The aim of this study is to understand the situation of Rohingya through the concept of statelessness and to illustrate the importance of citizenship in relation to human rights. The Rohingya minority has for a long period of time been victims of violence and discrimination by the Myanmar government and military. In 1982, all Rohingyas were deprived their Myanmar citizenship through a domestic law, which is in conflict with international human rights law. Various military operations, attacks, and attempts have been made to drive the Rohingya population out of the country. Consequently, as of 2019, nearly one million stateless Rohingyas are living in overcrowded camps in neighbouring Bangladesh. By applying the philosophical understandings and conceptualisations of Hannah Arendt and Giorgio Agamben, this study seeks answers to how it is possible to perform such acts of breaching human rights. Furthermore, a number of official conventions and principles are analysed to seek answers to how the international community are obligated to act prior, during, and after atrocities on humanity are performed. The main findings of this study are that these acts of violence have been possible due to the Rohingya populations’ statelessness. The sustainable development goals aim to ‘leave no one behind’ and several universal documents and principles are in place to protect humanity from such atrocities. Nevertheless, the international community has clearly failed when it comes to protect the Rohingya population. One important and significant step towards preventing future genocides and ethnic cleansings has been identified through this study – all individuals need to be ensured their fundamental human rights.

This thesis provides a criminological perspective on the Australian state???s responses to unauthorised migrants. In particular, it attempts to build on recent criminological literature on state crime by contrasting the alleged deviance of unauthorised migrants with the organised and deviant human rights abuses perpetrated by the Australian state. The main argument of the thesis is that through the systematic alienation, criminalisation and abuse of unauthorised migrants, particularly refugees, the Australian state is engaged in state crime. While this can partly be measured by breaches of international humanitarian law, the acts in question are criminal according to the broader sociological understanding of state crime as ???state organisational deviance involving the violation of human rights???. The thesis develops this argument by locating the phenomena of forced and illicit migration within an increasingly globalised world economy in which the needs for international human migration are confronted by the restrictive migration policies of the dominant Western states. In this context, the Australian state has played a pivotal role in the development of three major Western exclusion zones, which are designed to contain unauthorised migrants in the developing world and are enforced by measures that systematically abuse human rights. The fundamental criminological dynamic of the Australian exclusion zone is its systematic assault on the movements and by definition, the rights, of forced migrants. This operates at a number of levels: unauthorised arrivals are alienated by their lack of legal status; they are denied access to a full refugee determination process; their status as refugees is subordinated to that of the resettled refugee; their experiences are denied and delegitimised through their construction as queue jumpers; they are criminalised through their participation in smuggling enterprises; they are punished and abused through the use of detention, dispersal and forced removal; and they are put at greater personal risk by the measures employed to enforce the zone. The thesis traces the development of this zone from the formation of the white Australia policy through to the Pacific Solution and critically analyses the ways in which current policy draws on and reinforces the exclusionist traditions of Australian nationalism.

This thesis interrogates immigration detention as a space of intricate ambivalence - one which seeks to exclude, but which is also entreated to protect. The focus is so-called ‘unauthorised’ asylum seekers detained both within Australia and offshore on the Pacific island of Nauru between 1999 and 2003 - when the numbers of detained asylum seekers reached its maximum and the government introduced offshore processing centres. Australia’s immigration detention regime sits awkwardly with the discourse of universal human rights and brings into sharp conflict two robust political values: the right of endangered people to seek refuge and the right of the nation to determine who will enter. Focusing on the experiences of detainees reveals immigration detention as a complex regime through which the state’s dominating power targets the stateless, non-white, male body. This targeting is intentional, serving to secure sovereign borders and to rearticulate the naturalised ties between the national population and the modern state. Immigration detention holds the seeker in a limbo that sets parameters for the seeker’s experience of ongoing and intensifying insecurity. It specifically and intentionally fractures the identity of detainees: masochistic actions and collective protests, from hunger strikes to breakouts, reflect the common currency of anxiety and violence. The creation of offshore camps was, in part, a response to ongoing protests within onshore detention and the failure of onshore detention to stop boat arrivals. My chief focus here is the largest Pacific camp, ‘Topside’, on the island of Nauru. Unlike the onshore detention centres where publicised protests and breakouts screamed of continuing detention of asylum seekers, those on Nauru were effectively silenced. The thesis explores purpose as inscribed within the body of the exile. To give up hope for asylum is to face the possibility of endless wandering and death. Mechanisms of resistance, whether explicit protest or more passive waiting, are parts of the continuing struggle by the detained against mechanisms of exclusion and exception. The detained carve out small openings to contest their exclusion and to reassert an identity as survivors. There is a complex and fluid interplay between such resistance and government policies aiming to silence protest and limit identity – and ultimately to deter all unauthorised boat arrivals.

