The Human Rights Situation in Sri Lanka and UNHRC Resolution 46/1
On 23rd March 2021, the United Nations Human Rights Council (‘UNHRC’) adopted Resolution 46/1 with 22 countries voting in favour, 11 against, and 14 abstaining. The Resolution criticised the Sri...
Climate Claims Before the UN Human Rights Treaty Bodies
Each of the major UN human rights treaties establishes a treaty body, a body of independent experts that oversees compliance of the treaty by the States that are party to...
Enhancing the UK Parliament’s Scrutiny of Human Rights: A Case for Improved Government Reporting
Parliaments are increasingly recognised as vital actors for ensuring governments’ implementation of both human rights judgments and recommendations made by United Nations’ (UN) Treaty Bodies and the Universal Periodic Review....
G.L. v. Italy: Inclusive Education Reinstated in Strasbourg
In G.L. v. Italy, the European Court of Human Rights found that Italy’s failure to provide special assistance to a pupil with autism constituted a discriminatory violation of her right...
Environmental protection of children’s right to life: ICCPR General Comment 36
As the indivisibility of human rights and environmental protection solidifies as a norm of international human rights law, children are increasingly claiming their right to environmental protection under domestic constitutions...
Protecting Abortion, Respecting Disability: Moving Beyond “Fetal Impairment” Grounds in the Treaty Bodies
In June 2020, the Supreme Court of the United States narrowly maintained that states could not unduly burden women’s access to abortion. The case in question, June Medical Services v....
Legal Capacity, Disability and Human Rights: Changes and Challenges
The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities recognizes in Article 12 the equal right to exercise legal capacity without discrimination and imposes on States parties a duty...
Request for UN Inquiry into Italy’s role in the Torture of Migrants and Refugees Pulled-Back to Libya
Human rights violations of migrants and refugees intercepted in the Central Mediterranean, and detained in Libya, are well-documented. Reports on Italy’s active involvement in this pull-back practice are growing. Is...
Protecting Indigenous Communities in Cases of Climate-forced migration
On Indigenous People’s Day in 2018, the United Nations pushed for the protection of indigenous populations’ human rights in cases of social, political, economic, and climate-forced migration. It fell short...
Women’s Right to Sexual and Reproductive Decision-Making: The UN Population Fund Report 2020
One of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is to ‘Achieve Gender Equality and Empower all women and girls’ (Goal 5) and to...
20 Years After Palermo Protocol: Towards a stronger East African regional anti-trafficking framework
The year 2020 marks 20 years since the adoption of the year 2000 Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations...
Sexual Violence and Genocide: The International Court of Justice’s ruling on Rohingya
Since August 2017, at least 10,000 Rohingya – a Muslim minority group in Myanmar’s Rakhine state – have been killed and 700,000 have fled to neighboring Bangladesh amidst a brutal...
