Magister Legum - LLM / Africa seemingly cursed with instability, conflict and gross human rights violations has been the largest scene of operation of international criminal justice. This understanding led African States to be some of the key proponents in the push for an International Criminal Court. Of late however, mounting policy and operational fluxes between African States and international criminal justice has put Africa's relationship with international justice on ice. This in turn has awoken within the region's geopolitical body, the African Union, the need for an exclusively African response to international criminal justice as it is currently considering extending the jurisdiction of the African Court of Justice and Human Rights to cover international crimes. This Research Paper aims to chart the genesis of this move through the decision-making system of the African Union and within the broader context of the Union's emerging Human Rights, Peace and Security Architecture. It will simultaneously assess the viability of this proposal within the backdrop of recent global developments with a view to identifying key legal and policy ramifications. It aims to show that there may be room for the adoption of an empowered African Court as a regional complement to the international criminal justice system.

Historically, women in conflict and post-conflict situations have on the basis of their status been subjected to harmful and discriminatory practices which run contrary to international, regional and domestic provisions guaranteeing various human rights including the rights to freedom from torture, cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment or punishment; discrimination; violence; privacy and autonomous decision making within the context of healthcare etc. Whereas recent years have seen an improvement in State responses globally, in Nigeria the experiences of women in conflict and post-conflict situations remain deplorable. Despite the ratification of various international and regional treaties in this regard, issues revolving around access to safe abortion remain problematic. They are also further complicated by questions of holistic adoption and implementation of ratified instruments in this regard. Consequently, though consensus has been achieved on paper, implementation remains a mirage particularly across the Middle Belt region and the Northeast which are grappling with farmer-herder conflict and insurgency by proscribed armed groups respectively. This mini-dissertation discusses in-depth the current framework for the protection of women’s reproductive health and rights related to access to abortion services in conflict and post-conflict situations in Nigeria in view of international and regional human rights obligations, highlighting the challenges and prospects and identifies key opportunities for consideration in the protection of these rights by municipal law. This research is relevant to legal, ethical and social discourses as well as issues of policy formulation and implementation related to reproductive health and rights protection in conflict and post-conflict situations within Nigeria. / Mini Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2021. / NRF / Centre for Human Rights / LLM / Unrestricted

The use of mechanical restraint is a common practice in psychiatric care, often defended by medical necessity but seldom questioned from a human rights perspective. The purpose of this thesis has been to investigate under which circumstances mechanical restraint by bed through belt fixation could amount to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Persons with psychosocial disabilities are in a particularly vulnerable situation and as the International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) is the most comprehensive rights framework for this group, it has been discussed whether the CRPD sets out additional safeguards in relation to restraint.  A legal doctrinal approach is the basic methodology used in order to outline the current international and European legal framework on torture and other ill-treatment and disability rights. A survivor-controlled research methodology has been applied and to amplify other voices of persons with firsthand experience of being mechanically restrained, interviews have been conducted with persons from Sweden and Spain. Healthcare professionals have also been interviewed. A feminist perspective on the law is applied.  Different international conventions and bodies of the United Nations have diverse interpretations on what acts or omissions that amount to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, although there is an aim and will to streamline the conventions. It is clear that the use of mechanical restraint can create such intense mental or physical suffering required to reach the common criterion of seriousness. However, some people do not experience the required levels of suffering for it to be considered torture, meaning that it might not amount to torture but rather other ill-treatment. The threshold for being considered torture according to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (UNCAT) seems to be somewhat higher than that of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR). In this thesis it was found that the most critical element for this is the requirement of intent. Intent can however be implied under certain circumstances if the practice is of discriminatory nature. If a person has a psychosocial disability, intent might be presumed if States do not provide appropriate health care. In the case of girls and women, intent might also be presumed since they seem to have a higher risk of getting restrained for unlawful reasons.  The main conclusion in this thesis is that mechanical restraint by bed through belt fixation could amount to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment according to the UNCAT, ICCPR and ECHR.

<p>Previous research has analyzed a range of domestic stakeholders that make national governments’ commitments to international human rights treaties credible, including independent judiciary, legislative veto players, political opposition groups, and non-governmental organizations. But how does the power dynamics within the government affect state compliance with human rights treaties? In this study, I focus on the effect of the central-local governmental structure. My focus on the central-local governmental relations builds on the basic understanding that international human rights norms need to pass through domestic political and administrative processes before they can be implemented on the ground. I argue that a decentralized state in which local authorities enjoy more discretion in local matters is less likely to comply with human rights treaties because decentralization (1) hinders the top-down diffusion of human rights norms between different governmental tiers, (2) creates a great number of local agents that are not subject to pressure from the international society, and (3) enables the central government to deflect international criticism by shifting blame for human rights abuses to local officials. To test my theoretical expectation, I use a mixed methods approach to analyze variation at both the national and subnational levels. I first conduct cross-national analyses of the impact of governmental decentralization on state compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the United Nations Convention Against Torture. I then use qualitative and quantitative methods to conduct subnational analyses of China and US compliance with international human rights treaties. Complementary streams of quantitative and qualitative evidence from cross-national and within-country analyses suggest that higher levels of decentralization reduce state compliance with international human rights treaties. A practical implication of my research is that failing to hold local authorities accountable creates a mismatch between promoting political accountability and advancing human rights.</p>

