Supreme Court of Canada Strikes Down Ban on Physician Assisted Death
In a landmark decision, on February 6, 2015 the Supreme Court of Canada unanimously struck down the criminal prohibition against physician assisted death (PAD) in Carter v Canada. The Court...
Capital Punishment in China: Room for Cautious Optimism?
Recent weeks have seen the resumption of executions in Jordan, after an 8-year de facto moratorium, and in Pakistan, following the murderous terrorist attack on a school in Peshawar, along...
Right to Housing Debate Stalled by Canadian Court
By a 2-1 majority, a provincial appellate court has halted proceedings in Tanudjaja v Canada (Attorney-General) which sought to recognise a constitutional obligation on provincial and federal governments to provide...
A New Opportunity for the UN to Move Forward the Global Abolition of Death Penalty
On the 2014 world day against the death penalty, Ban Ki Moon made a strong statement calling for global abolition. This declaration reflects a growing trend toward abolition, and yet...
Canadian Constitutional Challenge to Prohibition on Assisted-Dying
Canada’s top court is once again set to decide on the constitutionality of physician-assisted dying for terminally ill patients. Last Wednesday, the Supreme Court of Canada heard oral arguments in...
Migrant ‘Push Backs’ at Sea are Prohibited ‘Collective Expulsions’
In the early hours of 20 January 2014, a boat coming from Turkey carrying twenty-seven Afghan and Syrian migrants was intercepted by the Greek coast guard near the isle...
Should There Be A Human Rights Approach for Environmental Protection?
Is climate change just an environmental issue or also a human rights issue? Do we need a new international environmental treaty to address the rights of people displaced from their...
McCaughey and Others v UK: The Requirement of Prompt Investigation into State Killings
Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights guarantees, subject to some exceptions, that “everyone’s right to life shall be protected by law.” In its substantive manifestation, this means...
Abortion Law Reforms in Ireland
In A, B & C v. Ireland the European Court of Human Rights held that Ireland must end its 20-year delay in legislating for the limited constitutional right to abortion,...
Drone Strikes and Domestic Crimes?
As Kenneth Roth, the Executive Director of Human Rights Watch, has recently pointed out, international human rights and humanitarian law would not necessarily seem to require the wholesale abolition of...
Rendering Abortion Unconstitutional? Article 28 of Zambia’s New Draft Constitution
By Yaliwe Clarke Given international gains in legislation that protects women’s right to abortion, it is concerning that Zambia’s current draft constitution has put this matter back into national political...
Death Penalty in India: What the Future Holds
By Vrinda Bhandari – Constitutionally speaking, the death penalty in India is limited to the “rarest of the rare” cases and should be implemented in a time frame which is...
