The main argument of this study is that the right of Indigenous peoples in Peru to consultation has little practical force and effect, since the Peruvian Constitutional Tribunal is not prepared to base it on a broader right of self-determination. I centre my investigation on the 2005-2011 decisions of the Constitutional Tribunal of Peru regarding the right to consultation. In these decisions, the application of the right to consultation is divorced from a perspective informed by the right of Indigenous self-determination. The main consequence of this divorce is that it obscures the pragmatic and symbolic dimension of the right to Indigenous self-determination, debilitating the practical and symbolic potential of the right to consultation. The lack of correspondence between the right to consultation and the right of indigenous self-determination is built into the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Tribunal and reflects the bias of its judges. This bias is actually a continuation and accommodation of old prejudices of the dominant society against Indigenous peoples in Peru; it is part of the pervasive cultural discrimination that is embedded in Peruvian society and that has been translated into jurisprudential terms and language. This bias is also a symptom of the invisibility of the cultural manifestations of Indigenous peoples and the resultant obscuring of cultural differences in general. This situation illustrates that the racism that existed in the colony, and continued during the republican era in Peru, has not died, but has merely been transformed into a more subtle form of legal and constitutional colonialism. / Graduate / 0326 / alvaro.cordova@mail.mcgill.ca

Le Parlement européen (PE) n’a occupé en 1957 qu’une place secondaire, ce qui entraînait une grande déception auprès des parlementaires, mettant en cause ses pouvoirs consultatifs qui ne portait qu’un sens symbolique. En valorisant la démocratie et la séparation des pouvoirs, le PE pourrait sortir de l’impasse à travers l’exploitation maximale de la procédure consultative. Jusqu’à l’Acte unique européen, le champ d’application de la consultation ne cesse de s’élargir. Idem pour l’augmentation des revendications du respect de son droit d’information et de consultation envers le Conseil. Le manque de moyens juridiques de contraindre le Conseil à accepter les avis du PE, qui se voient systématiquement refusés, nécessite le changement de position parlementaire dans les années 70 dans les relations entre les deux institutions. Les nouvelles procédures à effets juridiques, telles que la reconsultation, le droit d’approbation sur les accords internationaux et la codécision, ont été revendiquées, pourtant de manière irrégulière. Les mesures pour le renforcement des pouvoirs budgétaires se voient s’adopter, de sorte qu’elles favorisent non seulement le contrôle parlementaire en la matière, mais aussi le renforcement des pouvoirs dans les questions non-budgétaires : les pouvoirs législatifs. Le droit d’information et le pouvoir de consultation sur les activités budgétaires, ainsi que le contrôle effectif sur les budgets et leurs dépenses, font eux aussi l’objet de revendications parlementaires. Le Conseil européen et la Cour des comptes étaient également invoquées comme destinataires de ces revendications afin de persuader le Conseil et la Commission. Cette présente analyse démontre que le PE, tel qu’il est aujourd’hui, est un résultat de la collaboration dans les premières décennies avec les autres institutions et les grandes figures des États membres, lesquels jouent un rôle important pour orienter la discussion dans les Communautés. / The nature of the secondary place reserved for the European Parliament (EP) in 1957 brought about a big disappointment of the European representatives and critics of its consultative powers only of, then, symbolic significance. Putting emphasis on the principles of democracy and separation of powers, the EP attempted to come out of impasse by using at maximum the consultative procedures. Until the Single European Act, the demands of the EP on respect for information and consultation obligation by the Council continue to increase. Also was asserted an extended application of consultative procedure to the issues, for which the EP had not been obligatorily consulted by the Council. Lack of legal means to make the Council accept the opinions and demands of the EP, which had scarcely been adopted by the Council, can explain the position change of the EP during the 70s vis-à-vis the Council and the Commission. The new procedures with legal effects, such as re-consultation, the power of approbation regarding of international agreements and co-decision, have been insisted, but not consistently.Reinforcement of the EP’s budgetary powers aimed not only at enhancement of parliamentary control in the budgetary activities of the European Communities, but also at reinforcement of non-budgetary powers: legislative powers. The parliamentary demands for the respect by the Council of information and consultation obligations and for effective control over budgets and expenditures were part of the EP’s struggles to be justly recognized in the map of European political institutions. When the European Council and the Court of Auditors were also addressed the sort of demands, the EP aimed to persuade thereby the Council and the Commission.This present analysis shows that the EP, as is today, is a result of the collaboration with other institutions and important figures of the Member States, which played an important role to guide the discussion in the Communities.

