Educational Discrimination in Iran and International Law

Educational Discrimination in Iran: Denied the Right to Learn

Berkeley, California, April 22, 2011
Speaker: Parham Holakouee
Parham Holakouee speaks on the limitation of international law in defending educational rights. He is a graduate of Columbia Law School and worked at Corporate Transactional Attorney at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. at UC Berkeley in Business and Public Policy in conjunction with Haas Business School.

International law, as it currently exists, is an insufficient deterrent to human rights violations. Specifically, when the state itself is the perpetrator of the violation -- as is the case with education discrimination in Iran -- foundations of state sovereignty and sovereign equality limit the bite of international law.

Vertical enforcement is an inconsistent, unreliable deterrent. States have demonstrated a willingness to intervene ostensibly to advance a humanitarian cause only when preventing the human rights violation is aligned with a strategic/economic objective.

For international legal institutions to be effective they must carry credible, clearly defined authority and govern a narrow range of well-defined human rights norms. Moreover, such institutions must be linked to practical economics/political consequences via the UN Security Council or access to the IMF and/or World Bank.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• Educational
• Discrimination
• Iran
• International
• Law
• UC
• Berkeley
• Baha'i
• Club
• human
• rights