M.A. (Politics) / The human rights discourse is flawed in theory and practise. Despite this, it remains legally entrenched in the South African constitution and enjoys a high degree of rhetorical popularity. This thesis will suggest a theory that will explain the longevity of the human rights discourse based on its ability to open spaces for the development of political agency. This ability is derived from its essentially emotive nature as a discourse comprised of value judgments. The discourse is in turn shaped by the agents that are mobilized through human rights. Hence, human rights will be described as a dynamic, evolving system as opposed to the a priori, deontological facts that they have traditionally been conceived to be.

M.Ed. / South Africa has gone through extensive constitutional changes and the institution of a bill of rights for the protection of basic human rights is a certainty. A bill of rights is an essentially constitutional document, formulating and protecting the basic rights and freedoms of the individual concerning the state. It is, therefore, necessary to familiarize pupils with the nature and content of their basic human rights, since we live in a country with a bill of rights.

LL.D. / Millions of human lives have been affected by gross human rights violations since 1945. Genocide and crimes against humanity have been perpetrated repeatedly against civilians despite the vow after the Holocaust that such atrocities would “never again” occur. The Holocaust acts were not criminalised as “genocide” in the London Charter, but as “persecutions on political, racial or religious grounds” under the broader international crime of “crimes against humanity”. “Genocide” was criminalised on 9 December 1948 by the adoption of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide by the United Nations General Assembly. Two main obligations were imposed on signatory states by Article I of the Genocide Convention, namely to prevent the commission of the international crime of genocide, and the obligation to punish the perpetrators of such a crime. Both genocide and crimes against humanity form part of the “most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole”, which are also gross human rights violations. It is of interest to all states of the international community to prevent the commission of these gross human rights violations and to prosecute perpetrators. The prohibition of the international crimes of genocide and crimes against humanity is erga omnes in nature. The research objective of this doctoral thesis is to analyse the causes for the repeated failure of the international community to fulfil the erga omnes obligation to prevent and prosecute gross human rights violations. This endeavour is furthermore aimed at formulating recommendations that will enhance future compliance with the erga omnes obligation in accordance with the international legal developments that will form the subject matter of the thesis. The thesis consists of five parts. Part 1 is an introduction in which the research objective and aims of the thesis are explained and demarcated, as well as the issues focused upon. Core legal concepts, terms and notions explained in Part 1 include “gross human rightsviolations”, “erga omnes obligation”, “jus cogens norms”, “customary international law”, “states upon whom the erga omnes obligations to prevent and prosecute gross human rights violations are imposed”, “the obligation to prevent”, “the obligation to prosecute”, “state responsibility”, “individual criminal responsibility”, “state immunity”, and various other terms. Part 1 further explains the research methodology followed in the thesis and contains a brief overview of the parts and chapters.

Doctor Legum - LLD / The history of prison reform after 1994 was shaped by the relationship between governance and human rights standards; the requirements for both are set out in the Constitution and elaborated on in the Correctional Services Act. Good governance and human rights converge in five dimensions of a constitutional democracy: legitimacy, transparency, accountability, the rule of law; and resource utilisation. The new constitutional order established a set of governance and rights requirements for the prison system demanding fundamental reform. It de-legitimised the existing prison system and thus placed it in a crisis. This required its reinvention to establish a system compatible with constitutional demands. The thesis investigates whether constitutionalism provided the necessary transformative basis for prison reform in South Africa after 1994. The Department of Correctional Services (DCS) senior management failed to anticipate this in the period 1990 to 1994. In the five years after 1994 senior management equally failed to initiate a fundamental reform process. This lack of vision, as well as a number of external factors relating to the state of the public service in the period 1994 to 2000, gave rise to a second crisis: the collapse of order and discipline in the DCS. By the late 1990s the state had lost control of the DCS and its internal workings can be described as a mess – a highly interactive set of problems in causal relationships. In many regards the problems beleaguering the prison system were created in the period 1994 – 1999. The leadership at the time did not recognize that the prison system was in crisis or that the crisis presented an opportunity for fundamental reform. The new democratic order demanded constitutional and political imagination, but this failed to materialise. Consequently, the role and function of imprisonment within the criminal justice system has remained fundamentally unchanged and there has not been a critical re-examination of its purpose, save that the criminal justice system has become more punitive. Several investigations (1998-2006) into the DCS found widespread corruption and rights violations. Organised labour understood transformation primarily as the racial transformation of the staff corps and embarked on an organised campaign to seize control of management and key positions. This introduced a culture of lawlessness, enabling widespread corruption. w leadership by 2001 and facing pressure from the national government, the DCS responded to the situation by focusing on corruption and on regaining control of the Department. A number of gains have been made since then, especially after 2004. Regaining control of the Department focused on addressing systemic weaknesses, enforcing the disciplinary code and defining a new employer-employee relationship. This has been a slow process with notable setbacks, but it continues to form part of the Department’s strategic direction. It is concluded that the DCS has engaged with and developed a deeper understanding of its constitutional obligations insofar as they pertain to governance requirements in the Constitution. However, compliance with human rights standards had not received the same attention and areas of substantial non-compliance remain in violation of the Constitution and subordinate legislation. Overcrowding, violations of personal safety, poor services and/or lack of access to services persist. Despite the detailed rights standards set out in the Correctional Services Act, there is little to indicate that legislative compliance is an overt focus for the DCS. While meeting the minimum standards of humane detention, as required by the Constitution, should have been the strategic focus of the DCS in relation to the prison population, the 2004 White Paper defines “offender rehabilitation” as the core business of the DCS. In many regards the DCS has assigned more prominence and weight to the White Paper than to its obligations under the Correctional Services Act. In an attempt to legitimise the prison system, the DCS defined for itself a goal that is required neither by the Constitution nor the Correctional Services Act. Compliance with the minimum standards of humane detention must be regarded as a prerequisite for successful interventions to reduce future criminality. After seven years, delivery results on the rehabilitation objective have been minimal and not objectively measurable. The noble and over-ambitious focus on rehabilitation at policy level distracted the DCS from its primary constitutional obligation, namely to ensure safe and humane custody under conditions of human dignity Throughout the period (1994 to 2012) the DCS has been suspicious if not dismissive of advice, guidance and at times orders (including court orders) offered or given by external stakeholders. Its relationship with civil society organisations remain strained and there is no formal structure for interaction. Since 2004 Parliament has reasserted its authority over the DCS, not hesitating to criticise poor decisions and sub-standard performance. Civil society organisations have increasingly used Parliament as a platform for raising concerns about prison reform. Litigation by civil society and prisoners has also been used on a growing scale to ensure legislative compliance. It is concluded that prison reform efforts needs to refocus on he rights requirements set out in the Correctional Services Act and approach this task in an inclusive, transparent and accountable manner. / South Africa

