The contingency of ‘rights’: Locating a global discourse in Aboriginal Central Australia

The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was adopted by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in 2007 and endorsed by the Australian Labor government two years later. This achievement is an essential element in the global politics of Indigenous recognition and includes unique rights, such as the right to a cultural collectivity and Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property, while reinforcing the right to self‐determination. Yet this new Indigenous rights regime is both underpinned and constrained by the UN human rights system, the implications of which include constraint within a secular neo‐imperialist liberal paradigm. However, this human rights paradigm can also offer generative potential to challenge existing relations of power. According to Kymlicka, the UN's system of human rights has, after all, been ‘one of the great moral achievements of the twentieth century’. How can these tensions between the aspirations to universal secularism and the right to culture, for instance, be accommodated within the Indigenous human rights discourse? And how does this new international legal and norm‐setting instrument speak to the glaring disjunct between declaration of rights and social fact in central Australia, the focus of this research? The move toward an anthropology of human rights looks squarely at this conundrum and attempts to locate spaces of continuity and co‐option or, conversely, subversion and rejection as local cultures of human rights are articulated.     

Ethnicity,extraterritoriality, and international conflict

ABSTRACT

The world has more ethnic groups than states and many ethnic groups are split across two or more states. One implication is that many ethnic conflicts are international phenomena in which transborder ethnic kin are involved. States concerned with co-ethnics or co-religionists in neighbouring countries are pursuing interests not included in our standard models of international politics. States that pursue such extraterritorial interests define national security and national survival in terms broader than merely maintaining the physical and territorial integrity of the state. Threats to their ethnic and religious brethren are seen as threats to them. And because such threats are seen as particularistic they also affect foreign policy alignments and the functioning of the balance of power.     

Fishing negotiations at the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea

Abstract

One of the major consequences of the negotiations at the Third United Nations Law of the Sea Conferences (UNCLOS III) was a substantial reduction of the international commons in which the freedom to fish existed and the creation of what was supposed to be a sui generis zone, the 200‐mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ), but within which the coastal state would have a virtual monopoly on the right to allocate resources. How this was done at UNCLOS III is analyzed using a model that shows the progress over time on major issues of the parliamentary‐diplomatic‐style negotiation in which consensus was required for an acceptable outcome. The shifting positions of major states and bargaining groups as they maneuvered toward consensus is examined on the questions of the creation of the 200‐mile EEZ, the rights of foreign fishermen in the EEZ, the fishing rights of geographically disadvantaged states in the EEZ, and the management of highly migratory species. The analysis shows that the new ocean regime, created through complex tradeoffs and strenuous issue‐by‐issue bargaining, was critically influenced by fisheries issues.     

The international defence of racial equality

Since 1945 there has been built a detailed code of international law defining the rights of individuals against the states that exercise power over them. In 1965 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination [ICERD]. The Committee charged with implementing the Convention, though sometimes limited by differences of approach and definition among members from various countries, has achieved various successes under the headings of standard‐setting, education and institution‐building. The Committee has now established a satisfactory system of reporting but it still operates under a series of constraints, including a lack of independent fact‐finding powers. Yet, despite these limitations, the Committee has, by its influence upon states, contributed significantly to the international fight against racial discrimination.     

International Regulation on Low-Carbon Shipping for Climate Change Mitigation: Development,Challenges, and Prospects

This article outlines the contribution of international shipping to climate change and examines different approaches to regulate international shipping activities to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It considers challenges such as the allocation of GHG emissions to individual states, the selection of the most effective mitigation and regulatory measures, the potential for a disproportionate burden to fall upon developing states, and the debate about whether the United Nations (UN) or the International Maritime Organization (IMO) is the appropriate international authority to regulate emissions from international shipping.     

The new law of the sea: Rethinking the implications for sovereign jurisdiction and freedom of action

This article examines the effects of the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea on sovereign jurisdiction and freedom of action in key sea zones covered under this Convention for coastal, noncoastal, and landlocked states pursuant to the modifications contained in the 1994 Implementation Agreement. In order to determine whether or not the treaty increases, decreases, or has no effect on state sovereign‐jurisdiction and freedom of action in the territorial sea, the contiguous zone, the exclusive economic zone, the continental shelf, the archipelagic regime, international straits, the high seas, and the deep seabed, the rights and duties of states set forth in this Convention are compared with those previously recognized in the 1958 Geneva Law of the Sea Conventions, state practice, and other sources of international law.     

Who should be doing what in the international health: a confusion of mandates in the United Nations?

