Search

This paper provides some reflections on the discussions resulting from the UN declaration, A/64/L.63/Rev.1. It is a resolution dated July 26, 2010 whereby the UN enacts the drinking water and sanitation as an essential human right, which creates some obligations the private actors will demand the Member States to comply with. Based on the foregoing, the UN Member States, including Colombia, are now required to ensure a water supply with quality and 100% coverage to their inhabitants via an aqueduct. However, governments face, in turn, the challenge to preserve the water sources constituting the raw material for ensuring those rights the UN has enacted as claimable by all human beings. This way, this paper poses some questions and queries regarding the tasks to be undertaken by both the Colombian State and the private actors to comply with the UN directives, without detriment to the water sources and the environmental sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the recognition of digital inclusion as a fundamental right in Colombia, thus contributing to the progress of the constitutional theory about the recognition of fundamental rights in Colombia. In recent years, the digital divide has attracted widespread attention of the national and international community. This digital divide has been intrinsically associated with the concept of fundamental right, since digital inclusion is considered as a key factor in social and individual progress. In this paper we conduct the evaluation of the doctrine and the case law criteria on the inclusion of new fundamental rights and the protection using the action for protection (tutela). This evaluation is carried out through a document review and legal interpretation that allows identifying some arguments to justify the consideration of digital inclusion as an inclusion to fundamental rights in the Colombian legal system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the child soldiers issue, as victims of forced recruitment. A review of the treatment of children in war in International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and in International Human Rights Law (IHRL) with emphasis on the age of protection in international instruments is carried out. The forced recruitment in the internal norms is analyzed as the cause of the unconstitutional state of affairs due to forced displacement, which leads to the problem of the soldier children of the guerrilla Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - People's Army [Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia - Ejército del Pueblo, FARC-EP] and their treatment in the implementation of the Peace Agreement. It is concluded that in the discussion of age, the Constitutional Court adopts an ambiguous solution when giving precedence to international norms subsequent to constitutional guarantees that already had in the domestic law. Colombia has an outstanding debt with their lost childhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews Forrahue. Matanza de 1912, written by the Mapuche writer Bernardo Colipán and co-authored with the Forrahue indigenous community located in Southern Chile. The book is a testimonial text that acts as a legal document and seeks to restore the truth in the context of Chile's historical account and collective memory. This text includes diagrams, photos and fragments in various types of handwriting, which we consider relevant in the reading and interpretation of this cultural artifact. From a symbolic perspective, the book is the place where the unburied bodies rest, allowing both the Chilean and Mapuche communities to mourn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Argentina is the most sued country in the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) and one of the most Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) signed (58 in total, 55 into force). Most of these lawsuits were filed by transnational corporations (TNCs) by the 2001-2002 crisis and linked to economic sectors related to natural resources. 20% of these claims are related to the drinking water and sanitation, which also makes Argentina in the country that has received claims in ICSID this sector. These are cases of social conflict and where the role of the state is evident as a regulator against the claim of protection of private property by TNCs, which highlights a legal asymmetry that favors the protection of investments on the protection of rights humans, particularly the human right to water recognized by the UN in 2010. Taking the Argentine case as a witness, this paper will present an asymmetry that violates the most basic foundations of international law, highlighting the need to revise the international investment protection regime and its relevance to the human rights obligations erga omnes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Argentina is the most sued country in the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) and one of the most Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) signed (58 in total, 55 into force). Most of these lawsuits were filed by transnational corporations (TNCs) by the 2001-2002 crisis and linked to economic sectors related to natural resources. 20% of these claims are related to the drinking water and sanitation, which also makes Argentina in the country that has received claims in ICSID this sector. These are cases of social conflict and where the role of the state is evident as a regulator against the claim of protection of private property by TNCs, which highlights a legal asymmetry that favors the protection of investments on the protection of rights humans, particularly the human right to water recognized by the UN in 2010. Taking the Argentine case as a witness, this paper will present an asymmetry that violates the most basic foundations of international law, highlighting the need to revise the international investment protection regime and its relevance to the human rights obligations erga omnes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the foundations of Jeremy Bentham's utilitarianism and the main criticisms to this doctrine, especially those which deem it incompatible with unconditional respect of human rights. Bentham's Panopticon, his proposal on prison reform published in the late eighteenth century, is discussed. Based on the analysis of the Panopticon -which is a consistent application of Bentham utilitarianism-, the author concludes that a) this doctrine promotes a humanitarian approach, although b) human rights are not guaranteed, but conditioned to the provided level of collective benefit; and c) Bentham's utilitarianism questions the universality and irrevocability of human rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research paper proposes that the Colombian Supreme Court's doctrine of liability for dangerous activities provides a useful framework to establish the nexus between juridical persons and human rights violations in the country. This article, based on an analysis of international and