LLM / Department of Mercantile Law / Scholarship on the subject of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) highlights its four components: economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic responsibility. In South Africa, while the economic, legal and ethical components of CSR are regulated and attract punitive measures for erring corporations who fail to adhere to such demands, the application of the philanthropic aspect of CSR is problematic. The application of philanthropic responsibility suffers normative, institutional and accountability deficiencies in South Africa. Hence, corporations do not conscientiously direct philanthropic responsibility towards achieving core socio-economic needs of their host communities. In the light of international human rights standards relevant to CSR, this research attempts to examine domestic laws which regulate the practice of CSR in South Africa and advance how the philanthropic aspect of CSR can be developed to achieve the realisation of socio-economic rights, in particular, the rights to access to health care, water and social security, education, housing and clean environment. The argument is made that through the formulation and application of an appropriate legal framework, philanthropic CSR can play a contributory role to the realisation of socio-economic rights recognised under the 1996 South African constitution. The implications are that in appropriate cases socio-economic rights do not only bind the state and consequently apply to the "vertical" relationship between individuals and the state, but could also apply "horizontally", in respect of the relationship between private entities. This is a controversial issue and its full implications have not yet been resolved.

Increasingly, we hear that the humanitarian system has exhausted its potential and is over the abyss. The volume of funds, the number of humanitarian organizations and the number of rescued people are growing year after year. Nevertheless, the gap between needs and real humanitarian assistance is steadily increasing. Traditional humanitarian actors have been unsuccessfully looking for ways to repair the system that once worked well. Attempts at financial and institutional reform fail, and the debate on humanitarian principles annoys the main actors. This work shows that the traditional humanitarian system is only a part of the larger ecosystem of humanitarian assistance, and analyzes the external influences it fails to cope with in the last decade, and why minor repairs and corrections are not enough and a new system architecture is needed. The author identifies new humanitarian actors with whom the traditional system does not count and points to spontaneous volunteers as a group with dynamic potential and ability to create a parallel system to professional disaster and emergency managers. Since it is an undervalued and overlooked actor, the author refines the definition of spontaneous volunteering. Using the case studies of the Cajun Navy in Louisiana (U.S.) and the confessions of medical rescuers...

During the 2013/16 Ebola virus disease outbreak in West Africa, numerous restrictions were placed on the movement and public gathering of local people, regardless of if the area had active Ebola cases or not. Specifically, the district of Koinadugu, Sierra Leone, preemptively enforced movement regulations before there were any cases within the district. This research demonstrates that ongoing regulations on movement and public gathering affected the livelihoods of those involved in agricultural markets in the short-term, while the outbreak was active, and in the long-term. The forthcoming thesis details the ways in which the Ebola outbreak international and national response affected locals involved in agricultural value chains in Koinadugu, Sierra Leone.

Humanitarian organizations and research groups are increasingly considering the potential of integrating palliative care into humanitarian health responses. While studies on the topic frequently examine the obstacles of integrating palliative care into humanitarian action, the field is marked by notable research gaps, particularly concerning assessments of practice, the impact of guidelines, as well as critical inquiries into the moral and conceptual implications of a “humanitarian palliative care”. This thesis contributes to the latter of these research gaps by unpacking the discourses of palliative care and humanitarianism as imperatives, with attention to the ways in which the two may support or challenge each other.  The main research question, “How does humanitarian action take up palliative care as a humanitarian concern?”, is addressed through an anthropological lens. To shed light on the intangible, yet powerful, moral aspects of combining these discourses, this research method consists of a literature review approaching guidelines and studies as empirical data. While without its main ethnographic method, the use of classic anthropological theories and analysis offers apt insight into the framework of a humanitarian palliative care. The thesis paper progresses as follows: first, a literature review outlines the background of palliative care and its introduction in the humanitarian sector along with the direction of existing studies and guidelines on the topic. This outline then facilitates a comparative analysis of the moral language and principles of palliative care and humanitarianism. During this analysis, Fassin’s critique of “humanitarian reason” (2012) is used to better understand both imperatives in focus, leading to a biopolitical analysis of the implications of a combined ‘humanitarian palliative care’. This analysis suggests that palliative needs inhabit a liminal position in humanitarian healthcare – at the threshold of humanitarian concern.   The liminality of humanitarian palliative care is then explored with particular attention to the infrastructure and relevant temporal aspects of humanitarian healthcare. While addressing abstract concepts, the analysis draws upon case examples to illuminate each analytical point in practice. Finally, I conclude with a discussion reflecting on the suggestions made by this thesis, and ultimately, the – arguably ambiguous – dynamic between palliative care and humanitarian action.