Since 1945 at least five United Nations organisations have become substantially involved in international health activities. This has led to considerable confusion among policy makers, scholars, and UN staff over distinct and appropriate mandates. Interviews with staff an a historical analysis have shown that while formal mandates have been complementary, effective mandates have led to an unclear delineation of activities. The process of translating formal into effective mandates have been influenced by the decentralised nature of the UN, lack of a master plan for its activities, the considerable growth in the policy agenda and the shift towards a multisectoral approach to health. The identification of each organisation''s comparative advantage, at both the global and country levels, is one way of understanding what each organisation does best and perhaps should be doing. There is a need for improved mechanisms to define effective mandates, taking into account comparative advantages, if the mandates of UN organisations are appropriate to meet future challenges in international health.     

“Capacity”, “best interests”, “will and preferences” and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

The United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) is the most up‐to‐date international legal instrument concerning the rights of persons with disabilities. Such persons are taken to include those with serious mental disorders. According to an authoritative interpretation of a crucial Article (Article 12 ‐ Equal recognition before the law) by the UN CRPD Committee, involuntary detention and treatment of people with mental health disabilities are prohibited under the Convention. Both conventional mental health law and “capacity‐based” law are deemed to violate the Convention. However, some other UN bodies are not in full agreement (for example, the UN Human Rights Committee and the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment), while others are less explicitly absolutist (for example, the Human Rights Council). Furthermore, strong criticisms of the position of the CRPD Committee have been mounted from a number of academic quarters. These criticisms center on whether the role of a person's ability to make a decision can be ignored, no matter the circumstances. Much of the above debate turns on the concept of “legal capacity” and the now often‐repeated precept that one must always respect the “will and preferences” of the person with a disability. However, “will and preferences” remains undefined. In this paper, I offer an analysis of “will and preferences” that can clarify interventions that may be acceptable or non‐acceptable under the terms of the UN Convention.     

Doctors in the decent society: torture, ill-treatment and civic duty

How should physicians act when faced with corporal punishment, such as amputation, or torture? In most cases, the answer is clear: international law, UN resolutions and universal codes of medical ethics absolutely forbid physicians from countenancing torture and corporal punishment in any form. An acute problem arises, however, in decent societies, but not necessarily liberal states, that are, nonetheless, welcome in the world community. The decent society is often governed, in whole or in part, by religious laws, and while these states abridge various human rights they are peace loving, generally tolerant, and offer their citizens wide avenues for political participation. Under these circumstances the prohibition against corporal punishment and torture weakens, often compelling physicians to participate. This is true in two cases. In Rawls’ hypothetical nation of Kazanistan, Islamic law is the order of the day, and amputations and corporal punishment play an integral part in the execution of traditional Islamic justice. In Israel, torture is sometimes used to elicit the information needed to thwart impending terror attacks. In each case, a physician's participation is essential. In light of the near universal condemnation that accompanies torture and corporal punishment, physicians can only appeal to norms anchored in collective well‐being and concern for life that override respect for human dignity in these societies. Western societies have consistently rejected this reasoning, but it is part and parcel of life in the decent society.     

Chile's Presential sea proposal: Implications for straddling stocks and the international law of fisheries

Abstract

Despite rapid evolution in international fisheries law and establishment of the exclusive economic zone (EEZ), straddling stocks still remain susceptible to heavy harvesting in high seas areas by distant‐water fishing states there by undermining coastal state management. The notion mar presencial (presential sea) has recently been proposed by Chile as a solution for the problem of straddling stocks. The presential sea concept was nationally designed and promoted to curtail such foreign fishing in areas adjacent to Chile's EEZ. This article examines the presential sea as a geostrategic concept, its justification for being, and the question of its permissibility under contemporary international fisheries law. Attention is also given to recent international developments that challenge the legal viability of the presential sea concept. The authors conclude that if this concept were to be widely adopted by coastal states, the traditional freedom to fish on the high seas might be severely compromised. The preferable legal solution is to work within the parameters set out by the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, more particularly through bilateral negotiations between coastal states and fishing states, as well as regional fishery commissions that could manage activities in the region.     

