Zambia’s death penalty can be traced back to the colonial era, with the administration led by former president Frederick Chiluba (1991-2002) being the last post-independence government to sign an execution order in 1997. New convictions carrying the sentence of capital punishment appeared at odds with the nation’s commitment to the sanctity of life, even if its Constitution made provision for its use. In October 2022, Cabinet announced it had approved the much-needed review of the penal and criminal procedure codes, which would pave the way to repeal the death penalty. Two months later, Presid ..read more

Every year, 8 March marks International Women’s Day – a global day to celebrate progress in the realisation of women’s rights, and to take stock of challenges yet to be addressed. This year’s International Women’s Day theme is ’embrace equity’.  Equity requires more than just treating people the same. The concept of equity recognises that ‘each person has different circumstances and allocates the resources and opportunities needed to reach an equal outcome; equal opportunities are no longer enough’. Similarly, formal equality would treat everyone the same, but fails to take into account p ..read more

Bangladesh ratified the United Nations’ 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) in 1990 and committed to ensuring the protection of children and their best interests in all spheres of life. It has since introduced the Children Act (2013) as a part of its international commitment to UNCRC. As Bangladesh has ratified the UNCRC, it is obliged to ensure separate treatment of children under the justice system and use detention as a last rather than a first resort. In Bangladesh the involvement of girls in the juvenile justice system is low compared to their male counterparts. Howev ..read more

Earlier this year, Brazilian authorities added Zolgesma, once “the world’s most expensive medical treatment to date,” to the country’s mandatory coverage list. The medication treats Spinal Muscular Atrophy, a rare genetic disorder whose sufferers are likely to die before the age of two. Zolgesma’s addition to Brazil’s essential medicine list resulted from the more than one hundred lawsuits filed invoking the constitutional right to health. Although this case is a success story, its replicability is limited given that 86 countries lack a similar constitutional provision. In the absence of such ..read more

This post continues the analysis of the ban on hijabs within the classroom in Karnataka, India (see also Part One and Part Two). Intersectional discrimination is at the core of the impact of the Government Order (GO) which brought about the Hijab ban. Coined by Kimberle Crenshaw in 1989, intersectionality theory was most recently explored by Shreya Atrey, who conceptualises intersectionality as representing the dynamic of sameness and difference in patterns of group disadvantage. These patterns are based on multiple identities which are best understood as a whole, in their full and relevant co ..read more

This blog continues Part 1 of the exploration of the Karnataka hijab case. The question of whether the wearing of hijabs is an essential religious practice (ERP) for Muslim women dominated recent proceedings before the Hight Court (HC) and the Supreme Court of India (SCI), as the ERP test serves as the threshold to admit claims of violation of the right to freedom of religion (Art. 25). This part of the blog investigates contesting claims made on this issue of essentiality. In a positive move, both judges in the SCI split judgment found the ERP doctrine to be irrelevant to the issue of decidin ..read more

This is a 3-part blog on the Hijab ban case in India. Part 1 traces the journey of the Hijab ban order, from the first incident in Udupi to the delivery of the Supreme Court judgment.  Part 2 delves deeper into the (ir)relevance of the Essential Religious Practice Doctrine (ERP), while Part 3 focuses on how intersectionality theory plays a role in the determination of this case.   Brief Facts The hijab ban began in December 2021 when a group of hijab-wearing Muslim girls were denied entry into classrooms in PU College, Udupi, Karnataka. However, it soon affected several other junior ..read more

Image description: Iran solidarity protest in Berlin, October 22, 2022. On December 14th, 2022, Iran became the first United Nations (UN) member state ousted during its 4-year elected term on the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). The expulsion was in response to the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, an Iranian woman killed by Iranian police on September 16, 2022. The Iranian police allege that the woman was wearing her hijab improperly, a violation of Iran’s strict dress code for women. This caused international condemnation and widespread protest against the government, the latter ..read more

Image Description: Picture of two fists, with the letters LGBTQIA+ written across the knuckles in rainbow colours On 31 January, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) issued its first-ever judgment on rights of intersex people in Y v France. This was a Chamber judgment which may yet be referred to the Grand Chamber. It held – by six votes to one – that the refusal of national authorities to insert the term “neutral” or “intersex” (instead of “male”) on the birth certificate of an intersex person does not constitute a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Intersex pe ..read more

For some years the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACoHR) has been developing standards regarding sexual and reproductive rights. However, the court has proven reluctant to recognise obstetric violence as a concept in itself, having allowed several opportunities to pass, such as IV v Bolivia and Manuela v El Salvador. While obstetric violence made a brief appearance in judicial treatment of AO 29/22 it was not developed in depth. However, in Brítez Arce the issue of obstetric violence was more thoroughly developed. In a region marked by high rates of maternal deaths and reports of viole ..read more