Irrespective of the regional setting, displacement of all kinds results in considerable disruption and loss of assets for both the individual and the collective, with greater likelihood of socio-economic impoverishment and reduced access to rights entitlements. Although there is evidence that displaced people face additional challenges of life in a new environment, living day to day with uncertainties around their survival, the larger proportion of these studies are concerned with physical resettlement and the livelihood restoral of people displaced as a result of conflict or large development projects (whether as refugees or internally displaced people (IDP). There has been relatively little critical reflection on how the policy framework can deliver the rights and entitlements of forced migrants, including those who should be obliged to protect them and the relevance of individual agency . This paper critically engages with current internal displacement protection policies that are based on risk management or short-term relief measures. It considers how a policy paradigm of social protection might offer a framework to minimize the loss of rights so often associated with displacement.

Domestic politics in Brazil is still very disconnected from the country’s foreign policy and international stance on human rights issues. That indifference creates a twofold problem, both for Brazil’s ambition to be a major world power, and for a world that needs a country with Brazil’s heft and legitimacy with the nations and institutions of both the Global North and South.

No / The place of Islam in constitutions invites fierce debate from scholars and politicians alike. Many of these debates assume an inherent conflict between constitutional Islam and 'secular' values of liberal democracy and human rights. Using case studies from several Muslim-majority states, this book surveys the history and role of Islam in constitutions. Tracing the origins of constitutional Islam, Dawood Ahmed and Muhammad Zubair Abbasi argue that colonial history and political bargaining were pivotal factors in determining whether a country adopted Islam, and not secularism, in its constitution. Contrary to the common contention that the constitutional incorporation of Islam is generally antithetical to human rights, Ahmed and Abbasi show not only that Islam has been popularly demanded and introduced into constitutions during periods of 'democratization' and 'modernization' but also that constitutional Islamization has frequently been accompanied by an expansion in constitutional human rights.

Lesotho ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989 (hereafter 'the CRC') in 1992. By virtue of ratification of the CRC Lesotho has undertaken to harmonise its national laws with the CRC provisions. This study looks into the transformation of the Lesotho juvenile justice system since the ratification of the CRC. Some of the provisions of the Children's Protection Act No. 6 of 1980 (hereafter 'the CPA') which established the Lesotho juvenile justice system are not fully compliant with the CRC. This study shows that some major topics in the current Lesotho juvenile justice such as the age of criminal responsibility, procedures in the children's court, legal representation and diversion do not meet the standards of the CRC. Further, the general principles of the CRC are inadequately applied. In order to address these inadequacies Lesotho has drawn the Children's Protection and Welfare Bill 2004 (hereafter ' the Bill' ). Some of the provisions of the Bill relevant to juvenile justice are analysed through the standards of the CRC. While the Bill still has some short falls, in the majority of provisions it sufficiently addresses gaps between the current juvenile justice system and the provisions of the CRC. The study concludes by arguing that the enactment of the Bill should not be delayed further. Professionals in juvenile justice should be trained. Further, some provisions of the Bill like designation of magistrates for the Children's Courts can be put into practice and the use of diversion and restorative justice continued. The CPA provisions which are compatible with the CRC should be used. / Thesis (LL.M.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.

The project underlying this dissertation aims at analyzing three pro-animal-rights theories, evaluating the theories, and outlining an alternative theoretical account of animal rights. The analytical categories are justification and function of animal rights, the definition of the right holder, and the resolution approach to rights conflict. The categories are applied to a naturalist, a theocentric, and a contractarian approach to defend animal rights. The evaluation is substantiated by the assumption that rights are meant to protect less powerful beings against more powerful aggressors. The constructive segment is an investigation into what extent identified disadvantages of the theories can be avoided by outlining a new model for animal rights. The analyses and evaluation suggest that all three theories are at risk of contradicting the proper function of rights-based theories. Tom Regan’s naturalist account of animal rights includes a logical possibility to sacrifice less capable beings for the sake of more capable beings. Andrew Linzey’s theocentric case for animal rights may sometimes mean that vulnerable human persons should be sacrificed for more powerful non-human beings. Mark Rowlands’ outlined contractarian model, further reconstructed in this work, fails to provide a way to resolve rights conflicts, making the function of rights inapplicable to conflicts. In conclusion, it is suggested that defining the right holder as a self-preservative being can be supported by, at least, the contractarian rationale. That would also conform to the proper function of rights-based theories. It is also suggested that this means that rights conflicts should be resolved by a voluntary sacrifice of the most powerful being. Practical circumstances should be created where such voluntarity is both genuine and rationally possible.

