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This dissertation presents an analytical study of the evolution of the right of political selfdetermination and the influence of the principle of non-interference on promotion of this right. The intellectual and legal interests in democracy, good governance and social justice have contributed to the development of this right and its realisation for peoples lacking the least degree of good governance. The right of political self-determination is strongly associated with international intervention because governments facing popular demands for this right often resort to repression and military means to suppress such claims. Such interventions have also been driven by contemporary interest in supporting collective rights through international organisations that monitor and identify violations of various political rights. Thus, this dissertation focuses on the tension between the principle of non-interference and the modern legal trend to promote the political rights of all peoples. This research contributes considerable insights into the transformation of the principle of non-interference from an absolute obligation into a flexible concept by tracing the contributing legal changes both in international practices and in emerging rules and principles in international law. It is concluded that the promotion of the right of self-determination has resulted in international practices that have dramatically influenced and caused tension with the principle of noninterference. Keywords: right of political self-determination, democracy, statehood, the principle of noninterference, international intervention, sovereignty.

This literary analysis focuses on the correlation between foreign aid and corruption. The “Capabilities Approach” by Amartya Sen is used to discuss how to, and who is responsible for, developing an ethically justified aid policy. Arguments and ideas from five different sources have been analyzed. The primary sources are African Development by Todd Moss, Corruption and Development by Georg Cremer, Lord of Poverty by Graham Hancock, The White Man’s Burden by William Easterly, and Internationalisation of corruption by Daniela Herrmann and Clare Fletcher. This study analyzes three questions. Firstly, does foreign aid affect the level of corruption, and how? Secondly, how do you measure development and justice? Thirdly, who is considered accountable? The results show that there is a connection between aid and corruption and that the aid agencies together with the governments have the primary responsibility to improve the policy and reconstruct the organizations. The policy should focus on enhancing the quality of life of the individual.

published_or_final_version / Law / Master / Master of Laws

I argue that one has a right when another has a normative constraint with respect to one. The fact that claims and immunities are the only Hohfeldian elements which constrain another combined with the fact that rights necessarily constrain others gives us reason to think that to have a right is to have either a claim OR an immunity. Hohfeldian elements can be defined in terms of fundamental normative concepts such as obligation and impossibility. This analysis provides a plausible account of liberty and power rights. The analysis also resolves the puzzles surrounding mandatory or obligation rights and rights which do not benefit the rightholder. To have a normative constraint with respect to another is to have an obligation or impossibility grounded in a feature of the rightholder. The analysis of rights provides good, but not conclusive, reason to think that there are moral rights. Further, the analysis reveals that the specificity view of rights conflict is true.

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When African states were under colonisation, the colonial masters violated the rights of the African people &ndash / men, women and children- with impunity. The protection and promotion of human rights was, however, not high on the agenda of African countries at independence. This is reflected in the 1963 Charter of the Organisation of African Unity, which does not accord the promotion and protection of human rights the status they deserve. The preamble to the OAU Charter states that the states are to promote international cooperation having due regard to the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is against that background, that many African states violated human rights in the immediate post-independence era and continue to do so.<br /> More recently, African countries have taken steps to follow the world trends of the promotion and protection human rights. This has resulted in the adoption of the African Charter on Human and Peoples&rsquo / Rights (that has mechanisms of ensuring that human rights are promoted and protected in Africa), the desire to establish the African Court on Human and Peoples&rsquo / Rights, the adoption of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, the Grand Bay Declaration, the Protocol on the Rights of Women, and the adoption of the Constitutive Act of the African Union. The Constitutive Act of the African Union emphasises the protection and promotion of human rights.<br /> <br /> However, one scholar has doubts whether by adopting the Constitutive Act of the African Union African leaders were genuinely committed to the protection and promotion of human rights and he is of the view that the &lsquo / treaty could actually provide a cover for Africa&rsquo / s celebrated dictators to continue to perpetrate human rights abuses.&rsquo / <br /> <br /> Torture continues to feature as a serious human rights violation in Africa. This explains why during its 32nd ordinary session held in Banjul, The Gambia, the African Commission on Human and Peoples&rsquo / Rights (the African Commission) resolved to adopt the Guidelines and Measures for the Prohibition and Prevention of Torture, Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment in Africa (The Robben Island Guidelines (RIG)). This is a new development in Africa aiming at &lsquo / operationalising&rsquo / article 5 of the African Charter. The RIG are phrased in a seemingly ambitious language but their implementation by the African States remains doubtful because they are not legally binding. This has to be viewed in the light of the fact that many African countries are States Parties to major regional and international human rights instruments but human rights violations still persist.

