This thesis is about understanding the dynamics involved in the socialisation of international human rights norms. It examines the process within an analytical framework of transnational advocacy networks, the spiral model, in the context of China’s modernisation. Existing literature points to China’s economic power and potential political influence on the international arena and the Chinese state’s authoritarian regime domestically in explaining the limited achievements transnational advocacy networks have had in inducing human rights changes in China. This thesis responds with a novel perspective constructed in three steps by examining: 1) the relationship between China’s identity and political legitimacy since the beginning of China’s modernisation in the 1840s; 2) how China’s modernisation drive impacts the development of its domestic civil society; 3) the potential of human rights INGOs in inducing human rights changes with case studies of the Dui Hua Foundation and the Rights Practice. It is found that under this novel perspective, the Chinese state’s authority has been limited by rising social problems, which threaten the state’s political legitimacy to rule. Chinese civil society actors play an important role in producing solutions to these social problems, convincing the state to further relax its control. Human rights INGOs contribute to this relationship through strengthening Chinese civil society actors’ capacity in solving social problems and monitoring official institutions, while also informing government officials about reforms that could make domestic practices more compatible to international human rights norms. In this vein, despite the fact that international human rights norms have been altered by China’s power, they remain influential on China’s behaviour by the careful alignment of the human rights work of transnational advocacy networks to suit China’s interest to political legitimacy. This thesis confirms and strengthens the spiral model as a framework to understand the socialisation of international human rights norms. This thesis contributes to understanding the power of international human rights norms, i.e. the extent to which they influence the behaviour and practices of states, as well as the role of transnational advocacy networks in situations where human rights violations persist. / published_or_final_version / Modern Languages and Cultures / Master / Master of Philosophy

The core intent of this study is to learn about the challenges faced by women survivors of sex trafficking in Nepal after their return. The study has attempted to answer questions about challenges survivors face, how they cope with the challenges, and resources available to these women to cope with the trauma and move ahead in life. In doing so, the study first considers demand and supply theory examining the influences of patriarchy, structural violence, the feminization of poverty and the social practices that support sex trafficking. The study also considers basic needs theory, increased opportunities to empower women, enhance participation and ensure their basic human rights. Despite all the hardships, survivors’ determination to rise from the ashes demonstrates courage and resilience. Throughout the study, empowerment is recognised as the driving force for these women to survive and thrive post-return. Economic independence, family’s love and acceptance, support and care from non-governmental organizations, and breaking silence regarding the ordeal these women survive foster empowerment. The study stresses the need to increase public awareness about sex trafficking in order to enable a respectful and dignified environment for the survivors. Survivors and NGO workers’ insight and experiences emphasize that for plans and policies to work effectively, the government bodies should work hand in hand with non-governmental organizations and increase the involvement of survivors throughout the reintegration process. / October 2015

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Genetics is one sector in which there has been tremendous evolution and progress over the last few decades. While it is believed that genetics could offer tremendous opportunities for global health improvement, there is also a fear that existing global health inequalities will be amplified by the evolution of genetics. / It thus appears necessary to analyse the way current assumptions define what is just and acceptable with regard to global access and distribution of resources in this field. Indeed, given the importance of genetics to human health globally, this thesis will evaluate two principal legal regimes---intellectual property and international human rights---to determine to which extent they further the goal of distributing the benefits of these technologies equitably and globally. This evaluation is vital to ensure that legal regimes assist in ensuring that this promising field develops in a way that improves global health without leaving the most vulnerable outside of the process. This dissertation will undertake this complex task by employing and building upon cosmopolitan liberal theories developed over the few last decades as an extension of the work of Rawls and Daniels. / A theoretical framework to justify engaging in a global and more equitable redistribution of benefits produced by genetics is required. Ultimately, our analysis will produce strong normative benchmarks based on justice considerations for engaging in a global and more equitable redistribution of the benefits likely to emerge from genetic science. Universal consideration of all human beings, importance of health needs, normal functioning and equality of opportunities are some of the notions that will be analysed to construct this framework. We will then attempt to determine how and if this theory of distribution translates into positive law and to identify and analyse the main obstacles to legal compliance with global distributive justice. We will assess two main international normative systems: intellectual property law and human rights law to determine if their underlying philosophy, structure, and functioning take account of the principles highlighted in our theoretical framework and how underlying politics and economics matter. / This will set out a basis for further discussion on how we could work around some of the major obstacles identified throughout our analysis. It will also help us move from the vague and often symbolic ideal of benefit sharing actually prevailing toward the establishment of a real, enforceable concept of global benefit sharing in health that would position genetics at the rank of essential tool for achieving global health.

