Abuse Of Human Rights Research Articles

Abuse of spiritual authority among some African Neo-Pentecostals and its impact on human rights

As a part of the newer versions of the Pentecostal movement that evolved from the 1980s to date, the African Neo-Pentecostals (ANP) are characterised by the practice of spiritual authority (SA). Through the explanatory sequential model of mixed research method which involves juxtaposing a few qualitative pieces of evidence with quantitative empirical results from 414 respondents, this article investigated the existence of human rights violations among the ANP. The quantitative result showed that 82% of the total respondents on all questions agree that human rights abuse exists among the ANP. Subsequently, the article critiqued the practices using New Testament Theology and related human rights treatises on religious freedom. It then opined that when spiritual authority is misappropriated, spiritual authoritarianism becomes the practice, and the abuse of human rights is inevitable. In the end, recommendations were made for the sustainability of human rights irrespective of religious affiliation.

Big Profits, Big Harm? Exploring the Link Between Firm Financial Performance and Human Rights Misbehavior

We examine whether, relative to their global peers, the financial performance of firms from developing countries leads to increases in human rights abuses. We also study the institutional conditions that qualify this relationship. Based on a combination of behavioral and neo-institutional theories, we suggest there is a positive relationship between financial performance and human rights misbehavior as home country liabilities motivate firms to misbehave to achieve their primary goal of economic leadership. We also suggest that strong regulatory and normative pressures attenuate the abovementioned positive relationship, as failure to comply with norms endangers such firms’ secondary goal of achieving international legitimacy. Our analysis, based on a sample of 245 large companies from eight developing countries studied over a 20-year period, supports our hypotheses. Our empirical results suggest that such companies misbehave when they endeavor to strike a balance between maintaining their global economic leadership and sustaining their social legitimacy.

The Path to Atonement: West Germany and Israel after the Holocaust

Abstract Atonement is a state practice that comprises an official political apology and the offer of reparation payments to former victims of mass atrocities, war crimes, and human rights abuses. Despite being considered the moral and right thing to do, atonement has occurred only once at the state level: between West Germany and Israel in 1952. Whereas existing explanations view the West German pathway after the Holocaust as either an ethical choice or a domestic policy induced by U.S. pressure, atonement can also be a political decision. Politicians may give official apologies and pay reparations because such practices promise tangible political benefits. An investigation of the West German–Israeli case and a comparison with two non-atoning perpetrators of World War II, Austria and Japan, illustrate the plausibility of these claims. Atonement emerged as a bilateral strategy between West Germany and Israel because it represented a politically expedient option for both countries. This finding offers insights into when politicians may pursue atonement in other cases and points to a potential avenue toward long-term international stability and durable peace.

Epistemic injustice and remedy: Can BHR ever really ‘centre’ rights holders?

ABSTRACT The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) encourage the use of non-judicial grievance mechanisms (NJGMs) as complementary avenues to litigation for remedying corporate human rights abuses. However, remedy through NJGMs remains challenging. Despite a growing narrative around ‘putting rights holders at the centre’ of remedy and accountability, critiques of the corporate influence in the field of business and human rights (BHR) remain. This paper argues that the conceptual language of epistemic injustice has much to offer BHR. Focusing on remedy through NJGMs through an epistemic injustice lens, it identifies select entry points for deeper examination. The concept of epistemic injustice can help identify exercises of discursive power and practices of marginalisation in deliberative spaces, which may explain gaps between increased numbers of participants in BHR spaces and the lack of change in their lived experiences. It can help point to where and how barriers to remedy are being reproduced, and it offers additional language for rights holders to articulate specific types of harms experienced in these settings. If BHR truly aims to put rights holders at the centre, the BHR community has an ethical obligation to interrogate and address epistemic injustice both at the individual and structural levels.

Challenging the boundaries of accountability: strategic litigation and jurisdiction in European migration control policies

ABSTRACT Current European border policies both evade accountability and perpetuate the violation of human rights by state actors abroad. The ongoing case of S.S. v Italy offers an opportunity to challenge these existing migratory frameworks and reassess conceptions of jurisdiction. The court's decision will be crucial in determining whether extraterritorial exercises of sovereign power can still fall within a nation's jurisdiction. This paper argues that adopting the Functional Jurisdiction Model, which emphasises factual and legal elements over location, would increase accountability for state actions abroad. Although this approach may remain susceptible to existing efforts by states to avoid judicial scrutiny, it is essential to address current gaps in accountability and uphold human rights principles. The influence of international human rights law in shaping national policy cannot be ignored, and implementing a new understanding of jurisdiction can better protect the rights of migrants and ensure that sovereign authorities are held responsible for extraterritorial human rights abuses.

