Singapore will soon submit a national report to and subsequently appear before the UN Human Rights Council for a universal periodic review of its human rights laws and practices. This review will elicit a rare and unprecedented expression of whether and how Singapore feels it has adhered to international human rights law, and ways in which it may further refine or calibrate its domestic practices. This article seeks to identify Singapore’s human rights achievements; highlight challenges it should be prepared to address; and recommend measures it should adopt to promote human rights.

Few would dispute that good health is fundamental to a full and active life. It is the key to wealth and prosperity. Good health contributes directly to economic growth while poor health drives poverty. The right to health is considered directly in many international instruments including the World Health Organization. Every single country in the world is now a member of at least one of the many international instruments where health is treated as a human right. Sound health is a precondition to enjoy right to live peaceful. This right to health is guaranteed by the Constitution of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh. If anybody in Bangladesh is deprived of enjoying his life then he can go to the court in order enforce his right. This paper aims at giving an overview of legal and regulatory framework of different international legal instruments and national laws of Bangladesh relating to healthcare and shares the response of Bangladesh Government in relation to the framework.

The right to free interpretation in criminal proceedings is one of the important components of the right to fair trial in international law. It applies to everyone within the territory and jurisdiction of the State, including those ethnic minorities who speak and write different languages from the ethnic majority. The international human rights treaty bodies and regional human rights courts expanded the scope of this right and imposed more obligations upon the State parties through the general comments and jurisprudences. This right serves to the interest of the right to fair trial in criminal proceedings. Under Chinese law, there might be two or more languages used in judicial proceedings in ethnic autonomous areas. In the case that one specific language is designated as the language to prosecute and try a specific criminal case, the Chinese judicial organs must provide interpretation and translation to the participant who is not familiar with that specific language. Therefore the right to free interpretation is implied in Chinese law and preserves the constitutional principle of equality to all ethnicities and the right to fair trial. The problem, however, is that such a right is not well implemented in Chinese judicial practice. Several practices are inconsistent with the minimum standards developed by the jurisprudence of the international human rights treaty bodies. It is suggested that China establish the regulations and judicial interpretations that comply with international minimum standards, and provide a robust constitutional review mechanism or national human rights institution to remedy the victims for violations of this right.

Japanese immigration law has been amended several times since 2000. These revisions aimed at coping with globalization and regionalization in East Asia. Since mobility is a critical issue for establishing a transnational labor market and ultimately a regional community, this article examines the interaction between Japanese immigration law, especially that of the Industrial Training and Technical Internship Program, and the struggle to build an East Asian Community. This article proposes enhancing the mutual recognition of certifications of skill as a means to promote the movement of people in the region.

The importance and extent of the migration phenomenon, affecting as it does huge numbers of people the world over cannot be overemphasized. Coming from third world countries, poverty-stricken and strangers in foreign lands, migrant workers irrespective of country of origin indeed become vulnerable to oppression and exploitation and all kinds of abuses. The question that needs to be addressed continues to be whether or not the existing ILO Conventions and Recommendations as well as the core international human rights treaties together with the International Convention on Migrant Workers have been adequately implemented in order to effectively address the problems related to the promotion and protection of migrant workers’rights. Given the flood of unabated reports and complaints of abuses and exploitation that migrant workers the world over have to suffer and contend with, the answer is quite obvious. While bilateral and multilateral agreements continue to serve the specific concerns of sending and receiving States pertinent to the protection of the rights of migrant workers, the real need is for a continent-wide forum in Asia which can eventually consolidate all mechanisms and measures that will promote and protect the rights of migrant workers in a truly comprehensive and integrated manner.

