This thesis examines how non-governmental organisations (NGOs) claim legitimacy in the UK national context with the aim of increasing the understanding of how NGOs’ access to power is justified. The thesis argues that the limits of current theories on NGOs and legitimacy do not enable proper scrutiny of the organisational complexities involved and proposes that Beetham’s approach to legitimacy is more fruitful. A Beethamite analysis is based on scrutinising NGOs’ legitimacy-in-context. This involves examining NGOs’ normative structures and internal organisation of power in order to explain and assess their legitimacy claims. It explores the legitimacy claims of three UK NGOs by applying a Beethamite analysis to interrogate their legitimacy claims. The NGOs that are my unit of analysis are enmeshed in complex organisational hierarchies that extend beyond the UK territory. Understanding the internal organisation of power in these hierarchies is important for identifying legitimacy sources that underpin NGOs’ legitimacy claims. The three NGOs are Amnesty International UK, Greenpeace UK and Cafod. The case study of Amnesty International UK shows how the legitimation of power is justified internally where the members of the UK section legitimise the representational powers of the International Secretariat. This is contrasted with the normative sources of legitimacy that are more commonly used to justify Amnesty International UK's legitimacy claims and which ignore members as an important source of authority. The analysis in the case study of Greenpeace UK demonstrates how it is a representative unit of Greenpeace International. It also highlights how scientific knowledge has become a legitimacy source that justifies Greenpeace UK's legitimacy claims with implications for how to assess their legitimacy claims. The case study of Cafod analyses how Cafod claims legitimacy as a Catholic agency and how it is institutionally embedded in the Holy See. Cafod is primarily a social agency of the Catholic Church in England and Wales. The case study demonstrates how Cafod's sources of legitimacy are primarily Catholic and that this causes legitimacy problems when Cafod uses secular rather than theological sources of legitimacy to justify its policies. One of the main conclusions of the thesis is that a differentiated approach is needed for analysing NGOs’ legitimacy claims, one that takes into consideration the context of NGOs’ legitimacy claims, their internal process of legitimation and their sources of legitimacy, when assessing their access to power. The lack of an appropriate regulatory framework, and in particular the systematic exclusion of politically oriented NGOs by UK regulators, hinders the advancement of proper assessment and understanding of NGOs’ role in society.

A pesquisa tem dois objetivos centrais: reconstruir o desenvolvimento da justiça de transição no Brasil até os dias atuais e identificar algumas das principais razões dos limites de sua implementação no país. Conforme as principais hipóteses, os limites da experiência da justiça transicional no Brasil estão associados a um discurso sobre a redemocratização no país, discurso este que tem a conciliação nacional como sua principal categoria. A primeira hipótese da pesquisa é a de que o discurso da conciliação nacional, veiculado pelo menos desde a elaboração do projeto de anistia pelo governo Figueiredo, continuaria a ser um dos principais limites ao desenvolvimento da justiça de transição no Brasil. Mas a segunda hipótese sustenta que, dos últimos trabalhos mais aprofundados sobre o tema para cá, este discurso teria sua hegemonia contestada de forma significativa, sendo obrigado a ceder a algumas das demandas de entidades da sociedade civil que até pouco tempo atrás não eram consideradas como negociáveis. Os objetivos e hipóteses centrais da tese serão mobilizados na seguinte estrutura. Capítulo 1: teoria e crítica dos parâmetros normativos da justiça de transição. Capítulo 2: reconstituição histórica e discursiva sobre a anistia e sobre o programa brasileiro de reparações. Capítulo 3: reconstituição discursiva e crítica sobre o julgamento do STF acerca da constitucionalidade da bilateralidade da anistia e sobre o estágio das ações penais movidas pelo Ministério Público Federal. Capítulo 4: reconstituição crítica dos trabalhos da Comissão Nacional da Verdade. / The research has two main objectives: to reconstruct the development of transitional justice in Brazil until today and to identify some of the main reasons underlying the limits of its implementation in the country. According to our main hypotheses, the limits of transitional justice in Brazil are associated with a discourse on the countrys democratization, which holds \"national reconciliation\" as its crucial category. The hypothesis 1 of the research asserts that the discourse of \"national reconciliation\", elaborated at least since the project of amnesty by the Figueiredo government, remains one of the main limitations to the development of transitional justice in Brazil. But the hypothesis 2 maintains that from the last major works on the subject to today, the hegemony of this discourse has been significantly challenged, giving some room to historical claims of civil society that until recently were not considered negotiable. The objectives and main hypotheses will be developed in the following structure. Chapter 1: theory and critique of the normative parameters of transitional justice. Chapter 2: historical and discursive reconstitution of the amnesty and of the Brazilian program of reparation. Chapter 3: discursive reconstitution and critique of the decision of the Brazilian Supreme Court on the amnestys constitutionality and the stage of criminal cases filed by federal prosecutors. Chapter 4: critical reconstitution of the work of the National Truth Commission.

