HUMAN RIGHTS LAW REVIEW

This article focuses on the effects international trade agreements have on human rights in developing countries. The author argues that human rights law makes concrete demands of states when they are engaged in economic law-making, such as negotiating trade policies (creating "economic human rights"). The article asserts that by restricting certain economic activities in developing countries, trade agreements often hurt the most economically vulnerable portions of society, such as women. The article begins with a survey of human rights and states'

This article analyzes the decision by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in the case of Jessica Lenahan (Gonzales) v United States. Of particular concern is the responsibility of the state to provide adequate protection for victims of domestic violence. Specifically, this case involved a Colorado police department ignoring a womans reports of domestic violence, culminating in a shoot-out with police and the deaths of the plaintiffs three children.

This author reasons that the Optional Protocol (OP) to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) has significantly increased the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women's powers of monitoring and enforcing state obligations under CEDAW. This article summarizes the first actions taken by the Committee under the OP: two individual communications in 2004-2005 (B.J. v. Germany and A.T. v. Hungary) and one inquiry in 2004 (Report on Mexico).