Custom is a source of Islamic law in general and Siyar (Islamic international law) in particular. Islamic jurists have set out the elements and conditions of customs for general jurisprudential purpose. However, no one has, to the authors’knowledge, formulated them from Siyar perspective. This paper is an attempt to fill this gap by tracing two important elements of an international custom, namely frequent and dominant general practice of States, and acceptance of that practice as law. These two will constitute a valid custom provided they fulfill certain conditions, most importantly that the custom must not conflict with Shari’ah or the spirit of Shari’ ah.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in the 2004 Report of the High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change,“ A more secure world: Our shared responsibility” (under the heading “A more effective United Nations for the twenty-first century” stated: “The United Nations was never intended to be a utopian exercise. It was meant to be a collective security system that worked.”However, several authors in recent years have asserted that the victorious powers merely wanted to maintain the status quo and their privileged positions, and never intended the system to work and give up those privileges. This paper, however, argues the contention that the UN was never designed to function effectively, is a myth, and it does not take into account important aspects and innovations that presented decisive new developments that originated with the United Nations. Thus the international court, which had in the interwar period been an institution outside the framework of the League of Nations Covenant, became an integral part of the UN system, making it more closely resemble a government with legislative, executive and judicial functions. Even more prominent, concerning the executive branch, the Security Council, unlike what had been the case with the League Council, opened itself to instigate members to delegate powers for its effective functioning. This was a most significant innovation that would allow for democratic process in the organization and defence of peace. Finally, a new principle in international law, i.e. the concept of a “transitional period”for world organization, was conceived.

This monograph takes on“ modern art”as the location of modernity. This subject, in my view, holds potential for a productive multi-logue and not just a dialogue, between three binary socio-cultural categories: child and adult, normal and mad, and colonisers and colonised. Modern art raises very interesting questions, and as an area that is often ignored in the analysis of law and science, it forms a powerful field for exploring both, as well as their intersections. Exploring the psychology of colonisation/domination is an important objective of this monograph. In order to get at it, the monograph imbibes Appadurai, Foucault, and Nandy as offering complementary stances on modernity and subsequent globalisation of intra- European relations after the industrial revolution. In doing so the author relates aspects of semiotic theory by looking at theories of myth. This monograph concludes by applying their relevance to the strategy of signification deployed by international law and relations.

China did not join the Proliferation Security Initiative due to deep legal and policy considerations. China now has sufficient reasons to reappraise its existing stance in light of the establishment and continuous development of a positive, cooperative and comprehensive Sino-U.S. relationship, institutionalization of the PSI by U.S. President Barack Obama, and new changes in nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament. China’s participation in the PSI will be much more useful in enhancing the construction of international nonproliferation systems rather than remaining disengaged. Now it is the time for China to make the political decision and participate in the PSI.

The Proliferation Security Initiative was launched in 2003 by the Bush administration right after the So San incident. Its primary purpose is to interdict the spread of WMD and their delivery systems. Due to the provocative and challenging characteristics of the Initiative, which are inconsistent with conventional international law, there are some objections against the Initiative. This paper answers the highly topical questions regarding the Initiative in three parts. The first part addresses the origin and development of the Initiative. The second part critically analyzes the background of the Initiative such as the neoconservative ideology of the Bush administration and its world strategy, international terrorism, and the U.S. arms industry. The third part scrutinizes questions concerning the preemptive use of force for self-defense and the interdiction of foreign vessels on the territorial and high seas. The Initiative is also examined from a viewpoint of customary international law.

In the modern climate of concern regarding rogue states and terrorists attacks following September 11th, the Proliferation Security Initiative, a new cooperative interdiction separate from treaties and multilateral export control regimes, is considered a useful tool in preventing the proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction. However, the Proliferation Security Initiative[j2] includes certain strategies that are in conflict with contemporary international law of the sea. On a bilateral and multilateral basis, the United States seeks to promote the international law-making process to achieve the goals of the PSI through the adoption of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1540, the conclusion of a bilateral boarding agreement, and the revision of the SUA Convention. Despite such efforts, the United States has made little progress towards achieving its goals. It is difficult to overcome generally accepted and established principles of flag states and freedom of navigation, even if there are certain potential threats to international peace and security caused by the proliferation of WMD.

