This thesis is a critique of the European Court of Human Rights’ case law on the right to a fair trial in criminal cases. It is the result of a focussed and extensive survey of Article 6 case law, and, unlike other work on Article6, does not analyse each component right of Article 6 one-by-one. Instead, the thesis considers ‘cross-cutting’ themes common to all, or many, of the Article 6 component rights: how the Court interprets Article 6, how the Court sees its role in Article 6 cases, how the Court approaches Article 6’s internal structure, the Court’s implied rights jurisprudence, and how the Court assesses alleged Article 6 violations. In considering how the Court assesses alleged violations of Article 6, the thesis charts the Court’s attempts to solve ‘the puzzle of Article 6’: how should violations of Article 6 be assessed in the absence of an express metaprinciple? In this regard the thesis examines notions such as the proceedings as a whole test, counterbalancing and defect-curing, the ‘never fair’ jurisprudence, and the extent to which the public interest may justify restrictions on Article 6. The thesis uses a rule of law framework to test the Article 6 case law for its ability to provide guidance to citizens, lawyers and officials. It argues that the case law is marked by considerable uncertainty, inconsistency, and incoherence, with the result that the ability of that case law to provide guidance is significantly undermined. Indeed, the thesis establishes that there is inconsistency and uncertainty within the various tools and approaches used by the Court, and that there is significant incoherence between those approaches. To the extent the thesis makes a normative argument, it constitutes a robust and targeted call for the Court to adopt in this area of law a renewed, rejuvenated approach that is more consistent, more coherent, and better explained.

This thesis will assess the United Kingdom’s implementation of the United Nations Convention Against Torture and other Cruel Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment. It will first focus on a contextual analysis of the problem of torture, examining the circumstances in which it has historically been used, philosophical and theoretical perspectives on the practice and the political aspects of torture, including its effect on international relations. This will illustrate the circumstances in which torture is used, the motivation behind it and the way in which it affects its victims. The argument will then be made that, in view of the uniquely grave nature of the practice of torture, it is insufficient for States to merely criminalise it and punish the offenders. They must actively seek to eradicate it from society and ultimately prevent it from occurring. It is against this aim that the thesis will examine the compliance of the United Kingdom with its obligations under the Convention. This examination will look first at the international regime for the prevention of torture, focusing on the work of the United Nations Committee Against Torture. The engagement of the United Kingdom with this body will be explored in detail and the argument made that more needs to be done in order to ensure that the Committee’s recommendations are put into effect and that treatment contrary to the Convention is prevented from taking place. The final part of the thesis will assess the United Kingdom’s State practice with a focus on key institutions of the State including the courts and the legislature. This part of the thesis will seek to explore the extent to which the practices of these institutions is consistent with an overall aim of preventing torture and the extent to which they show awareness of the Convention and its requirements of the Convention in the discharge of their functions. The conclusion will be drawn that, while the Human Rights Act has gone some way towards improving compliance, more needs to be done to insure a complete implementation by the United Kingdom of its obligations under the Convention and full prevention of torture. The State must actively engage with the Committee and the organs of the State must consider the Convention Against Torture in the discharge of all of their functions to ensure that these aims are achieved.

Despite decades of foreign aid, abundance of natural and human resources, and numerous development initiatives, the African continent remains largely underdeveloped, marginalised and excluded from major decision-making processes that shape today’s world. The purpose of this research is to examine the reasons for the continuous underdevelopment and marginalisation of the African continent and to advance pragmatic measures to be put in place to reverse the situation. The thesis demonstrates that Africa’s underdevelopment and marginalisation cannot be divorced from the effects of centuries of exploitation, domination, and exclusion through the slave trade, colonialism, and neo-colonialism on the one hand, and decades of poor socio-economic and political governance that have characterised the continent since independence, on the other. One of the main findings of the research is that, over the years, African leaders have consciously or unconsciously failed to recognise the fundamental link between human rights, human development, and peace as a foundation for development, and this failure has resulted in their inability to craft sustainable development initiatives for the continent. Given the prominent place human rights, good governance, democracy, peace and stability occupy in both the Constitutive Act of the African Union (CA-AU)1 and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development2 (referred throughout this thesis as the NEPAD Document), the thesis further demonstrates that there is an intrinsic relationship between human rights, human development, and peace which is necessary for development. It analyses the extent to which this relationship has been taken into account in 1 The Constitutive Act of the African Union, OAU Doc. CAB/LEG/23.15, was adopted 11 July 2000 in Lomé, Togo and entered into force May 26, 2001. 2 The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD or the NEPAD Document) 2001. The NEPAD is an economic development program of the African Union. The NEPAD was adopted at the 37th Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government in July 2001 in Lusaka, Zambia. PhD Thesis Human Rights, Human Development and Peace – inseparable ingredients in Africa’s quest for prosperity xvi the conception, formulation, and implementation of the objectives of both the AU and the NEPAD; and concludes that the NEPAD and the AU initiatives provide a strong foundation and offer an excellent opportunity for Africans to begin to reverse centuries of exploitation, domination, and decades of socioeconomic and political exclusion, as well as re-orientate the governance and development strategy of the continent. The thesis is premised on the realisation that respect for human rights, the promotion of human development, and the consolidation of peace, coupled with good political and economic governance are conditions sine qua non for any meaningful development. It further reveals that respect for human rights provides a foundation upon which rests the political structures of human freedoms. The achievement of human freedom generates the will as well as the capacity for economic and social progress. The attainment of economic and social progress provides the basis for durable peace. The thesis concludes that human rights, human development, and peace are interdependent, interrelated, indivisible and mutually reinforcing, and thus inseparable ingredients in Africa’s quest for prosperity.

