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The Dollars and Cents of Human Rights: The UN Guiding Principles on Economic Reform and Human Rights

Meghan Campbell and Ben Warwick - 24th January 2019

Whoever would have predicted that the cutting edge of human rights work would take us to ‘Automatic Exchange of Information’ agreements or unutilised reserves? Due to an ever-increasing and overdue realisation that human rights must venture into economic, budgetary and fiscal spaces in order to be effective. Tax laws, privatization, austerity, economic, labour and environmental […]

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The UK Supreme Court and the Gay Marriage Cake: Is ‘Indissociability’ Half-baked?

Alex Benn - 21st January 2019

Giving the judgment of the court in Lee v Ashers Baking Co (2018), Lady Hale discusses ‘indissociability’ when determining whether direct discrimination has occurred. Indissociability refers to circumstances in which the criterion used ‘is not the protected characteristic itself but some proxy for it’ (paragraph 25). Lady Hale points to Preddy v Bull (2013), where […]

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And then there were none: the decline of the right to access a lawyer?

Lillian Li and Joris Bertrand - 18th January 2019

On 9 November 2018, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled in Beuze v Belgium that withholding a suspect’s right to legal assistance during police custody in the absence of compelling reasons, by virtue of statutory restrictions, is not contrary to the European Convention on Human Rights (the Convention) if […]

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The European Court of Human Rights’ judgment in Molla Sali: A call for Greece to modernise its system for national-minority protection?

Stephanos Stavros - 17th January 2019

Greece is one of eight Council of Europe member states not to have ratified the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. It has, nevertheless, kept in place a system for safeguarding certain distinct identities, the origins of which are to be traced in pre-WWII treaties still governing important aspects of its relations with […]

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The Indian Anti-Trafficking Bill, 2018: A Misguided Attempt to Resolve the Human Trafficking Crisis in India

Himanshu Pabreja Ankit Sharama - 15th January 2019

The controversial Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2018 (The Bill), is slated for debate and approval by the Indian Parliament’s upper house (Rajya Sabha) in its winter session which commenced on December 11, 2018. The Bill aims to prevent the trafficking of persons and provides mechanisms for the rescue, protection and rehabilitation […]

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The Employment Rights of Uber Drivers: A Battle Won, the War Goes On

Darcy du Toit - 14th January 2019

The judgment of the English Court of Appeal in Uber B.V. & others v Aslam & others (Case No: A2/2017/3467; 19 December 2018) has been hailed as a victory for workers. Uber’s business model, in common with many digital platforms, depends on classifying its drivers as independent contractors, who do not enjoy the rights of […]

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Indian Supreme Court Judge Calls for Abolishing the Death Penalty

Rahul Bajaj - 9th January 2019

In a powerful dissenting opinion that has reignited the debate on the retention of the death penalty in India, Justice Kurian Joseph of the Indian Supreme Court has called for a reassessment of the need for the death penalty. Justice Joseph’s dissent was delivered in an appeal by an accused sentenced to death for committing […]

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Analysing Malaysia’s Refusal to Ratify the ICERD

Kamilia Khairul Anuar - 7th January 2019

The Malaysian Minister of Diplomatic and Foreign Affairs, Saifuddin Abdullah, reaffirmed the new government’s commitment to improve Malaysia’s human rights track record, which included the ratification of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD). Recently, the ICERD has been thrust into heated public debate due to its perceived incompatibility with Malaysia’s […]

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Happy New Year from the Oxford Human Rights Hub

admin - 24th December 2018

As 2018 draws to a close, the Oxford Human Rights Hub Blog is taking a break for the next couple of weeks. We’ll be back on the 7th January 2019, with more cutting-edge human rights developments and analysis, but in the meanwhile, we wish all of our readers a happy new year! Thank you to […]

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“Insensitive Advertising” of Foreign Domestic Workers in Singapore: A Violation of Human Dignity

Benjamin Joshua Ong - 22nd December 2018

Singapore’s Ministry of Manpower has suspended the licence of an employment agency for advertising the services of foreign domestic workers in an “insensitive” manner which portrayed the workers as a “commodity that can be bought and sold”.  It also prosecuted the agency and the employee responsible for the advertisements; the employee has pleaded guilty. The […]

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Coup, Constitution and Commission: Commission of Inquiry into Zimbabwean Electoral Violence Confirms Military Killings of Civilians

Jason Brickhill - 21st December 2018

In a series of earlier posts, I have tracked a series of events in Zimbabwe beginning with the military-assisted coup to remove Robert Mugabe and install Emmerson Mnangagwa as President. The coup of November 2017 and its assault on constitutionalism is the dark strand running through the ensuing events. In ‘Coup and Constitution’, I argued […]

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