State Responsibility Research Articles

The World as God’s Property in Psalm 24:1-2 as the Source of Man’s Right Attitude Towards Creation

The ongoing discussion on various forums regarding human responsibility for the ecological state of the surrounding world, should include the voice of the word spoken in the Bible by God, the Creator of heaven and earth. For believers, this very voice has a decisive power, however, it has been neglected for so long and the effects that can be seen with the naked eye. The binding power of this word can become an important argument in that discussion and catalyst for actions in the area of environmental protection, to which Pope Francis draws so much attention. This paper joins the unanimous choir of nature defenders, and it aims at drawing the reader’s attention to selected aspects of human relationship with the world, presented in the opening verses of Psalm 24. The passages provide a clear testimony to the biblical authors’ awareness of both the dependence of the world - including man - on its Creator, and the essential moral implications of that fact. It may help us realize our responsibility for the world around us as well as the necessity to react whenever the positive interaction between man and the environment is at risk. That is how, the beauty and richness of creation can become a path to God, its Creator.

Too much equity – is there such a thing? The public discourse surrounding elective egg freezing subsidy in Israel

BackgroundThe preservation of human ova for future fertilization has been made available to healthy women in 2011–2012. This treatment, dubbed elective egg freezing (EEF), is undertaken primarily by highly educated unpartnered women without children, concerned of age-related fertility decline. In Israel, treatment is available to women aged 30–41. However, unlike many other fertility treatments, EEF is not state subsidized. The public discourse of EEF funding in Israel is the focus of the present study.MethodThe article analyzes three sources of data: press presentations of EEF; a Parliamentary Committee discussion dedicated to EEF funding; interviews with 36 Israeli women who have undertaken EEF.ResultsNumerous speakers raised the issue of equity, claiming that reproduction was a state interest and therefore, a state responsibility, including securing equitable treatment to Israeli women of all economic strata. Highlighting the generous funding of other fertility treatments, they claimed that EEF was inequitable, discriminating against poorer single women, who could not afford it. Few actors, however, rejected state funding as intervention in women’s reproductive lives and called for reconsideration of the local reproductive imperative.ConclusionThe invocation of equity by Israeli users of EEF, clinicians and some policy makers as grounds for a call to fund a treatment that serves a well-established subpopulation seeking to relieve a social rather than a medical problem, illustrates the profound context-embeddedness of notions of health equity. More generally, it may suggest that using an inclusive language in a discourse of equity may potentially be invoked so as to promote the interests of a particular subpopulation.

THE URGENCY OF PARALEGAL POSITION IN LAW ENFORCEMENT IN INDONESIA THROUGH THE PROVISION OF LEGAL AID

Legal aid distribution at the moment does not yet reach the whole Indonesian people because existing limitations for the implementation of the law so that paralegal is required to increase the range of legal aid. Considering the importance of that, it is needed to legitimation for a paralegal position in enforcement law for optimizing the role of the paralegal. The aim of this study is to knowing the importance and legitimacy of paralegal position in regulations legislation in Indonesia and to knowing optimization of the position and role of paralegals in enforcement law through legal aid. The method research used is juridical normative with approach statute, analysis, and concepts. Research results show that reason that is a consequence of the rule of law adopted by Indonesia and is a right constitutional as well as a protection right basic as equality before the law, setting more carry on of legal aid regulation, as aspect obligations and state responsibilities in giving legal aid, guarantee certainty for paralegal law in operating their duties, and as the effort for creating order in organizing giver legal aid especially paralegals. Optimization of paralegals’ position in the enforcement of Indonesian law in giving legal aid could be conducted through increasing paralegal competence with follow the training, networking, and cadre of paralegals from start district level, regional until lowest in the village, Skill advocate Public in the form of defense and support to the community, and giving law protection for paralegals in operating their job in giving legal aid.

Policies and Formulations of Legal Protection for Children against Violations of Children's Rights

This study aims to analyze the policies and formulations of criminal law in tackling street children who commit crimes. The lack of realization of the state's responsibility for neglected children is due to the fact that the government system has not been running properly, and there is no strong desire from the government to take care of neglected children. The research uses a normative juridical approach (socio-legal research) as the basis for describing ideas. The results of this study are the obstacles that occur in the protection of the rights of Indonesian children, especially against street children who commit criminal acts, including: The implementation of law enforcement itself; this concerns the ability of law enforcement officers, supporting facilities and infrastructure, government programs have not been fully able to realize effectively considering the level of the economic capacity of most Indonesian people is still low, lack of public knowledge, especially parents about children's rights, lack of understanding and related agencies and the community about the provisions of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, Coordination between social and government organizations as well as between organizations relatively less social and cross-sectoral and international cooperation is not well established.

