This article considers the extent to which human rights mechanisms can ameliorate intersex rights at a sub-national, or medico-local, level. It engages with both intersex activism and the academy where the United Nations (UN) has become understood as a key mechanism through which to challenge day-to-day practices of healthcare practitioners and bring an end to nontherapeutic surgical and hormonal interventions on intersex infants and children. Using the UK as an example, this article examines how and why the UN’s engagement with intersex has had little effect on the medical regulation of intersex people. To do so, the article draws on legal geography to examine how scale prevents the UN from having a clear and lasting impact on domestic issues – particularly those in healthcare settings. The different ways in which intersex bodies are recognised and regulated at different scales, coupled with the UN’s inability to form dialogue with the institutions of the state, such as the healthcare profession, are problematic barriers to challenge practice at the medico-local scale.
{"title":"Intersex Activism, Medical Power/Knowledge and the Scalar Limitations of the United Nations","authors":"Fae Garland, K. Lalor, Mitchell Travis","doi":"10.1093/hrlr/ngac020","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/hrlr/ngac020","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This article considers the extent to which human rights mechanisms can ameliorate intersex rights at a sub-national, or medico-local, level. It engages with both intersex activism and the academy where the United Nations (UN) has become understood as a key mechanism through which to challenge day-to-day practices of healthcare practitioners and bring an end to nontherapeutic surgical and hormonal interventions on intersex infants and children. Using the UK as an example, this article examines how and why the UN’s engagement with intersex has had little effect on the medical regulation of intersex people. To do so, the article draws on legal geography to examine how scale prevents the UN from having a clear and lasting impact on domestic issues – particularly those in healthcare settings. The different ways in which intersex bodies are recognised and regulated at different scales, coupled with the UN’s inability to form dialogue with the institutions of the state, such as the healthcare profession, are problematic barriers to challenge practice at the medico-local scale.","PeriodicalId":46556,"journal":{"name":"Human Rights Law Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2022-06-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41985716","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Since 2013, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights can examine individual communications under the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). This opens up the possibility to interpret Covenant provisions in a thorough manner. With regard to forced evictions and the right to housing under Article 11 ICESCR, one can discern a fast-developing approach concerning the proportionality analysis of evictions, entailing the establishment of specific criteria that may guide such analysis. This paper seeks to delineate these developments and will also shed light on possible general trends on the topic of limitations within the Committee’s emerging jurisprudence. In doing so, the paper will address if, and how, the developing proportionality analysis under the individual complaints procedure takes into consideration multi-discriminatory dimensions of State measures and how it specifically relates to or incorporates other ICESCR-concepts, such as minimum core obligations or the reasonableness review under Article 8(4) OP ICESCR.
{"title":"Tracing the Development of the Proportionality Analysis in Relation to Forced Evictions under the ICESCR","authors":"Nils-Hendrik Grohmann","doi":"10.1093/hrlr/ngac025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/hrlr/ngac025","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Since 2013, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights can examine individual communications under the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). This opens up the possibility to interpret Covenant provisions in a thorough manner. With regard to forced evictions and the right to housing under Article 11 ICESCR, one can discern a fast-developing approach concerning the proportionality analysis of evictions, entailing the establishment of specific criteria that may guide such analysis. This paper seeks to delineate these developments and will also shed light on possible general trends on the topic of limitations within the Committee’s emerging jurisprudence. In doing so, the paper will address if, and how, the developing proportionality analysis under the individual complaints procedure takes into consideration multi-discriminatory dimensions of State measures and how it specifically relates to or incorporates other ICESCR-concepts, such as minimum core obligations or the reasonableness review under Article 8(4) OP ICESCR.","PeriodicalId":46556,"journal":{"name":"Human Rights Law Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2022-06-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46153906","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The right to legal capacity (Article 12) is the most contested realization of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). If implemented, it would revolutionize the position of persons with psychosocial disabilities, intellectual disabilities and other cognitive conditions. Yet its implementation has been hindered by conceptual misunderstandings and a lack of distinction between the key questions in the debate. This contribution first demonstrates that advocates and opponents apply ‘substitute decision-making’ and ‘legal capacity’ differently, leading to different expectations. Second, it substantiates that once all the concepts are understood correctly, three distinct questions underpin the interpretation of Article 12 CRPD: (1) What makes a person’s will reliable? (2) What is good support? and (3) How can such a reliable will be diverged from, given other interests? Instead of giving the answers, this contribution brings consistency to the debate and proposes a pathways for a future approach to legal capacity.
