4155 Violence in the world and Human Rights
WG Human Rights
Room: C5.08
Chair: José Querino Tavares Neto
Rui Garrido | ISCTE - University Institute of Lisbon
Citizenship and sexuality in Africa: claiming recognition for African LGBTI associations in court
Abstract
The African LGBTI people face a repressive legal and political framework - in some cases it configures State homophobia, as Uganda, or Nigeria -, which reinforces the hostility of societies against its LGBTI populations. The prevalence in the Penal Code of 34 African countries the criminalization of “unnatural offences” - the called Sodomy Laws, a colonial legacy that criminalizes same-sex activity that is used abusively by the States to legitimize the illegality of homosexuality -, constitute a threat to the fulfillment of fundamental rights of LGBTI people, which are guaranteed to all citizens by the Constitution and international human rights treaties. This LGBTI people are treated, by the State, as a kind of “second class citizens”. The State uses the Sodomy Laws to legitimize marginalization of sexual minorities and wipe them out from public space, which the refusal to legal recognition of LGBTI associations is example. The response of the associations was the use of the courts as a way of guaranteeing the restoration of legality. The cases of GALK (Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya) and LEGABIBO (Lesbians, Gays and Bisexuals of Botswana) ran judicial battles in court against the State for their recognition, and both organizations won the cases. This is a landmark for LGBTI African activism, because it take of sexual minorities from illegal to legal citizens. This paper seeks to understand the cases brought before the court and analyze the content of judicial decisions, as well as understand how this decisions reshapes LGBTI activism in Africa and the inclusion of LGBTI people as fully citizens.
Anis Farida | Shariah and Law Faculty , Islamic State University of Sunan Ampel Surabaya Indonesia
The Health vs Economic A Never Ending Struggling of Law to make a better a life for a better future
Abstract
Cigarette tax is one of the largest sources of state revenues in Indonesia. Indonesia as a big country , with a high numbers of population, is a potential market for cigarette trade. Based on data submitted by the Minister of Home Affairs, the number of Indonesian populations as 30 June 2016 was 257,912,349 people. As a potential market for tobacco production with it derivatives, there is certainly a pulling interest between health and economic factors. The chain of cigarette industry, which starts from tobacco farmers, traders, entrepreneurs, workers in cigarette factories, retailers to consumers, has become an important consideration of economic aspects. The negative impact of smoking from the health side, not a barrier for cigarette lovers. This condition is interesting to be studied in depth through qualitative research activities with the approach of sociology of law. The result of this study show, that economic factor become a priority for a government of Indonesia. That’s way is an answer why Indonesia was not sign yet a Framework Convention on Tobbaco Control (FCTC), eventhough Indonesia one’s of the drafter of FCTC. This convention actually aims to tackle some of the causes of that epidemic, including complex factors with cross-border effects such as trade liberalization, tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorshisp beyond national borders, illicit trade in tobacco products.
José Querino Tavares Neto e Gil César de Paula | Universidade Federal de Goiás e Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Goiás
Gil César Costa de Paula | Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Goiás
Human rights as a category of analysis for a constitutional society of alterity
Abstract
The growing need is for the study of man and nature to take place in the perspective of otherness as an instrument of analysis. Reductionism to any reality, whether cultural, ethnic, racial, religious, etc., exposes us to ethnocentrism and limited view of culture and reality. Knowledge of our culture inevitably passes through the knowledge of other cultures. The understanding of the other leads us to the (re) knowledge that we are one possible culture among many others, avoiding racial, economic and political arrogance, a key explanatory element, never justifying the irrational logic of terrorism and the incomprehension of self and of the other. In this sense, the need for Human Rights in contemporary societies is presented as a constitutional instrument of resistance to the process of globalization, especially the strong impact of disenchantment that produces a depletion of the deeper values of the human being as a (re) civilizing project.
