For many sets of reasons, including the unequal power relationship between them and most underdeveloped states, and probably more in Africa than anywhere else in the world, non-state actors (NSAs) like states are involved in the violation of human rights. With the phenomenon of globalization, their role has become even more pronounced with some of the traditional functions of the state being performed by them, with implications for human rights, especially socioeconomic rights. Unfortunately, state-centred traditional international law has proved to be ill-equipped to hold NSAs directly accountable and liable for their violations of human rights. NSAs are only expected to adhere to non-binding voluntary standards, such as codes of conduct. Yet, if properly interpreted and enforced, the African Charter for Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR) can be relied upon to hold them accountable. Against this backdrop, the study interrogates the existing universal and regional human rights laws and systems with the view to identifying any rules, principles, case law or literature that can help hold NSAs directly accountable for human rights violations. For better advocacy and protection of human rights on the African continent, it makes a case for a paradigm shift away from a state centred to a holistic approach that would include NSAs and ensure that they are also bound to protect human rights and become accountable for their violations. / Private Law / LL.M.

Borderlands are critical security zones but remain poorly understood. In regions plagued by drug violence and conflict, violent groups compete for territorial control, cooperate in illegal cross-border activities, and substitute for the functions of the state in these areas. Despite undermining physical security, fuelling fear, and challenging the state’s sovereignty, the exact modi operandi of these groups are little known. Against this backdrop, this thesis explores how different interactions among violent non-state actors (VNSAs) in the Colombian-Ecuadorian and Colombian-Venezuelan borderlands impact on citizen security. These border areas attract rebels, paramilitaries and criminal organisations alike: they constitute geo-strategic corridors for the global cocaine industry and are sites of supply and operation for the major actors involved in Colombia’s decades-long armed internal conflict. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, this thesis consolidates the literature on conflict, security and organised crime, borders and borderlands, and anthropological approaches to fear and violence. It integrates theories of cooperation among social actors with original empirical research. It is based on a comparative, multi-sited case-study design, using ethnographic methods complemented by quantitative data. The research involved over twelve months of fieldwork with 433 interviews and participant observation on both sides of the crisis-affected Colombia-Ecuador and Colombia-Venezuela borders, and in Bogotá, Caracas and Quito. Developing a typology of VNSA interactions, I argue that these create not only physical violence but also less visible types of insecurity: when VNSAs fight each other, citizens are exposed to violence but follow the rules imposed by the opposing parties. Fragile alliances produce uncertainty among communities and erode the social fabric by fuelling interpersonal mistrust. Where VNSAs provide security and are socially recognised, "shadow citizen security" arises: security based on undemocratic means. I show that the geography of borderlands reinforces the distinct impacts of VNSA arrangements on citizen security yet renders them less visible.

O desenvolvimento da tecnologia da informação e das comunicações em todo o mundo propicia condições para que a comunidade internacional possa vir a se relacionar sem enfrentar os obstáculos oferecidos pelas barreiras geográficas ou temporais, bem como possa vir a atuar diretamente na defesa de seus interesses, acrescentando novas formas de disciplina do seu comportamento além dos tradicionais mecanismos normativos oferecidos pelo Estado. O direito fundamental de livre acesso à informação por intermédio da tecnologia digital deve ser garantido em igualdade de condições a todos os indivíduos, na qualidade de participantes da sociedade global, em obediência aos princípios e disposições contidos na Declaração Universal dos Direitos Humanos, bem como da Declaração do Direito do Desenvolvimento e sua atualização na Declaração do Milênio. Ocorre, que, os países em desenvolvimento não participam dos beneficios da evolução tecnológica e por não estarem conectados à rede mundial, estão alijados do processo e excluídos do acesso à informação transmitida por via digital. Os Estados, que originalmente foram considerados os únicos sujeitos de direito na ordem internacional, não se mostram mais aptos a gerir, com eficácia, os interesses da sociedade, tornando-se incapazes de oferecer as condições necessárias para o exercício pleno da cidadania. O presente estudo visa ampliar os limites da discussão acadêmica a respeito dos efeitos produzidos pelo avanço tecnológico e pela globalização transpondo o debate para a ordem jurídica internacional. O exame dos documentos produzidos pela Cúpula Mundial da Sociedade da Informação, organizada