The protection regimes (international human rights law, international criminal law and international humanitarian law) are true expressions of the utopian ideals of the international community in trying to deal with mass human rights violations and atrocities. These expressions, however, can create hierarchies in the protection that is awarded and in a sense create categories of exclusion, rather than categories of protection. The subaltern outside these categories, the one that is not protected must be recognized. By using the definition of genocide, more specifically the mental component conceptualised in the Genocide Convention, the aim of this paper is to argue that the protection awarded is limited and therefore exclusionary. Starting from this premise, the question is whether the restrictive nature of the wording can be expanded using the tools of interpretation within international law. Drawing from the large corpus of legal tools, the aim of this paper is to show that there are ways to expand the categories in international criminal law, one of which is the idea of progressive development of the law. The Rome Statute and certain fundamental principles of international human rights law provide pillars of support to this argument. However, in trying to expand the categories of protection that is awarded, the rights of the alleged perpetrator must be taken into account and the Principle of Legality must be respected. / Within this contextual paralysis, the meta critique needs to be situated: That the fundamental aim of the crimes of all crimes is to protect the weak and helpless. Therefore, the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas will be used to argue that the creation of priorities of protection cannot stand, as it does not recognize the other, rather only those that have become part of the self.

The universal human right to health care is a cliché that is frequently invoked by politicians and various activist groups to express the idea that inequalities in the distribution of medical resources are unjust. These disgruntled social reformers are largely uninformed about the true nature of human rights, claiming that any society in which some citizens go without comprehensive medical services is institutionalising immorality by violating Article 25 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Such uninformed and exaggerated claims only serve to distort the public conception of human rights, obscure the legitimate demands of social justice, and impose unrealistic expectations on health care systems of limited resources. In this paper, I intend to uncover the true meaning of the universal right to health care, ultimately rejecting the commonly held notion that inequality in the distribution of medical resources necessarily entails a violation of human rights. In Chapters One and Two, I dissect the notion of human rights in order to further define Article 25, discussing any moral and practical implications the acceptance of this right has for both the individual and society. Chapters Three and Four concern the just allocation of health care resources within society, in accordance with the right to health care, and will assess appropriate distributive principles for the health care institution.

This thesis is a study of the relationship between gender, citizenship and reproductive rights in the poblaciones of Santiago, both in relation to the Chilean State and in terms of the categories of international human rights law. At a time in which there has been a great deal of debate about women's international rights and new areas of rights directed at women have begun to be defined, this study seeks to draw attention to the need to consider how such rights operate in specific cultural contexts. In particular, it considers how dominant cultural discourses of gender are constructed and reproduced in the context of marginal urban communities in Santiago, Chile, and the constraints they may place on the conception and exercise of women's citizenship. The thesis sets out to show the ways in which these discourses are embedded in state institutions and reproduced in its practices. It describes the ways in which the law operates in a discursive way to allow or disallow interpretations of events and thereby conditions and delimits women's citizenship. Rather then depicting these dominant discourses as totalizing, the thesis aims to present a more complex picture in which women may on the one hand be seen to be complicit in their own subordination, but on the other to adopt alternative discourses, for example the new feminist discourse on human rights and the discourses emanating from NGOs which focus on concepts of freedom and autonomy. Women may be seen to reinterpret these discourses in the course of applying them to their own situations, accepting, rejecting and transforming them in the process. It draws on interviews with 89 women living in marginal urban communities, which investigate the exercise of citizenship and the variables affecting women's capacity to operationalise their rights. The data aims to show how rights discourses, including human rights can play a transformative role in the content and practice of citizenship. The extension of the concept of citizen to incorporate new areas of rights such as reproductive and sexual rights, creates the potential for women to use these conceptual tools to challenge traditional gender discourse that discriminate against them and inhibit the exercise of their citizenship. The thesis lays out the theoretical debates in relation to gender and citizenship, the state, the universalist-relativist debate in anthropology and the feminist discourse on human rights and argues in favour of a perspective that incorporates a gendered analysis of the cultural factors influencing the operation of laws.

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) has been a tough topic to discuss in both local and global spheres. In the past twenty years however, a space has been created for it in the public consciousness. The object of this study is to trace the shifts that have occurred in how FGM has been talked about and make the ongoing dialogue visible. This is achieved by examining feminist debates, human rights discourse and the media as not only primary definers of the issue but also as sites of discourse production. / In moving from the local to global agenda, more actors have become involved in the debates and as such have further complexified an already complex practice. Each site offers a unique perspective and representation on the FGM controversy and has contributed to how the West has made meaning of the practice.

In spite of the general prohibition of the use of force in international relations contained in the UN Charter, some jurists maintain that humanitarian intervention is valid under comtemporary international law. Too make their case, they put forward a series of arguments which can be divided into two categories. The first holds that humanitarian intervention is compatible with the UN Charter, and the second, which is used more often, that a right of humanitarian intervention has arise out of state's practice. The present thesis surveys these arguments and comes to the conclusion that humanitarian intervention remains illegal under international law. Notwithstanding the formidable progression of human rights in international society, the rule prohibiting recourse to force still enjoys great currency among states at the beginning of this new millenium.

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.