[pt] Esta tese de doutorado investiga o acolhimento humanitário de pessoas LGBTI+ pela Operação Acolhida (2018-2022) como resposta do Brasil para o fluxo de migrantes e refugiadas venezuelanas no país, pensando um panorama dos serviços oferecidos e das questões que surgem no acolhimento e na integração dessa população no território brasileiro. Uma abordagem da performatividade de Judith Butler amparada por Jacques Derrida será usada como estratégia analítica para entender as práticas, os discursos, os protocolos e as regras empreendidas nesse caso pensando a reiteração de normas de gênero, sexo e sexualidade, do humanitarismo e de Estado. Nesse sentido, o texto é um enquadramento parcial de reiterações performativas da Operação Acolhida que podem (re)criar (im)possibilidades não-intencionais para migrantes e refugiadas venezuelanas LGBTI+. A realidade social LGBTI+fóbica traz consigo atravessamentos culturais locais e transfronteiriços em que imperam lacunas, silêncios, segregação e violências. Enquanto a lógica humanitária traz consigo as narrativas e protocolos da crise, da emergência estabelecendo pressa e reforçando ausências constitutivas; e o Estado traz consigo a demanda da contenção, da gestão e governo das populações e espaços, criando narrativas de (des)acolhida. Nessa sobreposição normativa e regulatória do contexto de acolhimento da Operação Acolhida, a população migrante e refugiada LGBTI+ necessita de integração a médio e longo prazo e de políticas que garantam seus direitos no país. Demandas de empregabilidade, saúde e assistência social se multiplicam em um universo em que o pensamento de curto prazo é reproduzido de forma central. Os limites, problemas e avanços da estrutura logística humanitária são foco do trabalho e delinearão os achados da pesquisa apontando para uma reflexão em torno da adaptação de protocolos e de uma crítica dialógica. / [en] This PhD thesis investigates the humanitarian reception of LGBTI+ people from Operação Acolhida (2018-2022) as a response from Brazil to the flow of Venezuelan migrants and refugees in the country, thinking about an overview of the services offered and the issues that arise in the encounter and integration of this population in the Brazilian territory. An approach to Judith Butler s performativity supported by Jacques Derrida will be used as an analytical strategy to understand the practices, discourses, protocols and rules undertaken in this case thinking about the reiteration of norms of gender, sex and sexuality, humanitarianism and the State. In this sense, the text is a partial framing of performative reiterations of the Operação Acolhida that can (re)create unintentional (im)possibilities for Venezuelan LGBTI+ migrants and refugees. The LGBTI+phobic social reality brings with it local and international cultural crossings in which gaps, silences, segregation and violence prevail. While the humanitarian logic brings with it the narratives and protocols of crisis, of emergency, establishing haste and reinforcing constitutive absences; and the State brings with it the demand for containment, management and government of populations and spaces, creating (un)welcoming narratives. In this normative and regulatory overlap of the reception context of Operação Acolhida, the LGBTI+ migrant and refugee population needs medium and long-term integration and policies that guarantee their rights in the country. Employability, health and social assistance demands multiply in a universe in which short-term thinking is centrally reproduced. The limits, problems and advances of the humanitarian logistical structure are the focus of this work and will outline the research findings, pointing to a reflection around the adaptation of protocols and a dialogic critique.

Securitisation is the process by which an issue is framed in terms of security to justify the implementation of urgent policy measures. It is often used by states to manage their territorial borders and to portray migrants as a threat to national security. However, securitisation theory also expands the concept of security to include the protection of human life and dignity, leading to the involvement of NGOs as securitising actors in their efforts to protect victims of crises and conflicts. Although NGOs are considered ‘allies’ to refugees in their mission to help refugees, recent evidence has shown how NGOs also risk contributing to the mainstream framing of refugees as a threat. This thesis takes off in this puzzle and argues that securitisation theory might help us better understand this discrepancy. This study investigates how NGOs in Sweden may reproduce securitising narratives, and whether this has changed between 2010 and 2022. Using critical discourse analysis, the study analyses 18 documents and 166 images from these organisations. The results show that the NGOs primarily reproduced a narrative of human security that portrays refugees, particularly women, children, and families as vulnerable and in need of protection. These findings align with previous research on the subject, which has suggested that human security perspectives may not be inherently beneficial for refugees. The study also shows that the NGOs to some extent reproduce state security narratives by portraying refugees as undifferentiated groups and emphasizing a perspective of security emergency rather than a humanitarian emergency. However, this study finds less evidence of state security perspectives in the Swedish context than previous research has indicated.