pela UIT, por intermédio da ONU, demonstra que os representantes dos países membros, juntamente com a iniciativa privada e a sociedade civil foram capazes de produzir Declarações de Princípios e Planos de Ação contendo regras de utilização da tecnologia da informação e das telecomunicações de forma a eliminar as desigualdades, e criando a possibilidade de que a humanidade possa, finalmente, vir exercer seu direito ao desenvolvimento. Ademais, criação do Fórum de Governança da Internet, como decorrência da Cúpula Mundial da Sociedade da Informação, evidencia que as regras para a utilização da rede mundial dos computadores permanecem sob a responsabilidade da comunidade internacional, restando, portanto, demonstrado que atuação da sociedade civil, através de mecanismos próprios para proteger seus interesses, repercute diretamente na esfera internacional e merece ser levada em consideração no estudo das fontes de Direito Internacional. / The development of information technology and communications all over the world created the ideal conditions for the international community to the improvement of relationship without any of the obstacles caused by geographical or chronological barriers, and turned possible to civil society to act directly in the defense of its own interests, adding new forms of ruling its behaviors besides the traditional legal mechanisms offered by the State. The free and direct access to information in digital format must be guaranteed in equal conditions as a fundamental right to all individuals, in their condition of members of global society, in accordance with the principles and provisions established by the Universal Human Rights Declaration, as well as of the Declaration of the Right to Development, dully amended by the Millennium Declaration. Nevertheless, the developing countries cannot benefit from technological revolution and since they cannot not connect to the Internet they are maintained apart from this process and therefore are prevented to exercise their right of access to information transmitted in digital format. On the other hand, the States that originally were considered the sole subjects of rights in the international order are not capable anymore to efficiently manage the interests of civil society and therefore cannot offer the necessary conditions to the plain exercise of citizenship. This paper intends to wide the limits of the academic discussion already in place analyzing the effects of the technological revolution and globalization enlarging the debate to the level of the international legal order. The exam of the documents produced by World Summit of Information Society, organized by ITU, dully authorized by UN, demonstrates that the representatives of the member States, jointly with the private sector and the civil society, were able to prepare the Declaration of Principles, Plan of Action and other related documents disciplining the use of information technology and communications in order to eliminate the differences and conduct the human beings to the plain exercise to of their right to development. Furthermore, the establishment of the Internet Governance Forum as a consequence of the World Summit of Information Society provides strong evidences that the rules for Internet access shall remain in the hands of Non Governmental Organizations and moreover demonstrates that the utilization by civil society of specific legal mechanisms in order to protect its own interests, may generate important consequences for the international legal order and therefore deserves to be examined as a phenomenon affecting the sources of International Law.

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the understanding of human rights in Agenda 2030 and the role of companies by adopting a human rights-based approach to sustainable development. It applies a qualitative idea analysis of the primarily material where central concepts are operationalized by constructing a model of analysis based on dimensions. The dimensions of human rights as moral, politics and law, derives from previous research by the ethical theorist Elena Namli. A potential fourth dimension, the economic dimension of human rights, is further developed, applying research of the economists Dan Seymour and Jonathan Pincus. Furthermore, this research considers what Agenda 2030 indicates in terms of human rights obligations for companies and the impacts the perceived role of companies may have for human rights. Therefore, the theoretical framework is complemented by research of the political theorist Thomas Pogge's, and international lawyer Andrew Clapham’s ideas of human rights obligations for companies. The results show that Agenda 2030 encourages a multi-stakeholder approach and addresses companies as partners in order to achieve a sustainable development based on human rights. This can be regarded as an opportunity to enhance the respect, protection and fulfillment of human rights, inviting more actors to contribute in a complementary way to states. At the same time challenges remains in creating policies, accountability and monitoring mechanisms towards companies bothin terms of human rights and companies’ performance on the SDGs. Until there is more legal clarity, the moral question of what is good and fair business practice becomes central.

