The death penalty has been an issue of debate for decades and it is of great relevance at present. Different reasons have emerged that make recourse to the death penalty appear necessary, such as, that it serves as a deterrent, it meets the need for retribution and that public opinion demands its imposition. Conversely, more convincing arguments have been raised for its abolition, amongst which is the argument that it is a violation of human rights. Africa is seen as one of the “death penalty regions” in the world, as most African states still retain the death penalty despite the growing international human rights standards and trends towards its abolition. Further, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights makes no mention of the death penalty. The death penalty in Africa is therefore an issue that one has to be particularly concerned about. During the 36th Ordinary Session (2004) of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, for the first time, the death penalty was one of the issues discussed by the Commission. Commissioner Chirwa initiated debate about the abolition of the death penalty in Africa, urging the Commission to take a clear position on the subject. In view of this and the international human rights developments and trends on the death penalty, discourses on the abolition of the death penalty in Africa are much needed. Accordingly, this study examines the death penalty in Africa from a human rights perspective. It seeks to determine why African states retain the death penalty, the ways in which the current operation of the death penalty in African states conflicts with human rights, what causes obstructions to its abolition in Africa, and whether it is appropriate for African states to join the international trend for the abolition of the death penalty. The current status and operation of the death penalty in Africa is first examined. The historical background to the death penalty in Africa from a traditional and western perspective is also discussed. Subsequently, the main arguments advanced by Africans (including African leaders, writers, priests and government officials) for the retention of the death penalty in Africa are evaluated. The study goes further to examine the death penalty in African states in the light of the right to life, the prohibition of cruel inhuman and degrading treatment and fair trial rights at both the international and national levels. After examining the death penalty in African states, the study arrives at the conclusion that it is appropriate for African states to join the international trend for the abolition of the death penalty, considering that the death penalty in Africa conflicts with human rights, the justifications for its retention are fundamentally flawed, and that alternatives to the death penalty in Africa exist. A number of recommendations are then made, which are geared towards the abolition of the death penalty in Africa. / Thesis (LLD)--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Centre for Human Rights / unrestricted

Il est traditionnellement admis que le droit pénal a pour fonction de défendre l’intérêt général, ce qui explique le rôle prééminent de l’État tout au long du processus répressif. Pourtant, l’analyse du droit positif met en exergue une extension de la fonction normative du droit pénal en direction des intérêts privés, individuels ou collectifs qui ne peut que bouleverser les fonctions traditionnellement assignées à la responsabilité pénale et à la sanction pénale qui l’accompagne. Parce que les intérêts privés concurrencent l’intérêt général dans l’ordre des valeurs protégées par les textes d’incrimination, les règles de la responsabilité pénale et les fonctions de la sanction pénale sont désormais sollicitées pour résoudre des litiges entre particuliers, et assurer la réparation du dommage causé par l’infraction. Parce que la configuration des acteurs au procès pénal n’est que le reflet des valeurs protégées par la norme pénale, l’introduction des intérêts privés dans le champ de protection de la loi pénale a naturellement entraîné une mutation de la répartition traditionnelle des rôles processuels du juge et des parties dans le procès pénal au profit des parties privées. Même si cette mutation a trouvé dans l’influence du modèle européen de procès équitable le terreau favorable à une telle évolution, celui-ci n’a joué qu’un rôle catalyseur dans l’ascension des parties dans la maîtrise de la direction de l’instance pénale comme dans la maîtrise de la matière litigieuse ; la véritable cause de ces évolutions. / It is traditionally allowed that the criminal law has as a function to defend the general interest, which explains the preeminent role of the State throughout the repressive process. However, the analysis of the substantive law puts forward an extension of the normative function of the criminal law in the direction of the private interests, individual or collectives which can only upset the functions traditionally assigned with the criminal responsibility and with the penal sanction which accompanies it. Because the private interests compete with the general interest in the order of the values protected by the texts from incrimination, the rules of the criminal responsibility and the functions of the penal sanction from now on are requested to solve litigations between individuals, and to ensure the compensation for the damage caused by the infringement. Because the configuration of the actors to the criminal trial is only the reflection of the values protected by the penal standard, the introduction of the private interests into the field of protection of the criminal law naturally involved a change of the traditional distribution of the processual roles of the judge and parts in the criminal trial with the profit as of private parts. Even if this change found in the influence of the European model of fair trial the compost favorable to such an evolution, this one played only one catalyst part in the rise of the parts in the control of the direction of the penal authority as in the control of the litigious matter; the true cause of these evolutions, it is the privatization of penal repression.

