Foreign Human Rights Research Articles

Гонения на верующих на Украине как индикатор кризиса института правозащиты

The article provides information about the inconsistency of the activities of foreign human rights organisations with the goals and objectives of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The author's idea is confirmed by the data of monitoring of observance of religious freedoms and rights of believers, carried out by the Russian Association for the Defence of Religious Freedom. It is concluded that it is necessary to establish new international mechanisms for the protection of human rights on the platforms of BRICS, SCO, and others.

Refugee Worldbuilding in Broken Times: (Re)Creating Self-Location in South(east) Asian Canadian Narratives

This paper is focused on interpreting the way in which twenty-first-century refugee writing in Canada is currently approached critically and theoretically. It proposes new reading strategies that contest the influence of nation-state powers over literary production deployed with an aesthetics of cosmopolitanism. In particular, this article takes up refugee writing by Kim Thúy and Sharon Bala, respectively, in order to show how its search for a “Good Life” leads to the transformation of the characters’ subjectivity. This transformation responds to an epistemological shift which confronts issues of Western complicity in foreign human rights abuses and poses questions about alternative epistemologies to Eurocentric notions of healing and trauma recovery in the aftermath of mass violence.

Lost in Translation? Bill 21, Human Rights and The Margin of Appreciation

The adoption of Bill 21 banning religious symbols for civil servants in Quebec has stirred considerable debate politically and constitutionally, in Quebec and in Canada. Neglected, however, has been a more in-depth analysis of how international human rights law often serves as an implicit frame of reference for many of the surrounding debates. This is despite the fact that foreign human rights references have already made their way into discussions. This article focuses, in particular, on the invocation of the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, which seem to have validated bans of religious symbols in various contexts. It gives a brief overview of that jurisprudence and specifies the parameters within which this case law operates. It argues that whilst Quebec is less alone in banning religious symbols than is sometimes argued, the European case law needs to be handed carefully and remains of limited translatability. In particular, the article emphasizes the importance of the so-called “margin of appreciation” as heavily conditioning the outcome in those cases. Although the margin suggests national leeway in adopting bans based on certain national traditions and specificities, nor is it an open door to all bans. Rather, the margin emphasizes the need for significant divergences between states parties on an issue and respect for procedural safeguards as sine qua nons for the valid invocation of the margin. The article concludes with some thoughts on how importing human rights arguments out of context can be perilous, but also about how the margin itself may be problematic.

Doing business abroad: a review of selected recent Canadian case-studies on corporate accountability for foreign human rights violations

ABSTRACT While it is reported that a large part of the mining activity abroad comes from Canada, a robust regulatory framework for addressing human rights violations committed by Canadian mining companies is lacking in Canada. From Canadian and international law perspectives, this paper addresses the issue of accountability of Canadian companies who commit human rights violations while operating in foreign countries. The paper discusses reports of human rights abuses by Canadian corporations and the jurisdiction of Canadian courts in cases of alleged violations committed abroad. It analyses selected recent decisions from Canadian courts as case-studies and argues that legal reform is needed to ensure accountability of Canadian corporations operating abroad and access to civil law remedies.

International Law in U.S. State Courts: Extraterritoriality and 'False Conflicts' of Law

With the U.S. Supreme Court recently cutting back the reach of federal jurisdiction over causes of action arising abroad for violations of international law, questions have arisen about the ability of state law to provide the vessel through which plaintiffs may bring suits alleging such violations. Here litigants and courts must address two key questions: First, to what extent may state law implement or incorporate international law as a rule of decision? And second, to what extent may state law incorporating international law authorize suits for causes of action arising abroad? The second question is both especially urgent because it involves a potential alternative avenue for litigating foreign human rights abuses in U.S. courts, and especially vexing because it juxtaposes different doctrinal and jurisprudential conceptualizations of the ability of forum law to reach inside foreign territory.Against this backdrop, I want to make a few points. First, there is nothing wrong as a general matter with state law incorporating international law. Second, the idea of state law having broader extraterritorial reach than federal law is nonetheless in tension with federal foreign affairs preemption. And third, this tension basically disappears when the state law incorporating international law presents what’s called a “false conflict” of laws among the relevant jurisdictions’ laws. Here the fields of private international law and conflict of laws gain salience and supply a doctrinally and historically grounded mechanism for entertaining claims arising abroad in U.S. courts. More concretely, if state law incorporating international law is fundamentally the same law as that operative in the foreign jurisdiction, there is no conflict of laws and the sole applicable law applies.In sum, ever-tightening constraints on federal extraterritoriality have generated multilayered tensions with traditional and contemporary fields of conflict of laws and private international law. At present, the flashpoint for these tensions promises to be claims alleging international human rights violations abroad in state court. The concept of “false conflicts” of law can remove the flashpoint’s ignition source. False conflicts hold immense jurisprudential, doctrinal, and practical potential to handle these multilayered tensions with an equally multilayered concept capable of capturing principles not only of conflict of laws but also of federal extraterritoriality, foreign affairs, and due process. False conflicts should be the starting point for any evaluation of international human rights claims in state court under state law.

