Exploring Our Rights
Aging with Dignity: A Comparative Study for the Elderly Rights in India and USA
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Aman Lata
The protection of human rights for elderly is a critical issue globally. The world population has been increasing with an unprecedented rate, driven by declining birth rates and increasing live expectancy globally. The global population aged 60 years and above is projected to reach 2.1 million by 2050, which effectively will be 22% more than what was in 2020. In high income countries, average expectancy is now rising from 64 years as in 1994 to projected 77 years by 2050. This research analyzes the social, economic and legal framework of India and United States of America aimed at safeguarding the rights and wellbeing of the old aged people. This paper presents a comparative study of the legal frameworks, policies and institutional mechanisms in protecting the human rights of the old aged population and evaluate the role of government institutions, non-government institutions and civil society in ensuring the access to healthcare, financial security, social inclusion and protection from abuse. The paper also examines the role of international instruments like United Nations Principles for Older Persons and the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing in shaping the national policies of countries like India (Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007) and USA (Older Americans Act, 1965 etc.). In conclusion, while both countries have made significant strides in protecting the vulnerable class of old aged citizens, the ongoing challenges in implementing and enforcing these social welfare schemes loom tirelessly.
Human Rights Framework of Insolvency Law: A Mechanism to Balance the Interests of Stakeholders of Insolvent Firms
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Dr. N. V. V. Satyanarayana Puchakayala,
Udaya Bhaskar Nallamalli,
Ramanujam Veluchamy
The purpose of the present study is to explore the implications of safeguarding the interests of different stakeholders as human rights through insolvency laws across countries. People in general may think that insolvency procedures help financial creditors to recover their claims from corporate debtor. However, a systematic investigation of insolvency procedures not only disclose that it is not just the recovery of claims by creditors but it is a complex process that involves interests beyond the interest of financial creditors. The research is both qualitative and quantitative and uses, as a method, synthesis of previous literature, interdisciplinary analysis, and meta-analysis of results of prominent studies carried out by prominent organisations such as World Bank, IMF, etc., across the world. The sources of information for this study are primarily of secondary source from prominent data bases like World Bank, International Monitory Fund, EBSCO, Scopus, JSTOR, Oxford, Cambridge, and others. Key words such as “insolvency and human rights”, “bankruptcy and human rights”, “business and human rights”, “rights of stakeholders and insolvency laws”, etc., are the basis of gathering information. Using Human Rights Framework of Insolvency Law, the study mainly addresses the research questions: 1) What are the implications of rights of stakeholders that the insolvency laws assume in implementation? 2) Whether the insolvency laws across the world are following the human rights framework in formulation? The study sheds light on the underlying principles and values of human rights framework to be incorporated in framing insolvency laws by governments.
Parallel Agency: A New Approach to Decolonizing the Study of Cherokee and West African “Civilizing” Processes
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Gnimbin Ouattara
On 12 March 1611, King James I issued a third colonial charter to the Treasurer and Company for Virginia for “the purpose of reclaiming the barbarous natives to civility and humanity.” After the independence of the United States, President George Washington suggested to James Duane of New York that Native Americans were “savage as a wolf.” President Thomas Jefferson later embraced this opinion in a letter to William Henry Harrison, explaining that the United States wished “to draw [Indian men] to agriculture” and Indian women to housework. American lawmakers agreed. On March 3, 1819, the US Congress passed the Civilizing Fund Act to “civilize” Indians. Soon, the United States transferred this policy to West Africa through various organizations, including the American Colonization Society and the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. While many Western scholars have successfully identified the agency of missionaries and their sponsors in the process of “civilizing” Natives, most of them still struggle with deciphering the agency of Natives in Western archives. In the words of Historian Thomas Spear, this is because Natives are “outside of the documentary record.” This paper proposes the research method of parallel agency as a new approach to help solve this visibility problem of Natives supposedly absent from the written record. This research method also helps to decolonize the study of Native “civilizing” processes, especially those of Cherokees and West Africans, the first targets of American civilizing missions.
