Poland as Gilead. Pop culture fiction and performative protests in the era of the pandemic

The use of iconic popular culture symbols is an increasingly common strategy applied by social protest organizers. The Guy Fawkes mask from the ‘V for Vendetta' comic book became a symbol of the Anonymous group, and later of the Occupy Wall Street movement. The Salvador Dalí mask, popularized in the ‘La casa de papel' Netflix series, was used in street protests in Spain and Italy. Motifs taken from the HBO adaptation of ‘The Handmaid's Tale' novel gained high visibility in thousands of women's protests against the introduction of the de facto abortion ban in Poland. Basing on images documenting the Polish protests published in social media, we demonstrate how popular culture symbols are transformed into cultural codes which bridge on-street and online protest actions. This connection has become crucial in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using qualitative visual content analysis, we prepared a classification of the symbols employed. Our contribution to the theory of performative protests is to reveal the importance of analogies with the political series that Polish protesters have used by means of the general connotation: Poland is Gilead. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Media, Culture & Society is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

The COVID-19 Pandemic and the State of Emergency: Lessons from Portugal

The present chapter analyses the normative response of Portugal to the coronavirus crisis. As in other European Member States, the reaction to the pandemic was developed through a combination of enactment of the constitutional state of emergency with the statutory administrative emergency regime. Under both frameworks, there has been a strengthening of the executive at the expense of a parliamentary retreat. This chapter covers both responses to the pandemic and their shortcomings, mainly regarding the lack of democratic legitimation of the fight against the pandemic in face of a parliamentary circumvention and abdication. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.

Pandemics and infodemics: How COVID-19 is reshaping content regulation

The debate about tackling online misinformation and disinformation is not unique to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the health crisis has elevated the danger of misleading information circulated on social media. Labelled as 'infodemic', the problem of COVID-19-related misinformation and disinformation prompted governments and social media platforms around the globe to impose various speech restrictions. The public and private policy frameworks aiming to curb the spread of the infodemic were adopted in a state of emergency and without proper scrutiny. Yet, they are shaping the future of content regulation, possibly affecting freedom of speech and other democratic values for years to come. This chapter looks at the key problematic aspects of actions taken by governments and social media platforms to address COVID-19-related misinformation and disinformation and discusses the possible long-term effects of these measures. © 2023 the authors.

Telemedical and Self-Managed Abortion: A Human Rights Imperative?

Early into the cOVID-iota 9 pandemic, abortion rights advocates highlighted the importance of maintaining access to abortion through telemedicine. It was argued that telemedical and self-managed abortion was, in the pandemic context, a human rights imperative. This article argues that providing for telemedical and self-managed abortion remains a human rights imperative beyond the duration of the pandemic. Telemedical and self-managed abortion is safe and effective, supports the pregnant person's preferences and reproductive autonomy, and minimises many of the physical and structural barriers faced by pregnant people in accessing abortion services. International and European human rights standards access to abortion require states to take positive measures to guarantee access to abortion, and this article argues that such measures include telemedical and self-managed abortion.

The Concept of Humanitarian Intervention in the Context of Constitutional and Legal Policy of the State

Current events in the world have exposed new threats to humanity i. e. nuclear terrorism, artificial grain famine, new forms of ecocide, and biocide. All this significantly changes the priorities of international politics and the constitutional as well as the legal policy of nation-states, where natural disasters and the global COVID-19 pandemic have faded into insignificance, and the issue of re-sovereignization is gaining relevance. The article provides a thorough analysis of the essence of the concept of humanitarian intervention. The discussion is based on the analysis of the consequences of humanitarian intervention on the fate of nation-states and their citizens. The article aims to substantiate the harmfulness of the concept of humanitarian intervention for the sovereignty of nation-states and natural human rights. It is noted that state sovereignty does not contradict the nature of human rights. On the contrary, humanitarian intervention allows certain aggressive political actors to violate the sovereignty of the nation-state and harm a person's constitutional and natural rights, first of all, to peaceful coexistence, life, health, and human dignity. It is argued that modern international law needs to be modernized, which should redefine the concepts of "genocide", "ecocide", "biocide", etc. The concept of humanitarian intervention should be openly recognized as not meeting the expectations of the modern international community.

