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Modern Slavery is a complex type of crime. It may take many forms starting from the forced labor, servitude, sexual exploitation, organ harvesting, slavery, to trafficking and others. UK’s Modern Slavery Act, 2015 is undoubtedly an admirable effort to tackle such heinous crimes in the society however the act is criticized as weak regarding the victim support and wellbeing during and after the identification. All potential victims upon consent are referred at first by the first responders to National Referral Mechanism (NRM) process which is a UK framework adopted in 2009 in line with the council of Europe’s directives to identify & support victims of modern slavery. There are two separate guidance’s regarding the NRM process one is for England & Wales and the other is for Scotland & Northern Ireland. The aim of this literature review study is to explore the wellbeing status of the modern slavery victims during the post identification (NRM) period and how does the act support such victims. The study finds that it lacks a needs-based support system for victims that addresses issues like safe housing, advocacy, adequate so called “reflection and recovery” time period of support resulting in poor trust and confidence among the victim groups upon the authorities. Moreover, structural changes like amendments to the labor, immigration laws are required to make a long-term meaningful impact on the lives of the victims. At last the author provides some recommendations about the matters affecting the lives of the victims the most.

Trade of South Africa with the rest of the world has changed substantially since the mid-1990s. The United States (US), which used to be the main trading partner of South Africa, is now only the third largest trading partner of the country. South African trade with Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom (UK) are also lower. The key reason is the emergence of China in the world economy. South Africa did not trade with China before 1993, but from 2009 China became the main trading partner of the country. Globalisation and China’s emergence have influenced the trade linkages of many other countries in the world. To incorporate the changes in global trade linkages, the foreign variables of all the models in the study are compiled with trade-weighted three-year moving average data. The foremost objective of the thesis is to determine how the changes in trade linkages affect the transmission of economic shocks originating in the rest of the world on South Africa. The global vector autoregression (GVAR) approach is used since one of its advantages is the incorporation of global trade linkages, which facilitates the analysis of the transmission of shocks from one country to another. As a GVAR model combines many individual country models, the study first estimates such a country-specific model for South Africa to determine whether it displays the expected impact of domestic shocks on the economy. This type of model is known as a vector error correction model (VECM) with domestic variables and weakly exogenous (X) foreign (*) variables, denoted by VECX*. The results from the VECX* for South Africa are in line with expectations, showing the effective transmission of monetary policy. The study then examines the impact of international shocks on the South African economy with a GVAR model. The GVAR, which incorporates country-specific VECX* models for 33 countries, is solved for all 33 countries using global trade weight matrices at different dates. The results indicate that over time South Africa is much more vulnerable to GDP shocks to the Chinese economy, and less vulnerable to GDP shocks to the US economy. These trends are however not confined to South Africa, and as such highlights the increased risk to the South African economy and many other economies, should China experience slower GDP growth. Finally, the thesis determines whether the forecasting performance of GVAR models is superior to that of a country-specific VECX* model. The study compares the out-of-sample forecasts of two key South African variables (real GDP and inflation) for five types of models: a VECX*, a customised small GVAR for South Africa, the more general 33-country GVAR, simple autoregressive models and random walk models. Better forecasts of both the GVAR models compared to the VECX* model at forecast horizons of more than four quarters show that, despite the complicated nature of the GVAR model with the inclusion of many countries and global trade linkages, the additional information is useful for forecasting domestic variables / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Economics / unrestricted

The UK-China "Golden Era", which began in 2015, is one of the evidence for further intimacy between the UK and China. On the basis of building consensus, the UK and China have continuously deepened cooperation in all aspects. However, the Brexit process that began in 2016 has changed the environment in which the "Golden Era" has developed. This study used the methods of comparative study and case analysis to analyse the impact of the Brexit process on the UK-China "Golden Era" development during the period from October 2015 to April 2019, and draw conclusions about the UK-China "Golden Era" is well developed now and has a great possibility to continue or even accelerate development in the future.

Between 2011 and 2019 around 900 British citizens left the United Kingdom to travel to Syria and join militant groups such as the Islamic State (ISIS) (EPRS, 2018, p.33). After the fall of the so-called caliphate the issue of prosecuting and/or bringing citizens back was widely debated in Europe, especially in the UK, who was accused of taking a drastic measure to the dilemma, causing a political rift in the nation (NPR, 2019). At the center of the debate, both in the media and in parliament, was a young woman called Shamima Begum, who was deprived of her UK citizenship in 2019. This event lead to a debate on human rights and if Begum had had hers violated (The Times, 2019). Previous research has shown that the ethical media discourse on human rights is multifaced, contested and strong in its ability to incite certain worldviews in society (Sampaio, 2016, p.2). Furthermore, previous studies argue that women tend to be framed differently from men in the media when they are involved in conflict, terror or war (Sjöberg & Gentry, 2007, p.30). In addition to this, western media tends to use Muslim women as a symbol of difference by stereotyping them in terms of culture and religion (Brown, 2011, p.716). This study aims to trace the width and depth of UK media’s discourse on human rights issues and the debate on foreign fighters over the political spectrum, through the case of Shamima Begum. Building off of framing theory and previous research on the framing of females and Islam, it asks how the Guardian and the Times, two national British newspapers, prioritizes the aspect of human rights in their reporting on Begum’s case. This by asking what frames they construct and how these frames compare and differ between the two outlets and the years 2015 and 2019. The material, constituted by articles and images, was analyzed on the base of Critical Discourse Analysis and Framing theory. The results find four different frames used. These frames are the Naïve victim, the Imperfect victim, ISIS radicalisation and the Willing ISIS devotee. The frames propose opposite standpoints of the newspapers both in their view on Begum and her guilt, and ultimately her human rights, perhaps aligning their discourse with the polarized political one in the UK. The study also shows that aspects connected to Begum’s gender and religion to some extent are prioritized in the framing of her, ultimately affecting the view of her end her fundamental rights as a human being.

