<p>It is within the context of the persistent feminisation of the HIV and AIDS pandemic that this study, based on the normative provisions of the African Women's Protocol, focused on gender, sex and sexuality in the context of HIV and AIDS. The regime of the African Women's Protocol embodies a framework that can be utilised to combat HIV/AIDS amongst women in Africa by addressing some of the most important issues that need to be tackled if women are to live through this epidemic.</p>

Magister Legum - LLM / It is within the context of the persistent feminisation of the HIV and AIDS pandemic that this study, based on the normative provisions of the African Women's Protocol, focused on gender, sex and sexuality in the context of HIV and AIDS. The regime of the African Women's Protocol embodies a framework that can be utilised to combat HIV/AIDS amongst women in Africa by addressing some of the most important issues that need to be tackled if women are to live through this epidemic. / South Africa

The Zimbabwean society views persons with disabilities (PWDs) ‘as useless liabilities that have no role to play in society.’ The Zimbabwean Government has also forgotten PWDs since they are not mentioned in all the country’s national budgets. This has led to uncountable barriers faced by PWDs in their bid to be included as equal members of the society. Some of the barriers are constant discrimination, sheer poverty, lack of access to mainstream public services and stigma. Hundreds to thousands of PWDs beg for alms in the streets of every town and city. Zimbabwe then has to be reminded that all PWDs have: a right to enjoy a decent life, as normal and full as possible, a right which lies at the heart of the right to human dignity. This right should be jealously guarded and forcefully protected by all states party to the African Charter in accordance with the well established principle that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. Thus, the era of silence when it comes to the realisation of the rights of PWDs in Zimbabwe has to come to an end. All PWDs in Zimbabwe should know that it is by right and not by privilege to be guaranteed full and effective participation, and inclusion in society. It is time for Zimbabwe to embrace all the rights for PWDs without any hesitation. It is time for humanity to celebrate the inherent dignity, individual autonomy, independence and the right not to be discriminated against for all PWDs. Every lawmaker in Zimbabwe has to be reminded to delete from the statute books all laws which view disability as a medical problem and instead, pass laws which are in line with the human rights-based approach which is a more enlightened, realistic and people-centred approach to disability. No time to play but plenty of time to work…! / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2011. / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/ / nf2012 / Centre for Human Rights / LLM

En mars 2008, l'État chilien ratifiait la Convention 169 de l'OIT, premier instrument juridique de droit international à protéger les droits fondamentaux des peuples autochtones. Un nouveau scénario politique et juridique s'ouvrait ainsi dans un pays où, comme ailleurs, ces peuples connaissent une histoire de domination, de marginalisation et d'exclusion. Cette ratification génère de nouveaux enjeux tant pour les peuples concernés que pour l'État et la société chilienne en plaçant la question de la participation aux décisions qui concernent les peuples autochtones au centre du débat. L'objet de cette thèse est de comprendre les tenants et les aboutissants de la mise en œuvre de la consultation libre, préalable et informée en explicitant le processus d'institutionnalisation de la participation des peuples autochtones au Chili ainsi que les ambivalences de cet espace participatif, censé produire un consentement aux politiques publiques mais qui se heurte à la contestation des autochtones. L'apport de cette recherche réside dans la capacité de montrer la complexité de ces dispositifs de consultation, dans lesquels s'entremêlent des processus de domination et de résistance. Cette thèse rend en effet manifeste leur ambivalence dans la mesure où, tout en reproduisant les asymétries du pouvoir, ces dispositifs participent au renforcement des acteurs dominés. Cette recherche a été réalisée à partir d'une enquête menée au sein et dans les« coulisses» de procédures de consultation mises en place au Chili où se rencontrent autochtones et fonctionnaires gouvernementaux. / In March of 2008, the Chilean State ratified the 169 ILO Convention, the first international instrument of international law to protect the fundamental rights of Indigenous Peoples. A new legal and political scenario was therefore opened in a country where the indigenous community were subject to a history of domination, marginalization and exclusion. This ratification creates new stakes for Indigenous Peoples and also for the Chilean state and society by raising the Indigenous Peoples' right to participate in matters that concern them. The research purpose is to understand the ins and outs of free, prior and informed consent of Indigenous Peoples by explaining the institutionalization of Indigenous participation in Chile and also to explain the ambivalences of this participatory space supposed to produce a consent on public policy but encountering the Indigenous Peoples contention. The contribution of this research lies in the capacity of showing the complexity of these participatory devices, in which domination and resistance processes are intermingled. This thesis demonstrates their ambivalence since they reproduce power asymmetries while reinforcing dominated actors. The research was carried out from a survey conducted within and in the "wings" of the consultancy procedure set up in Chile where Indigenous Peoples and Government officials come across. About sixty interviews were conducted and a large variety of situations was observed, from institutional consultancy devices to more informal social spaces relating to participative devices.

