Contents overview - HUQUQ | Human Right in Context

Comments on Rights

On the Release of Political Prisoners in Syria and Human Rights

by Ahmed E. Souaiaia There are good reasons for cheering the freeing of political prisoners held in Syria after the fall of the Baath rule. Indeed, no one should be imprisoned for political expression or for belonging to a political trend that disagrees with the ruling party. Therefore, probing evidence of torture and holding those responsible should be the most urgent action, but it must be done independently and transparently. The collapsed Syrian government, like all other governments around the world, created a “label” for social groups it wants to target, legislate a law that criminalize the “label”, and use Read more

Towards a global alliance to compensate for colonialism and its crimes

by Muhammed Khalil Al-Mousa * The idea of colonialism has historically been based on the practice of imposing political, economic, social, cultural and legal domination by a foreign state, often a Western state, over a foreign territory and its inhabitants. Colonialism, which extended from the sixteenth century until the middle of the twentieth century, was a practice not prohibited under traditional international law, but it became prohibited since the middle of the twentieth century, when the United Nations decolonized the world. Colonial practices and policies were built on plundering the wealth of the colonial peoples, accumulating wealth and capital at Read more

UN: “Stop denying racism, start dismantling it”

UN Human Rights Chief urges immediate, transformative action to uproot systemic racism GENEVA (28 June 2021) – UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet on Monday issued an urgent call for States to adopt a “transformative agenda” to uproot systemic racism, as she published a report casting a spotlight on the litany of violations of economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights suffered by people of African descent – on a daily basis and across different States and jurisdictions. The report states that the worldwide mobilization of people calling for racial justice has forced a long-delayed reckoning with racism Read more

The human right that benefits…

This provocative article’s main thesis is succinctly captured by the title, the human right that benefits nature. While informative with the level of details and timelines that chronicle the struggle of community organizers to secure livable clean spaces, it nonetheless perpetuates the idea that human rights are claims for specific rights independent of whatever else is happening in the world. The piece, however, highlights the need for the reframing human rights discourse. It reveals human rights as outcomes of plurality of intra- and interconnected systems with direct and indirect effects. To have a fuller grasp of the causes, motives, and Read more

Impact of Sovereign and Absolute Immunity on Human Rights

by Ahmed E. Souaiaia Those who believe in top-down paradigm for the promotion of human rights norms are given another good example of the misplaced expectations as the new US administration tackles the legacy of abuse and human rights violations. I have consistently argued that legislating through executive order does not necessarily promote the long-term health of a human rights regime. When considering the fact that human rights abuses are primarily carried out by governments, it becomes evident that entrusting the protection of human rights to a government amounts to asking violators to look after the wellbeing of the victims: Read more