Regional Human Rights Regimes and Environmental Protection: A Comparison of European and American Human Rights Regimes’ Histories, Current Law, and Opportunities for Development

This work reviews the Inter-American and European human rights regimes and their abilities to respond to point-source pollution, climate change, and ecosystem conservation. It begins by reviewing leading human rights theories and the development of the relationship between human rights and the environment. It then focuses on European human rights, both under the ECHR and the CFREU, and highlights the ECHR’s ability to respond to instances of point-source-pollution though the right to privacy. The work then looks at the Inter-American human rights regime, its structure, history and ability to respond to environmental challenges. It reviews the regime’s tendency to use the right to property to protect the environments of indigenous populations and provides a detailed analysis of the regime’s potential ability to respond to climate change based on the recent Athabaskan Petition. Finally this work looks at how environmental protection can be developed within both regimes, comparing their abilities to adapt and progressively interpret each regime’s human rights laws. It concludes that the European regime is in a better position to expand its human rights, potentially to the degree of recognizing a right to a healthy environment

Including but not limited to: How Brussels is emerging as a global regulatory superpower, establishing its data protection standard worldwide

Can the European Union shape global regulatory policy? If it can, what conditions exist? This is the essential question at the centre of this thesis. This thesis will employ the case of global data protection regulation and put the two opposing theories of realist Daniel Drezner and institutionalist Anu Bradford against each other. To answer the first questions data protection authorities around the world have been asked to complete questionnaires on principles in their laws and these have been matched with common European and non-European data protection frameworks. The data indicates that the European Union is able to shape global data protection legislation. Two answer the second question, the two theories have been compared and confronted with the results from the first research question. While both authors cannot be completely proven or disproven, taking only their central disagreement if the European Union can shape policy against the preferences of the United States, Bradford having answered this positively emerges with the data on her side

With No Deliberate Speed: The Segregation of Roma Children in Europe

In this study, by taking the advantage of both inorganic ZnO nanoparticles and the organic material chitosan as a composite seed layer, we have fabricated well-aligned ZnO nanorods on a gold-coated glass substrate using the hydrothermal growth method. The ZnO nanoparticles were characterized by the Raman spectroscopic techniques, which showed the nanocrystalline phase of the ZnO nanoparticles. Different composites of ZnO nanoparticles and chitosan were prepared and used as a seed layer for the fabrication of well-aligned ZnO nanorods. Field emission scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and infrared reflection absorption spectroscopic techniques were utilized for the structural characterization of the ZnO nanoparticles/chitosan seed layer-coated ZnO nanorods on a gold-coated glass substrate. This study has shown that the ZnO nanorods are well-aligned, uniform, and dense, exhibit the wurtzite hexagonal structure, and are perpendicularly oriented to the substrate. Moreover, the ZnO nanorods are only composed of Zn and O atoms. An optical study was also carried out for the ZnO nanoparticles/chitosan seed layer-coated ZnO nanorods, and the obtained results have shown that the fabricated ZnO nanorods exhibit good crystal quality. This study has provided a cheap fabrication method for the controlled morphology and good alignment of ZnO nanorods, which is of high demand for enhancing the working performance of optoelectronic devices

The push for the international regulation of cross-border access to electronic evidence and human rights

This paper describes the different solutions used by China, the United States and the European Union to access electronic evidence for criminal investigations and the problems raised by their different approaches. The unstoppable trend to create mechanisms that allow authorities from one State to request data directly from a service provider located in another State is assessed together with the human rights challenges it poses and the need for the inclusion of certain safeguards in this kind of initiatives. The Second Protocol to the Budapest Convention is also analyzed as a recently negotiated multilateral solution to tackle this issue

Shifting boundaries of the EU's foreign and security policy: a challenge to the rule of law

