Category: human rights

The Inter-American System JU, SL I. Background and Institutions The Inter-American System of human rights consists principally of the General Assembly, the Meeting of Consultation of Ministers of Foreign Affairs, the Council, and the General Secretariat. It is guided by the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man (adopted 1948) and the American…

KJ, SK. Group 9 This section opens with a detailed account of the Lustig- Prean and Beckett case that came before the European Court of Human Rights. These two British nationals complained that investigations into their homosexuality their discharge from the Royal Navy on the sole ground that they are homosexual violated Article 8 of…

Monday, October 27. Group 8: AT, AW, Yongho Kim Response to the European Convention and the Case of Homosexuality The European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms System constitutes a model and a standard of its own in terms of effectiveness in enforcing Human Rights among its members. The Convention was…

CH, JM. Discussion Group 7 What kinds of complaints are brought before the ICCPR? How does it differ from other treaty regimes? One of the components of the ICCPR Human Rights Committee is an optional protocol (ratified by 95 of the 144 states as of March 2000), with a critical provision stating that communications must be…

CH, HM, AP. Group 6 Response The UN currently has 6 treaty organs, which are distinguished from Charter organs in that they are not created under the UN charter, but are mandated by the 6 universal human rights treaties. The ICCPR Human Rights Committee is a treaty organ created by Articles 28-45 of the International…

AG, RR, EO. Thematic Mechanisms Thematic Mechanisms have been in use since 1980. They were originally created in response to disappearances in Argentina. In order to preserve national integrity, avoid political embarrassment, and protect economic issues, they were created on an international level as opposed to an individual country level. The Commission used a ‘thematic’…

JH, NE, RN. Group 4 The reading begins by discussing the problematic topic of enforcement in the realm of human rights. Serious questions are raised about the feasibility of consistent enforcement of human rights norms. It is relatively clear that some international enforcement is inevitable, regardless of it’s agreed upon desirability. However, the reading asserts that…

SP, JP. October 8: Sovereignty This section explores the development and role of international organizations, looking at the more developed and complex institutional arrangements between states than the treaty committees we have seen so far. It is argued that international organizations have become important actors in the international system of sovereign states and have changed…

IC, CP, This section discusses the current human rights debate between a number of East Asian states intent on economic development and Western states’ views of basic human rights and universalism. A first perspective comes from Bilhari Kausikan. In his comment, Kausikan argues that human rights touch upon delicate matters of culture and values. In…

AM, NA This reading reviews the development of the formation of universal children’s rights. The main document in question is the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), ratified by 191 states excluding only Somalia and the United States. The convention includes articles concerning a variety of rights among them the preservation of…

INTL254 Introduction to International Human Rights Professor Nadya Nedelsky reaction essays prepared by students AM, NA

“Gender” JU, SL Part I: Feminism and Female Genital Mutilation This section begins by reformulating the conflict between the objectives of human rights treaties, on the one hand, and customary laws and practices as well as religious beliefs on the other within the context of gender-related issues. As a starting point for discussion, Tracy Higgins…

Discussion Group 9 Reaction Paper: This section further discusses whether rights are universal or relative in character. Advocates of universality argue that certain rights such as equal protection, freedom of speech and religion are common and thus can transcend cultures. In opposition, cultural relativists argue that rights and rules of morality are encoded in a…

Group 8: AT, AW, Yongho Kim Response to The Notion of “Rights”: Origins and Relations to Duties. Monday, September 22nd. Chapter 5 provides a close-up of the notion of rights and their historical evolution. The notion of rights emerged as a refining of the concept of ‘natural law’ coined in the 17th and 18th centuries…

INTL254 Introduction to International Human Rights Professor Nadya Nedelsky reaction essays prepared by students HM, CH, AP Response to ICESCR

INTL254 Introduction to International Human Rights Professor Nadya Nedelsky Readig Review prepared by students Group 5: AG, EO, RR