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Choking the Non-Governmental Organisations: Amnesty India and the Regulation of Foreign Funding

- 16th October 2020

Freedom of Association

On 29 September 2020, Amnesty International India (“Am-India”) halted its operations within the country after the Government of India froze its accounts. Am-India called it the “latest in an incessant witch-hunt” of repetitive raids, notices and criminal investigations by India’s Enforcement Directorate, Income Tax Department and intelligence agencies. In a strongly-worded defense, the Government accentuated […]

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Arbitrary & Disproportionate Criminalisation of Marginalised Communities: A Countermap of Pandemic Policing in India

Srujana Bej, Nikita Sonavane and Ameya Bokil - 13th October 2020

Criminal Justice| Equality and Non-Discrimination

The Criminal Justice and Police Accountability Project studied 34,000 arrest records and 500 First Information Reports filed in Madhya Pradesh, India to understand the patterns of pandemic policing and locate the socio-economic profiles of the individuals policed. The consequent report Countermapping Pandemic Policing – Sanctioned Violence in Madhya Pradesh notes that the police exercised the […]

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Transgender Persons Rules 2020: A Halfhearted Attempt at Redemption

- 9th October 2020

Equality and Non-Discrimination| Gender Equality

Justice Chandrachud of the Indian Supreme Court, in the landmark Navtej Singh Johar judgment, opined that, “our ability to recognise others who are different is a sign of our own evolution.” The journey of transgender rights in India finds its origin in the landmark judgement of National Legal Services Authority v. Union of India. Whilst […]

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A Bittersweet Day: Two equality rights decisions handed down by the High Court of Hong Kong

Christy Yeung - 9th October 2020

Equality and Non-Discrimination| Relationship Rights

 In recent years, the Hong Kong courts have recognised the equality rights of various same-sex couples in a number of cases. On 18 September 2020, the Hong Kong High Court handed down two much-awaited judgments regarding Hong Kong’s laws affecting same-sex married couples. The judgments of Ng Hon Lam Edgar v Secretary for Justice and […]

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Kenya’s Constitutional Court Certifies Structural Interdict as an Interlocutory Remedy

Godfrey Mwango - 9th October 2020

Constitutions Institutions and Nation Building| Socio-Economic Rights

Kenya’s constitutional court has demonstrated its flexibility in facilitating the progressive realisation of the constitutional aspirations through the rapidly evolving jurisprudence on Article 43 of the Constitution of Kenya 2010. As envisaged by the drafters, the transformative Constitution invited a plethora of jurisprudence that would revolutionise the legal niche by including socio-economic rights in its […]

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OxHRH

National Security and the Right to Bail: Recent developments in Hong Kong 

- 1st October 2020

Conflict and Security| Criminal Justice

In a landmark decision, the Hong Kong High Court denied the release of the first person charged with inciting secession and terrorism under the newly enacted The Law of the People’s Republic of China on Safeguarding National Security in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (the Law). Tong Ying Kit v HKSAR has generated debate […]

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OxHRH

Unprecedented onslaught on activists and human rights defenders in Belarus

- 1st October 2020

Freedom of Association| Freedom of Expression

News stories emerging from Belarus resemble a gruesome shopping list of human rights abuses. Authorities have systematically violated the right to freedom of expression, freedom from torture, freedom of assembly, and freedom from arbitrary arrest, among others. In recent weeks, an even more concerning trend has emerged. Lukashenko has refocused efforts on silencing opposition activists […]

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Need for human rights due diligence to curb sportswashing

Sriram Prasad and Ashish Mishra - 30th September 2020

Business & Human Rights

The recent attempted takeover of an English Premier League (EPL) club backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund elicited allegations of sportswashing of Saudi Arabia’s dismal human rights record. Such allegations of sportswashing are not uncommon, when states try to use the glamour of sport as a public relations tool to improve their international image. […]

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Pakistan: Discriminatory rules preclude Afghan refugee children from attaining secondary education

- 30th September 2020

Children's Rights| Migration Asylum and Trafficking| Socio-Economic Rights

In 2012, the Board of Secondary Education in Karachi (BSEK), made it mandatory for ninth grade students to possess a Child Registration Certificate. The certificate serves as an identity for nationals below the age of 18. Refugee children cannot obtain it. They are instead provided with Proof of Registration (PoR) cards, which merely entitle the […]

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OxHRH

Unaccompanied migrant minors and ‘protective custody’ practices in Greece: light at the end of the tunnel?

Vasiliki Poula - 26th September 2020

Children's Rights| Migration Asylum and Trafficking

The high number of unaccompanied migrant minors detained in ‘protective custody’ in police station cells and pre-removal detention centers across Greece has been a matter of vehement legal and political critique on a national, European and international level. According to Greek authorities, ‘protective custody’ is legally embedded in Article 118 of Decree no. 141/1991, which […]

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OxHRH

Right to Education & Emergence of a Digital Divide in Digital India

Rakshitt Bajpai - 23rd September 2020

Children's Rights| Equality and Non-Discrimination| Freedom of Expression| Socio-Economic Rights

The recent statistical report presented by the National Statistical Organization (NSO) indicates the deteriorating standards of availability of internet and computers to students in India, which violates their fundamental rights and creates a digital divide between the privileged and the unprivileged. The situation of India’s education sector is deteriorating rapidly, which is reflected in the […]

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Forced hysterectomies in detention: Immediate and long-term responses to ICE abuse needed

Jessica Anania - 23rd September 2020

Gender Based Violence

On September 14, 2020, Project South and whistleblower Dawn Pooten filed a complaint with the US Department of Homeland Security alleging forced hysterectomies at an Irwin County Detention Center (ICDC), amid other forms of medical neglect. The center is run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and houses people detained for immigration reasons. The complaint […]

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