Les Jeux Sérieux (Serious Games) sont des jeux vidéo qui sont conçus avec un objectif premier qui n'est pas le divertissement. Les jeux sérieux sont de plus en plus utilisés dans le domaine de la santé en tant qu'outil éducatif dans le cadre de la formation à la médecine, ou pour aider au rétablissement des patients. Dans cette thèse, nous nous intéressons à la conception d'un jeu sérieux pour la formation des médecins généralistes, en nous intéressant tout particulièrement à l'apprentissage des compétences communicationnelles et interpersonnelles qui jouent un rôle très important dans le métier de médecin, et qui sont assez peu présentes dans les programmes des cursus de formation. Nous nous intéressons en particulier aux méthodologies de conception d'un tel jeu qui doit délivrer un contenu utilitaire tout en équilibrant apprentissage et divertissement. Afin de mener ce travail, nous présentons dans la première partie de la thèse une analyse des méthodes existantes de conception de jeux sérieux en étudiant en particulier les mécanismes permettant de motiver le joueur ainsi que les principaux design patterns de conception. Nous expliquons en quoi les jeux sérieux nécessitent une architecture particulière dont la principale caractéristique est de séparer clairement les concepts nécessaires à l'apprentissage de ceux liés à l'aspect ludique. Nous proposons ensuite une modélisation de la consultation médicale qui en plus de rendre compte du processus métier auquel elle correspond, permet de représenter les différents éléments nécessaires à l'implémentation algorithmique d'un moteur de dialogue entre un joueur et un patient virtuel. Cette modélisation utilise les ontologies pour décrire les connaissances impliquées et nous montrons comment un scénario de consultation médicale peut se décrire en termes d'instances de ces ontologies. Ces ontologies incluent quatre niveaux qui décrivent le profil du patient, le résultat de consultation, le scénario et la phrase. Cette description est accessible aux experts formateurs qui disposent donc d'un outil leur permettant de définir les objectifs pédagogiques que le joueur-apprenant doit atteindre au cours de la simulation. Ces analyses sont enfin appliquées au cas de la consultation médicale et nous décrivons l'architecture d'un jeu que nous avons conçu appelé AgileDoctor. Ce jeu a pour objectif de permettre à un apprenant de jouer le rôle d'un médecin qui mène des consultations médicales en accueillant des patients aux profils divers. / Serious games are games designed for a primary purpose other than pure entertainment. More and more, serious games are developed and used in the health area as educational tools dedicated to medical knowledge training, or helping with the recovery of the patients. Communication and interpersonal skills for general practitioners in medical consultation play an important role in providing high-quality health care and establishment of good doctor-patient relationship. However, specific trainings on communication skills for doctors and medical school students are often overlooked. Comparing to traditional training approaches by using role-playing and standardized patients, an educational tool in form of a game can maximize the variety of scenario, reduce the limitation and enhance learner's motivation. For the above purposes, in this thesis we are interested in the design of a serious game for training general practitioners, in particular on communication skills learning. We are particularly interested in design methodologies of such a game, which is able to deliver a utility content while balancing learning and entertainment. To conduct this work, firstly we present an analysis of existing methods of serious games design by studying the mechanisms to motivate the player as well as the main design patterns. We explain how serious games require a special architecture in the design phase whose main characteristic is to clearly separate the concepts necessary for learning to those associated with the fun aspect. We then propose a model of medical consultation based on our analyses of identification of key concepts in the medical consultation process. This model is used to represent the different elements required for algorithmic implementation of a dialogue engine between a doctor and a patient. Our modeling uses ontologies to describe involved domain knowledge and show how a medical consultation scenario can be described in terms of instances of these ontologies. The proposed ontologies include four levels which describe the patient's profile, the result of consultation, the scenario and the phrase respectively. This description is available to the trainers and domain experts by using the authoring tool thus allows them to define the educational objectives for the player-learner during the simulation process. Finally these models are implemented and applied to the case of medical consultation. We represent the architecture of a serious game that we've designed called AgileDoctor. This game aims to enable a learner to play the role of a doctor who conducts medical consultations facing the patients of various profiles.

