RightsUp

Constitutions are the legal bedrock of many countries, but they're also political, and are produced within a specific socio-historical context, much like any text. As much as Constitutions are there to protect citizens, they can also exclude certain groups of people. And when a Constitution doesn't work for all, how do we best address this? To what extent can we reinterpret a Constitution so it's more inclusive? And when do we need to start again, from scratch? In this episode, Gautam Bhatia and Joel Modiri discuss these questions in the context of India and South Africa.

Transcript available: http://ohrh.law.ox.ac.uk/media/the-transformative-possibilities-of-a-constitution-with-joel-modiri-and-gautam-bhatia/

Interview with: Gautam Bhatia and Dr Joel Modiri

Recorded by: Nomfundo Ramalekana

Produced and edited by: Christy Callaway-Gale

Executive producer: Kira Allmann

Shownotes: Sarah Dobbie

Music: Rosemary Allmann

Covid-19 lockdowns worldwide have forced huge portions of our lives online, from education to work, with important human rights ramifications. But there's an argument to be made that the Covid-19 lockdown has been good for the environment. there have been reports of lower levels of littering and urban pollution. As humans withdrew from public spaces, some native wildlife has reemerged. But our newly intensified online routines, from video conferencing to binge-watching Netflix, might have more of a negative environmental impact than we realise. The Internet and the systems that support it are reportedly responsible for 3.7% of global greenhouse gas emissions, roughly the same as the airline industry. And it's estimated that the typical professional creates 135 kilogrammes of CO2 just sending emails — which is equivalent to driving 200 miles in a family car. We don't often think about the effect of the Internet on the natural environment, and the related implications for human rights. In this episode, we talk to Internet governance consultant Michael Oghia about why we need to build an environmentally sustainable Internet for the future.

Interview with: Michael Oghia (Global Forum for Media Development)

Host: Kira Allmann

Producer/Editor: Kira Allmann

Executive Producer: Kira Allmann

Music: Rosemary Allmann

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought questions around global healthcare financing and equitable access to treatments to the fore. But this is not the first time a spotlight has been thrown on the thorny issue of fair resource allocation in efforts to tackle global health issues. In her book, “The Uncounted: Politics of Data in Global Health” (Cambridge University Press), Dr Sara Davis considers how human rights issues can affect the data which underlie global healthcare funding. She looks closely at the indicators which drive resource allocation, the metrics used to measure success in tackling health issues, and the people whose experiences healthcare data often fails to capture. Ultimately, in a world of finite resources, this data plays an important role in determining who is more likely to live or die.

Interview with: Sara Davis (Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva)

Host: Natasha Holcroft-Emmess

Producer/Editor: Christy Callaway-Gale

Executive Producer: Kira Allmann

Music: Rosemary Allmann

In 2016, a peace agreement was negotiated between the Colombian  Government and one guerrilla movement known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or the FARC. But the peace deal was rejected by a narrow margin in a referendum in 2016. A revised peace deal was eventually ratified by the Congress of Colombia. The peace agreement provides for the Special Jurisdiction for Peace, a tribunal created in 2018 to implement the transitional justice component of the peace agreement. In this episode, we talk with Judge Lemaitre, who currently the Investigating Judge for the jurisdiction's first macro case, about the future of restorative justice in Colombia.

A full transcript is available on our website: ohrh.law.ox.ac.uk

Interview with: Julieta Lemaitre (Special Jurisdiction for Peace, Colombia)

Host: Natasha Holcroft-Emmess

Producer: Natasha Holcroft-Emmess

Executive Producer: Kira Allmann

Music: Rosemary Allmann

The spread of Covid-19 has affected many areas of our lives with major implications for our rights and freedoms. The instigation of a UK-wide lockdown has had an especially pronounced effect on our rights, and the burden of this disruption will fall most heavily on those whose livelihoods, health, and security were already fragile. Furloughed employees, those who are self-employed, and those who must now seek social security benefits face an unprecedented level of uncertainty. Today we discuss the impact of coronavirus on worker's rights in the UK.