Citizenship and Resource Competition in Nigeria

This article discusses the growing tension between constitutionally defined citizenship and socially accepted practices of “we–they dichotomies” as a turbulent component of the national question discourse in Nigeria. It examines the adoption of dual citizenship across the country as well as how this generates violent ethnic conflict. Importantly, while citizenship refers to one’s full membership of a sovereign political community acquired either by birth, naturalisation or any other process legitimised and recognised by the supreme law of the state, indigeneship, on the other hand, is a discriminatory policy employed by local or provincial governments for protecting the rights of their so–called indigenous populations to employment, political power and other resources of the regions or states against domination by alien populations and outsiders. It is argued that while such distinctions have been made possible inter alia by Nigeria’s multi–ethnic character, the ensuing struggles and tensions have been driven by the normless competition over resource allocation. These have especially been the case in instances where ethno–territorial cleavages have been the primary beneficiaries and targets of such resource allocation. This article discusses land as a major economic resource over which heated ethnic conflicts have taken place in Nigeria. Drawing on the conflicts between Hausa–Fulani pastoralists and Yoruba farmers in South–Western Nigeria, it examines the question of how disputed access to land and water has underlain an almost permanent basis of conflict in Nigeria as well as their implications for the country’s fledgling democracy. How does the struggle over land affect the articulation of the citizenship question in Nigeria? How have scarcity and competition over resources affected the contest over citizenship and the forging of nationhood among natives and settlers in South–Western Nigeria? How have colonial framings of socially accepted practices of indigeneship entrenched an understanding of the state in Nigeria as a representation of permanently defined subnational conceptions of ethnic citizenship? What role can the state in Nigeria play towards transforming the multiplicities of traditional societies into coherent political societies as a basis for (i) eliciting deference and devotion from the individual to the claims of the state, and ultimately for (ii) increasing cultural homogeneity, political integration and value consensus? Drawing on data generated from an ethnographic study carried out in South–Western Nigeria between October 2009 and March 2015, this study interrogates these questions.     

Brazil at the third United Nations conference on the law of the sea

Abstract

As Brazil began to emerge as a major power in the years leading up to theThird United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS III), national ocean policy came to have a quite continuous, distinctive impact on global law of the sea negotiations. Brazil's participation at UNCLOS III offers a particularly good vantage point from which to analyze its more prominent international role as an emerging major power, its related growth as a maritime power, and its significant contribution to international organization.

UNCLOS III, in turn, affects Brazil. The broad implications of the emerging ocean order for both national and international jurisdiction issues, within which Brazilian ocean policy must operate, are analyzed. Brazil's distinctive position as an emerging power between the industrialized countries and the Third World has conditioned its involvement at UNCLOS III. As a developing state, Brazil has favored revision of the traditional order for the purpose of redressing the balance with the developed states. At the same time, as an emerging power, Brazil has an interest in supporting a stable, open international order. In spite of such policy dilemmas, Brazil stands out as one of the few big potential winners in the Third World from both the seabed and non‐seabed portions of the law of the sea negotiations.     

New Poland's old dilemma: The Polish minority of Lithuania

This article seeks to explore the growing problem posed by the Slav/Polish ethnic minority in Lithuania and attempts to place this conflict in the general context of twentieth‐century East European ethnic conflicts. Particular attention is given to explaining the unique historical circumstances that produced this ethnically transitional area between the Byelorus, Polish and Lithuanian societies where throughout their history, the representatives of these ethnic groups as well as a large Jewish community and many other smaller ethnic groups have cohabited together as an intertwined mixture. However, with the spread of the idea of a single ethnic dominated national state, the transitional area in southwestern Lithuania ‐ as well as similar ethnically transitional areas elsewhere in eastern Europe ‐ were destined to be liquidated. Such areas could be liquidated either through some kind of enforceable dispersal of the now ‘undesirable’ ethnic groups from the region or through a state‐driven programme which would impose a new national identity on the ethnic groups involved. With Lithuania being much too weak a society to enforce the dispersal of its Slav minority, and with its élites determined to transform it into a single ethnic dominated national state, the only remaining option was a state policy of ‘Lithuanization’ of the Slav minority. The Slavs’ resistance to such a policy spurred on the growth of ethnic conflict in Lithuania and threatened to spill over into neighbouring countries. This article explores the regional ramifications of this ethnic conflict.     

Debate: Racism today: a perspective from international politics

In a recent contribution, Howard Winant aligns himself with scholars who contest the possibilities of general theories of ethnic and racial relations. He defines racism in terms of its social functions in specific historical contexts. As an approach to the constituents of 'racism today', this neglects the international dimension. In considering how the conclusions drawn from studies in one place at one time may be transferred for use in analyses elsewhere, it is important to note that the situation in the USA is in many respects exceptional. Winant also advances a theory of race formation which cannot easily be tested. An alternative approach would build on recent developments within the United Nations to identify a political framework distinct from the framework needed for socio-scientific studies. Within the political framework different components of racism are separately defined as violations of human rights.     

Historic Rights in International Law and in China's Practice

Despite the great expansion of maritime zones of the coastal states, consequent to the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, state practice indicates continued attempts at using concepts of historic waters and/or historic rights to assert jurisdiction. The Chinese claim to historic rights in its 1998 Law on the Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf is a new addition to the whole picture. It is the People's Republic of China's clear intention that the historic claim applies to the water areas in the South China Sea wherever China could not establish its 200-nm exclusive economic zone. This article assesses China's historic claim in the context of international law, state practice, and judicial pronouncements.     

