The Age of Human Rights Journal

Human Duties and Rights in an Intercultural Perspective

Emilia Bea — Mon, 19 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This paper reflects on the possibility of opening new ways of revaluing the role of human responsibilities and duties by establishing a relationship with rights that goes further than a simple correspondence between correlative terms. Approaching the interdependence between the language of rights and the language of duties from an intercultural perspective helps achieve an increasingly broader, but necessarily more complex, consensus. This analysis goes back to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which left duties in the background but showed the incipient presence of an intercultural purpose thanks to the work of UNESCO. The final part of the paper is devoted to those international declarations which delve deeper into this purpose and focus on duties. The aim of these initiatives, which originated with dialogue, is to strengthen those bonds of solidarity that involve assuming responsibilities when faced by the requirements of others that cannot be expressed in terms of enforceable powers.

Progress and Challenges for the Recognition, Protection and Promotion of Indigenous Women’s Human Rights in the Inter-American System

Jonatán Cruz Ángeles — Mon, 19 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

In this study, we begin by analysing the guiding legal principles and international standards that States must consider when developing laws, programs, and policies to protect indigenous women's human rights. Besides, we try to find out what priority issues States are trying to address. Once we establish the theoretical framework, we will review how, in practice, the Inter-American Commission and Court have examined some of the leading cases concerning the protection of the economic, social, and cultural rights of indigenous women. All this will lead us to understand the bases of indigenous women's worldview. Thus, we can propose the (de)construction of their legal status, which should suggest a necessary conquest of public spaces and conceive them as individuals, protecting their honour and recognizing their dignity.

Promoting the Defence´s Role in the Preliminary Investigation, a Challenge in Maghrebian Criminal Proceedings

Anouar Hatim, Mohammed Miloudi, Najib El Araj — Mon, 19 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Maghrebian criminal procedures have long been based on a theory inherited from French legislation, based on the relationship between the effectiveness of police investigations and the weakening of the role of the lawyer, relying on the principles of the inquisitorial system, in particular the principle of secrecy that governs the entire preliminary phase of the trial. Through this article, the authors attempt to refute the latter theory, proving that any strengthening of the role of the lawyer during the preliminary investigation constitutes a deterrent and protection of the authorities against allegations of torture and ill-treatment, and a decisive means to guarantee the protection of the rights of the accused, and therefore, a contribution to the consecration of the efficiency of the investigations and the procedural fairness.

Human Rights and Current Discriminatory Manifestations (on the Example of Age Discrimination in the Social and Communicative Sphere)

Mon, 19 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The article provides a comprehensive analysis of counteracting human rights violations due to age discrimination in the social and communicative sphere to identify problematic aspects of this discrimination; to study current changes in connection with the pandemic threat and generalize a set of legal guarantees to prevent and counteract inappropriate legal policy in this area. The research is based on a humanistic approach, which determines the individual value criterion of the research methodology and is manifested through the ideology of anthropocentrism; a complementary approach to scientific research and a balanced combination of national and international state-building and law-making principles. A comparative legal method was used, which made it possible to summarize the legal requirements of various states, including the United Arab Emirates, Great Britain, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Colombia, on measures to counteract the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Statistical and information reports of the European Union countries, monitoring of the Equality Representatives of individual countries (Serbia, Lithuania), analytical data, government decisions and practical cases were used.

The Persisting Menace of Child Marriage: An Account of Non-Legal Factors Contributing to Ineffectiveness of Legal Frameworks

Sanya Darakhshan Kishwar — Mon, 19 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Child marriage is an ever-persisting human rights issue that has been addressed multiple times. However, despite the existing international frameworks and theoretical deliberation, the practice still continues to thrive across the globe. This presents suitable ground for a review of the causes of child marriage. This paper reviews such causes in two parts, the first being a review of the existing international framework, followed by a review of factors that lead to child marriage. Additionally, the paper attempts at presenting recommendations to inhibit the causal factors.

Patient Rights During the Covid-19 Pandemic: The Dilemma between Data Privacy and Transparency in Indonesia

Mon, 19 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The Covid-19 pandemic demands adjustment in transmission control, including data transparency. Indonesia is one country that discloses data regarding vaccines, boosters, and other health information through an integrated application called "Peduli Lindungi". However, this application is prone to data leakage because it uses a Citizen Identity Number to register. At the same time, the application is mandatory for all Indonesians to enter public spaces, especially international flights. This research will illustrate if Indonesia's Government could provide a bridge between patient privacy while providing the necessary data for transmission control purposes. This is normative research using secondary data sources.

Justiciability of Socioeconomic Rights in Nigeria and Its Critics: Does International Law Provide any Guidance?

