The study of citizen dialogues primarily focuses on which citizens are included in dialogues, and how those citizens are included in dialogues, despite the fact that the influence perspective is at least as important as the inclusion perspective for the right to political participation. This essay thus addresses the challenge of citizen dialogues regarding their impact on political decisions. This study examines how citizen dialogue as a democratic innovation operates within a local political context, this to answer how the dialogue functions as a channel of political influence. The overall aim is to determine whether democratic innovation can revitalize representative democracy. This is answered by a qualitative case study of one of the dialogues of Huddinge municipality. The study is conducted with semi-structured interviews as primary materials. Graham Smith's institutional democracy theory forms the analysis framework, which is made up of various institutional and democratic ideals. The study's findings show that citizen dialogues, as democratic innovation, work well in a local political context, since the innovation is considered effective and because the innovation has a structure and a clear function in the political system. The results also show that citizens have a good chance of influencing political processes through citizen dialogues. This is mainly due to the fact that the studied citizen dialogue took place at an early stage of the decision-making process, which enabled better conditions for political participation. The results also reveal that there are no mechanisms within the political system that ensure that the participation will have significance. Consequently, it is not possible to draw conclusions as to whether a citizen dialogue is generally a good channel for political influence or not. The conclusions from this study are that a citizen dialogue can be considered to revitalize representative democracy, provided that it both fits in the local political context and has good conditions for integrating citizens' participation in the subsequent political decisions. / Studiet av medborgardialoger kretsar främst kring vilka och hur medborgare inkluderas i dialoger, trots att perspektivet inflytande har en minst lika viktig betydelse för rätten till politiskt deltagande som inkluderingsperspektivet. Uppsatsen tar därmed fasta på medborgardialogens utmaning kring inflytande. Studien undersöker hur medborgardialogen fungerar som demokratisk innovation i en lokalpolitisk kontext, detta för att svara på hur dialogen fungerar som kanal för politiskt inflytande. Det övergripande syftet är huruvida en demokratisk innovation kan vitalisera den representativa demokratin. Detta besvaras genom en kvalitativ fallstudie av en av Huddinge kommuns medborgardialoger. Undersökningen genomförs med semistrukturerade intervjuer som primärmaterial. Med avstamp i Graham Smiths institutionella demokratiteori skapas analysramverket bestående av olika institutionella och demokratiska ideal. Studiens resultat visar att medborgardialogen som demokratisk innovation, fungerar väl i en lokal-politisk kontext då innovationen ses som effektiv och innehar en tydlig funktion inom det politiska systemet. Resultatet visar även att medborgare har en god möjlighet till inflytande på politiska processer. Detta beror främst på att den studerade medborgardialogen skedde i ett tidigt skede av beslutsprocessen, vilket möjliggjorde bättre förutsättningar för politisk delaktighet. Av resultatet framkommer det även att det saknas mekanismer inom det politiska systemet som garanterar att deltagandet blir betydelsefullt. Det går följaktligen inte att dra slutsatsen kring om medborgardialogen i allmänhet är en bra kanal för politiskt inflytande eller inte. Slutsatserna är att medborgardialogen kan ses vitalisera den representativa demokratin, med förbehåll att medborgardialogen både passar i den lokala politiska kontexten och har goda förutsättningar för att integrera medborgarnas deltagande i efterföljande politiska beslut.