International Law and Voter Preferences: the Case of Foreign Human Rights Violations

International Law and Voter Preferences: the Case of Foreign Human Rights Violations

Mining for Justice in Home Country Courts: A Canada-UK Comparison of Access to Remedy for Victims of Human Rights Violations

In the absence of international law holding multinational corporations accountable, the only recourse available to many victims of human rights violations may be domestic tort law in the multinational’s home country courts. Existing barriers preventing access to this forum of last resort for victims from countries which lack adequate legislation or fail to provide access to local courts or justice, allow multinationals to operate largely with legal impunity. This paper will analyse and compare the court access available in Canada and the United Kingdom to foreign victims of human rights violations committed by mining companies based in these countries, as well as how these countries are meeting their obligations under the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. As Canadian courts have the greatest potential to provide justice to the most victims and have been criticised widely for failing to do so, including by the UN, this forum will be the primary focus.Specifically, the history and current state of UK and Canadian legislation and case law is explored under which mining companies operate overseas, and the divergence of UK and Canadian courts on granting home court access and remedy. Particular attention is directed to key Canadian and UK court cases involving the mining sector and human rights in developing countries, with emphasis on the precedence setting Choc v. Hudbay rulings and the impact of this case on Canadian jurisprudence in the areas of forum non conveniens, parent company duty of care, doctrine of limited liability, and the application of international law. The paper recommends approaches Canadian lawmakers may pursue to guarantee access to Canadian courts for foreign human rights victims at the hands of Canadian mining companies, which includes eliminating forum non conveniens as a defence in human right cases, guaranteeing home court access in bilateral trade agreements, recognising international human rights law in Canadian courts, and removing the shield of the doctrine of corporate limited liability in human rights cases, especially where companies have knowingly established operations in areas of conflict or weak rule of law.

Religious situation and problems of freedom of religion and belief in Kazakhstan

In the situation with Kazakhstan, first of all, it is necessary to determine the starting point: October 2011. It was at this time that a new (second in post-Soviet history) law on religious issues (the “Law of 2011”) was adopted. It is very indicative of how he was taken: everything looked like a secret operation, quickly, without noise, long discussions and approvals. The fact is that several attempts of legislative initiatives in the field of regulating religious activities in the 2000s failed, including because of the negative reaction of local and foreign human rights organizations, international organizations and even individual states. The government, taught by such experience, immediately after the chairmanship of Kazakhstan in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in 2010, promptly drafted a new law, the adoption of which should have been provided by the Agency for Religious Affairs, specially created in the same year.

FOREIGN FADS OR FASHIONS? THE ROLE OF COMPARATIVISM IN HUMAN RIGHTS LAW

AbstractAlthough there is a broadly similar core of human rights law and courts in different jurisdictions face strikingly similar questions, the use of comparative law in the human rights context remains controversial. Reference to foreign human rights materials is regarded as undemocratic, selective and misleading. Rather than searching for a single ‘right answer’, or expecting convergence, this article addresses these challenges from a deliberative perspective. A deliberative approach requires decisions to be taken on the basis of reasons which are thorough and persuasive. Even where outcomes diverge, there need to be good reasons, whether textual, institutional, or cultural. Comparative materials constitute an important contribution to this process. Part I critically assesses various alternative potential functions of comparative law. Part II develops the deliberative model while Part III addresses the main critiques of comparative law. Part IV tests the deliberative approach against a selection of cases dealing with two particularly challenging issues confronted by courts in different jurisdictions, namely the use of substantive principles such as dignity, and the application of justification or limitation clauses in the context of prisoners' right to vote. Case law is drawn from countries which already cite each other and which have broadly similar institutional frameworks: the USA, Canada, South Africa, India, Australia, the UK, New Zealand and the European Court of Human Rights to the extent that it too considers comparative law.

An Interview with Gregory Mann

For Humanity , Janet Roitman, and Ken Harrow interviewed Gregory Mann on some of the major themes of Mann’s book From Empire to NGOs in the West African Sahel: the Road to Nongovernmentality . Key points of debate include NGO activity and foreign Human Rights engagement in West Africa, the meaning of “government” in the region, the nature of African sovereignty in the neoliberal era, and the capacity of the discipline of history to contribute to an understanding of contemporary Africa.

