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Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Victoria, 1999. / Title from title screen (viewed on November 18, 2005).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Harvard University, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 314-325).

Thesis (M.S.W.)--Smith College School for Social Work, Northampton, Mass., 2008. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 76-78).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2005. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 186-192).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2008. / Title from first page of PDF file (viewed July 9, 2008). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 248-272).

I show in this thesis, first, that the creation of the Brazilian Program for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (PPDDH) in 2004 was the result of pressure from national and transnational civil society on the Brazilian government to address the targeting of peasant leaders and other activists who, it was argued, should be understood as human rights defenders, and offered special protection as such. Second, I show on the basis of interviews conducted with protected human rights defenders, civil society and state officials, that the programme has provided protection and support to a small but significant number of activists in some areas of the country. Third, most interviewees also pointed to the PPDDH's potential to make broader contributions to the advance of human rights in Brazil, by bolstering human rights activism, empowering organised civil society, redressing the balance of power between dominant and dominated, and changing the workings of the Brazilian State. Finally, however, they indicated the serious shortcomings of the programme such as limited budget and lack of resources, PPDDH's dependence on other actors to provide the protection for human rights defenders, and lack of dedicated legislative framework. These shortcomings reflect a lack of political will to provide sufficient resources as well as a sufficiently robust legal framework for the programme. I end by arguing that organised civil society must build up the necessary political will to demand that the State resource the PPDDH fully and effectively in order for that programme to realise its potential.

Haiti, the poorest country in the western hemisphere, has suffered through centuries of disenfranchisement, poverty, slavery, environmental disasters, internecine racial prejudice, and foreign infringement. Its people won independence from France in 1804 but only at the cost of huge human and financial losses. Since then, Haiti has known little freedom or democracy. In 1991, the first truly democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was elected (with a 67% majority). Nine months later, he was deposed by a military coup d'état. During that time and the chaotic years that followed, groups of human rights observers traveled to Haiti in an attempt to record and report publically, officially, what was actually happening to the Haitian people and their institutions. Although much has been written about the country during that period, there have been no studies focused on the human rights observers who were intimately involved with the people and the country. These groups and other groups participating in similar situations have not been studied and, yet, research in that area might provide important insights in the field of social justice. It is important to identify what encourages individuals to become a part of the effort to make a positive difference in the lives of others, in the most adverse situations, the process by which human rights observers become engaged, and how that engagement affects their lives both during and after their in-country experiences. The purpose of this phenomenological study is to see if there are commonalities (e.g., socio-cultural influence, self-directed learning readiness, etc.) among the initial in-country experiences of several human rights observers and further to discover what, if any, effect those experiences had on their leadership styles. The study identified socio-cultural influences (self-directed learning readiness and familial, religious, educational impact); motivational factors; methods of processing the experience (immediate responses of connectedness/love and reasoned responses involving individual and group reflection); and multiple outcomes (spiritualty, social action, and creativity). The overarching findings included identification of transformational learning in the participants and the evolution of their leadership from the servant model into a transformational/chaos model, including reflection in and on action as an operating context. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2014. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

This ethnographic study explores diverse ways in which sexuality and social hierarchies and inequalities interact in the lives of low-income youth who were trained as peer-educators and sexual health and rights advocates in Ayacucho, Peru. It examines three central questions: 1) How are meanings about sexuality related to social hierarchies and social prestige among these youth? 2) How do quotidian manifestations of social inequity shape vulnerability of youth to sexual abuse and sexual risks, and their sexual agency to face these situations? and 3) What are the possibilities and limitations of existent sexual rights educational programs to diminish sexual vulnerability of youth facing diverse forms of inequality, such as economic, gender, ethnic and inter-generational disparities? I analyze what may be termed as the political economy of sexual vulnerability among low-income youth, and show the concrete ways in which it operates in their everyday life. Likewise, this research studies sexuality as a domain of reproduction, resignification and critique of social inequality and social hierarchies. The context is an Andean city, which in recent decades has experienced incomplete processes of democratization, and also a greater penetration of consumerism and transnational ideas and images. This study also reveals cultural logics of youth about sexual risks and complex dimensions of their sexual and gender agency. In terms of policies and programs, this research offers evidence and reflections about some challenges and limitations of a participatory sexual rights project within a context of poverty and social inequalities in urban low-income areas of Peru.

Teilw. zugl.: Diss. / Literaturverz. S. [459] - 481.