Monetary Compensation for Survivors of Torture: Some Lessons from Nepal

The Nepali Compensation Relating to Torture Act (1996) is one of the earliest pieces of specific anti-torture legislation adopted in the global South. Despite a number of important limitations, scores of Nepalis have successfully litigated for monetary compensation under the Act, on a scale relatively rare on the global human rights scene. Using a qualitative case study approach, this article examines the conditions under which survivors of torture are awarded compensation in Nepal, and asks what lessons does this have for broader struggles to win monetary compensation for torture survivors? We end by suggesting that there can be practical tensions between providing individual financial compensation and addressing wider issues of accountability

Report on the situation of human rights in Rwanda submitted by Mr. René Degni-Ségui, special rapporteur of the commission on human rights, under paragraph 20 of resolution S-3/1 of 25 May 1994

Document collected by the University of Texas Libraries from the web-site of the Reseau Documentaire International Sur La Region Des Grands Lacs Africains (International Documentation Network on the Great African Lakes Region). The Reseau distributes "gray literature", non-published or limited distribution government or NGO documents regarding the Great Lakes area of central Africa including Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.UT Librarie

Needs, Rights and Responsibilities in Water Governance: Some Reflections

This article discusses needs, rights and responsibilities with regard to water, drawing on global discourses and cases from South Africa. Taking the New Delhi and Dublin Statements as a point of departure, it describes the prevalent global discourses and sets of dichotomies that have characterised much of the water governance debates, such as human right/economic good, public/private, formal/informal, etc. It explores the boundaries of responsibilities between actors, and argues that, rather than an ‘either/or’ approach, new constellations of governance arrangements need to be sought in urban and rural settings, that acknowledge the differential needs of people and communities. While water is a public, justiciable socioeconomic good, the provision of which should lie ultimately with the government, there are myriad constellations across the spectrum of public to private provision that can meet the challenges. The dichotomies, and in particular the idea of ‘public’ and ‘private’, are only useful to a limited extent, as there are many ‘publics’ and many ‘privates’. The question is not so much who offers the service, but how it is offered or organised, how and by whom needs are defined and contested, to what extent needs are met or not, and how clear lines of accountability are established

Exploring synergies between human rights and public health ethics: A whole greater than the sum of its parts

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The fields of human rights and public health ethics are each concerned with promoting health and elucidating norms for action. To date, however, little has been written about the contribution that these two justificatory frameworks can make together. This article explores how a combined approach may make a more comprehensive contribution to resolving normative health issues and to advancing a normative framework for global health action than either approach made alone. We explore this synergy by first providing overviews of public health ethics and of international human rights law relevant to health and, second, by articulating complementarities between human rights and public health ethics.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>We argue that public health ethics can contribute to human rights by: (a) reinforcing the normative claims of international human rights law, (b) strengthening advocacy for human rights, and (c) bridging the divide between public health practitioners and human rights advocates in certain contemporary health domains. We then discuss how human rights can contribute to public health ethics by contributing to discourses on the determinants of health through: (a) definitions of the right to health and the notion of the indivisibility of rights, (b) emphasis on the duties of states to progressively realize the health of citizens, and (c) recognition of the protection of human rights as itself a determinant of health. We also discuss the role that human rights can play for the emergent field of public health ethics by refocusing attention on the health and illness on marginalized individuals and populations.</p> <p>Summary</p> <p>Actors within the fields of public health, ethics and human rights can gain analytic tools by embracing the untapped potential for collaboration inherent in such a combined approach.</p

Self-management of health by people with intellectual and developmental disabilities

BackgroundSelf‐management of health includes people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) playing a key role in health management in collaborating with healthcare professionals.MethodsThis study analysed data from Personal Outcome Measures® surveys (n = 1,341) to explore self‐management of health. We had the following research questions: Who is most likely to be supported to self‐manage their health? How does being supported to self‐manage impact different areas of health? and How does being supported to self‐manage impact other health‐related organizational supports? ResultsFindings revealed the impact of self‐management of health can be wide‐ranging, regardless of impairment severity. When supported to self‐manage their health, healthcare professionals were more likely to address healthcare issues, and interventions were more likely to be effective.ConclusionsSelf‐management represents a paradigm shift for people with IDD because it transforms people from passive recipients to active directors of their health

The analytical framework of water and armed conflict: a focus on the 2006 Summer War between Israel and Lebanon

This paper develops an analytical framework to investigate the relationship between water and armed conflict, and applies it to the ‘Summer War’ of 2006 between Israel and Lebanon (Hezbollah). The framework broadens and deepens existing classifications by assessing the impact of acts of war as indiscriminate or targeted, and evaluating them in terms of international norms and law, in particular International Humanitarian Law (IHL). In the case at hand, the relationship is characterised by extensive damage in Lebanon to drinking water infrastructure and resources. This is seen as a clear violation of the letter and the spirit of IHL, while the partial destruction of more than 50 public water towers compromises water rights and national development goals. The absence of pre-war environmental baselines makes it difficult to gauge the impact on water resources, suggesting a role for those with first-hand knowledge of the hostilities to develop a more effective response before, during, and after armed conflict

Sendai five years on: reflections on the role of international law in the creation and reduction of disaster risk

This article offers a critical examination of the position of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 within international law. It is argued that any interrogation into the role of international law must begin not with existing disaster risk reduction (DRR) laws and policies, but rather with an enquiry into the nature of disaster risk and the role of international law in its creation and reduction. It is demonstrated how, while areas such as international human rights law can be utilized to enforce obligations in support of DRR, other areas – in particular international investment law – actively work to undermine DRR efforts. In order for international law to be a productive tool in the reduction of disaster risk international lawyers must engage with critical work in disaster studies in order to explore the role that the former has played – and can play – in creating and addressing hazards, vulnerabilities and capacities