This thesis seeks to better conceptualise how and why there is an absence of international protection for ???environmental refugees???, and to place these findings in the critical geopolitics literature. A poststructuralist framework, drawing on Foucault???s ideas of discourse, subjectivity, power and governance, was deemed most appropriate for this thesis, and provided a means of differentiation from previous literature on ???environmental refugees???. This thesis develops a genealogy of the subject category of ???environmental refugees??? since the 1970s, to better understand how the United Nations, Inter-Governmental Organisations (IGOs), Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and the media have constructed environmental issues and refugees in texts. Fieldwork undertaken in 2004 enabled me to conduct 45 semistructured interviews with United Nations diplomats and representatives from IGOs and NGOs. Critical scrutiny of these interview texts revealed the constructions of ???environmental refugees??? as various subject identities, particularly in relation to climate change. Pacific ambassadors to the United Nations were also interviewed in 2004 to explore how they negotiated discourses on climate change and ???environmental refugees???, and attempted to articulate their concerns at the United Nations. This thesis contends that an absence of policy at the United Nations to protect ???environmental refugees??? has been produced by a combination of discursive and institutional politics. Unequal power structures at the United Nations have limited the capacity of small island states to lobby and articulate concerns, while subject categories of ???environmental refugees??? have been constructed in ways that alter the terms of debate, evade legal response, or deflect blame away from the perpetrators of environmental damage. Reasons for this policy absence have been the shifting attitudes towards environmental issues and the role of multilateral political institutions. The overall contribution of this thesis is to critical geopolitics, through its examination of the role of multilateralism, representations of environmental issues causing population displacement, and how and why policy absences are created within multilateral institutions such as the United Nations.

The aim of this thesis is to analyze mental health care in Australia from a social justice and human rights perspective, in order to demonstrate that social justice as a philosophical manifestation of justice and fairness, is an essential ingredient in the theory and practice of mental health care. It is contended that the needs of the mentally ill would be most appropriately answered by the utilization of a Natural Law model, based on Finnis’s Natural Law theory. The Scope of the Thesis.The needs and care of the mentally ill are discussed, together with the treatment meted out to these vulnerable members of society since, approximately, the year 1800. Neither the criminally insane, nor the intellectually disabled are included in this discourse. Each group of people merits a thesis on its own: criminal insanity requires a debate to include the history, psychiatric and legal approaches to the subject, and current management of the insane. The intellectually disabled are not mentally ill; their ability to function as all round, naturally competent individuals is diminished by an inadequacy and/or impairment of their intellectual capacities. The needs of these two groups are far too broad and demanding to be included within the current thesis. Rationale for the Timeframe The timeframe, 1800 until 2004, has been established because it approximates to the transition from the end of the Classical through the Modern Age to the Post Modern Age, together with the predominance of Enlightenment philosophical theories, and the development of a scientific approach to medicine. Further, many politico-economic and social changes were taking place, associated with the Industrial Revolution. All are shown to have affected the introduction of asylumdom, and the institutionalization of those unable to participate actively in the industrial workforce. Of significant importance to the development of institutionalization for such marginal groups is the philosophy of Jeremy Bentham. Bentham espoused Classical Utilitarianism which will be shown to believe that the ultimate standard of utility is not the individual’s happiness but the greatest amount of happiness altogether. The thesis will demonstrate that this philosophical view prevailed from the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, with Benthamism influencing the sequestration of the unemployable into institutional life. Development of the Thesis.The thesis is developed against a background of prevailing philosophical, and other changes as stated above, including the medicalization of mental illness and the development of psychiatry as a branch of medicine. There is manifestation of many social injustices to those incarcerated in the asylum in all three countries under consideration: England, USA, and Australia. It is demonstrated that social justice and human rights of their work forces were disregarded by many employers at the time of the Industrial Revolution. Such values were, therefore, unlikely to prevail with regard to the mentally ill. Asylumdom continued with few changes in its practices until after World War II. It is shown that the predominance of post Enlightenment theories, together with further politico-economic, social and pharmaceutical revolutionary change followed the Second World War. Encouraged also by the founding of the United Nations and World Health Organizations as well as provision of the Declaration of Human Rights, circumstances led to the process of de-institutionalization of the mentally ill. The latter were decanted with apparently unseemly haste into a community ill prepared for such a change, and with little evidence of infra- structure to support the move. Need to conduct a National Inquiry. There was, then, a need to investigate what was now an overt issue of mental health care. The two subsequent inquiries by the Australian Health Ministers Advisory Council, (AHMAC) and the Burdekin Report, both focused on social justice issues, and addressed epidemiological, economic, sociological and justice considerations. Within the thesis, both investigations are critiqued against a Natural Law model, using Finnis’s Natural Law theory. It is demonstrated that contrary to Enlightenment principles of social justice as described by Miller, such a theory is eminently practical, and answers the needs of all members of the community, providing not merely ‘the greatest happiness for the greatest number’ but the common good of all Conclusion. Evidence shows that such a Natural Law theory is required to give a firm foundation to the needs of the mentally ill, especially at a time when relativism, economic rationalism and negative aspects of globalization prevail. Without such a basis the mentally ill are left insecure, uncertain and adrift in a world uncaring of their plight, while all the earnest exhortations espoused by Reports remain platitudes, subject to the whims of whatever government is in power. Our responsibilities to all our fellow human beings demand better from us than this.

