How human rights principles, like the right to gender identity, freedom, integrity and equality, respond to the concerns of different groups of adults and children who experience gender harm due to the binary conception of sexuality and gender identity is the overall theme of this book. The Yogyakarta Principles on the Application of International Human Rights Law in Relation to Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity are analysed in the light of the dynamic jurisprudence of different human rights treaty bodies. Whether and how the status quo of gender duality is reproduced, in spite of international law's growing recognition of the multiplicity of sexualities and gender identities, is discussed. How transgender men, in countries that permit legal gender change, have been successfully prosecuted for gender fraud by female partners claiming to be unaware of their gender history is given attention. While human rights discourse related to LGBTI persons so far has been moulded on the experiences of adults this book gives voice to the concerns of gender-non confirming children. The jurisprudence of the Child Rights Committee, with focus on the complex social and legal issues faced by gender non-confirming children, is addressed. Through narratives, that give voice to these children's experiences, the book demonstrates how the legal gender assigned at birth impacts on their feeling of recognition, self-confidence and self-respect in the private, social, and legal spheres. This book was previously published as a special issue of the Nordic Journal of Human Rights.

This book examines an interesting and relatively understudied area of the evolution of the international rule of law and the role of professional ethics. The rule of law has been gradually developed and promoted at the national level over centuries, however at the international level it has only recently received (more in rhetoric than in implementation) support from a macro perspective - developments of international rules and institutions, and from a micro perspective - ethical codes, independence and un-bias of professionals, working in international organizations and tribunals. The book offers analysis and recommends policies to strengthen the rule of law at international level to meet a major global governance demand in ensuring equity, justice, stability and consistency in international affairs.

In many criminal justice systems a new trend towards incapacitation can be witnessed. A ubiquitous want for control seems to have emerged as a consequence of perceived safety risks. This can be seen not only in the mass incarceration of offenders but also in the disqualification of offenders from jobs, in chemical castration in cases of sexual crimes, the increased use of electronic monitoring and in the life-long monitoring of individuals who pose certain risks. Trends towards incapacitation are now even spreading to public administration and the employment sector, in the refusal of licenses and the rejection of employees with past criminal records. This book discusses the topic of incapacitation from various angles and perspectives. It explores how theories of punishment are affected by the more recent emphasis on incapacitation and how criminal justice practice is changing as a consequence of this new emphasis. Many contributors express criticisms with this trend towards incapacitation. They argue for a better calibration of measures to the severity of the misconduct. In addressing an increasingly important development in criminal justice, the book will be an essential resource for students, researchers, and policy-makers working in the areas of criminal law, sentencing, probation and crime prevention.

This book on habeas corpus throughout the Commonwealth explores the theme of the fortunes of the writ and the conditions under which it has either flourished or waned. Drawing upon a wide range of commonwealth authorities, and including materials from the colonial period as well as from ex-Commonwealth or ex-empire states, this volume considers the diffusion of the writ, the myths surrounding it, and the uses to which the writ has been put which distinguish the remedy from the English experience. The reach of the writ in time and space is considered especially in multi-jurisdictional and federal legal systems, as well as the availability of habeas corpus in non-custodial situations such as bail, house arrest, parole and probation. Given the ubiquity of emergencies and military government for long periods in several jurisdictions, the fate of the writ under conditions of martial law and emergency rule is also considered. The constitutional status of the writ and the expansion of the role of the writ in states with a bill of rights is shown to have both enlivened the jurisprudence on the writ and expanded the ambit of habeas corpus review. Finally, a neglected aspect of the writ as used against detentions ordered by Parliament is discussed in the final chapter, where it is shown that the reach of review is far wider in a number of commonwealth jurisdictions than in England itself. No previous collection of essays or monograph has attempted to explore the writ against a Commonwealth-wide canvas and the differences in the role and use of the writ that emerge are a counterpoint to established thinking about the writ in England and some older commonwealth jurisdictions. While no policy prescriptions are presented, the ideas and arguments discussed in the book should prove to be an inspiration for lawyers and legislators in different parts of the Commonwealth.

