HUMAN RIGHTS QUARTERLY

At a time when UN agencies and committees, together with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are increasingly linking human rights norms with health promotion, this article takes up the question of what the relationships between health status and human rights are. This question is addressed from both a theoretical and a strategic perspective. Part II explores the meanings of power issues in human rights and public health.

This article seeks to determine at what point the 'tradition' of female circumcision becomes a human rights violation justifying pressure from foreign cultures to end this 'tradition'. The author describes four basic forms of circumcision and examines the circumstances under which they occur, and discusses various justifications for the practice. Female circumcision as it was practiced in Western culture is also examined.

This article examines the impact of the judicial trend of interpretive incorporation on women's rights. The author argues that this trend moderates the gap in implementation in cases where human rights treaties have not been domesticated by the legislature. She looks to the use of constitutional interpretation to incorporate CEDAWs prohibition against discrimination on the basis of pregnancy. In the course of this examination the article considers how interpretive incorporation impacts the status of unincorporated human rights treaties. The

This article examines the correlation between self-determination of indigenous peoples and indigenous womens rights. In particular, the article focuses on the current failure to prevent violence against women and argues that the justice system and other institutions are ineffective in this endeavour. Noting the importance of the international human rights framework in addressing violence against women, the article argues that human rights law relating to self-determination should be conceived as a collective human right rather than a right of sovereign states. The article

This article discusses why domestic violence was not analyzed traditionally as a human rights issue. It discusses the three changes that occurred to make such an analysis possible: the expansion of state responsibility, the recognition of domestic violence as widespread and largely un-prosecuted, and the understanding that non-prosecution of domestic violence constitutes a violation of the right to equal protection under international law. In addition, this article explores the value and limitations of the human rights approach to combating domestic violence.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) defines who is a Palestinian refugee and which refugees are entitled to UN assistance. UNRWA utilizes a patrilineal model which leaves refugee women who marry non-refugee men ineligible for many benefits and disenfranchises their children. This study takes a critical look at the effects of this model and compares it to the legal norms on gender discrimination set out in conventions and other international instruments, including those established by the UN itself.

This article presents an overview of the initial political reading of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by the Commission on Human Rights Working Group. Chronicling the nine year process leading to the current Draft Declaration, the author recounts the main obstacles encountered in gathering international support for Indigenous peoples rights. The author suggests the importance of this Working Group's requirement of full participation by Indigenous organizations and recommendation for immediate adoption of the draft document.

This article examines the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime as well as the Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling Protocols. The author looks at the origins of the two protocols, their content and the relationship between them. In her analysis, she highlights weaknesses and gaps that she suggests limit protection of migrants' human rights. She ends with a discussion of the protocol negotiation process and personal observations.

Discrimination against widows on the basis of sex is argued to be prevalent in Sub-Saharan African countries, particularly in terms of their inheritance rights and the degrading burial rituals they are subjected to, in violation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

The author reviews the developments in the prohibition of violence against women in international human rights law. She stresses the importance of recognizing violence against women as a human right rather than as a "private" individual or family matter. The precedent set in the area of violence against women may give other groups the framework within which to challenge the boundaries of human rights law.