International Human Rights Organizations Research Articles

Fragments Towards an Impossible (Domestic) Genre of the Human in Kenyan Crime Fiction

Extrajudicial executions and other forms of police violence in Kenya have always been an issue of significant concern in local and international media and human rights organisations. Reflective of this, scholarly interest in crime fiction in Kenya has grown significantly in recent years. However, the gendered implications of criminality – from sex work to errant motherhood to alternative modes of investigation – are still largely overlooked in postcolonial literary fiction and criticism. As part of a larger study on how women writers and characters shape crime fiction in Kenya, this paper critically engages with stories that the criminalised woman knows, tells, forgets, incarnates, discards or hides about the city. It does so by examining the history of urban sex workers in Kenya, the representation of ‘urban women’ in postcolonial Kenyan novels and contemporary mainstream media, and the various (post) colonial laws that criminalise sex work. Through Justina, an elusive character in Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor’s Dust, I consider how (post)colonial legislative frameworks and social life attempt to manage “impossible domesticity” (Saidiya Hartman) inside and against the geo-history of gendered and classed criminality in urban Kenyan spaces. My purpose is to interrogate hegemonic constructions of the citizen – and by extension, of the human – in Kenyan law and public morality 
 Keywords: crime fiction, feminism, sex work, human, homo narrans

COVID-19 lockdown controls and human rights abuses: the social marketing implications

Background: This work is a situation analysis of reported human rights abuses that have characterized the COVID-19 controls and lockdown in some countries of the world. This is as documented by reliable mass media sources, relevant international organizations and human rights non-governmental organizations between January 2020 to April 2020. Methods: A combined content analysis, critical analysis, and doctrinal method is applied in this study in line with the reproducible research process. It is a secondary-data-based situation analysis study, conducted through a qualitative research approach. Findings: The findings revealed among other things that: COVID-19 lockdowns and curfews’ enforcement by law enforcement officers contravened some peoples’ fundamental human rights within the first month. Security forces employed overt and immoderate forces to implement the orders. The lockdown and curfew enforcements were not significantly respectful of human life and human dignity. The COVID-19 emergency declarations in some countries were discriminatory against minorities and vulnerable groups in some countries. Research limitations/implications: This report is based on data from investigative journalism and opinions of the United Nations and international human rights organizations, and not on police investigations or reports. The implication of the study is that if social marketing orientations and risk communication and community engagement attitudes were given to the law enforcement officers implementing the COVID-19 lockdowns and or curfews, the human rights and humanitarian rights breaches witnessed would have been avoided or drastically minimized. Originality: The originality of this review is that it is the first to undertake a situation analysis of the COVID-19 lockdowns and curfews human rights abuses in some countries. The study portrayed the poor level of social marketing orientations and risk communication and community engagement attitudes amongst law enforcement officers, culminating in the frosty police-public relationships.

The Concept Of Solidarity As A Factor In The Realization Of Human And Civil Rights And Freedoms In Ukraine

The article is devoted to the study of the role and significance of guarantees of individual rights and freedoms in Ukraine. The author defines that they are important factors in the economic, political, legal, cultural and other spheres of society that create conditions for the real possibility of exercising the rights and freedoms of the individual. The concept of solidarity excludes the idea of class struggle, the revolutionary path of development of society. According to this concept, the focus is on the social nature of the state: socio-economic, cultural, environmental rights of citizens are ensured with the participation of the state, which pursues an active socio-economic policy aimed at redistribution of funds for the most vulnerable, employment, social insurance, development affordable education, health care, etc.
 Guarantees for the realization of human and civil rights, freedoms and responsibilities can be described as a system of conditions and means that together ensure the exercise of constitutional human and civil rights, freedoms and responsibilities. The effectiveness of this system depends on various factors, but the main among them is the presence of certain elements in the system of government. These include: a) the existence of the Basic Law, the effect of which cannot be terminated arbitrarily; b) the definition of state power derived from the power of the people and the Constitution; c) consolidation at the constitutional level of fundamental rights, freedoms and responsibilities of man and citizen and the means and conditions of their exercise; d) the existence of an independent judiciary; e) the opportunity to protect their rights with the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and in international human rights organizations.
 It is also proposed to solve certain issues of realization of human rights and freedoms in Ukraine through the implementation of the concept of solidarity - the principle of building a social system in which its members (citizens, families, ethnic groups, religious denominations, social groups, political parties, business corporations, etc.) have a real legal and socio-political subjectivity , on the basis of which their rights, opportunities and interests can be consolidated and solidified in order to achieve consensus goals (common good) in social frameworks of different scales (local, national, global).

