Canada’s Failure: Climate Change and International Human Rights
“While I was breathing in wildfire smoke last month with Vancouver’s air quality rated worst in the world, Canadian government lawyers were preparing arguments to silence me.” This statement was...
Inevitability as the New Discrimination Defence: UK Supreme Court Mangles Indirect Discrimination Analysis While Finding the Two-Child Limit Lawful
The UK Supreme Court has delivered its long-awaited judgment in R (on the application of SC, CB and 8 children) (Appellants) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and...
Shaping the Future of Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights at School
Schools needs to be a place of safety for learners. Tragically, sexual and reproductive health rights can be violated at school. This episode of Shaping the Future of Reproductive Rights...
A Renewed Call for the Need for Recognition of the Non-Marital Family in the Irish Constitution
On 24th April 2021, the deliberations of the Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality recommended forty five changes to make Ireland a more gender equal place. The Assembly was established by...
Mandatory Vaccination in the Czech Republic does not Violate Human Rights
Vavřička and Others v. the Czech Republic (8 April 2021) concerned the legal obligation of parents in the Czech Republic to vaccinate their children against ten diseases that are well-known...
Equal Marriage – Unequal Parenthood
In 2017, same-sex couples in Germany were granted the right to marry. While the legislator’s decision was celebrated at the time, much remains to be done. In particular, the law...
Constitutional Changes in Scotland – I: Incorporation of International Treaties, Devolution and Effective Accountability
Scotland is on the precipice of significant subnational constitutional change through a programme of incorporation of international treaties. On 16 March 2021, the Scottish Parliament unanimously enacted the UNCRC (Incorporation)...
Youth Led Litigation Highlights the Intergenerational Impact of Climate Change
The impact of dangerous climate change on our children and future generations has been highlighted by campaigns around the world such as Fridays for Future, which grew out of Greta...
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,...
President Biden and the War on Children
On entering office last week, President Joe Biden was greeted by an in-tray unprecedented in US history: a global pandemic that has already claimed 400,000 American lives, the worst economic...
Czech Constitutional Court: No Recognition of Foreign Adoption by Same-Sex Couples
The recent decision of the Czech Constitutional Court (‘CCC’), Pl. ÚS 6/20, against allowing recognition of foreign adoption decisions in Czechia is harmful in outcome and evasive and formalistic in...
Responding to Ireland’s Mother and Baby Homes Commission Report
Ireland’s Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation Report was published last week. This is the latest in a series of state investigations into so-called ‘historical’ institutional injustice. Following an...
