Surrogacy motherhood provides an option for infertile couples to have a genetically related child of their own. However, in jurisdictions where surrogacy motherhood are not legally accepted, couples deliberately turn to other jurisdictions to conclude a surrogacy agreement where it is in fact legal to do so. When different jurisdictions are involved in one surrogacy motherhood agreement, several problems arise, especially due to the lack of regulation on an international level. These poblems must therefore be resolved by the implementation of an international document or agreement. This discussion will therefore firstly focus on the national position regarding surrogacy motherhood in the South African content to determine whether South Africa will benefit from the implementation of a proposed international document or agreement. Secondly, the research focus on international surrogacy and evaluate the concept to identify the problems arising as a result thereof. Thirdly, the contents of the proposed international document or agreement will be discussed in depth in order to determine what the contents of the document or agreement should include. The aim of the research is to determine which issues and problems should be included in the proposed document or agreement in order to effectively regulate international surrogacy. / LLM (Comparative Child Law), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

Surrogacy motherhood provides an option for infertile couples to have a genetically related child of their own. However, in jurisdictions where surrogacy motherhood are not legally accepted, couples deliberately turn to other jurisdictions to conclude a surrogacy agreement where it is in fact legal to do so. When different jurisdictions are involved in one surrogacy motherhood agreement, several problems arise, especially due to the lack of regulation on an international level. These poblems must therefore be resolved by the implementation of an international document or agreement. This discussion will therefore firstly focus on the national position regarding surrogacy motherhood in the South African content to determine whether South Africa will benefit from the implementation of a proposed international document or agreement. Secondly, the research focus on international surrogacy and evaluate the concept to identify the problems arising as a result thereof. Thirdly, the contents of the proposed international document or agreement will be discussed in depth in order to determine what the contents of the document or agreement should include. The aim of the research is to determine which issues and problems should be included in the proposed document or agreement in order to effectively regulate international surrogacy. / LLM (Comparative Child Law), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

Social exclusion of vulnerable children and families is a serious concern for policy-makers and practitioners alike. This doctoral thesis explores the social construction of exclusion in the UK. The thesis explores both historical and current processes of interactions between the socially excluded populations and policy agents. The empirical findings suggest that the neglect of the children's rights value perspective in social policy, and the resultant practice thereof, may be counter-productive to combating social exclusion. "... institutions perpetuate exclusion unofficially. Public Sector workers who reflect the prejudices of their society may institutionalise some kinds of discrimination" The Department for International Development (DfID), UK "it just kills you in the end.. especially because you don't know if you are doing more good than harm.. the worst decision for me is when I see the child should be removed from home but I know if I do that, he will never get the kind of therapeutic attention that he needs.. instead he will probably be in multiple placements and at the end of the day, it boils down to the choice whether you let him be abused by hi natural family or let the Government do it.. the abuse does not stop with intervention.. it's just the System that does it then.." "Practice is about watching your back not about what can I do for this child" Excerpts from interviews with child protection social workers, UK "Decisions were made for us, we were tossed here and there like a worthless piece of scum" Excerpts from interviews with care-leavers, UK Mayeda Jamal is a Doctoral student at the Center for Media and Economic Psychology at the Stockholm School of Economics (SSE), Sweden, and a Visiting Researcher at the Department of Organizational Social Psychology at London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), UK. Mayeda has a Masters degree in Human Resource Management and a B.A. in Economics.

This thesis shows that participation is an important and comprehensive concept for young people. The aim of the thesis is to explore young people’s perspectives on and experiences of participation in school. Young people are in this research project understood as competent participants and as valuable contributors in research. Young people (aged 13–19 years) are involved as both research partners and research respondents. The design is explorative and mixed methods are used. Study 1 describes an interactive research circle with young people as research partners. Participation and asymmetric responsibility are identified as integral to research with young people. Study 2 describes a youth survey about young people’s participation that was conducted by the research partners in the research circle. This study shows that young people’s opportunities and abilities to communicate are crucial to their participation.  Supportive relations are an important aspect and the young people describe that they want adults to support them in taking responsibility themselves. Study 3 is based on the results of the youth survey and describes a model of young people’s perspectives on participation. Viewed from young people’s perspectives, participation is shown to include social, educational and decision-making dimensions. Communication is identified as a central participatory dimension. This study describes how participation in school is created in both horizontal and vertical relations. Study 4 is about participation and exposure to bullying and threats in school and is informed by the results of the youth survey. This study shows how students with disabilities and especially students with multiple disabilities are in a vulnerable situation. They face greater risks of being excluded from participatory dimensions in school or of being more exposed to degrading treatment if they do participate. Girls with multiple disabilities seem to be in an extra vulnerable situation. Overall, this research project shows that young people’s perspectives are an important complement to adults’ perspectives on participation in school.