This dissertation examines liberal statist and liberal cosmopolitan attempts to explain global justice. It argues that liberal statists misidentify their own commitments regarding human rights, and that once these implications are drawn out, many statist and cosmopolitan theories of global justice converge on several of their central positions. Although statists and cosmopolitans differ in their methodologies, emphasis, epistemic commitments, and some logical commitments of their respective positions, I argue that they are nonetheless committed to many of the same positions about practices in the sphere of global justice. They share elements of a logical structure, based in liberal domestic principles, which commits them to similar practical implications. Their convergence is most visible in an examination of their human rights commitments. They nonetheless differ in their analytic priorities, and hence in the ease with which they arrive at many of their insights and conclusions. In particular, despite Rawls’s denial of the desirability or feasibility of cosmopolitanism, he shares many practical commitments with cosmopolitans such as Tesón, Beitz, Buchanan, Tan and Caney. Their shared liberal egalitarian premises arising from liberal domestic theory result in convergence on what they take to be the central questions of global justice, and moreover on their answers to these central questions. Liberal theories on both sides of the cosmopolitan and statist divide endorse a practical approach to human rights that links human rights compliance with such practical global justice privileges as non-intervention, humanitarian aid, treaty relations, and even tolerance. And this convergence entails a more united liberal account of global justice than theorists on either side of the statist and cosmopolitan divide have been willing to admit. / Thesis (Ph.D, Philosophy) -- Queen's University, 2013-05-21 14:40:51.218

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a topic of rising importance in the current human rights discussion. As multinational supply chains have a growing impact on people’ lives, both in more developed and developing countries the question of how to regulate the behaviour of the companies that engage in these supply chains becomes increasingly important. States have tried to do this through both national and international law, by introducing hard law regulations as well as voluntary frameworks, so called soft law initiatives. The general legal framework of international law will first be introduced and subsequently focus will lie on the United Nations Principles on Business and Human Rights (The UN Guiding Principles) concerning the social responsibility of companies. In this thesis, the second of these sections is explored through an investigation into what responsibilities financial institutions, institutions that provides financial services for its clients or members, can be considered to have according to the legal framework associated with the corporate responsibility of human rights. The position of financial institutions is unique in a supply chain due to their distance to the production and hence to the country wherein the most fundamental human rights risks are present. Meanwhile, these financial institutions are also key to the trade operating throughout the supply chain. The thesis will identify the human rights issues along a supply chain and investigate the subsequent responsibilities that are tied to the financial institutions. The primary objective of the thesis is to clarify how to apply the international framework to the financial institutions and provide an answer to the question of what the human rights responsibilities of financial institutions are along a supply chain and to answer the question: what are the human rights responsibilities of financial institutions along a supply chain?

The thesis is an attempt at a comprehensive discussion of the legal and constitutional rules that apply to civil servants considering the current changes experienced in the UK Home Civil Service. The research focuses on three main areas, namely; the legal aspects of the relationship between civil servants and the Crown as employer, secondly, the rights of civil servants to associate and the right to freedom of expression, and thirdly, the constitutional aspects of the minister-civil servant relationship. Changes in the Civil Service manifested by Next Step Agencies, market testing and contracting out public services has resulted in the fragmentation of the uniform structure of the Civil Service. Question is raised, for instance, whether a more coherent legal definition of a civil servant is needed, whether these changes are affecting the security of tenure of civil servants, and whether the quest for job security should turn to, for example, judicial review. The introduction of contracts of service for civil servants is applauded but insufficient consideration has been given to its compatibility with the Crown's power to dismiss at pleasure. In the sphere of the right to associate and trade unionism generally, the advent of Whitleyism in the early 20s was the main reason for the development of trade unions in the civil service. Since 1979, the government's interventionist policy resulted in more restrictions for trade unions in pursuance of their activities. The GCHQ affair was a classic situation when the policy of restriction was at its extreme. Nonetheless, trade unions continue to exist and industrial actions are cautiously tolerated by the government. Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights lay down a standard of proportionality as to any restriction imposed on the freedom of association. Yet the failures of the GCHQ unions appeal in Strasbourg indicates a strong acceptance of the need for restrictions in freedom of association in the civil service. The unions' success at ILO appeared ephemeral. Despite the concern that civil servant's neutrality will be affected if they are allowed to engage in political activities, the Masterman and the Armitage Committee viewed that certain amount of freedom should be given to civil servants in this area. So far political activities of civil servants have not caused substantial controversy. The formation of Next Steps Agencies should provide more rooms for flexibility in giving permission for civil servants to participate. Civil servants are also subject to the duty of confidentiality in civil law as well as in criminal law under the Official Secrets Acts. The amendment to section 2 of the 1911 Act have removed the draconian effect of unauthorised disclosure by civil servant. Yet the 1989 Act has left out the need to protect civil servants who disclose in the public interest. In their interpretation of Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, the European Court and Commission were also not in favour of protecting whistleblower or would-be whistleblower in the public service. The first report by the Nolan Committee inquiring the standards in public life recommended a form of whistleblower's charter. This is a welcome change and the government should adopt the committee's proposal. Ministerial accountability to Parliament is the corollary to civil service anonymity. It has been accepted that civil service anonymity has not been properly protected. There were occasions when civil servants are being asked to do unethical, unconstitutional and sometime illegal acts. The Armstrong Memorandum was an attempt to provide an independent line of appeal but its failure was clearly illustrated when there was only one appeal brought by a civil servant for the last eight years. The new Civil Service Code includes a new line of appeal to the Civil Service Commissioners but only after the internal appeal procedure has been exhausted. It is only hoped that the failure of the Armstrong Memorandum is not repeated. The fact that senior civil servants are playing a more prominent role vis-a-vis Parliament, a rethinking of the present arrangement of accountability should be made. Such a rethinking need not lead to giving a constitutional personality to civil servants. It must however be an acceptance that they are carrying heavier responsibilities and therefore they should be given a proper recognition of their role in Parliament.