The ILO and the new UN convention on migrant workers: the past and future

Migrant workers are less protected than nationals against the actions of states and employers. These workers therefore require special global protection of their rights while employed in countries other than their own. Accordingly, the UN International Labor Organization (ILO) is constitutionally charged with developing international measures to protect the interests of migrant workers from developing countries. The ILO, however, had little involvement in molding the International Convention on the protection of the Rights of All Migrants Workers and Members of their Families, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1990. Instead, final adoption of the Convention stems largely from developing state dissatisfaction with the former 1975 ILO Migrant Workers Convention No. 143, and Mexican and Moroccan government machinations outside of the ILO in support of modifications. Convention No. 143 threatened to sever employment opportunities and hard foreign exchange remittances in North America and western Europe from illegally employed immigrant workers from developing countries. By working in the UN outside of the ILO, developing nations would enjoy automatic majority, and greater potential for success in reforming the Convention. Soon, developing nations squelched a delay tactic proffered by the Swedes, and succeeded in bringing the UN General Assembly to adopt resolution 34/172 in December 1979, which led to the establishment of an Open-Ended Working Group. This group then elaborated the 1990 Convention over 19 sessions. At the expense of the ILO and more developed nations, developing nations successfully challenged and changed the international order to benefit their peoples and national economies. Finally, the paper considers the interests of immigrant businesspeople and asylum seekers during or immediately upon entry to a foreign country, who are not specifically covered by the Convention. While the university of international humanitarian law suggests that businesspeople be included in the Convention, changes to the Convention will probably not be forthcoming. As for asylum seekers waiting for either refugee status or an interim-term engagement for work, the sensitive nature of this topic in certain countries precludes the adoption of inclusive documentation.     

International Conference on Population Aging. Keynote address

This is the keynote address of H.E.Dr. Vincent Tabone, President of Malta, at the International Conference on Aging, which was held in San Diego in September 1992. He states that the conference celebrates the tenth anniversary of the Vienna International Plan of Action, and provides an opportunity to evaluate progress and plan future direction. Dr. Tabone, as Minister of Foreign Affairs, first introduced the question of aging at the UN General Assembly over twenty years ago; the United Nations Secretariat established its first program in the field of aging in 1970. At the World Assembly on Aging in 1982, all members adopted the International Plan of Action, which defined guidelines for policies and programs in support of the aging populations. As a direct result of this, and in support of the needs of developing countries, the UN signed an agreement with the government of Malta that established the International Institute on Aging as an autonomous body under the auspices of the UN; it is the major expression of the Vienna Plan of Action. Concern for aging populations has developed enough maturity and momentum to oversee its own progress. Although current events may relegate the social and economic implications of the aged to the sphere of rhetoric, they demand thinking in terms of generations and transcend all political boundaries. This conference will evaluate progress toward deflecting a situation where the elderly constitute an increasing proportion of the population, without adequate and appropriate provision for their livelihood, and could have direct bearing on encouraging and ensuring the continuity of the family's vital and traditional role in preserving the dignity, status, and well-being of its aging members. A nation which begrudges its dues to the elderly, the successful products of society and triumphs of life, denies its past. This conference is a reaffirmation of commitment to the United Nations Principles for Older Persons, an omen of the review of the Global Targets on Aging for the year 2001 by the General Assembly at its forty-seventh session in October, and a stepping stone in the path toward integrating the elderly more fully into the mainstream of society. The year 1992 is a year for solidarity between the generations.     

Indigenous internationalism: native rights and the UN

Abstract

Since 1982, with the creation of the Working Group on Indigenous Populations, the UN has taken steps toward addressing the violations of indigenous human rights around the globe that have characterized the colonization of indigenous peoples by western nations since the 15th century. This article explores the question of whether actions taken by the WGIP and other UN bodies promise to relieve this legacy; or whether the UN, as the proper overseer of international law concerning human rights today, continues that legacy in revised form, as some analysts have claimed. A brief overview of positions taken by key figures in the history of international law concerning indigenous peoples since the early 16th century provides a background against which to compare the work of the UN. My conclusion is that while the UN has in some ways sustained the inherited order of neglect of indigenous rights, it has, more importantly, created openings which make it possible for indigenous peoples to assert their claims. While this is not a story of continuous progress, it does suggest that there is reason to respect the UN's efforts in this relentlessly neglected area of human rights.     

