Volume 6 No 2

Permanent URI for this collection

https://repository.gchumanrights.org/handle/20.500.11825/2594

Contents


Editorial
Chiara Altafin, Ravi Prakash Vyas

Russian anti-war activists continue feminist tradition of opposing violence
Maria Koltsova

How energy injustice fuels Middle East conflict and human rights abuses
Khadija Embaby

COVID-19 must accelerate African push for universal healthcare
Johnson Mayamba

Human rights preparedness and protracted ongoing emergencies
Visalaakshi Annamalai

Hydropower plants in the Western Balkans: Protecting or destroying nature?
Ana Funa

COVID-19 highlights need for feminist human rights approach to ensure socio-economic gender equality
Gema Ocana Noriega

Dominican Republic border wall: Concrete symbol of centuries-long anti-Haitian ideology
Ezequiel Fernández Bravo

Child rights strategic litigation on deprivation of liberty for migration-related reasons: Review of selected cases in Asia and Europe
Chiara Altafin

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  • Item
    How energy injustice fuels Middle East conflict and human rights abuses
    (Global Campus Human Rights, 2022) Embaby, Khadija
    The abundance of Middle East oil reserves has shaped global politics for decades. United States foreign policy in particular is driven by the desire for energy security and efforts to safeguard this have inversely fuelled conflict and instability in the Middle East. Oil also plays a major role in European foreign policy, the importance of which has been intensified by the Russia Ukraine war which now threatens the continuity of Russian oil and gas supplies. Moreover, tension and inequalities within and between Middle Eastern oil-importing and oil-exporting countries have greatly contributed to human rights abuses in the region. Now is the time for the international human rights community to adopt an energy justice framework which acknowledges and considers compensation for harms committed by oil industry giants and the violent politics of oil.
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    COVID-19 must accelerate African push for universal healthcare
    (Global Campus Human Rights, 2022) Mayamba, Johnson
    “The greatest injustice is the lack of access to equitable healthcare” Dr Martin Luther King Jr. In a bid to achieve equitable healthcare in Africa, a total of 46 African states met in Abuja, Nigeria, in 2001. In what came to be known as the Abuja Declaration, each African state pledged to commit 15 percent of public expenditure to health. More than two decades since the Declaration was signed, only two African countries have reached this target, leaving vast swathes of the continent vulnerable to emerging health crises such as Ebola and COVID-19. Poor response and management is exacerbated by unpreparedness due to lack of research and under-developed infrastructure. Limited healthcare funding has also led to other challenges such as exploitation of patients, especially by private health providers, who see public health crises as money-making opportunities. Unfortunately, even those entrusted with managing public funds dedicated to the response and management of these crises have resorted to corruption. Whilst we tentatively celebrate having finally survived COVID-19, Africa needs to learn lessons from its past and plan for a better future. Firstly, by increasing government funding towards the health sector and secondly by addressing other still-existing challenges to equitable healthcare. This article recommends building resilient healthcare systems; adopting individual and group participation in decision-making processes; and ensuring there is Universal Health Coverage. All these must start with political will and good leadership.
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    Russian anti-war activists continue feminist tradition of opposing violence
    (Global Campus Human Rights, 2022) Koltsova, Maria
    Since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, several anti-war movements have been organised in Russia or by Russian emigrants abroad. One of them is Feminist Anti-War Resistance—a horizontal feminist organisation creating online and offline protest actions against the war in Ukraine. The article tells the story of the activists and explains why feminist ideas are so important in opposing the war.
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    Human rights preparedness and protracted ongoing emergencies
    (Global Campus Human Rights, 2022) Annamalai, Visalaakshi
    The terms “emergency” and “refugee” often conjure up images of short-term crises quickly resolved by one-off aid efforts and people who will be able to return home at some stage in the near future. However, many emergencies around the world continue for decades and those fleeing them struggle to exist in conditions totally unsuited for the long haul. In Asia Pacific alone, Afghanistan, Tibet and Sri Lanka are all suffering ongoing long-term emergencies with tens of thousands of citizens bringing up new generations in exile: many are denied basic human rights such as citizenship, education and the ability to make a living in their host countries, not to mention the steady erosion of their cultures and traditions. With economic crashes and climate change amongst the many reasons people may flee their countries of origin in order to survive, this article recommends that the global community broadens its definition of refugees and imaginatively redesigns its approach to human rights preparedness in face of ever-increasing movement of peoples migrating from varied and complex long-term emergencies.
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    Dominican Republic border wall: Concrete symbol of centuries-long anti-Haitian ideology
    (Global Campus Human Rights, 2022) Fernández Bravo, Ezequiel
    This article examines ongoing challenges of racism and discrimination through the lens of the long troubling history of xenophobic persecution of Haitians by the neighbouring Dominican Republic. It analyses the latter’s prejudicial two-tier migration policy toward Haitians; on one hand, ostensibly excluding them, on the other, admitting those it requires for cheap unregulated labour in sectors such as construction and agriculture but denying them and their descendants rights and citizenship. In particular, it focuses on current Dominican President Luis Abinader’s mammoth construction of a heavily fortified boundary wall stretching the entire length of the border with Haiti – a powerful emblem of the “othering” of Haitians as dangerous Black pagan usurpers of African origin while fostering the perception of “legitimate” Dominicans as white Catholic Hispanics. Setting this amid the worldwide context of the relationship between unequal distribution of wealth and a global hierarchy of migration based on race, the article calls on human rights activists inside and outside the Dominican Republic to stand together and renew efforts to dismantle the structural racism upon Haitians.