La fin de la guerre froide amorça une nouvelle ère de privatisation, de libéralisation et de dérégulation sans précédent. L’internet et les nombreuses autres avancées technologiques ont rapproché les citoyens du monde à un degré impressionnant. Le monde au XXIème siècle semble être plus interdépendant que jamais. De nombreuses problématiques contemporaines dépassent largement les contrôles et les frontières étatiques, des problématiques reliées par exemple aux investissements étrangers directs, aux droits de l’homme, à l’environnement, à la responsabilité sociale des entreprises, etc. La globalisation des marchés marque par ailleurs le recul de l’État face aux acteurs non étatiques. La société civile et les multinationales surgissent dès lors en tant que véritables partenaires dans l’ordre juridique international. Cela est illustré notamment par l’accès accordé aux multinationales/investisseurs à la justice internationale économique. Ces derniers ont la capacité de poursuivre un État qui violerait leurs droits marchands découlant d’un TBI devant une juridiction arbitrale internationale. Qu’en est-il par contre des droits non marchands violés par les investisseurs ? Cette étude explore les motifs militant pour un accès de la société civile à la justice internationale économique. Le but d’un tel accès serait d’opposer les droits non marchands, suscités par des problématiques inhérentes à la globalisation des marchés, à la fois à l’égard des États et à l’égard des multinationales, et auxquelles aucune réponse étatique unilatérale ou interétatique ne peut remédier adéquatement. / The end of the cold war marked an unprecedented new era of privatisation, liberalisation, and deregulation. Internet and the numerous technological advancements have brought citizens of this world closer at an astonishing degree. The world in the XXIst century seems more interdependent than ever before. A number of contemporary problematic issues significantly bypass State controls and borders. They are for instance related to foreign direct investment, human rights, the environment, corporate social responsibility, etc. Globalisation marks the State’s retreat in favour of non-state actors. In this light, civil society and multinationals appear as significant partners in the international legal order. This is in part reflected in the access given to multinationals/investors to international trade law justice. They have the capacity to file claims against states in front of international arbitration jurisdictions for violations of their trade rights as provided under BITs. However, what about the non-trade rights that may have been violated by investors? The present study explores the motives that would justify civil society’s access to international trade law justice. The purpose of such access would be to stand for non-trade rights, raised by problematic issues inherent to globalization, against States and multinationals, and that cannot be remedied solely through unilateral nor interstate efforts.

O desenvolvimento da tecnologia da informação e das comunicações em todo o mundo propicia condições para que a comunidade internacional possa vir a se relacionar sem enfrentar os obstáculos oferecidos pelas barreiras geográficas ou temporais, bem como possa vir a atuar diretamente na defesa de seus interesses, acrescentando novas formas de disciplina do seu comportamento além dos tradicionais mecanismos normativos oferecidos pelo Estado. O direito fundamental de livre acesso à informação por intermédio da tecnologia digital deve ser garantido em igualdade de condições a todos os indivíduos, na qualidade de participantes da sociedade global, em obediência aos princípios e disposições contidos na Declaração Universal dos Direitos Humanos, bem como da Declaração do Direito do Desenvolvimento e sua atualização na Declaração do Milênio. Ocorre, que, os países em desenvolvimento não participam dos beneficios da evolução tecnológica e por não estarem conectados à rede mundial, estão alijados do processo e excluídos do acesso à informação transmitida por via digital. Os Estados, que originalmente foram considerados os únicos sujeitos de direito na ordem internacional, não se mostram mais aptos a gerir, com eficácia, os interesses da sociedade, tornando-se incapazes de oferecer as condições necessárias para o exercício pleno da cidadania. O presente estudo visa ampliar os limites da discussão acadêmica a respeito dos efeitos produzidos pelo avanço tecnológico e pela globalização transpondo o debate para a ordem jurídica internacional. O exame dos documentos produzidos pela Cúpula Mundial da Sociedade da Informação, organizada pela UIT, por intermédio da ONU, demonstra que os representantes dos países membros, juntamente com a iniciativa privada e a sociedade civil foram capazes de produzir Declarações