Counter-Terrorism Activities and Human Rights Violation in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic: Gap and Lesson

The departure in 1999 of military regime in Nigeria restored hope for human rights that was grossly abused by successive military regimes. Regrettably, after twenty years, it is not yet uhuru for Nigerians. Human rights violations remain rife. Particularly worrying is the government security operatives‟ abuse of rights with the resultant casualties. Using data generated from secondary sources and descriptive method of analysis, it was realized that the aftermath of 2009 Boko Haram uprising has opened a new discourse in Nigeria's security literature. Security agencies have been repeatedly accused of extensive human rights abuses and extrajudicial killings. The number of incidents of human rights violations in Nigeria's democracy has become a major concern. More disconcerting is that the justice sector has not effectively addressed the issue, largely due to the disregard of lawful processes and orders by the Nigerian state and its machinery. Findings of the paper noted, with the increasing pressure by both local and international human rights organizations, the Nigerian government since 2015 directed the military to make drastic adjustments in its operations to ensure strict adherence to the stipulated human rights standards. It was also discovered that with the adoption of these new measures, most human rights violations have reduced. It therefore recommends for the improvement and consolidation of their positive impact by complementing them with a more comprehensive counterterrorism policy.

Race, Gender, and the Prison Industrial Complex

Abstract Despite the transnational growth of the prison industrial complex and the rapid expansion of the carceral state in the United States and beyond, violence against women in prisons has remained largely invisible. Reports from people inside prisons, amplified by activists on the outside and international human rights organizations documenting prison conditions, highlight rampant violations of human rights behind walls. The gendered nature of racism, which fuels the growth of the prison industrial complex, results in experiences of violence, including medical neglect, sexual abuse, lack of reproductive control, loss of parental rights, and the devastating effects of isolation, that manifest in particular ways in women’s prisons. Advocates who are challenging conditions inside increasingly are connecting with activists across the globe and organizing their efforts to resist this violence in concert with a broader resistance to carcerality overall.

Brazilian Portrayals of Indigenous Rights in Western Europe during the 1970s and 1980s

AbstractFrom the mid-1960s, Brazilian and European activists collaborated to raise awareness about human rights violations in Brazil, which at the time was under an authoritarian military regime. From reports on torture, to week-long conferences, cultural events, boycotts, petitions and protests, a wide range of activities contributed to the emerging transnational human rights movement. For the most part, activists focused on the themes of political repression, torture, inequality and development. However, at some point during the dictatorship, the discourse of Brazilians—and, by association, of their solidarity networks—began to address the indigenous question, raising indigenous peoples’ struggles as a matter of human rights, as valid as any other, and contributing to their salience within the domains of international human rights organizations and institutions. Given the Brazilian Left’s failures to cohesively mobilize for indigenous rights thus far, this change in discourse is deserving of further attention. In this article, I address the emergence of indigenous rights within the Western European network of solidarity movements comprising resistance to Brazil’s military regime. These debates, as components of the transnational human rights movement of the 1970s, can be used to better understand the behaviour of Brazil’s Left in this international setting, as well as the wider movement itself. Furthermore, it will be shown that indigenous rights were portrayed through the conceptual framework of ‘Latin American Theory’, as opposed to more commonly cited concepts of minority rights or multicultural citizenship.

Human and civil rights as a determiner of national state-building

At the present stage of their development the Ukrainian society and the state are characterized by their pursuit to provide maximum realization of human and civil rights and to create a full-scale civil society. Obviously, in this context, a significant attention is paid to the human rights in Ukraine, however there is insufficient research systematically conceptualizing the human rights employing philosophical and legal instruments and methodology. The author highlights that particular attention in the mechanism of organizational and legal remedies is paid to judicial and extrajudicial protection of human and civil rights. In accordance with the Article 55 of the Constitution of Ukraine the judicial protection of human and civil rights is maintained through the system of general jurisdiction courts of Ukraine. The state ensures the right of every person to appeal in court against any decisions, actions or inactivity of the state bodies, local self-government bodies and government officials that violate human and civil rights. In case of exhausting all remedies of his/her rights and liberties protection in national courts the person can appeal to the international courts, e.g. to the European Court of Human Rights. At present, Ukraine holds the third position in the number of its citizens’ appeals to this distinguished international legal institution. Every person is able to appeal to the extrajudicial institutions authorized to protect the constitutional human and civil rights and liberties. In Ukraine there is a special body for this purpose — the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, whose activities are determined by the Law of Ukraine «On the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights» of 23 December, 1997. In case when all extrajudicial remedies of human rights protection are exhausted, a person has the right, guaranteed by the Constitution of Ukraine, to appeal to the international human rights organizations (Art. 55). In terms of the current theory and practice of guaranteeing the constitutional human and civil rights, together with the national regulatory, organizational and legal guarantees, it is worth to distinguish the international guarantees of the constitutional human and civil rights and liberties in Ukraine. The special international legal guarantees of the human and civil rights and liberties are usually divided into regulatory and institutional ones. Key words: human and civil rights and liberties, constitutional state, national legal doctrine, international law, imitation of human rights, constitutional and legal mechanism for ensuring human rights and liberties.

