Month: September 2013

Guantanamo Military Commissions: Reflections from a Legal Observer – Part 3

Guantanamo Military Commissions: Reflections from a Legal Observer – Part 3

Editor’s note: This is the third and final post of a multi-part blog. To view earlier posts on this subject, please view Part I and Part II. In my last...
Provoking Debate: The UN Special Rapporteur and the Right to Housing in the UK

Provoking Debate: The UN Special Rapporteur and the Right to Housing in the UK

The right to housing seldom captures the public imagination or the media spotlight. Yet the visit of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Housing to the UK earlier...
The Need for ‘Hard Evidence’ of Public Sector Equality Duty Outcomes

The Need for ‘Hard Evidence’ of Public Sector Equality Duty Outcomes

The Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) Review report, published 6th September, was met with cautious relief. Until it was issued, many charity and campaigning groups were concerned the Duty, which...
Guantanamo Military Commissions: Reflections from a Legal Observer – Part 2

Guantanamo Military Commissions: Reflections from a Legal Observer – Part 2

There is perhaps no more controversial space in the world than the U.S. Naval Station at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. For many, Guantanamo represents the very worst of the American prosecution...
Mmusi Ruling a Watershed Moment for Gender and Customary Law in Botswana and Beyond

Mmusi Ruling a Watershed Moment for Gender and Customary Law in Botswana and Beyond

On September 3rd, the Court of Appeal in Botswana decided that Edith Mmusi’s parents’ home belonged to her and her sisters. In doing so, Botswana’s highest court struck a blow...
Criminalising Cross-Dressing in Guyana: Quincy McEwan et al vs. Attorney General of Guyana

Criminalising Cross-Dressing in Guyana: Quincy McEwan et al vs. Attorney General of Guyana

2013 has been a busy year for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights (LGBT) in the Commonwealth Caribbean. As noted in a previous post by activist and attorney-at-law Maurice Tomlinson,...
Bugmy v The Queen: Exploring the Significance of Indigenous Background in Sentencing

Bugmy v The Queen: Exploring the Significance of Indigenous Background in Sentencing

Bugmy v The Queen provides the High Court of Australia with its first opportunity in thirty years to rule on the significance of Indigenous background in sentencing. The overrepresentation of...
The Québec Charter of Values Project: Republican or Immigrant-phobic?

The Québec Charter of Values Project: Republican or Immigrant-phobic?

Tuesday, September 10 2013, the Government of Québec finally released its Strategy aimed at protecting the Values of the nation. It is important to say that this document is neither...
The CEDAW Committee Holds an Uncomfortable Mirror to the UK

The CEDAW Committee Holds an Uncomfortable Mirror to the UK

On July 26th, 2013 the CEDAW Committee released concluding observations on the UK’s compliance with CEDAW. The UK is obligated to publicize the findings of the Committee, although the Concluding...
Guantanamo Military Commissions: Reflections from a Legal Observer – Part 1

Guantanamo Military Commissions: Reflections from a Legal Observer – Part 1

There is perhaps no more controversial space in the world than the U.S. Naval Station at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. For many, Guantanamo represents the very worst of the American prosecution...
Cultivating a Common Bond: The Right to Adequate Education in South Africa and the United States

Cultivating a Common Bond: The Right to Adequate Education in South Africa and the United States

As the newest wave of education adequacy litigation crashes upon the shores of South Africa, courts there face the enormous task of breathing life into a socio-economic right that is...
A New Role for Businesses in Safeguarding Human Rights

A New Role for Businesses in Safeguarding Human Rights

This summer, the European Commission published industry-specific guidelines on the implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. These guidelines, directed at the information and communication technology...

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