Witnessing Cambodia’s Disappeared

abstract Representing the first two sustained literary treatments of the Cambodian genocide in Canadian literature, Kim Echlin’s The Disappeared and Madeleine Thien’s Dogs at the Perimeter employ the genre of fiction to contribute to the testimonial archive of the atrocities committed by Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge regime while simultaneously deconstructing the foreignness of this historical trauma in relation to Canada’s past. Mobilizing an aesthetics of entwined responsibility that claims Cambodia’s history as a part of Canada’s international history, the novels of Echlin and Thien prompt a consideration of the role of novels written by non-Cambodians in confronting issues of Western complicity in foreign human rights abuses and in mediating questions about alternative epistemologies of healing and trauma recovery in the aftermath of mass violence. This essay suggests that the failure of justice and accountability that has characterized Cambodia’s international human rights movement speaks to the urgency and importance of such acts of literary responsibility.

Leahy in Indonesia: Damned if You Do (and Even if You Don't)

In preparation for his impending visit to Indonesia, President Barack Obama is considering the paradoxical question of military reengagement with the Indonesian army's Special Forces Command (called KOPASSUS). An important part of this policy calculus is based on the current laws to deny military and law enforcement training to known foreign human rights violators, collectively known as the “Leahy Laws.” However, the text of the Leahy Laws considers neither the natural changes in the make-up of military units nor the important reforms the Indonesian armed forces have made in its own training and advocacy of human rights practices. A closer look at how the law is applied reviles that U.S.-Indonesia policy in general—and military-to-military relations in particular—are unnecessarily damaged by the Leahy Laws and details the consequences of good intentions gone awry.

Political Transition and the Rise of Cause Lawyering: The Case of Hong Kong

This article examines how cause lawyering can flourish under authoritarianism. Using the case of Hong Kong, it argues that the process of the sovereignty transition between the 1980s and 1997 contributed to the emergence of cause lawyering by establishing a favorable legal opportunity structure, by creating a political structure that provides incentive for lawyers‐cum‐politicians to engage in cause lawyering, and by prompting a few dedicated foreign human rights lawyers to move their practices to Hong Kong. Apart from the factors related to the sovereignty transition, other factors also facilitated the rise of cause lawyering in Hong Kong, including a rights‐receptive judiciary, an autonomous legal profession, and a government‐funded legal aid system.

Using International and Foreign Human Rights Law in Public Interest Advocacy

The theme of this speech is that legal services and legal aid are part of a movement that has both depth and breadth. The depth is historical legal services grew out of twentieth century anti-poverty and civil rights advocacy (which was called human rights advocacy) and nineteenth century anti-slavery and women’s rights campaigns; all of this is part of the great movement for human rights. The breadth incorporates the modern spectrum of human rights protections for people of color; women; children; language minorities; people with disabilities; people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered; people who are poor; immigrants; refugees; displaces. The breadth is not only national, but international; indeed, universal. Since the middle of the twentieth century, this doctrine of human rights has been codified in international documents. Additionally, human rights have been codified in other countries constitutions including South Africa. Therefore, international and foreign human rights law protects civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights. Importantly, the prohibitions of discrimination are broader than those expressed in domestic United States law. I urge that in all our work, we should be using the standards of international and foreign human rights law. I believe we should be doing this in all forums in federal and state courts, in Congress, in state legislatures and city councils, in the media, and in every venue in which we contribute to public education giving speeches, writing letters to the editor and op-ed pieces, participating in blogs, and talking to our families and friends. As legal services/legal aid lawyers, it is part of our job to know what courts are holding and what they are entertaining as bases for decisions. However, it is also crucial to know what courts should be holding, and what they should be entertaining as a bases for a decision. Moreover, that means that we should, persistently, present to state and federal courts the standards established in international law so that the U.S. may be able to catch up the rest of the civilized world. The use of foreign law has previously been done in Supreme Court cases and Justice Breyer has even urged lawyers to present such arguments—not only in court, but in other forums. An illuminating instance of the non-litigation use of international human rights occurred in connection with Shelley v. Kraemer and Hurd v. Hodge. Therefore, international human rights law may be particularly useful in two respects: its protections against discrimination (which are more expansive than are those in domestic U.S. law) and its protection of economic, social, and cultural rights. I am not breaking new ground in urging that we use foreign and international law in our domestic arguments in and out of court. Legal aid lawyers have been raising international human rights claims for decades. Further, many believe these efforts will be successful. We as lawyers have great skills of advocacy and persuasion and the ability to compel others to pay attention to us. We, as advocates for poor and oppressed people, have the power to advance the recognition and protection of fundamental human rights in the United States. We have that power, and we also have that duty.

