Indigenous Peoples in Eritrea, 2019

I am grateful for the financial contributions provided by the Canadian Indigenous of Health Research (CIHR), Institute of Indigenous Peoples Health and Gender and Health, with First Nations Health Authority, the Canadian Nurses Foundation, and the University of Victoria.

Fionnuala D. Ní Aoláin is the United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms while Countering Terrorism. She was initially appointed to this position by the UN Human Rights Council in 2017 and was re-elected by member States for a further three-year term in 2020. In this capacity she works closely with States and UN entities to advance human rights protections in some of the most difficult contexts globally. She is also a University Regents Professor at the University of Minnesota Law School, and a Professor of Law at the Queen's University of Belfast, Northern Ireland.In this interview, Ms Ní Aoláin discusses her duties as Special Rapporteur and illustrates the current challenges to the humanitarian space in the context of counterterrorism (CT) regulation.

The principle of equality – the belief that all human beings are born free and equal – along with the correlated prohibition on discrimination are foundations of society. Equality is one of the most basic aspects of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and a pillar on which the United Nations (UN) was founded in 1945. Yet, following the emergence of the coronavirus in December 2019, this long-established fundamental human right is being increasingly threatened. Indeed, as the UN Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues, Fernand de Varennes, observed, “COVID-19 is not just a health issue; it can also be a virus that exacerbates xenophobia, hate and exclusion.”

Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro: giving a voice to children

This essay is a nonlinear narrative that attempts to “unthink” the ways in which Australian Indigenous peoples' identity, sovereignty, and law are discussed. An Australian Aboriginal law narrative and poetry are part of the unthinking language used to discuss these definitions. The essay challenges some of the Australian definitions of Indigenous identity, sovereignty, and law, which come out of a Western epistemology and value system. This challenge includes the role of the United Nations' special rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of Indigenous peoples and its lack of female representation. The essay goes on to critique Australia's lack of maturity in accepting its geographical location in the Southern Hemisphere. The overall critique, however, is balanced with a suggested alternative governance system based on the classic thinking of Australian Aboriginal senior law persons.

Whither the Aborigine

From its hazy and humble beginnings, international environmental law is gradually but steadily acquiring a distinct identity within the wider field of international law. Occurring in tandem with the progress that this discipline has achieved over the course of time is the conceptual recognition of the human rights dimension to environmental protection in its diverse ramifications. Although not a prominent aspect of discourses in the cross-cutting fields of trade, environmental law or human rights, this paper sequentially examines the conceptual basis, normative framework, working methods, activities, achievements, challenges and promise of the special mechanism established by the United Nations' human rights apparatus in 1995 to deal with the human rights consequences of the transnational movement and dumping of toxic and dangerous wastes and products, over the first decade of its establishment. Because this phenomenon continues to present a problem in today's world as it did in 1995, this paper advocates normative and institutional reforms for this mandate and urges more rigorous and result-oriented action by states, non-state and intergovernmental actors. Observing that this thematic mandate holds considerable promise in stemming the impunity of hazardous materials production and dumping, even in regions of the world where the subject is rather reticent, this article proffers some modest responses in normative and strategic terms.

Summary The present report, submitted pursuant to Commission on Human Rights resolution 1993/2 A and Human Rights Council resolution 5/1, is primarily based on interviews and briefings held with victims, civil society representatives, human rights defenders, and Palestinian officials, among others, in Amman and Cairo in September 2014. The Special Rapporteur made every effort to contact Palestinian victims and witnesses via video and teleconference. In the report, he addresses a number of concerns pertaining to the situation of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and in particular, on their impact on children.

This chapter discusses the right to education and human rights education in international human rights law. It covers access to education, the nature of education, academic freedom, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to education, achieving universal education on human rights, teaching non-discrimination, and the United Nations Decades of Human Rights Education. Education is identified as a key to unlocking development opportunities, breaking the cycle of poverty, and promoting empowerment and equality. For human rights education, obviously it is difficult for rights holders to claim their rights if they do not know what they are. Ensuring human rights education empowers rights holders and, indeed, can build capacity of duty bearers.

Peace-keeping by the United Nations has become a central tool of international diplomacy and conflict resolution. In contrast to its previous emphasis on providing a passive buffer between antagonists, modern-day United Nations peace-keeping is increasingly directed towards establishing the conditions under which respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms can be maintained or restored. This shift in emphasis is reflected in the tasks which are assigned to peace-keepers. Military and civilian police components of United Nations peace-keeping operations are now called upon to perform a variety of specialized tasks including monitoring of the human rights situation, investigation of allegations of violations and even provision of guidance and training to local authorities. The effective performance of such tasks presupposes a sound knowledge of the relevant international human rights standards as well as the necessary skill to translate these standards into practical behaviour. An understanding of human rights is also essential to guide the personal and professional behaviour of peace-keepers themselves, and to provide a measure against which this behaviour can be evaluated. In June and July, 1994, the United Nations Centre for Human Rights conducted, in Mozambique, the first-ever on-site training programme in human rights for peace-keepers. This article provides an overview of that Programme and evaluates its success relative to its stated objectives. The experience in Mozambique is then used as a starting point from which to examine the place which human rights training could or should have in the preparation of United Nations peace-keepers.