Doctor of Philosophy / The hypothesis of this work is that international human rights law and not international humanitarian law is the legal framework that applies to United Nations (UN) peacekeeping operations in collapsed States where the peacekeepers do not become a party to an armed conflict. In order to test this hypothesis the work begins by examining what is meant by peacekeeping and charts the evolution of peacekeeping from its origins as a passive ad hoc activity to the modern highly complex operations capable of providing the foundations for the recreation of civil society. Chapter two of the work builds on the first chapter by analysing the UN’s theoretical approach to peacekeeping through its major reports. This chapter provides insight into the development of peacekeeping as a theoretical construct and then into a central tool in the UN’s attempt to implement the Charter. Chapters three and four analyse peacekeeping as practiced by the UN in operations conducted under Chapters VI and VII of the UN Charter. This analysis leads to the conclusion that as a matter of practice the UN and the State parties that have provided the troops to perform peacekeeping under UN control have acted in accordance with international human rights law and that as a result there is evidence of State practice to support an argument that as a matter of customary international law international human rights law applies as the framework for peacekeeping in collapsed States. With a clear grounding in the practice and theory of peacekeeping the work then examines the competing claims of international humanitarian law and international human rights law as the legal framework for peacekeeping operations. Suggestions are made with regard to the triggers for international humanitarian law to apply and the conclusion is drawn that the vast majority of UN operations between 1949 and 2003 were conducted beneath the threshold for the application of international humanitarian law. The final chapter of the work analyses the practical application of a human rights framework to peacekeeping and concludes that it provides a flexible and adaptive tool for the restoration of peace and the reconstruction of civil society. As a result of the analysis of UN peacekeeping theory, practice and the competing claims of international humanitarian law and international human rights law, the work concludes that international human rights law provides the framework for UN peacekeeping in collapsed States and that international humanitarian law will only apply where peacekeepers cross the threshold into armed conflict.

The world�s indigenous peoples have been subjected to exploitation, discrimination, dispossession, relocation, assimilation and in some cases genocide since contact with the Western world. They have been the victims of an invasion which has since secured their position among the lowest social qualifiers. For centuries, they have been ignored by nation-states throughout the world. However, a new dawn has risen for the first peoples of the world, and for the past two decades thaey have experienced a cultural, political and social revival which has been gaining in popularity, intensity and effectiveness since it�s inception. The politicisation of indigenous movements and their fundamentally local characteristics has occurred at the same time that the world is experiencing a sense of accelerated globalisation. Economic integration through trade agreements has diminished boundaries and has allowed multinational corporations to travel, sell and trade at will. The sense that the world is �one place� has fast become a reality through "the increasing volume and rapidity of the flows of money, goods, people, information, technology and images." (Featherstone, 1995:81) The simultaneous globalisation and localisation of the world seems to be two contradictory phenomenon acting in opposition to one another. However, as several theorists have pointed out, the two are actually related and each to some degree attributes to the existence of the other (Eriksen, 1993:9; Featherstone, 1990:10; Friedman, 1990:327). In fact, indigenous movements themselves, while asserting local issues and rights, have undergone a recent transformation and now attempt to achieve their goals through global strategies. They have expanded their methods and now not only at the community and national levels, but also within the international arena. The Maori and the Native Hawaiians are two groups of indigenous peoples who have been fighting for their rights and land for over a century. Both groups represent small percentages of their nation-states� population. This has forced them to pursue their struggle with creative strategies and persistent, patient pressure. Thus, their struggles have undergone continouos transformations in attempts to discover the most effective formula which would eventually cause their respective nation-states to recognise and address their grievances. Recently, the Maori and the Native Hawaiians, have broadened their movement to incorporate an international tier. Activity on the international level includes international conferences, international visits/exchanges, ratification of indigenous declarations, indigenous networking, and international indigenous solidarity organisations. These activities have increased over the past twenty years as the effectiveness of such activity has also increased. New Zealand, the United States and other nation-states are being held more accountable for past injustices and are being driven to answer to the world�s indigenous community.

