Tag: Human rights

A Fresh Reflection on COP 16 and the Convention on Biological Diversity

Posted on by foluke.adebisi

by Professor Margherita Pieraccini, Professor of Law at the University of Bristol Law School

As 2024 is drawing to a close, Conferences of the Parties (COPs) of three major Multilateral Environmental Agreements are happening in close succession: COP 16 of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was held between end of October and the beginning of November, COP 29 of the UN Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is happening in mid-November, and COP 16 of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification will take place in early December. Although exploring the synergies between these three COPs is of great importance and their close temporal proximity this year facilitates such discussion, I will focus solely on the CBD COP 16 as I had the opportunity to attend it in person as a University of Bristol academic observer. (more…)

Public International Law and the Public Good

Posted on by foluke.adebisi

By Dr Lee McConnell, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Bristol Law School

Notions of the ‘public good’ or ‘public interest’ are found in many areas of legal doctrine and discourse. At the international level, references to such ideals are perhaps most common in the context of human rights, but they are also present in many other subfields of international law. The UN Charter commits itself to the promotion of ‘social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom’, and to the ‘economic and social advancement of all peoples’. In the domain of State responsibility, erga omnes norms are said to be owed to ‘the international community as a whole’ (Barcelona Traction at [33]). The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea designates areas of the seabed and ocean floor as ‘the common heritage of mankind’ (Art 126 and preamble). The Outer Space Treaty provides that space exploration ‘shall be carried out for the benefit and in the interests of all countries’ (Art 1). The GATT/WTO agreements recognise that trade relations should be ‘conducted with a view to raising standards of living, ensuring full employment and a large and steadily growing volume of real income’ worldwide (Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization, preamble). As this brief survey demonstrates, international law is a field that ‘tells a story of its own progressive development, and of its prominent role in the betterment of others’ (Sinclair, 2017: 2) It is a field which portrays itself as playing a substantial role in responding to global concerns, and as possessing ‘an immanent progressive value for the world, for civilization, for humanity’ (Skouretis, 2011: 6). (more…)

The weaponisation of women’s right to health in Iran and the compulsory hijab Part II: The Hijab and Chastity Bill

Posted on by foluke.adebisi

by Gelara Fanaeian, the Law School, University of Bristol

This blog post is the second part of a two-part review of the Hijab and Chastity Bill. In the first section, the fundamental elements of the Hijab and Chastity Bill, the UN’s approach toward it, the legal and political background that led to its establishment, and its effect on women’s right to health were discussed. In this section, Iran’s obligation to international human rights law and the role of the international community will be analysed briefly.

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The weaponisation of women’s right to health in Iran and the compulsory hijab Part I: The Hijab and Chastity Bill

Posted on by foluke.adebisi

by Gelara Fanaeian, the Law School, University of Bristol

In July 2023, the Iranian parliament started the process of new legislation and harsher laws for women who fail to follow compulsory hijab laws. The outcome was the Hijab and Chastity Bill: a draft law consisting of 70 articles. MPs relied on Article 85 of Iran’s constitution to review bills without public debate. According to UN experts, “The draft law could be described as a form of gender apartheid. The bill violates fundamental rights, including the right to take part in cultural life, the prohibition of gender discrimination, the right to access social, educational, and health services, and freedom of movement.” Less than one month after the UN warning, a majority of the Iranian parliament voted to pass the bill for a 3-year trial. This article will highlight the impact of the bill on one aspect of women’s rights: the right to health. Before going deeply into this discussion, one fundamental question needs to be answered: Why has the Iranian parliament decided to approve the bill? (more…)

Can The UK Be Held Accountable for Breaches of the Human Rights of Asylum-Seekers Transferred to Rwanda?

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by Kathryn Allinson, University of Bristol Law School

On 14 April 2022, the UK and the Rwandan governments signed an MoU outlining plans for transferring asylum seekers from the UK to Rwanda. The MoU has been subject to much criticism from academics, NGOs and the UNHCR. Criticism has focussed, first, on the attempts by the UK to divest itself of responsibility for asylum seekers. Second, it has highlighted the potential for further abuses of refugee and human rights law to occur against transferred individuals in Rwanda. The MoU is the latest in a range of mechanisms whereby States in the Global North attempt to externalise their borders and shift responsibility for refugees onto Global South states. (more…)

Tackling Terrorism in Britain: What are the Threats, Responses, and Challenges Twenty Years After 9/11?