Thesis advisor: Hiroshi Nakazato / Microcredit has been praised and criticized for its reputation as the solution to global poverty—helping the poor help themselves. The economists have focused on the impossibility of a sustainable microfinance system, whereas other scholars have commended the social advancements that MFIs have supported, especially in relation to gender inequality. This conceptual thesis specifically studies the effects of microfinance institutions on women’s empowerment—first defining ‘empowerment’ and then observing it in various case studies. My research supports the conclusion that microfinance is a useful economic aid and more importantly it spearheads the fight for women’s rights. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: International Studies Honors Program. / Discipline: International Studies.

MMed,Bioethics and Health Law, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand / Access to sufficient water is a constitutionally recognized right in the Republic of South Africa as well as being a Universal Human Right. Despite this however, the world wide population numbers are ever growing and water is known to be finite. The Constitution’s Bill of Rights gives South African citizens the right to reproductive choices. South Africa is a water stressed country, with three forces feeding into availability of freshwater, namely; climate change, demographic factors, and policies. Currently, the problem of accessing safe freshwater is under question. This is presents a problem as the Constitution also addresses the right to a healthy environment. Uncontrolled population growth is detrimental to environmental integrity. It is arguable as to whether it is possible to conserve the environment, and at the same time realize human reproductive rights as envisioned in the Constitution. In this research report I reflect on the state of water and environmental resources in view of the right to procreate. I suggest that environmental education could play a major role in finding “the right balance”.

Thesis advisor: David Hollenbach / What is the relationship between solidarity and human rights? In answering this question, this dissertation argues that human rights and solidarity are mutually dependent upon one another; and second, that the virtue of solidarity is habituated and cultivated through the practicing respect for human rights. In order to make this argument, this dissertation follows in three main parts. First, it examines recent Catholic social teachings (John XXIII to John Paul II) on the themes of human rights and solidarity. The purpose is to detail the development of teaching on human rights and solidarity and begin to examine the relationship between the two. Second, it seeks to provide a normative argument for a clearer relationship between solidarity and human rights through a deeper investigation of the human person as participatory in philosophical and theological anthropology. To accomplish this, I use the philosophical anthropology of Charles Taylor and a theological anthropology grounded in the imago dei, contemporary Trinitarian theologies and covenantal theology. Finally, it shows that understanding human rights and solidarity as foundational for the person has implications for ethical policy concerning human rights, through engagement with developmental economist and human rights theorist Amartya Sen. From this, I argue that human rights and solidarity are mutually dependent. It is my assertion that human rights cannot be realized without solidarity, and vice versa. Furthermore, one cannot acquire the virtue of solidarity, as a second nature, except through the praxis of respect for human rights. In this relationship between human rights and solidarity, I contend that Catholic social thought can offer an important contribution to the philosophical and political debates about moral obligations for human rights and the emerging responsibility to protect doctrine. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2009. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.

Thesis advisor: James F. Keenan / Thesis advisor: Andrea Vicini / Sub-Saharan Africa has one of the worst health care systems in the world. Besides, underdeveloped economies paired with political instability do not offer much hope for improvement. In fact, despite many efforts by local, international organizations and governments to help in this field, the majority of the populations in this region do not have access to basic health care. With this in mind, the aim of this research project is to develop a personal and social anthropology of the human rights language read through the lens of the common good in order to contribute to creating and developing sustainable healthcare systems. While agreeing that many efforts have been made using different frameworks in the sphere of public health ethics in the past two decades and aware of the possibility that other underlying causes may have contributed to the failure of health systems in Sub-Saharan Africa, we will choose to address the human rights language as the main interlocutor for future contribution. This choice is motivated by the influence of human rights on public health policies that affect the lives of people in general. / Thesis (STL) — Boston College, 2016. / Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry. / Discipline: Sacred Theology.

