This volume explores the relationship between human rights and democracy within both the theoretical and empirical field. It is a book within the tradition of deliberative democracy, although it focuses on global institutions and human rights rather than nation-state or federalist democracy. Eva Erman problematizes the absence of political rights in the global human rights discourse from a deliberative standpoint. Starting out from and at the same time criticizing Habermas' discourse theory of law and democracy, she makes a significant contribution to a discourse theory of human rights and applies it to a global rights institution, the United Nations' Commission on Human Rights. This is an innovative study that offers tools for democratizing existing global political institutions, and is therefore suitable for philosophers, political theorists, scholars of human rights and those interested in democracy.

Legal Practice and Cultural Diversity considers how contemporary cultural and religious diversity challenges legal practice, how legal practice responds to that challenge, and how practice is changing in the encounter with the cultural diversity occasioned by large-scale, post-war immigration. Locating actual practices and interpretations which occur in jurisprudence and in public discussion, this volume examines how the wider environment shapes legal processes and is in turn shaped by them. In so doing, the work foregrounds a number of themes principally relating to changing norms and practices and sensitivity to cultural and religious difference in the application of the law. Comparative in approach, this study places particular cases in their widest context, taking into account international and transnational influences on the way in which actors, legal and other, respond.

This book contributes to a critical reflection of current legislative and jurisprudential developments in Non-Discrimination Law, focusing on the European Union. The book is focused on intersectionality between gender, race and disability and the question of whether, and to what extent, this intersection can be adequately addressed in (EU) law. The discussion rests on two basic assumptions. First, the multiplication of 'discrimination grounds' in EU law and other legal regimes should not result in a dilution of the demands of equality law. Accordingly, the book focuses on the three key grounds - race, gender and disability. These constitute nodes around which other discrimination grounds can be grouped. Second, any multi-ground non-discrimination law framework needs to engage with the question of discrimination on several grounds. This book provides a critical evaluation of some of the problems presented by such intersectionality and an opportunity to explore the issues in depth. This collection offers some new proposals relating to the regrouping of identity categories and to the general approach to socio-legal research in the field. It also contains a comparative section, which expands on practical experiences with intersectionality and law, and a section dedicated to juridical responses to intersectionality. The book will be a valuable resource for researchers, academics and those working in the area of EU non-discrimination law and policy.

The Logic of Consent analyzes the varied nature of consent arguments in criminal law and examines the confusions that commonly arise from the failure of legislatures, courts and commentators to understand them. Peter Westen skillfully argues that the conceptual aspect accounts for a significant number of the difficulties that legislatures, courts and scholars have with consent in criminal cases; he observes that consent masquerades as a single kind of event when, in reality, it refers to diverse and sometimes mutually exclusive kinds of events. Specifically, consent is used in law to refer to three pairs of contrasting kinds of events: factual versus legal, attitudinal versus expressive, and prescriptive versus imputed. While Westen takes no position on whether the substance of existing defenses of consent in criminal law ought to be enlarged or reduced in scope, he examines each of these contrasting events and analyzes the normative confusions they produce.

This volume presents an overview of the principal features of the legacy of International Tribunals and an assessment of their impact on the International Criminal Court and on the review process of the Rome Statute. It illustrates the foundation of a system of international criminal law and justice through the case-law and practices of the UN ad hoc tribunals and other internationally assisted tribunals and courts. These examples provide advice for possible future developments in international criminal procedure and law, with particular reference to their impact on the ICC and on national jurisdictions. The review process of the Rome Statute is approached as a step of a review process to provide a perspective of the developments in the field since the Statute's adoption in 1998.

In recent years, the wearing of the full-face veil or burqa/niqab has proved a controversial issue in many multi-cultural European societies. Focussing on the socio-legal and human rights angle, this volume provides a useful comparative perspective on how the issue has been dealt with across a range of European states as well as at European institutional level. In so doing, the work draws a theoretical framework for the place of religion between public and private space. With contributions from leading experts from law, sociology and politics, the book presents a comparative and interdisciplinary approach to one of the most contentious and symbolic issues of recent times.

This collection considers how contemporary cultural and religious diversity challenges and redefines national constitutional and legal frameworks and concepts, within the context of education. It offers a critical reflection on the extent and meanings given to religious freedom in education across Europe. The contributions deal primarily with Western Europe although the book also includes a study of the US vibrant debates on Creationism. This volume considers issues such as religious expression, faith schooling and worship in schools, in a multidisciplinary and comparative approach. The book first examines key concepts, before presenting national models of religion and education in Europe and analyzing case studies relating to religious symbols worn at school and to the teaching of religious education. Legal questions are examined in a wider context, in the light of the intentions of state policy and of current national and transnational debates. Controversies on the legal implications of personal and national identities are for example analyzed. From a comparative perspective, the chapters examine the possible converging power of human rights and anti-discrimination discourses and reveal the difficulties and risks involved in seeking to identify the best model for Europe. This topical study of a highly sensitive area of education presents a valuable insight for students, researchers and academics with an interest in cultural and religious diversity, human rights and education.