Posted on by foluke.adebisi

by Steven Greer, Professor of Human Rights, University of Bristol Law School

Introduction

Twenty years ago the world witnessed the horrific events of 9/11. A great deal has happened on the counterterrorist front since. For one thing, the term ‘war on terror’, which never had any official traction in the UK anyway, has all but disappeared from the serious debate. Nevertheless, the threat of terrorism, and the struggle against it, persist around the globe. The UK is no stranger to either, at home or abroad. In fact, taking various forms and manifesting in several phases, the British experience has spanned at least a century and a half rather than simply the past two decades. Today, three distinct types of domestic terrorism – dissident Irish republican, far right, and particularly jihadi – predominate. A suite of counterterrorist laws and policies has been deployed to address the challenges they present.  (more…)

How does the UK promote migration whilst preserving the hostile environment? Inequality in the implementation of the Global Compact on Migration

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by Kathryn Allinson, University of Bristol, and Clara Della Croce, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).

Photo: David Mirzoeff/Global Justice Now

Introduction

The UK has adopted the Marrakesh Compact and agreed to implement the objectives which it sets out (see paragraph 41 of the Marrakesh Compact). The UK Government has repeatedly claimed that national policy is not in conflict with the Marrakesh Compact. Alistair Burt’s, Minister for the Middle East, written statement to Parliament on 10 December 2018 acknowledges that the UK is bound by existing human rights obligations, that these rights are owed specifically to migrants and that UK polices are in line with them. More recently, the UK’s 2020 report to the European Regional Review of the Marrakesh Compact, outlined that ‘the GCM is fully integrated into the UK policy architecture… GCM principles are reflected in wider UK migration policy and maintains senior official/ministerial focus on the GCM.’ The UK government consistently claims that UK policy is in line with the obligations in the Marrakesh Compact and that these are in accordance with international legal obligations owed to migrants. (more…)

The Views of the Human Rights Committee in A.S., D.I., O.I. and G.D. v Italy and the Right to Life at Sea

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by Professor Sir Malcolm Evans & Dr Sofia Galani (University of Bristol)

On 22 April 2021, the University of Bristol Law School hosted a closed meeting on the findings of the Human Rights Committee in A.S., D.I., O.I. and G.D. v Italy. The hosts of the event, Professor Sir Malcolm Evans and Dr Sofia Galani, welcomed academic experts on international human rights law and the law of the sea from UK, European and Australian institutions who reflected on the findings of the Human Rights Committee (the Committee) and discussed the potential impact of its findings on the future of human rights protection at sea. The facts of the complaint, the views of the Committee as well as the dissenting opinions are of great interest and are well worth being read in full. Here, we will only summarise some key points with a view to highlighting the significance of the decision and providing some background into the discussions. (more…)

Stop Period Shaming: A Campus Movement or Ethical Care?

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Prof. Xinyu Wang (China University of Political Science and Law) and He Xiao (a law PhD student at the University of Bristol)

Photo Marco Verch

Since October 2020, a “Stop Period Shaming” campaign has been quietly taking place within universities in China. It all started in early 2020, during China’s fight against the COVID-19, with various socially sponsored donations of medical supplies and an extreme shortage of feminine period products. The female doctors and nurses, who made up more than half of the medical team that went to Wuhan, overcame their cycles’ fragility and fought like the male doctors. (more…)

Global resource governance and IEL: can human rights advance social justice? (IEL Collective Symposium II)

Posted on by lee.mcconnell

By Dr Lorenzo Cotula, Principal Researcher at the International Institute for Environment and Development; Honorary Professor at the University of Strathclyde.

As our demand for material goods drives natural resource extraction, the law reconfigures control over resources to facilitate the production of tradable commodities. Faced with profound social transformations, indigenous and agrarian movements have mobilised human rights to reclaim land, resources and development pathways. This recourse to rights provides distinctive insights on the place of human rights in social justice struggles.

Resource control and international economic law (IEL)

The growing levels and expectations of material consumption in the rich world rest on the large-scale production of commodities for food, energy and raw materials. The correlative expansion and intensification of natural resource extraction has historically involved large-scale mining, petroleum, logging and agribusiness developments, but also more indirect forms of resource control, for example through the integration of small-scale producers into commercial value chains. (more…)