these were U.S. and Cambodian labor groups, as well as the conflicting objectives of American tex... more these were U.S. and Cambodian labor groups, as well as the conflicting objectives of American textile importers and American textile producers. Also highly relevant were U.S. foreign policy objectives strongly supported by President Bill Clinton, both advancing labor standards in U. S. trade relations and supporting Cambodia's "emergence from the wilderness" in 1996. The challenges of establishing respect for workers' rights through improved labor laws, in a country which never really considered workers' interests significant until they were faced with the loss of tariff preferences under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), were extreme. U.S. unions opposed Johnson's "carrot" approach that would have rewarded Cambodia with an increased textile quota for progress on worker rights. Textile importers wanted increased imports regardless of labor issues, while the American textile industry opposed imports more generally. The ultimate package followed the carrot approach and depended on training by the International Labor Organization (ILO) in Cambodia (largely financed by the United States) and regular assessments by the American Embassy in Phnom Penh. A package that survived for six years, until Cambodia became a member of the WTO in 2004, and in principle for some years thereafter because of that nation's generally good record on labor rights, 13 was attractive to many U.S. importers, such as GAP and Levi Strauss, and was successful, despite competing interests, unbalanced reporting by the Wall Street Journal, and some unhappy members of Congress. Johnson is justly proud of his pivotal role in constructing a mechanism that the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace concluded "has been one of the most successful and cost-effective programs to promote worker rights abroad the US government has ever funded" (p. 503). 14 Among the broader lessons offered by this example, Johnson concludes: [I]t is impossible to make all the competing interests happy with trade negotiations. .. . Therefore, I revised my approach. .. . [M]y goal was not to try to please all of the interest groups but to try to make all of them only moderately unhappy." (P. 500) Even for those who consider themselves trade experts in the period under discussion, the insights that Johnson provides will enhance readers' understanding of one of the few U.S. government successes in promoting labor rights abroad. Unfortunately, relatively few U.S. diplomats write in detail about the negotiations they chaired. This first-person history adds significantly to the value of the discussion and strongly reinforces my belief that The Wealth of a Nation is required reading for lawyers, economists, policy officials, and academics who pride themselves on an understanding of American trade policy.
The principle of subsidiarity, discussed more fully in Parts V and VI below, governs the appropri... more The principle of subsidiarity, discussed more fully in Parts V and VI below, governs the appropriate relationship between international, national, and subnational supervision in the shared project of ensuring human rights protection for all individuals. Foundational to international human rights law, it has been broadly defined as "the principle that each social and political group should help smaller or more local ones accomplish their respective ends without, however, arrogating those tasks to itself." Paolo G. Carozza, Subsidiarity as a Structural Principle of International Human Rights Law, 97 AM. J. INT'L L. 38, 38 n.1 (2003) (providing a "simplified working definition"). 16. See Moravcsik, supra note 2 (discussing "rights cultural" and "structural" narratives of U.S. exceptionalism, while defending the latter).
Framing is critical [to winning a public debate) because a frame, once established in the mind of... more Framing is critical [to winning a public debate) because a frame, once established in the mind of the reader (or listener, viewer, etc.) leads that person almost inevitably to the conclusion desired by the framer, and it blocks consideration of other possible facts and interpretations.'-Framing expert, George Lakoff There is a critical question that is too frequently obscured in discussions of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (CPs): Why precisely is it that the most vocal and consistent critics of the CPs are human rights organizati0ns, precisely the groups that have been pushing the longest and hardest for a more effective, non-business-as-usual approach to corporate human rights abuse? Indeed, whether big or small, North-or South-based, international or local in orientation, or highly or loosely networked, human rights NCOs have consistently taken a critical posture toward the CPs. Although their openness to CP engagement has v3;r-ied, • each has tended to see the CP framework as "regressive," a "step backward" in the protection of human rights, 3 one based on a corporate good will model that not only has proven itself ineffective over decades of trial and creative experimentation, 4 but, that-most revealingly and consequentially-ignores the critical elements of a human rights approach to social change. Indeed, in order to render the CPs 1 George Lakoff, George Lakoff Manifesto 2, www.infoamerica.org/teori a_textos/manifiestoJakoff.p df; see also: George Lakoff, The All New Don't Think of an Elephant/ Know Your Values and Frame the Debate (2014). • Groups that do not take a human rights approach to community-based problem-solving as the primary emphasis of their work have. been more open to engaging the GPs. In this respect, I am highly sympathetic to the framing used in Chris Jochnick's contribution to this volume, while believing that it may oversuggest differences in the substance of the critical postures taken by human rights NGOs (as a category) toward the GPs. See infra, note 5• 3 See, e.g., FIDH et al., "Joint Civil Society Statement on the Draft Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights" (3 March 2011); Christopher Albin-Lackey, Human Rights Watch, "Without Rules: A Failed Approach to Corporate Accountability," in Human Rights Watch: 2013 World-Report (2013) (recognizing GPs as "woefully inadequate" by "setting a lower bar than international human rights standards"). 4 Indeed, international efforts at corporate voluntarism in the human rights field have been vigorously pursued at the highest levels since the 196os.