This book examines the international, regional and domestic human rights frameworks that establish victim rights as a central force in law and policy in the twenty-first century. Accessing substantial source material that sets out a normative framework of victim rights, this work argues that despite degrees of convergence, victim rights are interpreted on the domestic level, in accordance with the localised interests of victims and individual states. The transition of the victim from peripheral to central stakeholder of justice is demonstrated across various adversarial, inquisitorial and hybrid systems in an international context. Examining the standing of victims globally, this book provides a comparative analysis of the role of the victim in the International Criminal Court, the ad hoc tribunals leading to the development of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, together with the Extraordinary Chambers of the Courts of Cambodia, Special Panels of East Timor (Timor Leste), and the Internationalised Panels in Kosovo. The instruments of the European Parliament and Council of Europe, with the rulings of the European Court of Justice, and the European Court of Human Rights, interpreting the European Convention of Human Rights, are examined. These instruments are further contextualised on the local, domestic level of the inquisitorial systems of Germany and France, and mixed systems of Sweden, Austria and the Netherlands, together with common law systems including, England and Wales, Ireland, Scotland, USA, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, India, South Africa, and the hybrid systems of Japan and Brazil. This book organises the authoritative instruments while advancing debate over the positioning of the victim in law and policy, as influenced by global trends in criminal justice, and will be of great interest to scholars of international law, criminal law, victimology and socio-legal studies.

The responsibility to protect ('R2P') principle articulates the obligations of the international community to prevent conflict occurring, to intervene in conflicts, and to assist in rebuilding after conflicts. The doctrine is about protecting civilians in armed conflicts from four mass atrocity crimes: genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing. This book examines interventions in East Timor, Sri Lanka, Sudan and Kosovo. The chapters explore and question UN debates with respect to the doctrine both before and after its adoption in 2005; contrasting state attitudes to international military intervention; and what takes place after intervention. It also discusses the ability of the Security Council to access reliable information and credible and transparent processes to enable it to make a determination on the occurrence of atrocities in a Member State. Questioning whether there is a need to find a closer operational link between the responsibilities to prevent and react and a normative link between R2P and principles of international law, the contributions examine the effectiveness of the framework of R2P for international decision-making in response to mass atrocity crimes and ask how an international system to deal with threats and mass atrocities can be developed in the absence of a central authority. This book will be valuable to those interested in international law, human rights, and security, peace and conflict studies.

David Bonner presents an historical and contemporary legal analysis of UK governmental use of executive measures, rather than criminal process, to deal with national security threats. The work examines measures of internment, deportation and restriction on movement deployed in the UK and (along with the imposition of collective punishment) also in three emergencies forming part of its withdrawal from colonial empire: Cyprus, Kenya and Malaya. These situations, along with that of Northern Ireland, are used to probe the strengths and weaknesses of ECHR supervision. It is argued that a new human rights era ushered in by a more confident Court of Human Rights and a more confident national judiciary armed with the HRA 1998, has moved us towards greater judicial scrutiny of the application of these measures - a move away from unfettered and unreviewable executive discretion.

The digital age began in 1939 with the construction of the first digital computer. In the sixty-five years that have followed, the influence of digitisation on our everyday lives has grown steadily and today digital technology has a greater influence on our lives than at any time since its development. This book examines the role played by digital technology in both the exercise and suppression of human rights. The global digital environment has allowed us to reinterpret the concept of universal human rights. Discourse on human rights need no longer be limited by national or cultural boundaries and individuals have the ability to create new forms in which to exercise their rights or even to bypass national limitations to rights. The defence of such rights is meanwhile under constant assault by the newfound ability of states to both suppress and control individual rights through the application of these same digital technologies. This book gathers together an international group of experts working within this rapidly developing area of law and technology and focuses their attantion on the specific interaction between human rights and digital technology. This is the first work to explore the challenges brought about by digital technology to fundamental freedoms such as privacy, freedom of expression, access, assembly and dignity. It is essential reading for anyone who fears digital technology will lead to the 'Big Brother' state.

