Americas – Page 2 – RightsViews

Rights in Conflict: Competing Claims for Housing and Property in Brazil

September 20, 2022September 20, 2022 by Winston Ardoin II1 Comment

By Co-Editor Winston Ardoin Written during the period of redemocratization after the repressive military dictatorship, the 1988 Constitution of the Federative Republic of Brazil is among the most progressive in the world. After the preamble and a short list of foundational principles, Title II explicitly describes all the fundamental rights and guarantees granted to every citizen by the State. One of the longest and most detailed declarations of rights in any national constitution, the drafters’ progressive and inclusive goals created a difficult problem for the Brazilian state: the potential for conflicts of rights. Like the American court system, Brazilian courts must choose which right to uphold and defend when competing groups bring opposing claims citing different constitutional rights. In a deeply unequal country where political and legal structures remain controlled by the elite, the question often also becomes whose rights matter more: those of the powerful or those of the marginalized? One collision of rights , especially present in major cities such...

Reimagining Governance: The Visionary Potential of Chile’s Rewritten Constitution

September 1, 2022September 3, 2022 by Varsha VijayakumarNo Comments

By Co-Editor Varsha Vijayakumar. This coming Sunday, September 4, every Chilean citizen above the age of eighteen will vote to “approve” or “reject” a brand-new national constitution. Chile’s existing constitution was established during the brutal dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, which lasted from 1973 to 1990. On September 11, 1973, the military general led a U.S.-backed coup d’etat that ousted Salvador Allende, the first Marxist in the world to have been democratically-elected to power. Today, the histories and lives of the murdered and disappeared are intentionally documented by organizations such as the Museum of Memory & Human Rights in Chile’s capital city.* A national plebiscite is nothing new in Chile. In fact, the formal end of Pinochet’s dictatorship was brought about by a 1988 referendum in which 56% of Chileans voted “no” on the question of extending his regime. Critics have long argued that the current constitution prioritizes the neoliberal economic model that was established under Pinochet’s rule and generally enshrines the stark inequalities of...

Institutionalizing the Revolution or Maintaining the Status Quo: The Question of Plurinationalism in Bolivia

June 5, 2022September 23, 2022 by Winston Ardoin IINo Comments

By Co-Editor Winston Ardoin In a crucial victory for Evo Morales, Bolivia’s former leftist indigenous president, the state’s most recent constitution entered into force on February 7, 2009. The document reorganized the state around the concept of plurinationalism, defined by political scientist Michael Keating as “the coexistence within a political order of more than one national identity, with all the normative claims and implications that this entails.” Proponents of the new constitution saw the codification of plurinationalism as the institutionalization of their revolutionary struggle against the legacy of colonialism and long-standing inequality in Bolivia. Opponents, including some indigenous leaders, disagree, arguing that plurinationalism dilutes sovereign aims and maintains the unjust status quo. Understanding Plurinationalism in the Bolivian Context A uniquely Latin American idea developed in the 2000s, revolutionary Andean political leaders with indigenist convictions developed the concept of plurinationalism, defined by former Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa as “the coexistence of several different nationalities within a larger state where different peoples, cultures and worldviews...

The Consequences of Texas SB8: It May Become Impossible to Get an Abortion in Large Parts of the US

April 21, 2022September 1, 2022 by Varsha VijayakumarNo Comments

By Staff Writer Susanne Prochazka. The ripple effect of the Texas abortion ban, SB 8, has already impacted reproductive rights across the United States. As early as September 2021, following SB 8 taking effect, states neighboring Texas experienced an influx of patients seeking abortion care and related reproductive health care. States as far away as Illinois and New York reported an increase in patients from Texas scheduling abortion procedures, with Texans forced to travel hundreds or even thousands of miles for abortion access. Under SB 8, which effectively bans abortions as early as six weeks into the pregnancy, abortions in Texas have already fallen by almost 50%. In the wake of Texas’ SB 8, a wave of equally restrictive abortion prohibitions has followed. 2022 is rapidly emerging as a devastating year for abortion rights and access, with more than 500 restrictions introduced nationwide since the start of state legislative sessions in January 2022. Notably, three states have enacted bans as strict as Texas’...

NYCHA’s Public Housing Fosters Crime, Poverty and Dreadful Living Conditions

December 20, 2021December 15, 2021 by Noah SmithNo Comments

By Staff Writer Emily Ekshian GRANT HOUSES, MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS - Is the government truly concerned, or are they simply clustering low income communities together to keep them immobile, and in one space? The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), has a profound legacy as the country’s first government - sponsored public housing agency. Established in 1935, the 334 housing developments provided by NYCHA include apartment units, houses and shared small building units across New York City’s five boroughs. And the agency’s core mission is to provide decent, safe, and affordable housing primarily for low income New Yorkers, though tenants at the Grant Houses would disagree. Casually leaning on an NYPD smart car on the collapsed curbside area facing 50 La Salle St, Officer Kang guards the Grant Public housing apartment park, where a shooting occurred down the street just about a week ago. “We’re close to the bottom here,” he says. “Bad living conditions, it tends to get crowded often, and most people are...

The Rittenhouse Verdict Explained

December 16, 2021December 15, 2021 by Noah SmithNo Comments

By Staff Writer Susanne Prochazka On November 19th, 2021, a jury returned from 27 hours of deliberation and declared 18-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse not guilty on all charges he faced after fatally shooting two people and wounding a third during a 2020 night of unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Rittenhouse shot and killed Joseph Rosenbaum (36) an unarmed man who had chased Rittenhouse, and Anthony Huber (26), a demonstrator who had struck him with a skateboard and then lunged for his rifle, and severely wounded a third, Gaige Grosskreutz (now 28) a demonstrator and paramedic who was armed with a Glock pistol. Prosecutors had charged Rittenhouse with five felonies: first degree reckless homicide, use of a dangerous weapon; first-degree recklessly endangering safety, use of a dangerous weapon; first-degree recklessly endangering safety, use of a dangerous weapon; first-degree intentional homicide, use of a dangerous weapon; and attempted first-degree intentional homicide, use of a dangerous weapon. A sixth charge, possession of a dangerous weapon by a...

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...

#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...

The Direct Challenge to Roe v. Wade Coming before the Conservative Supreme Court

November 29, 2021November 22, 2021 by Noah SmithNo Comments

By: Susanne Prochazka, RightsViews staff writer. While the contentious Texas 6-week abortion ban, S.B.6, has caught the national spotlight, on December 1st, 2021 the Supreme Court will rule on the constitutionality of a pre-viability abortion prohibition for the first time since 1973’s seminal ruling in Roe v. Wade. In this case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the Court will be hearing the state of Mississippi’s appeal of a lower court ruling that struck down a Mississippi law banning abortions following 15 weeks of pregnancy. Since 2010, over 300 laws limiting the right to abortion have been enacted by various state legislatures. Many of these laws remain on the books, even where legal challenges have delayed or halted implementation of the laws going into effect. Twelve states have passed restrictions regarding “admitting privileges” laws, laws that require any doctor who performs abortions to hold active admitting privileges at a nearby hospital, similar to laws overturned in Texas and Louisiana. In 2019 and...

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...