Since its establishment in the year 2001, the National Human Rights Commission of Korea has assumed the role of primary governmental entity addressing human rights issues in the country. In addition to investigating complaints of human rights violations and discrimination, the NHRCK has a policy advisory function, and engages in research, education, and publicizing of human rights issues. This article examines the role of the NHRCK, which came into being in part due to the advocacy of victim rights groups, in promoting and protecting victim rights. It addresses both the rights of crime victims and the rights of victims of human rights abuses. The article analyzes the different ways in which the NHRCK has addressed victim issues, while offering concluding observations as to how the NHRCK can more effectively promote and protect victim rights in the future.

Much has been written about the general ability (or lack thereof) of international development organizations to effectively monitor and evaluate the impact of their Rule of Law projects on the ground. However, less research has focused on particular development organizations’methods of project evaluation, the politics behind them and their strengths and weaknesses. This paper offers such an analysis of the evaluation methods of GTZ Legal Advisory in Beijing. After describing the work of GTZ in general and its Legal Advisory in particular, the paper offers a detailed evaluation of the tools that it uses to gauge the impact of its projects on the ground. What is gained from such a particularized analysis is a deeper understanding of both the donor politics and organizational tradeoffs inherent in monitoring and evaluation decisions, two factors often given insufficient attention in more theoretical discussions.

More than a century before Grotius wrote his famous work on international law, his countryman Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam laid the foundations for the modern critique of war. In several writings, especially those published in the period 1515- 1517, the “prince of humanists”brilliantly and devastatingly condemned war not only on Christian but also on secular/rational grounds. His graphic depiction of the miseries of war, together with his impassionate plea for its avoidance, remains unparalleled. Erasmus argued as a moralist and educator rather than as a political theorist or statesman. If any single individual in the modern world can be credited with“ the invention of peace,”the honour belongs to Erasmus rather than Kant whose essay on perpetual peace was published nearly three centuries later.

This paper analyzes legal remedies for marine ecological damage as provided in Article 90, Section 2 of the Marine Environment Protection Law of the People’s Republic of China. In doing so, the paper examines the Tasman Sea Oil Spills Case, the first civil case in China to claim marine ecological damage involving foreign interests. The paper finds that many issues arise in practice due to the simplicity of the relevant legal provisions. The existing international treaties on marine oil pollution damage caused by ships do not cover marine ecological damage. However, domestic courts of some countries have relevant judicial practice on the matter. Hence, it is urgent to establish a set of new rules on marine ecological damage compensation in China and to specify the claimants, the scope for compensation and the measure of indemnity with the aim of providing an effective legal remedy for marine ecological damage.

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the present state and problems of Japanese measures against the protection and preservation of the marine environment from the perspective of international law and Japanese domestic laws and regulations. The analysis is divided into three sections. Firstly, the relationship between Part XII of UNCLOS and the IMO marine environmental treaties will be addressed in brief. Secondly, Japanese implementation of the IMO treaties will be addressed in the context of the regulations regarding both dumping waste into the sea from vessels and marine pollution from vessels. Finally, this paper will clarify the problems regarding the Japanese implementation of marine environmental treaties.

“Coastal zone”is an area with interface between the land and the sea, and naturally contains unique character with multi-dimensional values, enjoyed by different users, based on different purposes, and finally led to conflicts among various stakeholders. To promote sustainable management of coastal zone as well as sustainable development, a new mechanism called “Integrated Coastal Zone Management or ICZM”was introduced for maintaining both “ interdependence”between environment and development and “integration”of various measures, policies, processes, institutions and full public participation through coordinating mechanisms at both the local and national levels. ICZM is used by most coastal countries to ensure that all activities relating to the coast will harmoniously function to achieve common goals rather than replacing the traditional single-sector resources management. Thailand is on the process of introducing ICZM to the existing system.