Thesis (M.A.(Political Studies))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Humanities, 2002. / In March 2000, the South African Human Rights Commission launched an inquiry into racism in the South African media. This dissertation discusses a number of issues that were neglected during the Commission’s inquiry. The main argument has been that the discussion about racism in the media could have been much more fruitful if the Commission in their research as well as during the hearings themselves would have focused on a wider set of factors that influence media content. Furthermore, if the Commission had shown a greater understanding of the historically troublesome relationship between the media and the government in South Africa it would have facilitated interaction with the media and done less to alienate the media from the process.

The purpose of this study is to analyse the effectiveness of the Uganda Human Rights Commission UHRC), which possesses judicial powers vis-à-vis the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice of Ghana (CHRAJ) and the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) which do not possess such powers. The difference notwithstanding, all the three have been rated as the best national institutions in Africa. Due to time and space constraints, one will focus specifically with the mandates of the three commissions and in particular, on the different or distinct mandates assigned to them, namely, that of CHRAJ to deal with corruption, that of SAHRC to deal with economic, cultural and social rights and UHRC of dealing with torture matters and generally of constituting a tribunal. This study was motivated by the fact that Lesotho will be setting up a national institution in 2008 and one would like to draw lessons from these institutions and pick up elements that could best suit Lesotho. / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2007. / Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Law University of Pretoria, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Masters of Law (LLM in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa). Prepared under the supervision of Prof Kofi Quashigah of the Faculty of Law, University of Ghana, Legon / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/ / Centre for Human Rights / LLM

This thesis examines Taiwan’s human rights development from 2000 until 2010. It looks at and compares the policies and action of Presidents Chen Shui-bian and Ma Ying-jeou in terms of three indicators of human rights: the implementation of the international human rights treaties (ICCPR and ICESCR), the establishment of a national human rights commission and the status of the death penalty. The case of Australia and its position in relation to the three key areas of this human rights study are analyzed for comparative purposes. Additionally, important historical human rights milestones and the beginnings of Taiwan’s democratization are introduced by way of an overview but the focus of this thesis is on the events of the last decade. In doing so, the overall aim of this study is to assess whether Taiwan has achieved its stated goal of becoming a human rights state.

In 1991, the first major international gathering on the issue of National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) was held from the 7 to the 9 October in Paris during the first International Workshop on National Institutions for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights under United Nations (UN) auspices. The outcome of such meeting is the Paris Principles adopted by the United Nations Human Rights Commission Resolution 1992/54 of 1992 and the General Assembly Resolution 48/134 of 1993. The Paris Principles relate to the status and functioning of national institutions for protection and promotion of human rights and ‘have become the benchmark against which national human rights institutions are measured'. / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2010. / Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Law University of Pretoria, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Masters of Law (LLM in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa). Prepared under the supervision of Dr. Solomon Dersso of the Faculty of Law, University of Addis-Ababa. 2010. / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/ / Centre for Human Rights / LLM

Thesis (LL.M.)--Stellenbosch University, 2003. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In recognition of the socio-economic imbalances inherited from the past and the abject poverty experienced by many, the people of South Africa adopted a Constitution fully committed to protecting socio-economic rights and advancing social justice. Apartheid constituted a violation of every internationally recognised human right. Seen in this light the emphasis on socio-economic rights in the new South African Constitution represents a commitment to guarantee to everyone in society a certain minimum standard of living below which they will not be allowed to fall. As the Constitution recognises socio-economic rights as justiciable rights, they can be of assistance to those who are unable to support themselves when challenging the state for the non-delivery of basic services. The duty to deliver the services lies first with the state and the court becomes involved only once it is alleged that the state has failed to fulfil its duty. The primary purpose of the study is aimed at determining the effectiveness of the South African Human Rights Commission in monitoring court orders in respect of the implementation of socio-economic rights. Non-Governmental Organisations, involved in the promotion and protection of human rights including socio-economic rights, cannot be left out of the process. It is argued that where the Courts issue structural interdicts, which have of late been used by them, albeit not enough in the context of socio-economic rights, they are responsible for the implementation of such orders. It is also argued that the South African Human Rights Commission and NGOs must be enjoined to ensure that court orders are better implemented. Court orders in respect of socio-economic rights in almost all the cases to date were neither implemented nor monitored adequately. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Ter erkenning van die sosio-ekonomiese ongelykhede wat post-apartheid Suid- Afrika geërf het en die volslae armoede waaraan talle Suid-Afrikaners onderwerp is, het die mense van Suid-Afrika 'n grondwet aanvaar wat verbonde is tot die beskerming van sosio-ekonomiese regte en die bevordering van maatskaplike geregtigheid. Apartheid het elke internasionaal-erkende mensereg geskend. Teen hierdie agtergrond verteenwoordig die klem op sosioekonomiese regte in die nuwe Suid-Afrikaanse grondwet 'n verbondenheid daartoe om vir elkeen in die maatskappy 'n bepaalde minimum lewensstandaard te waarborg, waaronder hulle nie toegelaat sal word om te sak nie. Aangesien die grondwet sosio-ekonomiese regte as beregbare regte erken, kan hierdie regte van nut wees vir mense wat hulself nie kan onderhou nie, as hulle die staat uitdaag omdat basiese dienste nie gelewer word nie. Die plig om dienste te lewer berus eerstens by die staat, met die gevolg dat die hof eers betrokke raak as die staat nie daarin slaag om sy plig te vervul nie. Die primêre doel van hierdie studie is om vas te stel hoe effektief die Suid- Afrikaanse Menseregtekommissie is met die monitering van hofbevele wat betrekking het op die verwesenliking van sosio-ekonomiese regte. Nieregeringsinstansies wat betrokke is by die bevordering en beserkming van menseregte, met inbegrip van sosio-ekonomiese regte, kan egter nie uit die proses gelaat word nie. In hierdie studie word aangevoer dat waar die strukturele interdikte gee, soos wat in die onlangse verlede gebeur het, selfs al is dit nie genoeg in die konteks van sosio-ekonomiese regte nie, hulle ook verantwoordelikheid is daarvoor dat sulke bevele uitgevoer word. Dit word verder gestel dat die Suid-Afrikaanse Menseregtekommissie en nieregeringsinstansies moet saamwerk om te verseker dat hofbevele beter uitgevoer word. Tot op datum is amper geen hofbevele oor sosio-ekonomiese regte bevredigend uitgevoer of genoegsaam gemoniteer nie.