{"title":"The Universal Right to Legal Capacity—Clearing the Haze","authors":"T. Opgenhaffen","doi":"10.1093/hrlr/ngac021","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/hrlr/ngac021","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The right to legal capacity (Article 12) is the most contested realization of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). If implemented, it would revolutionize the position of persons with psychosocial disabilities, intellectual disabilities and other cognitive conditions. Yet its implementation has been hindered by conceptual misunderstandings and a lack of distinction between the key questions in the debate. This contribution first demonstrates that advocates and opponents apply ‘substitute decision-making’ and ‘legal capacity’ differently, leading to different expectations. Second, it substantiates that once all the concepts are understood correctly, three distinct questions underpin the interpretation of Article 12 CRPD: (1) What makes a person’s will reliable? (2) What is good support? and (3) How can such a reliable will be diverged from, given other interests? Instead of giving the answers, this contribution brings consistency to the debate and proposes a pathways for a future approach to legal capacity.","PeriodicalId":46556,"journal":{"name":"Human Rights Law Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2022-06-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46308722","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article analyses the Indian caste-based occupation of sanitation work undertaken without protective equipment—manual scavenging. The current legal framework on manual scavenging in India suggests that demolishing dry latrines will abolish manual scavenging. This approach overlooks the coercive nature of the caste system and is therefore an inadequate solution for abolishing manual scavenging. Hence, this article asks ‘how can the legal system provide better legal protections to manual scavengers when the caste system that underpins the practice is deeply entrenched in Indian society?’ The article examines one possible answer—taking dignity more seriously. It demonstrates that manual scavenging is a dignitarian problem by mapping the main dignitarian harms that arise from it, such as humiliation, loss of autonomy and tensions with group dignity. Ultimately, it proposes using dignity in line with the jurisprudence of the UN Human Rights Committee to provide more comprehensive legal protections for manual scavengers.
{"title":"Taking Dignity Seriously to Protect Manual Scavengers in India: Lessons from the UN Human Rights Committee","authors":"Aishani Gupta","doi":"10.1093/hrlr/ngac019","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/hrlr/ngac019","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This article analyses the Indian caste-based occupation of sanitation work undertaken without protective equipment—manual scavenging. The current legal framework on manual scavenging in India suggests that demolishing dry latrines will abolish manual scavenging. This approach overlooks the coercive nature of the caste system and is therefore an inadequate solution for abolishing manual scavenging. Hence, this article asks ‘how can the legal system provide better legal protections to manual scavengers when the caste system that underpins the practice is deeply entrenched in Indian society?’ The article examines one possible answer—taking dignity more seriously. It demonstrates that manual scavenging is a dignitarian problem by mapping the main dignitarian harms that arise from it, such as humiliation, loss of autonomy and tensions with group dignity. Ultimately, it proposes using dignity in line with the jurisprudence of the UN Human Rights Committee to provide more comprehensive legal protections for manual scavengers.","PeriodicalId":46556,"journal":{"name":"Human Rights Law Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2022-06-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46336842","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (‘CRPD’) is the first international human rights treaty to recognize rights specifically for disabled people. It has been heralded as revolutionary in creating a ‘paradigm shift’ in how disability is understood within law. The CRPD moves away from a medical model of disability (which focuses on the individual’s limitations) to a social model of disability (which focuses on social barriers and how they can be alleviated to better promote the rights of disabled people.) Nilsson rightly points out that much of the originality of the CRPD’s approach rests with its focus on equal treatment and non-discrimination (pp 12–14). One of the areas in which disabled people are still discriminated against is in the context of compulsory mental health treatment. The presence of a psychosocial disability is still used in the majority of domestic mental health laws to justify compulsion. This includes where an individual is refusing treatment a professional believes they require and the person either lacks decision making ability, or there is a risk of self harm, harm to others, serious deterioration in health or a combination of these factors (pp 45–49). Therefore, one of the questions dominating CRPD implementation is if and when compulsory treatment is justified under the CRPD.
