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Promoting dialogue between human rights researchers, practitioners and policy-makers from around the world.

Original contributions on recent human rights law developments across the globe, including case law, current litigation, legislation, policy-making and activism are welcome.

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How the Harvard Affirmative Action Case Became a ‘Battle of Economists’

Yuvraj Joshi 6th December 2018

The lawsuit over Harvard College’s affirmative action program has been called a ‘battle of economists.’  The economist for Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA), an anti-affirmative-action organization, argues that Harvard’s admissions practices have “disproportionately negative effect on Asian Americans” compared to white applicants.  The economist for Harvard disputes SFFA’s selective reliance on available data and points […]

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Affirmative Action in South Africa: The Urgency of Accounting for Historically Entrenched White Privilege and Power

Nomfundo Ramalekana 13th July 2018

In a recent judgement by the South African Constitutional Court, Minister of Constitutional Development v South African Restructuring and Insolvency Practitioners Association, the court struck down an affirmative action policy, holding that it violated the right to equality, was arbitrary and irrational. This finding falls short of the standard of substantive equality in its failure […]

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Not There Yet and Running Against the Clock: The New Ordinance Regulating Racial Classification for Racial Quotas in Brazil

Isis Conceicao 31st May 2018

On April 10th, regulatory ordinance no. 4 was signed by the Human Resource Management of the Ministry of Planning, Budget and Management in Brazil. The ordinance regulates the procedure of complementary heteroidentification, an external racial identification process by using phenotypic criteria. In Brazil, candidates for office can declare themselves as black for purposes of filling […]

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India’s ‘One Woman Quota’ on Board of Directors Fails to Bring About Gender Equality

Ayushi Agarwal 28th February 2018

India’s law mandating quotas for women on the board of directors allows scope for tokenism, doesn’t facilitate retention of women and falls short of the required “critical mass”. It has therefore failed to achieve its desired objective.  Much has been written about the need for and consequences of boardroom gender diversity. Many differences have been […]

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