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Over the past three decades, there has been a notable expansion in the number and remit of global norms of human protection, informing the rationale and reform of international law and institutions in significant ways. Yet, the inconsistent and selective implementation of these norms undermines their legitimacy and strength. Drawing on interviews with United Nations (UN) officials, diplomats, non-governmental organizations, and experts, this article examines the challenge of strengthening consistency in the implementation of international human protection norms. It argues that diversity in practice is a strength for their consistent implementation when understood through a broader account of the regulatory function of international norms. Dominant accounts of the regulatory function of international norms in international law (compliance) and international relations (internalization) seek consistency of norm implementation through mechanisms such as legal/institutional reform and socialization, respectively. These accounts, I argue, are strengthened by a socio-legal approach to responsive regulation that pays attention to the way that norms operate "in reality" to regulate actor behavior, identifying the generative and creative function of international norms in steering the flow of events toward desired outcomes. It then examines efforts to extend human protection norms into new territory and toward improved preventive capacity with an increased emphasis on accountability through the UN Human Rights Council. This article introduces the concept of regulatory contestation that extends analytical attention to the governance processes through which norms shape international politics and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A menudo se cita Hong Kong como un buen ejemplo de territorio no signatario que ha establecido un mecanismo de determinación de la condición de refugiado dirigido por el Gobierno. Sin embargo, en ausencia de un compromiso público más amplio o dirigido por el ejecutivo, este mecanismo está muy por debajo de los estándares internacionales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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A pesar de que Bangladés no ha ratificado la Convención de 1951 sobre el Estatuto de los Refugiados, varias sentencias judiciales recientes indican que se respetan elementos de la normativa recogida en dicho instrumento. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Norm cascades often spark resistance from states under pressure to conform. Some react by further distancing themselves from the norm--a process known as "norm backlash." We identify a particular kind of norm backlash: the creation of legal barriers aimed at fending off a transnationally diffusing norm by blocking the ability of local actors to advocate for it. We call this phenomenon "norm immunization" and provide an account of the conditions that bring it about. In this account, transnational advocacy increases the local salience of the norm, which is discursively constructed as a national threat that calls for defensive regulations against the advocacy of the threatening norm. Using this model, we analyze Uganda's immunization against LGBT rights as instantiated in the Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2014. We find that the successful efforts of LGBT rights advocates elsewhere indeed precipitated the discursive construction of those rights as a national threat in Uganda, thereby unintentionally contributing to the adoption of the norm-immunizing law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effectiveness of global governance institutions in the light of changes in the global system, and how such changes can be observed in the international arena. This study focuses on the African system of human rights as an example of global governance institutions operating within the liberal global order created in the post-war era by the U.S. This paper also uses Oran Young's1 framework of effectiveness of international institutions to examine whether the African human rights system is effective. Based on that framework, we observes that the African human rights system has been able to move beyond human rights treaty ratification by African states to the establishment of treaty bodies that have demonstrated dynamism in response to challenges in African human rights, as well as changes in the liberal global order. However, there is more to effectiveness of institutions of global governance beyond the dynamism demonstrated by the African system of human rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article draws attention to the constitutive requirements of intergenerational justice and exposes the limitations of regulative arguments based on international human rights law. Intergenerational justice demands constraining the regulative freedom of the international community, and it is tempting to assume that adequate constraints are already contained within existing treaties including international human rights treaties. In fact, intergenerational justice demands bespoke constitutional norms at the international level, and it demands entrenching constitutional norms. International human rights law per se implies neither of these constitutive propositions and both are problematic in light of the present structure of international law. Nevertheless, a combination of arguments concerning intergenerational justice and the systemic implications of human dignity yield a more constitutive account of human rights and therefore an internal critique of the overall architecture of international law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Debates about human rights have often questioned their potential for generating rights at national levels. In this article, we use the case of irregular migrants' access to health care in the United Kingdom and France to explore the extent to which international human rights influence national health care provisions for irregular migrants. We explore the extent to which health care access and provision for irregular migrants in these two countries is in agreement with international human rights. In so doing, we examine what constitutes an infringement of the international human right to health care. Finally, we sketch out some hypotheses about the role played by different state structures in the implementation of human rights norms, comparing the United Kingdom with France. We argue that, although international human rights often have a largely symbolic role in nation-state jurisdiction, they may sometimes represent a force for change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the issue of violation of core fundamental rights, and talks of challenges of international laws to regulate, normative plurality, and need for rights reform by calibrating relationship between international rights and subnational system of law in Southern Africa.

Formal property rights are typically established after considerable waste has occurred, despite the effectiveness of such schemes in addressing the inefficiencies of common pool resources. Adoption can be contentious because of the assignment of wealth and political influence that accompany the transition to exclusive property rights. This paper studies how the early involvement of harvesters in policy implementation designed to address the commons' inefficiency may foster perceived legitimacy and lessen political opposition to the establishment of individual property rights. We demonstrate that it is optimal for a manager facing industry strife and reform delay to allow firms to self-select into the property rights regime. The strategic interaction of harvesters leads to an equilibrium characterized by the global adoption of property rights. Thus, by providing harvesters with a choice between management systems, policy makers can reduce the transaction costs associated with the need to create political consensus, while ensuring an outcome similar to the top-down implementation of market-based management. Evidence is provided from a recent policy change in Maryland fisheries in which the provision of a choice resulted in the overwhelming adoption of individual transferable quotas and the end of the race to fish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In The Global Model of Constitutional Rights Kai Möller claims that the proportionality test is underlain by an expansive moral right to autonomy. This putative right protects everything that advances one’s self-conception. It may of course be limited when balanced against other considerations such as the rights of others. But it always creates a duty on the state to justify the limitation. Möller further contends that the practice of proportionality can best be understood as protecting the right to autonomy. This review article summarizes the main tenets of Möller’s theory and criticizes them on two counts. First, it disputes the existence of a general right to autonomy; such a right places an unacceptably heavy burden on others. Second, it argues that we do not need to invoke a right to autonomy to explain and justify the main features of the practice of proportionality. Like other constitutional doctrines, proportionality is defensible, if it is grounded in pragmatic—mainly epistemic and institutional—considerations about how to increase overall rights compliance. These considerations are independent of any substantive theory of rights. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article reports on the 4th German Internet Governance Forum in Berlin, Germany, on May 7, 2012, which was dedicated to the relationship between the Internet and human rights and civil liberties. Topics discussed included the Internet as a human right, international cooperation in the areas of cyber-security and guaranteeing Internet freedom, and the social responsibility of Internet users. The article also points to the relevance of these topics to librarians and libraries.

