New Zealand bans conversion therapy and incorporates rights-based mechanism
Image description: rainbow queer pride flag Conversion therapy Conversion therapy involves psychological, spiritual, and physical practices to ‘convert’ a person’s gender identity or expression and/or sexual orientation preferably to that...
Financialisation of Housing: Balancing Commercial Interests with Human Rights
Image description: Multicoloured houses seen from above The right to adequate housing is considered to be a basic human right. It is fundamental to an individual’s sense of security and...
Mumtaz Bibi v Qasim: Islamabad High Court’s Landmark Judgment on Child Marriage
Image description: Children in a village in Sindh Pakistan. As per a recent UNICEF report, Pakistan is home to nearly 19 million child brides: one in three girls in Pakistan...
Detention Laws in Malaysia: Parliament Rejects Motion to Extend Security Powers
Image description: Protesters gather at a human rights rally in Malaysia. The Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (SOSMA) has been subject to serious criticism by human rights organisations and...
The Violence of Care: Obstetric Violence during COVID-19
Image description: Text that reads, ‘reproductive rights are non-negotiable’. Obstetric Violence (OV) is a global health problem. Whilst this terminology alludes to notions of physical harm, OV also encompasses, “disrespect”,...
Toward an Empowering Disability Discourse in the Justice System: The Indian Supreme Court’s Call to Action
Image description: An old woman on a wheel chair being escorted to a polling booth in India. One of the many positive contributions of the Indian Supreme Court’s decision in...
Discredit to the Turkish Government Over Social and Political Inequalities
Image description: Large number of people walking on the streets in Turkey. The unlimited inequality, injustice, and serious violations of socio-economic rights in Turkey has triggered public dissatisfaction with the...
Christina Voigt on ecocide
UN Council Resolution on Human Right to Healthy Environment: Implications for US Grassroots-Led ‘Non-Reformist Reforms’
Image description: Protesters with a banner saying ‘We are the people’s climate movement’. In a long-awaited victory, the UN Human Rights Council recently recognised, for the first time, that having...
Challenging Regression in Climate Commitments: Doctrine of ‘Non-Retrogression’ to the Rescue?
Amidst the wave of new climate commitments or nationally determined contributions (NDCs) from Parties to the Paris Agreement (PA) in the run up to COP26, there were some which ran...
Time to Demystify Equal Pay and Gender Pay Gaps
More than two decades ago, one of my colleagues, a well-respected lawyer, declared with conviction that in countries where seniority was a priority, equal pay was not relevant. I was...
Emerging from the COVID 19 Pandemic: What role for the Forgotten Right to Continuous Improvement of Living Conditions in the ICESCR?
As the world confronts the devastating impact of the COVID pandemic it must tackle the thorny related problems of increasing economic inequality – within countries and between them – as...