A new universalism? Universal health coverage and debates about rights, solidarity and inequality in Kenya.

The rise of universal health coverage (UHC) as a global policy endorsed in the Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs) appears to signal new directions in global health as it introduces a progressive language of inclusion, solidarity and social justice and advocates the right of 'everyone' to access the healthcare they need 'without financial hardship'. Since 2018 the Kenyan government has attempted to widen access to healthcare by experimenting with free health care services and expanding health insurance coverage. Such progressive moves are, however, layered onto histories of healthcare, citizenship and state responsibility that in Kenya have been dominated by forms of exclusion, differentiation, a politics of patronage, and class inequality, all of which work against universal access. In this paper, we follow recent attempts to increase access to healthcare, paying particular attention to how a language of rights and inclusion circulated among "ordinary citizens" as well as among the health workers and government officials tasked with implementing reforms. Despite being clothed in a language of universalism, solidarity and inclusion, Kenya's UHC reforms feed into an already fragmented and struggling healthcare system, reinforcing differentiated, limited and uneven access to healthcare services and reproducing inequity and exclusions. In this context, reforms for universal health coverage that promise a form of substantial citizenship are in tension with Kenyans' experiences of accessing healthcare. We explore how, amid vocal concerns about healthcare costs and state neglect, the promises and expectations surrounding universal health coverage reforms shaped the claims people made to accessing care. While our informants were cynical about these promises, they were also hopeful. The language of universality and inclusion drew people's attention to entrenched forms of inequality and difference, the limits of solidarity and the gaps between promises and realities, but it also generated expectations and a sense of new possibilities.

Capacity Building as Intervention-Lite: Migration Management and the Global Compacts

ABSTRACT Many states lack the standing capacity – housing, food, medical, or legal assistance – if thousands of people cross their border in one day. In addition, developing countries often lack the administrative capacity, expertise, and legal frameworks to process immigration or asylum applications and issue visas or refugee statuses. In response, the United Nations and other international organisations (IOs) propose to build the capacity of states through direct aid, training schemes, consultancies, twinning programmes, and start-up funds. The 2018 Global Compacts on Refugees (GCR) and the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) were in part created with the mandates to ‘build capacity’ in designated states. This article examines how the meaning of capacity building has changed in migration management over the last 70 years. First, we present a brief history of capacity building and theorise capacity building as a form of intervention-lite that relies on the invitation by the host state and reaffirms an absolutist interpretation of sovereignty. The emerging norm of ‘well-managed migration’ asserts that if a state is not able to make migration safe, then the international community has a responsibility to provide resources and training to those national institutions. The article traces this logic of intervention-lite and the norm of ‘well-managed migration’ in the Global Compacts, particularly UNHCR Asylum Capacity Support Group and UN Network on Migration’s capacity building mechanism. Methodologically, we draw on elite interviews, case studies, policy analysis, project workplans, evaluations, UN white papers and reports to examine the concept of ‘capacity building’ as framed in the Global Compacts and its implications for migration management and sovereignty. While the compacts affirm state responsibility for migration management, the GCR and GCM increase the capacity of international organisations to intervene in domestic institutions, rather than increase the capacity of national institutions.

State Responsibility for Victims of Domestic Violence

The occurrence of violence in the household is still common due to a wrong understanding of gender bias, where a woman must submit to a man. In general, gender bias also places women in a weak position, thus making men more dominant in the family system and society, this is very detrimental to women, so women experience violence more often. Domestic violence is often called a hidden crime, because it is committed within the scope of the household which cannot be known by other people openly, and for victims it is also a separate dilemma considering that the perpetrators of violence are also family members (husband against wife or vice versa) who in fact are still in a marriage bond. the variables causing the wrongdoing of household savagery incorporate envy, financial variables, and a need of information almost existing enactment. Legitimate security for ladies casualties of household viciousness has been controlled in Law Number 23 of 2004 concerning the Disposal of Household Viciousness.