Vivianne Yen-ching WENG | National Chengchi University
In Search of an Effective Legal Protection for Fishermen Recruited Overseas Aboard Taiwanese Fishing Fleets: Criminalization and Beyond
Abstract
The ideas of human trafficking and contemporary forms of slavery are storming the notorious island of distant-water fisheries. Known to work in tough conditions with low salaries, foreign fishermen recruited overseas on board some Taiwanese fishing fleets have been reported missing, killed or ill-treated. Following a series of insight reports published by an international team of investigative journalism, the whole industry is now labeled with an exploitation of “blood and sweat”. As the U.S. annual reports had been an important factor for Taiwan’s adoption of the Human Trafficking Prevention Act, the IUU fishing yellow card issued by the European Union has efficiently pushed the Taiwanese authorities to review legislative and regulatory norms on distant-water fisheries. The 2016 reform also pointed at a stronger legal protection of fishermen recruited overseas aboard Taiwanese fleets. However, are these measures effective as response to the fragile and declining industry short in labor? Besides fiercer criminalization against the employers and human resources agencies, some human rights NGOs now call for a general prohibition of oversea recruitment and a labor treatment equal to locally-recruited workers under the Labor Standard Act. This paper argues that, while the criminalization/victimization approach is indeed necessary and national labor treatments can also be a goal, there are nevertheless a considerable number of cases fallen into the grey area between human trafficking and reasonable labor standard. For instance, confiscation of passports or collective shelters under heavy surveillance are due to the responsibility charged against employers or HR agencies regarding “running-away” foreign fishermen. The impossibility of a resident title or a family reunion in Taiwan, despite the continuing demand of its labor market, drives the fishermen to run away from their fleets, as a better solution than dealing with a human trafficker. As contradictory as the legal norms applied to the distant-water fisheries, including immigration policies, isn’t Taiwan tempting everyone therein to break the rules? Through interviews with representatives of trade unions, employers, HR agencies, shelter hosts and public authorities, this paper aims at examining how the existing norms as a whole may worsen the situation and increase the victims, especially when the foreign recruited fishermen constitute a major labor force for the whole industry.
James M. Donovan | University of Kentucky College of Law, USA
Why Terrorists Do What They Do
Abstract
“Terrorism” is an overused epithet, often serving no purpose other than to disparage and target unpopular persons. When “terrorism” becomes a synonym for unruly behavior and even general crime, such overstretched use of the term muddies any attempt to understand what motivates true terrorists. This paper limits terrorism to acts which seek to provoke a change of governmental policy by inflicting violence upon or directing threats toward innocent civilians rather than toward government actors. In this view, actions targeting soldiers, for example the bombing of the USS Cole, are not terroristic. Alternatively, Trump’s call to attack jihadist leaders by “tak[ing] out their families,” clearly advocates terrorism. Judged by this criterion, terrorist acts prove a stunningly ineffective method of provoking change in government policies. Most do more harm to the protestor, with the scheme usually ending in his or her own death without achieving any political goals. The poor outcomes lead one to ask what terrorists can hope to gain by acts of almost inevitable self-destruction. What could be going through their minds that would make extremism a reasonable course? A common tactic is to depict the enemy as irrational, inhuman, certainly evil and arguably subhuman; victims, by contrast, are invariably innocent, virtuous, and exemplars of the good citizen. However characterized, the gist is that terrorists are evil in a way that is incomprehensible to the ordinary person. However, at the level of motivating psychology, terrorists present little that is new. The problem of radicalization that obsesses law enforcement is not fundamentally distinctive. Following a case study of the psychological path toward terrorist commitment, the paper offers an alternative framework grounded in an existential analytic. For some persons, the void of anomie can be filled by pursuit of goals that advance broader missions even when they incur the loss of personal life, as when a soldier dies on the battlefield. This perspective is applied to construct a model that suggests that, despite the material comforts available for most in a capitalist economy, the cost is high in terms of values that instill meaning into human existence. For many the response to existential void is to attack the systems that they believe are its cause: capitalism generally, and American cultural hegemony especially. Policy responses to terrorism should begin from this relationship.