Thèse réalisée en cotutelle entre le Centre de recherche en droit prospectif de l'Université de Montréal (Canada) et le Centre d'études et de recherches internationales et communautaires de l'Université d'Aix-Marseille (France). / La présente thèse entend démontrer un phénomène d’instrumentalisation tant du champ conceptuel que de l’ingénierie humanitaires, servant les intérêts de l’impérialisme capitaliste. Nous montrerons en effet que les concepts, les normes et les outils de l’humanitaire sont utilisés par divers acteurs comme un cheval de Troie visant à ouvrir de nouveaux marchés de manière à satisfaire les impératifs expansionnistes du capitalisme. Convoquant une approche à la fois critique, pragmatique et interdisciplinaire, la thèse analyse le rôle et les interactions d’un triptyque d’acteurs humanitaires – civils, militaires et financiers – à travers une déconstruction en deux temps du champ conceptuel puis de l’ingénierie humanitaires. Cette analyse révèle, in fine, un phénomène d’instrumentalisation de la dynamique globale humanitaire, visant à satisfaire la dynamique fondamentalement expansionniste du capitalisme et les besoins impérieux propres au maintien de ce modèle économique hégémonique. / The purpose of this doctoral thesis is to demonstrate, in the light of the analysis of the global humanitarian dynamics, that both the conceptual field of humanitarian and the engineering of humanitarian are instrumentalized in order to serve the interests of capitalist imperialism. Indeed, it will be demonstrated that humanitarian concepts, norms and tools are used by various actors as a Trojan horse to open new markets in order to satisfy the expansionist imperatives of capitalism. The pragmatic deconstruction of the humanitarian conceptual field and the humanitarian engineering reveals the instrumentalization of the global humanitarian dynamics, serving the fundamentally expansionist dynamics of capitalism and the imperative needs for maintaining this hegemonic economic model. / La presente tesis pretende demostrar un fenómeno de instrumentalización tanto del campo conceptual como de la ingeniería humanitaria, al servicio de los intereses del imperialismo capitalista. En efecto, demostraremos que los conceptos, normas e instrumentos humanitarios son utilizados por diversos actores como un Caballo de Troya para abrir nuevos mercados con el fin de satisfacer los imperativos expansionistas del capitalismo. Convocando un enfoque crítico, pragmático e interdisciplinario, la tesis analiza el papel y las interacciones de un tríptico de actores humanitarios -civiles, militares y financieros- a través de una deconstrucción en dos etapas del campo conceptual humanitario y luego de la ingeniería humanitaria. Este análisis revela, en fin, un fenómeno de instrumentalización de la dinámica humanitaria mundial, con el fin de satisfacer la dinámica fundamentalmente expansionista del capitalismo y las necesidades imperiosas de mantener este modelo económico hegemónico.

No description available.

No description available.

<p>This dissertation gives a number of answers to the following two research questions: given the storied nature of faith and displacement, what does literary studies have to offer church-based refugee activists in religious diasporas? And what might church-based activists, who are involved in daily struggles to interpret cultural, ethnic, and religious stories for the sake of cultural transformation, have to offer literary studies of displacement? The analysis of this thesis uses literary and cultural theory (diaspora studies, postcolonial theorizations of the exotic, discursive analysis, formalist textual examination, and more) to understand interethnic church-based refugee activism taking place within a specific religious diaspora, the Christian Reformed Church in Canada. The formation of diasporas and faith groups through shared allegiances to communal stories makes literary studies a fitting vantage point from which to examine a religious diaspora. Because religious diasporas have explicitly storied identities, their discourses are open to the potential of stories to effect communal change. Refugee novels and other cultural texts that are valued in diaspora and refugee studies can have a part in shaping the storied identity out of which church-based refugee activism is done, helping religious diasporas to more deeply understand the experiences specific to refugee-ed people and to more closely align their activism with the stated desires of refugee-ed people.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)