International Normative Framework Research Articles

Embodying global gender norms: A decolonial and diasporic reading of domestic workers' activism in Brazil

Embodying global gender norms: A decolonial and diasporic reading of domestic workers' activism in Brazil

The Genesis of the Legal Protection of Cultural Goods During Armed Conflict: Evolution and Perspectives (Part I)

Cultural goods have unfortunately always been a target for belligerent parties during armed conflicts throughout history, despite the fact that they knew very well that ensuring their protection had an imperative character, whether we refer to customary commitments, either conventional. However, the reality of armed conflicts remains a harsh one although evolving legal and philosophical thinking has strongly influenced the concept of the `laws and customs` of war from the perspective of `humanizing` armed conflicts. The efforts made by international actors in connecting the national and international normative framework in the matter of the protection of cultural goods to the rigors of armed conflicts have materialized in an appreciable number of agreements, documents of a different kind adopted at the international level, among which the Convention at the Hague of 1954, Additional Protocol I of 1954 and Additional Protocol II of 1999.

The newly-adopted Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive: an overview of the lawmaking process and analysis of the final text

This article provides an overview of the process leading up to the adoption of the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) and delivers a comprehensive analysis of the Directive’s final text. The article contextualises the design process of the CSDDD within the international normative framework on sustainability due diligence and elaborates on key events surrounding the inter-institutional negotiations between the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union on the Directive. The article then delves into the content of the newly adopted text, highlighting key differences between the final version and the Commission’s original proposal.

Bargaining with Patriarchy in Peacemaking: The Failure of Women, Peace, and Security in Afghanistan

Abstract After two decades of effort to embed Women, Peace, and Security (WPS), why and how did the agenda fail to transform patriarchal gendered structures and prevent the regression of women’s rights and security in Afghanistan? To address this question, the paper investigates how the WPS agenda was conceptualized and operationalized in Afghanistan. We apply Kandiyoti’s concept of patriarchal bargains to analyze multi-level power dynamics across four peace and conflict phases between 2001 and 2022, drawing from primary and secondary sources, including interviews with women leaders and key experts. While 20 years of engagement could not be expected to transform the country’s conservative gender order, we argue that WPS efforts lacked a grounded understanding of the gendered constraints in a conflict transition as well as a political strategy for achieving its goals. While the case of Afghanistan is unique, it is nonetheless highly relevant to other settings making significant investments in WPS. For advancing WPS, the paper suggests that the international normative framework must be connected to local voices that understand the context-specific, patriarchal power dynamics and how to bargain with them to achieve outcomes and gains for women’s security and rights.

Bilateral labor agreements as migration governance tools: An analysis from a gender lens

Abstract This Article discusses BLAs as tools of global labor migration governance, with a specific focus on gender. Drawing on our global database of 582 bilateral labor migration agreements (BLAs), we investigate the extent to which these governing instruments connect and align with relevant international normative frameworks, in particular the extent to which they represent gains, gaps or gaffs in terms of gender equality and the human and labor rights protection of women migrants. In the context of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM), which stresses a gender-responsive approach to migration governance as one of its guiding principles, we ask: Do the BLAs which are increasingly being used as instruments to govern labor migration contribute toward sustainable gender equality, decent work and reduced inequalities for women and gender-diverse migrants?

Enhancing Access to Justice Through Donor-Led Legal Aid Initiatives: International Normative Framework, Practical Approaches, and Some Findings from the Field

Abstract As an objective in international legal cooperation, interventions with the aim to enhance access to justice are a relatively new phenomenon that has famously been described as the ‘legal empowerment alternative’ which goes ‘beyond the rule of law orthodoxy’. Generally speaking, while traditional approaches primarily aim at promoting the rule of law ‘top–down’ by strengthening state structures and capacities, access to justice projects take a ‘bottom–up’ approach focusing on the empowerment of ‘users’ of justice systems. The overarching theory of change behind this approach is that empowered citizens are better able to participate in decision-making processes at the grassroots level, helping build greater trust and confidence in the justice system and public institutions, particularly in fragile and conflict-affected situations. Focusing on the provision of legal aid services, this article outlines the international normative framework, depicts the various practical approaches, and reflects some findings resulting from a recent evaluation commissioned by the German Federal Foreign Office on its engagement in enhancing access to justice, drawing from examples in Palestine, Ukraine, and Pakistan.

A Lei Anticorrução e os Programas de Compliance no Brasil

Deals with the new Brazilian legislation on the liability of corporations for corruption offenses, examining the changes introduced by Anti-corruption Act (ACA). Also addresses the international normative framework about corruption and corporate governance in the context of regulated self-regulation, as well as the development of the compliance programs as essential strategies for the prevention, detection and punishment of corporate corruption.

