United Nations

Moving towards the recognition and protection of climate change refugees under international human rights law

Moving towards the recognition and protection of climate change refugees under international human rights law

The recent hurricanes that hit the coast of the Caribbean have renewed the fears of a global climate refugee crisis. However, there is a lack of clarity on who exactly...
Gaining More from Human Rights: Access to Health Care and Surviving Childbirth is not Enough

Gaining More from Human Rights: Access to Health Care and Surviving Childbirth is not Enough

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3 seeks to ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all, at all ages. Within the maternity care context this requires a reduction in maternal mortality...
U.N. Framework Principles on Human Rights and the Environment: A Catalyst for Grassroots-Centered U.S. Reform?

U.N. Framework Principles on Human Rights and the Environment: A Catalyst for Grassroots-Centered U.S. Reform?

John H. Knox, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment, recently issued a final report to the U.N. Human Rights Council. The report, which contains 16 Framework...
CRPD Committee Adopts New General Comment on Equality and Non-Discrimination

CRPD Committee Adopts New General Comment on Equality and Non-Discrimination

The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities released its advance unedited version of the General Comment No. 6 on Equality and Non-Discrimination on 9 March 2018. The Committee’s...
Taking the backseat? Strategic utilisation of human rights in the implementation of SDGs

Taking the backseat? Strategic utilisation of human rights in the implementation of SDGs

Human rights and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are closely entwined. The text of the Agenda declares that human rights constitute the foundation and the aim of development. It states...
Transforming Women’s Lives Through Education

Transforming Women’s Lives Through Education

The virtues of education are uncontested. It is a multiplier right, it creates an empowered workforce and citizens, and perhaps most important, it leads to personal development and fulfilment. The...
Djazia and Bellili v Spain: Eviction and Homelessness under the OP-ICESCR

Djazia and Bellili v Spain: Eviction and Homelessness under the OP-ICESCR

When the private housing sector fails the State must use its resources to provide alternative housing, according to the latest case concluded by the CESCR. The Committee also makes its...
International Law, Right to Privacy and Marital Rape in India

International Law, Right to Privacy and Marital Rape in India

In an order dated 6/11/2017, the High Court of Gujarat described marital rape as “a disgraceful offence that has scarred the trust and confidence in the institution of marriage”, proposing...
Law and Disability: Why Getting Disability Law on the University’s Curriculum Matters to Disability Rights

Law and Disability: Why Getting Disability Law on the University’s Curriculum Matters to Disability Rights

Today marks an important moment for the foregrounding of the rights of people with disabilities at Oxford. It is the inaugural Oxford University Disability Law and Policy Conference. This conference...
Law and Disability: An Introduction to the Social Model of Disability

Law and Disability: An Introduction to the Social Model of Disability

“To pay attention to the words we use is not to be “politically correct” but to struggle for a language which describes the denial of our human rights, locates our...
When The Law is Not Enough: International Day of Zero Tolerance for FGM

When The Law is Not Enough: International Day of Zero Tolerance for FGM

On February 6, UN International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), the international community will condemn FGM. Who would disagree that FGM (the partial or total removal...
Why Artificial Intelligence is Already a Human Rights Issue

Why Artificial Intelligence is Already a Human Rights Issue

Last month, UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights Professor Philip Alston released a statement following his official visit to the United States. Beyond many issues around taxation,...

Become A Contributor To The Blog