Blog
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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Elise Maes 17th August 2016
On 3 February 2016, the Criminal Division of the Court of First Instance of Ghent in Belgium found a 33-year old man guilty of rape, but decided to suspend the imposition of punishment. The public prosecutor appealed, demanding a sentence of 18 months of imprisonment, of which 12 months would be conditional upon the offender […]
Lucia Mazzuca and Keina Yoshida 12th August 2016
On 19 November 2015, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (‘the Court’) handed down a decision on gender-based violence in Guatemala. This decision comes at a time when Guatemala has been pursuing prosecutions for grave crimes perpetrated during the dictatorship of Rios Montt (as a background, see the documentary “Granito: How to Nail a Dictator”). […]
Lucia Mazzuca and Keina Yoshida 9th August 2016
In November 2015, a decade after the sexual assault and murder of a young Guatemalan woman, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (‘the Court’) released a ground-breaking judgment further clarifying the scope and content of states’ responsibility in addressing gender-based violence. On 12 August 2005, Claudina Isabel Velásquez Paiz, a 19 years old student, went […]
Arushi Garg 15th July 2016
This post examines a petition made to the Indian Supreme Court by a rape victim’s mother. The petitioner avers that her daughter’s case should be tried in a court set up to prosecute sexual offences against children because even though the victim is 38 years old, her mental age is that of a three-year-old. It […]
Alec Cunningham 24th June 2016
The recently published 2015 Global Burden of Armed Violence (GBAV) report by the Small Arms Survey has continued in the same vein as the two previous publications in 2008 and 2011. The reports highlight a concerning trend of violence inflicted on women in numerous countries, including El Salvador, South Africa, Russia, Venezuela, Columbia, Brazil, Ukraine, […]