Private Violence, Public Wrongs, and the Responsibility of States

This Article will discuss the decisions of the Inter-American Court, comparing them with U.S. judicial decisions involving “state action” and private conduct. It will point out the evolution in international law from restraints on the exercise of state power, to the more generalized obligation of ensuring respect for human rights. This Article concludes that the American Convention provides guarantees for individual rights that are lacking in U.S. constitutional law

John D. Becker on International Crimes, Peace and Human Rights: The Role of the International Criminal Court edited by Dinah Shelton. Ardsley, NY: Transnational Publishers. 356pp.

A review of: International Crimes, Peace and Human Rights: The Role of the International Criminal Court edited by Dinah Shelton. Ardsley, NY: Transnational Publishers. 356pp

Remarks

These remarks were delivered at the Closing Plenary--Indigenous Peoples and International Law: A Conversation with UN Special Rapporteur James Anaya and Inter-American Commission Rapporteur Dinah Shelton

Protecting Human Rights in a Globalized World

The shift in sovereignty accompanying globalization has meant that non-state actors are more involved than ever in issues relating to human rights. This development poses challenges to international human rights law, because for the most part that law has been designed to restrain abuses by powerful states and state agents. While globalization has enhanced the ability of civil society to function across borders and promote human rights, other actors have gained the power to violate human rights in unforeseen ways. This Article looks at the legal frameworks for globalization and for human rights, then asks to what extent globalization is good for human rights and to what extent human rights are good for globalization. It then considers several legal responses to globalization as they relate to the promotion and protection of human rights. This Article concludes that responses to globalization are significantly changing international law and institutions in order to protect persons from violations of human rights committed by non-state actors

The Rules and the Reality of Petition Procedures in the Inter-American Human Rights System

In this Essay, Professor Dinah Shelton draws on her personal experience as a member of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to discuss the underlying causes of a crisis of commitment to the Inter-American system of human rights. Shelton traces the roots of this crisis in large part to the Inter-American petition procedures. Giving an in-depth account of the structure of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the details of the petition procedures, Shelton explores the issues of legitimacy, transparency, effectiveness, and efficiency raised by various aspects of the petitioning process, and discusses the various ways in which these issues in the petition process contribute to the broader crisis of the system\u27s authority. She ultimately concludes with a series of proposed reforms—ranging from radical to relatively simple—for improving the structure and procedures of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, with a view toward restoring the credibility of human rights protections in the Americas