330 research outputs found
Bridging the Enforcement Gap: Compliance of States Parties with Decisions of Human Rights Treaty Bodies
Litigation before the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights and the struggle against torture in Sudan
Document and Analyze: The Legacy of Klemperer, Fraenkel and Neumann for Contemporary Human Rights Engagement
Human rights discourse has been criticized for being legalistic, decontextualized, and failing to focus on factors explaining violations. Victor Klemperer’s diaries chronicled the life and suffering of a German Jew in Nazi Germany and the manipulation of language by a totalitarian regime. Ernst Fraenkel’s Dual State and Franz Neumann’s Behemoth set out theories offering profound insights into the legal and political nature of the Nazi system. Revisiting their work from a human rights perspective is richly rewarding, providing examples of engaged scholarship that combined documentation and critical analysis. Their writings hold important lessons for contemporary human rights engagement and its critics
The Prohibition of Torture and Persons Living in Poverty: From the Margins to the Centre
Torture of persons living in poverty has traditionally been at the margins of human rights interventions that have primarily focused on political and conflict related torture. This article examines the extent to which the evolving practice of human rights bodies and organisations evidences an emerging paradigm shift. It finds that a combination of a growing body of empirical research, novel approaches by human rights organisations and the work of bodies such as the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture has increasingly brought into focus the heightened vulnerability to torture resulting from economic marginalisation and discrimination. Drawing on evidence of innovative practices, the article develops the framework for a contextual approach to the interpretation and implementation of States’ obligations under the prohibition of torture that is alive to the realities of systemic violence and the nexus between poverty and torture
The Influence of Individual-Specific Plant Parameters and Species Composition on the Allergenic Potential of Urban Green Spaces
Green planning focusses on specific site requirements such as temperature tolerance or
aesthetics as crucial criteria in the choice of plants. The allergenicity of plants, however, is often
neglected. Cariñanos et al. (2014; Landscape and Urban Planning, 123: 134–144) developed the Urban
Green Zone Allergenicity Index (IUGZA) that considers a variety of plant characteristics to calculate
the allergenic potential of urban green spaces. Based on this index, we calculated an index for the
individual-specific allergenic potential (IISA) that accounts for a varying foliage volume by accurate
measurements of crown heights and surface areas occupied by each tree and only included mature
individuals. The studied park, located in Eichstätt, Germany, has an area of 2.2 ha and consists of
231 trees. We investigated the influence of species composition using six planting scenarios and
analysed the relationship between allergenic potential and species diversity using Shannon index.
Only a small number of trees was female and therefore characterised as non-allergenic, 9% of the
trees were classified as sources of main local allergens. The allergenic potential of the park based on
literature values for crown height and surface was IUGZA = 0.173. Applying our own measurements
resulted in IISA = 0.018. The scenarios indicated that replacing trees considered as sources of main
local allergens has the strongest impact on the park’s allergenic potential. The IUGZA offers an easy
way to assess the allergenic potential of a park by the use of a few calculations. The IISA reduces
the high influence of the foliage volume but there are constraints in practicability and in speed of
the analysis. Although our study revealed that a greater biodiversity was not necessarily linked to
lower index values, urban green planning should focus on biodiversity for ameliorating the allergenic
potential of parks.We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and
Competitiveness (FENOMED CGL2014-54731-R)
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