Surrogacy, Same-sex Couples and the Privatisation of Regulation in Israel
On 30 January 2014, the Israeli Government published a draft bill on surrogacy. This proposed amendment to Israel’s 1996 surrogacy law, which was based on a deeply entrenched heteronormative vision...
The Women Empowerment and Gender Equality Bill: Can It Live Up to Its Name?
The Women Empowerment and Gender Equality Bill (WEGE) is currently before Parliament in South Africa. One of its main aims is to ‘give effect to the letter and spirit of...
South African Judge Lays Down the Law on the Right to a Basic Education
In previous posts, Chris McConnachie has documented the rise and the successes of South Africa’s emerging education adequacy movement. In this post he analyses the movement’s most recent victory in...
Ground-breaking South African Judgment on the Right to a Basic Education
On Thursday 20 February, Judge Glenn Goosen of the South African High Court declared that the South African government’s failure to provide basic furniture to schools across the Eastern Cape...
The worrisome casual approach to (dis)enfranchisement
Lord Phillips’ recent lecture at Oxford (entitled ‘The Elastic Jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights’) critiqued, inter alia, the application by the Strasbourg court of its long-standing ‘living...
Prof Fredman attends Gender Mainstreaming Workshop at the Rights of Women at Work Clinic at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
On Thursday, the 20th of February, the Rights of Women at Work Clinic at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem held a workshop on gender mainstreaming, with representatives from civil rights...
Women’s and children’s health: Evidence of impact of human rights
During 2011-13, I had the fortune to serve as a part-time Senior Human Rights Advisor to WHO Assistant Director-General Flavia Bustreo. The records show that the first Director-General of WHO...
No Compromise on the Right to Adequate Housing: UN Condemnation of UK Austerity Measures
Statements made by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on adequate housing, following her visit to the UK in September, clearly indicated that her ultimate report on the housing situation would...
Court of Appeal Affirms Ability to Pass Whole Life Tariffs for Murder
A specially constituted five-member Court of Appeal has ruled unanimously in R v McLoughlin that the imposition of a ‘whole life order’ for murder not does violate Article 3 ECHR....
Managing Secrecy: R (Miranda) v SSHD
Much has already been written about the implications of R (Miranda) v Secretary of State for the Home Department for Schedule 7 Terrorism Act 2007. However, leaving that to one...
South African Informal Traders Forum and Others v The City of Johannesburg and Others: A Promising Start by the South African Constitutional Court
Departing sharply from its normal procedures, the South African Constitutional Court recently issued what we in the States would call an “interim injunction” in a case pending before the South...
New publication: Human Dignity, 'Unfair Discrimination' and Guidance (2014) Oxford Journal of Legal Studies (forthcoming)
OxHRH founding Editor and Administrator, Chris McConnachie, has recently published ‘Human Dignity, ‘Unfair Discrimination’ and Guidance’ (2014) Oxford Journal of Legal Studies (forthcoming). (Electronic access here). Abstract: In Human Dignity:...