加速推进可持续发展目标,开启未来十年的行动和成就——联合国可持续发展目标峰会介评

联合国可持续发展目标峰会于2019年9月24、25号在纽约召开,各国政府的高层人员就加速推进2030年可持续发展议程进行了全面审议和讨论。目前就全球而言,因为致命冲突、气候危机、经济增长不平衡等原因,人类在推动实现可持续发展目标的道路上已经偏离了既定轨道。为此,大会通过了一项政治宣言,联合国成员国承诺在未来十年筹措资金,努力在2030年之前实现17项可持续发展目标（SDGs, Sustainable Development Goals）,并且不让任何人掉队。同时,多国政府和组织结合自身情况,提出了126项SDGs加速行动（SDG Acceleration Actions）。我国代表在峰会上发表演讲指出,中国政府将可持续发展作为基本国策,全面深入落实2030年可持续发展议程,中国目前在脱贫、医疗、教育等方面进展明显,有望提前实现多项可持续发展目标。     

Support for Kurdish language rights in Turkey: the roles of ethnic group,group identifications,contact, and intergroup perceptions

The question of Kurdish language rights has been a central issue in the Turkish–Kurdish conflict. The current study examined endorsement of Kurdish language rights in relation to intergroup factors (i.e. group identifications, cross-group friendships, perceived discrimination, and perceived out-group beliefs about state unity) among self-identified Turkish and Kurdish participants. The results indicate that Turks were much less in favour of these rights than the Kurds. In addition, for the Turks, higher national and ethnic identification were associated with lower support for Kurdish language rights, while cross-group friendship, perceived discrimination of Kurds and the belief that Kurds endorse national unity were associated with more support for rights. For the Kurdish participants, stronger national identification seems to undermine the mobilizing meaning that Kurdish group identification has for language rights support. Furthermore, friendship with Turks can undermine the support for rights because it strengthens national identification and reduces ethnic identification.     

Accommodating ethnic diversity in a modernizing democratic state: theory and practice in the case of Mauritius

This article examines the accommodation of diverse ethnic communities in developing democratic states. We examine those means of managing or reducing ethnic conflicts identified in the literature that have actually been employed in Mauritius, one of the most successful ethnically-diverse developing states in the world. Our findings suggest that traditional elite-dominated means of regulating conflicts are becoming less effective in an age of growing populism and declining deference to elites, and that new means of incorporating ethnic communities into the functioning of the state are required. The key means in the case of Mauritius seem to have been the development of a competent and representative public service; the incorporation of civic associations, including those with an ethnic character, in the policy process by means of a civic network; and the evolution of political parties into ethnically diverse organizations. Inclusiveness appears to be more important than strict proportionality.     

The Contributions of Onchocerciasis Control and Elimination Programs toward the Achievement of the Millennium Development Goals

In 2000, 189 member states of the United Nations (UN) developed a plan for peace and development, which resulted in eight actionable goals known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Since their inception, the MDGs have been considered the international standard for measuring development progress and have provided a blueprint for global health policy and programming. However, emphasis upon the achievement of priority benchmarks around the “big three” diseases—namely HIV, tuberculosis (TB), and malaria—has influenced global health entities to disproportionately allocate resources. Meanwhile, several tropical diseases that almost exclusively impact the poorest of the poor continue to be neglected, despite the existence of cost-effective and feasible methods of control or elimination. One such Neglected Tropical Disease (NTD), onchocerciasis, more commonly known as river blindness, is a debilitating and stigmatizing disease primarily affecting individuals living in remote and impoverished areas. Onchocerciasis control is considered to be one of the most successful and cost-effective public health campaigns ever launched. In addition to improving the health and well-being of millions of individuals, these programs also lead to improvements in education, agricultural production, and economic development in affected communities. Perhaps most pertinent to the global health community, though, is the demonstrated effectiveness of facilitating community engagement by allowing communities considerable ownership with regard to drug delivery. This paper reviews the contributions that such concentrated efforts to control and eliminate onchocerciasis make to achieving select MDGs. The authors hope to draw the attention of public policymakers and global health funders to the importance of the struggle against onchocerciasis as a model for community-directed interventions to advance health and development, and to advocate for NTDs inclusion in the post 2015 agenda.     

Mediterranean pollution: Problem and response

Abstract

International efforts aimed at control of pollution of the Mediterranean Sea are unique in the extent to which politically diverse coastal states and a wide variety of international agencies are implementing cooperative programs of scientific research, education and training, planning, and treaty drafting. Continuing environmental cooperation in the Mediterranean reflects the political utility of pollution as a regional issue. Governments, the Mediterranean scientific community, and international organizations derive common benefits from maintaining the momentum of the United Nations Environment Programme‐sponsored activities, despite declining global interest in environmental concerns.