In this paper the concept of a ?human right? is analysed and clarified. Some justifications for human rights ? such as natural rights theory, contractarianism, utilitarianism and rights as vital interests ? are explored with respect to their emphasis on rights as protected choices or protected interests. Finally, a vital interests view is defended in which the rights to subsistence, security, and liberty of movement and political participation form the set of our basic rights without which we cannot enjoy our other rights.

Research concerning ‘basic needs' in the Human Rights literature has consistently found a positive and significant relationship between measures of wealth and basic needs provision. This study utilizes a relatively new measure of economic freedom to test hypotheses regarding general macro-economic policy decisions and basic needs outcomes. A pooled dataset of 138 countries over four years is examined using OLS panel regression controlling for both' year' and ‘country,' in a standard basic needs model. Consistent and systematic differences between economic freedom effects in OECD nations and non-OECD nations are revealed. The Economic Freedom Index has both theoretical and empirical advantages over previous measures of wealth and economic freedom, allowing human rights scholars to test specific economic policy decisions as they affect basic needs outcomes.

This thesis examines whether and how the EU counter-terrorism (CT) policy reconciles the demands of security with adequate protection of human rights. It starts from the assumption that human rights and security are mutually reinforcing and interdependent objectives in the CT fight where the erosion of one objective leads automatically to negative consequences in respect of the other objective. It specifically argues that the reconciliation of these two objectives has to be addressed at two distinct levels: first, in the framework of the EU primary law and, second, in the content of each EU CT provision. Consequently, the thesis examines both levels in order to respond to the research question. In the course of this investigation, the research has demonstrated that the legal framework resulting from the Treaty of Lisbon provides a basis for better addressing the human rights protection and security objectives of the EU CT policy. However, the analysis of three specific instruments – two in force and one at the level of a legislative proposal – provided contrasting results regarding the simultaneous fulfilment of the two imperatives outlined above. Moving beyond questions pertaining to the advancement of preventive criminal law and the possible reinforcement of a surveillance society, the thesis advances the hypothesis that, in the field, we are confronted more and more with what we could term ‘grey laws’ – following Dyzenhaus, Lynch and Reilly – due to their frailties as regards the tests of proportionality and legal certainty. Moreover, the thesis explores the EU’s stance as an actor in the field and the applicability of Wallace’s ‘pendulum model’ for CT decision-making, as well as the position of an individual subject to all the three measures indicated above. Solutions in order to overcome the identified shortcomings as well as further potential areas of research are also explored.

The article provides for an analysis of the legal nature of Article 30 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, which declares "the right to protection against unjustified dismissal". In the focus of attention is the question, whether this right constitutes a human or a fundamental right or it is a right without the status of being fundamental or alternatively only a basic principle. The considerations are based on the legal theory of human rights and particularly social rights, as well as on the understanding of this right in the various international treaties and the constitutional traditions of the Member States. Furthermore, the article addresses the question of implementation of Article 30 in the national laws, scrutinizes the interpretation of Art. 51 Abs 1 of the Charter and highlights the deficiencies and possibilities. Also the image of this right mirrored in the European Union's law and the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union is examined.

A presente tese tem como objeto o processo de incorporação dos direitos sexuais aos direitos humanos fundamentais, por meio de uma análise crítica da realidade social existente (no âmbito nacional e internacional), bem como das bases filosóficas subjacentes às posições divergentes sobre o tema, concluindo já estarem presentes, nos principais textos normativos de direitos humanos fundamentais, no âmbito das Nações Unidas, os mais importantes princípios éticos que se entendem aplicáveis à normatização do sexo pelo direito, em todos os níveis de governo, no atual estágio civilizatório, bem como propor balizas para a atuação, por parte dos poderes constituídos, com vistas à consolidação deste processo. / This paper intends to analyze the process of incorporation of sexual rights into the concept of fundamental human rights, by means of critically examining the existing social reality (international and local), as well as the underlying philosophical basis of the incompatible existing positions on the issue, concluding that the ethical principles applicable to the regulation of sex by law are already present in the main international human rights documents executed within the United Nations system, suggesting guiding principles, to all levels of government, in order to consolidate that process.