The Inter-American Democratic Charter (IDC) was adopted in 2001 by member states of the Organization of American States (OAS) as a renewed instrument for the defense of democracy, not only against traditional coup d´etat but also to face serious violations to horizontal accountability. The second assumption took into consideration, as a precedent, the political situation in Peru during Alberto Fujimori's administration (1995-2000), defined as a competitive authoritarian regime by Political Science and Constitutional Law scholars. However, during the last decade to the presentwe find in Latin America several countries with governments where the principle of checks and balances has been eroded as a result of measures adopted by their respective executive branch. This situation suggests the following concerns: The liberal democratic model of the IDC is in crisis? This model has been overcame by illiberal governments that privileges economic and social rights and restraints civil and political rights? Or both models a recondemned to coexist in the region? / La Carta Democrática Interamericana (CDI) fue adoptada en el año 2001 por los Estados miembros de la Organización de Estados Americanos (OEA)  como  un  instrumento  renovado  para  la  defensa  de la democracia, no sólo contra el golpe de Estado tradicional, sino también para hacer frente a las graves violaciones de la responsabilidad horizontal. El segundo supuesto consideró, como precedente, la situación política en el Perú durante el gobierno de Alberto Fujimori (1995-2000), el cual fue definido por los académicos de Ciencias Políticas y Derecho Constitucional como un régimen autoritario competitivo. Sin embargo, durante la última década hasta la actualidad hemos hallado en América Latina varios países con gobiernos en donde el principio de equilibrio de poderes ha erosionado como resultado de las medidas adoptadas por sus respectivas ramas ejecutivas. Esta situación sugiere las siguientes preocupaciones: ¿El modelo democrático liberal de la CDI se encuentra en crisis? ¿Este modelo ha sido vencido por los gobiernos liberales lo cuales privilegian a los derechos económicos y sociales y restringen los derechos civiles y políticos? ¿O ambos modelos están condenados a coexistir en la región?

The main goal of this contribution is to assess the impact of changes in legislation in 2014 to accounting and corporate finance of business corporations. Partial objective are then create a draft chart of accounts, exemplars (which point out effect of a change in accounting legislation) and analysis of selected charters of two types of business corporations (joint-stock company, limited liability company) represented by each of five specific companies. Yet another objective is to quantification of the estimated cost to amend the charters / social contracts / incorporation documents.

This study attempted to discover the role of internal auditors in the professional development of audit committee members, leading to enhanced performance, through the provision of induction programmes and professional development opportunities to committee members, with due regard for the principles of good governance and international best practices. A secondary aim of this study was to propose methods to improve the relationship between the internal audit activity and audit committees in providing additional support to its members. The audit committee's needs and requirements were assessed by using the audit committee charter as the basis in identifying the responsibilities of the committee and the professional development needs of committee members in an organisation. It was found that a framework for the induction and professional development of audit committee members would be most useful to internal auditors to assist audit committees to meet their requirements and improve their performance. / Auditing / M. Com.

This study is entitled ‘investigating the challenges in enforcing international human rights law in Africa: Towards an effective regional system’. It centres around a critical research problem namely: what challenges beset regional enforcement of human rights law in Africa and how can they be addressed to ensure the effective promotion and protection of human rights in the continent? It critically reviews and revisits the discourses and scholarly arguments on the crucial issue of regional enforcement of human rights law in Africa. It traverses through historical epochs in order to explain the origins, scope and evolution of human rights law in Africa. This is done in the quest for answers to questions such as: When and how did Africa’s regional human rights system originate? What factors led to its emergence? Was the concept of human rights recognised in Africa prior to European colonial rule? What is the present status of international human rights in Africa? It therefore lays the foundations for a better understanding of the historical and philosophical origins and evolution of Africa’s regional human rights system. The study then proceeds to review the normative and institutional mechanisms established in Africa to enforce human rights at the regional level. Particularly, it highlights the roles of the African Commission and Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights in the light of their contribution to, and challenges in, the enforcement of human rights in the region. The study concludes with recommendations on the possible ways to invigorate the African human rights system. One of the key findings is that, with appropriate reforms, the system can be more effective. / Constitutional, International and Indigenous Law / LL.D. (Public, Constitutional and International Law)

The world has seen gradual evolution of regional human rights arrangements. The adoption by the UN General Assembly of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on December 10, 1948, was followed by the creation of numerous regional instruments that address concerns of particular importance in the regional context. Three world regions, Africa, the Americas and Europe, have established their respective regional instruments together with the supervisory mechanism, such as commissions and courts. The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, with its emphasis on group rights and individual duties challenges the Western liberal account of rights, as expressed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The cultural differences brought to the fore not only the tension between individual and group rights but also the question as to whether of the universalism of human rights is possible. The study advocates for a moderate universalism of human rights, which can only be achieved through a dialogue among different cultural approaches to the notion of human rights. This study examines the content and substance of human rights norms of the African system with a view to recommending the possible strategies for their reform. Its central thesis is, the system is rather weak and therefore needs to be reformed. Toward this end, the study analyses the provisions of the African Charter. Thereafter, it explores its weaknesses and proposes strategies for their reform. The African human rights mechanisms face a number of common and particular challenges. Prospectively, Africa is going through a tremendous and interesting phase. These challenges are not insurmountable. / Constitutional, International and Indigenous Law / LL.D.

