Bahrain's Human Rights Report Likely Absolves the GCC

By Staff Sgt Corkran F. Lee [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

by Samuel Halpert

As indicated by my last post, I’ve been eagerly awaiting the report from the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry into that country’s recent crackdown on political protests. The Commission has just released its report, and under current international law the GCC probably can’t be held accountable.

Arms Deals and Human Rights: Multi-Party Obligations in Bahrain

Flikr, Msha7welhom

By Samuel Halpert

It’s been a bad year in Bahrain. After only four days of peaceful protests for political reform last February, the army opened fire on the unarmed protesters--as well as ambulances that arrived to carry away the wounded. The carnage has continued through spring, summer, and into this fall. In August and October, Human Rights Watch documented incidents of police rounding up suspected dissidents and subsequently beating and torturing them in detention--medics who have treated victims of state violence have suffered a similar fate.

So, when the Department of Defense proposed a $53 million arms sale to Bahrain this September, the idea was unpopular with many.

Hidden at Home: Child Labor in Albania

flikr, Cuito Cuanavale

By Aislinn Shaul-Jensen

“My daughters don’t like the work and I feel guilty asking them to help me…but we wouldn’t be able to manage financially without their help … It’s really tough.”

-       Aurora, Albanian mother, interviewed by the ITUC

Sadly, stories like Aurora’s are not uncommon. While Albania has received much publicity for its transnational human trafficking and organized crime-related issues, child labor within the country is often over-looked. Although the Albanian government has signed and ratified several international treaties protecting child workers, and has passed domestic legislation of its own, child labor remains a disturbing reality.

Child Marriage: Also a First-World Problem

photo by Jean-Marie Hullot

by: Ashley Binetti

“How can a 10-year-old girl marry an old man?! I’m 10! Isn’t someone doing something about this?” An appropriate gut reaction from a former student, and an even better question.

Forced marriage, especially among young children, is a widespread human rights abuse and is well documented in many countries in the developing world; UNICEF reports that over 60 percent of women in Sub-Saharan African and Bangladesh are married prior to their 18th birthday.

Environmental Human Rights: Will the US Come on Board?

by Elizabeth Gibson

Most Americans probably assume that if a factory opened in their neighborhood and started discharging a toxic cloud, the government would turn up and yank the company’s permits. In reality, although the international community has increasingly recognized a human right to a sound environment, U.S. law is not always as helpful as one might think.

About 1948: A Rights Forum

Since 2005, The Human Rights Institute at Georgetown Law has served as a forum for students, professors, and human rights practitioners to discuss current issues in human rights law. We created 1948 as a way to extend that conversation. The blog takes its name from the year the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the U.N. General Assembly; in choosing our blog's name, we acknowledge that today's legal framework protecting human dignity flows from that document.

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