College geven moet geen straf meer zijn

Goed onderwijs heeft voor universiteiten nog steeds geen prioriteit. Dat is jammer voor de studenten, maar ook voor de professoren, zegt Barbara Oomen

Met justitie vertrekt ook billijkheid uit Zeeland

Justitie trekt zich terug uit Zeeland. Onrecht is het gevolg, waarschuwen Barbara Oomen en Nienke Slump

Examining the Role of Informal Justice Systems in Child Rights Protection in Kenya: A Case Study of the Kipsigis

This research investigates the extent to which informal justice systems protect and violate children rights and well-being. It involves an empirical study of the Kipsigis community in Kenya. The study revealed how informal and formal justice systems interact to address child abuse in this community and the location of Kipsigis children as both subjects and objects of child abuse. Although formal child protection systems at both domestic and international level consider informal justice systems to be inconsistent with the interest and well-being of the child, many community members among grassroots communities rely on them as the main dispute resolution platforms. Children officers, and other state agents, in recognizing the inadequacy of formal law to resolve some child-related disputes, rely on customary law to resolve the same. The study revealed that the best interest of the child under Kipsigis customary law is guaranteed through; promotion of a harmonious co-existence between the child and the clan/family members; prioritisation of the long-term (rather than short-term) interest of the child; adherence to the customary duties and obligation by the parents; and a contextual understanding of the best interest of the child in which the needs of each child are considered to be different and therefore warranting a child-specific approach. It also established that the ‘wholesale’ condemnation of child labour by international and domestic child rights regimes is counterproductive to the child well-being because it ignores the social construction of child labour and the role that some forms of ‘child labour’ play in integrating the child in the family and guaranteeing other basic services, such as education. The study also observed that child well-being at the grassroots level is guaranteed through the language of care and ordinary virtues rather than rights. Finally, the study revealed the existence of cross-cultural dialogue platforms that seek to reconcile the different conceptions of child well-being at the community level

The Arranged Marriage- changing perspectives on a marital institution

The manuscript studies the arranged marriage from within its own cultural tradition

Transnational city networks and migration policy

Increased migration flows and disconcerted responses by national governments have led to a proliferation of transnational city networks in the domain of migration. This policy brief provides an overview of twenty-seven such networks based in Europe and shows that their activities have six distinct but overlapping functions: effectively sharing information, showcasing, story-telling, shaming governments, seeking international and European support as well as standard-setting. In some instances, this proliferation of networks leads to both an overlap between network activities, as well as inefficiency in resource usage. Means ought to be created to keep an overview of transnational city networks and their membership, activities and functions in order to avoid unnecessary resource allocation and ensure better coordination, cooperation and possibly a division of labour among these networks

Cities and Plural Understandings of Human Rights: Agents, Actors, Arenas

This introduction sets out key aspects of the relationship between human rights and legal pluralism in cities and towns. Over the years, such localities have come to engage with human rights in many ways that contribute to the pluralization of understandings of human rights. For one, cities and towns are agents, or norm entrepreneurs rather than the passive receivers of human rights as international law and politics. In addition, local governments are actors, bringing into question to what extent they could become subjects rather than mere objects of international law, with their own international competences and obligations, making and enforcing law. Thirdly, localities serve as arenas, far from homogenous entities but rather spaces which bring different local actors and positions together, in which plural understandings of human rights clash and are produced, questioned, contested, and re-negotiated. These forms of urban engagement bring about a rich pluralization of human rights, ranging from the actors involved in its contestation, to the specific rights prioritized by localities; from the ways in which human rights debates can play out in certain spaces, to how human rights norms are transported between the global and the local becoming vernacularized. In setting out this interrelationship between urban activity, human rights and legal pluralism, this introduction also serves as an outline of how the different perspectives in the articles in this Special Issue contribute to a better understanding of the role of local governments in putting forward plural understandings of human rights

De staat van de democratische rechtsstaat

Menselijke waardigheid wordt geborgd middels mensenrechten. Zo hebben mensen, zeker in een pandemie, het recht op toegang tot gezondheidszorg. Zozeer, dat dit kan leiden tot inperking van andere rechten door de overheid. Van de bewegingsvrijheid, bijvoorbeeld, middels reisrestricties of een avondklok. Maar ook van het eigendomsrecht van winkeliers, op het moment dat de overheid gelast tot winkelsluiting; van het recht op familieleven van mensen in een verzorgingstehuis, of het recht op onderwijs van een scholier die alleen nog maar online onderwijs krijgt. Al deze rechten moet de overheid, in een democratische rechtsstaat, respecteren, beschermen en verwezenlijken. Deze bijdrage gaat over mensenrechten in de context van de staat van de democratische rechtsstaat in Nederland, de wijze waarop de pandemie dit zowel zichtbaar maakte als versterkte en de gevolgen voor de maatschappij en de beleidsimplicaties. Daarbij is er aandacht voor zowel wet als werkelijkheid, voor de kloof tussen deze twee en de wijze waarop deze te dichten. Dit met als hoofdboodschap dat juist de rechtsstatelijke inbedding van de coronamaatregelen sterk te wensen overliet, terwijl de democratische rechtsstaat cruciaal is voor het formuleren van een menswaardig, breed gedragen antwoord op een crisis als de coronapandemie en het borgen van de mensenrechten waar het om gaat