COVID-19 lockdown controls and human rights abuses: the social marketing implications

Background: This work is a situation analysis of reported human rights abuses that have characterized the COVID-19 controls and lockdown in some countries of the world. This is as documented by reliable mass media sources, relevant international organizations and human rights non-governmental organizations between January 2020 to April 2020. Methods: A combined content analysis, critical analysis, and doctrinal method is applied in this study in line with the reproducible research process. It is a secondary-data-based situation analysis study, conducted through a qualitative research approach. Findings: The findings revealed among other things that: COVID-19 lockdowns and curfews’ enforcement by law enforcement officers contravened some peoples’ fundamental human rights within the first month. Security forces employed overt and immoderate forces to implement the orders. The lockdown and curfew enforcements were not significantly respectful of human life and human dignity. The COVID-19 emergency declarations in some countries were discriminatory against minorities and vulnerable groups in some countries. Research limitations/implications: This report is based on data from investigative journalism and opinions of the United Nations and international human rights organizations, and not on police investigations or reports. The implication of the study is that if social marketing orientations and risk communication and community engagement attitudes were given to the law enforcement officers implementing the COVID-19 lockdowns and or curfews, the human rights and humanitarian rights breaches witnessed would have been avoided or drastically minimized. Originality: The originality of this review is that it is the first to undertake a situation analysis of the COVID-19 lockdowns and curfews human rights abuses in some countries. The study portrayed the poor level of social marketing orientations and risk communication and community engagement attitudes amongst law enforcement officers, culminating in the frosty police-public relationships.

The Implementation of State Policy of Power Cleaning in the Conditions of Political Transformation: Experience of Ukraine and Countries of Central and Eastern Europe

The article analyzes the problems of realization of the state policy of power cleaning in the countries of Central-Eastern Europe (Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Baltic countries), and in particular in Ukraine. It has been found that in various countries this step in the public administration was taken since the fall of the communist regime. However, everywhere it was carried out by its own rules. The attention is drawn to the fact that the power cleaning through lustration should be ensured in the light of a wide range of threats that pertain to the human rights sphere and the principle of the presumption of innocence. This was relevant for every state that embarked on the path of transformational change to the implementation of a state policy of power cleaning. None of the countries that have taken such a political step in the public administration system went this route easily (there were both claims to the laws with subsequent legislative initiatives to amend them, and suits to courts of various instances to restore human and citizen’s rights and freedoms). However, there were also positive consequences, which resulted in the cleaning of the authorities of the respective countries from the influences of interested pro-communist political forces, which hindered democratic transformations in the states. Regarding the characteristics of the state policy of power cleaning by lustration in Ukraine, which began only in 2014, we drew attention to the fact that it had a different meaning: it was not aimed at combating the communist past, but at overthrowing the current political regime of “Yanukovych times”. There were some problems, which reflected the emergence of relevant issues in such events of the public administration system, which caused criticism from a number of external international human rights organizations (for example, the Venice Commission), and led to massive claims to courts of various instances aimed to restore of claimants' rights. Also the article draws attention to the fact that lustration, as a mechanism of power cleaning, is an appropriate political step on the way to democratization of society and overcoming the negative consequences of the activity of undemocratic political regimes. However, its implementation requires a prudent approach to defining the principles of legal regulation, the establishment of appropriate institutions to ensure the implementation of lustration and guaranteeing the protection of human and citizen's rights and freedoms from political persecution. Keywords: sustainable development, public policy, cleaning of power, lustration, protection of human and citizen's rights and freedoms.

Permission to Narrate a Pandemic in Palestine

Permission to Narrate a Pandemic in Palestine

El acceso al trabajo decente y a las TIC como derechos humanos en México: una perspectiva institucional

En el 2011, el Estado mexicano llevó a cabo la reforma constitucional de los derechos humanos. Esto ha sido bien recibido por diferentes organizaciones internacionales de derechos humanos en todo el mundo; sin embargo, los principales desafíos de esta reforma están en cómo hacer efectivos los derechos humanos de todas las personas. Trabajando en una combinación de métodos cualitativos y cuantitativos, analizamos hasta qué punto el estado mexicano ha garantizado los derechos humanos de acceso a las Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación (TIC) y el trabajo decente para las personas pobres. Concluimos que el estado mexicano no ha podido garantizar esos derechos fundamentales, ya que su marco institucional no faculta a las personas para exigir acciones específicas del gobierno para garantizar sus derechos humanos de manera efectiva.