The recognition of the right to language under international human rights is still an ongoing debate. By examining the nature, extent and adequacy of the protection according to linguistic rights in international human rights laws, this paper offers solutions for this ongoing debate. In addition to resolving the issues in international law, it also discusses the extent of protection accorded to linguistic rights in Mauritius as well as under the express linguistic and ethnic form of Ethiopian federalism. Compares the practice and language policies of Ethiopia and Mauritius in light of international standards and identifies further issues to be addressed. / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2009. / 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 Bissessur Pramod, Faculty of Law and Management, University of Mauritius. / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/ / Centre for Human Rights / LLM

The essence of human rights and their dimension goes beyond national level. It is universal because it is inherent to human kind. The main source of human rights norms is international human rights instruments. The concern for human rights has grown worldwide and therefore they have been given priority by most nations. They are more and more integrated into national legal frameworks mainly in states constitutions with more or less enforcing mechanisms. As far as the realization of rights is concerned various mechanisms are involved on different levels: international, regional and national. Each of the three levels has its advantages and disadvantages. Yet, the local mechanisms appear to be more effective and adequate given the fact that they are closer to the real subject of the rights (the individuals). In point of fact, human rights involve mainly the relationships between individuals and states but sometimes also between individuals living somewhere in a nation. / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2011. / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/ / nf2012 / Centre for Human Rights / LLM

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This thesis provides a historical study of the Canadian government's changing foreign policy toward the development of an international bill of rights at the United Nations from the 1940s to the 1970s. Canada was initially reluctant to support international human rights instruments because the concept of 'universal human rights' articulated at the UN challenged customary understandings of civil liberties in Canada, and federal policy makers felt an international bill of rights would have a negative impact on domestic policy. By the 1970s, however, the Canadian government was pushing for the ratification of the International Covenants on Human Rights and working to present Canada as an advocate for the UN's human rights regime. This study considers this change in policy by examining the domestic and global factors that influenced the government's approach to international human rights. Within Canada, rights activism led to increased public awareness of human rights issues, and transformed Canadian understandings of rights and of the role of government in promoting these rights. This led to pressure on the Canadian government to support human rights initiatives at the United Nations. In this same period, the geopolitics of the Cold War and the rise of anti-colonialism shaped debates at the UN over human rights. As global support for the UN's human rights instruments grew, Canada became the subject of criticism from other states. Concerned about the negative implications, at home and within the international community, of appearing to stand in opposition to the principles of human rights, Ottawa changed its policy. Despite the government’s new rhetoric of support for the international bill of rights, however, federal policy makers continued to question the benefit of these instruments for Canada. This lack of commitment accounts, at least in part, for Canada’s continued failure to fully implement its international human rights obligations. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Few topics of discussion within international human rights law are as riddled with confusion as that concerning the legal status or normative significance of the United Nations Human Rights Treaty Bodies and their work. The treaty bodies, in its work, generate a form of jurisprudence – a body of norms and directives about how state parties ought to act in order to comply fully with the treaties. The prevailing issue within the legal practice and academic debate is often presented as a dilemma: are the norms generated by the treaty bodies binding or not? This paper takes a somewhat different approach, arguing that the treaty bodies’ normative output, all the while legal in nature, is best understood as non-binding, yet maintain the function of giving the states parties to the respective treaties reasons for action. Thus, discarding with the binary ‘grammar’ defended by some of the leading international law scholars, where law equals binding and obligatory, and non-binding and non-obligatory equals non-law. Instead, this paper suggest a third option which better fits the actual function that treaty body output serves within the practice of international human rights law. Also, since the resulting norms do not have binding force, the requirement of state consent should be proportionally weakened, giving rise to the possibility that the state may be subject to legal norms without its consent.

Yes / The emergence of globalisation has promoted human rights education, the media and scholarly works have drawn attention to the issue of the rule of law and mob justice activities constantly recurring in developing countries. The paper examines the effects of mob justice on the rule of law and democratisation in Africa using Ghana as a case study. The paper is of the view that mob justice has both negative and positive effects on the rule of law and democratisation in Ghana. This is because the legal and criminal justice systems in some societies are seen by citizens as illegitimate as they fail to punish suspected criminals appropriately; thus, negatively destroying democracy and the image of the State. Positively, mob justice serves as a wake-up call for the State to take its responsibility to protect the rights of its citizens seriously. The paper draws on international human rights law in the light of international legal instruments, such as the UDHR, ICCPR, and African Charter, as well as the 1992 Constitution of Ghana and employs mainly the Tylerian procedural justice perspective, as well as Liberal democratic theory. It uses theoretical, critically analytical and qualitative empirical evidence (based on semi-structured interviews from purposive sampling of 15 expert opinions and relevant organisations with a keen interest in the subject matter) for the analysis. / Ghana Scholarship Board funded the research on the Rule of Law & Mob Justice in Ghana.