Larissa Peltola – RightsViews

When Football Fails Human Rights

December 10, 2021December 5, 2021 by Larissa PeltolaNo Comments

By Dallin Durtschi, staff writer Sports teams are sometimes owned by well-known public figures. The Dallas Mavericks are owned by Mark Cuban, Will Ferrell owns part of Los Angeles FC, and last month, the man responsible for ordering the brutal murder of Jamal Khashoggi also purchased the majority share of Newcastle United, an English Premier League football club. This new owner is none other than Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. In October, the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), whose chairman is the Saudi Crown Prince, was granted permission by the English Premier League to purchase Newcastle United. Amnesty International has outcried and rejected the Saudi purchase pointing towards the massive human rights implications. Saudi Human Rights Abuses Lack of Freedom of Speech The Saudi State carried out the infamous murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi which is a demonstration of their commitment to rejecting freedom of speech and crushing criticism of the state. Women’s Rights Abuses Their women's rights abuses are systematic and heinous. Women are not...

Deaf Gain: From the Marvel Cinematic Universe to New York Public Schools

December 8, 2021December 5, 2021 by Larissa PeltolaNo Comments

By Carina Goebelbecker, staff writer Marvel made history by debuting its first Deaf Superhero, Makkari, into its cinematic universe in the movie Eternals. Makkari, played by Deaf Brooklynite Lauren Ridloff, is a character who has super strength and speed. Representation in cinema is incredibly important, for it can lead to the empowerment and agency of the represented communities and their culture. The representation of American Sign Language (ASL) in the Marvel Cinematic Universe should extend to institutions that serve Deaf people, such as public schools. Federal funding should be allocated towards funding for ASL as second language classes in public schools. ASL is referred to as “the third most-used non-English language in the U.S.”, yet ASL classes are extremely difficult to come across in public schools. According to Newsweek, despite the fact that one million people use ASL as their primary language, “98% of Deaf people do not receive education in sign language, 72% of families do not sign with their Deaf children, and 70% of...

The Taliban Takeover: A Recurring Nightmare for the Hazaras?

December 7, 2021December 5, 2021 by Larissa Peltola1 Comment

By guest contributor, Devrishi Tyagi* In the month of August, the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan, following the fall of the previous government. Ever since the takeover, there has been a rising fear among the people of Afghanistan and the international community, of an increase in human rights violations in the region. One of these fears is the persecution of the Hazaras by the Taliban. The Hazaras are said to be the descendants of Genghis Khan, the founder of the Mongol empire. The ethnic group makes up anywhere from 15-20 percent of Afghanistan’s total population, making them one of the biggest and most important minority groups in the country. The history of the persecution of Hazaras is rooted in religious and ideological differences between two Islamic groups. In the late 19th century, the Sunni leader Pashtun leader Amir Abdul Rahman ordered the killing of all Shias in the country and as a result, the Hazaras were targeted for being one of the biggest...

#CUonStrike: A Discussion with the Student Workers of Columbia Bargaining Committee

December 1, 2021November 28, 2021 by Larissa PeltolaNo Comments

By Noah Smith, RightsViews Co-Editor and a graduate student in the human rights MA program. The opinions expressed in this article are Noah’s own and are not representative of the Institute for the Study of Human Rights (ISHR) or Columbia University. As of November 3, 2021, the Student Workers (SWC-UAW Local 2110) of Columbia University went on an indefinite strike, prolonged by the unwillingness of Columbia University’s administration to offer a fair contract to student workers. With the end of the John Deere strike earlier this week, the Columbia student workers strike is now the largest strike action in the country. The SWC-UAW Local 2110 has been legally recognized by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) since 2017, and there are over 3,000 members in the unit, making it one of the largest student worker unions in the country. Columbia’s student workers are demanding a fair contract that includes a living wage, better healthcare, union recognition for all student workers, and protections from...

Extraterritorial Corporate Accountability for Transnational Human Rights Violations: SCOTUS Ruling in Nestle USA Inc. v. Doe et al

November 15, 2021November 15, 2021 by Larissa PeltolaNo Comments

By guest contributors, Priya Garg* and Krati Gupta** Consequent to an arduous legal battle spanning over more than fifteen years, the Supreme Court of the United States of America (“SCOTUS/Supreme Court”) on June 17, 2021, reversed the ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Nestle USA Inc. v. Doe et al. (together with Cargill, Inc. v. Doe) (“Nestle”) that allowed the respondents, a group of Mali citizens to implicate U.S.-based multinational food corporations, Nestle USA and Cargill for child slavery allegations under the Alien Tort Statute (“ATS”). Enacted as a part of the Judiciary Act of 1789, the ATS confers jurisdiction upon the federal courts of U.S. to hear lawsuits filed by non-U.S. citizens for tortious violations of customary international law or a treaty of the United States. The claimants in Nestle were a group of Malian citizens who brought about claims under the ATS that they were trafficked to the Ivory Coast and tortured to work as child slaves...

