The prohibition to abuse one's human rights: A theory

Supporters of communism, national socialism and radical Islamism, but also people who incite racial hatred or deny the Holocaust, see their rights severely curtailed by the abuse clause of Article 17 of the European Convention on Human Rights. To make sense of this provision, this paper first introduces the distinction between abusable and non‐abusable rights in order to delimit the scope of Article 17. Then, this paper suggests a “test” to spot instances of abuse of human rights by borrowing the concept of performative self‐contradiction from speech act theory. Article 17 is reconceptualised as dealing with conduct that self‐contradictorily uses rights but simultaneously denies their very idea. In this way, it becomes possible to make sense of and to unify the disparate case law that Article 17 has generated so far: it equally targets political human rights abuse, attacking liberal democracy in general; and exclusionary human rights abuse, attacking the rights of other people.     

Role of radiology in human rights abuse

Radiology is well established in forensic medicine. The traditional role for radiology includes the search for occult injuries and foreign bodies, namely bullets, and identification of injury patterns especially in aircraft accidents. Recently, a more important role has developed: that of identification. This report deals with experience based upon over 100 identifications. Age, sex, race, and height may be established from radiographs. Radiology also plays a role in the documentation of civil rights abuse. The various modes of radiology can document visceral and skeletal injury. Terminal events may be reconstructed.     

Protecting the procedural rights of victim

Criminal procedure law of the People＇s Republic of China prescribed victim the status of procedure, and gave them more procedural rights. But it＇s insufficient. It＇s important to give them more procedural rights, e.g. right of appeal.     

Advance directives and the persistent vegetative state in Victoria: a human rights perspective

With advances in medical technology, it is now possible to sustain the life of a person in a persistent vegetative state (PVS) until a decision is made to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining treatment. Who makes that decision? Under the Medical Treatment Act 1988 (Vic) there is no legally enforceable right for a person to choose, in advance, what intervention that person will and will not accept if he or she ends up in a PVS. The best that can be achieved is that a person can appoint an agent who is empowered to refuse medical treatment on the person's behalf in the event of incompetence. It is suggested that this mechanism ignores two fundamental human rights: self-determination and the inherent right to dignity. This article proposes the development of an advance directive mechanism that provides for a person to refuse, in advance, specified intervention, thereby respecting fundamental human rights and alleviating the existing need for an agent to second-guess a person's desires and best interests.     

Forensic anthropology in the global investigation of humanitarian and human rights abuse: Perspective from the published record

Forensic anthropologists have played key roles in the historical development of forensic science applications to global humanitarian and human rights issues. These anthropological initiatives can be traced back to the Smithsonian seminar organized by T. D. Stewart in 1968 and published in 1970. Key developments include the 1984 delegation sent by the American Association for the Advancement of Science to Argentina and the formation of the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team. Subsequent highlights include major anthropological involvement in support of investigations by international criminal tribunals, formation of forensic anthropology teams in different countries and activities of the International Commission of Missing Persons and the forensic unit of the International Committee of the Red Cross. Recent developments feature the formation of the Humanitarian and Human Rights Resource Center of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and its support of worthwhile projects in many countries. The published record provides historical perspective on these developments.     

Crime,criminology and human rights: Towards an understanding of state criminality

This paper explores issues related to the analysis of a type of criminality frequently ignored in criminological literature: crimes of the state. It explores the potential of critical criminology to deal with state criminality via investigation of such issues as state interventions, overlapping activities of criminal versus non-criminal organizations and the distinction between individual and state actors. The paper specifically examines state criminality via analysis of the activities of the CIA and FBI in the United States. These activities include methods of surveillance, wiretapping, mail tampering, and the use of agents provocateurs. It also examines issues related to relativity in the definition of terrorism and the use of terrorism by the state. It is argued that, unless criminologists begin to address these issues, criminologists may find themselves in the awkward position of aiding the criminalization of non-criminal peoples around the world.     

Pellagra: a rare disease observed in a victim of mental and physical abuse

Lesions of the brain stem and cerebellum due to nutritional deficiencies are mostly seen in chronic alcohol abuse and more rarely in severe malnutrition. We report the case of a 27-year-old woman, found dead in the family flat. She presented cachexia (167 cm, 25 kg) and multiple hematomas of the limbs. Postmortem examination revealed lesions due to peritonitis. Neuropathological examination showed severe atrophy of the corpus callosum and central neuronal chromatolysis, which are observed in pellagra. Inflammatory colitis or celiac disease was not found. Toxicological analysis was negative, in particular no alcohol absorption. Pellagra, which is due to nicotinamide deficiency, is a disease rarely seen in this country. In this case, nutritional deficiency was the consequence of failure to eat in a context of abuse. The woman was born of an incestuous relationship and presented intellectual retardation due to poor affective relations with her mother.     

