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This study has aimed at examining the nature and function of the support and protection that is offered and provided to human rights defenders trough a selected few international as well as regional human rights instruments and mechanisms, among them the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, the EU Guidelines on Human Rights Defenders as well as the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Inter-American Court on Human Rights. In order to conduct such a study in a fairly limited and concrete way a number of cases were selected of human rights defenders who have undergone or are currently undergoing criminal prosecution and are incarcerated in Guatemala. The selection was based on the notion that apart from murder, criminal prosecution and incarceration of human rights defenders constitutes one of the most harmful and effective ways to actively hinder the continuance of valuable human rights work. Consequently, it impedes the promotion, implementation and protection of human rights on a general level. In regards to this States such as Guatemala have found ways to circumvent their international human rights duties by allowing others or themselves to label human rights defenders as criminal and violent actors, thus taking away the legitimate aspect of their roles and functions when it comes to promoting and safeguarding the enjoyment and exercise of human rights. The examined cases were meant to shed light on the situation for defenders in Guatemala but most importantly they were meant to illustrate a context in which one can examine the role and function that international human rights instruments and mechanisms have to combat such types of situations. The study found that although the concerned instruments and mechanisms such as the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, the EU-guidelines on Human Rights Defenders, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Inter-American Court on Human Rights have a positive, important and impacting role in providing support to human rights defenders they have not yet reached/obtained the function of preventing persecution of human rights defenders, most notably of the legal kind. Since these mechanisms can only recommend but not force States to recognize and treat advocates of rights as “human rights defenders” their role and function for this specific purpose becomes less effective. All is not negative however, and the instruments and mechanisms that exist today are an illustration of the ambitions of States to follow international human rights principles and standards, at least to some extent.

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze current housing and supplemental income programs on a national level to measure success and failures of different programs like Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, Earned Income Tax Credit, and Housing Vouchers. Furthermore, this thesis attempt to discuss questions of ethics and precedent in determining to what degree the United States should engage in social safety net policies. This paper analyzes contemporary American social safety net policies on the basis of their cost to American taxpayers as well as how well it benefits those in poverty.

This thesis sets out an argument against the present interpretation of the concept of autonomy under the European Court of Human Rights (the ECtHR) Article 8 jurisprudence and proposes a new reading of the concept that is rooted in an acknowledgment and appreciation of human interdependence. Following the prevailing political, legal and socio-cultural ideas and ideals about autonomy, the ECtHR has chosen to furnish its recent Article 8 case law according to the values characteristic of the notion of individual autonomy – independence, selfsufficiency, and the ability to conduct one’s life in a manner of one’s own choosing. Adopting this individualistic view on autonomy, the ECtHR sets normative standards for behaviour that the thesis challenges as being detrimental for the quality of interpersonal relationships. The work draws on sociological theory to argue that in modern individualised societies people are increasingly tied to each other – one has to be socially sensitive and to be able to relate to others and to obligate oneself, in order to manage and organise the complexities of everyday life. This also means that there are attendant obligations between individuals to be sensitive towards, and care for, each other. It is argued that an effective exercise of one’s autonomy becomes necessarily dependent on the existence of caring and trusting relationships. This in turn requires the ECtHR to adopt an appropriate conceptualisation of autonomy that embraces this knowledge and gives full effect to it. The concept of caring autonomy is proposed as a replacement for an individualistic concept of autonomy. It will be argued that this concept captures better the essentiality of human interdependence and the morality it calls for. The implications of this for the future direction of the ECtHR jurisprudence are also considered.

