Cultural harm and engaging the limits of a right to cultural identity

This article critically examines the limits of a right to cultural identity. Some have argued that human rights norms require a reformulation in the light of cultural diversity. One element of this approach will be examined: the right of exit, as it appears to provide an instrument by which legislative authorities can largely avoid the politically and conceptually fraught challenge of normatively evaluating traditions and practices. By analyzing the effects of domestic abuse, this article will argue that a human rights-based evaluation of rights to cultural identity cannot rely entirely upon the following principle: that an individual’s lack of overt opposition to key defining and binding relationships provides a secure basis for a rights-based response to cultural identity. The article will demonstrate that some domestically-abused women’s ability to exercise their right of exit has been effectively disabled by the highly restrictive identities which their communities accord to them

Not Enough: Human Rights in an Unequal World

These are troubling times, in which we appear to be facing an ever-expanding litany of harms and injustices entirely of our own making. Our awareness of these pathological conditions is expressed through various critical perspectives and platforms, which together reinforce a pervasive sense of crisis. We all contribute to the making of our world in a variety of ways. Few of us can claim to possess entirely clean hands when it comes to accounting for how the world could have become so disenchanted and so unpleasant for so many. However, some may wish to claim that the very purity of their cause provides them with a secure alibi. The sounds of utterly marginalized voices do not carry very far and remain inaudible to those who occupy the various sites of economic, political and legal power. This cannot be said of human rights, which cannot claim the status of ignored outsider. In a relatively short span of time, human rights came to fill the mouths of countless millions of people in their attempts to give voice to “justice.” Human rights, at least according to many of its most ardent supporters, is the language of humanity. Setting aside the metaphysical presumptions of such sentiments, the very fact that so many human beings across the world, including so many of the most and the least powerful of humankind, adopted the language of human rights appeared to confirm its status as the globe’s foremost moral doctrine for the public sphere. The elevated status of human rights does not rest upon rhetoric alone. That human rights occupy a prominent place within the global order is apparent in a variety of ways and settings, one of the most visible of which is the rapid development of an entire body of international human rights law. The moral power of human rights was given hard, concrete form through the hard, concrete institutions of international and domestic law. Through its legal embodiment, human rights became an integral component of the global order and, in so doing, lost the moral alibi afforded those doctrines that seek only to protest and condemn from the sidelines

Escaping the Cultural Context of Human Rights

A review of: The Liberal Archipelago: A Theory of Diversity and Freedom by Chandran Kukathas. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2003. pp.29

Covid-19, Law and Human Rights : Essex Dialogues. A Project of the School of Law and Human Rights Centre

Covid-19 presents one of the gravest, acute challenges our world has faced for many years. The pandemic impacts a vast array of areas of life across the globe. It also raises a multitude of very urgent questions for law and human rights. This volume provides a series of scholarly responses to many of the questions Covid-19 raises for the theory and practice of law and human rights. The assembled papers in this volume collectively seek to engage with academic and practitioner communities alike and the volume aims to positively contribute to our collective attempts to “build back better” once a globally available vaccine for Covid-19 has been produced and distributed. The volume emerged from a hastily convened Zoom meeting of over thirty colleagues based within the Human Rights Centre and the School of Law at the University of Essex. The purpose of the meeting was to gauge ongoing research related to Covid-19 and the breadth and array of responses led to this project. It quickly became apparent that many academic colleagues were extremely interested in contributing their expertise on a very broad range of multidisciplinary Covid-19 related topics and issues. The combination of contributors’ enthusiasm for the project and our editorial efforts has enabled us to produce this volume in a very timely manner. A mere three months has elapsed from the first meeting to the final publication! The contents of this volume span a very comprehensive range of topics, questions and expertise. The volume is purposefully multidisciplinary. It is also intended to be accessible to a relatively broad readership who, one imagines, is nevertheless united by an interest in the role which expertise has to play in confronting and overcoming the very many legal, social, philosophical and political challenges which Covid-19 entails

Characterisation of the Colour Doppler Twinkle Artefact

This investigation involved the development of a range of Colour Doppler Twinkle Artefact phantoms to characterise and quantify the “Twinkle” artefact which is often present when an irregular structure is encountered in the imaged field of view. The artefact occurs in both colour and power Doppler ultrasound imaging and manifests as a false depiction of colour velocity information in stationary soft tissue and therefore can cause significant misdiagnosis of areas of flow within the patient. It has been hypothesised that it is generated due to a strongly reflecting medium composed of individual reflectors and therefore becomes a clinical concern when parenchymal calcifications are encountered. (Tsao et al., 2006). The aim of this study was to investigate the occurrence and magnitude of this artefact across a range of ultrasound scanners and to monitor the effects on the artefact of varying image acquisition parameters. A range of phantoms were produced that could reproducibly recreate the Twinkle artefact, the presence of which was quantified in a range of scanners (Zonare, Siemens Antares, Philips HDI and IU22). These phantoms included both fine and coarse structures as well as a flow channel in one of the phantoms, through which blood mimicking fluid was pumped. A semi-quantitative grading system was implemented and instrument controls such as pulse repetition frequency (PRF), colour write priority, greyscale gain and depth of focal zone were varied in order to determine their impact on the Twinkle artefact. Instrument control settings were found to significantly affect the intensity of this artefact, predominantly PRF showed a significant increase in the presence of this artefact. Furthermore, the extent of the artefact varied greatly across the range of scanners with Siemens Antaries and Zonare being most sensitive to the artefact. The implication of this study has shown the Twinkle artefact to be dependent on scanner specifications and instrumental parameters. With careful image optimisation, a reduction or elimination of the artefact can be achieved

The Effects of Fatty Desposits on the Accuracy of the Fibroscan Liver Transient Elastography Ultrasound System

A new generation of ultrasound transient elastography (TE) systems have emerged which exploit the well-known correlation between the liver’s pathological and mechanical properties through measurements of the Young’s elastic modulus; however, little work has been carried out to examine the effect that fatty deposits may have on the TE measurement accuracy. An investigation was carried out on the effects on the measurement accuracy of a transient elastography ultrasound system, the Fibroscan®, caused by overlaying fat layers of varying thickness on healthy liver-mimicking phantoms, simulating in vivo conditions for obese patients. Furthermore, a steatosis effect similar to that in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and alcoholic liver disease (ALD) was simulated to investigate its effect on the TE system. A range of novel elastography fat-mimicking materials were developed using 6-10wt% poly(vinyl alcohol) cryogel capable of achieving a range of acoustic velocities (1482-1530m/s) and attenuation coefficients (0.4-1dB/MHz/cm) for simulating different liver states. Laboratory-based acoustic velocities and attenuation coefficients were measured while the Young’s modulus was established through a gold standard compression testing method. A significant variation of the Young’s elastic modulus was measured in healthy phantoms with overlaying fat layers of thicknesses exceeding 45mm, impinging on the scanners region of interest, overestimating the compression tested values by up to 11kPa in some cases. Furthermore, Fibroscan® measurements of the steatosis phantoms showed a consistent overestimation (~54%), which strongly suggests that the speed of sound mismatch between that of liver tissue and that assumed by the scanner is responsible for the high clinical cut-offs established in the case of ALD and NAFLD