Young Activist Spotlight: An Interview with Tabitha Boyton, Founder & Editor-in-Chief of Res Publica

October 25, 2021October 20, 2021 by Larissa PeltolaNo Comments

By RightsViews Co-Editor Noah Smith I recently spoke with Tabitha Boyton, founder & editor-in-chief of Res Publica, a highly commended interdisciplinary magazine of politics, law, art and culture led by student and volunteer contributors across the globe. The fundamental goal of Res Publica is to provide an engaging as well as an academically rigorous platform where ideas and concepts of interest to the public at large can be debated and explored. What is particularly unique about Res Publica is their attempt to bridge the gap between the academic and unscholarly on all things political. Helping to show how even in the age of Twitter mobs and sloganeering it is still possible to have serious thought and discussion over the things that matter. I spoke with Tabitha to query what inspired her to establish this magazine and the privileges and challenges she faces as a young activist. Tell me a little about yourself, and what motivated you to found Res Publica? Thank you so...

A Person-Centered and Compassionate Health Care System

October 21, 2021October 19, 2021 by Larissa PeltolaNo Comments

By: Carina Goebelbecker, staff writer. How can we put “care” back into health care? This was the central question posed by the “A Person-Centered and Compassionate Health Care System” zoom webinar on Friday, October 15th at 8:30am EST, organized by the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health as a part of their Centennial programming. Current Yusef Hamied Fellow Dr. Vikram Patel used personal experience, research on class division within the system, and medical data to highlight the ways in which India’s healthcare system is failing its people while proposing concrete solutions for a promising way forward. Dr. Patel began the lecture with a story about his mother, who experienced intense mistreatment within India’s health care system over the course of more than fifty years until her death. Patel stated that through his mother’s encounters, he never came across “a physician who actually saw [his] mother as a person,” but rather viewed her as just a diagnosis. This lack of visibility is a...

A Glance at the Life of Sex Workers in India

October 13, 2021October 12, 2021 by Larissa PeltolaNo Comments

By guest contributors Kanika Chugh* and Srishti Ray* With the advent of COVID-19 we all turned to the safety of our homes and accepted the culture of work from home, but the daily wagers of the informal sector didn’t have that choice and were the worst hit. While the work for most of them resumed with several precautions once the lockdown ended, sex workers in Red Light Areas are still struggling to get their lives back on track. On March 26, 2020 government of India announced Rs.1.7 lakh crore as a relief fund for migrant workers, rural and urban poor, and frontline health workers. There are over 800,000 sex workers in India who could not avail that benefit because sex work is not recognised as legitimate work in India. National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on October 7, 2020, issued an advisory requesting that states recognise sex workers as informal workers for protection of their rights in the wake of COVID-19, but it...

Examining the Legal Implications and Ramifications of the New Bounty-Hunting Texas Abortion Law

October 4, 2021October 3, 2021 by Larissa PeltolaNo Comments

By guest contributor Astha Bhattacharya* Despite a new era of pro-choice feminism overtaking the globe, Texas has passed Senate Bill No. 8, instituting one of the world's most stringent abortion bans. The bill, dubbed the "fetal heartbeat bill," outlaws all abortions after the "first detectable heartbeat." In this piece, I'll take a two-pronged approach to the legislation. First, I'll go over the scientific and medical challenges that the law presents. Then I'll show how the law infringes on women and their globally recognized human and reproductive rights, primarily targeting certain groups of women. SCIENTIFIC PERSPECTIVE Science can't say with certainty when an embryo becomes a "human being." Researchers have recognized up to five distinct developmental stages, any of which could be a viable starting place for human life. The fourth step, which is viability, is clearly ascertainable. The point at which a fetus can successfully survive outside of the uterus with medical assistance is known as viability. This is the stage that the...

How Should We Look at War?

September 15, 2021September 14, 2021 by Larissa PeltolaNo Comments

By guest contributor Julie Uszpolewicz* There is nothing as powerful in making the viewer realise the atrocity and the suffering of war, as an image. Statistics are too dehumanising, words leave too much to the imagination, but photography has the rare power of being apparently objective. However, looking at documented conflicts has been criticised by several post-modernist thinkers (such as Jean Baudillard) as being passive. In the contemporary world of social media, we are faced with images of horror more than we have ever been before, therefore, perhaps the question of the role of photography requires revisiting. Is there a right way to look at the war in the reality that is saturated with photographs of distant conflicts and human rights abuses? Perhaps this article will raise more doubts than give answers, but it seems worthwhile to stop for a second and ask what kind of pictures we are bombarded within the news. The question of ethics in political photography is nothing...