Die Kommunikation mit den Kunden und insbesondere die Kundenberatung sind in Zeiten permanent hohen Drucks am Markt durch Mitbewerber wichtiges Marketinginstrument, mit dem die Kunden möglichst dauerhaft an das eigene Unternehmen gebunden werden können. Auslöser für die vorliegende Arbeit war die Idee zur Realisierung einer Kundenberatung mittels Videokonferenzsystemen im Jahr 2000 im Zusammenhang mit dem durch das Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF) geförderte Forschungsprojekt „intermobil Region Dresden“. Durch diese Implementierung sollten Internet-Informations- und Vertriebssysteme durch eine Funktion der Individualberatung ergänzt werden und damit ein persönliches Beratungsgespräch möglichst realitätsnah abbilden. Da im B2C-Bereich die Echtzeitberatung über das Internet eine bis jetzt weitgehend ungenutzte Beratungsform ist, obwohl die dafür notwendigen Technologien schon seit Jahren zur Verfügung stehen, verspricht eine wissenschaftliche Untersuchung dieses Gegenstandes neuen Erkenntnisgewinn und ist gleichzeitig wichtigste Motivation für diese Arbeit. Hauptziel und somit grundlegende wissenschaftliche Fragestellung ist es zu untersuchen, ob synchrone Videokommunikation ein geeignetes Echtzeit-Beratungsmittel für die Kundenberatung (in diesem Zusammenhang als Videoberatung bezeichnet) sein kann. In der vorliegenden Arbeit werden über die Planung eines Video Call Centers und den damit verbundenen Modellbetrachtungen Einsatzszenarios für die Videoberatung entwickelt. In diese Entwicklung fließen die Ergebnisse aus der Einzelfallanalyse des implementierten Videoberatungssystems ein. Diese Ergebnisse werden auf Basis der durchgeführten Labor- und Feldforschung gewonnen. Die Wirksamkeit des analysierten Video Call Centers in Bezug auf die Kundenzufriedenheit wird abschließend durch eine Evaluation unterstrichen.

I slutet på 2019 sattes en projektgrupp ihop av IFRS Foundation, med målet att undersöka intressenters efterfrågan på redovisning för hållbarhet och ta reda på vad IFRS Foundations kunde göra för att svara på den eventuella efterfrågan. Detta mynnade ut i ett dokument som kallas consultation paper on sustainability reporting, som släpptes i september 2020. Dokumentet behandlar det eventuella behovet av globala redovisningsstandarder för hållbarhet, huruvida IFRS Foundation ska vara delaktiga och i så fall hur mycket. IFRS Foundation presenterar ett förslag om ett Sustainability Standards Board, som innebär att, under styrning av IFRS Foundation, utveckla globala redovisningsstandarder för hållbarhet. Problemdiskussionen för studien presenterar olika intressenters behov av redovisningsstandarder för hållbarhet samt hur utbudet på redovisningsstandarder för hållbarhet ser ut idag, vilket resulterade i studiens syfte. Studiens första syfte är att undersöka hur olika intressenters attityder skiljer sig åt gällande huruvida det finns ett behov av globala redovisningsstandarder för hållbarhet. Det andra syftet är att undersöka hur intressenters attityder skiljer sig åt huruvida IFRS Foundation kan använda sina relationer för att för att främja ett redovisningsramverk för hållbarhet, och ifall ett sådant ramverk bör verka under IFRS Foundation. Studien har använt sig av en abduktiv forskningsansats som utgångspunkt, vilket implicerar både deduktiva och induktiva inslag. Intentionen med studien har varit att analysera och tolka dokument för att få en djupare förståelse för intressenternas kommentarer, vilket har resulterat i att en kvalitativ innehållsanalys har använts. Den 11 februari hade IFRS Foundation tagit emot 577 kommentarer från intressenter. Urvalsprocessen resulterade i totalt 277 av dessa som är utgångspunkt för studiens empiri och analys. Studiens resultat visar på att en stark majoritet av intressenterna menar att det finns ett behov av globala redovisningsstandarder för hållbarhet och att de lämpligen kan operera under IFRS Foundations struktur. Resultatet framför även att respondenterna värdesätter IFRS Foundations intressenter och relationer de har utvecklat under arbetet med finansiell redovisning. Däremot att de saknar expertis och erfarenhet från hållbarhetsarbete. Studiens slutsatser är att det inte framkom några skillnader mellan intressentgruppernas attityder i någon av aspekterna, då i princip alla är positiva till IFRS Foundations frågor. Detta ger i sig en signal att IFRS Foundations förslag om att skapa Sustainability Standards Board bör förverkligas, men att de bör göras i samarbete med andra initiativ. / At the end of 2019, a project group was put together by IFRS Foundation, with the goal of examining stakeholders' demand for accounting for sustainability and finding out what IFRS Foundations could do to respond to any demand. This resulted in a document called consultation paper on sustainability reporting, which was released in September 2020. The document addresses the possible need for global accounting standards for sustainability, whether IFRS Foundation should be involved and, if so, how much. IFRS Foundation presents a proposal for a Sustainability Standards Board, which involves, under the direction of the IFRS Foundation, developing global accounting standards for sustainability. The problem discussion for the study presents different stakeholders' needs for accounting standards for sustainability and what the range of