https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/124061 2026-04-14T22:29:09Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/124406 Title: Should the Rudolf Hoss of Cambodia be entitled to the minimum procedural guarantees? Authors: Starygin, Stan Abstract: New rulers seized the capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh, on April 17 1975 and instituted a radical Maoist state known as Democratic Kampuchea (popularly known as the Khmer Rouge) which reined terror and dramatic societal restructuring for 3 years and 8 months 3 days and ended, for most Cambodians, on January 7 1979, following the Vietnamese invasion. The process of retributive justice against the Khmer Rouge began in August 1979. Currently, this process is gearing toward a hybrid Khmer Rouge Tribunal (Extraordinary Chambers) that is yet to be established. In the meantime, two prominent ex-Khmer Rouge cadres are kept in detention on charges related to their activities during the period from 1975 to 1979. One of them is the subject of this analysis - the former director of the central security prison of Democratic Kampuchea, known as Toul Sleng, Kang Kech Iev (alias Duch). Duch has been detained on orders of the Military Tribunal of Phnom Penh since 1999 with most minimum procedural guarantees denied to him and his legal assistance being less than adequate. These practices have caused no public outcry due to the popular belief that a detainee with such serious charges pending against him has forfeited his entitlement to the minimum procedural guarantees. This paper offers a number of defense theories grounded on the Cambodian laws of the past 40 years that Duch may benefit from, if a proper legal process is instituted. 2005-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/124405 Title: The universalism of human rights versus the relativism of Chinese culture Authors: Long, Qinglan Abstract: The human rights tradition remains a legacy of western liberalism. Cultural relativism poses challenges to universal human rights. Theoretically, universal human rights imply certain sets of social norms that preempt other cultural values. But how can one set of values - international human rights - warrant universal acknowledg ment as peremptory norms when, as a matter of social fact, highly divergent practices, morals, goals, and value hierarchies deeply divide the world's multiple and diverse civilizations?2 As we know, the Confucian system served as an effective social regulator throughout the near 2,000 year imperial period in Chinese history. This article explains the value of Confucian morality and finds out that Confucian values of family obligation, social duty, and virtue and so on do not necessarily conflict with human rights law. Yet, again like all moral systems, its norms can suffer manipulation and political abuse, particularly as the cultural context in which Confucianism developed deteriorated. The article also briefly examines the political history of modem China and concludes that it is often authoritarian leaders who invoke cultural relativism to conceal the characteristic abuses of totalitarian rules. This article argues that to acknowledge the universality of human rights is not to deny cultural pluralism or the relativity of value. It is to recognize the force of the system of international human rights in the face of cultural relativist challenges which appear to state little more than demands for international legal tolerance of intolerance. 2005-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/124404 Title: Human rights implications of protecting the matrimonial home Authors: Grech, Alfred Abstract: While international human rights instruments often emphasize the need to respect the family as a unit as well as the individual's right to privacy, they do not normally include specific safeguards of the matrimonial home. However any provision that purports to promote respect for a person's right to privacy and his home necessarily implies a considerable amount of protection for the place where the family resides - the matrimonial home. There is a need for more specific international protection of the matrimonial home, a need to balance the protection of the matrimonial home with other human rights, such as the right to privacy of an individual spouse. The right to marry and form a family as well as the right to privacy remains one of the very basic of human rights. The matrimonial home is but a facet of the implementation of such a right. There is an obligation on the part of States to take appropriate steps to ensure equality of rights and responsibilities of spouses as to marriage, during marriage and its dissolution. In the case of dissolution, provision shall be made for the necessary protection of any children. Moreover the individual who openly and publicly committed himself to marriage, would have his investment in children, home, assets and future earnings, protected by legal and social provisions. The Matrimonial Home despite all the problems that arise when protecting it, would appear to be an important means of complying with international human rights law. 2005-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/124403 Title: La reconnaissance au droit à l'identite sexuelle : decisions recentes de la jurisprudence italienne Authors: Cappiello, Agata Alma Abstract: Parmi les nouveaux droits de la personnalité, on a vu se délinéer le droit à l'identité personnelle, ainsi que le droit à la sexualitè, droit qui, dans sa connotation la plus large comprend aussi le droit à l'attribution et à la reconnaissance sociale du sexe correspondant à l'expérience psychosomatique personnelle. Plusieurs états occidentaux, parmi lesquels l'Allemagne, l'Espagne et la Grande Bretagne, ont mis les droits de I'homme au centre de leur politique de développement social et économique. En Italie, la Loi n. 164 de 1982, qui régit au droit à la sexualite et à la possibilite de changer de sexe et de nom en fonction de l'expérience psychique personnelle, a été, pour trop longtemps, interprétée de façon trap restrictive de Ia part de la Jurisprudence de fond. Aujourd'hui, on assiste à un changement radical et on travaille aussi à réduire les temps de procédure. 2005-01-01T00:00:00Z