Mini Dissertation ((LLM) Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)--University of Pretoria, 2021. / Canon Collins Educational and Legal Assistance Trust / European Union / Centre for Human Rights / (LLM) Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa / Unrestricted

This dissertation investigated the doctrine of the responsibility to protect (R2P), which was unanimously endorsed at the 2005 UN World Summit by all the UN Member States. I determined the status of R2P in public international law. I found that, although the 2005 UN World Summit Outcome Document is not a source of international law, the responsibility to protect contained therein under paragraph 138, reiterated the existing international legal obligation of states to protect their populations from genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and ethnic cleansing. I have argued that if a state fails to fulfil its legal obligation to protect its population from mass violations of human rights, the principle of state sovereignty and its accompanying norm of non-intervention cannot prevent the international community from responding appropriately to protect the population of that state. But the international community does not have a legal obligation on how it should respond to situations of human rights violations. However, the responsibility to protect as contained in paragraph 139 of the 2005 UN World Summit Outcome Document and the constitutive documents of organizations such as the United Nations, the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have given authority to the international community to intervene in their member states in order to protect populations from mass atrocity crimes. On that basis, the responsibility to protect on the part of the international community exists. But the international community retains the discretion to decide on whether it should respond and how it should react to situations that fall within the scope of R2P. I used the three pillars of the responsibility to protect, contained in the 2009 report of the UN Secretary General to determine how the responsibility to protect was implemented in Nigeria to protect the population from crimes against humanity and war crimes perpetrated by members of the Islamic extremist militant group called Boko Haram. I analyzed various measures taken by the Nigerian government, the United Nations, the African Union, and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and concluded that the measures taken were not effective in defeating Boko Haram. Hence, I found that the responsibility to protect was not successfully implemented in Nigeria.

Includes bibliographical references / 2015 signals the end of the Millennium Development Goals. Amidst the present reflection on, and analysis of, the progress of the implementation of the current development agenda, the draft post-2015 SDGs are in the final stages of their development. With the imminent adoption of the new goals by UN Member States in September 2015 the post-2015sustainable development agenda aims to integrate the principle of sustainability in order to continue the global drive for economic and human development within environmental limits. Through a comparative analysis of the Millennium Development Goals, the draft post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals as well as the documents that have contributed to their development, this paper critiques the manner in which the human rights of women have been, and will continue to be, addressed by the global development agenda. Additionally, using the African continent as a case study, this dissertation exposes the role played by regional political and human rights systems on the implementation of the global intention. Neglecting to adequately promote and protect the human rights of women in the continent reflects a lack of consideration for the interconnected nature of socioeconomic and environmental development and has wider consequences globally.

There are approximately 65.3 million forcibly displaced people in the world. A large majority of these people are internally displaced. Of the 40.8 million internally displaced persons' (IDPs) worldwide, Nigeria had a total of 1,955,000 IDPs at the end of 2016. Consequently, Nigeria is among the countries with the highest number of displaced persons globally. A wide range of political, economic, social, and environmental factors, including poverty, corruption, and internal armed conflict, affect the population in Nigeria and contribute to internal instability. Thus, as Nigeria represents a complex and multi-layered situation of internal displacement, it makes for an interesting case study to understand international protection of IDPs. This dissertation asks whether the current protection of IDPs' right to physical security in Nigeria complies with international human rights standards. The current international legal framework in place for the protection of IDPs is relatively extensive, and undergoes continuous development. The United Nations Guiding Principles for the Protection of Internally Displaced People and the African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa (Kampala Convention), as well as general human rights mechanisms, comprehensively set out the rights and guarantees for the protection of the physical security of IDPs. Although there has been great improvement in recent years relating to the legal protection of and assistance to IDPs, the de facto implementation and enforcement of these frameworks in Nigeria is not in full compliance with international human rights standards.

Uganda is Africa's largest refugee hosting country and third in the world with more than 1.25 million refugees as of June 2017. The majority of refugees there are children. Uganda's refugee regime and hospitality date back to the days of World War II, prior to the country's independence, when it hosted refugees from European countries. Since then, the country has generously continued to open its borders to anyone seeking international protection and assistance mainly from the conflict affected countries in the East, Horn and Great Lakes Region of Africa. In compliance with the 1951 UN Convention and its 1976 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees and the OAU 1969 Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa, Uganda enacted the Refugees Act No.21 of 2006 and the Regulations Act of 2010 to effectively manage refugee needs. The increase in the number of refugees in Uganda amidst the limited resources at its disposal poses serious challenges in meeting its international obligation to safeguard the rights of refugee children's access to education. This thesis examines the country's responsibility under international law to protect, promote and fulfil the right to access education for refugee children, particularly aimed at understanding the challenges of provision of education to strengthen multi-level response. Research finds international and regional instruments sufficient for the protection and guarantee of education for children. However, the main refugee treaties fail to adequately provide the right to education for refugee children. The UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees has provision for education rights but makes no reference to refugee children while the OAU 1969 Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa provides neither the right to education nor rights to children specifically. The analysis of Uganda's policy and laws on safeguarding refugee children's right to education revealed glaring shortfalls. The laws fail to provide adequate protection to refugee children's education rights. Notwithstanding the existence of an enabling legal and policy framework in Uganda that ensures access to education for nationals, refugee children continue to face legal and structural barriers in accessing post-primary education. The paper shows that both international and national laws guaranteeing the right to education for refugees limits the extent to which it is exercised. At national level, this is not only discriminatory but also inconsistent with the provisions of the Constitution of Uganda relating to education and child rights.

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

This thesis evaluates Canada‘s compliance with human rights-based complementary international protection. Through an analysis of the roots of international refugee protection, it first links the evolution of the latter with the development of human rights law instruments. It then defines complementary protection as the corpus of legal bases for asylum claims outside of the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. It uses various human rights instruments to outline international protection obligations, which take three different forms of complementary protection. The first one consists in independent protection mechanisms outside of the Refugee Convention, the most important being the formulation of non-refoulement in the Convention Against Torture. The others are rights that expand the application of existing protection mechanisms, and protection mechanisms established by the UNHCR outside of existing international treaties. This thesis argues that Canada‘s application of these norms reflects partial compliance with its obligations, as it acknowledges important humanitarian concerns regarding international protection, while attempting to preserve its prerogative to exclude individuals based on national security.

Magister Legum - LLM / Many critics have questioned whether the protection of the IPRs would benefit developing countries. It was argued in this paper that developing countires have the interest in protecting IPRs as well. However, it was showed that the benefit of this protection can be realized only if there is a fair rule of the game to all players in the multilateral trading system. The general objective of this research was to examine the current status of IPRs protection and the levels of TRIPS compliance by Rwanda in the area of copyright. / South Africa

No abstract available. / Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / gm2014 / Centre for Human Rights / unrestricted

This minor dissertation argues that there is more than a disjuncture between theory and practices, particularly for refugees and migrants and doctors in South Africa. The core idea of the Bill of Rights is that socio-economic rights are for everyone. Yet, its application suggests everyone means all citizens in the post-apartheid period, rather than all residents in South Africa. In the international domain, the human rights discourse calls on states to recognise responsibility extending to all peoples residing in a sovereign nation- state; but progressive realisation can hamper this aspiration. By employing progressive realisation within South African law, the idea that the state pays for what it can and makes future efforts to change, socio-economic rights for everyone currently cannot be achieved. This dissertation examines how Constitutional Court rulings on access to healthcare and relevant statutes have not been uniformly granted to everyone causing a disjuncture between law and practice.