The purpose of this study has been to investigate the prospects for identifying and prosecuting individuals suspected of war crimes, within the process of exclusion from refugee status under article 1F(a) of the 1951 Refugee Convention, and using subsequent mechanisms for extradition or prosecution in international criminal law. A number of principles within human rights law and public international law have been advocated by the UNCHR and several human rights NGOs as necessary for a thorough application of the exclusion clauses; one that takes individual responsibility into account and upholds the aims and purposes of the exclusion clauses. There is a discussion as to whether specialised or accelerated exclusion procedures are justified for reasons of security and efficiency, or if they put the rights of the individual at risk and limit the opportunities for gathering information to support investigation and prosecution of the crime in question. Apart from the instruments of asylum law and procedure that have emerged within the EU harmonisation process, there are no general, binding rules on the procedural aspects of the exclusion clauses. One principle that regulates the consequences for the individual of exclusion from refugee status and decisions on extradition is, however, the principle of non-refoulement. Although partly contested in state practice, there is widespread consensus in international jurisprudence and doctrine that the principle, following its status as a jus cogens rule, prohibits every state from returning any individual to a territory where he or she may face torture or other cruel and inhuman treatment or punishment, irrespective of any security risks that the individual may pose to the custodial state. Extradition or prosecution of individuals suspected of crimes under article 1F(a), based on universal jurisdiction and the principle of aut dedere aut judicare, has gained increased support from international conventions, such as the 1948 Convention on Genocide and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. The principles are widely upheld by human rights NGOs, and tendencies in practice and policy among the member states of the EU and the parties to the Rome Statute point towards the development of a customary rule of universal jurisdiction among these states. Continuing resistance to the Rome Statute and to universal jurisdiction among influential states such as the USA, Russia, China and India nevertheless serves to exclude these states from being bound by such an emerging customary rule of universal jurisdiction. There are compelling arguments as to why breaches of jus cogens-rules should include or give rise to erga omnes rights or obligations for all states to exercise universal jurisdiction over such breaches. Without the support of major states it is, however, difficult to establish the existence of the general state acceptance of universal jurisdiction as is required for the principle to attain jus cogens-status and become universally applicable, regardless of state consent. Future prospects for adequate and efficient identification and prosecution of suspected war criminals depend on the correct and thorough application of the exclusion clauses, in combination with the development of existing rules of universal jurisdiction, and not least on the willingness and ability of states to overcome the political, economic and institutional obstacles that presently may prevent many states from extraditing or prosecuting individuals who fall within the scope of article 1F(a) of the exclusion clauses.

No description available.

Syftet med denna studie var att ta reda på förskolechefers uppfattningar och erfarenheter om barn som stängs av i förskola pga. obetald barnomsorgsavgift. Kvalitativa intervjuer har genomförts med åtta förskolechefer och resultatet har analyserats med IPA, där tre huvudteman har tolkats fram. Dubbla känslor gentemot avstängning beskriver hur informanterna uttrycker sig för och emot bestämmelsen avstängning av barn. Olika roller och åtaganden handlar om hur förskolecheferna uppfattar sin egen roll och vilka olika befogenheter de tillskriver sig. Stigmatisering som följd handlar om att informanterna upplever att avstängning kan ge stigmatiserande effekter för de barn och familjer som drabbas, då de redan lever i socioekonomiska svårigheter. Studiens slutsatser är att informanternas uppfattningar om sin roll som chef och sina befogenheter påverkar hur de agerar vid en avstängning. En annan slutsats är att barnperspektivet i myndighetsutövandet är bristande. Avslutningsvis ges rekommendationer och förslag på metoder, som barnkonsekvensanalys samt individuell prövning om barnets eget behov till förskolan. Detta för att närma ett barnperspektiv i beslut och värna om barnets bästa.

Syftet med den här studien är att undersöka i vilken grad lektionsinnehållet på sfi:s högre nivåer (kurs C och D) överensstämmer med läroplanens värdegrundsuppdrag om att utbildningen ska gestalta alla människors lika värde. Detta undersöks genom att ta reda på om en mångfald av olika personer utifrån diskrimineringsgrunderna inkluderas i sfi-läroböcker samt i övrigt lektionsinnehåll. Dessutom är studiens syfte att undersöka vilka faktorer som påverkar i vilken grad sfi-lärare tillämpar en normkritisk pedagogik. Metoden utgörs av en kvantitativ innehållsanalys av fem sfi-läroböcker och en enkätundersökning av 25 verksamma sfi-lärare. Studiens resultat visar att värdegrundsuppdraget uppfylls till viss del men enbart gällande vissa av diskrimineringsgrunderna. Vidare framgår av resultatet olika faktorer som har inverkan på i vilken omfattning som sfi-lärarna arbetar normkritiskt.

No description available.