Hate crimes and international institutions: A literature review

Abstract The paper reflects on academic literature on the international normative and institutional framework related to hate crimes. Various theoretical and pragmatic issues have been discussed by academic authors, such as the challenges coming with the obligation of states to record hate crimes or to conduct efficient investigation, the limits of the potential impact of international review mechanisms, or the aims and content of resolutions adopted by international institutions and judgments delivered by the European Court of Human Rights. However, a wide range of practical and conceptual issues related to the existing international standards and the efficiency of international review mechanisms remain to be discussed in the academic sphere.

The Emergency of Satellite Schools and Access to Education in Zimbabwe: Leveraging the Human Rights Agenda

While the Land Reform Programme (LRP) in 2000 and beyond was camouflaged as a distributive justice schema aimed to better the socio-economic status of the Indigenous people in Zimbabwe, it precipitated educational injustices for students arising from the creation of an education landscape marked by inequitable access to education. The study, undertaken after 20 years since the inception of the LRP, sought to check the progress made thus far by the Government of Zimbabwe to enhance access to education by children of the new farmers. Informed and guided by the international normative frameworks of the right to education, of which Education For All (EFA) and the Zimbabwean Education Act (1987) are part, the case study cast in the qualitative approach, presents constructed narratives of three primary school learners and their three teachers at one purposively selected satellite school. The study finds that as much as the advent of the LRP worked to bring equal access and redress in land appropriation between the settlers and natives, a new form of injustice has resurfaced as reflected by challenges of equitable access to education.

Locating Feminist Progress in Professional Military Education

A continuing debate in feminist scholarship on gender, security, and the military has been whether militaries can facilitate feminist progress and be forces for good. Feminists committed to working outside of militaries note that gender perspectives have often been used to advance the military’s goals of winning wars rather than commitments to feminist social transformation of military institutions and societies. However, influences from international normative frameworks on Women, Peace and Security; Canada’s feminist foreign policy; and an emphasis on diversity and inclusion within Canada’s Defence Policy have presented the Canadian Armed Forces with a solid platform from which it has begun to make change. The central tenets of this broad feminist platform have begun to permeate Canadian Professional Military Education (PME) through the collective efforts of educators, staff, and military students at Canada’s defence colleges. Drawing on a review of policy and programmes as well as a qualitative analysis of interviews with educators, staff, and military students, the article demonstrates that feminist transformational change by military members is possible by exploring its nascent reality. The article highlights the challenges and benefits of incorporating feminist perspectives in Canadian PME and demonstrates how and under what conditions military graduates with this education have begun to apply gender and cultural learning to make local feminist interventions both within and outside their institution. Ultimately, this research shows that collective efforts toward localized and incremental changes by military members are paving the way for meaningful feminist progress within the military.

Mapuche cosmovision and territorial rights: An interdisciplinary approach to understand the conflict of Wallmapu, Chile

The indigenous population of Latin America has been suffering from a sense of alienation since the arrival of Columbus in 1492 who referred to this land as “Nuevo Mundo”. There is a long history of environmental exploitation in Chile which has severely strained the relationship amongst the Mapuche community, the State and private entities (hydroelectric and timber industry). Although this conflict seems to be economic-productive associated with land, wherein land attains a “tangible material good”, in the Mapuche cosmovision, land (Mapu means land in Mapudungun, the language of Mapuche) acquires a connotation of “intangible material and immaterial good”. There is a profound imperceptible connection between nature and Mapuche and their traditions and culture are strongly rooted in the land. The industrial expansion has promoted a series of negative externalities like habitat fragmentation, loss of native forest, biodiversity reduction, water availability, etc. These affect the “idiosyncrasy” of this community (Mapuche-Nature relationship) and loss of their land could represent an identity loss. The Chilean indigenous policy appears to be inadequate and fail to recognize the socio-cultural and territorial rights for all indigenous peoples, including Mapuche, given the multidimensionality of the land under the indigenous cosmovision. The socio-political measures imposed by the Chilean government until now to make their life “modern” boomeranged alienating them further from society. This paper proposes to look at the territorial rights of the Mapuche with an interdisciplinary approach and focuses on developing the conceptual framework of Mapuche cosmovision of land and territory. The study follows a brief analysis of the historical context of the territorial conflict between the Chilean State and the Mapuche people and how the implementation of national and international normative framework on indigenous rights has not been effective in resolving this territorial conflict. The study tries to synthesize and talks about integrating the Mapuche land cosmovision in the socio-political discourse and be considered while formulating any land policy involving Mapuche and other indigenous peoples inhabiting in Chile in future. The discussions and analysis have been carried out through a comprehensive literature review and integrate an interdisciplinary approach to look at this issue, both from the philosophical perspective and from the socio-political policy framework of government.