national law and doctrine on the subject, establishes that the absence of criminal liability of juridical persons in Colombia is a major obstacle to determining the contribution of these corporate structures to the Colombian armed conflict. This paper therefore explores other legal avenues to redress the human rights harms caused by legal persons, like liability for dangerous activities, that do not entail structural legal reforms but using existing institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to know the history and the international historical evolution in the recognition of the rights of the child and the origin to the principle of the best interest of the child through the dogmatic method to understand its meaning, nature and scope that gave origin to this into international law for the protection of the rights of children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is the product of the research regarding the study of Environmental Law in the undergraduate Law Studies course at Javeriana University Law School. After pondering the subject of the collective right to the environment in the Colombian legal system, the historical origins and consequences are considered, as well as the considerations for the environmental protection resulting from the collective right to a healthy environment from the Colombian Constitution of 1991. After analyzing the actual protection given by judicial decisions, this paper concludes with the way in which protecting the environment contributes to the consolidation of the human dignity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper account for the main collective actions undertaken by two women networks in Colombia: Women's Peace Route and the Colombian Women Initiative for Peace, during transition justice process and the implementation of the Justice and Peace Law (2004- 2009). From a sociological approach to the political process and the gender category, this paper discusses how gender ideologies inform new ways of mobilization affecting discourses, purposes and repertoires of those claiming identities and defending human rights. The main conclusion here is that the feminist influence in redistribution and acknowledgement claims for victims from the armed conflict have encouraged collective actions that begin to modify their relationship to the State. This is proved by their achievements at Court and social acknowledgement victims have gained as social actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the important role of domestic justice in the protection of the right to access to international justice, and in our case Inter-American justice. Within this purpose, the text explains the existence of a right to an effective international remedy in the Inter-American Human Rights System, and describes some of its peculiarities. Also, it shows the importance of national justice in the effectiveness of the international remedy and addresses certain issues with regard to the implementation of international judgments in the domestic sphere, considering that international rulings are binding and have the same nature of national judicial decisions. Finally, the paper deals with some reflections on possible internal remedies to comply with international rulings in Colombia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper results from research work performed on the enforceability of the Right to the Truth under Public International Law. This paper is intended to analyze the duties undertaken by the States regarding the compliance with this specific human right after serious violations of International Human Rights Law or International Humanitarian Law during non-international armed conflicts. The main purpose of this work is to demonstrate that States have no longer the discretion to handle post-conflict situations in breach of their international obligations regarding Human Rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses one of the major legal issues concerning the debate about the legal value of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR): Is the UDHR ius cogens? The authors explain legal problems related to the concept of ius cogens in order to show that the Universal Declaration cannot be classified as an imperative rule of law, even though some of the prohibitions that are implied in the UDHR have this nature. The authors present the dangers of the trivialization of the concept of ius cogens and the importance of preserving its essence as a rule that does not support repeal of any kind and under any circumstances. This paper rejects all interpretations that would unduly expand the content of the concept of ius cogens, which is contained in article 53 of the Vienna Convention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public international law sources (hereinafter, international law or DIP) are binding for states mediating their consent. In the case of the main sources of DIP, namely treaties, customary, unilateral legal acts and general principles of law, it is clear the need for mandatory consent for its compulsoriness. Regarding the sentences of international tribunals, and according to Article 59 of the Statute of the ICJ, its obligation is, according to explicit text, binding to the states involved in the controversy addressed by the sentence that resolves it. Which expands to the entire judiciary in the international arena. In this paper, the obligation will be discussed, namely, the character of source of law for the content of the judgments of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (hereinafter, the Court or CIDH), for those states not part to the dispute: effect erga omnes the judgments of the Court. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the incidence of the Constitution and international treaties for the effective protection of human rights in Mexico, after the constitutional reform of June 10th 2011 and the paradigmatic sentence of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation within the file varios ('various') 912/2010. With these changes, international criteria become an interpretive parameter that end the sole and final interpretation of human rights. Based on an epistemological approach, the Mexican constitutional openness to the international protection of human rights builds an external control and a double guarantee for such rights, which extends beyond reductionist or unilateral criteria from the exclusive will of the State; that is to say, there is a reciprocal dialogue between domestic and international judicial bodies that seeks to overcome the protectionist monopoly in relation to human rights in Mexico. