På senare år har de mänskliga rättigheterna fått en betydelsefull plats i den svenska skolan. Mest framträdande har de mänskliga rättigheterna i ämnesplanen för samhällskunskap. Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur samhällskunskapslärare framställer mänskliga rättigheter (MR) i undervisningen, samt vilka innebörder de lägger i begreppet. För att kunna besvara de två frågorna har fyra semistrukturerade intervjuer genomförts på yrkesverksamma samhällskunskapslärare med god erfarenhet. Svaren lärarna gav analyserades med hjälp av aktuella teorier om de mänskliga rättigheterna. De brukade teorierna problematiserar vad det är, vilka effekter dess införande fått och hur de har upprätthållits.Resultatet av undersökningen visar att lärarna främst uppfattar MR som en blandning av både juridiska och moraliska rättigheter, men att det finns olika slagsidor till de båda sidorna. Vilka innebörder lärarna lägger i begreppet korrelerar med hur de undervisar om MR. Lärarnas framställning av MR-undervisningen kan delas upp i två områden. Antingen problematiserade man MR i alla stater, inklusive Sverige, eller så belyste man endast MR-situationen i andra stater. Här visar både tidigare forskning och human rights theory att MR-undervisning som problematiserar både den egna staten såväl som andra ger ett bättre utfall hos eleverna, än undervisning som belyser MR som något där borta.

Chapter one offers an introduction and a general outline of argument. Chapter two lays out the current scholarship on human rights and the environment and presents rejoinders to three prominent lines of objection to linking human rights and environmental interests: conceptual, those arising from issues of recognition, vagueness and conflicts between human rights, ecological, especially from those seeking protections for the environment regardless of its utility to humans, and those wishing to expand human rights beyond human interests, and adjudication concerns, namely from those sceptical that the polycentric nature of environmental issues create an insurmountable barrier to any significant improvements through judicially enforced human rights. Chapter three introduces and defends the environmental minimum as a normative framework for systematically conceptualizing the relationship between human rights and the environment. As such, it is chiefly concerned with ensuring a good faith regulatory engagement with environmental pollution: specific risks to recognised human rights trigger the environmental minimum, which then provides minimum standards (legal, established and emerging) that set the standard of review for determining whether a violation of human rights has occurred. Chapter four deals with the crucial empirical argument, outlining how the framework can systematically account for and consistently guide the further development of the case law under the European Convention on Human Rights. This conclusion rests on a comprehensive analysis of the environmental case law since 1950 using quantitative methods to expose doctrinal patterns previously not recognized in legal scholarship. Finally, chapter five explores and evaluates the potential benefits of the environmental minimum framework beyond human rights adjudication. Specifically, it investigates benefits to the varied fields of public law, regulatory policy, International Environmental Law, constitutionalism, and other international human rights treaties.

Over the past three decades, privatization and school choice have been introduced and embodied in the vocabulary of several national education policies. Although free education has been constituted, private schooling has been steadily growing its presence over the last years in Greece and Sweden. Parents are asked to choose among different school alternatives in an attempt to find the school that ‘fits them the best’. This study aiming to examine the phenomenon of private schooling and the factors that affect parental school choice, outlined a comprehensive framework of the national policies about private schools and school choice in both countries. Furthermore, the Human Capital, Human Rights and Capability approaches consisted the theoretical background of the study and framed the analysis of its research findings. The case study design of the research provided an in-depth exploration of the two national contexts, enriching the study with empirical data. Twenty semi-structured interviews with education professionals and parents from both countries shed light on the reasons behind the school choice towards private schools. Regarding the findings of the research, several kinds of educational inequalities and social segregation were identified because of the fact that not all parents have access to school choice under equal terms.

The diploma thesis deals with the issue of respect and protection of human rights in the Russian Federation, with particular emphasis on the European view on this topic. Within the content of the thesis is the presentation and explanation of the difference between the approach of the Russian Federation and the European Union to the protection of human rights based on the application of two different theories of access policy - the theory of commitment and the theory of compliance. The thesis focuses mainly on political and civil rights and freedoms, and submits the main factors behind the Russian approach to the protection of human rights and the current situation of human rights in the Russian Federation. The aim of the thesis is presentation and evaluation of different approaches to the protection of human rights of the Russian Federation and the European Union by applying the theory of commitment and the theory of compliance, and to highlight the main causes that lead to the current human rights situation in the Russian region.