Human Rights and Refugees
The truth in international criminal trials: A chance to write history?
Since it was first addressed as the right to know the fate of missing and dead persons under international humanitarian law the idea of a ‘right to truth’ has gradually expanded into other fields of law such as human rights law and international criminal law. Though this right has not been codified in a legally binding instrument of international law the Human Rights Council (HRC) as the monitoring body of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) has interpreted that there is a right to truth and that it is a development of the right to remedy. This has been the theme of various of its Resolutions. The United Nations General Assembly Resolutions are no different as they also understand the truth as a right. The jurisprudence of the European and Inter-American Courts of Human Rights similarly recognized the right to truth this time as an extension to the right to access to justice. It is because of this wide recognition that some commentators including Yasmin Naqvi researcher at the ICRC consider this right to be a general practice of international law which grants it the status of a norm of customary law. But even if considered a right because of its customary status what does the right to truth entail? What is its content? What are its contours? These are questions that remain unanswered.
A confucian approach to human rights
“The basic ethical concept of Chinese social political relations is the fulfilment of the duty to one’s neighbour rather than the claiming of rights. The idea of mutual obligations is regarded as the fundamental teaching of Confucianism.” This is what the Chinese philosopher Lo Chung-Shu (1903-1985) wrote in his text titled “Human Rights in the Chinese Tradition” sent to UNESCO on 1 June 1947. An excerpt follows.
Weapons of mass destruction. A comprehensive approach
Ever since 1947 the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ ‘doomsday clock’ is recognized as a symbol for the nuclear threat in the world. The minutes before midnight on the clock demonstrate the actual threat. Since the beginning the clock’s arm has been moved back and forth whenever the nuclear threat situation in the world changed. At the end of the Cold War the clock stood at seventeen minutes to midnight while at the last presentation in 2007 the clock was ticking five minutes to midnight.
Our guest: Fernando Bryce: History in the present tense
“Mimetic analysis” is how Peruvian artist Fernando Bryce describes his work process. It involves using ink on paper and meticulously copying by hand texts and images taken from magazines political pamphlets posters and old newspapers. Using this technique he has captured moments from recent history like the Cuban revolution the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War in his work. In 2015 our magazine was the source of inspiration for a series of drawings called The Book of Needs to which a supplement of this issue of the Courier is dedicated. Let’s find out what it’s all about.
Is Italy facing a migration emergency? Italy’s challenge and its new legal framework
This essay aims to analyse the new 2017 Italian law established for the improvement of both the asylum procedures and the contrast of illegal migration in a context in which Europe is required to improve procedures` efficiency without undermining the rights of people in need of protection.
COVID-19 pandemic and gender aspects
The year 2020 marks two important landmarks in gender equality achievement: the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform of Action and the 20th year of implementing Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women Peace and Security. Unfortunately the Covid-19 pandemic caused cancellation and postponement of many important international meetings including a shortened version of the 64th session of the Commission on the Status of Women but it is also risking to heavily jeopardize the progress made over recent years.
Cyber-crime during the COVID-19 pandemic
The pandemic of COVID-19 and the imposed lockdown has led to more people to be confined at home with many more hours to spend online each day and increasingly relying on the Internet to access services they normally obtain offline.
How organized crime is expanding during the COVID-19 crisis
Over the last century organized crime has demonstrated a remarkable capacity to rapidly adapt to mutated social political and economic conditions. While in some cases this adaptation was the result of a reactive response to improved legislation targeting their interests in many others it was ignited by the pursuit of new possibilities for economic profit. Examples in this sense include how quickly criminal groups adapted to new scenarios created for instance by geopolitical changes the integration of global markets or the generalized use of the world wide web as a marketplace for a variety of licit and illicit goods and services.
The principles of equality and non-discrimination under viral attack: Stigma, hate speech, xenophobia, racism and discrimination during the COVID-19 pandemic
The principle of equality – the belief that all human beings are born free and equal – along with the correlated prohibition on discrimination are foundations of society. Equality is one of the most basic aspects of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and a pillar on which the United Nations (UN) was founded in 1945. Yet following the emergence of the coronavirus in December 2019 this long-established fundamental human right is being increasingly threatened. Indeed as the UN Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues Fernand de Varennes observed “COVID-19 is not just a health issue; it can also be a virus that exacerbates xenophobia hate and exclusion.”
Discrimination of aboriginals on native lands in Canada
With inflated proportions of their neighbours in prison on parole or at risk the worlds native communities have another urgent problem to contend with. Statistics show that the percentage of indigenous people in conflict with the justice system is extreme and in many places those numbers may be on the rise.