Set adjacent to "victims" and "bystanders," "perpetrators" are by no means marginalized figures in human rights scholarship. Nevertheless, the extent to which the perpetrator is not only socially imagined but also sociologically constructed remains a central concern in studies of state-authorized mass violence. This interdisciplinary collection of essays builds upon such work by strategically interrogating the terms through which such a figure is read via law, society, and culture. Of particular concern to the contributors to this volume are the ways in which notions of "violation" and "culpability" are mediated through less direct, convoluted frames of corporatization, globalization, militarized humanitarianism, post-conflict truth and justice processes, and postcoloniality. The chapters variously give scrutiny to historical memory (who can voice it, when and in what registers), question legalism's dominance within human rights, and analyse the story-telling values invested in the figure of the perpetrator. Against the common tendency to view perpetrators as either monsters or puppets - driven by evil or controlled by others - the chapters in this book are united by the themes of truth's contingency and complex imaginings of perpetrators. Even as the truth that emerges from perpetrator testimony may depend on who is listening, with what attitude and in what institutional context, the book's chapters also affirm that listening to perpetrators may be every bit as productive of human rights insights as it has been to listen to survivors and witnesses. This book was previously published as a special issue of the International Journal of Human Rights.

As globalization continues to spread and evolve, so nation-states attempt to govern financialization, tax evasion, corruption, terrorism, civil and military conflicts and environmental dangers, social polarization and the complexities in human rights implementation, by institutional and transnational means. This volume discusses these issues from different legal perspectives and highlights the challenges of governing human activity in an age of remarkable interconnectedness. Covering a broad range of policy areas and analysis of emerging forms of governance from liberal to critical and Marxist, the chapters are legal in their approach and form an important contribution to the growing study of emergent forms of authority, coordination and power developing in response to the challenges presented by some of the key contemporary governance issues in the first half of the twenty-first century.

Combining feminist legal theory with international human rights concepts, this book examines the presence, participation and treatment of children in a variety of contexts. Specifically, through comparing legal developments in the US with legal developments in countries where the views that children are separate from their families and potentially in need of state protection are more widely accepted. The authors address the role of religion in shaping attitudes about parental rights in the US, with particular emphasis upon the fundamentalist belief in natural lines of familial authority. Such beliefs have provoked powerful resistance in the US to human rights approaches that view the child as an independent rights holder and the state as obligated to proved services and protections that are distinctly child-centred. Calling for a rebalancing of relationships within the US family, to become more consistent with emerging human rights norms, this collection contains both theoretical debates about and practical approaches to granting positive rights to children.

Business and human rights has emerged as a distinct field within the corporate governance movement. The endorsement by the United Nations Human Rights Council of a new set of Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights in 2011 reinforces the State's duty to protect against human rights abuses by third parties, including business; the corporate responsibility to respect human rights; and greater access by victims to effective remedy, both judicial and non-judicial. This book draws on the UN Guiding Principles and recent national plans of action, to provide an overview of relevant developments within the ASEAN region. Bridging theory and practice, the editors have positioned this book at the intersection of human rights risk and its regulation. Chapter authors discuss the implications of key case-studies undertaken across the region and various sectors, with a particular focus on extractive industries, the environment, and infrastructure projects. Topics covered include: due diligence and the role of audits; businesses' responsibilities to women and children; and the mitigation of human rights risks in the region's emerging markets. The book sheds light on how stakeholders currently approach business and human rights, and explores how the role of ASEAN States, and that of the institution itself, may be strengthened. In doing so, the book identifies critical challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for the region in relation to business and human rights. This book will be of excellent use and interest to scholars, practitioners and students of human rights, business and company law, international law, and corporate governance.