The Impact of the Pandemic on the Greek Constitution

This chapter discusses the main legal problems Greece faced during the various phases of the COVID-19 crisis. The impact of the pandemic on the protection of civil rights seems to be lasting and nefarious. Fundamental rights were subject to unprecedented restrictions for the sake of public health, without any effective judicial protection. Free movement, the right of assembly, religious liberty, freedom of speech, economic liberty, and ultimately personal autonomy limited by compulsory vaccination, were regulated exhaustively by detailed and intrusive administrative rules and prohibitions. Moreover, the pandemic put under great pressure the existing framework for the constitutional protection of fundamental rights where the principle of proportionality is the cornerstone of judicial review. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.

The COVID-19 Pandemic in Cyprus: A Problematic Legal Regime, and the Potential of Rule of Law in Emergencies

In the first part of this chapter, we shall argue that the legal regime under which most of the COVID-19 measures were adopted in Cyprus is problematic both from the standpoint of the democratic principle and from the standpoint of the meta-principle of rule of law. In the second part, in the context of an analysis of the path that the Republic of Cyprus did not follow, i.e. a Proclamation of Emergency under Art. 183 of the Constitution, we shall see how a "compulsion of legality” (Dyzenhaus) was incorporated into the emergency doctrine upon which the operation of the constitutional order of Cyprus has been based since 1964. The doctrine of necessity in Cyprus illustrates the potential of the rule of law even in emergencies. The "compulsion of legality” which animates the Cypriot version of the doctrine of necessity affirms the importance of legislative action and of judicial review. At least on COVID-19 measures, this compulsion should orient courts away from constructions (such as the doctrine of "actes de gouvernement”) which insulate executive action from judicial scrutiny. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.

Children's perceptions of their neighbourhoods during COVID-19 lockdown in Aotearoa New Zealand

Neighbourhood design can have substantial impacts on children's physical and psychological well-being. COVID-19 lockdowns produced striking and unprecedented changes in how neighbourhoods functioned for children. The aim of this research was to explore what worked well for children during Alert Levels 3 and 4 (lockdown) in Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ), focusing in particular on the neighbourhood environment. Children (n = 192) aged between 5 and 13 years completed an online survey that collected information on neighbourhood walking and wheeling and what they liked about their neighbourhood during lockdown in NZ. Car-less neighbourhoods were important for supporting children's well-being. Community activities such as the NZ Bear Hunt were appreciated by children. Natural environments, being home, spending time with family, and simple activities were all liked by participants. Social connections were important but often required technology. Findings can help inform initiatives to support child well-being in the face of potential future lockdowns or new pandemics.

The challenge of 'COVID-19 free' Australia: international travel restrictions and stranded citizens

This paper uses Australia as a case study to analyse restrictions on international movement during the COVID-19 pandemic. Restrictions on inbound and outbound travel have been a key tool deployed by governments across the globe to suppress the COVID-19 pandemic. We use 'COVID zero' Australia as a case study to assess an extreme response to restricting international movement. We look at the recent complaint launched before the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva. The action was raised with the support of a group of Australian citizens stranded abroad with the assistance of the expert in Australian constitutional law who is the second author of this paper. We argue that the measures implemented by Australian governments to effectively eliminate COVID-19 domestically have provided insufficient consideration of, and alternatives to, the current system's failure to facilitate essential international travel. For this reason, Australia's framework for restricting international movement lacks proportionality and necessity from the perspective of human rights and freedoms. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of International Journal of Human Rights is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

How Did Governments Address the Needs of People With Disabilities During the COVID-19 Pandemic? An Analysis of 14 Countries' Policies Based on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities

Background: People with disabilities have experienced heightened social risks in the context of the pandemic, resulting in higher rates of infection and mortality. They have also borne elevated burdens associated with public health measures. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) obliges its 184 state parties to eliminate discrimination and ensure equality and inclusion for persons with disabilities, including protection and safety in situations of emergency. It remains unclear to what extent national COVID-19 policies have aligned with these commitments under the UNCRPD. Our objective in this exploratory study was to assess alignment between the UNCRPD indicators and COVID-19 policies from 14 countries with the goal of informing policy development that is inclusive of persons with disabilities and responsive to rights under the UNCRPD. Methods: We identified COVID-19 policy documents from 14 purposively selected countries. Country selection considered diversity based on geographic regions and national income levels, with restriction to those countries that had ratified the UNCRPD and had English or French as an official language. We used a computational text mining approach and developed a complex multilevel dictionary or categorization model based on the UNCRPD Bridging the Gap indicators proposed by the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR). This dictionary was used to assess the extent to which indicators across the entirety of the UNCRPD were represented in the selected policies. We analyzed frequency of associations with UNCRPD, as well as conducting ‘key word in context' analyses to identify themes. Results: We identified 764 COVID-19 national policy documents from the period of January 2020 to June 2021. When analyzed in relation to the Articles of the UNCRPD, the most frequently identified were Articles 11 (risk and humanitarian emergencies), 23 (home and family), 24 (education), and 19 (community living). Six countries produced 27 policies that were specifically focused on disability. Common themes within these documents included continuation of services, intersectionality and equity, and disability considerations in regulations and public health measures. Conclusion: Analyzing country policies in light of the UNCRPD offers important insights about how these policies do and do not align with states' commitments. As new policies are developed and existing ones revised, more comprehensive approaches to addressing the rights of persons with disabilities are urgently needed. © 2023 The Author(s);Published by Kerman University of Medical Sciences.

Distributed records in the Rohingya refugee diaspora: Arweave and the R-Archive

Purpose: This article delineates the pilot implementation of the Rohingya Archive (R-Archive). The R-Archive seeks to both confront and exploit the roles of documentation and recordkeeping in forced displacement of Rohingya people through targeted physical and bureaucratic violence in Myanmar. This grassroots activist intervention is located at the intersection of technology, rights, records, jurisdictions and economics. Using Arweave's blockweave, the R-Archive secures copies of records, such as identity documentation, land deeds and personal papers, carried into diaspora by Rohingya refugees against unauthorised alteration, deletion and loss, providing a trust infrastructure for accumulating available evidence in support of rights claims and cultural preservation. Design/methodology/approach: Iterative development of functional requirements, data collection processes and identification of a technological solution for the community-based, post-custodial, blockchain-inspired R-Archive;design and testing of the R-Archive pilot;and analysis of trust and economic concerns arising. Findings: A complex set of interconnecting considerations is raised by this use of emerging technologies in service to a vulnerable and diasporic community. Hostile governments and volatile cryptocurrencies are both threats to the distributed post-custodial R-Archive. However, the strength of the community bonds that form the archive and articulated in its records speak to the possibility of perdurance for a global Rohingya archive, and working through the challenges surfaced by its development offers the possibility to serve as a model that might be adaptable for other grassroots archival activist projects initiated by oppressed, marginalised and diasporic communities. Research limitations/implications: Personal and community safety and accessibility concerns, especially in refugee camps and under Covid-19 restrictions, presented particular challenges to carrying out the research and development that are addressed in the research design and future research plans. Practical implications: The goal of this pilot was to collect and store examples of a range of documents that demonstrate different aspects of Rohingya culture and links to the homeland as well as those that record formal evidentiary relationships between members of the Rohingya community now in diaspora and the Burmese state (e.g. acknowledgements of citizenship). The pilot was intended to demonstrate the viability of using a blockchain-inspired decentralised archival system combined with a community-driven approach to data collection and then to evaluate the results for potential to scale. Social implications: The R-Archive is a community-centred and driven effort to identify and preserve, under as secure and trusted conditions as possible, digital copies of documents that are of juridical, cultural and personal value to the Rohingya people and also of significance as primary documentary evidence that might be used by international legal institutions in investigating genocide taking place in Burma and by academic researchers studying the history of Burma. Originality/value: The R-Archive is novel in terms of its technological application (Arweave), the economic concerns of a vulnerable stateless population it is trying to address, and its functional complexity, in that its goal is simultaneously to serve both legal evidentiary and community archive functions. The R-Archive is also an important addition to other notable efforts in the diasporic Rohingya community that have attempted to employ the tools of technology for cultural preservation. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of Documentation is the property of Emerald Publishing Limited and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