This volume examines the legal dimension of the ILO's action in the field of Child Labour. The authors investigate the implementation of the relevant legal instruments and assess the effectiveness of the ILO supervisory system. All relevant instruments are considered while particular attention is given to Convention 182 on the elimination of the worst forms of child labour. Child Labour in a Globalized World describes the ILO's activities concerning the eradication of child labour whilst assessing and evaluating the effectiveness of the relevant legal framework and functioning of the supervisory system. This book contextualizes the issue of the eradication of the worst forms of child labour in the recent doctrinal debate on the nature of labour standards and the transformation of the ILO. This important work will be a valuable resource for academics, researchers and policy-makers with an interest in labour law, international law, and children's rights.

There is a clear overlap between securing socio-economic human rights for all persons and arranging adequate access to essential public services across society. Both are necessary to realise thriving, inclusive societies, with adequate living standards for all, based on human dignity. This edited volume brings together the two topics for the first time. In particular, it identifies the common challenges for essential public services provision and socio-economic human rights realisation, and it explores how socio-economic rights law can be harnessed to reinforce better access to services. An important aim of this book is to understand how international socio-economic human rights law and guideposts can be used and strengthened to improve access to services, and assess socio-economic legal and policy decisions. The volume includes contributions from different continents, on a range of different services, and engages with the realities of different regulatory settings. After an introduction that sets out the most important challenges for universal access to services - including sufficient resources mobilisation, private actor involvement and regulation, or the need for improved checks and balances - the book goes on to discuss current issues in services provision and socio-economic rights, as well as explores the place and role of private business actors in the provision of services. In particular, it assesses how the responsibility and accountability of such actors for human rights can be improved . The final part of the book narrows in on the under-explored human rights concepts of 'participation' and 'accountability', as essential prerequisites for better 'checks and balances'. Overall, this volume presents a unique and powerful illustration of how socio-economic human rights law supports improved access to essential public services for all.

Article 6 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) provides that the EU will accede to the system of human rights protection of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Protocol No 9 in the Treaty of Lisbon opens the way for accession. This represents a major change in the relationship between two organisations that have co-operated closely in the past, though the ECHR has hitherto exercised only an indirect constitutional control over the EU legal order through scrutiny of EU Member States. The accession of the EU to the ECHR is expected to put an end to the informal dialogue, and allegedly also competition between the two regimes in Europe and to establish formal (both normative and institutional) hierarchies. In this new era, some old problems will be solved and new ones will appear. Questions of autonomy and independence, of attribution and allocation of responsibility, of co-operation, and legal pluralism will all arise, with consequences for the protection of human rights in Europe. This book seeks to understand how relations between the two organisations are likely to evolve after accession, and whether this new model will bring more coherence in European human rights protection. The book analyses from several different, yet interconnected, points of view and relevant practice the draft Accession Agreement, shedding light on future developments in the ECHR and beyond. Contributions in the book span classic public international law, EU law and the law of the ECHR, and are written by a mix of legal and non-legal experts from academia and practice.

Contemporary social life in the Horn of Africa is generally a state-orchestrated experience that terrorizes the majority of the people. This collection of carefully selected essays, explores the different aspects of the current crisis in the Horn region of Africa, where to marginalized indigenous groups the crisis materializes itself as social experiences of terror. The result is a far-reaching and important book which critically examines a state terror manifested in the violation of human rights, democracy, justice and freedom.

The European Convention on Human Rights is the most successful system for the enforcement of human rights in the world. However, to date its full potential for protecting children's rights has not been explored as attention has focused on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. This unique book provides the first analysis of the extensive case law of the Commission and the Court of Human Rights on all issues concerning children and their rights. This study is important as a study of the regional protection of children's rights and, moreover, the case law itself can be directly applied in the legal system of nearly every European country, including the UK. The book includes chapters on the rights of the child under the European Convention on Human Rights in relation to education, protection from abuse, the right to identity, child care, juvenile justice, health care and immigration and the family. It also explores the potential of the Strasbourg mechanism for the protection of children's rights and thus provides a practical and vital guide to the study and use of the European Convention in the broad area of children's rights.