In 1990, after the end of the Pinochet regime, the newly-elected democratic government of Chile established a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) to investigate and report on some of the worst human rights violations committed under the seventeen-year military dictatorship. The Chilean TRC was one of the first truth commissions established in the world. This book examines whether and how the work of the Chilean TRC contributed to the transition to democracy in Chile and to subsequent developments in accountability and transformation in that country. The book takes a long term view on the Chilean TRC asking to what extent and how the truth commission contributed to the development of the transitional justice measures that ensued, and how the relationship with those subsequent developments was established over time.It argues that, contrary to the views and expectations of those who considered that the Chilean TRC was of limited success, that the Chilean TRC has, in fact, over the longer term, played a key role as an enabler of justice and a means by which ethical and institutional transformation has occurred within Chile. With the benefit of this historical perspective, the book concludes that the impact of truth commissions in general needs to be carefully reviewed in light of the Chilean experience. This book will be of great interest and use to students and scholars of conflict resolution, criminal international law, and comparative legal systems in Latin America.

The Aboriginal Tent Embassy was established in Canberra in January 1972, when four Aboriginal activists drove from Sydney to Canberra, planted a beach umbrella on the lawns across the road from the Commonwealth Parliament House, and called it an Embassy. They were responding to a speech by conservative Prime Minister William McMahon in which he rejected Aboriginal land rights and reaffirmed the government's commitment to a policy of assimilation. The protestors declared that McMahon's statement effectively relegated indigenous people to the status of 'aliens in our own land', thus as aliens 'we would have an embassy of our own'. The brilliant idea of pitching a Tent Embassy hijacked all the symbolic 'national significance' attached to this small patch of grass by the Australian state and media, and put it to work for radically different purposes. It enacted the kind of land rights that the activists were seeking, and it did so in a way that also drew attention to the living conditions of so many Aboriginal people across Australia. On its twentieth anniversary, the Embassy was permanently established, as part of an on-going struggle for recognition of Aboriginal land rights and sovereignty. It remains today, and celebrates its fortieth anniversary in 2012. This book draws together contributions from an interdisciplinary group of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal scholar, some of whom were participants in the events that they write about, to examine the social, historical and political significance of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy for Australian society and for the struggle for indigenous rights internationally.

Human rights, peacekeeping, and humanitarian intervention have emerged in the past decades as important components of international law and practice. Adopting a methodology of Institutional Ethnography informed by Actor-Network Theory, this book traces the practices of law and expertise from global IGO headquarters to the 'field' and back again, and through various contemporary field missions from Bosnia to Afghanistan and East Timor to Sierra Leone. It answers several fundamental questions: How is human rights law engaged in 'establishing the peace,' 'rebuilding the nation,' and 'restoring the rule of law' in post-conflict situations? How do human rights experts use law in their everyday work in the context of humanitarian intervention? How are law and expertise established, sustained and transformed in the field? Offering a complex and nuanced explanation of humanitarian intervention based upon a multi-dimensional understanding of law and power, this book will be of interest and use to scholars, students and practitioners in international law and policy, human rights, and humanitarian intervention. Its cross-disciplinary approach should also appeal to the professional communities engaged directly and indirectly with projects of humanitarian intervention - including staff at inter-governmental organizations, international lawyers and practitioners, and activists.

The child asylum seeker poses unique challenges for reception and refugee status determination systems, not least because the child is entitled to have his or her rights as a child respected as a matter of international and regional human rights law. In the last decade the European Union has increasingly engaged with children's rights, with the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty in December 2009, and a new Article 3(3) of the Treaty on European Union that commits the Union to promoting the 'protection of the rights of the child.' This book addresses the question of whether the Common European Asylum System (CEAS) complies with the rights of the child. It contrasts the normative standards of international child rights law with the treatment of child asylum seekers and refugees in the CEAS. Ciara Smyth identifies the attributes of the rights of the child that are most relevant to the asylum context and systematically examines whether and to what extent those attributes are reflected in the CEAS legislation. The book goes on to assess whether the CEAS instruments direct Member States to comply with the rights of the child, offering a comprehensive examination of the place of the child within European asylum law and policy. The book will be of great use and interest to scholars and students of international law, immigration and children's rights studies.