"This dissertation seeks firstly to re-examine the merits of the competing philosophies on the role of amnesties in transitional justice. It seeks in particular to investigate the currently popular notion that justice is necessarily retributive and even beyond that, to determine the veracity of the claim that prosecution represents a necessary element of retributivist justice. The objective is to contribute to the ongoing debate by examining and drawing practical lessons from the case of South Africa, which emerged in 1994 from several generations of institutionalised gross violatoins of human rights. Accordingly the Amnesty Committee of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), the law and the political philosophy undergirding its functions represent the focus of this study. ... This dissertation unfolds into five parts. Chapter 1, as an introduction to the rest of the work, sets out the relevance of the subject under review, the methodology and a brief overview of the chapters. Chapter two reviews the extensive literature on transitional justice and discusses the concepts that may be distilled therefrom. It discusses the contextual determinants of models of transitional justice and sets out the essence of the debate between vengeance and forgiveness as tools for achieving transitional justice. It also discusses the development of international law with respect to the permissiveness of amnesties and both the articulated and other justifications for their use. The burden of the third chapter is to first recount the factual circumstances of South Africa's trnsition and the factors that predicated the promulgation of the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act 34 of 1995. It then briefly examines the provisions of the statute and it's implementation. It also engages in an empirical assessment of the almost 800 amnesties granted and employs a number of indices to determine whteher the process was even handed and achieved its objectives. These indices are: the politicl affiliations of the awardees; whether or not the crimes for which they received amnesty involved the loss of life; whether or not they had already been punished for thier transgressions and; whether or not they received forgiveness from the vicitms - actual or constructive. Chapter four focuses on some fo the criticisms that the TRC received. It assesses their merits and determines to what extent they subverted the quest for justice in transitional South Africa. In particular it looks at the reasoning of the Constitutional Court in the AZAPO Case, the alleged lack of objectivity of the TRC, its almost exclusively Christian orientation and its almost exclusive focus on abuses of civil and political rights. Chapter five concludes the dissertation by first determining whether or not there are any lessons to be learnt from South Africa's amnesty experience. It then outlines what the lessons are or should be. It closes by making recommendations as to what factors or particular considerations should guide the efforts and aspirations of abused societies that embark on the quest for transitional justice." -- Chapter 1. / Prepared under the supervision of Professor Frans Viljoen, Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria, South Africa / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2001. / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/academic_pro/llm1/dissertations.html / Centre for Human Rights / LLM

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have grown significantly over the years and are today considered to be one of the most influential and powerful actors in the world when it comes to defending democracy and upholding various rights. When it comes to human rights, Amnesty International is one of the largest and most respected NGO in the world. Amnesty International works for a world where all the human rights should be respected and can be enjoyed by all the people of the world. Despite the important work of Amnesty International, knowledge of Amnesty International and other NGOs are very limited. The knowledge that exists is considered to be very simplistic, since NGOs are much more complex than one actually thinks. This study is therefore an effort to increase the knowledge and understanding of Amnesty International and NGOs. Using the “Stakeholder theory”, Amnesty International will be analyzed to examine how powerful and effective it is. Various stakeholders in the form of governments in countries and the media will be used to analyze their relationship with Amnesty International in terms of being able to influence. The findings has shown that because Amnesty International lives on donations, they depend on having a high membership base and reputation. Amnesty International prioritizes therefore topics based on how much the interest there are from the public opinion and in the media. This, instead of Amnesty International focusing and working in the countries where the most serious human rights violations occur and take place. Therefore, Amnesty International as a NGO will be weakened in its effort to be effective in changing and influencing the human rights in the world.

