Reproductive rights and health discussed

The 29th session of the UN Commission on Population and Development (February 26 to March 1, 1996) focused on reproductive health and rights, including population IEC (information, education, and communication). Speakers relayed national responses to the Programme of Action of the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development, highlighted the critical role of nongovernmental organizations in meeting reproductive health needs through IEC and advocacy, and applauded the recent expansion of the Population Information Network. The Director of the UN's Population Division noted that in 1946, when the Commission was founded, the Division estimated that the world population would reach 6.3 billion in the year 2000. The latest estimate of 6.2 billion confirms this early estimate. Sensitive issues which the Commission expects to face in coming years are abortion, the aging of populations, HIV/AIDS, and international migration. The Executive Director of the UN Population Fund reported that guidelines are being developed on the quality of reproductive health care and that gender concerns are increasingly being included in program design and implementation. The Commission also considered the Secretary-General's January 15, 1996, report on world population monitoring, reproductive rights, and reproductive health. Finally, the Commission announced that Leticia Ramos-Shahani, an advocate from the Philippines, and Pathfinder International would share the 1996 Population Award.     

Native Toponymy and territorial rights

Native place names are landmarks which may provide quantitative and qualitative evidence usefully referred to for the land claims question. This paper describes the context and the method of a research project which draws from the lower Mackenzie Valley toponymic data of the last century some useful conclusions related to the actual native land claims in that region.     

Legal realism and human rights

This essay uses Schmitt's work to cast new light on the relevance of the American legal tradition known as ‘legal realism’ for the history and analysis of human rights. It does so by exploring several of Schmitt's most famous criticisms of international law and human rights, and then suggests how they might correspond with a widespread critical legal tradition in the 1920s and 1930s. This essay describes in detail two fundamental features of this tradition: historicism and realism. It concludes by suggesting that a return to some of these earlier law writers and texts might be a more substantive way to develop a constructive critical position in the fields of human rights and international law than an overreliance on the politically provocative (and problematic) rhetorical flourishes of Carl Schmitt.     

Legal realism and human rights

This essay uses Schmitt's work to cast new light on the relevance of the American legal tradition known as ‘legal realism’ for the history and analysis of human rights. It does so by exploring several of Schmitt's most famous criticisms of international law and human rights, and then suggests how they might correspond with a widespread critical legal tradition in the 1920s and 1930s. This essay describes in detail two fundamental features of this tradition: historicism and realism. It concludes by suggesting that a return to some of these earlier law writers and texts might be a more substantive way to develop a constructive critical position in the fields of human rights and international law than an overreliance on the politically provocative (and problematic) rhetorical flourishes of Carl Schmitt.