Regional Legal Instruments Research Articles

International Law and Regulation of Marine Microplastics: Current Situation, Problems, and Development

The severe global hazards posed by marine microplastics must be given attention. This study evaluated the current international legal framework, and offers forward-looking recommendations for enhancing international law. The analysis began by examining the unique characteristics and profound impacts of marine microplastics, underscoring the necessity of a corresponding international regulatory regime. Through a thorough review of the existing global and regional legal instruments—both soft and hard laws—we identified key issues and challenges in the international legal response to marine microplastics, particularly in terms of legislation and enforcement mechanisms. The study emphasizes the urgent need for strengthened international legislation, including the potential development of a specialized international treaty, and calls for the enhancement of compliance mechanisms to effectively combat marine microplastic pollution and support the broader goal of sustainable development.

Child Right of Education under International Law: A Special Reference to Indian Education System

Globally, the application of RTE under international human rights legislation is a deeply entrenched issue, particularly in developing and growing nations. The issue has multiple sides, ranging from discrimination to the topic of free and compulsory quality education for all, because of the nature of soft law, unclear wording, and fragmentation within provisions of international and regional legal instruments. Article 21(A) was implemented in 2002 as a component of the 86th Amendment Act, pertaining to India. It stated that children from six to fourteen would get free and compulsory education from the state, incorporating basic education into the right to freedom. Six years after the Indian Constitution was ratified, in 2008, the Union Cabinet adopted the Right to Education Bill changed. The Right of Children to free and Compulsory Education Act, also known as the Right to Education Act (RTE), was passed by the Indian parliament on August 4, 2009, and it describes the procedures for offering free and compulsory education to children between the ages of six and fourteen. It is a statute that falls under Article 21A of the Indian Constitution. One of the 135 nations to join the club was India. The current study examines India's legal framework and educational system in the context of international law using a qualitative approach and the doctrinal technique of research.

Biodiversity, multi-level governance, and policy implementation in Europe: a comparative analysis at the subnational level

Abstract International efforts to protect biodiversity date back to the 1970s. The effectiveness of Multilateral Environmental Agreements and regional legal instruments has been influenced by national implementation. In this process, subnational governance plays a crucial role. Although policy implementation has been extensively investigated, its subnational dimension has been somewhat neglected, particularly in peripheral areas such as the Outermost Regions of Europe. These remote territories are critical areas in the global fight against biodiversity loss since their ecosystems’ richness makes them biodiversity hotspots. The article applies the knowledge cumulated in policy research to the implementation of biodiversity policy in two of these territories – Reunion Island (France) and the Canary Islands (Spain) – and analyzes policy implementation in the context of multi-level governance. The article questions whether and to what extent decentralization benefits biodiversity policies and highlights salient trade-offs: local empowerment versus fragmentation of competences; responsiveness versus subnational discretion; and accountability versus policy capture.

The Right to Language in School: Russian Sámi

Abstract This paper is about Sámi children’s right to learn their language in school in Russia (henceforth referred to as RtL). First, the core elements of this right are deduced from the international and regional instruments. These elements are legal recognition, non-discrimination, participation, appropriate education, and high-quality education. Then, the Russian legal acts are analysed to identify to what extent these elements are present in the Russian legal acts. The paper demonstrates that the five deduced elements of the RtL are found in the relevant Russian legal acts. However, the contents of some of these elements in the Russian legal acts are different from the contents of the corresponding elements deduced from the international and regional legal instruments. The paper also identifies challenges in the Russian legal acts that hinder the realisation of the RtL.

Special Proceedings and Alternatives to Detention for Migrant and Refugee Children

The Author presented an analysis of the procedures and alternatives to the detention of migrating and refugee children in the Polish legal system, significantly influenced by European Union law. The Author pointed out legal solutions within the Polish legal system entangled with international law. It was emphasized that the continued use of child detention contradicts commitments made in international and regional legal instruments aimed at eliminating this practice. Detaining children can have serious negative consequences for their physical and mental health; therefore, alternatives to detention should be considered. Attention was drawn to the necessity of interpreting and applying Polish law in accordance with international human rights standards, including the principle of the best interests of the child to ensure the safety and protection of minor migrants and refugees.