Human rights for refugees has proven to be incredibly hard to protect. The problem lies with the fact that it is the individual State that in practise will protect and guarantee human rights. However, states tend to only protect the rights of their own citizens. As refugees often have left the country where they are citizens and are currently residing in a country where they are not, they find themself in a legal limbo, making them one of the world's most vulnerable groups. Martha Finnemore & Kathryn Sikkink argued that international norms can affect a state’s national politics and that international organisations have an important role to play in that. Earlier research argued that international cooperations can influence states to change their perspective on human rights protection. To better understand this dynamic the study aimed to research if international cooperations could, through socialisation of norms, influence states to respect and protect refugee rights. The study used Turkey’s reception of refugees from Syria between the years 2011 to 2020 as a case. Sweden adopted, during 2016, a regional strategy for the Syrian crisis which led to aid projects in Turkey. The study, therefore, examines Turkey's refugee reception before and after Sweden implemented their projects in the regions. The study made three themes of rights that are specifically important for refugees which was the foundation for the analys. The results were firstly, that refugee protection in Turkey had weakened since the implementation of Sweden's aid project. The only positive change was in labour rights in which the study could find alternative explanations for that specific change. The study found no evidence that international cooperation could influence a state’s approach to human rights. More research within the field is, however, needed.

The purpose of this thesis is to perform a critical discourse analysis on the upper secondary school act aiming to map which discourses that are being reproduced concerning unaccompanied youths, as well as the motivation behind the creation of the law. Furthermore, the purpose is to investigate the consequences of the discourses produced for unaccompanied youths’ rights claims. Faircloughs discursive model of three levels was used to review the proposition. This was complemented by an analysis of the result in relation to the Copenhagen school of securitization as well as Elena Namlis perspective on human rights. The review revealed that the dominating discourse in the upper secondary school act depicts the unaccompanied youths as foreign and potential threats. The law is motivated by the need to compensate for the Migration boards’ long processing time for their application of asylum upon arrival. It is said that this specific group ended up in an misfortuned situation. It is also explained that the law will trigger the youths to integrate through the demand of them needing to finish high school and find a job within 6 months in order to get asylum. However, this thesis also shows that the government is not fully ready to compensate for this misfortune as the demands, qualification to be available for this law, and security control of youths are implemented. Those obsticles are motivated by the view of the youths as existential threats and could be viewed as a sign of securitization of unaccompanied youths. What follows is them having a more difficult path of reaching their rights of asylum.

