racist hate speech: the work of the Committee; racist hate speech and freedom of opinion and expression; and racist hate speech in political life, and in the media including the Internet. The Committee would subsequently reflect upon the information emerging from the discussion and decide on any further action to be taken, including the possibility of preparing a general recommendation on the subject of racist hate speech based on the Committee’s understanding of articles 4, 5 and 7 of the Convention.

A Theory of Limits on Corruption and Some Applications

Abstract: Starting from a simple premise, this paper has proposed a framework that is at once capable of explaining variations in levels of corruption across governments, their subunits, and over time.The simple premise is that corruption nearly always creates winners and losers who may take countervailing actions (CA) to reduce or eliminate their losses. The incentives to engage in CA depend on two sets of factors: global and specific. Global factors, such as human rights, property rights, political rights, capital, property rights, education, income levels and income distribution have across-the-board effects on the ability to engage in CA; variations in levels of corruption across countries and over time can be explained in terms of these factors. Specific factors, such as the type of corruption, number of losers, the size of their losses, and visibility of losses to losers, may vary across government agencies within the same country and, therefore, can explain different levels of corruption across these agencies.

Who survived? Ethiopia's regulatory crackdown on foreign-funded NGOs

Abstract: How do public regulations shape the composition and behavior of non-governmental organizations (NGOs)? Because many NGOs advocate liberal causes, such as human rights, democracy, and gender equality, they upset the political status quo. At the same time, a large number of NGOs operating in the Global South rely on international funding. This sometimes disconnects from local publics and leads to the proliferation of sham or ‘briefcase’ NGOs. Seeking to rein in the politically inconvenient NGO sector, governments exploit the role of international funding and make the case for restricting the influence of NGOs that serve as foreign agents. To pursue this objective, states worldwide are enacting laws to restrict NGOs’ access to foreign funding. We examine this regulatory offensive through an Ethiopian case study, where recent legislation prohibits foreign-funded NGOs from working on politically sensitive issues. We find that most briefcase NGOs and local human rights groups in Ethiopia have disappeare...

Policing humanitarian borderlands: frontex, human rights and the precariousness of life

Abstract: tion by European member states and EU agencies co-exist with policies which directly and indirectly contribute to the precariousness of life? While the trends may appear paradoxical, incoherent and mutually contradictory, this article suggests that they should be understood as interrelated, and intends to do so by empirically examining ‘the work’ that the humanitarian discourse does in the policing of European borders. Concretely, it focuses on Frontex, the agency tasked with management of EU’s external borders. Based on interviews with Frontex officials and border guard officers, and on analysis of relevant policy documents and official reports, the article critically examines the growing presence and prominence of human rights and humanitarian ideals in border policing practices. It aims to describe and to understand what may come across as a discrepancy between the organization’s activities and its public self-presentation.

Human rights and social movements

Abstract: Acknowledgements List of Figures Introduction 1: Getting Beyond the Hall of Mirrors 2: The 'Sociality' Of Natural Rights 3: The Lost Nineteenth Century 4: The Paradox of Institutionalisation 5: New Movements? Old Wrongs? 6: Expressive and Instrumental Dimensions of Movement Activism 7: Analyses of Globalisation and Human Rights 8: Renewing the Challenge to Power Notes Bibliography Index

The UN at war: examining the consequences of peace-enforcement mandates for the UN peacekeeping operations in the CAR, the DRC and Mali

Abstract: The UN peacekeeping operations in the Central African Republic (CAR), Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Mali were in 2013 given peace enforcement mandates, ordering them to use all necessary measures to ‘neutralise’ and ‘disarm’ identified groups in the eastern DRC and to ‘stabilise’ CAR and northern Mali. It is not new that UN missions have mandates authorising the use of force, but these have normally not specified enemies and have been of short duration. This article investigates these missions to better understand the short- and long-term consequences, in terms of the willingness of traditional as well as Western troop contributors to provide troops, and of the perception of the missions by host states, neighbouring states, rebel groups, and humanitarian and human rights actors. The paper explores normative, security and legitimacy implications of the expanded will of the UN to use force in peacekeeping operations. It argues that the urge to equip UN peacekeeping operations with enforcement manda...

Human Rights Commission

Abstract: Job vacancy announcements for two positions, management analyst and secretary, at the Fairfax County Human Rights Commission.