Politological View on Free Primary Education in the DRC

As most of the developing countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is known as singular about the delay in the field of education on the one hand and the free primary education on the other hand, whence the levels of education and training of its people are getting retrogressed day by day. The daily voices to decry not only the steep drop in the level of education, but also the cost of quality and effective teaching, which falls over the heads of the parents in schools, with the consequence that we are seeing the rise of illiteracy compared with the rate of population increase. For this purpose, it is not enough that the constitutional and legal provisions are of the free primary education a shot principle of international and regional legal instruments, we need to clear the State of affairs and the relationship between these provisions and the effectiveness of this free issue itself of the right to education.

Considerations regarding legal liability for marine pollution

Environmental pollution has become a global phenomenon. In this context, the protection of the marine environment is achieved by means of multilateral and regional legal mechanisms and instruments, which aim to coordinate the activity of the states within the conferences and international bodies that take place in order to combat and sanction the pollution of the marine environment. The legal liability in the matter of marine environment pollution will fall on the polluter, guilty of damaging the environmental factors, but also on the responsibility of any natural or legal person who, although he does not cause environmental pollution, through his actions violates environmental legislation. Civil liability or criminal liability do not exclude the administrative liability and disciplinary liability of the crew members of a ship, who, through their functions on board, contribute to the safety of navigation and the ship.

La infancia y adolescencia dentro del conflicto armado colombiano. Desplazamiento forzado: enfoque desde el historicismo jurídico, institucionalismo y derecho comparado1

Children and adolescents (hereinafter, NNA, acronym in Spanish) are groups with special protection needs. They have been affected by the cruel and inhumane events caused by the Colombian armed conflict, particularly by forced displacement-a crime against humanity that threatens a number of human and children’s rights. In this context, the State is responsible for looking after children and adolescents in the country. Failure to discharge this duty could result in the State being punished by the competent international entities within the framework of various treaties and conventions on the rights of children and adolescents, ratified by the National Government. Therefore, this e present legal-dogmatic research with a qualitative approach, aims to answer the following question: Why, despite Colombia’s broad legal framework, is there lack of respect for the conventional obligations to protect the rights of children and adolescents within the armed conflict, especially in cases where children and adolescents have been forcibly displaced by the conflict? In order to find the answer to this question, this article, based on the comparative, historical-contextualist and institutionalist methods, analyzes the texts of international, global and regional legal instruments, and their adoption or adaptation in Colombia, to identify the degree of effectiveness that their implementation.

The right to reparations in the contentious process before the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights: A comparative analysis on account of the revised Rules of Court

The purpose of this article is to examine the possible repercussions that the revised Rules of the Court adopted in September 2020 may have on the right to reparations. In particular, the article focuses on the two procedures to issue a judgment on reparations, specific procedures and third party interventions. The information therein has been assembled by reviewing relevant regional legal instruments such as the African Charter, the African Court Protocol and the Rules of Procedure of the African Commission and the Court with their counterparts in the European and Inter-American systems, as well as through an appraisal of pertinent case law. The revision of the Rules of Court demonstrates a constructive attempt by the African Court to clarify previously imprecise rules, expand the scope of specific procedures and reiterate its competencies. These additions are evident in the new arrangement of the contents of an application, and the inclusion of the pilot-judgment procedure or the revised Rule 72 which reaffirms the binding nature of all Court decisions. The article highlights relevant changes to the Rules of Court while arguing that additional rules need to be amended or expanded to more effectively guarantee the right to reparations. To that end, it provides recommendations for the African Court to consider.