Swords into ploughshares? Why human rights abuses persist after resistance campaigns

Human rights abuse tends to increase during national crises, such as civil wars and mass nonviolent uprisings. Under what conditions does this abuse abate or persist? I argue that violent challenges provoke much more coercive state responses, exposing more personnel within the security forces to extreme forms of repression and priming them (both leaders and followers) to reproduce these behaviors after the conflict has terminated. This effect is mitigated or avoided when challengers rely on nonviolent tactics instead of violence, leading to less post-conflict abuse. I test this argument with several quantitative methods, which establish a positive association between nonviolent resistance campaigns and subsequent freedom from political killings. Results also suggest that democratization can partially – but not fully – counteract the repressive legacies of violent conflict. By choosing to specialize in nonviolent tactics, therefore, resistance leaders avoid a repression trap that not even democratization can fully disarm.

Considering State Reparation for Victims of Gross Human Rights Violations in Africa: Challenges in the Effective Enforcement and Implementation of Victims’ Rights

Claiming reparations for human rights violation by states or by any governmental agencies, have been a vital challenge at local and international levels. Although, there has been few developments in theory and in reality of reparations for human rights violations by states in some parts of the world as will be seen later in this article, many of the violations committed in Africa, in places like South Africa, Uganda, Nigeria and elsewhere, during colonial times either remained unresolved, partly reparated or reparations denied completely. As a result of what has been said, issues concerning responsibility for gross human rights abuses have never been considered favorably in Africa. In some African states for example, the way states deal with past human rights abuses is often dependent on the way in which political change has occurred and the way the state deals with the tensions between justice, truth and reconciliation. Beyond the foregoing, irrespective of the legal requirement to afford reparation which in itself makes reparation a vital component of the underlying need to respect victims’ rights to justice and to underscore the role of law in society, reparation serves a number of purposes. One of such purposes include but not limited to victims’ right to recover and/or receive compensation or reparation for past violations; helping to restore the disequilibrium between those whose rights have been violated and society which typically underpins human rights violations. More 6so, assisting in victims’ rehabilitation and taking measures to prevent recurrence of violations will help victims overcome trauma, restore confidence in the legitimacy of the justice system and the affirmation of the rule of law.

Crkva nasuprot totalitarizmu za vrijeme pontifikata Pija XI.

During the interwar period, European soil witnessed the rise of both right and left-wing totalitarian regimes. The Church tried to protect its pastoral activities by stipulating concordats with different states. Due to the violation of the Concordat agreement in Germany and Italy, and the abuse of human rights and the persecution of the Church in the Soviet Union, Pope Pius XI took a strong stand defending the liberty of the Church and condemning racism. Three encyclicals, Non abbiamo bisogno (1931), Mit brennerder Sorge (1937), and Divini Redemptoris (1937), reveal the position of the Church toward totalitarianism and demonstrate the social setting the Church was facing.

Mothering Practices and Human Rights Abuses of Girls in Marginalized Contexts: Examining the Moral Culpability of Women who Abuse Children

Mothering Practices and Human Rights Abuses of Girls in Marginalized Contexts: Examining the Moral Culpability of Women who Abuse Children

Restitution and Land Issues in South Africa: Biblical and Ethical considerations based on the Jubilee year in Leviticus 25

The question of land is indeed a vexing one in contemporary South Africa. White control of land and the unequal distribution thereof was one of the pillars of the apartheid system. During colonial rule and under apartheid, numerous communities were simply expelled from their land. The Land Act of 1913 had a diabolical effect in dislocating communities and separated people from their traditional inheritance and from each other. Dispossession of land by its original inhabitants in waves of incessant forced removals proved to be highly distressing and ultimately led to enduring poverty for the masses. It is important in our predominantly Christian society to atone for past ills and to redress some of the ills relating to land which were in fact human rights abuses, by considering inter alia, Leviticus 25 as a starting point. Thus, a Christian stance is considered to be important from both a biblical and ethical perspective as land dispossession due to inhuman laws is addressed. We are stressing the fact that only in a liberating relationship with God can we consider and apply human rights and that in African thought social issues are viewed from a communitarian perspective in which the common good takes precedence.