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper entails an approach to the situation of the legal recognition of minorities in Europe, taking into account the legal structures that emerged after the Second World War. It reviews the development of this subject in the European system of human rights, focusing in particular on the European Court of Human Rights as well as on the activities of other European organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes social rights in the context of contemporary constitutionalism and proposes the use of the proportionality tests overcome the false dichotomy between freedom and social rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper partly explores the debates on men's natural rights which took place in the public sphere in mid-nineteenth century Latin America. In Colombia, as in many other countries in the region, such debates were related to civil wars between liberals and conservatives which started around the year 1848. Romantic poet Julio Arboleda Pombo (1817-1862), military chief and catholic thinker, was a central figure of such doctrinal debates and of such civil wars. In his poetic and journalistic works it is possible to trace the emergence of a post-republican conservatism that would gravitate over the public sphere and academia in Nueva Granada, during the second half of the nineteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to show the origins, development and meanings of the social struggles that the Peasant Association of the Cimitarra River Valley (ACVC) has been conducting for over a decade as an exercise in organization of the peasant community in the midst of Colombia's social and armed conflict. The use of ethnographic methods allowed developing a deep understanding of collective action through access to the archives of the Association and through in-depth interviews. The research results focus on the idea that this Association represents an example of local development building and transformation of regional conflicts through collective action, which advocates for the communitarian autonomy and the food sovereignty of the peoples of the Magdalena Medio. This peasant association reinvents itself as a collective for the defense of human rights, as well as a civil and political subject with inclusive and democratic regional projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the main problems in Bogotá, is the crisis in its health system. An example of it, is the closure of San Juan de Dios Hospital, which was one o f the largest, in terms of science and patient care in Colombia and Latin America. Because its clousure the property of the Hospital, classified as historical and cultural heritage, is deteriorated in such a way that today threaten to ruin. In response, some social organizations, together with the Public Actions Group of the the Universidad del Rosario, in the context of clinical legal education and strategic litigation, initiated actions to seek reopening. In that sense, this paper aims to show the challenges of clinical work in a paradigmatic case as complex as the San Juan de Dios and legal work towards protecting human rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents critical questions for reflection and the major current discussions concerning the survival of one of the most important constitutional for public interest and human rights in Colombia: popular actions. After 13 years of Law 472 issued in 1998 and the results evidenced in the exercise citizen advocacy groups, Colombia is going through a legal situation aimed at dismantling the democratic achievement of different strategies through legislative, administrative and media. In this paper, the result of follow-up investigations developed by the Universidad del Rosario, are evidence of the regressive phase of collective rights and proposes alternatives to try to save an institution that by its historical roots are ancient and their future vision is postmodern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present an analytical reflection on key issues and opportunities that may arise for women with lower incomes or marginal communities in Colombia, from the delivery of UN A/64/L.63/Rev.1, July 26, 2010 by which the UN, "declares the right to drinking water and sanitation as a human right essential for the full enjoyment of life and all human rights". We intended to highlight the main aspects linking gender relations with potable water service and how the resolution in question, can generate a significant change in the conditions of life and identity of women against the use and supply at domestic drinking water. This work begins with an exhibition of landscape water in some marginal regions of the world, based on figures from official regulatory bodies and / or guiding the water issue, we raised the right to water as a human right since the analysis of the various directives that regard have emanated from various international bodies, and then present the role of women in relation to the issue of water supply and finally conclude with some reflections aimed at redirecting public policies surrounding this right and duty from women and for the community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In my paper I offer an integrated interpretation of the textual meaning that the term "dignity" has within Kant's Practical Philosophy. My claim is that Kant's notion of dignity is, in fact, a socio-political and legal notion. This meaning refers to the idea of an office, a rank and, particularly, a legal title of nobility or honor. My article is presented in three steps. First, I present the notion of human dignity as it has been developed by the human rights' discourse. Second, I expound the notion of dignity as it is presented in Kant's practical philosophy. I will mainly analyze the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, the Critique of the Practical Reason and the Metaphysics of Morals, both the Doctrine of Right and the Doctrine of Virtue. Finally, I will draw some conclusions from all of the above. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Argentine prison system shows a significant deterioration, overcrowding and lack of government intervention, in a context of institutional, social and economic difficulties. Such conditions are ripe for conflict, as occurred in the province of Mendoza in March 2000, the motín vendimial. Taking as a reference point such disturbance, this paper analyzes the current situation of the prison system in Mendoza, specifically, the living conditions in prisons, the various parties involved and finally discusses alternative proposals for prison systems. Apparently, the riots are not only a manifestation of violence and revenge between them internally but also a way of claims due to living conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to come back to the concept of human dignity, in order to understand the significant role it has played in the context of various bioethical approaches. From a critical perspective, the notion of dignity will be shown not to end on the human dimension, not to be exhausted in it, and not to belong exclusively to it. This text is made up of two sections and an epilogue: the first section points to the place the concept of human dignity occupies in the national and international legislation concerning bioethics, while the second one discusses a general characterization of the