La construction empirique du système conventionnel des Nations Unies relatif aux droits de l’homme s’est fondée sur un consensus minimum entre les Etats concernant le développement du dispositif conventionnel. Font partie de ce consensus les procédures de surveillance de l’application des traités onusiens relatifs aux droits de l’homme et les organes auxquels la mise en oeuvre de ces procédures fut confiée. A côté de la procédure de présentation des rapports sur les mesures prises pour la mise en oeuvre de leurs obligations conventionnelles, les Etats parties se sont mis d’accord sur une procédure de présentation de plaintes individuelles, sous l’appellation de procédure de communications individuelles. Le modèle initial de cette procédure, produit de résistances, des polarisations, des hésitations et des espérances démenties concernant la création d’une Cour internationale des droits de l’homme, la nature et l’étendue du contrôle sur plainte et le statut de l’individu, fut reproduit par la suite sans modifications majeures. La procédure d’examen des communications individuelles ainsi que les éléments de l’affaire introduite par les communications individuelles sont établis par les instruments conventionnels dans des termes comparables. Leur mise en oeuvre par les organes de traités ne témoigne pas d’une rupture capable d’empêcher l’unité du système conventionnel des Nations Unies. Les comités conventionnels ont pris conscience de leur fonctionnement au sein d’un seul système et s’efforcent d’harmoniser leurs méthodes de travail tout en assurant la spécificité de leur traité. C’est ainsi que l’on peut parler du régime des procédures de communications individuelles dans le système conventionnel des Nations Unies sur les droits de l’homme. A côté des éléments institutionnels et procéduraux permettant la systématisation des procédures de communications individuelles, les instruments conventionnels les plus récents établissant les procédures de communications individuelles codifient l’évolution de la procédure par les comités conventionnels les plus anciens, notamment le Comité des droits de l’homme. La codification de la pratique du contentieux des comités conventionnels s’inscrit dans un processus continu d’évolution de la protection des droits de l’homme au niveau universel. En s’affirmant garants à la fois de l’objet et du but de traités onusiens relatifs aux droits de l’homme et de l’effectivité du recours individuel, les organes de traités renforcent leur rôle en tant qu’organes de contrôle et poussent pour une judiciarisation implicite de la procédure de communications individuelles. Cependant, à défaut d’outils institutionnels permettant d’imposer aux Etats parties les obligations découlant de la procédure de communications individuelles, les organes de traités sont obligés de chercher le bon dosage entre fermeté et diplomatie sans pour autant être en mesure d’assurer la coopération des Etats parties. La standardisation de la procédure de communications individuelles au sein du système conventionnel des Nations Unies de protection des droits de l’homme renforce la position de l’individu en droit international et met au premier plan des victimes restées longtemps dans l’ombre. Par l’affirmation de leur autorité d’interpréter les traités et d’assurer l’efficacité de la procédure de communications individuelles, les comités conventionnels contribuent à la mise en oeuvre effective et cohérente des principes normatifs au niveau universel. / The empirical construction of the United Nations human rights treaty system was based on a minimum consensus among states. Treaty bodies and monitoring procedures of treaty obligations are part of this consensus. Besides the reporting procedure, States parties have reached consensus on an individual complaints procedure. The procedure emerged after polarization and hesitation among States over the establishment of an international human rights court and the status of the individual in international law and was reproduced in without major modifications. So individual complaints procedures under United Nations human rights treaties have common procedural and institutional features. Furthermore, treaty bodies have engaged in a process of harmonization of their working methods giving us reason to be optimistic about the unity of United Nations human rights treaty system. Besides common institutional and procedural aspects, the latest treaties establishing individual complaints procedures codify the evolutionary practice of older treaty bodies, especially the Human Rights Committee. By affirming their determination to protect the object and purpose of human rights treaties and to guarantee the effectiveness of individual complaints procedures, treaty bodies strengthen