The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, 2011
The value of the framework has been recognised by Amnesty International and large numbers of othe... more The value of the framework has been recognised by Amnesty International and large numbers of other civil society organisations (CSOs) in individual and joint submissions to the Human Rights Council. See UN Doc. A/HRC/8/NGO/5; Ruggie, supra note 2, p. 287. Nevertheless, a large number of other CSOs, especially from the global south, have been more critical, urging the Human Rights Council to reject the Draft Guiding Principles. See e.g. Statement to the Delegations on the Human Rights Council 2011, 17th Session, Agenda Item 3 (30 May 2011), <www.fian.org/news/press-releases/CSOs-respond-toruggies-guiding-principles-regarding-human-rights-and-transnational-corporations/pdf>. 4 Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with Regard to Human Rights, UN Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/2003/12/Rev.2 (26 August 2003). While the UN Human Rights Commission's decision to table the Draft 65
This book chapter systematizes and critically assesses the growing social rights jurisprudence of... more This book chapter systematizes and critically assesses the growing social rights jurisprudence of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights as it has developed under its three case-based competences: (1) quasi-adjudication of individual complaints, (2) approval of friendly settlements, and (3) issuance of precautionary measures. It begins by addressing the Commission's subject matter jurisdiction over economic, social and cultural rights, the legal obligations that correspond to such rights under system-specific adjudicatory process, and the regional body's procedures for considering individual complaints of human rights violations. It then critically reviews the Commission's jurisprudential developments to date on the right to health, the right to education, the right to social security, the right to housing and land resources, the rights to work, labor guarantees, and freedom to unionize, and the right to culture, respectively, under each of the Commission's ca...
Updated in English for 2011 Spanish edition. This book chapter critically assesses the emerging s... more Updated in English for 2011 Spanish edition. This book chapter critically assesses the emerging social rights jurisprudence of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights as it has developed to date. It describes the normative framework over which the Court exercises jurisdiction, the complaints procedure it oversees, and the legal obligations that OAS member states assume with respect to the protected rights enshrined in the region's instruments. It then assesses four of the normative axes on which the Court has jurisprudentially relied in protecting social rights and looks to the Court's rich jurisprudence on reparation and supervision of compliance with its decisions. The chapter concludes that the Court's social rights jurisprudence is commendable and requires expansion, but doing so will require the reversal of two troubling, closely-related trends that currently limit the vast potential of the Court to provide full and effective protection for all human rights.
On December 13, 2006, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopted the Convention on t... more On December 13, 2006, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopted the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The Convention is historic and path-breaking on several levels, both in protection terms for the world's 650 million persons with disabilities who may now draw upon its provisions in defense of their internationally-protected rights, and in relation to the unprecedented level of civil society input and engagement in the negotiation process. This sustained and constructive engagement has given rise to a dynamic process of dialogue, cooperation, and mutual trust that will fuel monitoring and implementation work, at national and international levels alike, long into the future. This Article describes both the negotiating process that gave rise to the treaty and the major themes and motivating tenets that underlie its substantive provisions. In so doing, it draws attention to the two overarching paradigm shifts ushered into international human righ...
This Article substantively introduces a special symposium issue on "Implementing Truth and R... more This Article substantively introduces a special symposium issue on "Implementing Truth and Reconciliation: Comparative Lessons for Korea." Inspired by the Dec. 2010 release of the official report and recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Republic of Korea (TRCK), the special issue gathers comparative national and cross-national lessons from four nations -- South Korea, South Africa, Cambodia, and Peru -- on the factors that contribute to or hinder the effective implementation of truth commission recommendations and other efforts aimed at achieving national, community, and individual-level reconciliation. Such lessons are offered in the hope of assisting victim groups and other advocacy communities in South Korea as they engage in the long, complex, and always difficult process of ensuring the meaningful and effective implementation of the TRCK's recommendations for reform, follow-up, and reparation on the ground.The Article introduces the TRCK, th...