concept of human dignity from two sources and its relation to the notion of individual. As a conclusion, the epilogue presents several insights and quests on the concept of human dignity in the context of bioethics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Latin American mass media are going beyond the mere production of information to become agents of social projects from a corporate and socially responsible framework in alliance with external players, particularly civil society organizations (cso). This paper puts forward the results of research work which collects, for the first time, the experiences of some of these alliances between media and cso in Latin America and Colombia for the benefit of Democracy and Human Rights. Via interviews with some of the main players, the study identifies both challenges and lessons for future alliances in an attempt to strengthen the contribution of mass media to the development of democracy and human rights in Colombia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a member of UNESCO's International Bioethics Committee (IBC) that elaborated the Universal Declaration of Bioethics and Human Rights, the author summarizes along this paper Declaration's main points. Universal Declaration of Bioethics was adopted by UNESCO General Conference by 2005. The author also points out that albeit there are several declarations and international guidelines relevant to Bioethics, brand new UNESCO's Universal Declaration is the first international instrument, legally established (even though non-binding), that founds a set of principles for any biomedical activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper intends to contribute to understand if "the right to the truth" is per se legally binding and carries with it the correlative and autonomous obligation which if unfulfilled will create a consequence under international law or if it has no independence. The reflection is based on the evolution of the right to the truth and the consideration of the right to the truth as part of the international sources of law under the traditional, and for some, restrictive vision listed in the main sources of article 38 of the Statue of the International Court of Justice, ICJ. To obtain this outcome, previous certain introductory elements, I will try to analyze in a first part the historical origin and evolution of the right to the truth in its different dimensions and materializations so that, in a second part I can analyze its autonomous normative strength under the discussion of Soft-Law and traditional sources of international law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper one would approach the essential budgets of the human rights, essence, classification, social teaching of the Church, and rules of interpretation of the fundamental rights according to the jurisprudence of the Colombian Constitutional Court. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of the research project "The Effectiveness of Judicial Contempt Power in Writ of Protection Cases. A Case Study, Bogotá (2007)". Its purpose is to identify and analyze the variables that influence the effectiveness of contempt requests in terms of the satisfaction of fundamental rights. In order to do so, the research intended to have a quantitative approach with exploratory boundaries. The project examined a total of 431 files in criminal, civil, administrative, labor and family courts in Bogota in 2007. The study shows an overview of ineffectiveness of the legal instrument and the need for its reform, together with the development of new tools to promote compliance based on different theoretical perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Colombian Constitutional Court's precedent regarding the persons with disabilities' human rights has played an active role. It has widely protected and dignified them, it was also reaffirmed the privilege place given to them by the Constitution. The paper presents a general overview of persons with disabilities human rights legal protection and specifically: the Constitutional duties of the State, the disability concept, the equality, the rights to mobility, to work, to health services and education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is a result of the line of victimology of the research team "Estudios de Derecho Público" (acknowledged by Colciencias - "A" category). It is a reflection paper that focuses in its first part in the historical oversight of victims, to further board the subjects referring to the necessary change of perspective in the Colombian criminal justice system in reference to victim's rights, in accordance with the Colombian constitution and with the international law of human rights. Finally, it refers in a specifically to those rights: access to justice and fair treatment, restitution and compensation, assistance and peaceful coexistence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper is about terrorism and the armed Colombian conflict. It also studies the international legislation which was fruit of a study on the Colombian particular situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of protection of Human rights, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights is the Highest Tribunal that fights for the promotion of those contained in the American Convention on Human Rights. "Francisco Suarez S.J." competition is intended to raise consciousness and awareness of Iberamerican's University Students, through the investigation, analysis and criticism based on a hypothetic case related to International Rights and specifically of the Inter-American System of protection of Human Rights. This paper is the answer to the complaint made by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in which it made the State of "Astoria" responsible of certain violations to Human Rights due to the establishment of a nuclear power plant. The violations consist in rights like: right to a worthy life, freedom of movement and residency, protection of family rights, etc. The State will demonstrate that it hasn't violated any right and that it has fulfilled all its obligations in matters of Human Rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this paper is to reflect on the bioethics and violence relationships, so far neglected. The relevance, the excluding economic policies, the human rights and dignity disrespect, are issues that interest this discipline. The method used was an essay, understood as a critic exercise searching a new way of looking to facts. Violence and bioethics relationships are discussed in the introduction. Next, violence concepts and meaning in the present world are approached, followed by analyzing the role of the State as far as vulnerability to violence is concerned. In conclusion, the importance of the violence subject in the bioethics field must be no longer neglected insofar the discipline might be together with the economic policy in order to prevent and struggle against violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]