Magister Artium (Human Ecology) - MA(HE) / Human Rights have been the focus of much debate in recent years. It is read about in biblical contexts and extensively written about and researched globally,nationally and locally. South Africa is especially recognised as a country trying to adhere to human rights recommendations since after experiencing years of “apartheid” and human rights violations. South Africa is proud to introduce a sixteen-year democracy and a constitution respected by the global society.As South Africa embarks on a period of transformation, women who were historically marginalised are encouraged through education to demand their right to know that their human rights be recognised. The adolescent female in her educational environment is socialized to recognise her basic human rights and, through education,she is able to embrace them and demand that they be upheld.The adolescent female learner within the South African context is the focus of this study as we explore her knowledge and experiences’ of human rights at school. The study also attempts to explore the schools role in providing adequate facilitation for the adolescent female learner to gain sufficient knowledge about her basic human rights.Both quantitative and qualitative research methodology were used in this study. A sample of 12 adolescent female learners was purposively selected. The study was conducted at a Secondary School in the Central Sub-district of Cape Town in the Western Cape. The questionnaire was standardized by testing the questions on learners and the Life Orientation educator of another school. A thematic analysis was used to analyse the audio taped data from the interviews.The key findings were that the adolescent female perceives human rights as being equal and being human amongst other humans but that their human rights are violated at school. It was also found that knowledge about human rights changed the attitudes and behaviour of the adolescent female learners in creating higher self confidence, the ability to stand up for themselves, have a positive self image and an understanding and appreciation for other cultures.The recommendations from this study includes: that the adolescent female learners need to internalize their basic human rights and then demand that these rights be upheld. The integration of human rights concepts within other learning areas or subjects in the school curriculum were additional recommendations.

Some worry has been expressed in human rights circles that the human rights archetype has for some time now, disproportionately preoccupied itself with the culture of rights and claims at the expense of individuals? duties and responsibilities. A claim is made that while rights are individualistic, self-seeking, unworldly, self-indulgent and anti-social, individual duties and responsibilities are collective, social, humane, nuanced and associated with correct traditional and social behaviour and human values. The language of rights has dominated the texts of bills of rights in constitutions, and international instruments, and many view this rhetoric as unproblematic. Others, however, consider the currency of that language as overlooking, with dire consequences to human society, the concept of duty as the missing link of human dignity. There have, accordingly, been calls for a renewed focus on individual duties and responsibilities in the human rights discourse. The question is whether focussing on individual responsibility is necessary to counterbalance what is viewed by some as a bias towards rights. Efforts to raise international consciousness of what is regarded as the limitation of a purely rights-based approach to human rights has been spearheaded by, among others, faith based organisations. These have advocated not only a more visible recognition of individual duties and responsibilities generally, but an international declaration of human responsibilities as a ?common standard for all people and all nations.? The calls being made are premised on, first, a view that a device in the form of an international declaration ? a set of international rules ? should be developed to change the current human rights architecture. This code of ethical obligations is necessary to guide and change individual behaviour. Second, a belief that greater emphasis should be laid on individual duty responsibility to supplement existing international human rights norms and standards, and finally, that human rights principles alone are inadequate for modern societies to regulate themselves well. With particular reference to perspectives from the African Charter based human rights system, this project interrogates these concerns regarding duties with a view to ascertaining whether there is justification in them. Using as a reference point the concept of duties in the African Charter and to a small extent that in the African Children's Charter, which represents the older ii and more established part of the African human rights system, the project concludes that although individuals? duties are important and deserve greater attention, there is no convincing case for the calls that are being made in this regard. / Thesis (LLD)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Centre for Human Rights / LLD / Unrestricted