This study explored how the well-being of the gays, lesbians and bisexuals (GLBs} in Botswana could be promoted. The health and human rights approach that places dignity before rights was selected as a framework for investigation. The respondents' (n=47) levels of well-being were assessed through a questionnaire with 76 items that included the General Well-Being Schedule. The findings indicated that varying degrees of distress were experienced by 64 % of the GLBs in this study. The GLBs identified a need for HIV/AIDS education and had concerns about their general health, discrimination and vulnerability for violence including sexual attacks. Their levels of well-being were influenced by both positive internal acceptance of their sexual orientation and negative external acceptance by society. Levels of involvement of health professionals was poor, and linkage between health and human rights was proposed to reduce dignity violations and improve the quality of life of the GLBs in Botswana. / Health Studies / M.A. (Nursing Science)

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The diploma thesis Comparison of the Exile Press's View of Events in Czechoslovakia Using Národní politika and České slovo As Examples analyses the content of exile periodicals relating to the events in Czechoslovakia from the late 1960s until 1989. The analysis focuses on four events which can be seen as key moments in the period in question. The first event covered in the work is the Prague Spring, commencing with the first flashes of change to the occupation by the Warsaw Pact forces and its consequences. The analysis then explores the Helsinki Conference and the related civil initiative of Charter 77. The last even analysed is the Velvet Revolution and the period immediately preceding it. The first part of the thesis gives a historical overview of the development of the situation in Czechoslovakia during the period in question with an emphasis on the aforementioned events in Czechoslovak history. The second part analyses and compares selected periodicals' view of these events and their reaction to the development of the situation in Czechoslovakia. Emphasis is also placed on how exiles saw their role in the events in Czechoslovakia. The thesis also focus on the second wave of emigration, often referred to as the post-August emigration, which brought a series of new challenges, including dealing...

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L’histoire de France est marquée depuis le XVIe siècle par l’uniformisation linguistique. La République a ouvert son ère par une Terreur politique qui s’est accompagnée de Terreur linguistique. Depuis, France et français sont intimement liés dans l’organisation comme dans les imaginaires politiques. Or, à un moment récent et bref de l’histoire de France, lors de la XIème législature [1997-2002], le débat a émergé quant à l’opportunité de reconnaitre une diversité linguistique de moins en moins importante sur le territoire national, les locuteurs des langues régionales disparaissant progressivement par un pur effet démographique. En effet, le débat sur la Charte européenne des langues régionales ou minoritaires [1999] puis sur le statut de la Corse [2001] a occupé la scène politique et médiatique française comme rarement les questions de statut des langues en France l’avaient fait. La multiplicité des lieux d’expression et des conditions de production et de réception des discours politiques a nécessité, pour aborder ce que les médias nomment « la classe politique » et que nous définissons comme une communauté discursive, la construction d’un corpus fortement hétérogène. Séances parlementaires à l’Assemblée nationale ou au Sénat, rapports, avis, projets ou propositions de loi, questions au gouvernement, mais également expression de la communauté discursive des hommes et des femmes politiques dans la presse écrite et audiovisuelle ont été réunis pour tenter de saisir le débat dans son ensemble. L’hétérogénéité constitutive du corpus a justifié un traitement différencié des sous corpus, en fonction de leur lieu de production et de leurs conditions de transmission : le corpus parlementaire, représentant plus de 250000 mots a fait l’objet d’un traitement automatique par Lexico3, ce qui a permis d’entrer dans le corpus. Le traitement lexicométrique de l’ensemble parlementaire et traitement manuel des corpus médiatiques ont été articulés de manière féconde : une analyse de discours à entrée lexicale a été possible grâce à la façon dont le traitement automatique a mis en valeur des phénomènes de catégorisation opérées par les locuteurs au moyen du lexique. L’approche lexico-sémantique a été complétée d’une cartographie des arguments en présence : la communauté discursive des hommes politiques dessine des imaginaires sociodiscursifs. Des idéologies concurrentes de ce qu’est la Nation et de son devenir s’opposent alors. / French history is influenced, since the 16th century, by language standardisation. The French Republic has started its era through political Terror that was completed by language Terror. Since, France and French have been intertwined in terms of politics as well as in terms of collective representations. However, in recent years, during the mandate of L. Jospin as a Prime Minister [1997-2002], France debated about the possibility of acknowledging its language diversity. Although, for mere demographic reasons, this diversity is fading away, it meets a strong social support. In 1999, with the opportunity of signing the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages and in 2001 at the time where a possible new status was debated for Corsica, a language debate finally took place in France. From this debate, we built a corpus constructed to take into account all accessible discourse produced by French political personnel, seen as a discursive community. The consequence of such a project is a highly heterogeneous corpus, where Parliament debates, reports, law propositions etc. adjoin excerpts from written and audiovisual media. This heterogeneity commanded to approach the data differently: the vast corpus gathered from the Parliament [250,000 words approx.] underwent statistical treatment through Lexico3. This lexico-semantic analysis was hinged on manual analysis of the somewhat numerically smaller media corpus thanks to the lexical categorisation phenomena that were put into light via statistics. This lexico-semantic approach was completed by the analysis of the arguments deployed by different sides of the discursive community, as well as by an exploration of their collective representations of language management. Ideology about both the Nation and its future emerge from the debate, on a much wider scale than for languages [country’s unity, human rights, diversity, etc.].