{"title":"Anna Nilsson, Compulsory Mental Health Interventions and the CRPD: Minding Equality (Hart Publishing, 2021, xi + 186pp, £67.50) ISBN 97815099315 76 (hb)","authors":"Carter G.","doi":"10.1093/hrlr/ngab032","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/hrlr/ngab032","url":null,"abstract":"<span>The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (‘CRPD’) is the first international human rights treaty to recognize rights specifically for disabled people. It has been heralded as revolutionary in creating a ‘paradigm shift’ in how disability is understood within law. The CRPD moves away from a medical model of disability (which focuses on the individual’s limitations) to a social model of disability (which focuses on social barriers and how they can be alleviated to better promote the rights of disabled people.) Nilsson rightly points out that much of the originality of the CRPD’s approach rests with its focus on equal treatment and non-discrimination (pp 12–14). One of the areas in which disabled people are still discriminated against is in the context of compulsory mental health treatment. The presence of a psychosocial disability is still used in the majority of domestic mental health laws to justify compulsion. This includes where an individual is refusing treatment a professional believes they require and the person either lacks decision making ability, or there is a risk of self harm, harm to others, serious deterioration in health or a combination of these factors (pp 45–49). Therefore, one of the questions dominating CRPD implementation is if and when compulsory treatment is justified under the CRPD.</span>","PeriodicalId":46556,"journal":{"name":"Human Rights Law Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2022-01-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138516574","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The draft Convention on the Right to Development is being negotiated under the auspices of the Human Rights Council. This article seeks to explore the merits and the added value of the draft in terms of its normative contents particularly compared with its soft law predecessor—the Declaration on the Right to Development. It argues that the draft is a momentous step in the recognition of the right to development as a human right not only because it is binding, if adopted, but also contains concrete, detailed and implementable norms. While it maintained the abstract and aspirational formulation of norms under the Declaration to a certain extent, the draft also addresses some of the prevailing gaps and limitations of the Declaration.
{"title":"The Draft Convention on the Right to Development: A New Dawn to the Recognition of the Right to Development as a Human Right?","authors":"Roman Girma Teshome","doi":"10.1093/hrlr/ngac001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/hrlr/ngac001","url":null,"abstract":"The draft Convention on the Right to Development is being negotiated under the auspices of the Human Rights Council. This article seeks to explore the merits and the added value of the draft in terms of its normative contents particularly compared with its soft law predecessor—the Declaration on the Right to Development. It argues that the draft is a momentous step in the recognition of the right to development as a human right not only because it is binding, if adopted, but also contains concrete, detailed and implementable norms. While it maintained the abstract and aspirational formulation of norms under the Declaration to a certain extent, the draft also addresses some of the prevailing gaps and limitations of the Declaration.","PeriodicalId":46556,"journal":{"name":"Human Rights Law Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2022-01-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138516575","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"OUP accepted manuscript","authors":"","doi":"10.1093/hrlr/ngac013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/hrlr/ngac013","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46556,"journal":{"name":"Human Rights Law Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"60847936","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"OUP accepted manuscript","authors":"","doi":"10.1093/hrlr/ngac002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/hrlr/ngac002","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46556,"journal":{"name":"Human Rights Law Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"60847784","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"OUP accepted manuscript","authors":"","doi":"10.1093/hrlr/ngac015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/hrlr/ngac015","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46556,"journal":{"name":"Human Rights Law Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"60847665","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"OUP accepted manuscript","authors":"","doi":"10.1093/hrlr/ngac007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/hrlr/ngac007","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46556,"journal":{"name":"Human Rights Law Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"60847855","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}