This thesis challenges the restrictive definition of ‘gay’ used in legal discourse, argues for the adoption of a broader definition that is inclusive of more gay individuals, and demonstrates that the adoption of a broader definition would help frame gay rights debates in a way that is more acceptable to both progressives and conservatives. Current legal arguments for gay rights use ‘gay’ to refer almost solely to individuals that have exclusively—largely immutable—same-sex erotic desires. However, ‘gay’ should be understood to include a more diverse group of individuals. Thus, the current restrictive use of the term ‘gay’ either captures too many people or too few. Too many people, for conservatives, because gay rights are extended to many gay individuals that are not included in the restrictive definition. Too few people, for progressives, because the restrictive use of the term ‘gay’ doesn’t capture the entire gay community.

published_or_final_version / abstract / Law / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Law / Master / Master of Laws

This study focuses on the struggle to integrate St. Andrew’s Episcopal School, a small private school in Austin, Texas. A close examination of the history of this community sheds light on how privileged whites navigated questions of integration, especially in Christian communities. Pro-integration whites in these communities utilized their faith, understanding of community, and a rhetoric of respectability to move the school towards desegregation, forging a “middle way” through Civil Rights that achieved the goal of integration without damaging white interests in the community. Following St. Andrew’s through the 1970’s and 1980’s, this study moves beyond the implementation of official integration policies to trace how the school wrestled with questions of minority enrollment, white flight, and the relationship between private communities and the public sphere. Over the course of three decades, St. Andrew’s increased minority enrollment but adopted a narrower and more inward-focused understanding of community, becoming a more diverse space but not fundamentally questioning the nature of a private school in times of public crisis. / text

International treaties consist of horizontal obligations between two or more states and are enforced when one state holds another accountable. But human rights treaties are fundamentally different. Human rights treaties consist of vertical obligations between a state and its citizens. Because of the nature of the obligations states will rarely hold one another accountable. And yet, despite the absence of this traditional enforcement mechanism, human rights treaties can change state behavior. Why do human rights treaties change behavior and what lessons can be drawn to encourage compliance in other areas of law? This professional report uses qualitative examples and existing quantitative studies and to examine state compliance with three human rights treaties: the Convention against Torture (CAT), the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The report then examines whether different explanations for state compliance can explain actual compliance records. The findings suggest that no single factor can explain state compliance with human rights treaties. Concern for reputation, the presence of civil society groups, the existence of a strong judiciary, and citizen interest in enforcing the law are all partial explanations for compliance. These factors interact with one another, improving or undermining enforcement. The findings suggest that domestic factors are an important part of international law compliance and that acceptance of a law by the domestic public is vital to compliance. The findings further suggest that international law enforcement can be carried out at lower levels of governance. Finally this paper suggests how the lessons from human rights compliance can be applied in other areas, specifically, in domestic law enforcement. Many of the factors which encourage compliance with international law may be used to encourage compliance with domestic laws. The same enforcement delegation that improves compliance with human rights law may improve compliance with domestic law. / text

The Reclamation Act of 1902, as amended, is the basic legislation governing the distribution of water from federal projects for irrigation purposes. In the three-quarters of a century since the passage of this Act, technological, economic, and legal developments have forced a reappraisal of the original intent of the Reclamation laws. Several proposals have been made to amend these laws and enforce provisions that put the current distribution of the rights to public water and related land resources in jeopardy. This study attempts to evaluate these proposed amendments in terms of the irrigation rights that would be displaced if the amendments were rigidly enforced in three of Oregon's largest federal irrigation districts. The method of analysis proceeds by combining secondary data on land ownership with primary survey data on leasing arrangements to generate a distribution of farm sizes for each district. Each farming unit as a whole is then evaluated for any excess acreage that would be displaced from applying the ownership, leasing, and residency provisions of each of the proposals. Excess acreage is summed and extrapolated over the irrigation district to provide an estimate of the effect of enforcing each proposal in each district. The results of the analysis indicate that the various proposed restrictions will result in widely different sets of effects. Two of the proposals, that of the Department of Interior and that of National Land for People, are restrictive enough to cause 17,000 and 23,000 acres of excess land, respectively, across all three irrigation districts. The other two proposals analyzed, that of Senators Church/Hatfield, and that of Farm/Water Alliance, will result in little or no excess land in these districts. / Graduation date: 1980