The many shades of violence against women: a call to action

Confronting gender-based violence is a key area of concern and one that calls for urgent action. These debates have become particularly relevant in light of the Covid-19 pandemic and the unveiling of underlying inequalities. Amongst the many unintended consequences of the pandemic lies the increased risk of domestic violence for vulnerable women who have been required to self-isolate. There is increasing evidence that we are facing more than one pandemic with quite worrying and widespread problems in global systems, whether they relate to public health or to human rights. As academics, we can contribute by theorizing with intersectionalities, translating research into practice, engaging with our local communities and creating non-stigmatized environment. But most of all, we can advocate for victims.

The Pandemic in Latin America and the challenges of Human Rights

The purpose of the present study is to know the impacts of Covid19 on the structures of governmental institutions in Latin America and the effects on Human Rights in terms of health and education, for example. For the analysis, we consider some elements such as the functioning of political parties, the arbitrariness of power, fiscal transparency and public spending, allowing us to take a picture of the reality to be studied regarding the quality of democracy in these countries, and also considering the cooperation efforts, in the normative and institutional scopes inside and out. As we seek to relate Human Rights and Democracy, we focus on the ethical dimension of the new challenges facing Latin America. The exposition, sometimes detailed, of situations that illustrate the malfunctioning of institutions came from observation and review of a diverse literature, and from different perspectives specifically in the scope of International Relations. © 2022, UNIV CARLOSIII MADRID. All rights reserved.

Compulsory Vaccination of Government Employees in the Light of Domestic and International Law

COVID-19 disease has shocked the lives of developed and developing societies and has affected various aspects of individual and social life of citizens by creating devastating and irreparable effects. While everyone was counting down the hours to get treatment for the disease, the unveiling of emergency-licensed vaccines sparked a variety of social and legal issues. In Iran, according to the decision of the National Corona Management Headquarters, government employees along with some other groups of people were obliged to be vaccinated, and absenteeism was the punishment of deniers. Consequently, legal validity of these enactments has also been discussed by scholars. Clarifying the position of domestic law and international human rights regarding mandatory vaccination can have an effect on persuading citizens and whether or not to do vaccination. Central issue of the following research is the evaluation of compulsory vaccination according to the provisions of Iranian law and the rules of international human rights. Based on the library resources and in a descriptive-analytical method, it was concluded that according to the laws and regulations of Iran, the obligation to vaccinate and in particular the provision of punishment is within the competence of the Parliament and according to the Charter of Patients' Rights, they were required to provide information about the vaccine and its effects, and to monitor the health status of individuals during and after the injection. In international law, it is also possible to make specific treatments mandatory, such as vaccinations under the right to health, in order to guarantee the right to life in the event of an epidemic. In addition, although this requirement conflicts with citizens' right to privacy, international law provides for restrictions on individual rights to ensure public health, subject to conditions such as appropriateness and necessity. © 2022 Iran University of Medical Sciences. All rights reserved.