Africa Research Bulletin: Political, Social and Cultural Series, July 1st–31st 2005

In This Issue Kenya NRC's Constitution Victory? 16277 Massacre Inquiry 16291 Burundi Hutu's National Assembly Win 16279 UN Operations Reduced 16285 South Africa Zuma Case Fallout 16284 Cote d'Ivoire New Stumbling Blocks 16286 Egypt Sharm Bombs 16288 Envoy Assassinated In Iraq 16302 Somalia IGC Report 16293 Contents Continental Alignments 16273 Internal Developments 16276 National Security 16285 Military 16298 Overseas Relations 16300 Social and Cultural 16303 Rates 16305 Index 16306     

School‐based human rights education: case studies in Hong Kong secondary schools

In an era of rapid globalization, space and time are seriously compressed. People from different nations, cultures, religions and other backgrounds have become much more interconnected and interdependent. Since people are rapidly intermingling, what values should be considered as standards and norms in regulating this situation, so that people of different backgrounds can relate peacefully to each other with mutual respect? United Nations (UN) human rights standards could be considered as sets of shared global norms and values in a search for global ethics. As a consequence, the UN has been eager to promote human rights education (HRE), aiming at the cultivation of a human rights culture. This paper reports on two case studies of school‐based curriculum development of HRE in two Hong Kong secondary schools. We also recommend some research directions important for the implementation of HRE in schools. It is hoped that the paper can provide some insight into the development of quality HRE in schools.     

The convention on the rights of the child: A young legal regime for the world's youngest citizens

In November, 1989 the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child. This international resolution seeks to safeguard the physical, social, cultural, and religious rights of children, and to establish a new legal regime for the protection of children's rights. This paper examines the legal foundations of the Convention relative to international law, the legal effect of a United Nations Convention upon nations, describes the main provisions of the Convention, and discusses the ratification and enforcement of the Convention.     

The Global Compacts on Refugees and for Safe,Orderly and Regular Migration: Introduction to the Special Issue

In December 2018, the UN General Assembly adopted two Global Compacts: The Global Compact on Refugees (GCR) and the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM). These two compacts, while non‐binding and aspirational in nature, offer the first widely‐accepted new normative frameworks on the movement of people since the ratification of the 1951 refugee convention and its 1967 protocol. This special issue of International Migration aims to analyse the way in which these two compacts were negotiated, examine their potential impact in a number of areas, and compare the way they deal with common themes such as gender, civil society and security. This introductory article describes the background and the process of negotiating the global compacts, provides a short summary of the articles included in this special issue, and highlights gaps in the two compacts that are not elsewhere discussed herein.     

Violence against women: the international legal response

Violence against women has only recently become an international legal concern, because human rights law has been directed to protect men in their public lives. The failure of human rights law to protect women from gender-specific violence has occurred because much of the violence against women occurs in private and because cultural assumptions are used to justify the oppression of women. The silent nature of this violence has masked the reality of the international nature of the problem. Also, international law primarily regulates the behavior of states. Women have lobbied for recognition of the problem of violence against women within the UN agencies concerned with crime and those concerned with women's issues. It is illustrative of the marginalization of women's human rights issues that the international instrument which guarantees women's equality, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), was not drafted through the Human Rights Commission. CEDAW's Recommendation 19 directs the attention of states towards the elimination of gender-based violence, but the participation of the 139 states which are party to CEDAW is limited by reservations the states have attached to their participation. Wider commitment to the eradication of violence against women has been sought using other UN bodies, and, in 1993, the Declaration and Programme of Action of the World Conference on Human Rights called for the integration of women's human rights into all UN human rights activities, the General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women, and the Security Council of the International Tribunal was established to prosecute offenses committed in the former Yugoslavia, including rape. In 1994, the UN appointed a Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women to provide a continuing focus on gender violence. These calls for the recognition of the human rights of women and girls must be reinforced by the Fourth World Conference on Women. Such international instruments will not change women's lives alone, however. Improvement in the status of women will depend upon education, support services, and training of public officials. While working for social change, activists must also work to insure implementation of the instruments governments have adopted.     

Formulating Japan’s UNSCR 1325 national action plan and forgetting the “comfort women”

ABSTRACT

In September 2015, the Japanese government announced its first national action plan (NAP) to implement UN Security Council Resolution 1325, just ten days after forcefully legislating controversial security bills that would effectively lift the constitutional restrictions on overseas exercise of military force. Why did the conservative administration embrace Resolution 1325 while propelling militarization? This paper examines the formulation process of Japan’s NAP, focusing on gendered struggle over remilitarization and war memory, especially that of the “comfort women,” or Japanese imperial military sexual slavery during World War II. I will examine how post–Cold War remilitarization in Japan was closely intertwined with the struggle over war memory and the gender order of the nation, and how the conservative administration embraced international gender equality norms in an attempt to identify itself as a powerful liberal democracy engaged in maintaining the international security order, and to erase the memory of imperial military sexual violence in the past. By doing so, I attempt to critically reconsider the framework of the UN Women, Peace and Security agenda, which constructs powerful developed nations “not in conflict” as innocent supporters of women in conflict zones.     