Auction systems have been around for a long time now, and they are proving to be a good support instrument to promote renewable energy technologies in most parts of the world. The key feature of an auction is its design flexibility, real price discovery through competition, transparency and greater certainty for investors and policymakers to achieve high-level targets.  This thesis uses specific design elements and assessment criteria for auction systems, set out in the literature, to perform a comparative analysis of the design elements of offshore wind auctions in the UK and the Netherlands to identify best practices in auctions that promote the development of offshore wind and provide recommendations to policymakers based on previous experiences in both countries.  The analyses show that strict selection criteria and penalties help improve effectiveness and static efficiency. Seal-bid auctions with multiple rounds and fixed schedules help to reduce uncertainty for investors. Financial prequalification in the form of seabed leases ensures that developers are serious about the project and improves realization rates. Physical prequalification should be set focusing on improving the supply chain in the region, socio-political feasibility, actor diversity, etc. However, it is advisable to exclude the EIA and grid connection from the scope of the developer as it helps reduce planning risks. It is important to have ceiling prices in offshore wind auctions, but a detailed study of the technological development and market condition needs to be assessed to set the right value and have it undisclosed for better competition. Separate budgets can be set for offshore wind auctions rather than have it based on capacity or electricity generation. This helps with better planning for the auctions. Support mechanisms should be designed to ensure that generators and consumers are benefited from them. Finally, a realization period should be set for projects to ensure they are aligned with national policy targets.

The MA thesis "The Special Relationship: A discourse on British-American relations in the British press" focuses on a discourse analysis of the "special relationship" in 2001-2010. The thesis is based on a sample of 25 commentaries published in leading British newspapers over this period and describes the characteristic features that appeared in the discourse on the United Kingdom's most important bilateral partnership. The identified elements pertain to national identity, national interest, historical narratives, diplomatic rituals, assessment of the Prime Minister's personal role and the perception of the UK's junior status within the relationship. The thesis uses a Foreign Policy Analysis model that takes into account the role of the media in the formation of foreign policy. Methodologically, selected discourse analysis methods are used, particularly thematic analysis and analysis of metaphors. The characteristic features of the dominant discourse are identified through excerpts from relevant secondary literature on the history of the "special relationship" after WWII and subsequently compared with the results of the newspaper sample analysis. The thesis pays special attention to the repertoires of arguments used by the commentators and places them in the context of an intensive public debate on the UK's...

The aim of this research has been to investigate the UK Home Office, Country Policy and Information Notes (CINP) in the asylum-seeking process, through investigating the case of Eritrean CINP documents from 2010 until 2018. This single case study aimed to confirm its theoretical background of Lukes 2005 three-dimensional view of power theory. A pattern-matching analysing technique was implemented to address the research questions with the effort of trying to find overlapping patterns between the theory and the observed patterns in the data. The result shows there are some similarities between patterns. The connection between the three dimensions of power and the three overlapping patterns are then broadly discussed.

The main purpose of this research is to explore the relationship between the EU and UK in terms of space defence policy developed from the viewpoint of historical institutionalism. As a research objective, it is intended to assess the nature of historical institutionalism as a concept and its applications to space defence policy. Another objective is to trace the historical development of the relationships between the EU and the UK in the space sector. Finally, this historical development is discussed through the lens of historical institutionalism. The attainment of these aims and objectives requires an optimal choice of methodology and research design. This study has been guided by the principles of interpretivism, a dominant philosophical stance in social studies. This philosophy emphasises the role of interpretations in the attainment of knowledge due to a lack of absolute truth, as according to interpretivism, the truth depends on the observer and their interpretations. In line with this philosophical stance, this research is conducted using an inductive approach, which stipulates theory development, hypothesis formulation, or new proposition statements based on observations. This contrasts with deductive testing of existing research hypotheses. The choice of an inductive approach has...

The content of the master these sis case study of counter-terrorism measures in th UK and their impact on human rights. The work detaily monitors the development of the counter-terrorist measureas after the 11th of September attacks in the USA. To uderstand the adoption of the legislative measures are used the optics of moral panic which intensify the fear of another attacks. The work analyzes in detail how the measures developed and what is their impact on human rights. It Appears there is consensus on the political spectrum about the aim of the counter-terrorism laws. In addition there are showed law suits presenting the real life struggle about the human rights. Since the UK was not long ago part of the EU text provides short examples on how i tis in other EU countries