implicitly the judicial aspects of the procedure. However, in the absence of judicial authority and other institutional tools for imposing on States parties’ treaty obligations, the treaty bodies are forced to seek the right balance between firmness and diplomacy without being able to ensure States parties’ cooperation. Nonetheless, observance of treaty obligations under the individual complaints procedure is a part of a long and continuous process in which treaty bodies due to their expertise and competences have a predominant role. The standardization of the individual communications procedure in the United Nations human rights treaty system strengthens the position of the individual in international law and foregrounds victims that have long remained in the shadows. By asserting their authority to interpret treaties and to ensure the effectiveness of the individual communications procedures, the treaty bodies contribute to the universalization of normative principles and their effective and coherent implementation.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Ninety-eight empirical effects examining the impact of pretrial publicity (PTP) on perceptions of guilt were meta-analytically analyzed. As hypothesized, results suggested that anti-defendant PTP was associated with increased perceptions of defendant guilt, whereas pro-defendant PTP was associated with decreased perceptions of defendant guilt. Additionally, several moderator variables were examined. The results suggested that the size of the effect of PTP is dependent upon several variables, including the level of the analysis (jury-level vs. juror level), the type of crime involved in the case, the nature of the information provided to the participants in the control condition, the reality of the case used in the study, the delay between PTP exposure and the collection of the verdict preference, the medium of the PTP presentation, the publication status of the data source, and the outcome measure utilized.

Le contexte actuel de mondialisation et de mobilité des citoyens de tous les pays, qui parlent des langues diverses, change la composition culturelle et linguistique de la société québécoise. Cette diversification de la société remet en question la validité de certaines pratiques dans notre système judiciaire et, plus particulièrement, l’accessibilité à la justice pour tous les citoyens. La notion d’accès à la justice implique que tout justiciable possède le droit de participer en pleine égalité aux procédures qui se déroulent devant les tribunaux, ainsi que le droit à un procès équitable. La présente étude examine la pratique de l’un des plus importants tribunaux administratifs du Québec, le Tribunal administratif du travail (TAT), division santé et sécurité du travail. Le TAT offre aux travailleurs l’accès à la justice en pleine égalité, et dans le respect des règles de justice naturelle relativement aux demandes touchant leurs droits, mais sans fournir de services gratuits d’interprète aux travailleurs membres d’une minorité linguistique. Il s’agit des travailleurs qui ne parlent pas et ne comprennent pas la langue employée à l’audience, à savoir la langue française ou la langue anglaise. L’auteure examine le droit de ces travailleurs de bénéficier des services gratuits d’un interprète devant le TAT en raison du droit à l’égalité et du droit à un procès équitable garantis par les dispositions de la Charte canadienne des droits et libertés et de la Charte des droits et libertés de la personne. / The current context of globalization and mobility of citizens of all countries, who speak different languages, changes the cultural and linguistic composition of the Quebec society. This diversification of society challenges the validity of certain practices in our justice system, in particular the accessibility of justice for all citizens. The notion of access to justice implies that everyone has the right to participate fully in the proceedings before the courts, as well as the right to a fair trial. This study examines the practice of one of the largest administrative tribunals in Quebec, the Tribunal administratif du travail (TAT), Health and Safety Division. The TAT provides workers with equal access to justice, complying with the rules of natural justice with respect to claims affecting their rights, but without providing free interpreter services to minority language workers. These are workers who do not speak and do not understand the language used in a hearing, namely French or English. The author examines the right of these workers to free services of an interpreter before the TAT, pursuant to their right to equality and the right to a fair trial guaranteed by the provisions of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms.

