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Human Rights

 The United Nations has long been an advocate of human rights. In 1948, just three years after the UN Charter was signed, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted and remains the foundation of international human rights to this day. In recent years, the UN's human rights agenda has led to the development of the concept of human security to achieve "freedom from fear" and "freedom from want." The idea of human security, expanded by the Commission on Human Security , encompasses all human rights, including civil and political rights, which protect people, and economic, social and cultural rights, which empower people. The new framework centers directly and specifically on people to remedy states' failure to fulfill their security obligations. By enhancing human rights, human security seeks to protect people from a broad range of threats posed by individuals and communities. By strengthening human development, human security seeks to empower them to act on their own behalf.

Coupled with the growth of human security measures is the ever-expanding role of international court systems, particularly as it concerns human rights. The international community has long wrestled with the question of how to make international law enforceable. In an attempt to solve this problem, the UN and other international organizations (including the European Union) have created various international courts whereby they can hold human rights violators and other offenders of international agreements accountable for their actions.

These court systems, however, raise important questions regarding national sovereignty. Often, they display disturbing trends of judicial activism as they attempt to use their decisions to create or define rights or “laws” that have not yet been agreed upon by the international community. Further, many international organizations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are attempting to use international law and the court systems that enforce it to hold corporations and individuals accountable for violations, thereby circumventing the State governments to whom international law technically applies.

Additionally, domestic courts have increasingly turned to international law to aid in their decision-making. Indeed, the idea that international law should hold supremacy over national law is becoming more and more popular. These sorts of trends pose additional threats to national sovereignty, as they bypass normal democratic processes for deciding questions of law.

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LAW & JUSTICE

Cameron Pushes for Reform of European Court of Human Rights
British Prime Minister declares: "once-in-a-generation chance" of improving the way Europeans advance the cause of human rights.

ECHR Rejects Romania's Attempt to Thwart Church Clergy Labor Union
The European Court of Human Rights has decided that Romania violated the free-association rights of clergy in the Romanian Orthodox Church who, over the objection of Church officials, wanted to organize.

UN Intervention Agenda Marks 2012 as "Year of Prevention"
Calling on United Nations member states to make the "Responsibility to Protect" doctrine "a living reality for peoples of the world," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon views States as having a "moral responsibility" to intervene in domestic matters when a country is failing to adequately protect its citizens from harm.

Amnesty International Blasts "Corporate Malpractice"
In a press release distributed in advance of the World Economic Forum last week, Amnesty International denounced "corporate malpractice" that "has been allowed to flourish by government policies of deregulation and limited oversight."

UN Human Rights Denounces Failure to Close Guantanamo Prison
Last week, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, criticized the Obama Administration for its failure to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility and for having "entrenched a system of arbitrary detention," in violation of international law.
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SOCIETY & CULTURE

Cameron Pushes for Reform of European Court of Human Rights
British Prime Minister declares: "once-in-a-generation chance" of improving the way Europeans advance the cause of human rights.

ECHR Rejects Romania's Attempt to Thwart Church Clergy Labor Union
The European Court of Human Rights has decided that Romania violated the free-association rights of clergy in the Romanian Orthodox Church who, over the objection of Church officials, wanted to organize.

UN Intervention Agenda Marks 2012 as "Year of Prevention"
Calling on United Nations member states to make the "Responsibility to Protect" doctrine "a living reality for peoples of the world," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon views States as having a "moral responsibility" to intervene in domestic matters when a country is failing to adequately protect its citizens from harm.

UN Human Rights Denounces Failure to Close Guantanamo Prison
Last week, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, criticized the Obama Administration for its failure to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility and for having "entrenched a system of arbitrary detention," in violation of international law.

HR Groups Petition UN on Business & Human Rights
On January 20, the Federalist Society observed the first public exchange of stakeholders with the UN Working Group on Human Rights and Transnational Corporation and Other Business Enterprises in Geneva.