In recent years, explanations for the occurrence of civil war have mainly emphasized state weakness as providing an opportunity for greed-based rebellions. Yet, this explanation leaves many questions open, as it cannot distinguish between weak states that do and those that do not experience civil war. In this paper, I argue that abuses of personal integrity rights, committed or sponsored by the government, provide this missing link. The theory is illustrated and formalized in a game-theoretic model and then tested empirically, building on earlier work by Fearon and Laitin (2003a) and Sambanis (2004). The results show that repression is highly significant in both statistical and substantive terms. According to one model, the probability of civil war onset increases by a factor of almost 16 in highly repressive countries compared to countries with no repression. Further robustness tests across alternative civil war lists largely confirm the importance of human rights abuses in explaining the occurrence of civil war.

How does respect for human rights affect the disbursement of food aid by US foreign policymakers? Scholars analyzing foreign aid generally look at only total economic aid, military aid or a combination of both. However, for a more nuanced understanding of human rights as a determinant of foreign aid, the discrete foreign aid programs must be examined. By disentangling component-programs from total aid, this analysis demonstrates how human rights influence policymakers by allowing them to distribute food aid to human rights abusing countries. Consequently, policymakers can promote strategic objectives with food aid, while legally restricted from distributing other aid. The primary theoretical argument, which links increasing human rights abuse with increasing food aid, is supported by results from a Heckman model. This procedure models the two-stage decision-making process where foreign policymakers first, select countries for aid and then, distribute aid to those selected.

Historically, women in conflict and post-conflict situations have on the basis of their status been subjected to harmful and discriminatory practices which run contrary to international, regional and domestic provisions guaranteeing various human rights including the rights to freedom from torture, cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment or punishment; discrimination; violence; privacy and autonomous decision making within the context of healthcare etc. Whereas recent years have seen an improvement in State responses globally, in Nigeria the experiences of women in conflict and post-conflict situations remain deplorable. Despite the ratification of various international and regional treaties in this regard, issues revolving around access to safe abortion remain problematic. They are also further complicated by questions of holistic adoption and implementation of ratified instruments in this regard. Consequently, though consensus has been achieved on paper, implementation remains a mirage particularly across the Middle Belt region and the Northeast which are grappling with farmer-herder conflict and insurgency by proscribed armed groups respectively. This mini-dissertation discusses in-depth the current framework for the protection of women’s reproductive health and rights related to access to abortion services in conflict and post-conflict situations in Nigeria in view of international and regional human rights obligations, highlighting the challenges and prospects and identifies key opportunities for consideration in the protection of these rights by municipal law. This research is relevant to legal, ethical and social discourses as well as issues of policy formulation and implementation related to reproductive health and rights protection in conflict and post-conflict situations within Nigeria. / Mini Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2021. / NRF / Centre for Human Rights / LLM / Unrestricted

"The international community is divided in respect of what actually occurred in Darfur. There are differenct views on the conflict. Some reports show that the conflict cannot be characterised as genocide, but rather atrocities, namely war crimes and crimes against humanity. Yet others indicate that, apart from crimes against humanity and war crimes, there was also genocide in Darfur. Still other reports indicate that the Darful conflict is characterised by 'ethnic cleansing'. Clearly there is a disagreement on what happened in Darfur. ... This study poses a critique to past studies on the Darfur conflict on the question of genocide. It analyses facts about the conflict in relation to the law on genocide so as to find out whether facts can meet the definition of the crime of genocide. The study is limited to the legal issue - whether genocide was committed in Darfur between 2003 and 2004. It does not intend to introduce the background to the conflict; rather, facts are only applied in the legal arguments. ... This work has four chapters. Chapter one is an introduction to the study. Chapter two discusses material elements of genocide and determination of a protected group. Chapter three discusses intent to commit genocide and poses a critique to past studies on Darfur. Chapter four shows conclusion and recommendations." -- Introduction. / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2005. / Prepared under the supervision of Dr. Paolo Comoane at the Faculty of Law, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, Maputo, Mocambique / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/academic_pro/llm1/dissertations.html / Centre for Human Rights / LLM