The United Nations Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which came into force on 3 May 2008, marks the culmination of over five years of negotiations between States Parties and non-governmental organisations as to what constitute the human rights of and governmental obligations to individuals with disabilities. It differs from other Conventions in that, while it still sets out general rights, it also details the steps that should be taken to ensure equality of treatment. This column provides a general overview of the Convention, focusing in particular on Art 25 which sets out the right to health and Australia's obligations under the Convention.     

《联合国反腐败公约》预防机制透视及其启示

《联合国反腐败公约》提出,治理腐败犯罪必须建立一套科学的、可行的、综合的社会预防机制。这一机制的提出,对于健全和完善我国反腐败机制,特别是对反商业贿赂犯罪机制的建立和完善具有一定的借鉴价值。     

The United Nations,the United States,and the War on Terrorism

Since the moment the United Nations was created, the Americans have had certain expectations of it, which logically follow from their past.     

Equal reproduction rights? The right to found a family in United Nations’ disability policy since the 1970s

ABSTRACT

With the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) in 2006, disability as an issue of human rights and international law can no longer be ignored. The history of this convention can be traced back to the 1970s, when disability was framed in United Nations (UN) declarations as a human-rights issue at the global level. One of the recurrent topics of debate during this trajectory was the right of people with disabilities to found a family. This right was far from self-evident and was evaluated very differently by various stakeholders.

This study follows the right to have a family in UN disability policy since the 1970s. The history of the family in relation to disability at the global level has been a neglected field of enquiry compared to other concepts such as gender and race. This study investigates how and why the right to found a family was framed in the Declarations on the Rights of Mentally Disabled Persons (1971) and Disabled Persons (1975), the International Year of Disabled Persons (1981), the International Decade of Disabled Persons (1983 ? 1992), the Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities (1993) and the UNCRPD in 2006.

The trajectory of the right of people with disabilities to found a family that emerges from these cases shows a change in the 1990s from a social-policy to a human-rights approach towards disability – which reflects a broader trend in global and local histories of human rights. In the case of reproductive rights of people with disabilities this change meant that the emphasis was laid more on providing a legal protection for the individual against the interference of others (so-called negative freedom) than on enhancing the opportunities for disabled people to practice their (positive) freedom.     

The Chapter VII Powers of the United Nations Security Council

Netherlands International Law Review -     

论联合国豁免的放弃

联合国组织在一定条件下放弃豁免,是《联合国特权与豁免公约》及有关国际法律文件明确规定的一项国际法律制度,这项制度美系到相美国际组织能否享有豁免以便履行职能和实现目的。同时也关系到与国际组织有关的其他各方,尤其是与国际组织交往的私人在国际组织一旦侵犯其权利的情况下能否得到救济。因此,国际组织放弃豁免是一项非常重要的国际法律制度。联合国豁免的放弃必须由其有权机关作出相应的意思表示。不论是民事行为,还是刑事行为,其豁免都是可以放弃的。联合国等国际组织放弃豁免的权利。同时也构成其必须履行的一项义务。     

The United Nations data privacy system and its limits

ABSTRACT

While the United Nations (UN) pioneered in recognizing the impact of modern technological developments on (data) privacy as far back as 1968, little has so far been achieved in terms of introducing a truly global data privacy framework. The present UN data privacy framework is by and large a mere patchwork of rules that exhibit a number of weaknesses. This weak structure of the present framework is a result of political and ideological controversies of the Cold War era. This article considers the extent to which the current UN data privacy system provides protection to data privacy and highlights its major limitations. It concludes that the discourse at the UN set in motion, particularly in the aftermath of the Snowden revelations, wields a potential to result in a major reform in the UN data privacy system.     

The United Nations Convention on the Law of International Watercourses: A Frameworkfor Sharing

Netherlands International Law Review -     

The Concluding Observations of United Nations Human Rights Treaty Bodies

The seven principal United Nations-sponsored human rights treatiesstipulate that States Parties submit periodic reports to therespective treaty monitoring bodies (or ‘committees’)¹on the implementation of their treaty obligations. Followingthe review of a report, the treaty body in question issues aset of ‘concluding observations’, containing itscollective assessment of the State's record and recommendationsfor enhanced implementation of the rights in question. Arguably,the issuance of concluding observations is the single most importantactivity of human rights treaty bodies. It provides an opportunityfor the delivery of an authoritative overview of the state ofhuman rights in a country and for the delivery of forms of advicewhich can stimulate systemic improvements. Its significanceis all the greater now that the only accounts of the reviewof periodic reports which appear in the annual reports of thetreaty bodies are the adopted concluding observations.² Thisarticle seeks to test key aspects of the quality of concludingobservations. The analysis is set within the framework of reviewof the development of the practice.