14. United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

Due to the impact in 2020 of the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic on the 2019 report, the UNEP report for 2020 also includes developments during 2019. UNEP has been actively engaged in the development and promotion of environmental law since its inception through negotiations, adoption, and consolidation of global and regional multilateral environmental agreements. It is regarded as an authority that sets the global environmental agenda. Its agenda comprises goals and targets; programs, policies, and actions; and scientific assessment, research, and studies on global environmental threats. UNEP’s work has been categorized into thematic areas such as: climate change, disasters and conflicts, ecosystem management, environmental management, chemical and waste, resource efficiency, and environment under review. It has continued to make contributions in the development of global and regional legal instruments through its progressive development of international environmental law. In addition, it makes an assessment of the global, regional, and national environmental...

Current Directions of Legal Ensuring National Security

The article reveals the problematic issues for ensuring financial security in the context of globalization in global financial systems. The modern stage of development of state financial systems is characterized by difficulties in ensuring national financial security. Despite the urgency of this problem, the international community is focusing on ensuring economic security during the formation of universal and regional legal instruments, leaving out of sight issues of legal and practice-oriented guidance in financial security. The article examines the main directions of implementation of state policy aimed at improving the effectiveness of legal and national and international means to ensure financial security in the context of the globalization of growing threats to economic security. The focus is on the modernization of legal instruments to regulate public relations related to financial security. Particular attention was paid to the correlation of international legal bases, national legislation, and regional laws. It is concluded that the development of state financial policy that guarantees the security of the budgetary system is fundamental.

Mapping ‘wild zones’ of globalisation: on private actors and the rule of law

While private corporations have become increasingly influential in the global economy, a comprehensive legal framework for their activities is missing. Although international and regional legal instruments may govern some aspects of, for instance, international investments and the supply of goods and services, there is no overarching structure for assessing the impact of large-scale private projects. In the absence of such a comprehensive framework, specific rules of private law allow profit-seeking companies to expand their activities on an economic basis, mostly without having to heed social concerns (Pistor, 2019). This is particularly problematic insofar as multinational companies have obtained power to set the rules for their engagement with states, organisations and individuals, for instance in the form of transnational investment contracts. Given the fragmented nature of the legal sphere in which such contracts are elaborated and performed, those who face the harmful consequences of such investments may not be able to participate in decision-making processes. The contracts remain in ‘wild zones’ of globalisation (Fraser, 2014, p. 150), where powerful private companies rule.

National Sovereignty Versus Transboundary Water Cooperation: Can You See International Law Reflected in the Water?

Could Turkey dam the Tigris and Euphrates and deprive its downstream neighbors of vital water resources? Could Brazil over-pump the Guarani Aquifer System to the detriment of the other aquifer states? Could Egypt put pressure on upstream Nile states and prevent them from developing river related infrastructure that might limit downstream flow? International law in the field of transboundary water cooperation has evolved and would appear to condemn unilateral practices such as the ones suggested above. However, hydro politics and the lack of reception of international water law instruments by many countries sometimes make it difficult to see international law properly reflected in the management of major rivers, lakes and aquifers around the world. In this essay, I first highlight what international law dictates when it comes to the tension between national sovereignty and transboundary water cooperation. I then explore how this tension plays out in the three examples noted above. Due to limited acceptance of the existing international, bilateral, or regional legal instruments, the resolution of the tension between national sovereignty and transboundary water cooperation will often be left to customary international law.