Full transcript available: ohrh.law.ox.ac.uk/media/the-impact-of-covid-19-on-workers-rights-with-michael-ford

Interview with: Michael Ford, QC (University of Bristol & Old Square Chambers)

Hosted by: Natasha Holcroft-Emmess

Produced and edited by: Christy Callaway-Gale

Executive producer: Kira Allmann

Shownotes: Sarah Dobbie

Music: Rosemary Allmann

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected all of us in many ways. States around the world have imposed restrictions of varying levels of stringency to control the spread of the virus. The Central Government in India introduced a nationwide 21-day lockdown on 24th of March 2020. The lockdown saw an almost complete restriction on the movement of people and the closure of all establishments except those providing essential services. India’s lockdown has been described as the world’s biggest coronavirus lockdown and the harshest coronavirus containment measure in the world. The lockdown was declared with a four-hour notice period. It has been extensively reported that the impact of the lockdown has fallen most heavily on those most vulnerable. In this episode, we speak to Professor Kalpana Kannabiran, a professor of sociology and the Director of the Council for Social Development Hyderabad, about the Indian government's response to the pandemic and the impact on rights.

Full transcript and shownotes: http://ohrh.law.ox.ac.uk/media/the-need-for-empathy-understanding-indias-covid-19-lockdown-with-kalpana-kannabiran/

Interview with: Kalpana Kannabiran (Council for Social Development Hyderabad)

Hosted by: Gauri Pillai

Produced and edited by: Christy Callaway-Gale

Executive producer: Kira Allmann

Shownotes: Sarah Dobbie

Music: Rosemary Allmann

In this episode, we discuss the intersection between the responses to public health crisis and human rights with Luisa Cabal, Acting Director of the Community Support, Social Justice, and Inclusion at UNAIDS. UNAIDS recently published a guidance paper of lessons learned from other pandemics, such as the HIV pandemic, about how to respect and uphold human rights during exceptional times.

Download a full transcript: http://ohrh.law.ox.ac.uk/media/how-to-uphold-human-rights-during-a-pandemic-lessons-from-unaids-with-luisa-cabal/

Interview with: Luisa Cabal (UNAIDS)

Hosted by: Mónica Arango Olaya

Produced and edited by: Christy Callaway-Gale

Executive producer: Kira Allmann

Shownotes: Sarah Dobbie

Music: Rosemary Allmann

This is a special episode of RightsUp, which takes Sandy Fredman’s new book, Comparative Human Rights Law, as a starting point for global conversation around the role of law, lawyers, courts, and judges in forwarding human rights in different contexts. Each episode will delve into the overarching themes of the book and highlight some specific examples from different jurisdictions -- on issues such as capital punishment, abortion, the right to housing, health, and education, and the right to freedom of speech and religion.

In this discussion, Sandy speaks with Colm O'Cinneide, a professor of human rights law at UCL, who also served on the member of the European Committee on Social Rights of the Council of Europe. They discuss the intersections between socio-economic rights and civil/political rights in the context of Europe.

Guests: Sandra Fredman and Colm O'Cinneide

Produced by: Kira Allmann

Music by: Rosemary Allmann

This is a special episode of RightsUp, which takes Sandy Fredman’s new book, Comparative Human Rights Law, as a starting point for global conversation around the role of law, lawyers, courts, and judges in forwarding human rights in different contexts. Each episode will delve into the overarching themes of the book and highlight some specific examples from different jurisdictions -- on issues such as capital punishment, abortion, the right to housing, health, and education, and the right to freedom of speech and religion.

In this discussion, Sandy speaks with Justice S. Muralidhar, a judge on the High Court of Delhi, who has delivered judgments in some of the most important housing rights cases in India. They discuss a right to housing and the value of comparing how different legal systems deal with this issue.

Guests: Sandra Fredman and Justice S. Muralidhar

Produced by: Kira Allmann

Music by: Rosemary Allmann

This is a special episode of RightsUp, which takes Sandy Fredman’s new book, Comparative Human Rights Law, as a starting point for global conversation around the role of law, lawyers, courts, and judges in forwarding human rights in different contexts. Each episode will delve into the overarching themes of the book and highlight some specific examples from different jurisdictions -- on issues such as capital punishment, abortion, the right to housing, health, and education, and the right to freedom of speech and religion.

In this discussion, Sandy speaks with Judge Edwin Cameron, who recently retired from the Constitutional Court of South Africa after serving for more than two decades as a judge in South African courts.

Guests: Sandra Fredman and Edwin Cameron

Produced by: Kira Allmann

Music by: Rosemary Allmann