As it is evident from the title, in my thesis I would like to provide an overview of the undertakings' procedural rights in proceedings under Article 101 and/or 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. Given the extensive investigative powers that are granted to the European Commission by the Council Regulation No 1/2003 and the consequences of being found guilty of violating Article 101 and/or 102 of the TFEU, it is necessary to ensure that the undertakings have enough ways available to exercise their right to defence and other rights and privileges guaranteed by the EU law and international treaties such as European Convention on Human Rights (e.g. the right to respect for private life). For this reason the EU law provides a range of procedural rights that should guarantee that both all the fundamental rights are observed and also serve as a system of checks and balances that prevents the misuse of the Commission's investigative powers. My thesis will focus individual rights of undertakings that are provided to them by the Council Regulation No 1/2003 and EU courts judicature. I will analyse their scope and purpose, the conditions under which they can be exercised and their limitations. Simultaneously a comparison between the rights of undertakings in the EU and U.S. legal system will...

1 Abstract The public administration itself is bound by applicable legal provisions. Therefore, in case of breach of individual rights stemming from the legal system of the Czech Republic, every person is guaranteed a strict legal procedure with corresponding legal mechanisms, which aim to remedy the status caused by unlawful action or inaction of the public administration. The object of this dissertation focuses, in particular, on analysis of individual means of protection of rights in public administration (i.e. the issue of the protection of public subjective rights) and their mutual relationships between them at level of legal regulation de lege lata. However, certain space had to be dedicated also to the procedures of public administration in matters related to private subjective rights as even the public administration decides on certain matters of private law. As regards the protection of private rights by public administration I mentioned the dualism of the review of decisions of public bodies and certain examples of public administration deciding on matters of private subjective rights. Further I stressed the issue of civil liability related to the conduct of public administration, i.e. liability for damages caused by unlawful decision and unlawful procedure. Pursuant to the act on liability for...

The protection of Indigenous women in the context of Inter-American Human Rights System Abstract The aim of the thesis is to identify the means of protection of Indigenous women's rights. The author rises the subsequent questions: (i) which documents of this regional system offers protection to Indigenous women and based on what reason; (ii) what bodies operate in the Inter-American framework and Indigenous women can turn on them; (iii) what violations of rights have been addressed in the jurisprudency of the Inter-American Court of Human rights and what meaning does it have regarding to protection of Indigenous women? The first part contains the crucial documents in the topic of protection of indigenous women's rights. The author refers to the role and relation of both basic regional catalogues of human rights, American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Men and American Convention on Human Rights. She also refers to a quite recent document, American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples that offers expressis verbis some protection to Indigenous women. Apart from that, other documents providing special protection to certain groups are analysed: Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence against Women, Inter-American Convention on Forced Dissappearence...