Demographic Comparisons of Aging in Five Selected Countries

The worldwide aging of the population is having a major impact upon society. The United Nations General Assembly has declared 1999 to be the International Year of Older Persons to increase the awareness of aging worldwide. They identified five principles for older persons: independence, participation, care, self-fulfillment, and dignity. The numbers of elderly are growing around the world with many elderly living considerably longer than in past times. Developed countries are struggling with the high cost of maintaining support programs, and developing countries face dissolution of traditional care systems without institutional replacements. Women around the globe typically live longer than men, often without the economic resources to maintain independence. As nations adapt to their aging populations, a partnership among policy makers, family members, and older persons themselves is needed to offer alternatives to meet the needs of elders.     

Contending masculinities: the gendered (re) negotiation of colonial hierarchy in the United Nations debates on decolonization

The emergence of legal decolonization in the mid-twentieth century, as evidenced by the 1960 United Nations Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, is often understood through the lens of race and the disruption of racial hierarchy. If we take seriously the transnational feminist contention that the colonial racial order was also gendered, however, how might this perspective shift our understanding of decolonization? In this article, I explore the debates on decolonization that take place in the UN General Assembly from 1946–1960 that lead to the 1960 Declaration from a transnational feminist perspective to answer this question. Specifically, I use comparative historical and discourse methods of analysis to explore how colonialists and anti-colonialists negotiate the onset of legal decolonization, focusing especially on how colonialist hierarchies of race, culture, and gender are addressed in these debates. I argue that, on the one hand, colonialists rely on a paternalist masculinity to legitimate their rule (i.e., our dependencies require our rule the way a child requires a father). In response, anti-colonialists reply with a resistance masculinity (i.e., “colonialism is emasculating;” “decolonization is necessary for a return of masculine dignity”). I argue that decolonization in the United Nations transpires via contentions among differentially racialized masculinities. Ultimately, a transnational feminist perspective that centers the intersection of race and gender offers a richer analysis than a perspective that examines race alone.     

埃及与联合国及其安理会的关系

埃及是联合国51个创始成员国之一，自联合国成立之日起，埃及就积极支持联合国的各项工作。虽然联合国在维护埃及和阿拉伯国家利益方面也发挥了一定的积极作用，但总的来说，作用有限。埃及希望联合国及其安理会进行改革，加强其在维护地区和平与安全方面的作用。     

Incapsulating hands: on the (in)dependence of young adults in the UNHCR’s Maratane Refugee Camp

Drawing on research with a small group of young women and men in Maratane Refugee Camp, Mozambique, this paper argues that youth envisage themselves as incapsulated in the camp’s physical and ideological boundaries. It shows that the United Nations’ (UN) mandate of finding durable solutions to international problems is difficult to achieve when young people envisage themselves as reliant or dependent on the UN. It argues that greater attention needs to be given to the mentoring of young people within the UN system, so that they are equipped with viable and realistic life expectations and skills.     

Filmic public relations for a global audience: The United Nations and The Blue Vanguard

The project investigates the use of documentary film as a public relations tool by the United Nations (UN) for worldwide promotion of its first peacekeeping intervention in response to the Suez crisis of 1956. Specifically, it undertakes a historical investigation into the communicative purpose of the 1957 documentary film, The Blue Vanguard, which was made by the UN Department of Public Information (UNDPI). Beyond the interest connected with the intervention in the Suez crisis, the film is significant in the history of the UN’s global public relations since it was one of the first films made for the UN by UK film director, Thorold Dickinson, who arrived as Chief of Film at the UN in October 1956.The author argues that Thorold Dickinson used the documentary to make a radical public information proposition to a global audience on behalf of the United Nations. Specifically, the public relations discourse and cinematicity in The Blue Vanguard reminded a global audience that achieving peace required a new level of cultural tolerance and global co-operation, involving codes of judgement beyond the nationalistically-determined registers of the time.     

