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Loureen Sayej - 11th December 2017
In a proclamation signed on Wednesday, US President Donald Trump unilaterally recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, departing from the policy of successive US administrations which recognized the status of Jerusalem as that of an occupied territory. Trump’s declaration was followed by international recriminations. The status of Jerusalem is a matter of high contention. While Israel […]
Jennifer Tridgell - 8th December 2017
In a giant step forward for LGBTIQ rights, same-sex marriage (SSM) in Australia was legalised on 7 December 2017. This result was uplifting, but also bittersweet. The Australian Government could have legalised SSM quickly and painlessly months ago. Instead, it forged ahead with a controversial postal survey, which divided a nation and damaged the LGBTIQ community. […]
Daniel Grütters - 6th December 2017
Last month the High Court in Kampala declined to issue a provisional arrest warrant for visiting President of Sudan, Omar al-Bashir. The decision followed an application by the Uganda Victims’ Foundation (UVF), a coalition of human rights groups, while President Bashir was in Uganda. UVF argued that as a State Party to the Rome Statute […]
Max Camphausen - 4th December 2017
In its decision from October 10 2017, published on November 8 – just on the Intersex Day of Solidarity – the German Constitutional Court (BVerfG) has ruled that certain provisions in the ‘law of personal state’ (“Personenstandsgesetz”) violated the rights of intersex people and were therefore unconstitutional. The provisions in question required the sex of […]
Ravi Amarnath - 30th November 2017
Next week, a longstanding dispute pitting fundamental freedoms against one another is set to be heard by the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC). Trinity Western University (TWU) is a private, evangelical Christian university in Langley, British Columbia. TWU requires its students, faculty and administrators to sign and abide by the terms of the TWU Community […]
Raghavi Viswanath - 29th November 2017
Earlier this month, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visited Mexico in an attempt to build upon the commercial ties between the two nations. While Canada has championed the promotion of the human rights of indigenous peoples, it continues to be one of the biggest sources of foreign investment in mining around the world, including in […]
Clíodhna Murphy and Mary Gilmartin - 28th November 2017
The first part of this post emphasised the importance of supporting public sector bodies in developing human rights-based migrant integration policies. We also outlined how our project (funded by the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission) has devised a model of best practice for integration policy based on international human rights law standards, against which […]
Clíodhna Murphy and Mary Gilmartin - 27th November 2017
The issue of migrant integration has become a key policy area for many European countries, as well as the European Union (“EU”) level. “Integration” is a notoriously difficult idea to pin down, and both the meaning and measurement of integration remain controversial. Some commentators view the idea as inherently negative and as representing a rejection […]
Aparajito Sen - 24th November 2017
Section 375 of the Indian Penal code defines rape as the offence committed by a man having sexual intercourse with a woman “without her consent”. Since criminal law attempts to penalize a criminal’s ‘guilty mind’, Indian courts have often applied a standard of consent subjective to the accused to determine the existence or absence of […]
Amanda Hukanović - 23rd November 2017
As forecast earlier this week, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia delivered the long-awaited guilty verdict to the infamous “Butcher of Bosnia”, Ratko Mladić. As the dust of yesterday’s judgment begins to settle, a comprehensive analysis of the Court’s findings is an essential component of beginning to understand its implications on the lives […]
Severyna Magill - 22nd November 2017
The recent Delhi High Court judgment acquitting Mahmood Farooqui of rape is problematic as it appears to create a new test for consent The court held that a ‘no’, even when articulated, is not enough to demonstrate a lack of consent. A lack of consent must be expressed in such a way that “the appellant […]
Sandra Fredman - 21st November 2017
In the UK Employment Appeals Tribunal (EAT) last week, Uber lost the latest case brought against it by its drivers. Across the world, a succession of lawsuits have sought to argue, usually with success, that Uber’s drivers are able to avail themselves of at least some of the protections of employment law. This is a […]