With a focus on truth commissions, this Essay argues for a new approach to assessing the impact o... more With a focus on truth commissions, this Essay argues for a new approach to assessing the impact or effectiveness of transitional justice mechanisms. It recognizes at least four discernible approaches to impact assessment in the current literature. I term these “Quantifiable Truth,” “Victim Perception,” “Formal Political Rights,” and “Redistributive Development.” While each has added important and complementary insights to the field, each has also exhibited important weaknesses in its ability to speak persuasively to the question of meaningful long-term impact on the societal dynamics and institutions that lead to violence in the first place. To help fill this gap, I propose a new, more process-oriented research agenda for measuring the impact of transitional justice mechanisms, which I term “Participatory Engagement.” This research agenda utilizes a new set of metrics or methodological indicators to help guide assessments of truth commission impact. They include: (1) the density, di...
The status of socioeconomic rights as fully enforceable norms has been contested for generations.... more The status of socioeconomic rights as fully enforceable norms has been contested for generations. International legal scholars have responded by generating a series of typologies in an effort to clarify the nature of these rights, their corresponding obligations, and the relevant standards for their legal assessment. These typologies, recognized in the U.N.’s General Comments and regularly drawn upon in the academic literature and comparative caselaw, include such distinctions as those between negative and positive rights or duties, the obligations to respect, protect and fulfill, immediacy vs. progressivity, minimum core content and the prohibition on regressivity, and directly vs. indirectly justiciable rights. Missing from the literature, however, is any analysis of how these normative classifications relate to one another, and when one versus another should be applied in a particular institutional or enforcement context. The messiness and often conflicting nature of the resultin...
This Essay introduces the 2011 James McCormick Mitchell Lecture, “From Nuremberg to Buffalo: Just... more This Essay introduces the 2011 James McCormick Mitchell Lecture, “From Nuremberg to Buffalo: Justice Jackson’s Enduring Lessons of Morality and Law in a World at War,” a commemoration of Jackson’s 1946 centennial convocation speech at the University of Buffalo. It discusses Jackson’s speech, breaks down its thematic components, and situates the distinguished Mitchell Lecturers’ responses to it in context. Unlike Justice Jackson’s commanding and historic opening and closing statements as U.S. chief prosecutor at Nuremberg, Jackson’s 1946 speech, delivered just days after his return from Germany where he heard the Nuremberg Tribunal deliver its final judgment and verdicts, has largely been lost to historical memory. The Mitchell Lecture symposium — held on October 4, 2011, 65 years to the day from Jackson’s speech — was an attempt to restore that memory, providing an opportunity to assess Nuremberg through the eyes of Justice Jackson immediately after the event, while the images and e...
The unprecedented level of civil society participation that took place in the drafting of the U.N... more The unprecedented level of civil society participation that took place in the drafting of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) constitutes a major key to its success -- laying a solid foundation for the much longer and harder process of implementation ahead. This piece addresses how one civil society organization -- Disability Rights International (DRI) -- approached the negotiation process. Part I explains the strategic approach DRI adopted, highlighting its methodology, the guiding principles it embraced, and the resulting strategies of engagement it pursued. Part II turns to some of the key substantive issues DRI focused on in its interventions and advocacy before the Ad Hoc Committee. Part III concludes with a brief reflection on the CRPD, the ultimate efficacy of DRI's approach, and the road ahead.