The ugly face of the state: Nigerian security forces, human rights and the search for Boko Haram

ABSTRACT This paper argues that the aggressive and gratuitously violent insurgency in northeastern Nigeria – Boko Haram – is the entirely understandable consequence of more than a half-century of misrule by what I call the parasitic and predatory Nigerian political class. Evidence of widespread human rights abuses including extortion, rape and theft comes from investigations by various international human rights organizations, international non-governmental organizations, church groups, press reports and interviews. I focus primarily on incidents and practices in the northeast but examples are adduced from other parts of the country as well. I discuss the policy of coercion and brutality embedded in the very nature of the colonial and post-colonial state using Crawford Young’s concept of bula matari (the state as rock crusher).

Coping with Human Rights Challenge: A Perspective from Asean

Since its inception, ASEAN has constantly faced criticism from western countries and international human rights organizations. This paper particularly focuses on ASEAN human rights and non-interference policy. ASEAN has established two new commissions: Intergovernmental Human Rights Commission and Protection of Women and Children. This study focuses on the current state of human rights in ASEAN and addresses the following key questions: how ASEAN deals with human rights problems? Why ASEAN response to human rights has been considered as insufficient to handle/tackle human rights problems effectively? Hence, a qualitative approach was applied to this study using secondary sources of data. This study is based on thorough literature review and critical analysis of ASEAN human rights situation, by reviewing the relevant studies on human rights challenges in ASEAN, and its strategies in tackling this challenge. This study concludes that although the problem of human rights is recognized as per national, regional and international laws, but the challenge to implement them in letter and spirit require more concrete step at regional level on behalf of ASEAN, however, Non-intervention policy is a serious challenge to collective decision making on ASEAN human rights. Therefore, ASEAN needs to setup a mechanism where the member states can find common ground to handle human rights challenge.

Human rights in the postgenomic era: Challenges and opportunities arising with epigenetics

Over the past twenty-five years, international organizations have adopted human rights declarations in an attempt to address emerging ethical, legal and social concerns associated with genetic research and technologies. While these declarations point to important challenges and potential issues in genetics, the focus on genetics has been criticized for promoting the idea that there is something unique about our genes, and that therefore, they deserve special protections in our laws. It is also argued that this ‘genetic exceptionalism’ perspective has contributed to a reinvigoration of genetic essentialism and determinism. In this article, we add to this criticism by pointing out gaps and flaws in current gene-focused human rights declarations in light of recent developments in the field of epigenetics. First, we show that these documents do not provide guidance for a responsible governance of epigenetic data (e.g., privacy protection) and an ethical use of individual epigenetic information (e.g., nondiscrimination). This is particularly concerning given the interest recently demonstrated by insurance companies, forensic scientists and immigration agencies in using epigenetic clock technologies. Second, we argue that findings in epigenetics could contribute to the promotion of second- and third- generation human rights, i.e., respectively, economic, social and cultural rights, and solidarity rights. We conclude by calling for international bioethics and human rights organizations to pay greater attention to epigenetics and other postgenomic sciences in the coming years.

ЦИФРОВЫЕ ПРАВА ГРАЖДАН И ИХ ЗАЩИТА В ПОСТКОВИДНОМ ОБЩЕСТВЕ

In article research intention of digital rights of sitizen and some problems of it perception and protection during the pandemic 2020. Weakness of low base in this sphere and actualization of right’s protection during fast digitalization of society lead us to research international standards of right’s protection and to research some possibilities of different international human rights organizations. The author presents brief field of privacy data threats in digital society in pandemic situation. There’s analyzed the experience of different countries with digital personal data and some problems in this work. There’re some differences in digital personal data policy in different countries. As a base of creation a future low about work with digital personal data and digital rights of sitizen, european countries use GDPR. But regulation of this field is take-off now, the most important role have an active public organizations and international human rights organizations.

Salir al mundo en tiempos de dictadura: Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo y las redes transnacionales de derechos humanos (1977-1983)

In this article we analyze the interaction between the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo and the transnational advocacy networks for human rights during the years of the last military dictatorship in Argentina. In the first place, we analyze the main characteristics and actors of these networks and reconstruct the process and the modalities of insertion of the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo in them. Secondly, we inquire into the repertoire of action and the different forms of collaboration of international human rights organizations with the Argentinian group. Finally, we discuss the medium and long-term effects that these relationships had for the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, both for the dissemination of its cause and for its consolidation as an independent organization.