The article presents an examination of the transnational homophile movement and the history of the International Committee for Sexual Equality (ICSE). It discusses the history of transnational activism and explores how the ICSE was able to connect homophile movements and groups around the world to form a cohesive group and promote the civil rights of homosexual minorities across the globe. It explores the inter-war period activism of the World League for Sexual Reform, founded by Magnus Hirschfeld, it examines the 195 International Congress for Sexual Equality and discusses the passage of resolution endorsing gay rights by the United Nations Human Rights Council in June 2011.

The paper seeks to establish hor the enemy criminal law is a commitment to the reactivation of a tradition of denial of civility to the weariness of modern experience and the difficulties of utopia as a way of thinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While trends towards secularization may have appeared inexorable as the last century came to a close, more recent events, particularly in the aftermath of 9/11, have led to greater attention being paid to the resurgence of religion globally. But how to represent and portray religion, with respect and understanding, in this new environment may contain significant challenge—a subject which this paper considers in the light of two recent Commonwealth Reports. The Report of the Commonwealth Commission on Respect and Understanding, entitled Civil Paths to Peace, chaired by Amartya Sen, and presented recently to the Commonwealth Heads of Government summit in Kampala, Uganda, seeks to downplay any single-minded concentration on religion in favour of promoting broader civil engagements in crafting civil paths to peace. In contrast, the Commonwealth Foundation's Report, Engaging with Faith, treats religion more sympathetically and encourages understanding and cooperation between the faith communities. The former Report may tend to treat religion as part of the problem, while the latter might view religion as part of the solution. Thus, the two Reports illustrate contrasting and conflicting views as to the place of religion in efforts to promote global peace and development along the path to respect and understanding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a discussion on the supervision and correcting of basic law concerning civil rights in international and national law settings. A definition is given for the author's use of terminology relating to civil rights monitoring, including references to quality control, improvement processes, and the development of evaluation standards. The author discusses the application of civil rights protection in constitutional law, particularly the German national constitution known as the Bundesverfassungsgesetz (BVerfG). Further comments are made concerning the structural boundaries protecting basic laws for civil rights.

This article looks at China's engagement with international human rights treaties and the extent to which this is bringing understanding of, and compliance with, international human rights norms as a background to China's possible ratification of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). It explores, in respect of two particular articles in the ICCPR, Article 14 and Article 6(2), where China stands with its current domestic legislation and practice in terms of conformity and argues that there still needs to be significant legal reform in the area of fair trial issues and the use of death penalty before ratification is possible. Finally, it looks at the state of civil and political rights in China and the problem of democracy and concludes that although China will unquestionably ratify the ICCPR, change will still be gradual. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the role of U.S. military medical personnel in the abuses of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay. Report which found the U.S. military medical system failed to protect detainees' human rights, sometimes collaborated with the abuse and failed to properly report injuries or deaths caused by beatings; Background on the policies of President George Bush regarding the treatment of suspected terrorists; Executive decisions which permitted the abuse and torture of prisoners; Inadequacy of training for medical personnel; Examples of some of the offenses; Where the system failed; How military doctors and health care workers face a loyalty conflict between obedience to the service and the care of detainees; Directive from the Geneva Convention which addresses the problem; Call for a more extensive review of the human rights violations and reforms which must result.

The article discusses the state of human rights in the private sphere and its relationship with international human rights law. It addresses the development of international morality, as well as the fundamental ideology that human life is sacred. Other topics explored include the social base in human rights claims, grounds for entitlement, and the nature of end-states.

National security is concerned with the safety of sovereign states. Individual security is assumed to follow from national security by virtue of our membership in a particular political community. They are moral communities in their own right and, as such, they are entitled and competent to determine the nature of their security interests and how best to address them. The right of self-defense gives practical effect to the doctrine of national security and other theories that assume that states are properly conceived, not as mere instrumental arrangements, but as communities invested with moral value. Governments may be unable to provide adequate protection for their citizens or they may use the apparatus of state to oppress and abuse their citizens. In either case, these states are surely not sources of the good life, but of misery and despair. They fail to provide the minimum conditions of social order and they provide nothing that resembles basic social goods. In order to become a recognized member of international society, a community not only had to undertake to establish a competent authority to maintain order and to dispense justice, but it also had to demonstrate a willingness and ability to fulfill the obligations of statehood.

An introduction is presented in which the author discusses various article within the issue on topics including development of international law, concept of secession, and international civil rights.

After the revelations of the NSA wiretapping program, the issue of "Big Data" has moved to the forefront. According to the author, not only states, but also private organizations causelessly collect personal data of citizens. Treaties such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights support the notion of privacy as a human right, and in light of recent circumstances, may need to be supplemented by a third optional protocol to adapt to technological innovations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]