Equal opportunity in education
In 2002 on my way to the United States Congress where a hearing on the education of Roma was being held I was asked by the taxi driver where I come from and what was the purpose of my trip. I told him I was going to testify before the Congress about the problems faced by Roma in education. His reaction was Ah you mean those petty thieves? I was surprised that prejudice against Roma existed even in the United States where they live among hundreds of other minority groups.
Racial discrimination and the legal system
Racial discrimination is widespread in the legal system of the United States. A recent example from Louisiana will help underscore the statistics that follow.
Race and poverty in latin america
Latin America has made solid economic strides over the past two decades in terms of sustained economic growth increasing average income levels and decreasing average infant mortality rates. However these improvements do not share the full development picture. There has been widespread concern that despite these gains Latin American nations should be progressing more quicklyoften leading to comparisons with Asia and in more insidious moments to an oversimplified discussion of Latin America merely having a culture that does not lead itself to development. What is rarely mentioned is that most of the regions nations still confront deeply seated racial inequality and discrimination that impacts all aspects of economic and social life. These problems of inequality must be addressed and resolved in order to deepen and sustain opportunities for large segments of the population. Ending racial discrimination in order to fully incorporate African descendant citizens who account for 30 per cent of the regions population but make up more than half of the poor is one of the most pressing tasks facing the Hemisphere.
Discrimination against indigenous peoples
In discussing the issue of discrimination against indigenous peoples it is tempting to paraphrase a preambular paragraph of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and say that at all periods of history discrimination in its many forms has inflicted great losses on humanity.
Racial discrimination and miscegenation
In 1888 Brazil with a mostly black and mixed race or mulatto population was the last country in the Western Hemisphere to abolish slavery. During more than 300 years of slavery in the Americas it was the largest importer of African slaves bringing in seven times as many African slaves to the country compared to the United States.
Looking forward to the future
At the end of my nine years as Director of the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobianow the European Union Agency for Fundamental RightsI would like to share my experience in addressing racial discrimination. I want to focus on eight areas of needs and opportunities which remain largely unexplored and which I believe need to be tackled more thoroughly in political and public debates. I am deeply convinced that together we can find forward-looking solutions that will better enable our changing societies to face the future.
The ideology of racism
In his exceptionally insightful book Racism: A Short History Stanford University historian George M. Fredrickson notes the paradox that notions of human equality were the necessary precondition to the emergence of racism. If a society is premised on an assumption of inequality producing an accepted hierarchyone unquestioned even by those relegated to its nadirthen there is no need to locate the cause of the underlings position in some specific characteristic on their part that makes them less worthy than others.
The struggle against apartheid
The United Nations has been concerned with the issue of racial discrimination since its inception. The UN General Assembly adopted on 19 November 1946 during its first session a resolution declaring that it is in the higher interests of humanity to put an immediate end to religious and so-called racial persecution and discrimination and calling on Governments and responsible authorities to conform both to the letter and to the spirit of the Charter of the United Nations and to take the most prompt and energetic steps to that end.
The trans-atlantic slave trade and slavery
The Caribbean is arguably the living laboratory of the dynamism of the encounters between Africa and Europe on foreign soil and both with the Native American who had inhabited the real estate of the Americas during periods of conquest and dehumanization and the corresponding process of struggle and resistance. For these purposes northeast Brazil with its iconic centre in Bahia New Orleans and all of the eastern littoral of North America referred to as Plantation America constitute along with the island-Caribbean the geo-cultural area that houses a civilization with its own inner logic and inner consistency.
Asylum today
Industrialized countries in recent years have complained about being swamped by asylum-seekers and have adopted increasingly stricter policies designed to stem the tide of refugees and ensure border protection. Since 2002 the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has been tracking a downward trend in asylum applications lodged in industrialized countries. Its latest report Asylum Levels and Trends in Industrialized Countries 2006 shows a steady decline in 50 industrialized countries (44 European and 6 non-European). The 2006 level was the lowest in many years and in some cases even for decades. Germany and Denmark for instance recorded the lowest level since 1983 New Zealand since 1988 and the United Kingdom since 1989. In France the number of asylum applications submitted in 2006 was the lowest since 1998. The 25 countries of the European Union received 53 per cent fewer requests in 2006 compared to 2002 while Europe as a whole registered a 54-per cent decline. While some experts agree that stricter asylum policies are behind the declining trend others prefer to point out the growing feelings of intolerance and xenophobia fueling these policies.