On December 10, 2008, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Optional Protocol to the In... more On December 10, 2008, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), reproduced below, commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). 1 In so doing, it rectified a three-decades-old asymmetry in international human rights law: the lack of an individual communications procedure for alleged violations of the ICESCR. This asymmetry, reflected in the establishment of an individual complaints procedure for the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and virtually every other United Nations human rights treaty adopted in the interim, 2 traces back to an important U.N. General Assembly decision taken in 1952. Charged with drafting an International Bill of Rights, the U.N. Commission on Human Rights had by 1947 decided that the Bill would consist of a declaration, a convention, and measures of implementation. 3 The first of those, the UDHR, was finalized and adopted on December 10, 1948. Predicated on an understanding that the ideal of human dignity could not be secured without equal attention to the full family of civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights, which could not be divided or considered in isolation from each other, it comprised in
these were U.S. and Cambodian labor groups, as well as the conflicting objectives of American tex... more these were U.S. and Cambodian labor groups, as well as the conflicting objectives of American textile importers and American textile producers. Also highly relevant were U.S. foreign policy objectives strongly supported by President Bill Clinton, both advancing labor standards in U. S. trade relations and supporting Cambodia's "emergence from the wilderness" in 1996. The challenges of establishing respect for workers' rights through improved labor laws, in a country which never really considered workers' interests significant until they were faced with the loss of tariff preferences under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), were extreme. U.S. unions opposed Johnson's "carrot" approach that would have rewarded Cambodia with an increased textile quota for progress on worker rights. Textile importers wanted increased imports regardless of labor issues, while the American textile industry opposed imports more generally. The ultimate package followed the carrot approach and depended on training by the International Labor Organization (ILO) in Cambodia (largely financed by the United States) and regular assessments by the American Embassy in Phnom Penh. A package that survived for six years, until Cambodia became a member of the WTO in 2004, and in principle for some years thereafter because of that nation's generally good record on labor rights, 13 was attractive to many U.S. importers, such as GAP and Levi Strauss, and was successful, despite competing interests, unbalanced reporting by the Wall Street Journal, and some unhappy members of Congress. Johnson is justly proud of his pivotal role in constructing a mechanism that the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace concluded "has been one of the most successful and cost-effective programs to promote worker rights abroad the US government has ever funded" (p. 503). 14 Among the broader lessons offered by this example, Johnson concludes: [I]t is impossible to make all the competing interests happy with trade negotiations. .. . Therefore, I revised my approach. .. . [M]y goal was not to try to please all of the interest groups but to try to make all of them only moderately unhappy." (P. 500) Even for those who consider themselves trade experts in the period under discussion, the insights that Johnson provides will enhance readers' understanding of one of the few U.S. government successes in promoting labor rights abroad. Unfortunately, relatively few U.S. diplomats write in detail about the negotiations they chaired. This first-person history adds significantly to the value of the discussion and strongly reinforces my belief that The Wealth of a Nation is required reading for lawyers, economists, policy officials, and academics who pride themselves on an understanding of American trade policy.
The principle of subsidiarity, discussed more fully in Parts V and VI below, governs the appropri... more The principle of subsidiarity, discussed more fully in Parts V and VI below, governs the appropriate relationship between international, national, and subnational supervision in the shared project of ensuring human rights protection for all individuals. Foundational to international human rights law, it has been broadly defined as "the principle that each social and political group should help smaller or more local ones accomplish their respective ends without, however, arrogating those tasks to itself." Paolo G. Carozza, Subsidiarity as a Structural Principle of International Human Rights Law, 97 AM. J. INT'L L. 38, 38 n.1 (2003) (providing a "simplified working definition"). 16. See Moravcsik, supra note 2 (discussing "rights cultural" and "structural" narratives of U.S. exceptionalism, while defending the latter).
Framing is critical [to winning a public debate) because a frame, once established in the mind of... more Framing is critical [to winning a public debate) because a frame, once established in the mind of the reader (or listener, viewer, etc.) leads that person almost inevitably to the conclusion desired by the framer, and it blocks consideration of other possible facts and interpretations.'-Framing expert, George Lakoff There is a critical question that is too frequently obscured in discussions of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (CPs): Why precisely is it that the most vocal and consistent critics of the CPs are human rights organizati0ns, precisely the groups that have been pushing the longest and hardest for a more effective, non-business-as-usual approach to corporate human rights abuse? Indeed, whether big or small, North-or South-based, international or local in orientation, or highly or loosely networked, human rights NCOs have consistently taken a critical posture toward the CPs. Although their openness to CP engagement has v3;r-ied, • each has tended to see the CP framework as "regressive," a "step backward" in the protection of human rights, 3 one based on a corporate good will model that not only has proven itself ineffective over decades of trial and creative experimentation, 4 but, that-most revealingly and consequentially-ignores the critical elements of a human rights approach to social change. Indeed, in order to render the CPs 1 George Lakoff, George Lakoff Manifesto 2, www.infoamerica.org/teori a_textos/manifiestoJakoff.p df; see also: George Lakoff, The All New Don't Think of an Elephant/ Know Your Values and Frame the Debate (2014). • Groups that do not take a human rights approach to community-based problem-solving as the primary emphasis of their work have. been more open to engaging the GPs. In this respect, I am highly sympathetic to the framing used in Chris Jochnick's contribution to this volume, while believing that it may oversuggest differences in the substance of the critical postures taken by human rights NGOs (as a category) toward the GPs. See infra, note 5• 3 See, e.g., FIDH et al., "Joint Civil Society Statement on the Draft Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights" (3 March 2011); Christopher Albin-Lackey, Human Rights Watch, "Without Rules: A Failed Approach to Corporate Accountability," in Human Rights Watch: 2013 World-Report (2013) (recognizing GPs as "woefully inadequate" by "setting a lower bar than international human rights standards"). 4 Indeed, international efforts at corporate voluntarism in the human rights field have been vigorously pursued at the highest levels since the 196os.