International humanitarian law is the law that governs the conduct of participants during armed conflict. This branch of law aims to regulate the means and methods of warfare as well as to provide protections to those who do not, or who no longer, take part in the hostilities. It is one of the oldest branches of international law and one of enduring relevance today. The Oxford Guide to International Humanitarian Law provides a practical yet sophisticated overview of this important area of law. Written by a stellar line up of contributors, drawn from those who not only have extensive practical experience but who are also regarded as leading scholars of the subject, the text offers a comprehensive and authoritative exposition of the field. The Guide provides professionals and advanced students with information and analysis of sufficient depth to enable them to perform their tasks with understanding and confidence. Each chapter illuminates how the law applies in practice, but does not shy away from the important conceptual issues that underpin how the law has developed. It will serve as a first port of call and a regular reference work for those interested in international humanitarian law.

A new human right of public participation by those affected by natural resource development is set to define major economic developments in the twenty-first century. It is a fundamental part of the international norm of 'sustainable development', designed to harmonize economic betterment and environmental-cultural-social protection for this and succeeding generations. This book, authored by world experts in international resources law, provides the theoretical and practical guidance essential to understanding and dealing with this new development.

Today human rights represent a primary concern of the international legal system. The international community's commitment to the protection and promotion of human rights, however, does not always produce the results hoped for by the advocates of a more justice-oriented system of international law. Indeed international law is often criticised for, inter alia, its enduring imperial character, incapacity to minimize inequalities and failure to take human suffering seriously. Against this background, the central question that this book aims to answer is whether the adoption of the 2007 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples points to the existence of an international law that promises to provide valid responses to the demands for justice of disempowered and vulnerable groups. At one level, the book assesses whether international law has responded fairly and adequately to the human rights claims of indigenous peoples. At another level, it explores the relationship between this response and some distinctive features of the indigenous peoples' struggle for justice, reflecting on the extent to which the latter have influenced and shaped the former. The book draws important conclusions as to the reasons behind international law's positive recognition of indigenous peoples' rights, shedding some light on the potential and limits of international law as an instrument of justice. The book will be of great interest to students and scholars of public international law, human rights and social movements.

This book addresses the legal issues raised by the interaction between human rights and development in contemporary international law. In particular, it charts the parameters of international law that states have to take into account in order to protect human rights in the process of development. In doing so, it departs from traditional analyses, where human rights are mainly considered as a political dimension of development. Rather, the book suggests focusing on human rights as a system of international norms establishing minimum standards of protection of individuals and minimum standards applicable in all circumstances on what is essential for a dignified existence. The various dimensions covered in the book include: the discourse on human rights and development interrelationship, particularly opinio juris and the practice of states on the question; the notion of international assistance and cooperation in human rights law, under legal regimes such as international humanitarian law, and emerging rules in the area of protection of persons in the event of disasters; the extraterritorial scope of economic, social and cultural rights treaties; and legal principles on the respect for human rights in externally designed and planned development activities. Analysis of these topics sheds light on the question of whether international law as it stands today addresses most of the issues concerning the protection of human rights in the development process.

This book discusses the manner in which Britain's wars, which took place between 2000 and 2015, have interacted with the relevant principles of international law and English law for the purpose, primarily, of considering legal accountability. During a debate in the House of Lords in 2005 a former Chief of the Defence Staff commented that 'the Armed Forces are under legal siege.' The book will discuss the major legal issues which have arisen, ranging from the various votes in Parliament to go to war, the constitutional relationship between ministers and senior commanders, the right under international law to use force, the influence of human rights law, the role of the courts in England (including the coroners' courts), to the legal regime applying to the conduct of UK military operations. It will assess critically whether the armed forces will now have to accept that operations conducted outside the UK are subject to greater legal scrutiny than previously and whether, if this is the case, it is likely to hinder their future military activities. This book will be of great interest to scholars of international law, the law of armed conflict, military studies and international relations, as well as to those with a professional or other interest in the subject matter.