de Princípios e Planos de Ação contendo regras de utilização da tecnologia da informação e das telecomunicações de forma a eliminar as desigualdades, e criando a possibilidade de que a humanidade possa, finalmente, vir exercer seu direito ao desenvolvimento. Ademais, criação do Fórum de Governança da Internet, como decorrência da Cúpula Mundial da Sociedade da Informação, evidencia que as regras para a utilização da rede mundial dos computadores permanecem sob a responsabilidade da comunidade internacional, restando, portanto, demonstrado que atuação da sociedade civil, através de mecanismos próprios para proteger seus interesses, repercute diretamente na esfera internacional e merece ser levada em consideração no estudo das fontes de Direito Internacional. / The development of information technology and communications all over the world created the ideal conditions for the international community to the improvement of relationship without any of the obstacles caused by geographical or chronological barriers, and turned possible to civil society to act directly in the defense of its own interests, adding new forms of ruling its behaviors besides the traditional legal mechanisms offered by the State. The free and direct access to information in digital format must be guaranteed in equal conditions as a fundamental right to all individuals, in their condition of members of global society, in accordance with the principles and provisions established by the Universal Human Rights Declaration, as well as of the Declaration of the Right to Development, dully amended by the Millennium Declaration. Nevertheless, the developing countries cannot benefit from technological revolution and since they cannot not connect to the Internet they are maintained apart from this process and therefore are prevented to exercise their right of access to information transmitted in digital format. On the other hand, the States that originally were considered the sole subjects of rights in the international order are not capable anymore to efficiently manage the interests of civil society and therefore cannot offer the necessary conditions to the plain exercise of citizenship. This paper intends to wide the limits of the academic discussion already in place analyzing the effects of the technological revolution and globalization enlarging the debate to the level of the international legal order. The exam of the documents produced by World Summit of Information Society, organized by ITU, dully authorized by UN, demonstrates that the representatives of the member States, jointly with the private sector and the civil society, were able to prepare the Declaration of Principles, Plan of Action and other related documents disciplining the use of information technology and communications in order to eliminate the differences and conduct the human beings to the plain exercise to of their right to development. Furthermore, the establishment of the Internet Governance Forum as a consequence of the World Summit of Information Society provides strong evidences that the rules for Internet access shall remain in the hands of Non Governmental Organizations and moreover demonstrates that the utilization by civil society of specific legal mechanisms in order to protect its own interests, may generate important consequences for the international legal order and therefore deserves to be examined as a phenomenon affecting the sources of International Law.

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The thesis aims to analyse the relations of non-governmental organisations towards the European integration process, which creates an additional platform for their interest representation. This case study focuses on how Czech non-profit organisations, which are dealing in long term with the topic of climate change, try to use the instruments and channels available at the EU level to promote their idea of the 2030 Climate and Energy Framework targets and how the EU climate action policy translates to their understanding of the topic. The thesis is based on the Europeanization theory that assumes that non-state actors are adjusting their behaviour to the existence of another platform of decision making and interest representation. I, therefore, assume, that the selected sample of Czech ecological NGOs tries to actively use the opportunity to participate in the EU decision making - especially because a climate policy is decided mostly at the EU level and therefore the outcomes, such as the 2030 Framework, present another tool to achieve change in the climate policy of the Czech Republic. I conclude that from the perspective of selected NGOs the European climate policy is perceived as an important driver behind the development in this field in both Czech Republic and global negotiations - even though...