accounting standards for sustainability looks like today, which resulted in the purpose of the study. The first purpose of the study is to examine how the attitudes of different stakeholders differ regarding whether there is a need for global accounting standards for sustainability. The second purpose is to examine how stakeholders' attitudes differ as to whether the IFRS Foundation can use its relationships to promote an accounting framework for sustainability, and whether such a framework should operate under the IFRS Foundation. The study has used an abductive research approach as a starting point, which means both deductive and inductive elements. The intention of the study has been to analyse and interpret documents to gain a deeper understanding of the stakeholders' comments, which has resulted in the use of a qualitative content analysis. As of February 11, it had received 577 comments from stakeholders. The selection process resulted in a total of 277 comment letters, which is the foundation of the study's empirical and analytic component. The results of the study show that a strong majority of stakeholders believe that there is a need for global accounting standards for sustainability and that they can appropriately operate under the governance structure of the IFRS Foundation. The result also states that respondents value IFRS Foundation's stakeholders and relationships they have developed during their work with financial accounting. However, they lack expertise and experience from sustainability work. The conclusion is that there were no differences between stakeholder groups in any of the aspects, since virtually everyone is in favour of IFRS Foundation's issues. This sends a signal that the IFRS Foundation's proposal to create the Sustainability Standards Board should be implemented, but that they should be implemented in cooperation with other initiatives.This master's thesis is written in Swedish.

Les consultations publiques comptent. Elles permettent aux citoyens, aux groupes d’intérêt et aux entreprises de signaler leurs préférences aux administrateurs canadiens. Elles servent également d’espace où les différentes parties prenantes de la règlementation peuvent partager leur savoir et leurs connaissances. Contrairement aux courants théoriques et empiriques dominants, elles ne sont pas qu’un instrument symbolique. Les consultations ne se limitent pas non plus à être une avenue supplémentaire permettant aux intérêts économiques d’exercer une influence indue sur l’articulation des politiques publiques. Cette thèse démontre que l’étendue des consultations publiques a une incidence sur l’importance des changements règlementaires et que la diversité des participants prenant part à celles-ci est positivement corrélée à la sévérité des règlements. Elle argumente également que les administrateurs consultent systématiquement les organismes et individus s’identifiant comme Autochtones lors de l’écriture de leurs règlements. Néanmoins, les résultats des analyses présentées dans cette thèse supportent le fait que les entreprises sont le type de parties prenantes qui participent le plus largement et le plus fréquemment aux consultations publiques. De plus, ces résultats démontrent que les consultations règlementaires restent généralement limitées et que les administrateurs peuvent difficilement incorporer les savoirs autochtones à leurs analyses d’impact. Globalement, cette thèse présente par quel mécanisme les administrateurs peuvent intégrer à leur travail des informations (politiques et/ou techniques) qui leur sont normalement inaccessibles. Elle décrit quel est l’effet d’inclure des informations diversifiées sur la nature des règlements et quel type d’information est recherché et utilisé par l’administration publique canadienne. / Public consultations matter. They allow citizens, interest groups and businesses to express their preferences to Canadian administrators. They also serve as a space where different regulatory stakeholders can share their knowledge and insights. Contrary to prevailing theoretical and empirical views, they are not mostly symbolic tools of inclusion. Nor are consultations limited to being an additional venue for economic interests to exert undue influence on public policy. This thesis demonstrates that the scope of public consultation affects the extent of regulatory change and that the diversity of participants in public consultation is positively correlated with the severity of regulation. It also argues that administrators systematically consult with Indigenous-identifying organizations and individuals when writing regulations. Nevertheless, the results of the analyses presented in this thesis support the fact that businesses are the type of stakeholders that participate most extensively and frequently in public consultations. Furthermore, these results show that regulatory consultations are generally limited and that administrators can hardly incorporate Indigenous Knowledge into their impact assessments. Overall, this thesis presents the mechanism by which administrators can incorporate information (political and/or technical) that is normally inaccessible to them into their work. It describes the effect of including diverse information on the nature of regulations and what type of information is sought and used by the Canadian public administration.