La perspective européenne a renouvelé l’intérêt de la question du maintien ou de la suppression du dualisme juridictionnel en France à travers deux approches : la résistance aux modèles concurrents d’organisation juridictionnelle d’une part, le crible des standards européens d’autre part. Considéré comme un modèle d’organisation juridictionnelle, le système français a inspiré la majorité des Etats européens. Le phénomène a néanmoins été temporaire. Désormais, la plupart des Etats européens ont un système d’organisation juridictionnelle qui se rattache à un autre modèle. Engager le système français dans une telle voie est juridiquement faisable mais peu opportun en pratique. Le système français en tant que modèle – quoique minoritaire – d’organisation juridictionnelle a donc vocation à perdurer. Sur un autre front, l’alignement du système français sur les standards européens a également fait émerger l’hypothèse de sa suppression. Les condamnations, réelles ou potentielles, de la juridiction administrative et du procès mené devant elle, ainsi que du Tribunal des conflits et de la procédure suivie devant lui, ont montré que les réformes étaient inévitables et imposé de revenir sur des pratiques séculaires bien établies. Elles ont également contribué à rapprocher la juridiction administrative de la juridiction judiciaire et le procès administratif du procès civil. « Sauvé » au prix de nombreuses transformations, le système n’en est pas moins parvenu à préserver ses caractéristiques essentielles, prouvant sa capacité d’adaptation. Un temps affaibli, le dualisme juridictionnel n’a, en définitive, pas été altéré. Mieux, son fondement technique, justification contemporaine du dualisme juridictionnel, en est sorti renforcé. / The European perspective has shed new light on the question of whether maintaining or ruling out jurisdictional dualism in France through two main approaches: on the one hand, the resilience of substitutable models and, on the other hand, the scrutiny of European standards. Considered as a model, the French system has inspired the majority of states in Europe. This wave of inspiration has nevertheless been short-lived. Indeed, most states in Europe have established a judicial system, which is different from the French model. Bringing the French system towards the one adopted by most states in Europe is juridically feasible but raises several issues in practice. As a result, the French system, albeit minor amongst the European states, is probably prone to live on. Furthermore, bringing the French system towards European standards raised the question of a likely end of it. In fact, the French system came under critics, whether effective or potential, of its administrative courts and legal proceedings, together with critics concerning its so-called “Tribunal des conflits” and the legal proceedings. These critics point to the fact that reforming the French system was inevitable. Such reforms led the French system back on some of its secular anchored practices. Eventually, reforms also contributed to bring closer both the administrative court and the administrative legal proceedings to both civil court and civil legal proceedings. Saved at the cost of numerous reforms, the French system nevertheless managed to preserve its basic structures. This in turn provides evidence that the French system is able to adapt itself to an evolving European environment. Finally, the technical founding principles of jurisdictional dualism have been reinforced.

L’approche juridique de la notion de création est confuse. Elle est traditionnellement envisagée à travers les droits de propriété intellectuelle (droit d’auteur, brevet, dessins et modèles, etc.). Mais cette approche est insuffisante. Les droits fondamentaux permettent de s’en apercevoir. En effet, la création constitue à la fois une activité humaine (un acte créatif) et un objet de propriété (un bien créatif). L’acte créatif est garanti par la liberté de création. La nature de cette dernière demeure toutefois incertaine. Elle oscille entre un rattachement à la liberté d’expression ou à la liberté du commerce et de l’industrie. De plus, le test de proportionnalité conduit à examiner les limites de la liberté de création à l’aune des « lois du genre créatif ». Les droits fondamentaux invitent alors à dépasser la conception de l’acte créatif compris comme un message.Le bien créatif est protégé par le droit de propriété. Les droits fondamentaux conduisent cependant à remettre en cause la conception française des biens créatifs en soulignant davantage leur dimension économique. De plus, le test de proportionnalité implique de redessiner les limites du droit de propriété en tenant compte de ses fonctions sociales. En définitive, les droits fondamentaux brouillent la frontière entre le droit de propriété et le droit de la concurrence déloyale. / The legal approach to the notion of creation is vague. It is traditionally considered in the light of intellectual property rights (copyright, patent, design, etc.), but this approach is insufficient. Fundamental rights show us this. They let us distinguish between its different dimensions: creation as both a human activity (a creative act) and an object of property (a creative good). The freedom of creation protects and ensures the creative act. However, the nature of the former remains unclear. It fluctuates between falling within the freedom of expression and the freedom to conduct a business. Furthermore, the proportionality test leads to the limits of creative freedom being examined in terms of “laws of the creative type”. Fundamental rights then require us to go beyond the concept of the creative act as a message.The creative good is protected by property law. Fundamental rights, however, bring into question the French concept of a creative good by further emphasising their economic aspect. Moreover, the proportionality test means retracing the boundaries of property law by taking into account its social functions. Fundamental rights therefore blur the line between property law and unfair competition law.