Journal of Human Rights in the Commonwealth

The right to free movement of persons in Caribbean community (CARICOM) law: towards 'juridification'?

Jason Haynes

The Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) is one of the oldest, and arguably one of the most successful, regional organisations in the Commonwealth today. Influenced in large part by the European model of regional integration, CARICOM has, since the early 1970s, sought to progressively engage its constituent member states – for the most part English-speaking Caribbean countries – on a number of important developmental issues, such as the trade in goods and the free movement of services and capital. In more recent years, the free movement of persons has come to the fore. It is important to note that the process by which CARICOM has progressively achieved this particular (and important) goal has not been straightforward, fraught as it has been with a number of practical and institutional difficulties, many of which still continue today, notwithstanding what can be described as the recent trend towards the ‘juridification’ of the right to free movement in CARICOM law. Since this issue has not been adequately addressed in existing literature, this article provides a nuanced analysis of the extent to which the right to free movement of persons in CARICOM law has ‘juridified’, by reference to the theory of ‘juridification’, as posited by Spiros Simitis and Jon Clarke among others.

The challenge of MNCs and development: oil extraction, CSR, Nigeria and corruption

Ciara Hackett

Globalisation has led to a shift in world order with the rise of the corporate non-state actor. This rise has led to an assumption that multi-national corporations (MNCs) must assume responsibilities beyond profit maximisation for shareholders. With the rise of the MNC as a corporate non-state actor there have been discussions around the role of business with regard to human rights.

This article looks at the case of oil extraction in Nigeria. Focusing on the historical dependency of Nigeria and the evolution of the state into a resource-dependent country, it looks at the limitations of existing human rights obligations as they relate to business. This article proposes that corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies of MNCs can act as a preliminary stage in the quest for wider human rights protections. It is in
motivating MNCs to design and implement effective CSR policies in dependent states like Nigeria that the challenge lies.

Safeguarding through stability: British constitutional proposals in post-war Cyprus

Alexios Alecou

‘Constitution’ is often defined as a set of fundamental principles or established precedents according to which a state or other organisation is acknowledged to be governed. In the case of colonial Cyprus, Britain always aimed to safeguard possession of this strategically located island, with a minimum of cost and involvement in its internal affairs. This paper aims to report the efforts of the British to grant the Cypriots a constitution and legislature following World War II. Both the voices within Britain that protested over human rights’ violations in Cyprus and Cypriots’ ever-growing demand for self-determination and the Union of Cyprus with Greece (enosis), forced the British to move on with this process, which was not sufficient, however, to convince all representatives of the Cypriot population to pursue an agreement.

An accountability indicator for gender equality projects run by non-governmental and international organisations

David Lempert

The article offers an easy-to-use indicator allowing scholars and practitioners to measure whether the criteria for the goals of gender mainstreaming and gender equality − established by various international treaties and recognised by experts in the field − are met by national and international organisations (NGOs/INGOs) as well as by the government policies and projects that focus on this area. Use of this indicator on more than a dozen standard interventions, currently funded by United Nations (UN) organisations, country donors and NGOs, reveals that most of the major actors in the field of gender (and women’s rights) are actually failing to promote gender equity. They have substituted a political agenda to promote women’s
interests over men’s (or those of a small group of mostly urban women), or an agenda of only symbolic equality that actually promotes global exploitation and cultural destruction, rather than overall gender equality interests and the protection of society. The indicator points to the specific areas where organisations need to improve in order to fulfil gender rights and other international legal criteria. This article also offers a
sample test of the indicator using UNIFEM (now UN Women) as a case study.

Readjusting the political thermostat: fuel poverty and human rights in the UK

Ben Christman

Fuel poverty − the inability to afford adequate warmth in the home − is a widespread problem across the UK. Cold, damp homes are detrimental to human health and contribute to thousands of ‘excess winter deaths’ every year. This article analyses fuel poverty from a human rights perspective – asking whether it engages human rights protections. It first discusses the definition, scale and health impacts of the problem.
Second, it explores the relationship between fuel poverty and the rights contained within the European Convention on Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the European Social Charter. It concludes that fuel poverty readily engages rights to adequate housing, food and health and certain civil and political rights in extreme circumstances. It discusses the legal implications of these findings for fuel poverty policy, arguing for a ‘human rights approach’ to tackling the problem. These conclusions focus on the particularly drastic fuel poverty situation in the UK, but can also be applied globally to the various nations where citizens suffer similar problems and extend to the wider debate on the
relationship between poverty and human rights.