Crisis politics of dehumanisation during COVID-19: A framework for mapping the social processes through which dehumanisation undermines human dignity

The COVID-19 global pandemic is understood to be a multidimensional crisis, and yet undertheorised is how it reinforced the politics of dehumanisation. This article proposes an original framework that explains how dehumanisation undermines the human dignity of individuals with minoritised socio-economic identities during the COVID-19 pandemic. The framework identifies four interrelated mechanisms of crisis-driven dehumanisation: threat construction, expanded state coercion, reinforcement of hierarchies, and normalisation of deaths. The article argues that an understanding of these mechanisms is crucial for capturing the complexity of human rights deterioration during the COVID-19 pandemic. The article uses the plausibility probe method to demonstrate macro-processes of dehumanisation, with illustrative empirical examples from diverse societies during COVID-19. It proposes a framework for understanding these dehumanisation processes that can apply to other transnational crises. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of British Journal of Politics & International Relations is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Legal Education and Legal Profession During and Beyond COVID-19 Building Bonds Between Academia and Practice

Professor Suzanne Rab, professor of commercial law and practising international barrister and mediator offers a unique perspective on the challenges of digitisation and legal education in a post-COVID-19 world. Operating at the conflation of academia and practice Professor Rab explores the following themes using a blend of case study experience from the UK and from a comparative perspective: (1) the future of legal education in changing times;(2) the practitioner perspective and the digitised courtroom;(3) the academic experience and lived in experiences through COVID-19;(4) the role of online learning;(5) the implications for continuing legal education;(6) blended approaches to executive learning;(7) the impact on specific legal practices areas;(8) diversity and accessibility;(9) new world approaches to assessment of performance;and (10) humanising our legal education for the digital generation. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022.

Human rights protection under the ICCPR: when can and should States derogate? A critical analysis in the context of New Zealand's COVID-19 response

Public emergencies like global pandemics subject human rights to extraordinary vulnerability. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) permits States to restrict rights by enacting permissible limitations on them at any time and by derogating from their protection in emergencies. This article argues that States should rely on the ICCPR's permissible limitations provisions rather than lodge formal derogations in times of crisis, unlike what many States have done during the COVID-19 pandemic. It draws upon New Zealand's highly successful public health response to support this proposition. The article argues that the accountability machinery for compliance with States' rights obligations is stronger when permissible limitations are enacted. Where States do rely on the right to derogate, the article suggests some improvements to existing international accountability mechanisms. These include enhancing the analysis to be contained in notices of derogation and advance capacity-building to enable States to better decide if derogation is necessary in the first place. Ultimately, the article argues that keeping States within the international human rights system is ideal. This can be achieved through reliance on the flexibility built into the ICCPR via its permissible limitations provisions rather than its right of derogation. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of International Journal of Human Rights is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Mobile Intellectual Property Marketplace Model for Commercialization of Intellectual Property Rights

This study discusses the development of the intellectual property (IP) marketplace model based on mobile location-aware computing. Referring to statistics released by the Directorate General of Intellectual Property, there has been a growth in the number of intellectual property rights (IPR) applications in recent years, even during the Covid-19 pandemic. On the other hand, after IPR protection, the commercialization of IPR is one of the pillars of the IP system. Nevertheless, research institutions such as LIPI/BRIN indicate that the potential for commercializing IPR is still low. Furthermore, the opportunity is that cellular networks have covered almost all parts of Indonesia, and there has been significant growth in smartphone users. The method utilized in this research is prototyping. This research results from an IP marketplace model based on mobile location-aware computing in Indonesia. Using the smartphone user's location, contextual IPR information from the user's location related to IPR will enter their smartphone. The experimental results indicate that the application can display a list of IPR information according to the smartphone user's location. Furthermore, the search feature can forage IPR listing information based on user queries. © 2022 IEEE.

Health security and limitation of fundamental rights in Colombia during the COVID-19 pandemic

At the beginning of 2020 the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. The governments of the world issued regulations that, to stop the virus, implied the limitation of rights by ordering confinements, stopping non-essential activities and paralyzing the economy. In Colombia since March 2020 the authorities issued regulations whose result was the limitation of rights. The purpose of this text is to review whether said regulation and its effects on rights have been respectful of the Colombian Constitution from March 2020 to March 2021. The conclusion is that rights were unconstitutionally limited during the pandemic in an unconstitutional way. © 2022, Universidad de Talca. All rights reserved.