Distribution of face masks in Kakuma refugee camp during a pandemic: Legal obligations and responsibilities

This article argues that the inhabitants of the Kakuma refugee camp are in a special relationship with the state, resulting in an increased duty of care of the latter towards the former. The effect of this increased duty of care ultimately results in a positive obligation to provide face masks to the inhabitants to protect them from COVID-19, based on the right to the best attainable standard of health and the right to life. The article then turns to the question of who is responsible to provide such face masks in the camp. After first analysing the situation on site, the article argues that a shift of responsibility of the host state to the UN Refugee Agency took place.

Liability for Emissions without Laws or Political Institutions

Many climate ethicists maintain that climate policy costs should be borne by those who historically emitted the most greenhouse gases. Some theorists have recently argued, however, that actors only became liable for emitting once the emissions breached legitimate legal regulation governing emissions. This paper challenges this view. Focusing on the climate responsibility of states, it argues that even if we assume that legitimate legal regulation is needed to remove excusable ignorance of entitlements to emit or is constitutive of such entitlements, it does not follow that states should be exonerated from responsibility for all pre-legal emitting. This is because the pre-legal emissions may have violated moral duties not to behave recklessly and to promote the emergence of the relevant regulation. The paper closes by noting how grounding liability for emitting in such duties complicates the link between past emissions and liability.

State Responsibility of Afghanistan Under Taliban Regime

Serious concerns on the rights of Afghanistan’s women and girls have been raised ever since the Taliban returned to power on 15th August 2021. This paper uses a normative methodology to investigate the discrepancy of legal argument in the international law of succession in terms of status of Taliban within the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) framework. This paper confirmed that the Taliban is the de facto government of Afghanistan as the Taliban have effective and integrated control over a state territory and there is no competing entity with a solid constitutional claim. Therefore, the Taliban is bound by international law to guarantee that women enjoy equal educational rights, including access to school and curriculum. However, the current framework of CEDAW, including the CEDAW committee has not be able to cope with such issues, as it should be reformed in the next future.

THE PARIS AGREEMENT'S APPROACH TOWARD CLIMATE CHANGE LOSS AND DAMAGE

Article 8 of the Paris Agreement introduces obligations upon the Parties to the Agreement “with respect to Loss and Damage associated with adverse impacts of climate change.” According to Paragraph 52 of the Conference of the Parties’ Decision, Article 8 is not a basis for liability or compensation. Therefore, the problem is whether violation of obligations leads to a state responsibility. Using a dogmatic method, this research contends that “recognizing the significance of averting, minimizing, and addressing Loss and Damage” means acceptance of responsibility for a breach of obligations. Although the means of seeking reparation would not be compensation, States are obliged to eliminate sources of damage and take precautionary measures to address loss and damage. Notwithstanding this, placing the issue of loss and damage under the Agreement into a separate article can reflect to a great extent the significance of the matter.

Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing Governance in Disputed Maritime Areas: Reflections on the International Legal Obligations of States

Illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing in the disputed maritime areas causes significant damage to the marine ecology and authorized fisheries, increases the risk of conflicts among disputed states, and violates human rights at sea. Both unilateral measures and cooperative governance for IUU fishing are often inadequate in these areas. In light, this study aims to clarify the regulatory obligations of relevant states and explore feasible solutions based on international cooperation to promote IUU governance in disputed areas worldwide. The rapidly evolving international fisheries legal framework requires that states, such as coastal states, flag states, port states, or market states, fulfill their respective obligations to prevent and deter IUU and that the presence of disputes in a specific maritime area does not typically constitute grounds for derogation from these obligations or exemption from possible state responsibility. However, the implications of the conflicting claims in disputed maritime areas should be taken into consideration while interpreting and applying international legal rules. Therefore, this study suggests that regional and inter-regional cooperation is necessary for states to fulfill their obligations to regulate IUU fishing and prevent state responsibilities under international law. Parties to the dispute, as well as third parties, are encouraged to participate in the cooperative mechanism in order to coordinate legislative and enforcement measures and advance the institutionalization of IUU fishing regulation in the disputed maritime areas, which will not only advances the effective governance of IUU fishing but also reduces tensions among the disputing states and contributes to the peaceful settlement of the dispute.

