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Jaakko Kuosmanen - 17th March 2018
Human rights and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are closely entwined. The text of the Agenda declares that human rights constitute the foundation and the aim of development. It states that the Agenda is grounded in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and international human rights treaties, and that the SDGs seek “to realize the […]
Kamilia Khairul Anuar - 16th March 2018
For Indira Gandhi, whose husband converted to Islam and attempted to unilaterally convert their daughter as well, a long legal battle came to an end when the Malaysian Federal Court handed down its judgment, declaring that the conversion had not followed proper administrative procedures and was therefore legally invalid. Being a Muslim is a legal […]
Elise Maes - 15th March 2018
A man who made sexist remarks to a female police officer was sentenced to pay a €3,000 fine and became the first person to be convicted under Belgium’s 2014 Anti-Sexism Act. While the Anti-Sexism Act is vague in certain respects, it serves an important symbolic function. Acknowledging the gendered component in certain types of abuse […]
Emilie McDonnell - 15th March 2018
With Australia’s recent election to the UN Human Rights Council, it is important that the international community supports and advocates for those Australia has left languishing in offshore detention. Approximately 336 asylum seekers remain detained on Nauru, including 36 children, and 801 in transition centres on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea (PNG) under Australia’s harsh […]
Mfundo Salukazana - 14th March 2018
Discussions over the contours of the separation of powers principle in South Africa continue to smoulder. During President Jacob Zuma’s term, this dialogue was in overdrive mode. Recently, in Economic Freedom Fighters v Speaker of the National Assembly, and a few months before President Zuma resigned as president of South Africa, three opposition political parties […]
Joana Thackeray - 14th March 2018
In December 2017 the Supreme Court of Canada released an important decision regarding the scope of discrimination “regarding employment” under provincial human rights legislation, in British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal v. Schrenk. The issue before the Court was whether protection from discrimination “regarding employment” under the British Columbia Human Rights Code extends to discrimination perpetrated by […]
Sayan Mukherjee and Shashank Mishra - 13th March 2018
By an interim order, a three judge bench of the Indian Supreme Court has stayed the ban imposed on the exhibition of a film named ‘Padmavat’ by three Indian states. Cinema as a medium of expression has always received a higher degree of censorship as compared to other media in India. It is the only […]
Jamie McLoughlin - 13th March 2018
The Equality (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2017, was introduced in the lower house of the Irish Parliament at the end of last year and is currently working its way through the legislative process. The Bill proposes to amend existing equality and anti-discrimination legislation by inserting ‘disadvantaged socio-economic status’ as an additional ground upon which discrimination is […]
Maja Beisenherz - 12th March 2018
Given the political and constitutional history of the 18th and 19th centuries, universal suffrage and free and fair elections are a hard won freedom in Germany. Currently, Article 38 of the Basic Law of 1949 (Grundgesetz) states that ‘Members of the German Bundestag shall be elected in general, direct, free, equal and secret elections. They shall […]
John Fitzpatrick - 11th March 2018
Earlier, I wrote about the role of law clinics as agents of social justice in a democracy. In this post, I will consider the institutional context in which law clinics operate. Universities have supported law clinics, amongst other reasons, because they enrich the academic study of law, allow students to gain vocationally relevant experience and […]
John Fitzpatrick - 11th March 2018
It was clear from an excellent workshop in Tel Aviv University last month that an impressive number and variety of innovative projects are operating in law clinics in universities and colleges in Israel; for example, in employment law, environmental law, and criminal and youth justice. They are delivering real benefits in their localities and also […]
Kira Allmann - 9th March 2018
At the beginning of January, Egyptian president Abdel Fattah El Sisi declared a three-month extension of a country-wide state of emergency that has been in effect since April 2017 in response to bombings at two Coptic churches. The extension was unremarkable in many ways. Egypt has existed under conditions of a de facto or de […]