Bakgrunden till denna studie är införandet av Lag (2022:66) om konsultation i frågor som rör det samiska folket som trädde i kraft 1 mars 2022 och som sedan 1 mars 2024 även omfattar regioner och kommer samt att Plan – och Bygglagen (2010:900) inte längre är undantagen. Lagen medför en skyldighet för kommuner att i planärenden konsultera samerna i frågor som är av särskild betydelse för dem. Studien har syftat till att undersöka vilka effekter denna lag har på detaljplaneprocessen genom att utföra en djupgående undersökning av lagens utformning, tilltänkt tillämpning samt effekter. Då lagen är så pass ny finns inga relevanta ärenden att analysera vilket resulterat i en undersökning av tillgänglig litteratur, förarbeten och lagtext tillsammans med kvalitativa intervjuer med aktörer som angås av lagen. Sedan har studien jämfört svaren och litteraturfynden med befintlig statistik om detaljplaneprocessen. Studiens resultat visar att lagen kommer tillämpas för kommuner inom renskötselområden i större utsträckning än de utanför samt att kommunerna tillsammans med de samiska företrädarna över tid kommer utkristallisera vilka ärendetyper som oftare är föremål för konsultation. Vidare fann studien att de två största riskerna med lagen är förlängda ledtider på grund av att det är svårt att nå samerna under renskötselintensiva perioder samt en osäkerhet kring graden av inflytande samerna kommer få. Lagen blir tandlös om de ska lägga ner stora resurser för att tackla det administrativa trycket utan att få genomslag för deras åsikter. / The background of this study is the implementation of Act (2022:66) on consultation on issues concerning the Sámi people which won legal force on March 1, 2022, and which, from March 1, 2024, also covers regions and includes the Planning and Building Act (2010:900). The law requires municipalities to consult with the Sami in planning matters that are of particular importance to them. The study aimed to investigate the effects this law will have on the detailed planning process by conducting an in-depth examination of the law's design, intended application, and effects. As the law is relatively new, there are no relevant cases to analyze, resulting in an investigation of available literature, preparatory works, and legal texts, along with qualitative interviews with both municipalities and Sami representatives affected by the law. The study then compared the responses and literature findings with existing statistics on the detailed planning process. The study's results show that the law will be applied to municipalities within reindeer herding areas to a greater extent than those outside and that the municipalities, together with the Sami representatives, will over time identify the types of cases that are more often subject to consultation. Furthermore, the study found that the two biggest risks associated with the law are extended lead times due to the difficulty in reaching the Sami during intensive reindeer herding periods and uncertainty regarding the degree of influence the Sami will have. The law becomes ineffective if the Sami are required to invest significant resources to address the administrative burden without having their opinions considered.

Abstrakt Handledning är ett viktigt verktyg för specialpedagoger i det förebyggande och hälsofrämjande arbetet, vilket kan bidra till en mer inkluderande skola. Det finns stöd för visionen om en inkluderande skola i såväl lagstiftning som forskning. För att möta upp elevers olika behov och förutsättningar för lärande inom den ordinarie undervisningen behövs ett välfungerande tvärprofessionellt samarbete mellan lärare och specialpedagoger. Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur lärare använder sig av specialpedagogisk handledning för att möjliggöra att alla elever inkluderas inom den ordinarie undervisningen. Forskningsfrågan var således inriktad på hur lärare tillämpar specialpedagogisk handledning i undervisningen. Det teoretiska ramverk som användes i studien var Sundqvists tre specialpedagogiska handledningstyper: det konsultativa, det reflekterande och det samarbetande samtalet samt de tre specialpedagogiska perspektiven; det kategoriska, det relationella och dilemmaperspektivet. Dessa perspektiv genomsyrar studien utifrån antagandet om att elevers skolsvårigheter kan ses på olika sätt beroende på var fokus läggs och hur dessa svårigheter hanteras. Studien har en kvalitativ forskningsansats och forskningsdesignen är en fallstudie som är vanligt förekommande vid samhällsvetenskapliga undersökningar. Vid datainsamlingen användes semistrukturerade intervjuer med ett målstyrt urval, sex legitimerade lärare inom grundskolan. En pilotstudie genomfördes för att få respons på att frågeställningarna i intervjuguiden var relevanta för studien. Tidigare forskning har visat på hur tre specialpedagogiska handledningsformer: det konsultativa, det reflekterande och det samarbetande samtalet kan bidra till att skapa mer inkluderande lärmiljöer för alla elever. Studiens resultat stämmer överens med tidigare forskning. Under resultatanalysen framkom även en fjärde kategori, organisation, som handlar om vikten av en tydlig struktur och tydligt ledarskap på alla nivåer i organisationen. Studiens resultat tänker vi kan bidra i det specialpedagogiska arbetet på alla nivåer, det vill säga på individ-, grupp- och organisationsnivå. Det tvärprofessionella samarbetet och specialpedagogisk handledning är ett verktyg för att skapa mer inkluderande lärmiljöer för