Economic Social Cultural Rights

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130 days and counting: A responsibility to end the blockade of the Lachin Corridor

May 2, 2023

Jolanda Andela

Tatevik Manucharyan

Severe shortages in food and medical supplies are increasingly imposing great hardship on Nagorno-Karabakh’s 120,000 ethnic Armenian residents, with provisions depleting quickly and no alleviation anticipated so far. The question that arises is whether a responsibility to end the (current form of) protests and hence alleviate the situation may be uncovered. The Lachin Corridor – the sole land route connecting the Nagorno-Karabakh region to Armenia and the outside world – has been inaccessible to all civilian and commercial traffic for more than four months now, after having been blockaded by Azerbaijani protesters, allegedly backed by the state’s government. Since 12 December 2022, several dozen Azerbaijani protesters, claiming to be concerned with mining activities in the region, have set up tents along the road and have kept the corridor blocked around the clock, with serious humanitarian consequences for the local population (see here and here). Indeed, the protesters’ blockade has impaired and continues to impair access to vital food sources, medical supplies, and services indispensable for survival of the ethnic Armenian residents…

EU – New Zealand FTA: Towards a new approach in the enforcement of trade and sustainable development obligations

September 28, 2022

Carlotta Ceretelli

On 30 June 2022, the President of the EU Commission and the New Zealand Prime Minister jointly announced the successful termination of the negotiations for the creation of a new free trade area (FTA) between the European Union and New Zealand. As for New Zealand, the commercial liberalization provided by the new FTA would determine a…

A Not So ‘New Dawn’ for International Economic Law and Development: Towards a Social Reproduction Approach to GVCs – A Rejoinder to Bernard Hoekman

July 13, 2022

Donatella Alessandrini

I thank Bernard Hoekman for taking the time to engage with my article ‘A Not So “New Dawn” for International Economic Law and Development: Towards a Social Reproduction Approach to GVCs’, and for providing me with the opportunity to clarify some of its arguments. He and I agree that concerns about social reproduction are central to…

The Human Right to Food, Freedom from Hunger, and SDG 2: Global Food Crisis and Starvation Tactics from the Russian Invasion of Ukraine

June 9, 2022

Diane Desierto

Much has been written and reported in the past 100 days since the Russian Federation invaded Ukraine, regarding all manner of mass atrocity crimes, continuing egregious human rights violations, war crimes and grave breaches of the 1949 Geneva Conventions and other sources of international humanitarian law. In February, I wrote about international law duties…

Energy Lessons from the Ukraine Crisis

February 24, 2022

Frédéric Gilles Sourgens

It is a cliché that wars are fought over energy access. It is just as trite to point out the illegality of military action to secure energy resources for oneself or to deny energy access to adversaries. As sanctions against Russia and against Ukrainian separatist regions come into focus, energy access again comes front and center. Germany’s…

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Europe’s Debt to Greece

August 24, 2015

Margot Salomon

The past five years have shown a categorical disregard for the human rights of the people of Greece by international creditors. We have witnessed a disregard by states, including notably eurozone states, as well as by European institutions and the IMF, of their human rights obligations when crafting conditionalities. There is a long list of deplorable developments that…

Beyond “Good Neighborliness” in the ICJ 1 October 2018 Judgment in Bolivia v. Chile: Do Human Rights and Sustainable Development Obligate Creating Negotiated Access for Landlocked Bolivia to the Pacific Ocean?

October 4, 2018

Diane Desierto

On 1 October 2018, the International Court of Justice issued its Judgment on the Merits in Obligation to Negotiate Access to the Pacific Ocean (Bolivia v. Chile), finding, by 12 votes to 3, that Chile "did not undertake a legal obligation to negotiate sovereign access to the Pacific Ocean" for Bolivia and rejecting all other submissions of Bolivia. While…

The Danish Law on Seizing Asylum Seekers’ Assets

January 27, 2016

Jacques Hartmann and Nikolas Feith Tan

The Danish Parliament recently passed a controversial amendment to the Aliens Act (Bill no. 87) giving police the power to search and confiscate the property of asylum seekers to contribute to expenses associated with their stay in Denmark (BBC). First proposed on 10 December 2015, the bill quickly made international headlines (BBC, Washington Post).

Urbaser v Argentina: The Origins of a Host State Human Rights Counterclaim in ICSID Arbitration?

February 10, 2017

Edward Guntrip

Investment tribunals rarely examine host state arguments based on international human rights law in great depth. The ICSID award Urbaser v Argentina is the first to provide a detailed discussion of a host state’s human rights counterclaim. Hence, this decision presents an opportunity to more fully understand the role of human rights in investment arbitration. As the…