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    COVID-19 highlights need for feminist human rights approach to ensure socio-economic gender equality
    (Global Campus Human Rights, 2022) Ocana Noriega, Gema
    Economics and human rights have never been close friends. Human rights advocates have rarely engaged with financial systems. Economists, in turn, seldom consider human rights principles. However, COVID-19 intensified the need for mutual cooperation to safeguard the most disadvantaged, particularly women, who have suffered disproportionate negative socio-economic impact from the pandemic, which accentuated female overrepresentation in frontline health and public sector employment as well as unpaid caring responsibilities. This article examines a series of UN reports and other research which contend that inherent economic gender bias and neoliberal financial austerity policies unduly damage women’s socio-economic rights. It recommends that human rights principles be combined with comprehensive feminist economic analysis in order to achieve gender equality and afford women more financial security in preparation for future crises.
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    Hydropower plants in the Western Balkans: Protecting or destroying nature?
    (Global Campus Human Rights, 2022) Funa, Ana
    Urgent action is needed to save humanity from the consequences of global warming. The energy sector, especially coal-fired power plants in the Western Balkans, are amongst the worst polluters and contributors to CO2 emissions in Europe, therefore the switch to renewables is essential. Hydropower was seen as an attractive replacement with 3,000 hydropower plants (HPPs) planned between Slovenia and Turkey. However, with most of these earmarked for protected natural areas, the resulting damage to the environment, especially to fragile river ecosystems and dependent biodiversity, is hugely disproportionate to investment, particularly given HPPs’ negligible contribution to electricity production and lack of benefits for local communities. Activists and scientists across the Balkans have succeeded to some extent in highlighting the negative impact of HPPs. However, governments in the region must do more to diversify into alternative renewable energy sources and to protect nature for future generations.
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    Editorial
    (Global Campus of Human Rights, 2022) Altafin, Chiara ; Vyas, Ravi Prakash
    This is the eleventh issue of the Global Campus Human Rights Journal. It consists of eight articles resulting from a special cooperation with the GC Human Rights Preparedness Blog which has provided a valuable platform for innovative and inclusive conversations within the Global Campus network and beyond. In this regard, this blog generally invites contributors to explain the ways in which protecting, respecting and fulfilling human rights is vital in meeting the challenges of pandemics and other emergencies, or to imagine how human rights could be better prepared for such challenges in view of where, how and why human rights have failed or done less well than anticipated. Seven articles are based on shorter contributions previously published by Global Campus alumni acting as regional correspondents for the aforementioned blog after having been trained by Rosie Cowan, a member of the blog editorial team. The eighth article is written by the lead editor of the blog. All these articles provide insights into different topics from a rights-based approach taking into account that there are lessons to be learned from the past and preparations that can be made for the future.
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    Global Campus Human Rights Journal, Volume 6 No 2
    (Global Campus Human Rights, 2022) [...]
    This is the eleventh issue of the Global Campus Human Rights Journal. It consists of eight articles resulting from a special cooperation with the GC Human Rights Preparedness Blog which has provided a valuable platform for innovative and inclusive conversations within the Global Campus network and beyond. In this regard, this blog generally invites contributors to explain the ways in which protecting, respecting and fulfilling human rights is vital in meeting the challenges of pandemics and other emergencies, or to imagine how human rights could be better prepared for such challenges in view of where, how and why human rights have failed or done less well than anticipated. Seven articles are based on shorter contributions previously published by Global Campus alumni acting as regional correspondents for the aforementioned blog after having been trained by Rosie Cowan, a member of the blog editorial team. The eighth article is written by the lead editor of the blog. All these articles provide insights into different topics from a rights-based approach taking into account that there are lessons to be learned from the past and preparations that can be made for the future.
  • Item
    Child rights strategic litigation on deprivation of liberty for migration-related reasons: Review of selected cases in Asia and Europe
    (Global Campus Human Rights, 2022) Altafin, Chiara
    The position of children deprived of liberty for migration-related reasons entails key challenges to children’s rights and “child rights strategic litigation” (CRSL) emerges as one way to tackle them while feeding more broadly into national and international advocacy efforts. Litigation practice in this regard has emerged on the issue of deprivation of liberty in the third decade after the coming into force of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. This article analyses some pertinent litigation efforts undertaken in Asia and Europe. In considering selected case-law (already decided or in the process of litigation) at both national and international/regional levels, it addresses the main issues arising in relation to migration detention and children’s rights, how this litigation has been done, the actors involved, the legal standards employed, and eventually the courts’ reasoning. Concluding remarks for a children’s rights preparedness are articulated, reflecting on the pivotal importance of stakeholders’ approaches towards litigation strategies that are consistent with children’s rights and aim to advance children’s enjoyment of their rights, in order to contribute effectively to tackle such a harmful practice and bring changes against it. It is thus argued that CRSL can be a valuable means to advance access to justice for migrant children.