Use of State of Emergency in Response to the COVID-19 Sanitary Crisis: Safeguards and Proposals to Deal with the Pandemic of Human Rights Abuses

Use of State of Emergency in Response to the COVID-19 Sanitary Crisis: Safeguards and Proposals to Deal with the Pandemic of Human Rights Abuses

THE ALIENATED SUBJECT IN MODERN SCIENCE AS THE PROBLEM OF HUMANITY

Those above-mentioned condition in short are not taken it as a given but it is established by the long and pervasive process of secularization of science which is primariy chracterized as the alienated knowing subject in mainstream scientific endeavours. Such global calamities as injustice, poverty, wars, organized violence, terrorism, arms race, moral disorientation, alienation, abuse of human rights, global warming, and severe damage to nature and environmental sphere are the end-products of complex process of secularization of science. R.D. Laing says “we have destroyed the world in theory before we destroy it in practice

Kashmir Online, Offline, and Abroad: A New Generation of Freedom Activists since the 2010 Summer of Unrest

Formerly the site of militant insurgency, Kashmir freedom advocates have since turned towards nonviolent resistance with growing international support to appeal for separation from India. Demonstrations in the wake of the 2010 ‘summer of unrest’ led to widespread grassroots mobilizations across Kashmir, which have been led primarily by youths. The transition towards nonviolent resistance by Kashmiris while Indian security forces have been accused of human rights abuses have led to greater solidarity with an international community of sympathetic voices. Protests gained momentum within Kashmir as well as abroad, connecting diaspora and other activists through the internet. Due to long curfews and internet shutdowns in Indian Administered Kashmir, international solidarity and mobilization has become increasingly important. This study identifies collective action frames aimed at motivating a broad spectrum of activists in English through social media, art, and other forms of resistance used in globalized social justice movements.

THE ROLE OF INDONESIA CUSTOMS IN THE ERADICATION OF IUU FISHING

Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing is a challenge in fisheries management and has the potential to threaten the stability of maritime security, especially in Indonesia. IUU Fishing is typically associated with other crimes such as smuggling, human trafficking, drug abuse, and human rights abuses. IUU Fishing also has adverse impacts economically, ecologically, and socially. Therefore, the enforcement of the law in the eradication of IUU Fishing is encouraged, for -not only to use one law to ensnare criminals, but also to optimize all legal instruments customs laws. Customs, as one of the agencies involved in the maritime security sphere, also has responsibility to help overcome and prevent the occurrence of IUU Fishing crimes. This study aims to determine the role and efforts that can be done by Customs in improving Indonesia's maritime security through the eradication of IUU Fishing using normative juridical qualitative research methods with a research focus on literature studiess and written regulations or other legal materials. The study found that there are undoubtedly three roles of Customs in the eradication of IUU Fishing, both directly and indirectly, namely the role of supervision, trade facilitator, and industrial assistance.

The role of the UN and its structures in ensuring transitional justice in post-conflict states

Helping societies affected by conflict or emerging from oppressive rule to restore the rule of law and come to terms with widespread human rights abuses, particularly in the context of broken institutions, depleted resources, deteriorating security, and public anxiety and disunity, represents an enormous the problem Transitional justice aims to ensure recognition of victims, strengthen individuals' trust in state institutions, strengthen respect for human rights and promote the rule of law as a step towards reconciliation and prevention of further violations.
 Transitional justice processes have repeatedly demonstrated that they can help resolve problems and differences. To this end, such processes should be context-specific, state-responsive, and victim-focused. Then they can unite, empower and transform societies and thus contribute to lasting peace.
 For the United Nations system and structure, transitional justice is the full range of processes and mechanisms involved in society's attempt to come to terms with the legacy of massive past abuses in order to ensure accountability, serve justice and achieve reconciliation. Transitional justice processes and mechanisms are a critical component of the United Nations system and structure to strengthen the rule of law.
 United Nations rule of law and transitional justice activities include developing standards and best practices, assisting in the development and implementation of transitional justice mechanisms, providing technical, material and financial support, and promoting the mainstreaming of human rights and transitional justice in peace agreements.

The ESG Brouhaha: Tempest in a Teacup

There have been many recent articles and tweets about corporate investors taking Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) metrics into consideration for their investment decisions, and how several politicians, business owners, and public figures are reacting to this phenomenon. In large part, the confusion facing ESG is the lack of understanding and agreement about what it is and how we should use it. In reality, ESG is nothing more than a set of metrics, i.e., quantifiable measures, that businesses and other stakeholders can track to better assess how Environmental (e.g., climate change), Social (e.g., human rights abuses) and Governance (e.g., in-house sustainability committees) factors impact a business, and in turn, how the operations of that business impact the environment and society. This article purports to clear the several points of confusion, including what ESG is, the lack of standardization in terms of what to measure and how, what to do with the plethora of ESG ratings available and how purpose-driven companies can use ESG to their full advantage.

