Access to Justice For Women: India's Response to Sexual Violence in Conflict and Social Upheaval

A 2014 report by the Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women on gender-based crimes describes the female experience in India as consisting of a "continuum of violence...from the 'womb to the tomb.'" According to Indian government data, a woman is raped in the country approximately every twenty minutes. Women and girls are especially vulnerable to sexual violence during armed conflict and mass violence. Indeed, gender-based crime is a common feature of the armed conflict and mass violence that has marred India since independence.This report examines emblematic case examples from conflict zones and incidents of mass violence to understand how the Indian State responds to sexual violence against women and girls in these contexts. The goal of this report is to analyze the efforts of women victims of sexual violence and their allies to access justice in these contexts and to identify emblematic ways the Indian legal system succeeded or failed to provide effective redress

Chronicle of a Death Foretold: The Future of U.S. Human Rights Litigation Post-Kiobel

For thirty years, the Alien Tort Statute (ATS) has provided U.S. courts with civil jurisdiction over human rights abuses committed abroad and a small group of victims a modest measure of justice. The Supreme Court's April 2013 decision to limit the extraterritorial reach of the ATS in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum prompted declarations from experts that human rights litigation in the United States is dead. This view overstates the value of ATS litigation to human rights victims and ignores the availability of other legal strategies.This Article explores the implications of Kiobel for the interests of those most affected by human rights violations-its victims-and identifies strategies for how advocates can best use existing legal remedies in the United States to vindicate victims' rights. First, the Article defines a metric to evaluate the significance of U.S. legal strategies from a victim-centered perspective. The metric is based on international standards related to victims' rights: the rights to truth, justice, and reparations.Second, the Article catalogues the multiple legal strategies available in the United States to hold perpetrators accountable for human rights abuses committed abroad. Even after the Supreme Court's holding in Kiobel, the United States remains the only country in the world where a nonnational victim can bring a civil action against a nonnational perpetrator for human rights abuses committed on foreign soil. U.S. courts also have extraterritorial jurisdiction over international crimes, such as genocide, war crimes, torture, and the recruitment of child soldiers. Under crime victims' rights legislation, the foreign victims of these crimes have participatory rights in criminal proceedings. U.S. immigration authorities have also denaturalized and deported hundreds of perpetrators of human rights abuses who were discovered residing in the United States in violation of immigration laws.Third, the Article looks beyond the mere existence of these formal opportunities to explore how available legal mechanisms can advance the rights of victims. The Article uses a victim-centered metric to dissect the myriad vague and unproven claims about the objectives of human rights litigation and identify concrete opportunities to advance victims' rights to truth, justice, and reparations through legal advocacy in the United States.</p

Räumliche Handlungskonzepte: Ein Blick auf Probleme ihrer Erarbeitung und Umsetzung

Die Dissertation untersucht auf der Basis der Inhaltsanalyse von 429 deutschsprachigen Konzepten der Raumplanung sowie mit Hilfe von 17 ExpertInneninterviews verschiedene Problemzustände der Planung und Umsetzung räumlicher Entwicklungsmaßnahmen sowie den Umgang mit diesen Problemzuständen seitens der raumplanerischen Praxis und der Raumpolitik in Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz. Dabei wurde – neben allgemeinen Informationen über inhaltliche Schwerpunkte und Ausrichtungen der untersuchten Konzepte, ihre Planungszeiträume und Autoren sowie Entscheidungsverfahren und -methoden – ein differenzierter Katalog unterschiedlicher Problemzustände und kritischer Faktoren erstellt, welcher bei der konzeptionellen Ausrichtung zukünftiger Konzepte als Orientierungshilfe dienen kann. Der Autor diskutiert die heutige Rolle räumlicher Handlungskonzepte und weist eindringlich auf die Problematik der Verdrängung kritischer Zustände im Zusammenhang der Erarbeitung und Umsetzung räumlicher Handlungskonzepte hin

Episode #18: Defending Water Protectors and Indigenous Rights

Second in a four-part series of special Borderlines episodes with UC Berkeley Law guest hosts Professor Roxanna Altholz and Professor Laurel E. Fletcher shining a spotlight on human rights champions—all guest speakers in their Human Rights Practice Workshop course, where leading practitioners working in a variety of institutional settings speak about their struggles against corruption and impunity, the relationship between legal and social justice, and the future of human rights movements.Episode 18 of Borderlines features guest host Professor Roxanna Altholz, Co-Director of Berkeley Law’s Clinical Program and its International Human Rights Law Clinic, in discussion with Natali Segovia, Quechua, Legal Director, Water Protector Legal Collective and international human rights lawyer with extensive experience in criminal defense work and Federal Indian Law. Ms. Segovia shares the story about the Water Protector Legal Collective, a legal nonprofit, grew out of the No Dakota Access Pipeline resistance at Standing Rock and works to provide legal support and advocacy for Indigenous peoples and climate justice movements.Listeners will be enriched by powerful first-hand accounts of struggles to stop destruction of the environment and defend the rights of Native people affected by forced displacement, desecration of sacred lands, and human rights violations. Issues covered include leveraging of the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples with the US framework; SLAPP suits and the criminalization of protest; and protecting cultural and tribal sovereignty against encroachment.</p

Episode #17: Corporate Accountability for Human Rights Abuses

First in a four-part series of special Borderlines episodes with UC Berkeley Law guest hosts Professor Roxanna Altholz and Professor Laurel E. Fletcher shining a spotlight on human rights champions—all guest speakers in their Human Rights Practice Workshop course, where leading practitioners working in a variety of institutional settings share their struggles against corruption and impunity, the relationship between legal and social justice, and the future of the human rights movement. Don’t miss an episode – subscribe to Borderlines today!Episode 17 of Borderlines spotlights guest host Professor Roxanna Altholz, Co-Director of both Berkeley Law’s Clinical Program and its International Human Rights Law Clinic, in discussion with Paul Goodwin (’13) about his work with the United Nations Development Programme. The UNDP serves as the UN’s global development network dedicated to advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience, and resources. Mr. Goodwin heads the Social and Environmental Compliance Unit (SECU), the UNDP’s independent accountability mechanism tasked with ensuring the proper implementation and adherence to the UNDP’s Social and Environmental Standards. Listeners will come away educated about the role of UN-created international accountability mechanisms – their promise as well as limitations in halting corporate human rights abuses.</p