No abstract / Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / Centre for Human Rights / unrestricted

LL.M. (Human Rights Law) / This research considers the potential for conflict between human rights and intellectual property rights (IPRs) in South Africa. I argue that this conflict is brought about by the fact that the interests which are served by these two areas of law are different. Human rights have a broader outlook in that they seek to provide conditions required for people to lead lives that are worthwhile, while IPRs are narrower in that they primarily seek to reward inventors or creators of works. The first chapter looks into the nature of human rights and IPRs and also traces some of the origins of the clashes between the two rights. The second chapter attempts to determine if IPRs are considered human rights in South Africa. This chapter also reviews the first case where human rights and IPRs were considered together in South Africa. In the third chapter, medical patents are considered with a view of deriving some learnings from other developing countries. This work will conclude with the proposition that where there is conflict, certain human rights must take priority over IPRs.

Magister Legum - LLM / In this minithesis, I demonstrate that International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law are two distinct but related fields of law. First, the examination deals with the instance that the aim of both branches of law, the protection of human rights, is common, but the approach to reach this aim is different. In this regard, I show numerous points of divergence of both branches of law which have their origin in the fundamentally different historical developments of International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law. I give the main attention to the application of both sets of law, whereby the contractions and legal gaps of the protection of human rights become apparent. The proposals dealing with the solution of these issues are discussed. I argue that a new legal instrument for a comprehensive and compatible protection of human rights is necessary, especially in times of internal strife. Regarding the question as to whether International Humanitarian Law or International Human Rights Law should apply if both branches are applicable, I take the view to apply the roman principle of law lex specialis derogat legi generali in such a way that the more specific rule whenever they have a specific justification for dealing with specific problems is applicable. Both branches of law do not merge to one, but they converge to a harmonious relationship, where they complement each other and provide the highest protection of human rights. / South Africa

Magister Legum - LLM / South Africa

Magister Philosophiae (Land and Agrarian Studies) - MPhil(LAS) / In this research, I present critical facts about Land Tenure Systems and Poverty Reduction processes in Mafela Resettlement community. I focus mainly on the Post-Fast Track Land Reform (2004 ; 2011) period and the interactive processes in this new resettlement area. The research - premised on the rights approach - sought to explore land tenure rights systems and poverty reduction mechanisms seen by the Mafela community to be improving their livelihoods; it also sought to find out if there is evidence linking tenure rights to poverty reduction and how land tenure rights governance systems affect their livelihoods. Suffice to say in both the animal kingdom and human world, territorial space and integrity, its demarcation as well as how resources are used within the space, given the area - calls for a - defined system of rights by the residents themselves. Whilst it is true that there is no one story about Zimbabwens land reform (Scoones et al 2011) the contribution of this research towards insights emanating from the newly resettled farmers adds another invaluable contribution in the realm of rural development issues. The oft rigidified perceptions about the land reform in Zimbabwe as having dismally failed draw contrasting findings from this research. The findings, themselves drawn mainly through interviews, seem to suggest that there are indeed improved livelihoods for resettled farmers more than what is generally believed from a distance. The perception that secure tenure rights (among other myths) determines livelihoods improvement also revealed otherwise with Mafela community. The resettlers dynamic socio-economic milieu presents opportunities and challenges which only the resettled farmers can solve if given adequate support and empowerment in terms of decision making processes. The power basis wielded by the war veterans and the culture of top-down decision making processes as lamented by the resettled farmers suggest that the evolution of resettlements is still far from over. This research therefore hopes to challenge its readers and other stakeholders to engage with issues and recommendations raised here in order for a rethink about land tenure rights and poverty reduction initiatives associated with the new resettlement areas in Zimbabwe in general. / South Africa

Magister Legum - LLM / This study assesses the development ofvictims' rights in the legislative and policy framework in South Africa. It is argued that although victims' rights are recognised more has to be done to concretise these rights.

This thesis discusses the impact of the Cold War on the Long African American Civil Rights Movement in the US from 1945 into the early 1970s. I seek to address the historiography that argues that the Cold War was an animating or galvanizing force behind the Civil Rights movement. I argue that black strategies of activism and black thought during the long civil rights era were directly or indirectly influenced by Cold War politics. Strategies towards freedom and equality were manipulated, altered, and transformed due to anticommunism in America.

This thesis is an examination of the relations between sexuality, religion and spirituality. The use of these terms is not conventional, and my introductory chapter is to a large extent concerned with elucidating what I mean by each of them. This unconventionality is itself crucial to the thesis: I am calling into question some of the basic assumptions behind traditional anthropological questions. I am using Burridge's definition of religion from his New Heaven New Earth: The redemptive process indicated by the activities, moral rules, and assumptions about power which, pertinent to the moral order and taken on faith, not only enable a people to perceive the truth of things, hut guarantee that they are indeed perceiving the truth of things (1969:6-7). I examine how religion, insofar as its assumptions about the truth of things are to he taken on faith, is at odds with spirituality, which is the essential quality of a life which is lived to experience the truth for oneself. Religion, which upholds the moral order of society, is static; spirituality is dynamic - it implies change and growth. Sexuality is defined as "... the biological differences between female and male, and the real or assumed psychological differences dependent on these". It is shown that the only such difference is the fact that women are able to bear children, and men are not. There are no innate psychological differences between the sexes. However, people are differently socialized on the basis of the one biological difference mentioned above, so that the social personalities of women and men may, on the average, be different. My understanding of the causes of this difference in socialization rests on Simone de Beauvoir's approach to the problem in The Second Sex. Cultural assumptions about what it means to be female or male are discussed as being oppressive to spirituality. Insofar as the religion of a culture is its rationale, religion is focused on here as the arena where the sexual division of society takes place. Cultural definitions of sexuality are seen as the major cultural obstacle to spiritual growth. The particular religions examined are 1) those of the Australian Aborigines and the BaMbuti Pygmies; 2) that of Hindu civilization as manifested in the Kama Sutra ( I explain why I feel it is legitimate to consider the Kama Sutra a religious work); and 3) Buddhism. I discuss how anthropologists avoid questioning the morality of sexual oppression, and why they are concerned only with examining its effects upon the members of society. My basic conclusion is that all definitions of sexuality which attribute more to females and males than the fact that the former can bear children while the latter cannot are sexist: they are akin to religion and inimical to spirituality. / Arts, Faculty of / Anthropology, Department of / Graduate

