Category: Publications

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New article on disability and vulnerability

Mikaela Heikkilä, Hisayo Katsui & Maija Mustaniemi-Laakso, A human rights reading of the responsive state, in International Journal of Human Rights: Disability and vulnerability, published online 22 January 2020

ABSTRACT

Universal human rights of all are complemented with particular, targeted protection of some, especially those that traditionally have been left behind. By juxtaposing the ideas of universality and particularity, the article studies vulnerability as a particularising tool within human rights with a comparative approach to the influential vulnerability theory by Martha Fineman. By outlining the similarities and the differences between the two approaches of vulnerability theory and human rights project, the article sheds light on how the particular protection needs of persons with disabilities play out in the universalistic logic of vulnerability. The article argues that both universal and particular obligations of responsive states – and responsive humans – are needed as a way of materialising substantive equality for persons with disabilities as vulnerable legal subjects. Such obligations cannot be codified in full detail, but the intrinsic essence of rights requires each right to be interpreted in context and with regard to the particular individual vulnerabilities and resilience of each person. In operationalising the obligations arising from such rights, the human rights project and the vulnerability theory complement and reinforce each other in terms of specifying the rationale and the detailed benchmarks for state action.

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New article on Unpacking the Debate on Social Protection Floors

Viljam Engström, ‘Unpacking the Debate on Social Protection Floors’, Goettingen Journal of International Law 9 (2019) 3.

For full text, see here

Abstract

Social protection policies have been adopted by numerous international actors and are embedded in a wide array of policy and legislative instruments. Conceptually, social protection is ambiguous. This is also true of its different embodiments, such as the concept of vulnerability, and the idea of protection floors. This article looks at social protection floors as manifested in a human rights-based approach and in the context of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The article situates protection floors in the protection of socio-economic rights, and uses that regime as a reference point for examining the materialization of protection floors in IMF policy-making. Against this background, this article revisits two ongoing debates around social protection: the dichotomy between universalism and targeting, and the capacity to induce change. The article calls for a more nuanced debate on protection floors.

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New article on the recognition of the vulnerability of asylum-seekers in the Finnish asylum law and practices (in Finnish)

Mikaela Heikkilä and Maija Mustaniemi-Laakso, ‘Turvapaikanhakijoiden haavoittuvuuden huomioiminen Suomen ulkomaalaisoikeudessa ja käytänteissä’ [The recognition of the vulnerability of asylum-seekers in the Finnish asylum law and practices] in Eveliina Lyytinen (ed.), Turvapaikanhaku ja pakolaisuus Suomessa (Siirtolaisuusinstituutti 2019)

For full text, see here

 

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New article by Elina Pirjatanniemi on Pathways for Future Generations in Existing Legal Human Rights Provisions

Elina Pirjatanniemi, ‘Pathways for Future Generations in Existing Legal Human Rights Provisions’ in Marcus Düwell, Gerhard Bos, Naomi van Steenbergen (eds.) Pathways for Future Generations in Existing Legal Human Rights Provisions (Routledge 2018)

For full text, see here

Abstract

Human rights comprise a powerful message for humankind. This chapter introduces the state of the art regarding the relationship between human rights and duties to protect the environment for the sake of future people. It develops some arguments in favour of the legal rights of future generations. In addition, the question of the operationalisation of the rights is examined. Environmental issues coincide with the general efforts to strengthen people’s participation already imbedded in human rights law. The chapter focuses on these two dimensions of the relationship between human rights and the environment. It concludes with a discussion on the limits and possibilities of law in protecting the rights of future generations. It embodies the basic status of a human being, which means that it is fully plausible to argue that generations to come will also have an intrinsic worth.