Europe’s foreign and security policy needs to become more effective. To this end, the executive autonomy of European governments should be maximised, and legal constraints from EU law minimised – this view is only seemingly plausible. Only an EU foreign and security policy anchored in the rule of law based on the EU treaties is realistic and sustain­able. The EU is under pressure to meet human rights standards on the one hand, and demands to limit migration on the other. Three trends are evident: First, the EU is making new arrangements with third countries to control migration; second, it is using CFSP/CSDP missions to secure borders; third, the EU agencies Frontex and Europol are increasingly operating in the EU neighbourhood. Current trends in EU foreign and security policy pose a challenge to the protection of fundamental rights. For example, CSDP missions such as the EU operation “Sophia” in the Mediterranean are largely exempt from judicial review by the Court of Justice of the European Union. Lawsuits have already been filed with the European Court of Human Rights and the International Criminal Court against Italy and the EU for aiding and abetting human rights violations in Libya. Anyone who does not respect international law also threatens the rule of law at home. This also applies to the EU. The EU should resume the process of formal accession to the European Convention on Human Rights. The legal limits and performance of the EU’s foreign and security policy would be made clearer. The German Coun­cil Presidency in 2020 should place the rule of law at the heart of European foreign and security policy

Trafficking in Women, Forced Labour and Domestic Work: in the context of the Middle East and Gulf Region

This document is part of a digital collection provided by the Martin P. Catherwood Library, ILR School, Cornell University, pertaining to the effects of globalization on the workplace worldwide. Special emphasis is placed on labor rights, working conditions, labor market changes, and union organizing.ASI_2006_DWS_Egypt_Trafficking_in_Women.pdf: 43 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

Protection of Personal Data in sub-Saharan Africa

Africa is by far the least developed continent in terms of protection of personal data. At present there are 11 countries out of 54 which have implemented comprehensive data privacy legislation. Nine of them namely, Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Gabon, Ghana, Mauritius, Senegal and Seychelles belong to sub-Saharan Africa. The other two countries, Morocco and Tunisia, belong to North Africa. Yet, there are seven countries in sub-Saharan Africa with either Bills or drafts on data privacy pending before their respective legislative or executive bodies. These include Ivory Coast (Cote d Ivoire), Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and South Africa. The rest of African countries have neither Bills nor drafts of such laws. The dominant discourse on privacy and data protection advances the culture of collectivism as the reason for the state of privacy and regulation in Africa. Founded on the normative assumptions of the old debates engraved in universalism and cultural relativism, the main argument held in this discourse is that Africa s collectivism denies an individual a space to advance claims for privacy. The present study sought to interrogate this dominant discourse and in particular investigating the emerging trends of adopting comprehensive data privacy legislation in Africa. To avert from the inherent pitfalls of normative assumptions, this study engaged a hybrid methodology. It triangulated the doctrinal, empirical and international comparative law methodologies. Moreover, in order to gain in-depth insights of the state of privacy, the study delimited to three sub-Saharan African countries: Mauritius, South Africa and Tanzania as cases. Based on documents collected and interviews held, this study has found that although collectivist culture is an important factor in explaining the limited state of privacy in Africa, it is not a catch-all phenomenon. Instead, technological, economic, political and social processes have significantly affected privacy consciousness and consequently the systems of privacy and data protection in the continent

The internet and the global reach of EU law

EU law has significant influence on the Internet and parties outside the EU’s territorial boundaries that use it and are affected by it. The Internet has enabled the EU to extend to third countries the application of its fundamental values, including the autonomy of EU law, the rule of law, and fundamental rights. There are many examples of the EU exerting its global reach regarding the Internet, particularly in data protection law, but also in areas such as Internet governance, international agreements, and private international law. This occurs through a variety of mechanisms, including emulation and learning; international negotiation; coercion and conditionality; and blocking recognition of third country legal measures. The EU’s actions in exercising its global reach implicate important normative issues, such as distinguishing between the furtherance of core EU legal values and the advancement of the EU’s political interests; promoting the principles of EU law as universal values; ensuring that EU legal values are upheld in practice; and determining the territorial boundaries of EU law. The influence exercised by the EU carries responsibilities towards third countries, particularly those in the developing world. The Internet may also be influencing EU law, as is shown by the changing role of the Court of Justice