Equality, Diversity and Opportunity Management presents a comprehensive analysis of the processes of governance, leadership, policy and strategy formulation, decision-making, practical and financial management, and real-world implementation of the Equality, Diversity, Opportunity, and Discrimination (or anti-Discrimination) Agenda. The leadership, cost, and management of the Agenda for Equality, Diversity, Opportunity, and Discrimination (or anti-Discrimination) is discussed in three mandatory areas: c Employment and the Workplace c Service Provision and customer service c Neighbourhood and Community Management The necessary choice of these three key areas of application reflects a typical focus of government policy, legislation, and case law for the UK, Europe, North America, Australia, New Zealand, and in many other countries that implement active Human Rights Agendas. You will find the book strongly orientated towards issues of corporate governance, personal and vicarious responsibility, leadership, cost management, implementation, and delivery. It deals directly, professionally, and in a non-opinionated manner with challenging (and sometimes unpopular or unwanted) issues of equality and inequality, diversity, a lack of opportunity or social mobility, and the widespread incidence of discrimination. The work suggests practical and realistic means to deal with such issues, whether at the level of corporate governance, leadership, policy and strategy, the incurring of unnecessary cost, or at the level of operational and departmental management procedure and process. Equality, Diversity and Opportunity Management is written at the same time from scholarly, objective, applied, proportionate, 'hands-on', and practitioner based perspectives.

There are approximately ten million Roma in Europe, making them the continent's largest non-territorial minority. Despite this fact, the Roma continue to experience routine discrimination and marginalization in European countries. As a result they are seldom engaged in national political activism and are frequently at the bottom of the economic and social ladder. The severity of exclusion experienced by the Roma in societies which have long paid heed to the notion of individual, universal human rights - combined with their geographical dispersal and heterogeneous nature - makes the study of the Roma highly informative. This book examines the theoretical debate concerning the most appropriate way of protecting the fundamental human rights of the Roma, which also illuminates ways in which the rights of minority groups can be protected more generally. As a result, this work will be a valuable resource for social scientists and practitioners in the field of human rights.

This book focuses on the Statute of the International Criminal Court, gathering contributions by leading scholars and diplomats. It examines the main features of the Statute, highlighting its strengths and weaknesses, the role of the ICC in the international protection of human rights and the impact of the ICC Statute on the international criminal justice system. It also offers an evaluation of the prospect for the functioning of the ICC in the future.

The end of the last century witnessed two major events in the field of civil justice: the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) came into force and the Human Rights Act (HRA) gave effect to the European Convention on Human Rights. This volume assesses the effect of the Act and attempts to reconcile the expediency and efficiency essential to modern civil justice with the need for recognition of human dignity and equality inherent to human rights. The book is primarily concerned with the effects of the HRA on civil procedure and, in particular, the effects on the CPR. It examines the view that the new civil procedure regime could be susceptible to HRA challenges. More specifically, the work discusses whether there are differences between the CPR and the ECHR ideas of what constitutes a fair trial or just decision and between their views of proportionality. The study notes the differences between common and civil law and discusses whether there is any coming together with other European systems. This book will be a valuable resource for academics and researchers as well as lawyers and judges with an interest in the practical implications of the HRA.

Are pregnant women entitled to the same rights of self-determination and bodily integrity as other adults? This is the fundamental question underlying recent high-profile legal interventions in situations when pregnant women and healthcare staff do not agree on management options or appropriate behaviour. Courts on both sides of the Atlantic have sometimes answered that they are not, and the law has at times been manipulated to enforce compliance with medical recommendations. This is the first book of its kind to offer a comprehensive assessment of healthcare law as applied to the unique situation of pregnancy. Drawing on case material from both the UK and the USA, it describes the trend towards 'policing pregnancy' and explores the emergence of the concept of 'maternal-foetal conflict' - and why, in the author's view, this would be more appropriately labelled 'obstetric conflict'. Suggestions are made for alternative approaches that better safeguard the overall well-being of pregnant women and their future children.

The centrality of international migration as a process articulating major transformations of contemporary societies offers an opportunity to make it the shared component of the theoretical and research agendas of the social science disciplines. In this volume a multidisciplinary team of authors presents a stocktaking account of current research on international migration in order to lay the ground for such an interdisciplinary collaboration. The first part of the book scrutinizes the theoretical concepts and interpretative frameworks that inform migration research and their impact on empirical studies in selected disciplines. The next two sections examine the epistemological premises underlying migration research in different fields of the social sciences and the challenges of 'informed translations' between these approaches. The final section considers the interdependency between the academic study of migration and the social and political contexts in which it is embedded. The book invites researchers to address the challenges raised by the empowerment of migration research, offering ways of communicating across different specializations and guiding readers towards a meaningful interdisciplinarity.