Trafficking in Persons and Armed Conflict

[Chile’s] advances over the past 25 years’. In the concluding statement of his visit, Kiai observed: The ghost of this era looms particularly large over the security sector, chiefly the police— and specifically the Special Forces— and their function in policing social conflicts and assemblies… I am particularly disturbed by the killing in July 2015 in El Salvador of Nelson Quichillao, a contract copper mine worker who was shot dead by Special Forces who used live ammunition during a protest calling for better pay and benefits. Authorities claim that the protest was not entirely peaceful . However, the police response raises serious questions regarding proportionality of response. Individuals retain at all times their rights to life and physical integrity, even if they become violent during protests, and it is the State’s duty to safeguard these rights… It is also imperative that the Government ensures that all employers cease anti-union activities such as targeting and firing workers for exercising their right to strike, which demeans the right. I urge the Government to continue taking measures to bring its legislation into full compliance with ILO Conventions 87 and 98 as urged by ILO’s Committee on Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations. It is clear to me that the government values the contributions of the private sector to the economy and policy. But it is not so obvious that it values civil society associations, including trade unions, in a similar manner. The Special Rapporteur’s drawing attention to the killing of Nelson Quichillao López is a welcome effort to raise awareness of the situation of the labour movement in Chile’s mining industry. Maina Kiai is due to submit his full report on Chile to the UN Human Rights Council in June 2016. We reported on the case in IUR 22.3 last year. While a police investigation into the case has been opened, reports at the time indicated that the strikers, unarmed, were shot at by Special Forces after they barricaded the entrance and halted production at Codelco’s El Salvador mine. Organised by the Confederación de Trabajadores del Cobre (CTC) union, the strike was part of a coordinated action across seven Codelco sites. CTC resorted to strike action on behalf of Codelco’s contract workers, after Codelco refused to negotiate on their pay and conditions of employment. According to the CTC, workers were building a dirt barricade with a bulldozer when police opened fire. Several other strikers were injured. The killing provoked furIn September 2015, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, noted that Chile continues to face ‘deep and significant social challenges’ INTERNATIONAL union rights Page 12 Volume 23 Issue 1 2016 O n 22 March 2016, thousands of workers and students took to the streets in Santiago de Chile to demonstrate their support for a general strike called by the Central Unitaria de Trabajadores (CUT), Chile’s largest national federation . The protestors were demanding the strengthening of trade union rights in the proposed labour reform Bill, as well as reforms to pensions and public health and an overhaul of the constitution. Labour reform has long been on the agenda for President Michelle Bachelet and the centre-left coalition Nueva Mayoría. In April, weeks after the demonstration and after over a year of negotiations, both houses of the National Congress (Cámara de Diputados and Senado) approved the labour reform Bill. Members of the opposition (centre-right) coalition Chile Vamos immediately announced that they would challenge the reforms in the Constitutional Court, a process which will delay the enactment of the Bill for a further 30 to 45 days. Among the most controversial aspects of the Bill are those concerning the union rights of contract workers and the regulation of strikes. The proposals have provoked strong opposition from the national employers’ organisation (la Confederación de la Producción y del Comercio, CPC) who allege that the reforms will privilege unionised workers in large enterprises over the country’s growing number of unemployed, and impact on wage bills and productivity. Moreover, these reforms are taking place in a highly volatile period for the country...

The Universal Periodic Review (UPR), one of the United Nations Human Rights Council (Council) mechanisms, aims to monitor the human rights situation globally through recommendations addressed to States. The creation of the UPR, brought about in the wake of the reform of the extinct United Nations Commission on Human Rights (Commission), brought institutional innovations in an attempt to overcome the problems of selectivity and inefficiency, indicated as the main critical points of operation of the organism in monitoring the international human rights. Besides the particularities of monitoring human rights through the UPR, this mechanism introduces two virtually unprecedented elements for the universal system of human rights: a tendency to circumscribe international human rights dynamics confined to States and the experimentation with decisions of a purely recommendatory nature. The literature that traces the historical origins of international human rights regimes points out that human rights systems were created to hold States accountable for human rights violations and abuses through international norms and institutions created specifically for that purpose. Alongside these internationally authorized control systems, civil society organizations independently exercise scrutiny of both state behavior and the functioning of international organizations. This means that, in practice, human rights systems, although arising from a purely intergovernmental decision, bring together the participation of civil society organizations in a more or less institutionalized manner, with different capacities for action. Based on the assumption that social organizations play crucial roles in international human rights systems, this dissertation seeks to understand how these limitations apply to the international mechanism of the Universal Periodic Review in order to identify the ways in which civil society organizations have organized themselves to circumvent the restrictions imposed on social participation in these dynamics, which is carried out through semi-structured interviews conducted with a sample of ten civil society organizations operating in the UPR of Brazil.

Ethiopia before the United Nations Treaty Monitoring Bodies Among the many human rights conventions adopted by the UN, seven are known – together with their additional protocols – as the core international human rights instruments: ‒ The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination; ‒ The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; ‒ The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; ‒ The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women; ‒ The Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment; ‒ The Convention on the Rights of the Child; ‒ The International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of all Migrant Workers and Members of their Families. The main international control mechanism under these conventions is what may be considered the standard mechanism in international human rights protection: state reporting before an international committee. An initial report is due usually one year after joining the treaty and afterwards, reports are due periodically (every four or five years). The international committees examine the reports submitted by the state parties. In the course of this examination they include information from other sources, such as the press, other United Nations materials or NGO information. They also hold a meeting with representatives of the state submitting the report. At the end of this process the committee issues 'concluding observations' or 'concluding comments'. This paper focuses on the experience of one state – Ethiopia – with the seven core human rights treaties. This should allow the reader to gain insights both into the human rights situation in Ethiopia and in the functioning of the United Nations human rights protection system.

The chapter presents the situation of Rohingya and other Muslims in Myanmar and shows the severity and scale of human rights violations affecting them. The Rohingya were described by the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar as the ‘most vulnerable and marginalised group’ in the country. The chapter addresses the government’s participation and failure to intervene in instances of serious human rights violations. Furthermore, root causes for the Rohingya’s marginalisation and vulnerability are discussed, such as the discriminatory denial of their citizenship based on ethnicity as well as hate speech and incitement to violence.