This thesis uses the Critical theory to explore the history and functioning of African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights. This judicial institution was established in 1998. However, it did not rule any decision on the merits until 2013. All cases had been refused because it lacked the jurisdiction. Finally in 2013, two judgments were issued that solved the factual situation of applicants. Nevertheless, the danger still exists that the Court will function only if the states will allow it to do so. Such inactivity of the Court is firmly inconsistent with the intensity of human rights violations on the African continent. In the same way, it falsifies the presuppositions of liberal institutionalism that the international institutions should strengthen cooperation between states and contribute to the development of mutually interconnected areas: economic development, democracy and human rights protection. The thesis is an empirical case study which opposes the liberal-institutional ideas. It uses the Critical theory in narrow sense to show that those ideas played certain role in the establishment of the Court. Nonetheless, the real willingness of the states to empower the Court with authority and limit their sovereignty was absent. The Court, as a procedural enlargement of substantive human rights...

This study makes the assumption that community participation in the governance of mineral resources is a requirement of sustainable development and that through a fundamental rights-based approach, it can be made effective. The concern is that an affected community should not only be involved in the decision-making process, but its view must also influence the outcome in respect of whether or not a mineral project should take place and how it should address development issues at local level. It is assumed that this legal approach will improve mineral governance by bringing more transparency and accountability. In many African resource-rich countries, community participation has until now been practiced with more of a soft approach, with the consequence that it has been unable to eradicate the opacity existing in the management of revenues generated by mineral exploitation and also deal efficiently with the recurrence of fundamental rights violations in the mineral sector. Obviously, the success of the fundamental rights based-approach is not absolutely guaranteed because there are preconditions that must be fulfilled. The synergy between community participation and some relevant concepts like democracy, decentarlisation, accountability, (good) governance and sustainable development must be well balanced for the participation process to bring positive outcomes. Also, because the fundamental rights based-approach is conceived here within the framework of the African Charter of Human and People’s Rights, its normative and institutional components, despite the potential to make participation effective and successful, require that some critical challenges be addressed in practice. The study ends with the conclusion that the fundamental rights based-approach is appropriate to make community participation effective in the mineral-led development process taking place at local level, provided that its implementation is kept reasonable. / Constitutional, International & Indigenous Law / D.Law

This study makes the assumption that community participation in the governance of mineral resources is a requirement of sustainable development and that through a fundamental rights-based approach, it can be made effective. The concern is that an affected community should not only be involved in the decision-making process, but its view must also influence the outcome in respect of whether or not a mineral project should take place and how it should address development issues at local level. It is assumed that this legal approach will improve mineral governance by bringing more transparency and accountability. In many African resource-rich countries, community participation has until now been practiced with more of a soft approach, with the consequence that it has been unable to eradicate the opacity existing in the management of revenues generated by mineral exploitation and also deal efficiently with the recurrence of fundamental rights violations in the mineral sector. Obviously, the success of the fundamental rights based-approach is not absolutely guaranteed because there are preconditions that must be fulfilled. The synergy between community participation and some relevant concepts like democracy, decentarlisation, accountability, (good) governance and sustainable development must be well balanced for the participation process to bring positive outcomes. Also, because the fundamental rights based-approach is conceived here within the framework of the African Charter of Human and People’s Rights, its normative and institutional components, despite the potential to make participation effective and successful, require that some critical challenges be addressed in practice. The study ends with the conclusion that the fundamental rights based-approach is appropriate to make community participation effective in the mineral-led development process taking place at local level, provided that its implementation is kept reasonable. / Constitutional, International and Indigenous Law / LL. D.