Universal health coverage from multiple perspectives: a synthesis of conceptual literature and global debates

Abstract: There is an emerging global consensus on the importance of universal health coverage (UHC), but no unanimity on the conceptual definition and scope of UHC, whether UHC is achievable or not, how to move towards it, common indicators for measuring its progress, and its long-term sustainability. This has resulted in various interpretations of the concept, emanating from different disciplinary perspectives. This paper discusses the various dimensions of UHC emerging from these interpretations and argues for the need to pay attention to the complex interactions across the various components of a health system in the pursuit of UHC as a legal human rights issue. The literature presents UHC as a multi-dimensional concept, operationalized in terms of universal population coverage, universal financial protection, and universal access to quality health care, anchored on the basis of health care as an international legal obligation grounded in international human rights laws. As a legal concept, UHC implies the existence of a legal framework that mandates national governments to provide health care to all residents while compelling the international community to support poor nations in implementing this right. As a humanitarian social concept, UHC aims at achieving universal population coverage by enrolling all residents into health-related social security systems and securing equitable entitlements to the benefits from the health system for all. As a health economics concept, UHC guarantees financial protection by providing a shield against the catastrophic and impoverishing consequences of out-of-pocket expenditure, through the implementation of pooled prepaid financing systems. As a public health concept, UHC has attracted several controversies regarding which services should be covered: comprehensive services vs. minimum basic package, and priority disease-specific interventions vs. primary health care. As a multi-dimensional concept, grounded in international human rights laws, the move towards UHC in LMICs requires all states to effectively recognize the right to health in their national constitutions. It also requires a human rights-focused integrated approach to health service delivery that recognizes the health system as a complex phenomenon with interlinked functional units whose effective interaction are essential to reach the equilibrium called UHC.

Involving disabled children and young people as partners in research: a systematic review.

Abstract: Children and young people can be valuable partners in research, giving their unique perspectives on what and how research should be done. However, disabled children are less commonly involved in research than their non-disabled peers. This review investigated how disabled children have been involved as research partners; specifically how they have been recruited, the practicalities and challenges of involvement and how these have been overcome, and impacts of involvement for research, and disabled children and young people. The INVOLVE definition of involvement and the Equality and Human Rights Commission definition of disability were used. Relevant bibliographic databases were searched. Websites were searched for grey literature. Included studies had involved disabled children and young people aged 5-25 years in any study design. Reviews, guidelines, reports and other documents from the grey literature were eligible for inclusion. Twenty-two papers were included: seven reviews, eight original research papers, three reports, three guidelines and one webpage. Nine examples of involvement were identified. Recommendations included developing effective communication techniques, using flexible methods that can be adapted to needs and preferences, and ensuring that sufficient support and funding is available for researchers undertaking involvement. Positive impacts of involvement for disabled children included increased confidence, self-esteem and independence. Positive impacts for research were identified. Involving disabled children in research can present challenges; many of these can be overcome with sufficient time, planning and resources. More needs to be done to find ways to involve those with non-verbal communication. Generally, few details were reported about disabled children and young people's involvement in studies, and the quality of evidence was low. Although a range of positive impacts were identified, the majority of these were authors' opinions rather than data. There remains scope for methodological research to inform appropriate approaches to public and patient involvement in childhood disability research.

Corporate Social Responsibility Versus Business and Human Rights: Bridging the Gap Between Responsibility and Accountability

Abstract: This article explores the evolution of business and human rights (BHR) from a lawyer's perspective and examines how it is contextually and conceptually different from corporate social responsibility (CSR) in its aims and ambitions While CSR emphasizes responsible behavior, BHR focuses on a more delineated commitment in the area of human rights BHR is, in part, a response to CSR and its perceived failure This has led to a gap with two disciplines or strands of discourse that are diverging rather than converging This article explores how the quest for accountability shapes a very different narrative for BHR, which takes it more into the realm of binding law, State sponsored oversight, and the importance of access to remedy as a measure of corporate accountability As a result, at the current juncture, the BHR movement is drifting further away from CSR and the role of companies as voluntary and affirmative contributors to human rights realization The author argues that BHR can draw from CSR to allow sta

Developmental Idealism: The Cultural Foundations of World Development Programs.

Abstract: This paper extends theory and research concerning cultural models of development beyond family and demographic matters to a broad range of additional factors, including government, education, human rights, daily social conventions, and religion. Developmental idealism is a cultural model-a set of beliefs and values-that identifies the appropriate goals of development and the ends for achieving these goals. It includes beliefs about positive cause and effect relationships among such factors as economic growth, educational achievement, health, and political governance, as well as strong values regarding many attributes, including economic growth, education, small families, gender equality, and democratic governance. This cultural model has spread from its origins among the elites of northwest Europe to elites and ordinary people throughout the world. Developmental idealism has become so entrenched in local, national, and global social institutions that it has now achieved a taken-for-granted status among many national elites, academics, development practitioners, and ordinary people around the world. We argue that developmental idealism culture has been a fundamental force behind many cultural clashes within and between societies, and continues to be an important cause of much global social change. We suggest that developmental idealism should be included as a causal factor in theories of human behavior and social change.

