Friday, February 18, 2022

9th Summit of the Americas Working Groups: Deadline 2/20 to Apply

The Summit of the Americas Secretariat has issued an open call for civil society representatives and social actors to participate in thematic sub-regional working groups in preparation for the 9th Summit of the Americas. The deadline to register for these working groups is this Sunday, February 20th.

  • The application form can be found here
  • Guidance for participation can be found here
  • Any questions can be directed to  [email protected]

February 18, 2022 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sunday, February 13, 2022

New Book: Latest Edition of ABA Legal Guide to Affordable Housing Development

Book coverThe third edition of the ABA Legal Guide to Affordable Housing Development has been published.

This book is a comprehensive legal guide to the development of affordable housing for practitioners and housing advocates. It covers all aspects of the development process, including zoning and building codes, financing, monitoring and enforcement of regulations, preservation of affordable housing, and relocation requirements. It also includes brief chapters on the history of affordable housing and the future of affordable housing.

February 13, 2022 in Books and articles | Permalink | Comments (0)

Thursday, February 10, 2022

Past Time for Respect for Indigenous Peoples and the Environment

By: Tamar Ezer, Acting Director & Braelyn Saumure, Student Fellow, Human Rights Clinic, University of Miami School of Law

Despite the challenges of 2021, it closed with some important milestones. At long last, the U.N. Human Rights Council recognized “the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment” and appointed a Special Rapporteur to focus on rights in the context of climate change. Additionally, the U.S. officially designated Indigenous Peoples’ Day on October 11. President Biden’s proclamation acknowledges “the centuries-long campaign of violence, displacement, assimilation, and terror wrought upon Native communities” and celebrates Indigenous Peoples’ “resilience and strength” and “immeasurable positive impact . . . on every aspect of American society.”

Violence against Indigenous Peoples and nature is deeply intertwined. For generations, Indigenous lands have been exploited as a “hunting ground” for resources with colonialism propped up by racial and gender hierarchies. In the U.S., Native American and Alaska Native women experience sexual assault at a rate 2.5 times higher than other women, with 86% of perpetrators non-Native men. For example, the oil boom in the Bakken region brought a 75% increase in sexual assaults and a 53% increase in violence with the influx of hundreds of transient male workers, housed in “Man Camps” near Indian territories. Moreover, with strained infrastructure and Indian tribes lacking jurisdiction to prosecute non-Indian defendants, there is often no accountability. Indigenous leaders have highlighted the link between sovereignty over land and bodily autonomy.

Against this backdrop of abuse, the climate crisis is displacing Indigenous communities at increasing rates and leading to economic instability, land disputes, and disruptions in social safety nets, contributing to increased risk of gender-based violence. Moreover, Indigenous leaders have been at the forefront of sounding the alarm on climate change and may also experience violence as retaliation for their actions as human rights defenders confronting environmental degradation. Further, the COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted Indigenous Peoples, aggravating preexisting inequalities and resulting in heightened rates of infection and  increased environmental degradation, economic insecurity, and gender-based violence, threatening Indigenous cultures.

Our Human Rights Clinic at the University of Miami School of Law has had the opportunity to document these intersections in collaboration with Indigenous partners and the Benjamin B. Ferencz Human Rights and Atrocity Prevention Clinic at Cardozo School of Law. A series of reports address the implications of gender and environmental violence for Indigenous rights. This includes a short synopsis report, a longer human rights framework, and case studies focused on Pipelines and Man Camps in the Northern United States; Canada’s National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women; and Environmental Destruction, Land Dispossession, and Gender-Based Violence Against Indigenous Peoples in Brazil, shared with U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and various Special Rapporteurs to inform guidance on rights in connection to Indigenous women and land.

Indigenous women can lead the way in addressing the twin crises of gender-based violence and climate injustice. They have borne the brunt of these crises for generations and, in many communities, serve as keepers of seeds and cultural knowledge. As Victoria Sweet (White Earth Band of Ojibwe, NoVo Foundation) told the Human Rights Clinic, “We don’t need to be saved; we need to be empowered to save ourselves.” 

Moreover, Indigenous women can share important lessons for us all. As Aimée Craft (Anishinaabe-Métis; University Research Chair, University of Ottawa) stated, “If we can understand environmental justice through the lens of having a relationship or kinship with our mother, then we will be back to a position of being able to live in sustainable ways.”

February 10, 2022 in Environment, Indigenous People | Permalink | Comments (0)

Wednesday, February 9, 2022

February-March Deadlines - Calls for Inputs by UN Human Rights Mechanisms

The following calls for inputs have been issued by the UN Human Rights Mechanisms with deadlines in February-March 2022 and law professors whose practice, research, and/or scholarship touches on these topics may be interested in submission:

Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights - Call for inputs for report on internet shutdowns and human rights. Deadline February 10, 2022. Read more.

Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights – Call for inputs on the issue of child, early and forced marriage. Deadline February 15, 2022. Read more.

Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights – Call for inputs on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the realization of the equal enjoyment of the right to education by every girl. Deadline February 18, 2022. Read more.

Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights – Call for inputs on human rights in the context of HIV and AIDS. Deadline February 20, 2022. Read more.

Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery - Call for inputs on contemporary forms of slavery as affecting persons belonging to ethnic, religious, and linguistic minority communities. Deadline February 20, 2022. Read more.

Working Group on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises – Call for inputs on practical application of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights to the activities of technology companies. Deadline February 23, 2022. Read more.

Working Group on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises - Call for inputs on the mandate of the Working Group on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises. Deadline February 24, 2022. Read more.

Special Rapporteur on summary executions – Call for inputs on knowledge and implementation of the Minnesota Protocol. Deadline February 25, 2022. Read more.

Special Rapporteur on the negative impact of the unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights – Call for inputs on “secondary sanctions, civil and criminal penalties for circumvention of sanctions regimes, and over-compliance with sanctions” and “Unilateral sanctions in the cyber world”. Deadline February 28, 2022. Read more.

Working Group on the use of mercenaries – Call for inputs on victims of mercenaries, mercenary related actors, and private military and security companies. Deadline February 28, 2022. Read more.

Special Rapporteur on racial discrimination – Call for inputs on combatting glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and other practices that contribute to fueling contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. Deadline February 28, 2022. Read more.

Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants – Call for inputs on human rights violations at international borders: trends, prevention and accountability. Deadline February 28, 2022. Read more.

Special Rapporteur on the right to development – Call for inputs on the right to development COVID recovery plans and policies and the right to development. Deadline March 1, 2022. Read more.

Special Rapporteur on racial discrimination – Call for inputs on SDGs and the fight against racial discrimination. Deadline March 1, 2022. Read more.

Special Rapporteur on toxics and human rights – Call for inputs on Mercury, artisanal and small-scale gold mining and human rights. Deadline March 7, 2022. Read more.

Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery - Call for inputs on contemporary forms of slavery in the informal economy. Deadline March 15, 2022. Read more.

Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights – Call for inputs on the question of the death penalty. Deadline March 18, 2022. Read more.

Special Rapporteur on violence against women - Call for inputs on violence against women and girls in the context of the climate crisis, including environmental degradation and related disaster risk mitigation and response. Deadline March 31, 2022. Read more.

February 9, 2022 in United Nations | Permalink | Comments (0)

Monday, February 7, 2022

Event 2/10: The 12th Annual “Live from L”: Climate Change

On February 10, 2022, join “Live from L” an annual program featuring members of the U.S. Department of State Office of the Legal Adviser discussing a topic of current interest. The theme of this year’s program is Climate Change – Time permitting, the audience will be given the opportunity to ask questions at the end of the webinar.

A non-CLE program presented by the ABA Section of International Law

Co-Sponsors: The George Washington University Law School and The American Society of International Law

Speakers:

  • Richard C. Visek, Acting Legal Adviser
  • Kathryn Youel Page, Assistant Legal Adviser for Oceans, International Environmental & Scientific Affairs
  • Andrew Neustaetter, Attorney-Adviser, Office of Oceans, International Environmental & Scientific Affairs
  • Anna Melamud, Attorney-Adviser, Office of Human Rights and Refugees
  • Nathan Nagy, Attorney-Adviser, Office of Oceans, International Environmental & Scientific Affairs

Moderator:

  • Rosa Celorio, Associate Dean for International and Comparative Legal Studies and Burnett Family Professorial Lecturer in International and Comparative Law and Policy, George Washington University Law School

To register for this event, click here.

February 7, 2022 in Environment | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tuesday, February 1, 2022

New Article: Reverse-Rhetorical Entrapment: Naming and Shaming as a Two-Way Street

Suzanne Katzenstein, Reverse-Rhetorical Entrapment: Naming and Shaming as a Two-Way Street, 46 Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law 1079 (2021). Abstract below.

"Naming and shaming," the process of exposing, publicizing, and condemning human rights abuses, is one of the most important and common strategies used by human rights advocates. In an international political system where power is typically defined in terms of military strength and market size, advocacy groups draw on a mixture of moral and legal means to pressure governments to improve their human rights behavior. In general, the mere act of naming and shaming can promote human rights norms by reinforcing the shared understanding that some types of government conduct are beyond the pale.'

Naming and shaming may also work more specifically through a dynamic of "rhetorical entrapment." Moral and legal censure pressure the targeted government to respond to criticisms about its conduct either by expressing public support for human rights norms or by signing human rights treaties. Over time, advocacy groups use such instrumental concessions to press the targeted government further to stop its abusive practices. Words that initially appear to be cheap gestures can, with the passing of time, have powerful effects.

February 1, 2022 in Books and articles | Permalink | Comments (0)