The aim of this thesis is to examine to what extent the Convention on the Rights of the Child may be regarded as an effective instrument for a state’s aim to abolish child trafficking. An underlying aim is to examine what factors make a convention effective in general. The study is conducted through a doctrinal method with a legal sociological perspective, examining the normative aspects of law. In this sense, Ghana’s implementation of Article 35 of the CRC is evaluated, in order to reach the objective of the study. Thus, the Ghanaian legal system constitutes the base upon which the analysis is made. Hereby, the effectiveness of the CRC is measured by the extent to which the commitments made by Ghana, have led to the adoption of concrete measures to improve the rights of children as it pertains to child trafficking, since the ratification of the CRC. An underlying aim is to discover what factors may affect the effectiveness of a convention, such as inadequate legal framework, its application of it or other cultural factors.  In order to measure the effectiveness of the CRC, a normative model is applied, explaining both the notions of compliance versus effectiveness. Herein, it is clarified that: in order to measure the effectiveness of a convention in this matter, one first needs to examine if the national legal framework complies to the convention in question. Thus, in the first part, it is concluded that Ghana has successfully incorporated the CRC in its legal framework. In the second part, it is shown how, despite of the effective incorporation of the CRC, there remains a gap between what is prescribed by law and the manifestation in practice.                                                     Different factors have been concluded to influence the effectiveness of the Convention. In order for a state to implement measures to deal with an issue, there must be a clear standard set out in the convention in the first place. In this regard, it has been noted that the lack of clarity and ambiguity of the wording in Article 35 of the CRC may have affected the effectiveness of the convention. Moreover, it is noted that the nature of the issue: the phenomenon of child trafficking, in itself, is a complex issue with certain elements that makes it more challenging to regulate than “normal” human rights violations. Not least, it is proven how the socio-cultural norms of Ghana have a noticeable effect on the implementation of the Convention. At last, it is demonstrated how the process of norm-internalization in a state may affect the effectiveness of a Convention: it has been shown how Ghana’s policy-making system has not been effective in practice. Nevertheless, the conclusion remains: the effectiveness of a convention depends on the function it serves in the first place. As for the case of the CRC, it remains an effectivetool to abolish child trafficking as long as the States Parties take united responsibility to make it so. / Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka i vilken utsträckning barnkonventionen (CRC) kan utgöra ett effektivt instrument för en stats ändamål att avskaffa barnhandel. Ett bakomliggande syfte med studien är att utreda vilka faktorer som gör en konvention effektiv generellt sett. Studien baseras på en rättsdogmatisk metod i ljuset av ett rättsociologiskt perspektiv där de normativa aspekterna av lagen undersöks. I detta avseende utvärderas Ghanas implementering av artikel 35 i CRC för att uppnå syftet med studien. Således vilar den rättsliga analysen på det ghananska rättssystemet som grund. I sammanhanget granskas barnkonventionens effektivitet med avstamp i hur de åtaganden som gjorts av Ghana har lett till vidtagande av konkreta åtgärder för att förbättra barns situation vad gäller barnhandel. En normativ modell tillämpas för att förstå vad begreppen effektivitetoch efterlevnadinnebär i sammanhanget. Här klargörs att, för att mäta effektiviteten av en konvention, måste det först undersökas huruvida det nationella regelverket uppfyller de reglerade skyldigheterna i den ifrågavarande konventionen. I den första delen dras slutsatsen att Ghana har införlivat barnkonventionen på ett tillfredsställande sätt.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                I den andra delen redovisas det hur det kvarstår en diskrepans mellan vad som föreskrivs i lag och hur lagen manifesteras i praktiken, trots det effektiva införlivandet av barnkonventionen. Det påvisas hur olika faktorer påverkar en konventions effektivitet. I detta avseende noteras det att (bristen på) tydlighet och klarhet i ordalydelsen av artikel 35, kan påverka konventionens effektivitet. För att en stat ens ska kunna genomföra åtgärder för att hantera en viss fråga måste det finnas en tydlig standard i konventionen i första hand. Vidare noteras det att problemets natur: fenomenet barnhandel i sig, är en komplex fråga med vissa element som gör det mer utmanande att reglera fenomenet än ”normala” kränkningar av mänskliga rättigheter. Inte minst anmärks det hur de sociokulturella normerna i Ghana har en märkbar effekt på tillämpningen av barnkonventionen.                                                                                                       Slutligen redogörs det för hur olika norminternaliserande faktorer i en stat kan påverka effektiviteten av en konvention: det redovisas hur Ghana brister i författandet av effektiva ”policies” för att åtgärda problematiken. Slutsatsen påvisar hur effektiviteten av en konvention beror på den funktion som konventionen har i första hand. Vad gäller barnkonventionen, utgör den ett effektivt verktyg i kampen mot barnhandel, så länge som medlemsstaterna faktiskt tar enat ansvar i att säkerställa dess effektivitet. / Minor Fields Studies, SIDA

Human rights are presumed to be universal given the universal declaration on human rights by the United Nations in 1948. Half a century has passed, and private human rights such as group rights are discriminated against worldwide. This thesis studies the presumed tension between universal human rights and private human rights, and how the specific rights are discriminated against. External monitoring is part of duties assigned to civil society organisations, and organisations monitor this issue and uses various methods to create circumstances in which private rights are respected. This thesis studies the European context through the European Court of Justice and the European Convention on Human Rights, and how civil society organisations in Europe use strategic litigation for Roma human rights. The purpose of this thesis is to establish how the European Court of Justice balances the tension between universal human rights and private human rights when civil society invokes discrimination against human rights. A sub-purpose is to identify whether there is a long-term consequence of strategic litigation for Roma human rights in Europe. The thesis has dealt with two ideas of human rights: universalism and discrimination. The chosen method for the study has been descriptive analysis of ideas to show the existence of ideas in texts, and thus be able to ascertain a shift in expression. The material is obtained by the civil society organisation European Roma Rights Centre, which are rulings from the European Court of Justice. The result of the study is that the European Court of Justice has previously considered that human rights should be universal and held that discrimination is difficult to prove. In recent cases however, the European Court of Justice has ruled that discrimination is constitutional for the Roma. Lastly, it is stated that strategic litigation can be viewed as effective in reducing the tension between universal human rights and private human rights in Europe.