Magister Legum - LLM / In many countries around the world, approximately 230 million children are living in countries affected by armed conflict. 15 million of them were caught up, in various parts of Africa, in violent conflicts. Some of the African countries where children are involved in armed conflicts include: Central African Republic (CAR), Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Mali, Somalia and South Sudan. In CAR, for example, thirty four children (girls and boys) were abducted by armed groups, some as young as 3 years of age.

D.Litt et Phil. (Social Work) / Children’s rights are fundamental to their growth and development, and child trafficking hampers the achievement of these rights. The growth of child trafficking continues to influence the responsibilities expected of social workers. Thus, it is essential that social workers are able to respond to the needs of trafficked children. Unfortunately, South Africa lacks literature on how cross-border trafficked children experience, perceive and understand identification and initial assistance processes. There is a gap in South African theoretical literature on child trafficking intervention guidelines. The result is that social work knowledge on victim assistance has not kept pace with the growing social issue in South Africa. The aim of this study is to develop psychosocial intervention guidelines for trafficked children in South Africa. The ever-growing burden of child trafficking demands that effective and efficient interventions are designed and implemented. Therefore, to fulfil the goal of the study, the overarching intervention research model used was the Rothman and Thomas (1994) Design and Development (D&D) model, which was complemented by Thomas’s (1984) Developmental model. The two models were chosen because they are directed by the practical realities in the social work field. The D&D model has six well-defined phases, although in this study, only the first four phases were applied. In the first phase, the rapid identification of child trafficking and the provision of initial assistance to child victims of trafficking were acknowledged as key issues that require social work intervention. The state of existing interventions was investigated during the state-of-art review, and a feasibility study was conducted to establish the resources required for the study. The outcome of the activities indicated that psychosocial intervention guidelines for child victims of transnational trafficking were needed. During the data-gathering phase, the researcher conducted a document study to establish what had been done to address the issues identified. An empirical study was also conducted using narrative interviews with ten trafficked children, seven social workers, and 15 key stakeholders. The data was analysed using thematic analysis and was subjected to literature control. The data further influenced the researcher’s decision to continue with the design phase. The design objectives, domains, and requirements were outlined in the design phase. This was closely followed by the conversion and intervention design processes, which included the formulation of generalisations and the development of the practice guidelines. Within the development of the guideline, additional skills were identified and recommended, and strategies were presented to support the implementation process. During the early development and pilot testing phase, it was evident that the process of development is intertwined with the realities of users, and thus designing continued into this phase. Pilot testing of the guidelines was conducted with social workers as the intended users to determine if these guidelines were viable and could be used as a practice tool. The social workers were satisfied with the guidelines. The design work, based on the social worker’s suggestions and the introduction of the Trafficking Act (2013), ensured that the goal of the study was achieved. The guidelines were developmentally valid, reasonably coherent, and reflective of the social work practice and policy implementation in South Africa. Rapid identification, timeous and appropriate referral and the immediate provision of assistance are fundamental aspects of addressing trafficked children’s needs and contribute towards the child’s recovery and healing process. In as much as it might be a challenge to provide all trafficked children with the opportunities, services and assistance required, providing high-quality social work assistance is a critical issue worth pursuing.