Legislación sobre Comunicación Social en el Espacio Subnacional. El Caso de México

Este artículo presenta un análisis exploratorio argumentativo de las legislaciones locales sobre comunicación en México, proponiendo una categorización y destacando los asuntos que se consideran relevantes en la materia hasta el grado de ser legislados en cada región. Se hace uso de la categoría subnacional, que en los estudios políticos permitió la resignificación de lo local como escenario con vida política propia, irreductible a la suma de las partes del Estado nacional. El sesgo nacional ha permanecido en la investigación sobre la legislación en comunicación social en México, privilegiándose el análisis de las leyes federales, en este artículo se atiende el vacío de conocimiento sobre las leyes locales. La discusión final plantea que las diferencias entre los instrumentos legales de cada entidad es indicio de la categoría subnacional; se enfatiza la necesidad de su consideración analítica para el entendimiento de lo nacional desde lo local en el estudio de la regulación de la comunicación social como parte de la evaluación del desarrollo mediático.

Non-retroactivity in Prosecuting Crimes against Humanity and International Crimes Tribunal Bangladesh

The International Crimes Tribunal Bangladesh (ICTB) was set up by Bangladesh through the adaptation of the International Crimes Tribunal Act 1973, as an internal mechanism trying to prosecute and punish Bangladeshi perpetrators who committed international crimes in Bangladesh liberation war in 1971. After a long disappearance from the public eye, the Tribunal was reemerged in 2010. The recent cases decided by the Tribunal have revealed that the international crimes; namely, crimes against humanity, were allegedly committed in 1971, while the relevant Statute was enacted in 1973, and was implemented in 2010. Recently, the ICTB is prosecuting crimes against humanity retroactively, which might have violated the prohibition of penalizing certain conducts committed by the perpetrators before the enforcement of such conduct as a law banning such demeanor as an offense. Therefore, this study firstly analyzes the rule against retroactivity in international criminal law. Secondly, it investigates the justification of the retroactive criminalization of crimes against humanity at the first International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, and its crystallization into the regional and international legal instruments. Thirdly, the study examines the characteristics of crimes against humanity as an international crime, to scrutinize whether the ICTB needs to fulfill such requirements either in 1971 or 2010. Then, it illustrates various judgments of the ICTB, demonstrating that it does not comply with the rule prescribed by international laws either in 1971 or 2010, in prosecuting crimes against humanity retroactively. Lastly, the study concludes by forwarding ways necessary to the ICTB in retroactive prosecution of international offenses.

Hot Dogs, Hungry Bears, and Wolves Running Out of Mountain—International Wildlife Law and the Effects of Climate Change on Large Carnivores

The world’s largest predators, like their prey species and biodiversity at large, face increasing impacts from climate change, in addition to various other threats. Such climate impacts include the shrinking and disruption of habitat (e.g., polar bear, wolverine); range shifts, especially upslope (e.g., snow leopard, Ethiopian wolf) and poleward (e.g., golden jackal); reduced availability of key resources as water becomes scarcer and prey populations suffer from extreme weather, disease or other climate-related impacts (e.g., Gobi bear, cheetah); and increased human–wildlife conflict, when large carnivores progressively range beyond protected areas (e.g., African wild dog), or when climate change makes their ranges more suitable for livestock (e.g., lion). The aforementioned and many other large carnivore species are protected under global and/or regional legal instruments for wildlife conservation, such as the Bonn Convention on Migratory Species (CMS), the Algiers and Maputo Conventions on African Nature Conservation, and the Bern Convention on European Wildlife Conservation. We view current international wildlife law through the lens of the aforementioned scenarios and, as it were, through the eyes of the wildlife species involved, and attempt to assess to what extent the law is ‘climate change proof’ in terms of being prepared for said scenarios. Our analysis indicates, first, that most of the climate adaptation measures that seem necessary—concerning protected areas, connectivity, counteracting climate impacts, and addressing non-climate threats—can in principle be achieved by fully and properly implementing the law as it stands. Second, it appears that the facilitation of range shifts beyond historic ranges still calls for some serious attention and resourceful interpretation. Third, it seems that particularly significant hurdles have yet to be overcome before the law is properly attuned to facilitating managed relocation (assisted colonization) where necessary.