The thesis offers new paradigms for advancing socio-economic rights in Africa. Many States Parties to human rights instruments have failed to promote the common welfare of their citizens partly because of the justiciability debate, which continues to complicate intellectual and practical efforts at advancing socio-economic rights. The debate also prevents the normative development of these rights through adjudication. Furthermore, traditional human rights theory and practice have been state-centric, with non-state actors largely ignored in the identification, formulation, and implementation of human rights norms. Yet, the involvement of non-state entities in international arena has limited states' autonomies considerably, with serious implications for human rights. Transnational Corporations (TNCs) have capacities to foster economic well-being, development, tenchnological improvement, and wealth, but they also often cause deleterious human rights impacts through thei employment practices, environmental policies, relationships with suppliers and consumers, interactions with governments, and other activities. The thesis argues that socio-economic rights are normative and justiciable. It argues that traditional approaches are no longer sufficient to secure human rights and calls for a dismantatling of some structures erected by doctrinal systems; for realignment of relationships among social institutions; and for integrated bundles of fundamental interests that harness benefits of human rights norms and widen the landscape to commit both formal and informal regimes. Fashioning out a new paradigm for advancement of socio-economic rights requires addressing state capacity. It requires an integrative and global interpretive framework. It requires, finally, a new paradigm to commit non-state actors in Africa. The illustrative chapter uses the rights to work and to social security as templates for some prescriptions towards reaslising socio-economic rights in Africa. / Jurisprudence / LL.D.

La guerre de 33 jours qui s’est déroulée au Liban en juillet-août 2006 a donné lieu à une panoplie de questions sur la légitimité du recours à l’usage de la force dont a fait preuve Israël au nom de son droit à la légitime défense. La problématique découlait surtout du fait que l’attaque initiale ayant déclenché cette guerre, en date du 12 juillet 2006, avait été menée par le Hezbollah, un groupe armé dont le statut étatique ou non étatique demeure difficile à cerner. Cette étude propose d’analyser si le Liban doit être tenu responsable pour le comportement du Hezbollah. Un survol de l’histoire du Liban et de la création du Hezbollah illustrera que la relation existant entre ces deux acteurs est d’une rare complexité, faisant en sorte que le rôle du Hezbollah au Liban est contesté de toutes parts. Ce débat aura une incidence certaine sur la question à savoir si le comportement du Hezbollah est attribuable à l’État libanais. Une étude approfondie des règles internationales régissant l’acte « d’attribution », notion centrale au droit de la responsabilité internationale des États, démontrera que la détermination de la nature du lien existant entre un État et une entité dont le comportement est contesté est d’une importance fondamentale. Dans une ère où les acteurs non étatiques sont devenus omniprésents sur la scène internationale et dans le cas du Hezbollah au Liban – une milice armée opérant au sein d’un État particulièrement à souveraineté limitée – le concept de l’attribution lui-même deviendra peut-être obsolète. / The 33 days of war that took place in Lebanon in the months of July and August 2006 have given rise to a wide range of questions about the legality of Israel’s use of force on behalf of its so-called right to self-defence. The issue at stake is mostly the result of the fact that the attack which provoked the beginning of the hostilities, on 12 July 2006, was performed by Hezbollah, an armed group whose status as a State or non-State actor remains difficult to pinpoint. This study puts forward the analysis of whether Lebanon must be held accountable for Hezbollah’s actions. A review of the history of Lebanon and of Hezbollah’s creation illustrates that the relationship between these two actors is particularly complex and that Hezbollah’s status is still widely contested. This will directly influence the answer to the question of the attribution of Hezbollah’s actions to the Lebanese State. An in-depth study of the international principles regulating the act of « attribution », a pivotal concept in the international law on the responsibility of States, will reveal that discerning the nature of the link between a State and an entity whose actions are contested is extremely important. In today’s world, where non-State actors have a major role on the international scene, and in the case of Hezbollah in Lebanon – an armed militia operating from within a State with limited sovereignty – the notion of attribution itself might lose much of its significance.