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Esteban Hoyos Ceballos - 4th March 2019
I had to take three flights and it took me almost 24 hours to get to Abidjan, Ivory Coast, from Medellin, my hometown. Once there, the weather, the music, the food and the roads immediately reminded me of the Colombian coast. I travelled to Abidjan last week and from there to the former capital of the […]
Jonathan Cooper - 1st March 2019
In my last post, I argued that the judgment in Gareth Lee v Ashers Bakery is the consequence of the failure to follow a structured human rights assessment. This is why. Gareth Lee is gay and lives in Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland denies gay men and lesbians the right to marry. Gareth went to a […]
Jonathan Cooper - 1st March 2019
What if? What if the UK House of Lords (as the UK Supreme Court then was) had left the judgment of Lord Justice Brooke in Begum in the Court of Appeal intact? Brooke LJ in that case held that the school uniform policy of Denbigh High School was unlawful under the Human Rights Act because, […]
Lakshana Ramakrishnan - 27th February 2019
In June 2013, Justice R C Lahoti, a retired Chief Justice of the Indian Supreme Court, wrote to the then Chief Justice on overcrowding, unnatural deaths, inadequacy of staff and the inadequate training of staff in the Indian prison system. The letter was admitted as a writ petition through an order passed in July that […]
Marie Spinoy - 26th February 2019
On 18 December 2018, the Antwerp court of first instance held that the burkini ban in the Antwerp Police Regulations does not constitute discrimination based on religion. As opposed to the prior two Ghent rulings, the court held that any potential discrimination was justified by hygiene and safety reasons. Earlier, Antwerp had announced it would […]
Enlil Iván Herrera Pérez - 25th February 2019
Last month, the Constitutional Court of Peru issued a judgment in the case 00007-2014-PA/TC, which concerned an application for amparo (constitutional relief) in favour of a teacher. The case began when the teacher was transferred to a different school against her will. The case concerned issues that reached beyond a standard labour dispute: it raised […]
Gauri Pillai - 22nd February 2019
Oxytocin is a WHO-recommended drug for the inducement of labour during childbirth, and in the prevention and treatment of post-partum haemorrhage. Recently, a two-judge bench of the Delhi High Court set aside a notification issued by the Central Government which prohibited the manufacture and distribution of Oxytocin for domestic use by licensed private sector companies. […]
Vishakha Choudhary and Vishesh Sharma - 18th February 2019
On April 15, 2014, the Indian Supreme Court in National Legal Services Authority (‘NALSA’) v. Union of India recognised transgender persons as the ‘third gender’. The Court gleaned their extensive rights from the Constitution. By referring to the wide scope of Article 14, which guarantees the right to equality to ‘any person’, it emphasised equal […]
Bharat Malkani - 14th February 2019
Last week, the High Court of England and Wales held that it was lawful for the British Government to assist American authorities with the investigation and prosecution of crime in death penalty cases, without first seeking or obtaining assurances that the death penalty will not be imposed as a result of such assistance. The decision is […]
Mandeep Tiwana - 13th February 2019
Four years into the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, embedded human rights principles are under strain. Frank and open dialogue at the UN can help shine a spotlight on unfulfilled promises. This January, the UN organised a much-needed dialogue in Geneva on the link between human rights and Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development. The discussion’s […]
Dominic O'Sullivan - 11th February 2019
The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) fills important gaps in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by recognising that human rights belong to peoples as well as to individuals. It emphasises collective rights to language, culture and natural resources as inherent to indigenous humanity. UNDRIP codifies indigenous rights against the state. Rights to […]
Stephanie Tai - 8th February 2019
The Hong Kong Bar Association formally issued a statement on 21st December 2018, regarding the Department of Justice’s choice to not obtain independent legal advice in its decision not to prosecute former Chief Executive C.Y. Leung over the UGL corruption incident. The Department of Justice’s decision not to consult independent legal advice is worrying and […]