Melissa's Archives UBC Posts

Part I

Introduction

On the eleventh of February in 2014, a Turkish woman inaugurated liability proceedings based on what she deemed to be insufficient protection by the Republic of Austria against her abusive husband for the murder of her son, resulting in a court case known as Kurt v. Austria. In this article, I critically examine the case of Kurt v. Austria by addressing the following legal questions: What is the role of Article 2 in the European Convention of Human Rights in protecting the right to life? What is the relationship between the state and individual rights, and how is it demarcated by international instruments of law? These questions explore the case with regards to the preventative actions undertaken by state authorities, determining the nonessentiality of detention, and exploring legal frameworks that contend with the relationship between a state and human rights. Altogether, I argue that the failure of Austrian authorities in Kurt v. Austria to prevent the murder is justified, owing to the nature of state obligations under Article 2, and the lack of direct evidence regarding the perpetrator’s violence as insufficient grounds for firmer protections at the time of the incident.

By Melissa Zhou An overview on human rights is invariably associated with the forces of colonialism that have shaped its meaning. By narrowing down the vast scope of history into three prominent cases — namely, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen of 1789 in France, and its relationship to French colonialism in Haiti; the advent of self-determination in 1945 through the UN Charter, along with colonialism perpetrated by the US and Europe; and Canada’s support of the 1948 UN Genocide Convention, with reference to the Indian Residential School System — it is evident that colonialism is paramount…

By Melissa Zhou Stemming from the post-war emphasis on self-determination, the prospect of indigenous autonomy has gained leverage in challenging the Doctrine of Discovery, and working towards reparation. In Canada, various court decisions—such as those resulting from R. v. Guerin and R. v. Sparrow—underscore the importance of Indigenous sovereignty regarding the prospect of binationalism. I argue, with a focus on Latin America, that the prodigious advances made by Canada in recognizing the sovereignty of Indigenous people have international effects, and portray binationalism as a favorable approach to the relationship between states and Indigenous people. The right to self-determination that emerged…