Although much has been written about South African foreign policy very little focus has been on the African perspective in analysing policy actions. Furthermore, South Africa has regularly been criticised for being consistent in its criticism of Israel but inconsistent in other human rights issues. This so-called contradiction in South Africa’s foreign policy on Israel in relation to the Palestinian question, when compared to other human rights’ issues, demands an in-depth analysis of the decisions taken by the South African government that is not limited to rigid, pro-West paradigms. South Africa post-1994 is characterised by a context that includes historical experiences of injustice, abuse, apartheid, colonialism, racial discrimination and racial subjugation. It is a country whose leaders and people understand the notion of human indignity because of the impact of supremacist ideologies. The South African government, based on historical, practical and moral (human rights) grounds has indicated its committed support for the Palestinian struggle against Israeli apartheid and occupation. Accordingly, South Africa’s foreign policy stance on Israel has been consistent since 1994, although until 2008, it offered little in terms of real (punitive or sanctioning) action against Israel. Although the focus of this paper is on the Zuma government’s foreign policy on Israel in relation to the Palestinian question, a discussion on pre-1994 South Africa’s symbiotic relations with Israel is included considering the impact of historical experiences in decision making. This study also considers the foreign policy of the Mandela and Mbeki governments on the Palestinian issue which is important in providing a context to the understanding regarding the purported shift and contestation in the Zuma government’s foreign policy on Israel in relation to the Palestinian question. This shift is analysed by highlighting specific foreign policy actions and the role of key actors in attempting to influence those policy actions. From an academic perspective, the author considers four key areas which include a) human rights, b) foreign policy, c) human rights and ethics in foreign policy and d) global apartheid, foreign policy and human rights which are integrated within the structures of analytic eclecticism allowing for multiple levels of analysis. / Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / gm2015 / Centre for Human Rights / LLM / Unrestricted

The concept of sovereignty has been a contestable idea throughout history, and its meaning has oftentimes transformed to reflect prevailing systemic conditions and political priorities of major actors in each historical period. In this study, I argue that the social construction of state sovereignty is at the beginning stages of another major redefinition. In an era of globalization and regional integration, discourse on sovereignty has become increasingly prolific as the rhetoric of sovereignty moves away from Westphalian principles that were based exclusively on the agency of independent states. Furthermore, multinational campaigns to promote international human rights engender a discourse that suggests the idea of sovereignty is changing. Does this emerging discourse confirm the growing legitimacy of humanitarian intervention, or is it merely a discursive trend in international relations that does not indicate significant change in state perception and behavior? The purpose of this work is to address this question. / Master of Arts

No abstract available. / Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / gm2014 / Centre for Human Rights / unrestricted

No abstract available. / Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / gm2014 / Centre for Human Rights / unrestricted

No abstract available. / Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / gm2014 / Centre for Human Rights / unrestricted

Thesis advisor: Will Attwood-Charles / Immigration policy has undoubtedly taken a forefront spot in the national dialogue in our contemporary political moment. However, there is considerable disagreement among and within political parties about how to address this issue. This paper seeks to better understand the priorities of immigrant rights activists in the U.S. by executing case studies on 11 immigrant rights organizations. I explore which framing strategies each group uses to push for its goals and theorize about how these social movement organizations (SMOs) arrive at the strategic frames that they do. Through discourse analysis and coding of interviews, websites, and other media sources, I conclude that the most relevant factors in determining what frame a group arrives at are its external resource environment and how professionalized the organization is. There is additional evidence to suggest that the political opportunity structure, salience of a previously successful ‘master frame,’ and the age of leaders also affect framing processes. Finally, my data does not suggest that being immigrant-led versus led by non-immigrant ‘allies’ directly affects an SMOs’ framing strategies, but it does affect the external resource environment from which it is able to draw. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2020. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Departmental Honors. / Discipline: International Studies.

Includes bibliographical references. / The seven women who shared their stories of rape at the human rights violation hearings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission ('TRC') in South Africa offer a nascent public record of women's experiences of rape under apartheid. This project is motivated by a desire to examine how these testimonies of rape were affected by explicit and implicit underlying narrative frameworks associated with the language of the TRC, and that of rape. In particular, this project analyses the extent to which the juxtaposition of these two frameworks at the TRC may have either enabled or constrained the seven women's narratives.