alla elever. Nyckelord: handledning, inkludering, lärmiljöer, specialpedagogisk handledning / Abstract Consultation is an important tool for special educators in preventive and health promoting work, which can contribute to a more inclusive school. There is support for the vision of an inclusive school in both legislation and research. To meet students' different needs and conditions for learning within regular education, effective interprofessional collaboration between teachers and special educators is needed. The aim of this study is to examine how teachers use special educational consultation to enable the inclusion of all students within regular education. Thus, the research question was focused on how teachers apply special educational consultation in teaching. The theoretical framework used in this study was Sundqvist's three types of special educational consultation: the counseling, the reflective and the co-operative consultation, as well as the three special educational perspectives; categorical, relational and dilemma perspective. These perspectives permeate the study based on the assumption that students' school difficulties can be seen in different ways depending on where the focus is placed and how these difficulties are dealt with. The study has a qualitative research approach, and the research design is a case study commonly used in social science research. Semi-structured interviews with a targeted selection of six certified teachers in compulsory school were used for data collection. A pilot study was conducted to receive feedback on whether the questions in the interview guide were relevant to the study. Previous research has shown how three forms of special educational consultation: the counseling, the reflective and the co-operative consultation can contribute to creating more inclusive learning environments for all students. The study's results are consistent with previous research. During the analysis of the results, a fourth category emerged, organization, which concerns the importance of clear structure and leadership at all levels in the organization. We believe that the results of the study can contribute to special educational work at all levels including the individual-, group- and organizational levels. Interprofessional collaboration and special educational consultation are tools for creating more inclusive learning environments for all students. Keywords: consultation, inclusion, learning environments, special education consultation

This dissertation analyses whether the rights of indigenous people are being recognised, respected and upheld when the state awards prospecting and mining rights on land owned and lawfully occupied by indigenous people in South Africa. This analysis is based on the fact that most prospecting and mining rights in South Africa are awarded on or around communal lands where rural communities and, in some instances, indigenous people reside. Through the Constitution, the NEMA, the MPRDA and other environmental sector-specific legislation examples, it is established that the state tends to prioritise economic development that alienates indigenous peoples' right to live in a healthy and safe environment as a result of the on-going mining operations. A sustainable approach which appreciates the balance between economic, social and environmental sustainability is proposed as a means and step towards realisation of South Africa's mineral wealth, the right of communities to live in a healthy environment and community, as well as prior consultation when prospecting and mining rights are awarded on communal lands. The approach of the Bengwenyama-ye-Maswati Constitutional Court decision pertaining to the rights of local communities and indigenous people when mining takes place in South Africa is adopted to link the three sustainability pillars to the realisation of the rights of these local communities. / LLM (Environmental Law and Governance), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

This dissertation analyses whether the rights of indigenous people are being recognised, respected and upheld when the state awards prospecting and mining rights on land owned and lawfully occupied by indigenous people in South Africa. This analysis is based on the fact that most prospecting and mining rights in South Africa are awarded on or around communal lands where rural communities and, in some instances, indigenous people reside. Through the Constitution, the NEMA, the MPRDA and other environmental sector-specific legislation examples, it is established that the state tends to prioritise economic development that alienates indigenous peoples' right to live in a healthy and safe environment as a result of the on-going mining operations. A sustainable approach which appreciates the balance between economic, social and environmental sustainability is proposed as a means and step towards realisation of South Africa's mineral wealth, the right of communities to live in a healthy environment and community, as well as prior consultation when prospecting and mining rights are awarded on communal lands. The approach of the Bengwenyama-ye-Maswati Constitutional Court decision pertaining to the rights of local communities and indigenous people when mining takes place in South Africa is adopted to link the three sustainability pillars to the realisation of the rights of these local communities. / LLM (Environmental Law and Governance), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014