Lisa Laplante | New England School of Law, J.D. (original) (raw)
Papers by Lisa Laplante
Human Rights Quarterly, 2017
Virginia Journal of International Law, 2009
Journal of Human Rights, Dec 11, 2007
... 2000. Truth, telling, questioning: The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Antjie Krog&#... more ... 2000. Truth, telling, questioning: The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Antjie Krog's country of my skull, and literature after apartheid ... testimony becomes more than “simple truth statements” but rather forms a counterdiscourse that contests official accounts (Sanford 200145. ...
Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights, Sep 1, 2004
This article explores how the Inter-American Court of Human Rights applies pecuniary and non-pecu... more This article explores how the Inter-American Court of Human Rights applies pecuniary and non-pecuniary reparations judgments in an effort to compel States to comply with the duty of prevention and non-repetition as embodied in Article 1 of the American Convention of Human Rights. Using Peru as a case study, the author argues that such judgments fail to induce States to guarantee internal domestic remedies, the mechanism used by citizens to check State compliance with the international duty to protect human rights, including the right to reparation, thus creating victim reliance on the Court for redress. In conclusion, the author proposes that the Court begin to use punitive measures in order to compel States to begin erecting internal remedies at home and thus strengthening domestic protection of human rights.
Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks, May 18, 2023
Cambridge University Press eBooks, Nov 5, 2015
In 2011, the United Nations Human Rights Council unanimously approved the Guiding Principles on B... more In 2011, the United Nations Human Rights Council unanimously approved the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGP) proposed by John Ruggie who had been serving as the Special Representative of the U.N. Secretary-General the previous six years. The endorsement of the Ruggie Principles signals an important milestone in the corporate social responsibility movement that has been building momentum since the 1990s. Importantly, the UNGPs present a comprehensive framework to increase the prevention of human rights violations that arise out of business activities while at the same time instituting greater accountability when harm occurs. Specifically, States have a duty to protect human rights while businesses have a duty to respect human rights. In the event that harm occurs, however, victims must have access to a remedy. Significantly, this third pillar gives the framework teeth by assuring a response to human rights violations. This chapter examines the role of remedies in this dynamic framework to offer an initial assessment of where we are two years into the implementation stage of the Ruggie Principles. To provide background, the article begins with a basic overview of the third pillar on remedies, including its history within the development of the Ruggie Principles, its basic content and significance. Additionally, the authors present a conceptual framework for understanding the “system of remedy” envisioned by the UNGPs, as well as clarifying some universal concepts arising out of human rights law that should be used to interpret the UNGPs’ reference to this right. A typology of judicial and non-judicial grievance mechanisms is also provided to demonstrate how the system of remedies works in practice. Finally, the authors explore relevant issues with regard to evaluating the effectiveness of remedies according to international standards.
International Journal of Transitional Justice, Oct 17, 2008
Social Science Research Network, Sep 28, 2008
Social Science Research Network, May 1, 2016
This advocacy brief was developed by the Center for International Law and Policy at New England L... more This advocacy brief was developed by the Center for International Law and Policy at New England Law Boston to provide talking points on the rights to an adequate and effective remedy and reparations for serious human rights claims that may arise from business activities. The brief was intended to assist civil society during the negotiations of the proposed international treaty on business and human rights.
Ius gentium, 2010
ABSTRACT The past decade has seen an increased global interest in the rule of law in post-conflic... more ABSTRACT The past decade has seen an increased global interest in the rule of law in post-conflict and transitional societies.1 Economic analysts, human rights activists and security consultants all agree that the rule of law is important, albeit for their own respective causes. In this way, the rule of law enjoys a “sudden elevation as a panacea for the ills of countries in transition from dictatorships or statist economies…”2 The focus on the rule of law in these settings adds to a growing movement since the 1970s in which a handful of countries emerging from dictatorial, repressive and authoritarian regimes resorted to a variety of mechanisms to address systematic and widespread violation of human rights and the breakdown of the rule of law. Their collective experience gave rise to what is now considered the field of “transitional justice.”
