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Women of many cultures and religions find a means of coping with stress and ill health in faith-based practices, such as meditation and prayer. It is customary for Muslim women to participate in such activities, usually with a special dress code, which often includes a hijab. The headscarf ban in French and formerly in Quebec public schools not only forces Muslim female students to shed theiressentialreligious dress code, but also fails to address the resulting health consequences and to acknowledge the cultural aspects of head-covering. This paper argues that the ban on head coverings in public schools is not only an infringement on religious and cultural freedoms, and violation of human rights, but that it is also an unhealthy policy intervention, as it undermines health by restricting prayers, mindfulness and spirituality. Furthermore, the ban has taken away Muslim women's choice to wear a hijab, thus restricting a sense of self-autonomy and in turn causing additional negative health implications. By synthesising these ideas, this paper holds a novel and critical perspective that the headscarf ban policy in France should be re-examined not only because of its infringement of human rights, but also to assess the negative health impacts on affected groups. For these reasons the paper advocates a reversal of the ban, as has happened in Quebec, Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the journey of the so-called Izieu telegram – a telegram sent by Nazi perpetrator Klaus Barbie to report the raid of a Jewish children's home in France to his superiors – from its creation to its use in multiple transitional justice mechanisms, including an international military tribunal, domestic trials in France, and various memorialisation projects. In doing so we apply the concepts of activation and the records continuum approach, both borrowed from archival studies scholarship, to analyse how an individual record becomes continuously recontextualised through its use in transitional justice processes and in the process contributes to those same processes. We conclude by highlighting both the benefits of bringing archival concepts into dialogue with transitional justice scholarship and practice, and the tensions inherent in that endeavour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to consider the position of the European Court of Human Rights in the case of Siliadin v. France, addressing the Court's interpretation of slavery under Article 1 of the Slavery Convention 1926 in the light of international law on slavery, and the criticism that the Court should have extended its capability under Article 41 of the European Convention to stipulate more extensive remedial measures. The article contrasts the Court's reasoning, to develop a diagnostic survey of definitions of slavery and servitude, and to identify a conflation or substitution of terminology within the anti-slavery field and a possible reduction in protection where forced labour is concerned. The author proceeds to evaluate some of the consequences of continual and inconsistent re-categorisation for national and international laws. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1990s, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has witnessed an unparalleled growth in its caseload, in tandem with the expansion of its jurisprudential authority vis-a-vis states. Yet, scholars studying European integration and political scientists have paid little attention to the complex and variable ways in which the ECtHR judicial rule-making interacts with national political systems and societies. This article examines the implementation of ECtHR judgments in cases brought to it by individuals from sexual minorities, historical ethnic and religious minorities, and immigrants and asylum seekers from five countries: Greece, Bulgaria, Austria, France and the UK. It argues that European human rights case law matters, and that its implementation can influence domestic legal and policy change under particular preconditions. It is most likely to do so, in the first place, through repeat litigation and legal mobilisation by interested civil society and minority actors, capable of exerting pressure and linking Court rulings to policy issues and reforms. Furthermore, the ability of European human rights case law to expand rights at the national level crucially depends on support by domestic political and other influential elites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]