Domestic cats and their impacts on biodiversity: A blind spot in the application of nature conservation law

Abstract Free‐ranging domestic cats Felis catus, from owned pets to feral cats, impact biodiversity through predation, fear effects, competition, disease and hybridization. Scientific knowledge regarding these impacts has recently increased, making it timely to assess the role of nature conservation legislation in this connection. We do so with particular regard to the obligations of governments around the world under international wildlife law. First, we provide an overview of current knowledge, based on a literature review, concerning the ways in which domestic cats impact wildlife; the resulting effects on native species’ populations and ecosystems; and available strategies for addressing these issues. In light of this knowledge, using standard legal research methodology, we then identify and interpret relevant legal instruments, with a particular focus on international wildlife treaties. Lastly, we identify and assess factors that may influence the implementation of relevant obligations. The outcomes of this analysis indicate that numerous legal obligations of relevance to free‐ranging domestic cats already apply under global treaties such as the Convention on Biological Diversity, Convention on Migratory Species and World Heritage Convention, and a range of regional legal instruments for biodiversity conservation. Of particular significance are obligations concerning (a) invasive alien species; (b) protected areas and (c) protected species. Many national authorities around the world are currently required, under international law, to adopt and implement policies aimed at preventing, reducing or eliminating the biodiversity impacts of free‐ranging domestic cats, in particular by (a) removing feral and other unowned cats from the landscape to the greatest extent possible and (b) restricting the outdoor access of owned cats. Factors that can influence or impair the application of these obligations include considerations of feasibility, scientific uncertainty, the interests of cat owners and the (perceived) interests of domestic cats themselves. Even if such factors may to some extent explain why many authorities have hitherto failed to take effective action to address the threats posed by free‐ranging domestic cats, from a legal perspective these factors provide little ground for justifying non‐compliance with international wildlife law. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.

La trata de seres humanos con fines de explotación laboral en la legislación española

La trata de seres humanos con fines de explotación laboral aparece como un fenómeno impreciso e indeterminado en la legislación penal española que, tomando como referencia los instrumentos jurídicos internacionales y regionales por excelencia, se limita a mencionar un conjunto de términos con connotaciones laborales, pero sin definir su significado. Partiendo de estos antecedentes, el presente artículo tiene por objeto dotar de contenido a la expresión “explotación laboral” en el contexto de la trata de seres humanos, teniendo como base la legislación española.

Domestic Workers and the Right to Primary Education in Ethiopia: Evaluating the Adequacy of the Legal Framework

In Ethiopia, recognition is given for domestic worker’s rights in different dimensions. However, domestic workers are most vulnerable groups for abuses and violation of their human rights. In addition; the right to education of domestic workers has been grossly neglected by the state. Arguing that the policy and legislative initiatives are a prerequisite to the realization of the right to education of domestic workers, the paper explores the legal gaps in realization of domestic workers right to education . . Furthermore, the study develops an analytical framework for the right to education of domestic workers, derived from Ethiopian ratified international and regional legal instruments which guarantees the right to domestic workers. Keywords: Domestic workers, Education, Human rights, Ethiopia DOI : 10.7176/DCS/9-6-02 Publication date :June 30 th 2019

Domestic Workers and the Right to Primary Education in Ethiopia: Evaluating the Adequacy of the Legal Framework

In Ethiopia, recognition is given for domestic worker’s rights in different dimensions. However, domestic workers are most vulnerable groups for abuses and violation of their human rights. In addition; the right to education of domestic workers has been grossly neglected by the state. Arguing that the policy and legislative initiatives are a prerequisite to the realization of the right to education of domestic workers, the paper explores the legal gaps in realization of domestic workers right to education . . Furthermore, the study develops an analytical framework for the right to education of domestic workers, derived from Ethiopian ratified international and regional legal instruments which guarantees the right to domestic workers. Keywords: Domestic workers, Education, Human rights, Ethiopia DOI : 10.7176/DCS/9-6-02 Publication date :June 30 th 2019