This thesis examines the practical implications of the acceptance of "traditional British liberties" in a particular Canadian city and period. The city of Toronto was chosen because it was here that one found the loudest professions of admiration and reverence for "things British." The period, 1929-1935, the early years of the Great Depression, commended itself because the economic chaos and social tension of these years brought to the fore questions as to the meaning and relative value of liberty and authority. Consideration of the problem of liberty and authority from 1929-1935 also enables one to examine the less statistical, less tangible impact of the Great Depression on a segment of Canadian society. An attempt is made to examine the attitudes toward liberty and authority among particular groups in Toronto, and to analyse the basic assumptions and thought patterns that their attitudes appear to express. The thesis makes no attempt to consider specific issues from a purely legalistic or judicial point of view. Certain problems are endemic in an undertaking of this kind. The chief problem is the absence of any precise technique for evaluating objectively the impact of ideas.as motivating forces in history. An attempt is made to calculate the degree of support for particular opinions, such as those presented by the major newspapers, but only in a general fashion. What appear to be of more value and interest to the historian are the underlying assumptions behind the ideas expressed, in so far as they reflect the social, political and economic attutudes of a particular period. Thus, the main emphasis is upon the representative quality of the opinions expressed, rather than upon the discovery of the attitude of every sector of the city. Four specific cases involving the respective limits of liberty and authority are examined--the policy of the Toronto Board of Police Commissioners in prohibiting certain kinds of meetings in the streets, parks and halls of the city, 1929-1933; Section 98 of the Criminal Code, and the conviction in Toronto, under Section 98, of eight Communist leaders in November, 1931; the sedition trial of A. E. Smith, secretary of the Canadian Labor Defence League in March, 1934; and the response to the Regina Riot of July, 1935. The reaction to these controversies was complex and diverse within Toronto. Large and important sectors of the city, of which the Globe, the Telegram, and the Mail and Empire were the chief spokesmen, saw no question of the invasion of "traditional British liberties," but only the need for authority in the face of disorder and instability. The soap-box controversialists of Hyde Park might be acceptable in England, a country with thousands of years of tradition, but not in Canada, a new country in the midst of economic chaos—a new country with "foreign" elements in the midst of its population. For much smaller numbers of Torontonians, of whom the Star, the Canadian Forum and the C. C. F. Party were the chief representatives, the cases examined clearly raised questions about the liberty of the individual in the face of the authority of the state. In fact, the attitudes expressed by different sectors of the population reflected contradictory views of the potency and quality of the Russian Communist threat to Canadian society, of the needs dictated by the economic dislocation of the Great Depression, of the possibility and desirability of change and readaptation in the Canadian economic, political and social structure. Further, the attitudes expressed on liberty and authority revealed assumptions about the position of the intellectual in public affairs and the changing nature of government activity in the life of the nation. Even among those who could at least agree that an invasion of the rights of the individual had occurred, there was little consensus as to the precise methods to be employed so as to effect a change in governmental policy. Close examination of the problem of civil liberties in Toronto reveals that no real consensus existed as to the precise meaning and implications of "traditional British liberties," and the issue failed to emerge as a black-and-white political question. In part, the phrase "traditional British liberties" served as an umbrella term for the expression of class attitudes toward liberty and authority, but its use was far more complex than a simple class interpretation would imply. The phrase "traditional British liberties" served to express particular attitudes and assumptions towards liberty and authority that reflected peculiarly Canadian needs and conditions. In effect, both sides of the controversy were attempting to define "Canadianism." Examination of the question of liberty and authority in Toronto further reveals that the major Canadian response to the Great Depression weighted the scales heavily on the side of authority; however, a critical spirit, characteristic of modern urban communities did gain momentum during the Depression, and through its assertion on such occasions as the sedition trial of A. E. Smith and the conviction of the eight Communist leaders, it served to widen the practical limits of liberty in Canada. / Arts, Faculty of / History, Department of / Graduate

LL.B. / No one definition of terrorism has gained universal acceptance. The lack of agreement on a definition of terrorism has been a major obstacle to meaningful international countermeasures to combat terrorism. There are 12 International Conventions related to terrorism and an explicit definition is still missing. Many states have tried to define terrorism and none of these definitions has been implemented, either by the United Nations or these states. There are many International Conventions, Protocols and Treaties related to state responsibilities to combating terrorism. Many states are not yet part to these legal instruments or not yet implementing them. Following the attack in the United States of America, the United Nations Security Council had passed three Resolutions to combat terrorism. None of these resolutions were implemented successfully. Article 51 of the United Nations Charter gives a state a right to repel on attack that is ongoing or imminent as a temporary measure. This Article has been used by states to eliminate terrorism. International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombing, enable the State Parties to extradite and exercise jurisdiction over terrorist and to cooperate in the investigation, prosecution, and extradition of persons who engage in terrorist activities by establishing a regime of universal jurisdiction to punish the crime of terrorist bombings. The states must develop and adopt bilateral and multilateral agreements to increase cooperation between them.