Evolving Roles of the International Institutions in the Implementation Mechanisms of the Rules of International Humanitarian Law

The dire need to expand the frontiers of the enforcement mechanism of the rules of international humanitarian law through the international institutions has been of a global concern for ages. Driven primarily by efforts to enforced and promote the rules of international humanitarian law, there is a need to develop measures capable of promoting the rules of international humanitarian law through the international institutions. The objective of this paper is to analyze and establish that expanding the frontiers of the enforcement mechanism of the rules of international humanitarian law through the international institutions bothering on individual or state responsibility will further strengthen the low level of enforcement of these rules. However, this paper noted that there is a significant enforcement gap both at the regional and international levels. Further, this paper argues that in order to guarantee a high level of enforcement of these rules both at the regional and universal levels, a more integral approach on the role of international institutions is capable of addressing the enforcement gap of the rules of international humanitarian law. This paper adopts a diagnostic approach based on a review of literatures, which is achieved by synthesis of ideas. This paper concludes with recommendations among others that in order to boast the purpose for which the rules of international humanitarian law were made, the level of enforcement of these rules should be expanded to fill the enforcement gaps at the domestic, regional and universal levels.

"Interpreting the Customary Rules on State Responsibility – Text, No Text, Hypertext" in P Merkouris, P Pazartzis and LA Sicilianos (eds), The Rules of Interpretation of Customary International Law (CUP 2025, forthcoming)

"Interpreting the Customary Rules on State Responsibility – Text, No Text, Hypertext" in P Merkouris, P Pazartzis and LA Sicilianos (eds), The Rules of Interpretation of Customary International Law (CUP 2025, forthcoming)

The Right of Asylum Viewed from the Constitutional and International Viewpoints

This paper aims to address the forms of displacement/departure of the population that leaves its country of origin as a result of the violent circumstances created in the place of displacement or the place of escape. As well, this paper aims to deal with the provision of protection for people who flee in search of shelter and to study international obligations of the states based on the international norms including their laws . The purpose of this study is to consider treatment of refugees who leave their country of origin due to violence, war or any humanitarian reason. The main issues addressed in this study are causes of displacement, treatment of refugees according to the international law and their definition, international laws for refugees, and responsibilities of states regarding displacement and migration. During the research, we used several methods without which the research would not have been possible: the method of theoretical analysis, method of comparison, and quantitative method. This study identified the causes or triggers that lead to immigration, including violence and human rights abuses that are increasingly intertwined with ethnic and religious hostilities. Security, effects from international terrorism and the lack of border control can be the main causes. This study is applicable in the field of international relations, particularly to researchers who deal with global crises related to migration issues. Also, this study can be applied to categories that deal with refugees and people who deal with the issue of asylum at different levels. Furthermore, this study can also be used by representatives of civil society, workers of international organizations such as UNHCR, representatives of international organizations that protect the rights of refugees and persons seeking international protection. The novelty in this study is the treatment of the complex nature of migration and identification of the factors that lead to massive displacement, crisis management, states’ care and obligations in providing international protection to refugees, respecting international conventions and agreements, and the internal legislation of states where this movement of refugees can occur. Keywords: the right of asylum, constitutional and international norms of migration, displaced persons, refugees. DOI: https://doi.org/10.55463/hkjss.issn.1021-3619.60.87

State and capital accumulation in Brazilian health from the perspective of the Marxist Dependency Theory

The health sector is one of the major fields of economic, social, scientific, and technological development in Brazil, and has been the arena of dispute between capitalist interests that regard health as a commodity and advocates of universal access who regard health as an essential good. The Brazilian Federal Constitution of 1988 determined that health is a fundamental right and the State's responsibility, and since then the country has made progress with public policy, but has suffered setbacks and blockages due to its status as a peripheric country, historically subordinated to the interests of core countries, which see Brazil as a broad consumer market. These external interests associated with the internal bourgeoisie have been taking advantage of the Brazilian State since the 1960s, when the foundation of business groups expanded, dominating various health segments, especially since the neoliberal policies of the 1990s. These aspects are much explored in publications in Public Health, but this text seeks a new approach, using the Marxist Theory of Dependency as a reference to analyze, albeit in a preliminary way, the situation of political, economic, and technological dependence that has distanced health policy from the ideals of a public and universal system, defended in the Brazilian Health Reform.