A case of traumatic osteomyelitis in a victim of child abuse

A premature black female infant born at 31 weeks gestation with history of 4 weeks in the newborn intensive care unit was discharged healthy to the care of her mother and was lost to follow-up. At age 4 months the infant was found dead in bed. There was no history of trauma and no external injuries were noted. There was no attempt at resuscitation. Coroner's autopsy showed acute bronchopneumonia, 3 partially healed skull fractures, a chronic subdural hematoma, chronic intracerebral hemorrhage, retinal hemorrhages, multiple healing rib fractures, a fractured fibula, and a partially healed fracture of the distal right radius. The fracture of the right radius showed a medullary abscess of the bone surrounded by scar tissue and containing pus and granulation tissue. We believe this inflicted fracture became secondarily infected by a hematogenous route. The final diagnosis of the cause of death was pneumonia secondary to multiple blunt force trauma, and the manner of death was diagnosed as homicidal. This is believed to be the first reported case of osteomyelitis in a context of child abuse.     

反贪查案工作机制探讨

上海市人民检察院第一分院反贪局自1995年贪检处成立发展至今,在办案思路、线索评估、把握初查重点及办案模式、办案谋略等方面基本形成了一整套行之有效的做法。在业务工作、队伍建设、检察改革、思想政治工作等方面取得了新的成绩,尤其在如何加强贪污贿赂案件线索的价值评估及初查方案的制定方面作了改革和努力。     

Comparison of drug abuse in different military populations

Quantitative analytical data, generated at the Navy Drug Screening Laboratory, Great Lakes, Illinois, expressed as percent confirmed positives for four drugs of abuse (marijuana metabolite, cocaine metabolite, amphetamines, and opiates) are summarized and compared according to their population of origin. The four populations of interest included U.S. Navy and Marine Corps recruits and service school members. Conformed positive urines for marijuana showed a small but significant decline (p less than 0.001) from about 1.2% confirmed positive among U.S. Navy recruits entering service school commands in 1984 to 0.9% among Navy service school members in 1988 and from 2.0% among U.S. Marine Corps recruits entering service schools in 1984 to 0.8% among Marine Corps service school members in 1988. Navy and Marine Corps recruits showed a significantly higher (p less than 0.001) confirmed positive use rate (6.1 and 3.3%, respectively) compared to service school members, perhaps reflecting their recent civilian use pattern. The relatively high confirmed positive cocaine rate among all groups may have reflected an increasing trend in all populations, confirming a similar trend in high school and other civilian populations. Generally, the frequency of confirmed positive urines with amphetamines and opiates, based upon the findings at the Navy Drug Screening Laboratory at Great Lakes, has been static except for an apparent recent increase in amphetamine use in 1988. The decline in confirmed positive drug urinalyses among service school members from both the Navy and Marine Corps indicated that perhaps education and maturity had a positive effect upon their behavior.     

The impact of juror characteristics and victim health status on the perception of elder physical abuse

An experiment investigated mock juror perceptions of elder abuse using a community sample from Lexington, Kentucky. Two-hundred six men and women ranging in age from 18 to 88 read a fictional criminal trial summary of a case of elder physical abuse (EPA) in which the accuser was described as healthy, frail, or confused. In addition, the influence of participant age, participant gender, and attitude toward the elderly on juror perceptions of EPA was also investigated. Results showed that women had higher conviction rates than did men. Accuser health status, participant age, participant gender, and attitude toward the elderly affected other rating variables including accuser believability, accuser inaccuracy, defendant believability, and verdict confidence. Results suggest implications for how EPA cases are perceived in court.     

The structure of basic human rights

This paper offers a theory of the structure of basic human rights which is both compatible with and clarificatory of the traditional conception of such rights. A central contention of the theory is that basic rights are structurally different from other kinds of moral rights, such as special rights, because of differences both in the way in which basic rights have content and the model on which basic rights are correlative with duties. This contention is exploited to develop and defend the central thesis of the theory, namely that basic human rights are bundles of mutually held active rights enjoyed by persons in virtue of the specifiable moral relationships they bear to each other.