scholarly journals Night-time confinement is an unacceptable hospital practice

2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-37
Author(s):  
George Szmukler
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Night Time ◽  
Hospital Practice ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
Therapeutic Purpose ◽  
Practice Standards ◽  
Degrading Treatment ◽  
Accepted Practice ◽  
Acceptable Measure

SummaryNight-time confinement, currently imposed as a blanket restriction on all patients on wards in UK high secure hospitals, constitutes an arbitrary restriction of liberty, not being based on any therapeutic purpose for those so restricted, nor serving a need for the protection of others. Its imposition constitutes a form of ‘degrading’ treatment as well as an unjustified restriction of ‘residual’ liberty. Persons who are vulnerable, especially those who are involuntarily detained as in this case, are particularly at risk of suffering human rights abuses. A compelling case can be made, based on ethics, law and accepted practice standards, for ruling out night-time confinement as an acceptable measure.Declaration of interestNone.

Incorporating Rights

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erika George
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Emerging Market ◽  
Codes Of Conduct ◽  
Sustainability Reporting ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Alternative Form ◽  
Business Practices ◽  
Corporate Accountability ◽  
Human Rights Abuses

Incorporating Rights: Strategies to Advance Corporate Accountability examines existing and emerging advocacy strategies that could conceivably close a global governance gap that puts human rights at risk and places commercial actors at risk of becoming complicit in human rights abuses when conducting business in emerging market economies and complex environments. Corporate codes of conduct, sustainability reporting, and selected multistakeholder initiatives are presented as the building blocks of a system of soft law that could solidify to become binding baseline standards for better business practices. This book explains the conditions that have given rise to constructive change as well as those methods and mechanisms with promise for ensuring that business enterprises incorporate human rights considerations into business operations. This book explores how capital and consumer markets could provide an additional or alternative form of enforcement to promote responsible business conduct. It provides accounts of the creation of industry sector regulatory instruments and governance institutions arising from allegations of corporate complicity in human rights abuses. It examines how corporate social responsibility initiatives could close the governance gap and how codes of conduct could come to regulate like real rules. This book argues that regulation through information is essential to ensure that corporate conduct will be informed by human rights considerations and implemented consistent with respect for human rights. Where concerned consumers and investors exercise preferences for products that are not associated with abuse and have access to information on corporate performance and risks posed to human rights, there is potential to change corporate conduct. Societal expectations are increasing and evolving.

scholarly journals Two-Lane Blacktop: Refugees & Torture

2017 ◽  
pp. 49-66
Author(s):  
Jesús García Cívico
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Universal Declaration ◽  
Political Crisis ◽  
Immigration Policies ◽  
Extensive Field ◽  
Degrading Treatment ◽  
The Right ◽  
Perverse Effect

The right not to be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and the right of asylum have, individually considered, an extensive field of application", but it is possible to point out some traits in common. Firsty, in both rights undelie the moral spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. At the same time, according to the recent reports of the main human rights organisations, both rights are in deep political crisis. Furthermore, is possible to see that sometimes they cross each other: there is a triple «zone of intersection between the right of asylum and the right not to suffer torture, inhuman or degrading treatment: one of the reasons for escaping from a country is to avoid suffering torture ("refuge after torture")  secondly, sometimes inhuman and degrading treatment occur precisely in the process of seeking asylum ("inhuman treatment in the refuge"), finally, there are countries with strong deficiencies in their immigration policies and this can produce a perverse effect: the transfer of potential asylum seekers to countries where they are at risk of torture or inhuman treatment again ("torture or inhuman and degrading treatment after asylum").

Preventing human rights abuses in psychiatric establishments: the work of the CPT

2004 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 146-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Niveau
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Reference Standards ◽  
Public Authority ◽  
Psychiatric Practice ◽  
Annual Reports ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
European Committee ◽  
Degrading Treatment

AbstractThe mission of the European Committee for the prevention of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (CPT) is to visit all places where people are detained and deprived of their liberty by a public authority, in States which are signatories to the Convention. Within this context, the CPT has visited many closed psychiatric establishments. We have studied reports, which were made public concerning 78 psychiatric establishments visited by the CPT between 1990 and 2001. No act considered to be torture was reported by the CPT, but several cases of deliberate ill-treatment of patients are described. Many serious cases of dysfunction concerning staff, treatment, the use of seclusion and restraint as well as lack of adequate safeguards, were also noted by the CPT. The recommendations, comments and requests for information issued by the CPT are intended to promote the reform of these establishments in order to promote human rights, in the States visited. These recommendations as well as the CPT’s annual reports, serve as reference standards for psychiatric practice, which respect human rights.

Global Policy Initiatives to Regulate Business Responsibility and Human Rights

2021 ◽  
pp. 63-104
Author(s):  
Erika George
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Policy Instruments ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Business Practices ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
Global Policy ◽  
Policy Initiatives ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
Rights Issues

In view of the shortcomings of corporate law and international law, this chapter argues that pragmatic global policy instruments can provide a strong foundation for promoting changes in business practices and providing greater protection by closing the governance gaps that place human rights and the environment at risk. This chapter traces the trajectory of international policy initiatives advanced to address the governance gap culminating in the endorsement of the UN Framework and Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, which seek to translate human rights issues into corporate responsibility imperatives. Based on the author’s analysis of primary UN documents and commentaries; interviews with different stakeholder constituencies in the policymaking process, including corporate representatives and rights activists; ethnographic research, including participation in and observations of the annual proceedings of the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights; and interviews with members of the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights, the chapter will show that while the consensus formed around global policy instruments is fragile, certain aspects of the Framework appear to be gaining traction as authoritative among those stakeholders best situated to address or avoid human rights abuses.

Documents and Source Material

2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-7
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Source Material ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
Palestinian Territories ◽  
Source Materials ◽  
Israeli Occupation

This section comprises JPS summaries and links to international, Arab, Israeli, and U.S. documents and source materials from the quarter spanning 16 May-15 November 2017. Fifty years of Israeli occupation was the focus of reports by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and Oxfam that documented the ongoing human rights abuses in the occupied Palestinian territories. Other notable documents include Israeli NGO Gisha and UNSCO reports on the ten-year Gaza siege, Al Jazeera's interactive timeline of the Nakba, and an exchange of letters between the ACLU and U.S. senators on anti-BDS legislation.

Humanitarian Intervention and Non-Ideal Theory

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramon Das
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Humanitarian Intervention ◽  
Ideal Theory ◽  
Military Power ◽  
Moral Integrity ◽  
Philosophical Debate ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
Target State ◽  
Target States

This chapter argues that the philosophical debate around humanitarian intervention would be improved if it were less ‘ideal-theoretic’. It identifies two ideal-theoretic assumptions. One, in target states where humanitarian intervention is being considered, there are two distinct and easily identified groups: ‘bad guys’ committing serious human rights abuses, and innocent civilians against whom the abuses are being committed. Two, external to the target state in question, there are suitably qualified ‘good guys’—prospective interveners who possess both the requisite military power and moral integrity. If the assumptions hold, the prospects for successful humanitarian intervention are much greater. As a contrast, some possible non-ideal assumptions are that (i) there are many bad guys in a civil war, and (ii) the good guy intervener is itself supporting some of the bad guys. If these non-ideal assumptions hold, prospects for successful humanitarian intervention are small.

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