Thesis advisor: Devin O. Pendas / This dissertation shifts our understanding of 1970s human rights activism from a minimalist politics of salvation to a maximalist commitment to kindred spirits. Scholars see the 1970s as the time when the internationalist dreams of the 1960s disappeared to be supplanted by the salvation of a few over the transformation of the root causes of society's ills. By contrast, this dissertation examines West German activism on behalf of Latin Americans chaffing under military rule in the 1970s as a campaign of international political solidarity by different means. Faced with an environment hostile to transnational solidarity at home and abroad, West Germans of varying political doctrines and Christian confessions, as well as exiles from Latin America, embraced a common language of human rights as they pursued their political agendas. Its neutralist and humanitarian overtones made "human rights" discourses appealing to activists with diverging political goals. This dissertation reinterprets human rights activism as a continuation of internationalist commitments at a time when the foundations for transnational solidarity eroded. Grassroots embrace of human rights occurred during a tense state of securitization provoked by left-wing terrorism in West Germany. With the West German state increasingly unwilling to stand up for human rights on the international stage, especially for leftist victims, or accept them as refugees, grassroots solidarity activists were compelled to embrace a discourse that the state would accept. The Chilean and Argentinean cases--the most prominent instances of state-perpetrated abuses in 1970s Latin America--prompted leftists, left liberals, trade unionists, and Christians to advocate for the admission of political refugees and the imposition of economic embargoes and sanctions. Chilean and Argentinean exiles advocated for political change in their countries, but were forced to utilize human rights rhetoric to escape the stigma accorded to left-wing politics. Conservatives embraced human rights argumentation against the military regime in Chile when the wave of repression reached their political partners of the Christian Democratic Party in Chile. Lacking similar partners in Argentina, West German Christian Democracy did not demonstrate interest in conditions there. The West German government responded to grassroots advocacy with a minimalist vision for human rights protection that emphasized private negotiations on behalf of select individuals, which was abhorrent to many grassroots activists. The embrace of human rights by grassroots activists occurred in a highly contested process of political defeats and realignments. It was not a turn to a new utopia. Drawing on research in state and civil society repositories in Europe and the Americas, as well as oral interviews, this dissertation offers a window into transnational political activism between West Germany and Latin America in the 1970s. It shows how activists from the left and the right, as well as government officials, arrived at different definitions of human rights and diverging strategies for protecting them. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: History.

What is and should be the scope of our appeals to human rights? To what desiderata should our theory of human rights adhere? On my proposal, human rights (i) are inherently relational, and (ii) play an important background role in our broader normative practices. Human rights derive from a foundational community relationship that human beings stand in with one another qua human beings. They are not, as naturalistic conceptions have it, grounded in the possession of any specific capacities such as high levels of rationality. They are also not, as political or practical conceptions claim, grounded in more specific relationships such as those between state and citizen. Unlike the current approaches, my relational approach offers both a non-derivative justification for recognizing all living human beings as human rights bearers and all human agents as duty bearers. Rights holder status and duty bearer status both have their source in this basic relationship shared by human beings. As such, neither precedes the other. The relationship gives rise to both. As an upshot, the view accounts for a variety of cases where we ordinarily do not invoke human rights even when their content is relevant, such as in cases of violent crimes or in interpersonal relationships. In turning to these examples, I consider not merely under what conditions human rights exist, but also under what conditions they ought to be invoked. Thus while they have a universal scope, we need not always appeal to them as human rights in order to fulfill them. My inquiry into the grounds of human rights begins with a paradox that emerges for both naturalistic and political conceptions of human rights. Namely, even though human rights have their place in social and political relations, they are often conceived in ways that are blind to the basic role that these relations play in constituting them. While they inhere in individual human beings, the function and content of human rights is largely dependent on facts about human relationships. This paradox is particularly striking in the case of anti-discrimination rights, which many naturalistic views struggle to include as these rights derive not from any particular capacity, but from a comparative egalitarian premise. Instead, a relational view can point directly toward the damaging effects of severely unequal social attitudes–of failures to recognize one another as fellow human beings. Despite these differences, there are ‘natural’ and ‘political’ elements to my proposal as well, though both notions get reinterpreted. The natural, insofar as it figures in my account, is the relational framework in which individual human beings live their lives. The political consists in these overlapping networks of social relations. Thus the natural and the political coincide, and in effect my approach falls in neither of the two traditional camps. Instead, by focusing on the relationship between all human beings and conceiving of this relationship as both natural and social/political, I aim to formulate a genuinely new account of human rights.

Focusing on humanitarian aid to refugees in the Nyarugusu Refugee Camp in Western Tanzania, this dissertation argues that humanitarianism has shifted from the care of the bodily and immediate material needs to a form of moral care inflected by contemporary human rights discourse. The camp, in operation for over 17 years, became the site of a pedagogical intervention aimed at teaching refugees human rights. Informed by essentialist understandings of Congolese culture, aid agencies enforce a version of human rights in which only women’s rights are human rights. Refugees respond to this in a variety of ways, by contesting, appropriating, or exiting the framework of rights entirely. In reading human rights discourse as a site for an anthropology of ethics, this dissertation argues against simply understanding humanitarian confinement in terms of biopolitics, and looks to black feminist theorizations of the “human” to gesture beyond human rights. It shows how Nyarugusu residents make claims based on bodily vulnerability to decolonize the “human” of “human rights,” and how, in doing so, they point us towards a politics of vulnerability grounded in an ethics of sincerity.