Inside Illegality: Migration Policing in South Africa after Apartheid

South Africa's migration policing policy has not changed substantially since the demise of apartheid. Tactics used by the police in recent operations are dramatically similar to apartheid policing practices. While some amendments to the legislative regime have aimed to protect human rights, the structures introduced have failed to make any impact. The discretion allowed to police has contributed to the institutional and symbolic entrenchment of the lack of legal status for undocumented migrants. At the level of implementation, the police and the army have played major roles in migration policing with no more than administrative oversight from the Department of Home Affairs. The policing strategy pursued has been one of border control backed up with intrusive and extensive internal military-style policing. Corruption is an institutional feature of both the arrest and detention of undocumented migrants. Numerous human rights abuses occur in the arrest and detention of undocumented migrants as well as of refugees. Despite the embarrassing attention of domestic and foreign human rights organizations exposing certain instances of abuse, the principal features of this policing strategy have remained intact and human rights abuses have continued through to the present.

The Internationalization of Singapore Politics

Singapore's periodic conflicts with the foreign media and human rights groups took a significant turn during 1995, when an opposition leader's willingness to fraternize with the government's critics abroad highlighted the external domain's relevance to domestic politics in an altered global environment. Though the dominance of the People's Action Party (PAP), which has ruled the country since 1959, remained unchallenged under Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong, this development could have important implications in the longer run for the city-state, whose remarkable economic success has been accompanied by a marked degree of official control over the terms and parameters of political discourse and contestation. Its significance lay in its backdrop, a wave of demo cratization, working its way through the post-Soviet world order which has seen a number of authoritarian countries in Asia liberalize politically in recent years. Interventions by foreign human rights groups, the media, and sometimes polit icians, increasingly meshing in with the United States' desire to police the political morals of the world, have encouraged the process. Though the actual extent of their contribution to change is debatable, their activities have accentuated the process of liberalization which attests to a trend towards political globalization running parallel with the economic, both being based on American values and leadership triumphant in the contest with the Soviet Union. This trend pro vided the context in which Singapore's political arena and its judicial institu tions came under intensified external pressure during the year. While the scrutiny was not new, what lent it a certain weight in Singapore politics was the opposition's response to it. Central to that response was the controversial readi ness of Chee Soon Juan, who is secretary-general of the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP), to utilize external forums in his pursuit of political goals within the country.1 It is perhaps not overstating the case to see that linkage as marking a stage in the internationalization of Singapore's politics. The internationalization occurred also in the context of a debate between the Singapore leadership and supporters of the liberal-democratic model over the issue of Asian values. The state's emphatic advocacy of hard work, thrift and the ability to place the community above the self ? values which it considers to be

An Analysis of Public Interest Reporting

The purpose of this paper is to examine General Motors Corpora tions^ (GM) use of a specific social responsibility disclosure device, the General Motors Public Interest Report, to explain and defend its pro duction and marketing operations in South Africa from 1971 through 1986. In order to analyze GM's management of its position on South African investment, first we studied each GM report published during that period. Afterward, we evaluated GM's discussions in light of share-holder, government and activist pressures for GM to defend and/ or change its policies toward South Africa. Our longitudinal analysis provides new information about the dynamic nature of a firm's social strategy and about the use of a disclosure mechanism that is supplemental to annual reports. Thus, our study ad vances the stream of social performance research concerned with corporate social responsiveness (Wood, 1991). The remainder of our paper is organized as follows. First, we discuss society's changing expectations of business during the 1970s and activist groups' confrontations with U.S. multinational corporations over foreign human rights issues. Appealing to prior research, we then dis cuss the concept of social responsiveness. Next, apartheid in South Africa as a social responsibility issue is discussed. In presenting a detailed account of the content of General Motors Public Interest Reports from 1971 through 1987 concerning the corporation's South African business practices and policies, we evaluate GM's dis closure trends and present some overall conclusions.

The Philippine Vigilantes: Devotion and Disarray

In the course of 1986-87 some 200 armed bands, collectively called emerged in the Philippines, ostensibly organized against a rising tide of communist guerrilla insurgency. The vigil antes' appearance, encouraged by local military commanders, should be seen against the long history of Philippine private armies*9. The vigilantes* rise, along with the formal dissolution of such paramilitary groups as the Civilian Home Defence Forces (CHDF) also led to a further complication of the constitutional-legal foundation of all paramilitary organizations in the Philippines. This question became increasing urgent as many of the vigilantes engaged in serious human rights abuses that led to vociferous criticism by Philippine and foreign human rights groups and further undermined the once promising image of the Aquino govern ment. By attempting to create a ''Civilian Volunteer Organization fCVOj network, and also a new network of Citizen Armed Forces Geographical Units (CAFGU), the Aquino regime hoped to con tain the vigilante phenomenon and at the same time meet the needs of civilian participation in the national counter-insurgency programme. In this effort, Aquino was only partially successful however, as the vigilantes continued to operate with little control. The absence of operational direction and of a structured policy by the government led to splits and divisions within the vigilante groups. Such division, and often seemingly aimless drifting of some vigilantes, hastened their decline, amidst further charges of continuing human rights abuses. Though a formal ban of the vigil antes seems likely, the Aquino regime has not solved the problem