Recent scandals involving the use of human body parts have highlighted the need for legal clarification surrounding property law and the use of human tissue. This book advances the notion that the legal basis for dealing with this is already available in the law but has thus far neither been used nor discussed. Proposing an alternative approach to constructing entitlements in human tissue and resolving resulting property conflicts, a new methodology is also advanced for abstracting different concepts within the debate which enables comparison and distinction between different cases of entitlement and retention.

One major dilemma regarding US foreign policy is when and how the US should address human rights around the globe and what responsibility exists for the US to promote human rights in the countries that receive US aid. Does US policy for foreign assistance really address human rights or is it merely another instrument in the US foreign policy toolbox? This insightful book addresses several key themes and questions revolving around the complex nature of US foreign policy and human rights. It examines US foreign policy and human rights, as well as the evolution of US assistance, and includes empirical evidence and case studies of Plan Colombia, Turkey and the war on terror, India and Pakistan. It closes with a look at the future of foreign aid.

Regional inter-governmental human rights organizations have been in operation for sometime in Europe, the Americas and Africa. These regional human rights mechanisms have proven to be useful and effective in comparison to the global human rights mechanisms available at the United Nations. The purpose of this study, first published in 2004, is to investigate the possibility of establishing a regional inter-governmental human rights mechanism in East Asia, with a focus on the contributions of nongovernmental organizations' (NGOs) to such a development.

This book makes a significant contribution to the on-going international dialogue on the meaning of concepts such as human rights, humanity, and cosmopolitanism. The authors propose a new agenda for research into a Critical Theory of Human Rights. Each chapter pursues three goals: to reconstruct modern philosophical theories that have contributed to our views on human rights; to highlight the importance of humanity and human dignity as a complementary dimension to liberal rights; and, finally, to integrate these issues more directly in contemporary discussions about cosmopolitanism. The authors not only present multicultural perspectives on how to rethink political and international theory in terms of the normativity of human rights, but also promote an international dialogue on the prospects for a critical theory of human rights discourses in the 21st century.

Absolute poverty causes about one third of all human deaths, some 18 million annually, and blights billions of lives with hunger and disease. Developing universalizable norms aimed at tackling absolute poverty and the complex and multilayered problems associated with it, this book considers the levels, trends and determinants of absolute poverty and global inequality. Examining whether much faster progress against absolute poverty is possible through reductions in national and global inequalities that produce economic growth for poor countries and households, this book suggests that diverse moral views imply that international agencies as well as the citizens, corporations and governments of affluent countries bear a moral responsibility to reduce absolute poverty. In considering strategies of eradication through specific policies and structural reforms it is argued that because of its moral importance and requirement for only modest efforts and resources, the goal of overcoming absolute poverty must be given much higher political priority by international agencies and governments of affluent countries. Suggesting that these agencies should be encouraged to facilitate and promote new initiatives, this book concludes with a discussion of how such initiatives might be realized.

An innovative study that examines how peaceful, domestic tactics by individual human rights activists and organizational activists, with public support, can force an authoritarian regime to make key concessions. Robert Press explores the creation and impact of a culture of resistance. He examines how domestic pressure can be more important than foreign pressure for political reform, especially in underdeveloped, authoritarian states. This study of contemporary Kenya fills a gap in traditional social movement theory to show how a resistance movement actually starts. Contrary to long-dominant theory, the book shows how the initiative for such a movement can come from activists themselves in the face of severe obstacles in society. With its unique findings on the effects of individual activism and peaceful resistance, this book will attract a broad audience in the study and practice of international relations, comparative politics, sociology, interest groups, peace and conflict, and human rights.

Sudan has been undergoing profound changes characterized by an uncertain transition from conflict to post-conflict society and the separation of the country in the midst of ongoing human rights concerns. This book examines the nature, policy aspects and interrelationship of Sudanese criminal law and law reform in this context, situating developments in the broader debate of international human rights, rule of law and transitional justice. For the first time, Sudanese, national, regional and international experts and practitioners are brought together to share experiences, combining a range of legal and policy perspectives. The book provides valuable lessons on how relevant standards and experiences can be used to inform criminal law reform in Sudan. It also considers what broader lessons can be drawn for reform initiatives in other societies facing similar challenges. This includes the type of violations that need to be addressed in reforms as a prerequisite for enhanced human rights protection, challenges experienced in this regard, and the contribution of civil society in this process.