The bureaucratic measure of health service, health performance indicators, suggest that we are not effective in our legislative responsibility to deliver suitable health care to some of the populations we are meant to serve. Debate has raged over the years as to the reasons for this, with no credible explanation accepted by those considered stakeholders. One thing is clear though, we have gone from being a culture believing that the needs of the many far outweigh those of the few, to one where we are barely serving the needs of the 'any'. This is most evident in the care delivered to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people of Australia.

This thesis examines the use of the right to health as a legal tool for ensuring access to better health care in Africa and as a means of dealing with threats to human health on the continent. The thesis critically assesses some of the key ways in which the right to health has been used at the local, regional and global levels as part of efforts to improve health on the continent. The aim of the thesis is to assess the utility of the right to health in Africa particularly in light of challenges posed by the power of international economic actors, local and international structural constraints and the paradoxical position of the state as both a potential violator and protector of the right. / As this thesis shows, human rights are a powerful and inspirational language for people struggling against degradation, domination and deprivation for the reason that they give expression to the notion that human dignity, equality and freedom ought to be respected and protected. They are also a tool for resisting oppressive power, in addition to providing legitimacy for the redistribution of material resources necessary to meet basic human needs and to alleviate human suffering. The thesis further shows that these benefits of human rights have been enhanced through legalisation, a process through which human rights have been translated from moral or natural rights into legal rights capable of being enforced through judicial and quasi-judicial processes. But legalisation has its drawbacks, as the thesis demonstrates. / The thesis argues that despite the significant advances that have been made, particularly in the last fifteen years, in the elaboration and clarification of the content and justiciability of the right to health, its limitations as a legal right are particularly evident in light of a number of factors. These include the power of international economic actors, local and international structural constraints and the problematic potential of the state as both a protector and violator of the right to health. By examining concrete instances in which efforts have been made to use the right to health in the context of some or of all these factors, the thesis demonstrates the limits and potential of the right as a legal right. The thesis thus argues that a proper account of the utility of the right to health should not overemphasise the legalisation of the right but must include an analysis of the power relations and structural constraints at play at both the international and local levels, which jeopardise good health in Africa in the first place. It is further argued that such an account offers a better understanding of how the moral, legal and political forms of the right to health might be strategically and productively combined in the struggle for better health in Africa.

<p>The onset of modernization, globalization and urbanization has begun to challenge the gender relationship between in Tanzania. Western influence and globalization factors such as religion, donor funds and mass media have propagated ideologies that have challenged and changed old rooted traditionalist ideas and created a power – knowledge struggle between males and females and older generations. Younger people are living a different lifestyle than their elders and are demanding more individualistic freedoms and are breaking away from cultural constructions such as the extended family. The aim of this study is to evaluate the gender policy of the male-centric sexual and reproductive programs called Young Men as Equal Partners (YMEP). The aim is to criticize the premise that male involvement sexual and reproductive health programs are the single best method to implement sustainable behavioural change. The raison d’être that these male involvement take for granted is that women generally are powerless to affect the behaviour of their partners, and are unable to negotiate with their partners to have safe sex or to change their behavioural patterns. The following study is a qualitative study, which uses semi-structured interviews conducted in secondary schools in Manyara Region in Tanzania as a method of data collection. The theory used in this study is social constructivism where empirical results from conducted interviews both individual and group interviews will be evaluated in the background of social constructivism. The conclusion of this study is that it is therefore imperative for the implementation of sustainable behavioural change that sexual and reproductive health programs do not only focus on single sex exclusion strategy which create knowledge-power gender inequalities, but rather it is more effective in order to implement sustainable sexual and reproductive behaviour change to include all the members of the community, and to tailor the program strategies to individual sexual and reproductive needs rather than focusing exclusively on one gender or social group.</p>