In association with the International Commission of Jurists

International Human Rights Law

11 Sep

[Claire Methven O’Brien is Senior Researcher and Strategic Adviser at the Danish Institute for Human Rights, and Baxter Fellow and Lecturer at the Law School, University of Dundee.] Human society faces unprecedented and interlinked global challenges: climate change, catastrophic environmental destruction, the concentration of global wealth and power into the grasping hands of a tiny few, while insecurity and denials of basic social and economic rights dog...

|
11 Sep

[Markus Krajewski holds the Chair in Public and International Law at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg.] As noted by Surya Deva in this blog, the 2020 Second Revised Draft for Legally Binding Instrument (LBI) on Business and Human rights is “negotiation-ready”. However, he wonders if states and the European Union are ready for negotiations. This contribution argues that the EU should be...

|
09 Sep

[Elizabeth Mangenje and Timothy Fish Hodgson are Legal Advisors at the International Commission of Jurists.] The newest draft of the “Legally Binding Instrument to Regulate, in International Human Rights Law, the Activities of Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises” was published in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, a public health emergency which has had extensive impacts on human rights globally. In the context of the right to...

|
04 Sep

[Neela Ghoshal is a senior LBGT rights researcher at Human Rights Watch.] People whose identities do not fit into a rigid female/male gender binary have, in many countries, been on a years-long quest to obtain official documents that reflect their identities by using a non-binary “X” marker in lieu of the typical “F” or “M.”   If you have never questioned your assigned gender, you may...

|
04 Sep

[Dhananjay Dhonchak is a student in law at The National Academy of Legal Studies And Research in Hyderabad, India.] Introduction The International Olympic Committee (IOC) issued guidelines in January 2020, expressly stating that gestures like kneeling would constitute a ‘protest’ within the meaning of rule 50 of the Olympic Charter (OC). The contentious rule 50 prohibits any ‘kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda’ at all Olympic venues...

|
03 Sep

Yesterday, the Netherlands and Canada announced that they would be supporting The Gambia formally, in its application before the International Court of Justice. The full statement can be found here. This does not come as a complete surprise. There have been discussions regarding the role that other states may play for sometime now, and this is a welcome development. The last state...

|
28 Aug

The contributions in the symposium this past week have brought up multiple issues and perspectives, pointing to challenges in the quest for justice and accountability for the Rohingya, and the role of international law. Rather than go over what has been highlighted already, here are a few reflections, linked to the international legal developments and the wider context.  There is little...

|
28 Aug

[Laetitia van den Assum is a diplomatic expert who has served as Netherlands ambassador on four continents. She was also a member of the Rakhine Advisory Commission, chaired by the late Kofi Annan.] Myanmar’s reluctance to embrace its rich ethnic, religious and cultural diversity remains the biggest stumbling block towards peace, stability and development.  It stands in the way of other major challenges, particularly high inequality and an...

|
27 Aug

[Param-Preet Singh is associate international justice director at Human Rights Watch.] Three years ago, my organization reported on the brutal campaign of Myanmar’s military, also known as the Tatmadaw, as it committed countless atrocities and forced more than 740,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee to Bangladesh. In September 2018, the UN’s Independent International Fact-Finding Mission urged the investigation of the Tatmadaw’s generals for war crimes, crimes against humanity and...

|
27 Aug

[Simon Adams is the Executive Director of the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect.] “We believe that mass killings and ethnic cleansing are underway across Rakhine State, and that there may be genocidal intent on behalf of the authorities.” That was my concluding comment at an informal briefing for members of the UN Security Council on the morning of 8 September 2017. The meeting took place...

|
26 Aug

[Akila Radhakrishnan (@akilaGJC) is the President of the Global Justice Center, where she directs GJC’s work to establish legal precedents protecting human rights and ensuring gender equality.] This August marks not only the 3rd anniversary of the start of the Rohingya genocide, but also the 6th anniversary of the start of the Yazidi genocide. Beyond starting in the same month, these...

|