Social Science Research Network, Sep 28, 2008
The right to mental health waits to gain universal recognition. States have ignored it, following... more The right to mental health waits to gain universal recognition. States have ignored it, following the general trend of relegating economic, social and cultural rights secondary to civil and political rights. The article examines how in the last decade several movements have brought this right to the foreground, in particular efforts to protect the rights of the mentally disabled, refugees and displaced persons. It discusses how, as a result, institutions of the United Nations (UN), including the General Assembly, Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, the UN Commission of Human Rights and the World Health Organization have become more active in addressing the right to physical and mental health, for example appointing Paul Hunt as Special Rapporteur on Health. The authors argue that these inroads on the right to mental health limit the definition and vision of mental health. In particular, in countries undergoing post-conflict recovery there is the need to attend to the mental health of victims of serious human rights violations. However, until now there has been no clear international policy or plan of action on how to address this problem. Calling for more international discussion on this topic, the authors hope to contribute to the movement by exploring different dimensions of mental health and by identifying three possible origins of a violation of the right to mental health. The authors present scenarios where a State fails to prevent the violation of the right to mental health and its related issues, as well as the state's corresponding obligation to provide mental health reparations. They call for an expansion of the concept of the right to mental health on the international agenda, and offer suggestions on how this effort may begin. Having conducted a study on the right to mental health for victims of Peru's internal armed conflict, the authors will use examples from Peru to illustrate different observations and conclusions.
Social Science Research Network, Jun 14, 2007
Social Science Research Network, 2007
This chapter shows how the Inter-American system of human rights protection directly impacted on ... more This chapter shows how the Inter-American system of human rights protection directly impacted on the history of the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission from before its formation until after the publication of its final report. The argument is that the Peruvian actors-including both survivors/victims and the state-have often relied on the Inter-American system in their lobbying campaigns to promote their particular justice agenda at home, and that they have done so with good effect. This observation holds true despite the turbulent history of Peru with the Inter-American system. The author argues that although the international oversight system has little power to actually impose compliance despite the supposed obligatory nature of the norms it protects, that true compliance relies on local advocates to push forward the justice agenda. That said, the international system exerts a positive role in shaping the rights culture where these activists operate. The relationship between the truth commission and the Inter-American System reflected this ideal of mutual reinforcement although not without some unexpected tensions which the author explores.
Yale Human Rights and Development Journal, 2008
An examination of contemporary struggles over extractive industry projects shows that they are no... more An examination of contemporary struggles over extractive industry projects shows that they are not adequately captured by current CSR strategies because they are not exclusively disputes about the environment, human rights or health and safety as those subjects are generally understood by companies. Rather, they are better understood as disputes over community control of resources and the right of community members to control the direction of their lives. This Article proposes that extractive industries can tackle the underlying causes of the growing opposition to their projects in the developing world by engaging in consent processes with communities and groups directly affected by projects with a view to obtaining their free prior and informed consent (FPIC). The authors propose that FPIC must be enduring, enforceable, and meaningful in order to take companies and communities out of their current defensive positions. FPIC should instead allow companies and communities to take up proactive positionswith those companies that have the consent of the communities in which they operate obtaining a competitive advantage and those communities that have enforceable agreements with companies obtaining control over the naturalresource-based development process on which their future depends.
Social Science Research Network, Sep 29, 2019
Routledge eBooks, Sep 17, 2016
Social Science Research Network, 2013
Increasing numbers of violent street protests and riots caused by socioeconomic grievances often ... more Increasing numbers of violent street protests and riots caused by socioeconomic grievances often occur in countries whose truth commissions have studied similar past episodes of violence and repression. These new cycles of violence push us to ask what more transitional justice can do to promote the aims of reconciliation and sustainable peace. The author proposes that truth commissions expand their mandates to include a legal framework that examines the socioeconomic root causes of violence in terms of violations of economic, social and cultural rights. This approach would help increase the compulsion felt by states to redress these conditions, and at the same time would provide local actors with a legitimate platform to lobby for solutions to their grievances. She argues that if the underlying socioeconomic structures that lead to violence are not addressed, sustainable peace will remain beyond our reach. In this way, the proposal supports the development-security nexus paradigm adopted in the last decade in UN peace-building operations. To complement this work, truth commissions could contribute to post-conflict recovery first by diagnosing the socioeconomic causes of conflict and then by issuing recommendations that would orient national political agendas toward addressing poverty and structural inequalities, namely through the promotion of sustainable development. This Chapter was adapted from an earlier article appearing in the International Journal of Transitional Justice.
Social Science Research Network, 2017
A book review that provides an overview of Jelke Boesten’s 2014 book: Sexual Violence During War ... more A book review that provides an overview of Jelke Boesten’s 2014 book: Sexual Violence During War and Peace: Gender, Power, and Post Conflict Justice in Peru. The reviewer provides an overview of Boesten’s thesis while offering her own insight into some of the key issues that Boesten raises in particular the burden on victims to testify in transitional justice settings about their experience with sexual violence.
