To submit a blog, please read the OxHRH Blog guidelines.
Patrick McGinley - 23rd July 2019
In late May, a U.S. Appeals court heard oral arguments in a U.S. government effort to stop a trial in a climate case some have referred to as “the trial of the century.” The case began in 2015 when 21 young Americans from diverse backgrounds filed a lawsuit charging that the United States government and […]
Kevät Nousiainen - 22nd July 2019
Sexual harassment, an expression of violence against women (VAW), received remarkable media attention with the #MeToo Movement. It was a reminder of the law’s poor track record in curbing workplace harassment and other forms of gendered violence. In the international legal context, the ILO approach to VAW in the workplace has followed two tracks. Harassment […]
Lyndon Baines-Johnson and Mwai Daka - 22nd July 2019
In February 2019, President Bio of Sierra Leone declared a state of emergency to combat rape and sexual violence. However, if the declaration is to have full effect, ambiguities and gaps within the country’s legal framework need to be cleared up, and replaced by clear law preventing child marriage, and sexual and gender-based violence. Most […]
Cono Giardullo - 22nd July 2019
Since 2001, the Bush administration has taken the American drone program – to use automated weapons to kill targeted individuals outside of its own territory – to the next level, justifying it on the basis of the global War on Terror. In this context, as Pejic argues, while ‘technology can make it easier for States […]
Katya Zeveleva - 22nd July 2019
The term “gig economy” was coined during the global financial crisis in 2009, to describe a freelance economy where employers do not offer traditional work benefits. Like other gig economy companies across the world, Russian service platforms save money by skirting labor laws that require pay for overtime, sick leave, minimum wages, and negotiating contracts. […]
Sadaf Vafa - 21st July 2019
In February 2019, the news of an 11-year-old girl being married to a man who was almost 50 years old, caused severe criticism of the Iranian Civil Code, which allows for the marriage of children under the age of 18. According to the most recent statistics by UNICEF, 17 percent of girls in Iran are […]
Yohannes Eneyew Ayalew - 18th July 2019
In the month of June 2019, Ethiopia encountered two major internet shutdown measures following a potential fear of leakage of school exams over the internet, and high profile assassinations. This blog post briefly sheds light on internet shutdowns during the reign of successive prime ministers of Ethiopia, and its impact on free speech. Internet shutdown […]
Natalia Brigagao - 18th July 2019
In 1998, there was an explosion at an irregular, high-risk fireworks factory in the city of Santo Antônio de Jesus, Brazil, which led to 64 deaths and left six people severely injured. Survivors and family members were not offered due access to justice, which led them to report the violations to the Inter-American Commission of […]
Gerry Liston - 17th July 2019
Hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue are lost to governments – and particularly those of developing countries – annually as a result of deficiencies in the global taxation system, undermining their ability to realise a range of socio-economic rights. Yet Article 2 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) requires […]
Ankita Gupta - 16th July 2019
In April 2019, Pre-Trial Chamber II of the International Criminal Court rejected the request to authorise an investigation into war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed in Afghanistan by the Taliban, Afghan forces and International Actors, including the CIA and the American armed forces. This decision comes in the backdrop of immense backlash and […]
Rebecca Rattner - 14th July 2019
At the end of June, the U.S. Supreme Court waded into the fight over political partisanship in American politics. In a 5-4 decision, the Court held in Rucho v. Common Cause that federal courts cannot strike down district maps because they are designed to help or hurt a particular political party. Notably, the Court itself […]
Pieter Gillaerts - 11th July 2019
Citizens and organizations around the world increasingly take their concerns regarding climate change to the courtroom. Such climate change or environmental (public interest) litigation so far has primarily been directed against governments, such as the case of Urgenda v. the Dutch State. The recent Dutch case Milieudefensie et al. v. Royal Dutch Shell seems to mark […]