Protecting the Internet with international law

The Internet remains the odd child of international law. While forever more universal law venues such as conferences, edited volumes or research projects consider “the Internet” a peculiar, interesting aspect of its well-recognized disciplines, international scholarship fails to address the global network as a whole, stalling the application of the fully developed and well-suited international law apparatus to the global community's biggest contemporary challenge. “Internet governance” is still perceived by legal scholars as construed to international relations and, at best, a potential ground for soft law in a distant future. That is not the case: Internet governance, with all its challenges, has been shaping international law for almost two decades. The latest unveilings of the ways in which the Internet impacts global policies and laws caught the public eye with the 2018 Cambridge Analytica scandal and, previously, with the 2013 Snowden revelations, yet as surprising as they might have been to the average user, they are direct results of network's architecture and its governance model. This paper looks at the evolving concept of “Internet's public core” as an opportunity to bridge this dogmatic gap. We identify the scope and meaning of “Internet's core” and assess its legitimacy within existing international normative frameworks. We argue that the technical components crucial to the flawless operation of the global network, such as the Domain Name System and Internet's backbone networks, can be effectively protected with international law.

Feminist Perspectives about the Law and the ECHR: the Case Carvalho Pinto de Sousa Morais v. Portugal

As teorias feministas do direito têm colocado vários desafios ao Direito, perspetivando-o como uma forma de reprodução de desigualdades sexuais e de género. Neste artigo, partindo da reflexão sobre um caso concreto e das respetivas decisões dos tribunais portugueses e do Tribunal Europeu dos Direitos Humanos, procuro analisar, num espaço e tempo em que os quadros jurídicos normativos nacionais e internacionais reivindicam ser promotores da igualdade de género, as conquistas que o Direito tem efetivamente possibilitado e com que intensidade. A perspetiva que me move funda-se numa política de reconhecimentos, ou seja, procura reconhecer eixos emancipatórios no Direito, para explorar a possibilidade do seu uso em lutas feministas.

Promoting the rights of migrant children in the educational institutions on the colombian-venezuelan border.

This article arises before the panorama of the political, economic and social crisis that the neighboring country of Venezuela has suffered in recent years, which has caused a large number of the Venezuelan population to migrate to different countries in search of better life conditions. Among them are boys and girls, who, faced with the need to continue their educational process, have begun their studies in various public schools in the city of San José de Cúcuta. This new phenomenon has caused a change in school environments, with different consequences, including the ever-increasing risk of problems of discrimination and xenophobia, where Venezuelan boys and girls may be exposed to abuse due to their socio-economic condition and their age. Based on this situation, the Human Rights Research Seedbed –SEMDHUM-, attached to the Law program of the Francisco de Paula Santander University, proposed an extension project that developed a culture of peace and coexistence, based on the investigation of the International and national normative framework regarding the right to education and equality of migrant children, educational pedagogical spaces were also generated in public primary educational institutions in the city of San José de Cúcuta, in order to raise awareness and train on the rights of migrant children in school and thus appropriate children in human rights, equality and non-discrimination. To carry out this project, the qualitative methodology and the pedagogical play method were applied, through activities and games, where the child learns and demonstrates their different perspectives and knowledge, improving the student and cultural environment.

Towards Pollution-Control in Cyberspace: Problem Structure and Institutional Design in International Cybersecurity

Summary In their contest for domination in cyberspace states engage powers of technology, money, persuasion and norms. Clashes between two competing approaches resulted in the creation of two parallel working groups in the UN that address issues of international cybersecurity, including principles, norms and laws. Although there are very few treaties that deal expressly with cyber activities, normative aspirations and frequent use of imported rules and principles from other realms to cyberspace suggest the emergence of a new cyber normative regime – though, in the short term probably short of a global treaty. The substantive content of existing and potentially applicable norms to cyberspace has been examined to a great extent, but less scholarly attention has been paid to mechanisms that can produce cooperation and compliant behavior with international norms in cyberspace. This study draws inspiration from environmental agreements from procedural aspects and we identified two environmental regimes, which address problems sufficiently similar to the challenges of international cyber security and which have been the most successful in terms of cooperation. Selection of the Montreal Protocol and REDD+ mechanism was based on the following main factors: incentives in terms of game theory, capacities of actors, information and scientific uncertainty, the time of institution creation in normative lifecycle, number of actors, and asymmetry in power and positions taken among actors. Further analysis focuses on institutional design elements in the chosen cases, and examines if or under what conditions could these be used for international normative frameworks on cyberspace.