Can we ‘transform our world’ without affecting international power relations? A political analysis of the United Nations development agenda

The Millennium Development Goals and Sustainable Development Goals are the latest instalments of a development endeavour started by the United Nations (UN) after WWII. This article conducts a discourse analysis of the UN development agenda, drawing on Laclau and Mouffe’s post-Marxist thought – which combines post-structuralist discourse analysis and Marxist (Gramscian) political analysis. The essay exposes the ontological tenets underlying the UN’s agenda, and how it conditions the way social issues are understood and addressed. It explains how the agenda conceals the political dimension of development and sustainability debates. Rather than ‘transform our world’, the UN development agenda (1) hinders practices that would truly transform it in terms of more emancipation and justice, and (2) subtly reinforces the power dynamics that sustain the status quo in which underdevelopment, poverty, inequality, and exclusion emerged.     

Migration between Canada and the United States, 1970-85: some new estimates

The author applies the revised UN definition of what constitutes an emigrant to migration data on moves between Canada and the United States over the period 1970-1985. "The effect of changing to the UN definition is dramatic, and differences between old and new estimates are not systematic.... If these findings stand up when all migrants are included, using the UN definition, then the much larger flows suggest that the effects on the composition and characteristics of the nonmigrant population of Canada warrant investigation."     

Kosovo: Phased Independence?

At the end of May 2005, UNMIK head Jessen-Petersen addressed the UN Security Council presenting a generally positive picture of the situation in Kosovo. Now, a special envoy of the UN Secretary General will prepare a full-length report by September 2005 that addresses whether the most important human rights and democratic standards in Kosovo have been fulfilled. It is expected that this report will ascertain that the necessary progress has been made so that, as early as autumn of 2005, the UN Security Council can give the green light for starting negotiations on Kosovo's final status. Whether the carrot of EU membership can be dangled as the most enticing political incentive for Belgrade and Prishtina is questionable in light of the increasing weariness within the EU over expansion.     

Racism without Races: Reflections on Racialization and Racial Projects

‘The metaphor of race is a dangerous weapon whether it is used for asserting white supremacy or for making demands on behalf of the disadvantaged groups...Treating caste as a form of race is politically mischievous; what is worse, it is scientifically nonsensical’. Andre Beteille (2004: 52) ‘…what is in fact “scientifically nonsensical” is Professor Beteille’s misunderstanding of “race”. What is mischievous is his insistence that India’s system of ascribed system of social inequality should be exempted from the provisions of a UN Convention whose sole purpose is the extension of human rights to include freedom from all forms of discrimination and intolerance – and to which India, along with most other nations, has committed itself” Gerald Berreman (cited in Thorat and Umakant 2004: xxv ) ‘The possibility that the current Indian Hindu-Muslim or upper versus lower-caste conflict may be, in a significant sense, a variant of a modern problem of “ethnicity” or “race” is seldom entertained…”racism” is thought of as something the white people do to us. What Indians do to one another are variously described as “communalism”, “regionalism” and “casteism” but never “racism”’. Dipesh Chakrabarty (1994: 145)     

LGBTQI-identified human rights defenders: courage in the face of adversity at the United Nations

The role of LGBTQI human rights defenders in the international arena at the United Nations (UN) is a particularly risky and insecure one, especially for those who themselves identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, transgender, two spirit, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI). This article focuses on the anecdotal experiences of LGBTQI-identified human rights defenders and their work at the UN, observed and noted during a research study examining the degree of recognition and legitimacy LGBTQIs have at the UN. Much courage is required on the part of LGBTQI-identified human rights defenders who, while defending others in their communities, themselves face opposition from those within the UN who hold traditional, religious, and culturally based values, as well as a result of state sovereignty and state-sanctioned criminalisation of their gender and sexual diversity.     

Women's NGOs at UN Conferences: The 1992 Rio Conference on the Environment as a Watershed Event

SUMMARY

Before the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) was held in Brazil in 1992, the involvement of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in UN conferences was limited. NGOs participate in UN conferences in two ways, at a non-governmental forum usually convened simultaneously with an official UN conference, or as accredited observers to the official conference where government delegations meet and make decisions. Only 200 NGOs were granted access to the official portion of the Decade for Women Conference held in Nairobi in 1985, whereas 1,400 organizations were accredited to attend UNCED in Rio in 1992. And while only a small portion, about 5 percent, of those were women-oriented NGOs, they had a significant impact on the outcome. An entire chapter on women and environmental issues was added to the official conference document, and cross-cutting references to women were included throughout the document. This achievement reflects the work of several uniquely placed women, in and outside governments and the United Nations system, working together to build an international network of women and bring their voices to the table. Moreover, the techniques they developed have been used by women at every major UN conference held since 1992.