The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, 2011
The value of the framework has been recognised by Amnesty International and large numbers of othe... more The value of the framework has been recognised by Amnesty International and large numbers of other civil society organisations (CSOs) in individual and joint submissions to the Human Rights Council. See UN Doc. A/HRC/8/NGO/5; Ruggie, supra note 2, p. 287. Nevertheless, a large number of other CSOs, especially from the global south, have been more critical, urging the Human Rights Council to reject the Draft Guiding Principles. See e.g. Statement to the Delegations on the Human Rights Council 2011, 17th Session, Agenda Item 3 (30 May 2011), <www.fian.org/news/press-releases/CSOs-respond-toruggies-guiding-principles-regarding-human-rights-and-transnational-corporations/pdf>. 4 Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with Regard to Human Rights, UN Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/2003/12/Rev.2 (26 August 2003). While the UN Human Rights Commission's decision to table the Draft 65
This book chapter systematizes and critically assesses the growing social rights jurisprudence of... more This book chapter systematizes and critically assesses the growing social rights jurisprudence of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights as it has developed under its three case-based competences: (1) quasi-adjudication of individual complaints, (2) approval of friendly settlements, and (3) issuance of precautionary measures. It begins by addressing the Commission's subject matter jurisdiction over economic, social and cultural rights, the legal obligations that correspond to such rights under system-specific adjudicatory process, and the regional body's procedures for considering individual complaints of human rights violations. It then critically reviews the Commission's jurisprudential developments to date on the right to health, the right to education, the right to social security, the right to housing and land resources, the rights to work, labor guarantees, and freedom to unionize, and the right to culture, respectively, under each of the Commission's ca...
Updated in English for 2011 Spanish edition. This book chapter critically assesses the emerging s... more Updated in English for 2011 Spanish edition. This book chapter critically assesses the emerging social rights jurisprudence of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights as it has developed to date. It describes the normative framework over which the Court exercises jurisdiction, the complaints procedure it oversees, and the legal obligations that OAS member states assume with respect to the protected rights enshrined in the region's instruments. It then assesses four of the normative axes on which the Court has jurisprudentially relied in protecting social rights and looks to the Court's rich jurisprudence on reparation and supervision of compliance with its decisions. The chapter concludes that the Court's social rights jurisprudence is commendable and requires expansion, but doing so will require the reversal of two troubling, closely-related trends that currently limit the vast potential of the Court to provide full and effective protection for all human rights.
On December 13, 2006, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopted the Convention on t... more On December 13, 2006, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopted the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The Convention is historic and path-breaking on several levels, both in protection terms for the world's 650 million persons with disabilities who may now draw upon its provisions in defense of their internationally-protected rights, and in relation to the unprecedented level of civil society input and engagement in the negotiation process. This sustained and constructive engagement has given rise to a dynamic process of dialogue, cooperation, and mutual trust that will fuel monitoring and implementation work, at national and international levels alike, long into the future. This Article describes both the negotiating process that gave rise to the treaty and the major themes and motivating tenets that underlie its substantive provisions. In so doing, it draws attention to the two overarching paradigm shifts ushered into international human righ...
This Article substantively introduces a special symposium issue on "Implementing Truth and R... more This Article substantively introduces a special symposium issue on "Implementing Truth and Reconciliation: Comparative Lessons for Korea." Inspired by the Dec. 2010 release of the official report and recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Republic of Korea (TRCK), the special issue gathers comparative national and cross-national lessons from four nations -- South Korea, South Africa, Cambodia, and Peru -- on the factors that contribute to or hinder the effective implementation of truth commission recommendations and other efforts aimed at achieving national, community, and individual-level reconciliation. Such lessons are offered in the hope of assisting victim groups and other advocacy communities in South Korea as they engage in the long, complex, and always difficult process of ensuring the meaningful and effective implementation of the TRCK's recommendations for reform, follow-up, and reparation on the ground.The Article introduces the TRCK, th...