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This thesis focuses on the establishment and operation of the latest regional Human Rights Court: The African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights. For the development of human rights protection mechanisms within regional organizations the governments of the member states are of special relevance. They pull the strings to either foster and develop a system or to disrupt it. Therefore, following a brief historical introduction, the first chapter gives an overview of the regional African organization, the former Organization of African Unity (OAU) and today's African Union (AU) which was instrumental in the establishment of the African Human Rights System and has now enhanced it by adding a judicial authority. However, it will become clear that is has taken a long time for the OAU to put human rights violations within the borders of its own member states on its agenda: Not until there was increasing international pressure due to never-ending excrescences of violence in the dictatorial regimes in Africa did the OAU carefully attend to this matter in the late 1970s. Its efforts culminated in the adoption of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights (the eponymous Banjul Charter) which entered into force in 1981. The body for the protection created by the Charter was the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights which took up its function in 1987. Since the newly established African Court is not supposed to replace the Commission but rather to strengthen it, the Court operates in concert with the Commission. Therefore the old protection system will still be applicable which deems a portrayal of the system in the following chapter necessary. Here, it will be outlined, that the competences of the Commission remain very limited and that its judicial impact on the State parties involved in its protection procedures has been nearly nil up to this very day. Against this background the next chapter focuses on the Protocol to the Banjul-Charter establishing the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights. First, the historical-political background and the protocol's juridical formulation process are examined. Here it will be shown that the end of global bipolarity has had a remarkable impact on the political protagonists in Africa with the effect that the increasing demands for a human rights Court within the OAU no longer remained completely unheard. It will also be outlined that the path towards the adoption of the protocol has been long and difficult. After a short survey of the organisational structure of the Court it will become clear that the protocol follows to a large extend its Inter-American counterpart concerning the institutional embodiment. However, a remarkable and, in international comparison, a unique achievement has also been achieved by the institutional regulations by making gender equality has one of the key issues to encompass when it comes to the nomination and election of judges. The following chapters outline the jurisdiction of the Court and the judicial process before the Court. In this connection the admissibility criteria will be highlighted in which two remarkable regulations stand out: First, it will become clear that in contrast to other regional human rights courts individuals and NGOs alike are entitled to file a complaint with the African Court (even though initially with the help of the Commission, since the protocol makes the complaint authority of individuals and NGOs dependent of a special declaration of acceptance of the State Parties concerned). Moreover, also unique compared to international two-tier human rights procedures, the protocol does not include a provision according to which a complainant would be obliged to go through a prior Commission procedure before filing a complaint with the Court. Individual complainants rather have direct access to the Court once a declaration of acceptance has been submitted by a State Party to the protocol. Following short remarks on the competence of the Court to issue provisional measures which, among other things, reveal that these measures have, in contrast to those of the ECtHR, binding effect the procedural termination of a complaint comes into focus. Here, the possible contents of the rulings and the control mechanisms for their implementation are being contemplated in a detailed fashion. This last aspect most probably will have great influence on the fate of the Court since the Commission for its part had to a large extent no success due to the fact that it had no conventional implementation procedures to rely on. Therefore, in the vast majority of cases the findings of the Commission trailed off without any State Party concerned paying any attention to it. The drafters of the protocol establishing the Court obviously have learned this lesson since the protocol provides for a quite remarkable implementation mechanism that may be able to impose political and legal pressure alike on State Parties if the Court deems that they have not properly complied with a Court's ruling. Even sanctions within the African Union against a recusant State come into question from a legal point of view - a quantum leap regarding the legal situation under the Banjul Charter. The last chapter rehearses the main findings of the thesis and concludes with a positive outlook on the future development of the African human rights system.

Magister Legum - LLM / South Africa

"Implementation of human rights instruments, and protection and promotion of human rights at the national level is a contemporary phenomenon that is still developing. The African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights and the Paris Principles provide for the creation of national institutions to carry out this task. This has led to national human rights institutions (NHRIs) becoming more prominent actors in the national, regional and international arena. However, NHRIs still face the problems of legitimacy, operational constraints, and ignorant population. These factors constrain the effective functioning of these institutions. It should be noted that the key constraint on the effective functioning of NHRIs is legitimacy. Such institutions usually find themselves not legitimate in the eyes of the people they are created to serve. The above brings to mind the question - what makes a NHRI effective? Generally, there is no consensus as to the effectiveness of NHRIs This study has therefore been triggered by widespread perceptions and reports within civil society that such institutions are left at the mercy of governments in power. Others have seen such institutions as a "double-edged sword" - in the best of circumstances, they strengthen democratic institutions but they can also be mere straw men, part of government's administrative machinery to scuttle international scrutiny. Another issue that has actuated this study is the misconception that people have about some NHRIs. This misconception originates not so much from the actual operation of human rights commissions but from the history of past ombudsman institutions that have purported to protect human rights." -- Chapter 1. / Prepared under the supervision of Professor Michelo Hansungule at the Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria, South Africa / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2002. / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/academic_pro/llm1/dissertations.html / Centre for Human Rights / LLM