Book review: failing to protect: the UN and the politicisation of human rights by Rosa Freedman

The United Nations was established to safeguard world peace and security, development, and human rights, yet it is undeniable that it sometimes fails to protect the rights of a great many people. This book aims to look at the reasons for that failure. Rosa Freedman offers explanations of how and why the organisation is unable, at best, or unwilling, at worst, to protect human rights. Ben Warwick recommends this read for the understanding of global inaction on grave rights abuses it brings

Socio-Economic Rights During Economic Crises: A Changed Approach to Non-Retrogression

When the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) released a letter in early 2012 addressing the financial and economic crises, it was long overdue. Finally, and around four and a half years after the crises began, the body responsible for monitoring those rights that had been most severely impacted had spoken. But what had been said? This article examines the alterations to the doctrine of non-retrogression that the 2012 Letter instigated. It does so by reference to the ‘Business as Usual’ and ‘accommodation’ theories of emergency response. The Letter to States is argued to have taken the Committee away from an approach to non-retrogression that treated times of normality and emergency in a similar way, and towards an approach that allows derogation-style deviations from the Covenant. This, it is argued, could have detrimental effects for the protection of economic and social rights. The difficulties in applying such an approach are considered

A windrush in waiting: post-Brexit categories of citizens in Northern Ireland

Northern Irish citizens are entitled to apply for an Irish passport, and many of those concerned about the consequences of Brexit have done so. But efforts to accommodate this, alongside changes to the status of EU citizens, will create no less than nine categories of citizen in Northern Ireland. Ben Warwick (University of Birmingham) looks at what this means for the Good Friday Agreement, and how it is all linked to the ‘hostile environment’ policy pursued by the Home Office

Rescuers & Redeemers: The Evangelical Church’s role in the anti-trafficking movement

On Monday the Rewind & Reframe campaign to denounce sexism and racism in music videos was launched by EVAW, Imkaan and Object in London. The debate in Westminster that signaled the start of their campaign is part of a growing online and traditional media interest in the portrayal of women in the music industry [1]. Rewind & Reframe call for age restrictions to be placed on music videos, in the same way that films or DVDs have age ratings. A discussion on rascism and sexism in music is crucial, welcome, and long overdue; yet its focus on age renders the debate obsolete given the broader effects on society

Bordering two unions

Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC licence. How does Brexit change Northern Ireland’s system of government? Could it unravel crucial parts of Northern Ireland’s peace process? What are the wider implications of the arrangements for the Irish and UK constitutions? Northern Ireland presents some of the most difficult Brexit dilemmas. Negotiations between the UK and the EU have set out how issues like citizenship, trade, the border, human rights and constitutional questions may be resolved. But the long-term impact of Brexit isn’t clear. This thorough analysis draws upon EU, UK, Irish and international law, setting the scene for a post-Brexit Northern Ireland by showing what the future might hold

Revealing ensemble state transition patterns in multi-electrode neuronal recordings using hidden Markov models

In order to harness the computational capacity of dissociated cultured neuronal networks, it is necessary to understand neuronal dynamics and connectivity on a mesoscopic scale. To this end, this paper uncovers dynamic spatiotemporal patterns emerging from electrically stimulated neuronal cultures using hidden Markov models (HMMs) to characterize multi-channel spike trains as a progression of patterns of underlying states of neuronal activity. However, experimentation aimed at optimal choice of parameters for such models is essential and results are reported in detail. Results derived from ensemble neuronal data revealed highly repeatable patterns of state transitions in the order of milliseconds in response to probing stimuli

Bordering two unions

Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC licence. How does Brexit change Northern Ireland’s system of government? Could it unravel crucial parts of Northern Ireland’s peace process? What are the wider implications of the arrangements for the Irish and UK constitutions? Northern Ireland presents some of the most difficult Brexit dilemmas. Negotiations between the UK and the EU have set out how issues like citizenship, trade, the border, human rights and constitutional questions may be resolved. But the long-term impact of Brexit isn’t clear. This thorough analysis draws upon EU, UK, Irish and international law, setting the scene for a post-Brexit Northern Ireland by showing what the future might hold

Identifying Homogeneous Patterns of Injury in Paediatric Trauma Patients to Improve Risk-Adjusted Models of Mortality and Functional Outcomes

Injury is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the paediatric population and exhibits complex injury patterns. This study aimed to identify homogeneous groups of paediatric major trauma patients based on their profile of injury for use in mortality and functional outcomes risk-adjusted models. Data were extracted from the population-based Victorian State Trauma Registry for patients aged 0-15 years, injured 2006-2016. Four Latent Class Analysis (LCA) models with/without covariates of age/sex tested up to six possible latent classes. Five risk-adjusted models of in-hospital mortality and 6-month functional outcomes incorporated a combination of Injury Severity Score (ISS), New ISS (NISS), and LCA classes. LCA models replicated the best log-likelihood and entropy > 0.8 for all models (N = 1281). Four latent injury classes were identified: isolated head; isolated abdominal organ; multi-trauma injuries, and other injuries. The best models, in terms of goodness of fit statistics and model diagnostics, included the LCA classes and NISS. The identification of isolated head, isolated abdominal, multi-trauma and other injuries as key latent paediatric injury classes highlights areas for emphasis in planning prevention initiatives and paediatric trauma system development. Future risk-adjusted paediatric injury models that include these injury classes with the NISS when evaluating mortality and functional outcomes is recommended