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41. State-Sponsored Homophobia (2020): Global Legislation Overview Update

Author:
Lucas Ramón Mendos, Kellyn Botha, Rafael Carrano Lelis, Enrique López de la Peña, Ilia Savelev, and Daron Tan
Publication Date:
12-2020
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
ILGA World (International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association)
Abstract:
Every year, ILGA World publishes its State-Sponsored Homophobia report, a world survey of sexual orientation laws. Since its first edition, back in 2006, ILGA World’s State-Sponsored Homophobia has been a fundamental resource for those interested in accessing the core information on legislation affecting people on the basis of their sexual orientation. Not only human rights defenders, but also civil society organisations, governmental and United Nations agencies, allies and media worldwide value the publication as one of the main sources of information on the issue. The publication is accompanied by a series of maps and charts illustrating where criminalisation, protection and recognition laws exist.
Topic:
Human Rights, Law, LGBT+, and Homophobia
Political Geography:
Global Focus

42. ‘Legal Identity for All’ and Statelessness Opportunity and Threat at the Junction of Public and Private International Law

Author:
Bronwen Manby
Publication Date:
12-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Statelessness & Citizenship Review
Institution:
Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Melbourne Law School
Abstract:
This article considers the impact of Target 16.9 of the Sustainable Development Goals (‘SDGs’), ‘to provide legal identity for all, including birth registration’ on the objective of eradicating statelessness. This SDG Target has given a significant boost to initiatives for the strengthening of civil registration and identification systems, supported by the United Nations and World Bank. Yet its impact on the resolution of statelessness is not clear, because of the immense complexity of the definition of ‘legal identity’. Proposed definitions, adopted after the target was established, fail to take on board the challenges involved in cross-border recognition of civil status documents and the determination of nationality of a child for parents who hold no documents. The article concludes that SDG Target 16.9 is both an opportunity and a threat. If the objective of providing universal ‘legal identity’ is to have a positive impact for stateless persons there is a need for new engagement with the regulation of civil status in private international law, and new insistence in public international law on legal frameworks that facilitate recognition and registration of the different elements of a person’s identity, including nationality, even and especially where they are officially in doubt. Short cuts in this process risk long delays.
Topic:
International Law, Law, Identity, and Stateless Population
Political Geography:
Global Focus

43. Nomads and the Struggle for a Legal Identity

Author:
Heather Alexander
Publication Date:
12-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Statelessness & Citizenship Review
Institution:
Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Melbourne Law School
Abstract:
Over the past century, governments around the world have greatly expanded civil registration and the issuance of identity documents of all kinds. The process of identifying and registering individuals is sometimes called establishing their ‘legal identity’.1 Establishing a legal identity is crucial for people to access many rights.2It is also a basic prerequisite for establishing a nationality. A legal identity is also important for governments to surveil their populations. Yet, as more research is done on the legal identity of nomadic and mobile peoples,3 it is emerging that establishing a legal identity is not easy for them, nor is it a panacea that automatically helps them access their rights. Instead, it can lead to their assimilation.4 This comment summarises my recent research into the establishment of legal identity for nomadic and mobile peoples, uncovering important and disturbing new insights into this fraught process.
Topic:
Law, Identity, Nomad, and Stateless Population
Political Geography:
Global Focus

44. Symposium Introduction Identifying a Cross-Disciplinary Dialogue between Statelessness and Slavery

Author:
Alice Eckstein
Publication Date:
06-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Statelessness & Citizenship Review
Institution:
Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Melbourne Law School
Abstract:
Researchers working on slavery or statelessness will know there are overlaps in condition and population between stateless persons and those living in conditions of slavery, as well as common problems in carrying forth work focused on these communities. These overlaps are easy enough to identify, and the dangers presented by one status to fall into the other are similarly apparent. A stateless person is likely to experience restricted access to financial services, education, healthcare and legal services, as well as limitations on regular movement across borders. These restrictions create vulnerability to exploitative labour practices, including slavery. Those people who are living in slavery, or who have exited slavery, may have moved across borders or lost documentation as part of their exploitation. They risk their ‘citizen’ identity and the state’s protections, and may thus be exposed to the risk of becoming stateless. Listing similarities and common or overlapping risk factors aside, what knowledge and practices can be shared among scholars working on these two separate violations of human rights? Where and how can researchers identify similar challenges and resources, as well as collaborate on a common research agenda? This symposium brings together researchers and scholars working in various ways on responses to slavery to offer their perspectives on challenges and paths forward that may resonate with those engaged in understanding statelessness. These range from the challenge of effective measurement, to tracking legislation, to the activation of local communities and the lived experiences of survivors. Working as Programme Manager on Modern Slavery, I hoped in coordinating this symposium to identify areas where slavery researchers can consider their own work and present it here to the statelessness research community. I was fortunate in engaging contributors who have richly engaged with these questions.
Topic:
Health, Law, Slavery, and Stateless Population
Political Geography:
Global Focus