Nutida förutsättningar för samhällsplanering har resulterat i att barns demokratiska och fysiska utrymme i planer är mindre än det som stipuleras i barnkonventionen. Syftet med studien är att skapa en förståelse för vilka utmaningar, brister och möjligheter som finns att inkludera barnfrågor i kommunal planering. Undersökningen utgår från två frågeställningar där detta konkretiseras. Studien är avgränsad till Sverige och den teoretiska utgångspunkten är begreppen ”barnperspektiv”, ”barns perspektiv” och ”barns bästa”. Materialet har samlats in med hjälp av de kvalitativa metoderna dokumentstudie och intervju och empirin har sammanställts genom en tematisk analys i tre delar. Arbetet har resulterat i tre centrala slutsatser kring utmaningar, brister och möjligheter. Genom dessa argumenterar vi för att förhållningssättet till barns kompetens samt strukturella och praktiska förutsättningar är avgörande för en lyckad inkludering av barnfrågor i planering. / Present conditions for urban and regional planning have resulted in children's democratic and physical space in development plans being smaller than what is stipulated in Children’s Rights Convention. The purpose of this study is to understand what challenges, deficiencies and opportunities there are when including children’s needs in physical planning in Sweden. The study is based on two research questions where this is further specified. The theoretical framework is the concepts of “child perspective”, “child's perspective” and “children's best interests”. The data has been gathered trough the two qualitative methods document study and interview and compiled through a thematic analysis. This work has resulted in three central conclusions regarding challenges, deficiencies and opportunities. With these conclusions we argue that the approach to children’s competence as well as structural and practical conditions are crucial for successfully including issues concerning children in planning.

Despite the adoption of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and their targets, people with disabilities continue to experience marginalisation, and they have limited opportunities in society. In Tanzania, Children With Albinism (CWA) do not enjoy full citizenship rights because they are constantly subjected to stigmatisation, discrimination and persecution within their communities. This has forced the government of Tanzania to establish temporary holding shelters to protect these children. While the government appears sensitive to the challenges children with albinism face, the idea of temporary holding shelters blurs the lines of what it means to cultivate social inclusion.  A rights-based conceptual framework for the social inclusion of children helped to identify challenges faced by children with albinism in Tanzania, as well as to advance a new understanding of the voices and knowledge emerging from the Global South. An exploratory research design together with qualitative and abductive approaches were employed, and qualitative content analysis was used in analysing the empirical findings before coding the textual material. Thereafter, an expanded rights based conceptual framework for the social inclusion of children was developed. In the expanded framework, child specific factors namely family, community, social acceptance and social protection were added.

Magister Legum - LLM / Forced marriages and child marriages1 are a global and major concern when dealing with girl children’s and women’s rights. UNICEF statistics2 show that in South Africa alone 1% of girls were married by 15 years and 6% by 18 years.3While these numbers are insignificant, they arguably contribute to a global crisis where girls of primary school age are forced into marriage.4 This mini-thesis will focus on ukuthwala, a customary practice which is prevalent in the rural parts of South Africa, where girls and young women are married off. Moral reasons exist for the custom, however in recent years it has changed radically. Ukuthwala is most prevalent in the Eastern Cape and Kwa-Zulu Natal provinces.6 It has been described as a ‘romantic mock abduction’ of an unmarried woman by a man who intends to marry her.7 According to Bekker and Koyana8 the procedure for ukuthwala is as follows: ‘The intending bridegroom, with one or two friends, will waylay the intended bride in the neighbourhood of her own home, quite often late in the day, towards sunset or at early dusk, and they will “forcibly” take her to the young man’s home. Sometimes the girl is “caught” unawares, but in many instances, she is caught according to plan and agreement. In either case, she will put up a show of resistance to suggest to onlookers that it is all against her will when in fact, it is hardly ever so’. While ukuthwala involves kidnapping a girl or young woman, the intention is to compel her or her family to endorse marriage negotiations.9 This therefore means, by custom, the suitor should report the thwala to his kraal head in order to commence lobolo10 negotiations.11 During this time consensual sex with the young girl is forbidden. Koyana and Bekker further explain that the girl or young woman is immediately placed in the midst and care of the womenfolk; and is treated with ‘utmost kindness and respect’,12 until such time that the marriage requirements are met.

Islamic Kafalah is a guardianship system that enables a child to be brought up within a family environment without inheritance rights and ‘assimilation’ as the legal child of the new parents. This study analyses Kafalah within the context of alternative care for children deprived of their environment. Compares Kafalah to other forms of alternative case and examines the extent to which Kafalah is recognized and practiced internationally. / Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Law University of Pretoria, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Masters of Law (LLM in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa). Prepared under the supervision of Prof Julia Sloth-Nielsen, University of the Wstern Cape, South Africa. / Mini Dissertation (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa))--University of Pretoria, 2009. / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/ / Centre for Human Rights / LLM