ABSTRACT: This article examines the recognition of girls as distinct human rights holders by two UN treaty bodies—the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and the Committee on the Rights of the Child. It investigates how far the Committees promote girls’ autonomy in response to their vulnerability—focusing on gender-based violence, sexual and reproductive health, education and anti-stereotyping, and public participation. The findings show that while both bodies increasingly acknowledge girls’ vulnerability, protection often outweighs empowerment. This article argues for a more balanced approach, supporting girls as active agents of change and strengthening their resilience.

ABSTRACT: This paper examines the Taliban’s governance since their return to power in Afghanistan in 2021, exploring its historical roots and ideological foundations. It analyzes the systematic oppression of women, particularly through their restricted access to education, employment, and fundamental rights, as well as the dismantling of legal protections by the Taliban authority. Additionally, the paper investigates the marginalization of minorities, including ethnic and religious discrimination, and targeted persecution. It also assesses the broader global implications of Taliban rule, such as shifts in international relations, heightened security risks, and the worsening refugee crisis. By highlighting these critical issues, this study provides insight into the far-reaching consequences of the Taliban’s governance, both within Afghanistan and on the global stage.

ABSTRACT: Business and Human Rights is predicated on the idea that victims of a corporate human rights violation should have access to an effective remedy. What constitutes a remedy, and how to access it has been the source of much debate and research both within the field and beyond. Most recently, there is a drive towards holding corporations legally liable through ever increasing turns to mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence. Whereas this offers much, we worry at what cost. Specifically, we argue that this is an imperfect outworking of a flawed system built on the outdated idea that corporations could only be responsible for their legal liabilities. Instead, we urge a commitment to continued dialogue, to participation, to negotiations and discussions with all stakeholders in business operations that the origins of due diligence promised. As such, we propose that extra-legal remedies can be a constructive way forward in redressing corporate human rights violations that can encourage better compliance with legal norms.

ABSTRACT: The Convention on the Rights of Persons Disabilities (CRPD) was hailed as a transformative human rights treaty when it came into force in 2008. The CRPD not only promises the remediation of the under-protection of the rights of persons with disabilities in international human rights law, but it also aims to transform the deep and structural inequalities underpinning the governance of disability through law and policy. The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD Committee) has adopted and extended this transformative ethos in its jurisprudence. In this article, we examine the reception of this jurisprudence by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and ask whether and how the CRPD Committee's interpretation of the CRPD has influenced the case law of the ECtHR. By focusing on the right to legal capacity, accessibility and reasonable accommodation, we demonstrate that the transformative jurisprudence of the CRPD Committee was met with visible disregard in Strasbourg. Our findings point to both the importance of specialized human rights treaties and jurisprudence in advancing the rights of historically discriminated groups and the challenges of judicially diffusing transformative protections for the rights of persons with disabilities into general human rights law.

ABSTRACT: Climate change litigation is going through a fascinating moment as children and young people, representing the future generations, are taking their states to court because their incompetence to face the challenges of climate change violates their fundamental rights. This article, adopting the internal perspective of these young plaintiffs, explores one of the most important argumentative tools for the protection of the environment, the linkage argument. This is a way of justifying a controversial right showing that its realization is indispensable for a well-accepted group of rights. Using some of the cases initiated by these young plaintiffs, each of the premises of this argument will be analyzed and evaluated. The final goal is to justify that there is a very strong reason to accept the right to a stable climate system and endorse its realization because of the support that it provides to the rights to life, freedom and property.

ABSTRACT: Victims have mostly been of secondary importance in the human rights work of the United Nations (UN). For Dutch human rights expert Theo van Boven, the orientation towards the victim has been a constant factor in his work from the 1960s onwards. Van Boven has given prominence to the victims of human rights violations in a series of UN functions and contributed significantly to making the naming of names (of countries and individuals) an accepted UN practice. His victim orientation took shape in three ways: by focusing UN attention on individual victims, by giving victims a voice in UN forums, and by advocating for the right to reparation and restoration.

ABSTRACT: Parallel to the UN's advancement of global human rights norms and initiation of "the age of rights," neoliberalism emerged as a rival global norm. This study discusses the danger posed by neoliberalism in its two forms/phases, "neoliberalism for austerity" and "neoliberalism for human rights." It elucidates how "neoliberalism for human rights" appropriates and distorts human rights discourse and objectives through the delineation of its three mantras: "diversity and inclusion," "multistakeholders," and "public-private partnership." Noting the UN's engagement of corporations and the pervasive influence of neoliberalism, the article raises concerns about the human rights impact of the UN's delicate balancing act.