With a focus on truth commissions, this Essay argues for a new approach to assessing the impact o... more With a focus on truth commissions, this Essay argues for a new approach to assessing the impact or effectiveness of transitional justice mechanisms. It recognizes at least four discernible approaches to impact assessment in the current literature. I term these “Quantifiable Truth,” “Victim Perception,” “Formal Political Rights,” and “Redistributive Development.” While each has added important and complementary insights to the field, each has also exhibited important weaknesses in its ability to speak persuasively to the question of meaningful long-term impact on the societal dynamics and institutions that lead to violence in the first place. To help fill this gap, I propose a new, more process-oriented research agenda for measuring the impact of transitional justice mechanisms, which I term “Participatory Engagement.” This research agenda utilizes a new set of metrics or methodological indicators to help guide assessments of truth commission impact. They include: (1) the density, di...
The status of socioeconomic rights as fully enforceable norms has been contested for generations.... more The status of socioeconomic rights as fully enforceable norms has been contested for generations. International legal scholars have responded by generating a series of typologies in an effort to clarify the nature of these rights, their corresponding obligations, and the relevant standards for their legal assessment. These typologies, recognized in the U.N.’s General Comments and regularly drawn upon in the academic literature and comparative caselaw, include such distinctions as those between negative and positive rights or duties, the obligations to respect, protect and fulfill, immediacy vs. progressivity, minimum core content and the prohibition on regressivity, and directly vs. indirectly justiciable rights. Missing from the literature, however, is any analysis of how these normative classifications relate to one another, and when one versus another should be applied in a particular institutional or enforcement context. The messiness and often conflicting nature of the resultin...
This Essay introduces the 2011 James McCormick Mitchell Lecture, “From Nuremberg to Buffalo: Just... more This Essay introduces the 2011 James McCormick Mitchell Lecture, “From Nuremberg to Buffalo: Justice Jackson’s Enduring Lessons of Morality and Law in a World at War,” a commemoration of Jackson’s 1946 centennial convocation speech at the University of Buffalo. It discusses Jackson’s speech, breaks down its thematic components, and situates the distinguished Mitchell Lecturers’ responses to it in context. Unlike Justice Jackson’s commanding and historic opening and closing statements as U.S. chief prosecutor at Nuremberg, Jackson’s 1946 speech, delivered just days after his return from Germany where he heard the Nuremberg Tribunal deliver its final judgment and verdicts, has largely been lost to historical memory. The Mitchell Lecture symposium — held on October 4, 2011, 65 years to the day from Jackson’s speech — was an attempt to restore that memory, providing an opportunity to assess Nuremberg through the eyes of Justice Jackson immediately after the event, while the images and e...
The unprecedented level of civil society participation that took place in the drafting of the U.N... more The unprecedented level of civil society participation that took place in the drafting of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) constitutes a major key to its success -- laying a solid foundation for the much longer and harder process of implementation ahead. This piece addresses how one civil society organization -- Disability Rights International (DRI) -- approached the negotiation process. Part I explains the strategic approach DRI adopted, highlighting its methodology, the guiding principles it embraced, and the resulting strategies of engagement it pursued. Part II turns to some of the key substantive issues DRI focused on in its interventions and advocacy before the Ad Hoc Committee. Part III concludes with a brief reflection on the CRPD, the ultimate efficacy of DRI's approach, and the road ahead.
On December 10, 2008, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Optional Protocol to the In... more On December 10, 2008, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), reproduced below, commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). 1 In so doing, it rectified a three-decades-old asymmetry in international human rights law: the lack of an individual communications procedure for alleged violations of the ICESCR. This asymmetry, reflected in the establishment of an individual complaints procedure for the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and virtually every other United Nations human rights treaty adopted in the interim, 2 traces back to an important U.N. General Assembly decision taken in 1952. Charged with drafting an International Bill of Rights, the U.N. Commission on Human Rights had by 1947 decided that the Bill would consist of a declaration, a convention, and measures of implementation. 3 The first of those, the UDHR, was finalized and adopted on December 10, 1948. Predicated on an understanding that the ideal of human dignity could not be secured without equal attention to the full family of civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights, which could not be divided or considered in isolation from each other, it comprised in
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