Feminist and empowerment theory and social work practice

Abstract: Feminist and empowerment theories are especially important to the understanding of individual and sociopolitical levels of social work assessment and intervention. Incorporating feminist and empowerment approaches in practice will provide social workers with the knowledge, values and skills most likely to promote human rights and social justice. In this paper, we present an overview of both theories and illustrate them with a case example.

Universal Burdens : Stories of (Un)Freedom from the Unitarian Universalist Association, The MOVE Organization, and Taqwacore

Abstract: Zen Buddhists have long given the following advice to attain liberation: “Eat when you’re hungry. Sleep when you’re tired.” In other words: “Freedom” is the “knowledge of necessity” (Hegel, Marx, and Engels). Early Islamic communities dealt with the challenge of internal warfare and tyranny and concluded that, “sixty years of tyranny is better than one day’s anarchy.” In other words, the worst-case scenario is a war “of every man against every man,” (Thomas Hobbes) and all theories of statecraft are built upon that premise. Ever since the dawn of colonialism, indigenous peoples have been struggling for self-determination. Many, such as Comanche thinker Parra-Wa-Samen, lived and died for the right to move across a land without state or borders. In other words, “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death!” (Patrick Henry). How is it then that an English textbook could possibly focus on “freedom” as a universal value and simultaneously exclude all non-European traditions and perspectives? Why should conversations about “freedom” begin with Hegel, Hobbes, and Henry rather than the earlier examples of Zen, Islam, and indigenous peoples? If “freedom” concerns everybody then do not the conversations in academia about “freedom” by scholars (as well as rising economists, planners, and politicians) affect everybody? If democratic inclusivity entails the demand that all people affected by decisions are to be included in those very decision-making processes then contemporary academia has a problem when talking about “freedom.” In selling the term “freedom” as a universally applicable but uniquely European (and sacrosanct) idea most of the planet has been excluded from these conversations. This means that control over the idea and how it is interpreted has been determined by a very narrow range of persons, from the mid-1600s to mid-1900s: almost exclusively white, male, heterosexual, property-owning, able-bodied, and, not uncommonly, racist. This thesis argues that the problem goes deeper than white supremacy and patriarchy and cannot be resolved with quota systems to ensure inclusion on the basis of race or gender. Instead, the problem is two-fold: (1) dominant conceptions of “freedom,” as the opposite of “slavery,” “tyranny,” or “constraint,” are seen here as bound to a mentality and language of domination, and (2) “freedom,” as a central value in social orders, perpetuates white supremacy and patriarchy. Focus on “freedom” contra “unfreedom” obscures, disguises, or denies those “unfreedoms” upon which “freedom” is necessarily bound. Once those “unfreedoms” are exposed or recognized (whether violence, obligation, responsibility, dependency and interdependency, equality and inequality, needs, justice, limitations, etc.) the conversations about “freedom” can be spoken in a language that all cultures can understand in order to participate as equal parties. Toward these ends, this dissertation engages in stories from three contemporary empirical contexts in the U.S.: the Unitarian Universalist Association, the MOVE Organization, and taqwacore. Through a blend of text analysis, ethnography, storytelling, and personal experience, the purpose of this thesis is to imagine what more inclusive conversations might look like. Using the term (un)freedom to transcend the false binary of “freedom” and “unfreedom,” three potential types of (un)freedom are conceived to further the aim of democratic inclusivity: Negotiating the Limits of Language, Shouldering Incalculable Responsibility in Community, and Feeling an Obligation to Challenge Injustice.

Culture, Individual Differences, and Support for Human Rights: A General Review

Abstract: Cultural and individual differences in support for universal human rights are reviewed. Cross-cultural studies suggest a common international understanding of human rights, and international surveys indicate strong global endorsement of human rights. However, country-specific events can affect support within a country, and a country’s historical culture affects whether civil and political rights, or economic, social, and cultural rights receive stronger support. Individual differences in support for human rights are strongly predicted positively by a sense of identification with all humanity and by concern for other global issues, and negatively by generalized prejudice, authoritarianism, social dominance orientation, and right-wing political ideology. Many other individual differences more weakly predict human rights support. Little is known about how concern for human rights develops, and this issue merits sustained research.