The Legality of Indore’s Anti-Begging Notification
The District Administration of the city of Indore, India has issued a notification under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023 (the new Criminal Procedure Code), penalising...
Where social and economic justice meet: South Africa’s SRD decision affirms a rights-based approach to poverty
Over eighteen million of South Africa’s poorest peoples breathed a sigh of relief when, on 23 January 2025, the High Court of Pretoria handed down judgment in Institute for Economic...
The Indian Supreme Court on Affirmative Action for the Upper Caste Poor – Part II
Image Description: A small signage which says ‘Reserved’. In this post, I continue to engage with the Indian Supreme Court’s decision in Janhit Abhiyan v Union of India. For an...
Access to Healthcare Services in Nigeria and Kenya Amidst COVID-19: The Negative Impact of the Commercialisation of Healthcare
Image description: Two COVID vaccine vials. States have specific obligations in the context of public health emergencies. Article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR)...
The Inter-American Human Rights System on Public Security and Police Violence in Brazil: In Defence of a Rights-Based Approach to Security Policies
Three years after the “Favela Nova Brasília” case, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (‘IACtHR’) is hearing a second police violence case against Brazil, the “Castelinho”. The human rights violations...
Shaping the Future of Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights at Work
Sexual and reproductive health rights are not normally thought of as materialising in the workplace, but there are a numerous hurdles at work to women’s enjoyment of sexual and reproductive...
Classism, Hate Crime and the Law Commission’s Consultation Paper 250: Lessons from Discrimination Law
In the context of hate crime, class has two main analytical roles. First, it can be a ground of hate crime in itself, though the current law fails to recognise...
African Human Rights Court holds vagrancy laws incompatible with African human rights instruments
The African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights on 4 December 2020, delivered a historic Advisory Opinion against vagrancy laws (laws which criminalize the status of individuals as being poor,...
Right to a Better World: Maternal Mortality and Morbidity
In this episode of Right to a Better World, experts share challenges they have faced, and tactics they have used to help ensure every woman’s and adolescent’s right to not...
A historical precedent: IACtHR recognizes breach of the right to equality and non-discrimination in the enjoyment of a socioeconomic right on intersectional grounds of gender, poverty and race in Fireworks Factory case
In July 2019, I wrote a blog post introducing the main arguments presented to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) through an amicus curiae brief. The case concerned Brazil’s...
Human Rights Law Should Meet the Administrative State
Human rights depend on a well-functioning administrative state. If the administrative state is dysfunctional, it will not be able to realise the promise of human rights. While obvious in some...
Poverty and Politics in the SDGs (with Philip Alston)
Sustainable Development Goal 1 is to eliminate poverty in all its forms everywhere. Poverty stands in the way of people enjoying many of their basic human rights and it can...