Prioritization in human rights NGOs: The role of intra-organizational units of planning

Drawing on forty in-depth interviews with program managers in nineteen Western international human rights organizations, this article examines how human rights organizations make decisions about how to allocate resources and how to manage their commitments to specific causes, specific people, and specific areas. It argues that organizational routines shape the allocation of resources relatively independently of other factors and it pays particular attention to the role played by intra-organizational “units” of work and planning. Units of work and planning function as candidates for the allocation of resources within organizations. Resources are not allocated directly to issues or causes but rather are distributed on the one hand among a set of range of practices, such as reports and campaigns, and ways of responding, which are considered legitimate, and on the other hand among the thematic and geographical units, which structure human rights organizations. The article concludes by discussing some factors that play a role in the selection among these units. As human rights workers consider where their organizations can make a difference, other organizations and conditions for their work come into view, levers matter, and the way making a difference can be demonstrated plays a role.

LEGAL AND SOCIALLY-PSYCHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CRIMES RELATED TO TRADE PEOPLE IN THE WORLD

The article is devoted to the legal and socio-psychological characteristics of crimes related to human trafficking. It is noted that this issue is reflected in various studies. It is believed that about 21 million people may be in slavery at the moment, and the income from this criminal business may be at least $ 32 billion annually. About 11. 7 million people are exploited in the Asia-Pacific region, 3. 7 million in Africa, 1. 8 million in Latin America and the Caribbean, 1. 6 million in Central and Southeast Europe, and 1 in Europe, 5 million. In the countries of the Middle East, where there is a developed economy of about 600 thousand people. About 63 international non-governmental organizations are involved in solving the problem of human trafficking in the world, accompanying and providing various assistance (social, legal, psychotherapeutic) to victims of human trafficking every day. It is noted that the oldest international human rights organization in the world, which bases its activities on the UN treaties against slavery, is the international organization Anti-Slavery International, founded in 1839 in London, United Kingdom. Painted two types of trafficking. The analysis made it possible to describe the most typical mental states of trafficked persons who are associated with the problem of mental health, namely: depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder. It is emphasized that the suffering caused to the injured individual as a result of the physical or mental impact on him by the criminals involved in trafficking in persons will require compensation for the full restoration of the victim’s mental health and the establishment of justice not only in the form of bringing to justice the perpetrators, but also in the form of non-pecuniary compensation for the harm that was inflicted by the serious crime on the victims (men, women, children). Suggestions are made to continue the work on developing a methodology for forensic psychological examination of victims of crimes related to human trafficking.

Welfare Index of Migrant Workers in the Gulf: the Case of Qatar

AbstractIn December 2010, Qatar won the rights to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup games. The FIFA announcement came with increasing pressure from international human rights organizations, media and other groups for Qatar to reform its labour law, which governs the lives and working conditions of foreign workers in the country. Although Qatar continues to develop and implement major reforms to its labour laws, until now there was no one unique tool based on survey data to evaluate the impact of the government’s policies on guest workers. The objective of this article is to present the Qatar Guest Workers’ Welfare Index (GWWI),1 a multi‐dimensional comprehensive tool based on survey data of migrant workers developed by the Social and Economic Survey Research Institute (SESRI). In addition to assessing and tracking the welfare of this population, the objective of the index is to identify areas of improvement to guide policy formulation.

ILO Convention 169 in the inter-American human rights system: consultation and consent

ABSTRACTThe impact of Convention 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in countries independent of the International Labor Organization (hereinafter Convention 169), on the rights of indigenous peoples is unquestionable. Since its adoption (the Convention 169 was adopted by the ILO on 27 June 1989, in Geneva), 22 countries have ratified it with consequences that range from: its incorporation into internal regulation; constitutional, legislative and institutional modifications aimed at incorporating its standards; changes in practices in dealing with indigenous peoples; and rulings of domestic courts of justice that incorporate the Convention's standards in their decisions, among others. However, its impact has not been limited to the countries that ratified it, but it has crossed these borders, since it is considered a minimum standard in the discussions regarding other international instruments on the rights of indigenous peoples or has been incorporated, through the mechanism of its application or interpretation, in the decisions of international human rights organisations, both universal and regional. The following pages will deal with the incorporation of ILO's Convention 169 in the inter-American human rights system, regarding consultation and consent.