This book explores the role human rights law plays in the formation, and protection, of our personal identities. Drawing from a range of disciplines, Jill Marshall examines how human rights law includes and excludes specific types of identity, which feed into moral norms of human freedom and human dignity and their translation into legal rights. The book takes on a three part structure. Part I traces the definition of identity, and follows the evolution of, and protects, a right to personal identity and personality within human rights law. It specifically examines the development of a right to personal identity as property, the inter-subjective nature of identity, and the intercession of power and inequality. Part II evaluates past and contemporary attempts to describe the core of personal identity, including theories concerning the soul, the rational mind, and the growing influence of neuroscience and genetics in explaining what it means to be human. It also explores the inter-relation and conflict between universal principles and culturally specific rights. Part III focuses on issues and case law that can be interpreted as allowing self-determination. Marshall argues that while in an age of individual identity, people are increasingly obliged to live in conformed ways, pushing out identities that do not fit with what is acceptable. Drawing on feminist theory, the book concludes by arguing how human rights law would be better interpreted as a force to enable respect for human dignity and freedom, interpreted as empowerment and self-determination whilst acknowledging our inter-subjective identities. In drawing on socio-legal, philosophical, biological and feminist outlooks, this book is truly interdisciplinary, and will be of great interest and use to scholars and students of human rights law, legal and social theory, gender and cultural studies.

This volume looks at human rights in independent India through frameworks comparable to those in other postcolonial nations in the Global South. It examines wide-ranging issues that require immediate attention such as those related to disability, violence, torture, education, LGBT, neoliberalism, and social justice. The essays presented here explore the discourse surrounding human rights, and engage with aspects linked to the functioning of democracy, security and strategic matters, and terrorism, especially post 9/11. They also discuss cases connected with human rights violations in India and underline the need for a transparent approach and a more comprehensive perspective of India's human rights record. Part of the series Ethics, Human Rights and Global Political Thought, the volume will be an important resource for academics, policy makers, civil society organisations, lawyers and those concerned with human rights. It will also be useful to scholars and researchers of Indian politics, law and sociology.

The dominant approach to economic policy has so far failed to adequately address the pressing challenges the world faces today: extreme poverty, widespread joblessness and precarious employment, burgeoning inequality, and large-scale environmental threats. This message was brought home forcibly by the 2008 global economic crisis. Rethinking Economic Policy for Social Justice shows how human rights have the potential to transform economic thinking and policy-making with far-reaching consequences for social justice. The authors make the case for a new normative and analytical framework, based on a broader range of objectives which have the potential to increase the substantive freedoms and choices people enjoy in the course of their lives and not on not upon narrow goals such as the growth of gross domestic product. The book covers a range of issues including inequality, fiscal and monetary policy, international development assistance, financial markets, globalization, and economic instability. This new approach allows for a complex interaction between individual rights, collective rights and collective action, as well as encompassing a legal framework which offers formal mechanisms through which unjust policy can be protested. This highly original and accessible book will be essential reading for human rights advocates, economists, policy-makers and those working on questions of social justice.

There is ample evidence about the negative effects business activity of all types can have on the provision of human rights. Equally, there can be little doubt economic development, usually driven through business activity and trade, is necessary for any state to provide the institutions and infrastructure necessary to secure and provide human rights for their citizens. The United Nations and businesses recognise this tension and are collaborating to effect change in business behaviours through voluntary initiatives such as the Global Compact and John Ruggie's Guiding Principles. Yet voluntary approaches are evidently failing to prevent human rights violations and there are few alternatives in law for affected communities to seek justice. This book seeks to robustly challenge the current status quo of business approaches to human rights in order to develop meaningful alternatives in an attempt to breech the gap between the realities of business and human rights and its discourse. This book was previously published as a special issue of the International Journal of Human Rights.