Nedržavni akteri i etika međunarodnih odnosa

The aim of this paper is to explore the role of non-state actors in shaping the ethical principles for the regulation of international relations. In contrast to other theories that take states to be the main subjects of international relations, the paper discusses the importance of the perspective of non- -state actors – non-governmental organizations, international organizations and corporations – in creating an international normative framework. By using the model of contemporary contractualist theories in which states and non-state actors are deciding on ethical principles, the fuller understanding of the role and significance of human rights in international relations arises.

Empowerment journeys of women with disabilities: A case-study

Social inclusion of women with disabilities is currently an extremely complex challenge, an educational emergency, which mainly involves Special Education. The development of the international normative framework did not help the majority of women with disabilities, who are still socially underprivileged and are often victims of multi-discrimination, which is part of an extensive process of feminization of poverty.  Starting from the above mentioned daunting overview, the article aims at contributing to the debate on the need to reinforce a theoretical and methodological framework of interpretation. Such framework should be able to link the conditions of gender and disability together, thus pursuing an emancipating perspective. The article aspires to reflect on potential perspectives of social development, combining and balancing social protection elements with educational and employment opportunities through empowerment processes designed for women with disabilities. Such reflection will move its steps from the case-study on a journey of social and employment inclusion embraced by women with disabilities living in the difficult context of Gaza Strip

Agroquímicos: cambios en la agenda internacional e instrumentos de regulación en Argentina (1950-2015)

La aplicación de agroquímicos para proteger cultivos y controlar enfermedades, plagas y malezas es una práctica habitual en la agricultura. Esta tendencia a nivel mundial comienza alrededor de la década de 1950, en consonancia con los postulados de la denominada ‘Revolución Verde’, y a partir de entonces distintas instituciones tanto internacionales como nacionales han intentado regular su uso y aplicación. El artículo busca explicar los procesos de producción de instrumentos de regulación en materia de agroquímicos en Argentina. Para eso, desde una perspectiva constructivista, y partiendo de estudios previos, se reconstruye el marco normativo nacional e internacional en términos de trayectoria socio-técnica, desde los años 1950 en adelante, a partir del análisis de documentos, programas, códigos, directrices, convenios y acuerdos internacionales, así como leyes y otros instrumentos de regulación y control de uso, aplicación y comercialización de agroquímicos en Argentina.

Il delitto di corruzione tra privati in prospettiva comparatistica: la disciplina italiana (artt. 2635 e 2635-bis c.c.) a confronto con quella inglese (secs. 1 ss. Bribery act 2010), e spagnola (artt. 286-bis / 286-quater codigo penal) - Parte I

The struggle against the phenomenon of corruption among private agents has been at the center of the Italian criminal debate for years, even though the legal definition (fattispecie criminosa) of article 2635 of the civil code has been substantially ignored by law operators. The fundamental stages of the normative history of the corruption among private agents in Italy were: 1-2002: the innovative introduction of incriminating norm in article 2635 of the civil code by the legislative decree of April 11, 2002, n. 61; 2- 2012: the profound normative change in the aforementioned provision by the law of November 6, 2012, n. 190; 3- 2016: the addition to article 2635 of the civil code of a later paragraph, regarding confiscation, through the legislative decree of October 29, 2016 n. 202; 4- the reform of the subject made by the legislative decree of March 15, 2017, n. 38. The aforementioned legislative route seems to have been determined by the need to comply with the obligations laid down by legislative acts of the European Union and the international law. This is demonstrated in particular by the decision – in contradiction with what the European Union's normative acts determined – not to insert the crime under examination in the penal code, alongside the crimes of "public" corruption. In the successive pages, once the international normative framework has been examined, the main points of the legal definition (fattispecie criminosa) of article 2635 of the civil code will be analyzed.

Población infantil colombiana, víctima de artefactos explosivos

El presente artículo de investigación científica, analiza la problemática de los artefactos explosivos improvisados y el daño ocasionado a la población infantil como víctimas de los mismos, lo que implica hacer indagación en relación con la jurisprudencia y medidas de protección adoptadas por el ordenamiento jurídico colombiano y el marco normativo internacional. Por lo anterior, el presente estudio evidencia resultados desde un método hermenéutico, con aplicación de estudio documental con diseño cualitativo, teniendo presente el análisis jurisprudencial realizado y la reparación a las victimas menores de edad del conflicto armado colombiano a la luz de la ley 1448 de 2011 y su Decreto reglamentario 4800 del mismo año. Sin embargo, el presente artículo dentro de sus conclusiones arroja la vulneración sistemática de derechos fundamentales a la población infantil colombiana, pues pese al desarrollo del desminado, no es posible aun determinar con exactitud el número de artefactos explosivos sembrados a lo largo del territorio colombiano, lo que ocasiona constante incertidumbre en la población, lo que implica la omisión de la constitución política.