Human Rights Quarterly
Volume 36, Number 4, November 2014
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/human_rights_quarterly/toc/hrq.36.4.html

Cultural Diversity, Legal Pluralism, and Human Rights from an Indigenous Perspective: The Approach by the Colombian Constitutional Court and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights
Felipe Gómez Isa
I. INTRODUCTION
The main objective of this article is to analyze the evolution of human rights from when they first appeared during the Enlightenment in eighteenth century Europe, and to explore how the exclusion and invisibility of indigenous peoples has been a constant throughout. In recent decades, however, the so-called indigenous emergence has radically transformed this landscape. In this new and evolving context, a number of legal instruments have been adopted, both nationally and internationally, which have transformed indigenous peoples into true subjects of both individual and collective rights. The indigenous presence has spurred the quest for a more open, dynamic and inclusive conception of universal human rights. This process culminated in the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) in September 2007.
Second, the way in which the indigenous plurality of many Latin American countries is influencing the increasingly multicultural understanding of human rights will be highlighted; one example is the progressive case law being handed down by the Colombian Constitutional Court (Constitutional Court), which has played a pioneering role in the application of principles deriving from multiculturalism, and another is the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (Inter-American Court). There is no doubt that the interpretation of human rights principles as expounded by these institutions provides us with an interesting road map when it comes to applying these principles to specific contexts, and also when initiating an intercultural dialogue that takes into account indigenous diversity…

Toward Effective Intervention for Haiti’s Former Child Slaves
Cara L. Kennedy
pp. 756-778 | 10.1353/hrq.2014.0059
I. INTRODUCTION
One of the most widespread forms of child slavery worldwide is domestic slavery. Child domestic slavery exists in various forms depending on the cultural context in which it arises, and is driven by common “push” and “pull” factors. “Push” factors include social and economic disparities, social exclusion, lack of educational access and the illusion of opportunity for education and social mobility, loss of parents to illness or conflict, and the perception that the “employer” is extended family and a protected environment. “Pull” factors include low-resource environments where daily demands for household work exceed household members’ capacity and cultural norms allow that a child is an appropriate choice to carry this labor. In all of its forms, child domestic slavery poses serious risks to children. Beyond the denial of children’s fundamental rights to education, health care, play, and rest, child domestic slavery involves humiliating and degrading treatment; sexual, physical, and verbal abuse; work that exceeds the capacity of children; and insufficient food and accommodation…

Putting the Puzzle Pieces Together: Human Rights Advocacy and the History of International Human Rights Standards Website
Carrie Booth Walling, Susan Waltz
pp. 905-914 | 10.1353/hrq.2014.0049
I. INTRODUCTION
As human rights professionals with more than thirty years of teaching experience between us, we have often been challenged by our students—and by the activists we encounter—to explain changes we have witnessed in the human rights domain. Questions arise about emerging human rights concerns, about the piecemeal nature of the UN monitoring system, about human rights research methodologies, and about changing views of accountability for human rights standards. Our students have asked us, for example, why it took so long for the domestic abuse of women to be recognized as a human rights concern. And community groups and activists have on occasion pressed us to explain the evolving relationship between human rights and humanitarian law. This short resource note introduces the website Human Rights Advocacy and the History of International Human Rights Standards, hosted by the University of Michigan at http://humanrightshistory.umich.edu The open-access website is intended to help human rights learners—of all types and at all stages—to better understand the explosive growth of international human rights standards over the past five decades. It opens up the history of international human rights policy and highlights the role that human rights organizations have played in advocating new treaties and structures for implementation. While international human rights organizations (IHROs) are widely recognized for their advocacy work, the contributions they have made to the development of international human rights norms and standards are not equally appreciated or understood. This website seeks to fill that void. The website serves as a portal for instructors, students, advocates, and researchers interested in the standard-setting advocacy work of the international human rights movement and the intellectual history of contemporary international human rights policy. We hope it will inform current human rights actors about the lesser known history of the emergence and growth of international human rights standards, inspire a new generation of advocates to consider past lessons as they consider new human rights problems, and become a useful resource for instructors and practitioners as a ready link to human rights policy materials…