Human Rights Quarterly, 2017
Virginia Journal of International Law, 2009
Journal of Human Rights, Dec 11, 2007
... 2000. Truth, telling, questioning: The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Antjie Krog&#... more ... 2000. Truth, telling, questioning: The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Antjie Krog's country of my skull, and literature after apartheid ... testimony becomes more than “simple truth statements” but rather forms a counterdiscourse that contests official accounts (Sanford 200145. ...
Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights, Sep 1, 2004
This article explores how the Inter-American Court of Human Rights applies pecuniary and non-pecu... more This article explores how the Inter-American Court of Human Rights applies pecuniary and non-pecuniary reparations judgments in an effort to compel States to comply with the duty of prevention and non-repetition as embodied in Article 1 of the American Convention of Human Rights. Using Peru as a case study, the author argues that such judgments fail to induce States to guarantee internal domestic remedies, the mechanism used by citizens to check State compliance with the international duty to protect human rights, including the right to reparation, thus creating victim reliance on the Court for redress. In conclusion, the author proposes that the Court begin to use punitive measures in order to compel States to begin erecting internal remedies at home and thus strengthening domestic protection of human rights.
Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks, May 18, 2023
Cambridge University Press eBooks, Nov 5, 2015
In 2011, the United Nations Human Rights Council unanimously approved the Guiding Principles on B... more In 2011, the United Nations Human Rights Council unanimously approved the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGP) proposed by John Ruggie who had been serving as the Special Representative of the U.N. Secretary-General the previous six years. The endorsement of the Ruggie Principles signals an important milestone in the corporate social responsibility movement that has been building momentum since the 1990s. Importantly, the UNGPs present a comprehensive framework to increase the prevention of human rights violations that arise out of business activities while at the same time instituting greater accountability when harm occurs. Specifically, States have a duty to protect human rights while businesses have a duty to respect human rights. In the event that harm occurs, however, victims must have access to a remedy. Significantly, this third pillar gives the framework teeth by assuring a response to human rights violations. This chapter examines the role of remedies in this dynamic framework to offer an initial assessment of where we are two years into the implementation stage of the Ruggie Principles. To provide background, the article begins with a basic overview of the third pillar on remedies, including its history within the development of the Ruggie Principles, its basic content and significance. Additionally, the authors present a conceptual framework for understanding the “system of remedy” envisioned by the UNGPs, as well as clarifying some universal concepts arising out of human rights law that should be used to interpret the UNGPs’ reference to this right. A typology of judicial and non-judicial grievance mechanisms is also provided to demonstrate how the system of remedies works in practice. Finally, the authors explore relevant issues with regard to evaluating the effectiveness of remedies according to international standards.
International Journal of Transitional Justice, Oct 17, 2008
Social Science Research Network, Sep 28, 2008
Social Science Research Network, May 1, 2016
This advocacy brief was developed by the Center for International Law and Policy at New England L... more This advocacy brief was developed by the Center for International Law and Policy at New England Law Boston to provide talking points on the rights to an adequate and effective remedy and reparations for serious human rights claims that may arise from business activities. The brief was intended to assist civil society during the negotiations of the proposed international treaty on business and human rights.
Ius gentium, 2010
ABSTRACT The past decade has seen an increased global interest in the rule of law in post-conflic... more ABSTRACT The past decade has seen an increased global interest in the rule of law in post-conflict and transitional societies.1 Economic analysts, human rights activists and security consultants all agree that the rule of law is important, albeit for their own respective causes. In this way, the rule of law enjoys a “sudden elevation as a panacea for the ills of countries in transition from dictatorships or statist economies…”2 The focus on the rule of law in these settings adds to a growing movement since the 1970s in which a handful of countries emerging from dictatorial, repressive and authoritarian regimes resorted to a variety of mechanisms to address systematic and widespread violation of human rights and the breakdown of the rule of law. Their collective experience gave rise to what is now considered the field of “transitional justice.”