European Union Protection of Human Rights through its global policy

The Regime of Restrictive Measures against Serious Violations and Abuses of Human Rights launched at the end of 2020 by the European Union is part of the Commission's objective to reaffirm the Union's firm commitment to promoting universal values and strengthening its leadership in this field. However, the first year of implementation of the regime casts doubt on its effectiveness, given the existence of legal loopholes that tarnish it.

Facilitated but unauthorised return: the role of smugglers in return migration and clandestine border crossings between Malaysia and Indonesia

ABSTRACT People smuggling is commonly associated with unidirectional movement, that is, procuring entrance from underpriviledged origin and transit countries to more desirable destinations that offer gainful employment and/or safety from human rights abuses. Yet, as we expose here, under certain circumstances migrants also make use of smugglers to return to their home countries. To examine this phenomenon more closely and explore why and under what conditions migrants seek out the services of smugglers in order to return from Malaysia to Indonesia, we have analysed 13 court verdicts and conducted eight interviews with law enforcement personnel responsible for arresting facilitators of unauthorised return migration (‘smugglers’). Our findings show that return smuggling results predominantly from the inadequacy of options for authorised return, which are costly, time-consuming and have punitive elements. Based on these findings we propose a theoretical clustering along four different modes of return. By disentangling the causes that triggered the evolution of facilitated but unauthorised returns we offer new insights into ongoing debates concerning return migration and ‘irregular’ migration. The multi-directional nature of smuggling services between Malaysia and Indonesia thus demands that we take a fresh look at the facilitation–authorisation nexus, particularly the modalities and infrastructures accessible for returning migrants.

A re-reading of Judges 19 in juxtaposition to the Zimbabwean women’s vulnerability to ‘punitive rape’

With the rise of feminist thinking, the phenomenon of the rape culture has admittedly drawn the attention of many academics especially in biblical studies. While several academics have done a commendable job of demonstrating how ancient biblical stories can have a bearing upon elements of the modern rape culture, the bulk of the literature has been penned from a Western standpoint and it is only by inference that one can find a resonance with the African situation. Given that the rape culture is not just a Western phenomenon but a pervasive global challenge, this article introduces an African perspective on this matter. Wearing feminist hermeneutical lenses, the article engages in a comparative analysis of the gender-based violations, human rights abuses, and the absolute lack of hospitality depicted in Judges 19–21 with the experiences of a Zimbabwean woman, Rutendo Munengami. It then taps into the lived experiences of the given women as resources which can be used to seriously think about the ugly dehumanising effects of rape and in so doing, bolster efforts towards combating the modern rape culture. In this article, it is our contention that people, the world over, and the Zimbabwean society in particular, need to earnestly acknowledge the pain and anguish experienced by the Levite’s concubine as well as Munengami and other countless women who have been victims of rape. We conclude the article by restating that wherever the rape culture is prevalent, people need to embrace and uphold the principles of human dignity, hospitality, justice and equality, and resolutely move away from a culture of denial and apathy when it comes to issues of rape.Contribution: This article juxtaposes the experiences of the sexual violence endured by the concubine in Judges 19 and that of a Zimbabwean woman, Rutendo Munengami. It concludes by proffering possible ways of curbing the rape culture which has crept into Africa like a cancerous worm.

Election, ethnic voting and regime change in The Gambia

In 2016, Gambian dictator Yahya Jammeh, who had been in power for 22 years, organised a presidential election which he subsequently lost to the opposition coalition party. Why did Jammeh lose this election? What were the issues Gambians who participated in this election considered when they voted? This study examines three major issues on the ballot as factors that predicted Gambians’ voting decisions, which are economic conditions, human rights abuses, and support for candidates based on ethnicity. While the findings suggest some evidence of ethnic voting among some ethnic groups, a major factor that influenced the choices of most Gambians was human rights abuses by Jammeh’s regime. Gambian voters were split on the question of the economy, but their concern about human rights abuses was a significant predictor of vote choices that resulted in Jammeh losing the election to the opposition. Gambian voters in this election displayed a voting perspective that is consistent with voters in many advanced countries by showing that they too care about issues more than the ethnic identities of the candidates.