Negotiating Norms – The Right to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent in Liberia and Beyond

Rösch, Ricarda

The book explores the right to free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) – a highly controversial right. It is mainly discussed in the context of large-scale business projects on Indigenous territories but also with respect to the creation of protected areas and communities’ traditional resource rights.  From a legal anthropological perspective, it attempts to disentangle the various coexisting understandings of FPIC and provide an explanation for the multiplicity of FPIC norms or – to put it in other words – its fragmentation. It examines the right- or stakeholders of FPIC, the scope of the consent requirement, the respect for self-determined decision-making, and the right to FPIC of women in different sociolegal fields. Moreover, it explores the impact of power relations, strategic alliances, and discourses within these fields and shows that the emerging FPIC norms are the result of norm negotiation processes.

The fields that are examined include transnational law – more specifically, human rights, environmental, and development law -, the Liberian post-conflict forest and land legislation, and Liberian community forests as fields in which FPIC is operationalized. Liberia is quite unique in this respect. It is not only one of the few countries in Africa recognizing FPIC but has also begun implementing it. The book shows that based on the logic of a sociolegal field, legal identities are discursively created and determine the meaning of FPIC. Moreover, different actors can resort to different legalities shaping the emerging FPIC norm.

Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation – Jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights and the Constitutional Court of Korea

Hyun Jung, Lee

The book discusses discrimination based on sexual orientation in the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and the Constitutional Court of Korea. The work provides insights into how prohibition on discrimination based on sexual orientation can be realized in South Korea with the reference of the case law of other jurisdictions including mainly from the ECtHR. The book reviews related principles and methodological tools applied in the jurisprudence of the ECtHR. Considering that the rights of sexual minorities are evolving in many jurisdictions including Europe, and this problem is currently of great importance in the constitutional and political discussion, the topic is important to the readers in Europe as well as in Korea.

Islam, Custom and Human Rights – A Legal and Empirical Study of Criminal Cases in Afghanistan After the 2004 Constitution

Lutforahman, Saeed

For the first time, the author has explored the intertwinement of written law, Islamic law, and customary law in the highly complex Afghan society, being deeply influenced by traditional cultural and religious convictions. Given these facts, the author explores how to bridge the exigencies of a human rights–driven penal law and conflicting social norms and understandings by using the rich tradition of Islamic law and its possible openness for contemporary rule of law standards. This work is based on ample field research in connection with a thorough analysis of the normative contexts. It is a landmark, since it offers broadly acceptable and thus feasible solutions for the Afghan legal practice. The book is of equal interest for scientists and practitioners interested in legal, religious, social, and political developments concerning human rights and regional traditions in the MENA region, in Afghanistan in particular.

Transnational Legal Activism in Global Value Chains – The Ali Enterprises Factory Fire and the Struggle for Justice

Saage-Maaß, Miriam; Zumbansen, Peer; Bader, Michael; Shahab, Palvasha

This open access book documents and analyses the various interventions – legal, political, and even artistic – that followed the Ali Enterprises factory fire in Karachi, Pakistan, in 2012. It illuminates the different substantive and procedural aspects of the legal proceedings and negotiations between the various local and transnational actors implicated in the Ali Enterprises fire, as well as the legal and policy reforms sparked by the incident. This endeavour serves to embed these legal cases and reform efforts in the larger context of human and labour rights protection and global value chain governance. It also offers a concrete case study relevant for ongoing debates around the role of transnational approaches in making human rights litigation, advocacy, and law reform more effective. In this regard, the book interrogates and critically reflects on such legal campaigns and local and transnational reform work with a view to future transformative legal and social activism.

Sustainable Development Goals and Human Rights

Kaltenborn, Markus; Krajewski, Markus; Kuhn, Heike

This open access book analyses the interplay of sustainable development and human rights from different perspectives including fight against poverty, health, gender equality, working conditions, climate change and the role of private actors. Each aspect is addressed from a more human rights-focused angle and a development-policy angle. This allows comparisons between the different approaches but also seeks to close gaps which would remain if only one perspective would be at the center of the discussions.

Specifically, the book shows the strong connections between human rights and the objectives of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the United Nations in 2015. Already the preamble of this document explicitly states that “the 17 Sustainable Development Goals … seek to realise the human rights of all”. Moreover, several goals and targets of the 2030 Agenda correspond to already existing individual human rights obligations. The contributions of this volume therefore also address how the implementation of human rights and SDGs can reinforce each other, but also point to critical shortcomings of the different approaches.

