By John Tobin Click here to download the full article (pdf) Human rights protected in international treaties are invariably vague and ambiguous. This ambiguity is most acute with respect to economic, social, and cultural rights.1 The rights to health, housing, and education are not standards that have traditionally been renowned for their clarity of content. […]
Waging War, Making Peace is a collection of essays that examines, through anthropological case studies, the necessity and efficacy of reparations in post-conflict and transitional societies. The editors, as well as many of the individual authors, distinguish anthropology’s focus on individuals and groups from the traditional legal focus on state responsibility. Through the examination of
INTRODUCTION Crafted in the wake of World War II, the European Convention on Human Rights (“ECHR”) was the first regional expression of fundamental human rights protection as asserted in the United Nations’ 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (“UDHR”). Its codified rights, primarily civil and political rights such as the right to life and the
Karl C. Procaccini INTRODUCTION This note is motivated by a basic premise: Governments must be held accountable for creating refugee flows. There are over nine million refugees in the world today who have been persecuted at home and forced to seek asylum abroad. The human cost of this massive upheaval and migration is incalculable. By
Thomas E. Davies I. INTRODUCTION The 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide criminalizes not only genocide itself, but also other acts including direct and public incitement to genocide. The criminalization of incitement to genocide serves at least two important goals. First, it helps to ensure that the people who
Molly Beutz Land The same technologies that groups of ordinary citizens are using to write operating systems and encyclopedias are fostering a quiet revolution in another area—social activism. On websites such as Avaaz.org and Wikipedia, citizens are forming groups to report on human rights violations and organize email writing campaigns, activities formerly the prerogative of
Charles W. Gould INTRODUCTION: A GATHERING STORM Every year the world witnesses the forces of nature running amok: an earthquake, flood, or hurricane of unusual force devastates a community, capturing the attention of the world. While no one in its path can expect to escape the wrath of such disasters, and wealth is no talisman,
By Senator Edward M. Kennedy The 1946 Constitution of the World Health Organization declares that the highest attainable standard of health is a fundamental right of every human being, without distinction of race, religion, political belief, economic or social condition. Two years later, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of