45. Who’s Responsible Here? Establishing Legal Responsibility in the Fissured Workplace

Author:
Tanya Goldman and David Weil
Publication Date:
02-2020
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET)
Abstract:
The nature of work is changing, with workers enduring increasingly precarious working conditions without any safety net. In response, this Article proposes a new “Concentric Circle framework” which would improve workers’ access to civil, labor, and employment rights. Many businesses, including app-based platforms, have restructured toward “fissured workplace” business models. They treat workers like employees (specifying behaviors and closely monitoring outcomes) but they classify workers as independent contractors (engaging them at an arms-length and cutting them off from rights and benefits tied to employment). These arrangements confound legal classifications of “employment” and expose deficiencies with existing workplace protections, which are based on “employment relationships.” As a result, a growing number of workers lack both bargaining power and critical workpalce rights and benefits. We propose a Concentric Circle framework to better govern workers’ rights in the modern era. At the core, we maintain that certain rights and protections should not be tethered to an employment relationship, but to work itself. Thus, the right to be compensated for work and paid a minimum wage; freedom from discrimination and retaliation; access to a safe working environment, and the right to associate and engage in concerted activity should belong to all workers, not just employees. Second, as a middle circle, we argue for a rebuttable presumption of employment to address those rights that remain exclusive to employees (and not independent contractors), and we propose an updated legal test of employment. Finally, at the outer ring of the framework, we suggest policies that could enhance workers’ access to benefits that promote worker mobility and social welfare. Other scholarship has focused exclusively on either independent contractors or employees, or it has proposed a new category of worker altogether. We contend that this comprehensive framework better assigns rights, responsibilities, and protections in the modern workplace than do current legal doctrines or alternative proposals.
Topic:
Economics, Labor Issues, Law, Legal Theory, Civil Rights, Legal Sector, and Workforce
Political Geography:
Global Focus

46. Public procurement in law and practice

Author:
Erica Bosio, Simeon Djankov, Edward Glaeser, and Andrei Shleifer
Publication Date:
08-2020
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE)
Abstract:
This paper examines a new dataset of laws and practices governing public procurement, as well as procurement outcomes, in 187 countries. The authors measure regulation as restrictions on the discretion of the procuring agents. They find that laws and practices are highly correlated with each other across countries, and better practices are correlated with better outcomes, but laws themselves are not correlated with outcomes. To shed light on this puzzle, they present a model of procurement in which both regulation and public sector capacity determine the efficiency of procurement. In the model, regulation is effective in countries with low public sector capacity and detrimental in countries with high public sector capacity because it inhibits the socially optimal exercise of discretion. The paper finds evidence broadly consistent with this prediction: Regulation of procurement improves outcomes but only in countries with low public sector capacity.
Topic:
Government, Law, Regulation, and Procurement
Political Geography:
Global Focus

47. International and Regional Laws and Instruments Related to Gender Equality and the Security and Justice Sector

Author:
Nenad Galic and Megan Bastick
Publication Date:
07-2020
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:
This Annex is part of the DCAF, OSCE/ODIHR, UN Women Gender and Security Toolkit. It compiles regional and international laws and policies related to gender and the security and justice sectors and is meant to accompany Tools and Policy Briefs found in the Toolkit.
Topic:
Security, Gender Issues, International Cooperation, Regional Cooperation, Law, Justice, and Equality
Political Geography:
Global Focus

48. Guiding and Protecting Prosecutors: Comparative Overview of Policies Guiding Decisions to Prosecute

Author:
Howard Varney, Shenali De Silva, and Alexandra Raleigh
Publication Date:
10-2019
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ)
Abstract:
Prosecution guidelines provide benchmarks for decision making and act as a shield for prosecutors in the face of undue influence, pressure, or interference. Prosecutors pursuing sensitive cases, such as those involving mass atrocities, ought to do so by applying binding, objective, fair and publicly known criteria. This report presents a comparative overview of prosecution guidelines from around the world in "ordinary" times and in the context of post-conflict transitions.
Topic:
Law, Transitional Justice, Criminal Justice, and Justice
Political Geography:
Global Focus

49. The parting of the seas: norms, material power and state control over the ocean

Author:
Rodrigo Fracalossi de Moraes
Publication Date:
12-2019
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Revista Brasileira de Política Internacional (RBPI)
Institution:
Instituto Brasileiro de Relações Internacionais (IBRI)
Abstract:
The paper argues that the norm of sovereignty was extended to sea areas with only minor adaptations. Using an English School approach, it explores the political evolution of control over the seas, demonstrating why and how the norm of sovereignty prevailed over alternative norms and principles regulating control of the seas. The paper then compares the positions of Brazil, China and the United States on the current international regime of the ocean.
Topic:
Sovereignty, Law, Maritime, and Jurisdiction
Political Geography:
Global Focus

50. Refugee Sponsorship Programs: A Global State of Play and Opportunities for Investment

Author:
Susan Fratzke, Lena Kainz, Hanne Beirens, Emma Dorst, and Jessica Bolter
Publication Date:
12-2019
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Migration Policy Institute (MPI)
Abstract:
A pair of contradictory trends is challenging humanitarian protection systems around the world: the number of refugees in need of protection has climbed to an all-time high, while at the same time, many countries have reduced their commitments to refugee resettlement. With protection needs high and generosity low, it has become more important to find new ways for refugees to reach safety and to rebuild public consensus around the value of offering protection to those in need. To meet these challenges, governments and civil-society groups in a growing number of countries have begun to explore refugee sponsorship (also called community or private sponsorship), either as a complement or alternative to traditional protection pathways. This MPI Europe policy brief takes stock of sponsorship programs worldwide—from the well-established Canadian private sponsorship program, to much newer and smaller-scale initiatives in countries such as Argentina, Germany, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. Although government investment and support for such programs are essential, this study also lays out a variety of ways private philanthropic actors can support these programs. Among them: funding the development of informational materials and hotlines for sponsors; investing in program infrastrucrture, such as staff positions within civil-society organizations; and monitoring and evaluation by civil society and/or government. Crucially, the authors note that while much effort in recent years has gone into developing and launching new initiatives, existing programs also face important capacity and funding gaps. “To ensure the capacity of refugee protection systems at a global level,” they write, “strengthening these programs should be viewed as a priority equal in importance to setting up new schemes.”
Topic:
Immigration, Law, Refugees, Investment, and Asylum
Political Geography:
Global Focus