EU Human Rights, International Investment Law and Participation – Operationalizing the EU Foreign Policy Objective to Global Human Rights Protection

Kube, Vivian

This book demonstrates how human rights obligations of the EU foreign constitution can be operationalized in the realm of international economic regulation. The content is divided into three major parts. The first outlines the legal foundations needed for the EU to become a shaper of international investment law, which include the general principles and objectives of EU external policies, the Charter of Fundamental Rights, international human rights and the international investment competences of the EU. The second part demonstrates the current international investment regime’s incompatibility with human rights interests, while the third analyzes two mechanisms stemming from trade Law – ex-ante human rights impact assessments and civil society monitoring bodies – and explores whether they could mitigate the current inequalities in the protection of rights. The potential of these mechanisms, the book argues, lies in their capacity to ensure a comprehensive assessment of all interests at stake, and to empower traditionally marginalized rights-holders to make, shape and contest the international investment regime.

Die Umsetzung der Leitprinzipien der Vereinten Nationen für Wirtschaft und Menschenrechte durch nationale Aktionspläne

Schubert, Simone

This book is dedicated to the general question of how international guidelines are implemented in the national sphere and also examines the concrete implementation of the UN Guiding Principles through national action plans. The concept of “soft implementation law” is developed and the role of soft law in implementation law is demonstrated.

Another topic of the book is national action plans as instruments for the implementation of international guidelines. As part of the examination of the implementation processes of the UN Guiding Principles, the German, Danish and British action plans are analysed and compared. The various implementation processes are evaluated and categorised in legal terms.

(Only available in German.)

Human Rights in the Extractive Industries – Transparency, Participation, Resistance

Feichtner, Isabel; Krajewski, Markus; Roesch, Ricarda

This book addresses key challenges and conflicts arising in extractive industries (mining, oil drilling) concerning the human rights of workers, their families, local communities and other stakeholders. Further, it analyses various instruments that have sought to mitigate human rights violations by defining transparency-related obligations and participation rights. These include the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), disclosure requirements, and free, prior and informed consent (FPIC). The book critically assesses these instruments, demonstrating that, in some cases, they produce unwanted effects. Furthermore, it highlights the importance of resistance to extractive industry projects as a response to human rights violations, and discusses how transparency, participation and resistance are interconnected.

Menschenrechtsverletzungen im Zusammenhang mit wirtschaftlichen Aktivitäten von transnationalen Unternehmen

Massoud, Sofia

This book analyses whether and how transnational corporations can be effectively obliged to respect fundamental human rights through legal obligations. It also reflects on the socio-political perspectives of possible strategies. The book addresses all types of human rights. However, the subject of the study is deliberately limited to the core labour standards of the ILO. The work takes into account both companies affiliated under company law and the possibility of regulation to protect against human rights violations in connection with the economic activities of companies in global supply chains.

The book analyses strategies under private and international law. On the basis of selected approaches, the author comes to the conclusion that there is no legal necessity for the current state of inadequate protection against human rights violations in connection with the economic activities of companies. According to the author, deficits in the discussion also lie in the fact that there is a regular lack of reflection on the opportunities and possibilities of implementing necessary legal policy strategies.

(Only available in German.)

Human Rights and Religion in Educational Contextes

Bielefeldt, Heiner; Länemann, Johannes; Pirner, L. Manfred

What is the role of religion(s) in a human rights culture and in human rights education? How do human rights and religion relate in the context of public education? And what can religious education at public schools contribute to human rights education?

These are the core questions addressed by this book. Stimulating deliberations, illuminating analyses and promising conceptual perspectives are offered by renowned experts from ten countries and diverse academic disciplines.

Zivil- und strafrechtliche Unternehmensverantwortung für Menschenrechtsverletzungen

Krajewski, Markus; Oehm, Franziska; Saage-Maaß, Miriam

This volume contains analyses of the civil and criminal law consequences of corporate action in the event of human rights violations. The focus is on German civil, commercial and private international law as well as German and international criminal law. This is supplemented by analyses of English and US liability law. The articles in this volume summarise the current state of research and discussion and highlight both legal policy options and the need for further research. The issues discussed and analysed in this volume are both a starting point and a frame of reference for a better understanding and further development of the relationship between business and human rights.

(Only available in German.)