1 Abstract Since the 1990s, two parallel international phenomena have occurred: the growth of digital communications and the growth of the non-profit sector. The latter growth has taken place globally, but is acutely visible in the Czech Republic. In the Czech Republic, the 1990s posed an interesting challenge for the growth of non-profit organisations after the fall of Communism. One communications practice which has been utilised in business, journalism and the media is transmedia storytelling, though its application has been lacking in the non- profit sector. Through the utilisation of SWOT analysis methodology, this master's thesis will see this practice extrapolated to the non-profit sector in an exploratory case study of Amnesty International groups at various levels in both the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom. From this, the work hopes to achieve a better understanding of how transmedia storytelling practices could aid an international non-profit organisation, such as Amnesty International, in the effectivity of its agenda setting and resource mobilisation - thus eliminating discrepancies between regions in campaigning and fundraising. Keywords: Agenda Setting, Amnesty International, Non-Profit Organisation, Resource Mobilisation, Transmedia Storytelling

Despite abundant oil resources, the residents of the Niger Delta endure extreme poverty, polluted environments, poor infrastructure, and high unemployment. In the early 1990s, these problems led to a violent uprising against oil exploration. In 2009 the government of Nigeria attempted to end the uprising by implementing an amnesty program for the militants that was designed to address the region's problems. The amnesty program resulted in suspending the violence but so far has not resolved the region's problems. If these problems are not addressed, the uprising may resume. Although the Urhobo people comprised the largest number of militants from the Western Niger Delta, there has been no research on whether there are aspects of the Urhobo culture that may be helpful for strengthening the amnesty program and preventing a return to violence by Urhobo ex-militants. Benet's polarities of democracy model served as the theoretical framework for this ethnographic study. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and observations of 20 Urhobo ex-militants to learn what might prevent their return to violence. Content analysis was used to identify significant themes. Findings indicated that aspects of the Urhobo culture, such as communal obligations, respect for elders, and commitment to social justice and equality, may contribute to strengthening the amnesty program and preventing a return to violence. Recommendations include incorporating meaningful participation of Urhobo elders in the further development and implementation of the amnesty program. Implications for social change include informing policy makers of the importance the Urhobo culture may play in strengthening the amnesty program.

No description available.

Master of Arts / Department of Economics / Tracy M. Turner / The report examines the fiscal impact of undocumented persons at the federal, state, and local levels in order to explain the likely effects of an amnesty program. The report first provides background on the population of undocumented persons in the United States and an overview of the laws which govern their status. Details of past and current amnesty legislation are given. The channels through which undocumented immigrants have a fiscal impact on the three levels of government in the United States are explained. The paper discusses the economic theory relating to immigration and its effect on economic growth. Published works on the fiscal impact of the undocumented on state and local budgets and on federal programs such as social security are reviewed. The research reviewed includes an analysis of the long-term fiscal impact of immigrants. Undocumented immigrants impose a net cost at the state and local levels in most cases. However, many undocumented immigrants make income and payroll tax payments and the population of undocumented immigrants imposes a net benefit at the federal level. These sources of information are then used to explain how an amnesty program might change the fiscal impact of the undocumented at the three levels of government. The recent executive order signed by President Obama, known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), is an amnesty program that has a strong potential to help the U.S. economy retain young and highly educated workers, who have a positive fiscal impact on government finances. This report draws certain recommendations for the design of a successful amnesty and for implementing other immigration reforms from published research.

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).

South Africa has already implemented three tax–amnesty programmes: the Second Small Business Tax Amnesty 10 of 2006, the Exchange Control Amnesty Act 12 of 2003 and the Tax Amnesty Act 19 of 1995. In the 2010 budget announcement the Minister of Finance, Mr. Pravin Gordan, announced that there will be another chance for taxpayers to get their tax affairs in order with the Voluntary Disclosure Programme. The main goal of this study is to determine whether the Voluntary Disclosure Programme will prove to be effective or not. The research method utilised is based on an advanced literature study. The secondary goals are as follows: * to obtain a thorough knowledge regarding the three previous tax–amnesties that was implemented in South Africa. A prediction as to the success of the Voluntary Disclosure Programme can be made when using the total number of applications received and the amount of revenue that was received by the previous amnesties, as a measure of success; * to obtain a thorough knowledge of other countries' amnesty–programs, including the following: Australia, Ireland, Canada and the United Kingdom. Their experience and successes regarding their amnesty–programs will be used to predict the success of the Voluntary Disclosure Programme; an * to determine whether the Voluntary Disclosure Programme can be declared as fair. This study indicated that the Voluntary Disclosure Programme may not be effective and that it may have a negative impact on the tax compliance of taxpayers. A recommendation from this study is that the government should win the trust of taxpayers, which will lead to an automatic improvement in tax compliance. This study indicated that the tax amnesty programs should not be used as a mechanism to enhance tax compliance. An issue that needs further exploration is the impact that the Voluntary Disclosure Programme will have in the long–term on tax compliance in South Africa. / Thesis (M.Com. (Tax))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.