Social Inequality of Russian Society in the Relationship of Investments, Household Inequality in Income, Expenditure and Consumption

The subject of the study is social inequality in Russian society, which determines the inequality of households in income, expenditure, consumption, ownership of financial assets and fulfillment of financial obligations, which requires the development of an effective state social policy to improve living standards, reduce inequality and poverty of Russian citizens. The objectives of the work are to identify the most socially vulnerable categories of the population on the basis of a sample survey of households and offer targeted social programs of state support. The study substantiates the need to strengthen the state's responsibility for the social inequality of Russian society and the adoption of economic measures to support socially vulnerable citizens. It is established that due to the lack of an adequate classification of the social hierarchy to date, the problem of social inequality and poverty is solved by supporting the most needy households in Russia. To do this, an analysis of the level and composition of available resources by socio-demographic type of households is carried out and a problematic category is identified, which currently includes large families. A gradation of households with financial difficulties in paying the payments set by them has been formed, mainly in terms of servicing consumer and mortgage loans. The measures proposed by the state to support households experiencing difficulties are given: an increase in the amount of social payments, primarily to families with children and wages for employees. The result of the social policy was a decrease in the number of poor Russian citizens. Conclusions are drawn about the need to reduce social inequality, which slows down economic growth and hinders the fight against poverty, by increasing the monetary incomes of the population, leading to a decrease in the number of citizens with incomes below the poverty line, as well as to improve citizens' personal assessment of their financial situation.

Grounding responsibilization: Women in the care professions in contracted social services nonprofits

This article examines how women working as care professionals in contracted social services position themselves in the neoliberal, marketized era. This case study examined the renowned notion of “responsibilization”—in brief, the transformation of the state's responsibility to the individual. In the 1980s, many countries, including Israel, implemented privatization processes and contracted social services to for-profit and nonprofit social services organizations. The literature so far has shown the negative repercussions on service recipients and employees; however, scarce research exists on the unique working environment and conditions of care professionals with postsecondary education in nonprofit social services organizations. Based on the lacuna and overrepresentation of women in the field, this paper explores the work experiences of female employees in nonprofit social services organizations, including the attitudes and meanings they express in various structural contexts. Forty in-depth interviews with women care professionals in Israeli nonprofit social services organizations were conducted. Participants included Israeli and Palestinian women who reflected diversity in ethnicity, religion, and full-time or part-time jobs. The interviews dealt with employment experiences, work environment, and professional aspirations. Thematic analysis was used. The findings shed light on (a) poor working conditions and violation of workers' rights, (b) the employees' adaptation to the current situation, (c) striving for constant professionalism, and (d) aspiring to initiate a private clinic. Based on the concept of responsibilization, we discuss how the neoliberal realm becomes embedded in the employees' experiences and actions. We also contribute to the theory on responsibilization, suggesting that the nonprofit sector serves as a splitter that decentralizes social problems into local or “private” ones.

Outcome of the 41st Session of the ICAO Assembly: Some Legal Issues

The forty-first session of the Assembly of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) was held from 27 September to 7 October 2022. This session was significant when viewed from a legal perspective as it heralded the seventy-fifth anniversary of the ICAO Legal Committee; its service to the legal community; and its importance in initiating work on legal issues, which were formally recognized by the Assembly with the adoption of a Resolution. Additionally, the Assembly addressed three areas of contention outside the legal sphere of the consolidated statement of continuing ICAO policies in the legal field which prompted the Assembly to adopt new resolutions.(A 41-1: Infraction of the Convention on International Civil Aviation by the Republic of Belarus; A 41-2: Infractions of the Convention on International Civil Aviation by the Russian Federation and A41-3: Unannounced missile launches by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK)) These Resolutions brought to bear current legal issues that confront and affect international civil aviation, together with the need to look at the role that ICAO can play in enhancing the capacity of states to comply more effectively with the Convention on International Civil Aviation (Chicago Convention), its Annexes and regulations. The Assembly also focused on encouraging states which have not already done so to ratify amendments to the Chicago Convention and multilateral treaties on international civil aviation. Furthermore, the Assembly provided the international aviation community with the opportunity to take another look at state sovereignty over the air space of its territory; the application of the Chicago Convention in times of war and a state of emergency; ICAO’s jurisdiction over unannounced military activity; and state responsibility. This article will discuss the resolutions adopted by the Assembly in the legal field and the nuances they present. ICAO Assembly, resolutions, Legal Committee, amendment and ratification, infraction of treaties, Vienna Convention, Chicago Convention

Autonomous Weapon Systems, Errors and State Responsibility Under International Humanitarian Law

Autonomous Weapon Systems, Errors and State Responsibility Under International Humanitarian Law