Since the enactment of Nigeria’s Same Sex (Marriage) Prohibition Act of 2013, advocacy for the protection of sexual and gender minorities in Nigeria has grown rapidly. This advocacy often toes a line of legal formalism, under an international human rights law framework. This framework uses strategic litigation, petitions before international bodies, presentation of violations reports to the national human rights bodies, and public engagement on the equality of application of human rights norms for sexual and gender minorities. Despite these efforts, political rhetoric and public opinion continue to be antagonistic to advocacy efforts, based on the claim of political and religious leaders that same-sex relationships and non-heteronormative sexuality and gender identity are incompatible with the cultures and religions of the Nigerian population. This thesis argues that the evolution and enforcement of Nigerian laws criminalising same-sex relationships and non-heteronormative sexuality and gender identity (‘criminalising laws’) are part of a system of wider social control leveraged by the political elite to perpetuate its hegemonic power. Consequently, this thesis proposes that, to advance the legal protection of sexual and gender minorities in Nigeria, advocates must critically understand, and take measures to reduce, the underlying power dynamics in the criminalising laws. Using doctrinal and empirical research, this thesis proposes democratic strategies to challenge and reduce hegemonic power dynamics in Nigeria, and to strengthen existing advocacy for the protection of sexual and gender minorities in Nigeria. The research shows that the evolution of laws criminalising same-sex relationships in Nigeria is based on the use of political homophobia by the political elite as a tool of social exclusion. It further concludes that law enforcement authorities in Nigeria are guided by hegemonic considerations in the enforcement of the criminalising laws. The thesis identifies social control linkages between the criminalising laws and the existence of wider social exclusion in Nigeria. An increased awareness by advocates of these underlying hegemonic motivations can lead to a more nuanced, more contextual, and more intersectional advocacy for the rights of sexual and gender minorities in Nigeria. / Thesis (LLD)--University of Pretoria, 2020. / Centre for Human Rights / LLD / Unrestricted

This thesis contributes to the understanding of the most effective ways to promote sustainable and inclusive development. It uses public private partnerships in infrastructure projects as a case study for demonstrating that a holistic approach of development that incorporates human rights considerations is needed to achieve sustainable and inclusive development outcomes. The dissertation explores different notions of development and how they have influenced the regulatory frameworks for and the structuring of Infrastructure projects and their effectiveness in achieving their intended development outcomes. It demonstrates that public-private partnerships add several layers of complexity to infrastructure finance, planning and implementation, and that they can result in a significant gap between the project’s intended and actual developmental outcomes. The thesis proposes that governments and other project sponsors use human rights impact assessments (HRIAs) to address the challenges created by public-private partnerships in infrastructure projects and shows that this will help increase the possibility that infrastructure PPPs lead to sustainable development outcomes. The thesis also analyses a number of established human rights impact assessment methodologies and proposes a new approach that is specifically designed for the particular context of public-private partnerships in infrastructure projects. / Thesis (LLD)--University of Pretoria, 2020. / National Research Foundation (NRF) / Centre for Human Rights / LLD / Unrestricted

"The scale of human rights abuses on the continent is undisputedly high. The irony is that most constitutions contain express provisions for the protection and promotion of human rights and for the independence of the judiciary. It explains why constitutional guarantees alone are insufficient, political commitment is required if there is to be substance to these quarantees. The combination of express political statements made by governmetns, and their attitudes towards the judiciary, advances the argument mady by some that the majority of leaders treat its institutional independnce as a foreign invention imposed upon Africa. What is more disturbing, is that no alternate mechanisms are adopted to address and stop the continuation of human rights abuses. Therefore, this research seeks to answer the following question: whether judicial independence is a foreign invention imposed on African governments, and further, whether it is relevant to the protection of human rights in the continent. ... The research is composed of an introduction and four chapters. The introduction outlines the research question, literature review, objectives, hypothesis, significance, methodology and limitations of the study. Chapter one seeks to define the concept of judicial independence and how it relates to the protection of human rights. This is done by examining the international law perspectives on judicial independence. Chapter two highlights the theoretical and practical developments in the African continent that have taken place through the auspices of the OAU pertaining to judicial independence. Here the ACHPR, jurisprudence of the African Commission, the Protocol to the ACHPR and ancillary instruments are discussed and analysed. Chapter three discusses other universally recognised considerations that are concomitant to judicial independence and whose observance accelerate the protection of human rights. The chapter also focuses on the national constitutions to determine the extent to which justice systems cater for judicial independence and, practical responses by governments and courts. The fourth chapter seals the study by drawing evaluations, forwarding recommendations for the popularisation of judicial independence as an internationally recognised mechanism of the protection of human rights relevant to Africa, and finally, drawing general conclusion of the study." -- Introduction. / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2003. / Prepared under the supervision of Dr. Atangcho N. Akonumbo, at the Faculty of Social and Management Sciences, The Catholic University of Central Africa, Yaounde, Cameroon / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/academic_pro/llm1/dissertations.html / Centre for Human Rights / LLM