Obiajulu Nnamuchi — Mon, 19 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

A recalcitrantly enduring polemic in the annals of human rights and constitutional law jurisprudence in Nigeria centers on whether socioeconomic rights are justiciable in the country. This burgeoning controversy is rooted not only in the balkanization of the two principal genres of human rights and their compartmentalization into distinct parts of the Constitution, namely Chapters II and IV respectively, but also in explicitly baptizing one as ‘fundamental rights’ whilst denying similar appellation to the other. Adding to this obfuscation is deafening silence on the part of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, thereby fueling the belief, in many circles, that domestic legal frameworks do not bestow recognition upon socioeconomic rights. But does this understanding represent the correct position of the law? Does international law offer any guidance? Responding to these questions is the task of this paper. Its central contention is that current reality, made more evident by international human rights law, leans toward justiciability of socioeconomic rights.

Human trafficking in West Africa: An implementation assessment of international and regional normative standards

Daniel Ogunniyi, Oladimeji Idowu — Mon, 19 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

It is now over 20 years since the Palermo Protocol was adopted as a global mobilisation tool to combat human trafficking. Although the Palermo Protocol has been widely ratified by all 15 states in West Africa, the implementation of the instrument in the sub-region remains unclear. Also, beyond the Palermo Protocol, a systematic assessment of other anti-trafficking mechanisms available in West Africa is non-existent. Thus, this study has two core objectives: the first is to chronicle the key anti-trafficking instruments and their relevance in West Africa, while the second aspect engages with the manner in which those norms are translated at the domestic level in three West African countries namely, Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal. The study finds that human trafficking has remained resilient both at sub-regional and domestic levels despite the legal efforts to end it. Relevant trends and implementation deficits are identified across the three states, while recommendations are offered for effective anti-trafficking governance.

Constitutions, Minorities and Superdiversity

Eduardo Ruiz Vieytez — Mon, 19 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Superdiversity is an interesting concept that needs to be incorporated into the field of legal sciences. A comparative analysis of the European Constitutions shows that constitutional references to culturally based minorities reflect the particular political context of each country, although there is a correspondence between the categories generally employed in comparative constitutional law and those in common use in international institutions. In addition to the cultural elements that characterise minorities (language, ethnicity, religion, nationality), other identity factors such as sex (gender), physical appearance (phenotype), opinions or convictions and social or economic status are generally included in anti-discrimination provisions. However, other elements that are relevant to the idea of superdiversity, such as place of residence within an urban environment and employment status, hardly appear in the European constitutional texts. If superdiversity is implemented without calibrating it to each context it may pose a threat to the fair and appropriate treatment of traditional minorities.

Cross-Embedded Relationship Nature of Human Rights-Related Treaties and Instruments with Environment-Related Sustainable Development Goals

B. Suresh, Asha Sundaram — Mon, 19 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

It is imperative that Treaties & Instruments and United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) must be analysed, considering their interdependencies and mutually reinforcing nature. The paper examines the Cross Embedded Relationship (CER) nature of core Human Rights-related Treaties & Instruments (HR-T&I) in Environment-related SDGs (E-SDG) in driving a metamorphic transformation process toward inclusive economic growth, adhering to human rights values that are environmentally centric and sustainable in the true sense. Some core HR-T&I explicitly recognise CER, as observed in textual analysis. The study reveals a varied level of the Cross Embedment Relationship Index (CERI) between the provisions of core HR-T&I and E-SDG, thereby indicating the importance of human rights principles in E-SDG and the significance of environment orientation in core HR-T&I. Linking core HR-T&I provisions with E-SDG and extra-legal compliance mechanism of SDGs can produce positive synergies in realising SDG objectives.

The European Union Protection of Human Rights through its Global Policy:

Maria Torres Pérez — Mon, 19 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The Regime of Restrictive Measures against Serious Violations and Abuses of Human Rights launched at the end of 2020 by the European Union is part of the Commission's objective to reaffirm the Union's firm commitment to promoting universal values and strengthening its leadership in this field. However, the first year of implementation of the regime casts doubt on its effectiveness, given the existence of legal loopholes that tarnish it.

Well-Founded Fear in International Refugee Law: A Feminist Approach

Cristina María Zamora Gómez — Mon, 19 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

International Refugee Law, as a matter of human rights, is in continuous evolution. This article aims to capture what the main advances in gender human rights have been in the regime of well-founded fear of persecution that is entitled by the 1951 Geneva Convention on the Status of Refugees. Thus, this article will expose what is the classic literature around the conceptualization of the well-founded fear of persecution, including what the iusfeminist critical doctrine has contributed. Subsequently, it will be shown how to improve the evaluation process of the two elements that make up the well-founded fear of persecution, namely the subjective and objective elements. Followed by a detail of the main stumbling blocks that such an evaluation has in terms of gender blindness. Finally, this article will venture to make some legal proposals to overcome such gaps.