Social Science Research Network, Sep 28, 2008
The right to mental health waits to gain universal recognition. States have ignored it, following... more The right to mental health waits to gain universal recognition. States have ignored it, following the general trend of relegating economic, social and cultural rights secondary to civil and political rights. The article examines how in the last decade several movements have brought this right to the foreground, in particular efforts to protect the rights of the mentally disabled, refugees and displaced persons. It discusses how, as a result, institutions of the United Nations (UN), including the General Assembly, Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, the UN Commission of Human Rights and the World Health Organization have become more active in addressing the right to physical and mental health, for example appointing Paul Hunt as Special Rapporteur on Health. The authors argue that these inroads on the right to mental health limit the definition and vision of mental health. In particular, in countries undergoing post-conflict recovery there is the need to attend to the mental health of victims of serious human rights violations. However, until now there has been no clear international policy or plan of action on how to address this problem. Calling for more international discussion on this topic, the authors hope to contribute to the movement by exploring different dimensions of mental health and by identifying three possible origins of a violation of the right to mental health. The authors present scenarios where a State fails to prevent the violation of the right to mental health and its related issues, as well as the state's corresponding obligation to provide mental health reparations. They call for an expansion of the concept of the right to mental health on the international agenda, and offer suggestions on how this effort may begin. Having conducted a study on the right to mental health for victims of Peru's internal armed conflict, the authors will use examples from Peru to illustrate different observations and conclusions.
Social Science Research Network, Jun 14, 2007
Social Science Research Network, 2007
This chapter shows how the Inter-American system of human rights protection directly impacted on ... more This chapter shows how the Inter-American system of human rights protection directly impacted on the history of the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission from before its formation until after the publication of its final report. The argument is that the Peruvian actors-including both survivors/victims and the state-have often relied on the Inter-American system in their lobbying campaigns to promote their particular justice agenda at home, and that they have done so with good effect. This observation holds true despite the turbulent history of Peru with the Inter-American system. The author argues that although the international oversight system has little power to actually impose compliance despite the supposed obligatory nature of the norms it protects, that true compliance relies on local advocates to push forward the justice agenda. That said, the international system exerts a positive role in shaping the rights culture where these activists operate. The relationship between the truth commission and the Inter-American System reflected this ideal of mutual reinforcement although not without some unexpected tensions which the author explores.
Yale Human Rights and Development Journal, 2008
An examination of contemporary struggles over extractive industry projects shows that they are no... more An examination of contemporary struggles over extractive industry projects shows that they are not adequately captured by current CSR strategies because they are not exclusively disputes about the environment, human rights or health and safety as those subjects are generally understood by companies. Rather, they are better understood as disputes over community control of resources and the right of community members to control the direction of their lives. This Article proposes that extractive industries can tackle the underlying causes of the growing opposition to their projects in the developing world by engaging in consent processes with communities and groups directly affected by projects with a view to obtaining their free prior and informed consent (FPIC). The authors propose that FPIC must be enduring, enforceable, and meaningful in order to take companies and communities out of their current defensive positions. FPIC should instead allow companies and communities to take up proactive positionswith those companies that have the consent of the communities in which they operate obtaining a competitive advantage and those communities that have enforceable agreements with companies obtaining control over the naturalresource-based development process on which their future depends.
Social Science Research Network, Sep 29, 2019
Routledge eBooks, Sep 17, 2016
Social Science Research Network, 2013
Increasing numbers of violent street protests and riots caused by socioeconomic grievances often ... more Increasing numbers of violent street protests and riots caused by socioeconomic grievances often occur in countries whose truth commissions have studied similar past episodes of violence and repression. These new cycles of violence push us to ask what more transitional justice can do to promote the aims of reconciliation and sustainable peace. The author proposes that truth commissions expand their mandates to include a legal framework that examines the socioeconomic root causes of violence in terms of violations of economic, social and cultural rights. This approach would help increase the compulsion felt by states to redress these conditions, and at the same time would provide local actors with a legitimate platform to lobby for solutions to their grievances. She argues that if the underlying socioeconomic structures that lead to violence are not addressed, sustainable peace will remain beyond our reach. In this way, the proposal supports the development-security nexus paradigm adopted in the last decade in UN peace-building operations. To complement this work, truth commissions could contribute to post-conflict recovery first by diagnosing the socioeconomic causes of conflict and then by issuing recommendations that would orient national political agendas toward addressing poverty and structural inequalities, namely through the promotion of sustainable development. This Chapter was adapted from an earlier article appearing in the International Journal of Transitional Justice.
Social Science Research Network, 2017
A book review that provides an overview of Jelke Boesten’s 2014 book: Sexual Violence During War ... more A book review that provides an overview of Jelke Boesten’s 2014 book: Sexual Violence During War and Peace: Gender, Power, and Post Conflict Justice in Peru. The reviewer provides an overview of Boesten’s thesis while offering her own insight into some of the key issues that Boesten raises in particular the burden on victims to testify in transitional justice settings about their experience with sexual violence.