Search results

Independent children’s rights institutions as guardians of children’s rights contribute to the implementation and monitoring of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UN CRC) in several ways. This chapter focuses on their engagement with the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC Committee) during the country-specific monitoring of the Convention: they can provide reliable, precise and up-to-date information about the situation of children’s rights in the field. While considering the state reports, the CRC Committee welcomes submission from any independent children’s rights institutions, but which institutions have taken this opportunity in the past? Based on the public database of reports submitted by national human rights institutions, without looking into the content of their submissions and the impact of their engagement, this chapter intends to draw the profile of the independent children’s rights institutions that actively engage with the monitoring body of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Purpose – This chapter investigates the possibilities and limits for effectuating the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in Latin American countries.

Methods – The following dimensions are questioned: (a) the monitoring process of the CRC; (b) the contrast between the social organization of children's rights in the National State and the international pressures to incorporate foreign law into the national legislation; (c) the role of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in the processes of child rights violations.

Findings – The main conclusion is that the possibilities of effectuating international treaties on human rights are different at three scales. Within international organizations (specifically within the United Nations and its Committees on Human Rights), it is possible to create conventions and monitor them, making use of the reports. At the nation-state scale, it is possible to formally incorporate the rights of the foreign law into national constitutions, but the punishment related to the violations of these rights will depend on the hierarchical relationship between domestic and foreign law. At the interregional scale, one can observe the effective actions of the juridical institutions (specifically of the Commission and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights) to punish and compensate the victims that suffered violations of the rights guaranteed by international treaties.

The main purpose of this paper is to explore the extra-judicial killing situation in Bangladesh by analyzing both national and international human rights law. In addition, this paper will also identify the remedy that is available for the victim’s family for extra-judicial killing by law enforcement agencies, especially the Rapid Action Battalion of Bangladesh.

This is a qualitative research where both primary and secondary sources have used to identify the situations of extra-judicial killings in Bangladesh, the human rights instruments and the judicial activism to protect human rights.

This paper will show impunity of the law enforcement agencies increasing the number of extra-judicial killings of citizens, by violating the Constitutional and International human rights law that deal with “right to life”. The state sovereignty is not hindering the implementation of the international law, but the judiciary of Bangladesh needs to be more efficient in protecting citizens’ human rights, along with bringing criminal prosecution against members of the law enforcement agencies, by providing “effective and adequate” remedy to the victim’s family.

While analyzing the “right to life” under the International Human Rights Conventions, this paper will only deal with the UDHR and the ICCPR, as Bangladesh has ratified those Conventions.

This paper will add value to identify the present rights of the citizen under domestic and international law and to incorporate new legislation through finding the lack of present legislation to protect the right to life and remedy for extra-judicial killings in Bangladesh.

This paper explores the health rights of prisoners as defined in international law, and the mechanisms that have been used to ensure the rights of persons in detention to realise the highest attainable standard of health. It examines this right as articulated within United Nations and regional human rights treaties, non‐binding or so‐called soft law instruments from international organisations and the jurisprudence of international human rights bodies. It explores the use of economic, social and cultural rights mechanisms, and those within civil and political rights, as they engage the right to health of prisoners, and identifies the minimum legal obligations of governments in order to remain compliant with human rights norms as defined within the international case law. In addressing these issues, this article adopts a holistic approach to the definition of the highest attainable standard of health. This includes a consideration of adequate standards of general medical care, including preventative health and mental health services. It also examines the question of environmental health, and those poor conditions of detention that may exacerbate health decline, disease transmission, mental illness or death. The paper examines the approach to prison health of the United Nations human rights system and its various monitoring bodies, as well as the regional human rights systems in Europe, Africa and the Americas. Based upon this analysis, the paper draws conclusions on the current fulfilment of the right to health of prisoners on an international scale, and proposes expanded mechanisms under the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment to monitor and promote the health rights of prisoners at the international and domestic levels.

Purpose: This chapter explores the relationship between international human rights and the domestic practices of nation-states around lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights.

Methodology/approach: Using Sweden and Russia as case studies, this chapter analyzes LGBT human rights recommendations from the cyclical United Nations Universal Periodic Review and how they affect practices within nation-states.

Findings: Sweden embraces recommendations to strengthen LGBT human rights and institutes stronger national LGBT rights policies of its own, while Russia’s compliance with LGBT rights recommendations is low. Further, reports of LGBT victimization show that the severity of attacks on LGBT people is pronounced in Russia.

Social implications: Relying on case studies limits the generalizability of this study, but the implications of these findings suggest that, to strengthen human rights compliance and improve the lives of minority citizens, human rights advocates should take note of domestic ideologies and leverage the institutional environment of the world society to provide information, resources, and pressure to facilitate nation-states’ compliance with international human rights recommendations.

Originality/value: This chapter deepens the discourse on the contested realm of international LGBT rights by highlighting the dynamics between international monitoring mechanisms, domestic discourse, and domestic law.

Can market-based regulation based on consumer pressure and ‘independent monitoring’ serve as the basis for transnational corporation regulation? In an increasingly integrated global economy, many scholars and policy makers fear that mobile capital may force a ‘race to the bottom’; can independent non-governmental organizations and ethical consumers provide a counterweight to cost-cutting pressures? This paper compares three of the best known examples of transnational monitoring – the Sullivan Principles in South Africa, the Rugmark social labeling program in India, and the Commission for the Verification of Codes of Conduct's monitoring experiences in the apparel industry of Guatemala – to consider some common features of transnational monitoring.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a general review of international efforts to hold transnational corporations (TNCs) responsible for human rights. It tracks the evolution of international conventions related to TNCs and human rights and assesses their effectiveness.

The paper describes and analyzes efforts over the last four decades by the United Nations (UN), the Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development, the International Labour Organization and non‐governmental groups to provide guidelines and encourage TNCs to aspire to international standards in human rights.

The early attempts to regulate TNCs internationally lacked any form of the robust compulsion, systemic monitoring and effective enforcement mechanisms necessary to deal with the magnitude of the global investment arena. However, during the last decade, there has been explicit recognition on the part of the UN that action is necessary and the most recent convention emanating from the UN, the Norms, may evolve into a binding instrument on TNCs.

This paper, by mapping the development of global ethical conventions up to the UN Norms on the responsibilities for TNCs and other business enterprises with regards to human rights, informs corporate officers of the state of global discussions on this issue and lays the groundwork for further scholarly analysis of the Norms in the future.