Abandoned Ordnance in Libya: Threats to Civilians and Recommended Responses

In a report released in August 2012, “Explosive Situation: Qaddafi\u27s Abandoned Weapons and the Threat to Libya\u27s Civilians,” researchers from Harvard Law School\u27s International Human Rights Clinic (IHRC) examined Libya\u27s abandoned ordnance problem and its humanitarian consequences for the local population. Based on field and desk research, the report documents the threats these weapons pose, analyzes steps to address them and offers recommendations to minimize civilian harm. IHRC co-published the report with the Center for Civilians in Conflict (formerly CIVIC) and the Center for American Progress. In this article, two of the report\u27s authors summarize its 2012 findings and recommendations

Confronting a Rising Tide: A Proposal for a Convention on Climate Change Refugees

This Article proposes a new legal instrument to confront the issue of climate change refugees. It defines climate change refugees as people whom climate change forces to relocate across national borders. The existing international legal framework – including its laws and its institutions – does not adequately address the emerging crisis. The proposed instrument should create obligations to deal with both prevention and remediation of the climate change refugee problem. First, the instrument should establish guarantees of human rights protections and humanitarian aid for a specific class of people. Second, it should spread the burden of fulfilling those guarantees across the home state, host state, and international community. Finally, it should form institutions to implement the provisions, including a global fund, a coordinating agency, and a body of scientific experts. The comprehensive instrument, drawing on a range of legal precedent and academic literature, would provide a solution that is legally sound, meets humanitarian needs, and is tailored to the specific circumstances of climate change refugees

Reading between the "Red Lines" : the repression of academic freedom in Egyptian universities

Bonnie Dochert

Confronting a Rising Tide: A Proposal for a Convention on Climate Change Refugees

This Article proposes a new legal instrument to confront the issue of climate change refugees. It defines climate change refugees as people whom climate change forces to relocate across national borders. The existing international legal framework – including its laws and its institutions – does not adequately address the emerging crisis. The proposed instrument should create obligations to deal with both prevention and remediation of the climate change refugee problem. First, the instrument should establish guarantees of human rights protections and humanitarian aid for a specific class of people. Second, it should spread the burden of fulfilling those guarantees across the home state, host state, and international community. Finally, it should form institutions to implement the provisions, including a global fund, a coordinating agency, and a body of scientific experts. The comprehensive instrument, drawing on a range of legal precedent and academic literature, would provide a solution that is legally sound, meets humanitarian needs, and is tailored to the specific circumstances of climate change refugees

Community Interventions to Promote Mental Health and Social Equity.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW:We review recent community interventions to promote mental health and social equity. We define community interventions as those that involve multi-sector partnerships, emphasize community members as integral to the intervention, and/or deliver services in community settings. We examine literature in seven topic areas: collaborative care, early psychosis, school-based interventions, homelessness, criminal justice, global mental health, and mental health promotion/prevention. We adapt the social-ecological model for health promotion and provide a framework for understanding the actions of community interventions. RECENT FINDINGS:There are recent examples of effective interventions in each topic area. The majority of interventions focus on individual, family/interpersonal, and program/institutional social-ecological levels, with few intervening on whole communities or involving multiple non-healthcare sectors. Findings from many studies reinforce the interplay among mental health, interpersonal relationships, and social determinants of health. There is evidence for the effectiveness of community interventions for improving mental health and some social outcomes across social-ecological levels. Studies indicate the importance of ongoing resources and training to maintain long-term outcomes, explicit attention to ethics and processes to foster equitable partnerships, and policy reform to support sustainable healthcare-community collaborations