1,720,974 research outputs found
The power of indigenous people to veto development activities: the right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) with specific reference to Ethiopia
Get PDFDissertation submitted to the Faculty of Law University of Pretoria, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Masters of Law (LLM in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa). Prepared under the supervision of Odile Lim Tung, Faculty of Law and Management, University of Mauritius.Mini Dissertation (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa))--University of Pretoria, 2009.Discusses how to ascertain the meaning and implications of Right to Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC). Discusses the difference between meaningful participation of FPIC and the relationship between ‘national interest’ and the right to FPIC. Also analyses the protection of the rights of indigenous peoples, including mainly the right to FPIC in Ethiopia. Introduces recommendations concerning the middle ground between ‘national interest’
and the right to FPIC. Discusses how the right to FPIC can be legally recognised in
Ethiopia and Africa in general, including particularly by the African Commission, and
outlines specific recommendations on the relevant policies of the World Bank and African Development Bank.http://www.chr.up.ac.za/Centre for Human RightsLL
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
The Gambia in transition: Towards a new constitutional order
No full textThe Gambia opened a new chapter in her history after 22 years of authoritarian rule under former dictator Yahya Jammeh, heralding the promise of a ‘New Gambia.’ The country is at a critical juncture in its transition from Jammeh’s autocratic rule to a fully-fledged democracy. The ambitious transitional processes include the Truth Reparations and Reconciliation Commission to create an official record of past abuses and crimes, the Constitutional Review Commission to draft a new Constitution, and the permanent National Human Rights Commission to build a human rights culture. The Gambia in transition: Towards a new constitutional order is a diverse collection of timely, rigorous, and insightful essays on human rights, constitutional reform, rule of law and democratic governance. It serves as an important reference for academics, policymakers, researchers, civil society organisations, human rights defenders, learners, and the public at large.PublishedThe Gambia opened a new chapter in her history after 22 years of authoritarian rule under former dictator Yahya Jammeh, heralding the promise of a ‘New Gambia.’ The country is at a critical juncture in its transition from Jammeh’s autocratic rule to a fully-fledged democracy. The ambitious transitional processes include the Truth Reparations and Reconciliation Commission to create an official record of past abuses and crimes, the Constitutional Review Commission to draft a new Constitution, and the permanent National Human Rights Commission to build a human rights culture. The Gambia in transition: Towards a new constitutional order is a diverse collection of timely, rigorous, and insightful essays on human rights, constitutional reform, rule of law and democratic governance. It serves as an important reference for academics, policymakers, researchers, civil society organisations, human rights defenders, learners, and the public at large
Left behind : the story of the Ethiopian pursuit of democracy
Get PDFMini Dissertation (MPhil (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa))--University of Pretoria, 2022.Riddled with autocratic leaders, human rights violations, and a disregard for the rule of law, democratic realisation in much of Africa remains poor - particularly true for Ethiopia. A nation without a quintessential colonial history, it has nevertheless been strongly affected by Western and Eastern political theories. In its ostensible transition to democratic rule, Ethiopia has formally transplanted pre-existing, foreign, governance approaches and formally implemented them domestically. Contrary to the democratic order they espouse, Ethiopian political leaders have leveraged a façade of democracy to license authoritarian rule. To that effect, Ethiopia remains a nation struggling to keep up with the tides of democracy and the demands of its people. Today, Ethiopia serves as a tale of an African dream unfulfilled. One of Ethiopia’s greatest challenges has been its poor political organisation and its failure to establish a successful democratic order. This thesis assesses the historical trajectory of democracy in Ethiopia by interrogating the quality of the following three democratic elements (i) separation of powers and checks and balances (ii) free and fair elections, and (iii) freedom of speech. These three elements of democracy are by no means to be interpreted as absolute benchmarks for democratic realisation, however, considering the arguable universality of these elements as pillars of democracy, they prove relevant as references for assessment in this case. This paper does not assess democratic elements beyond these. Additionally, it does not offer an entirely new democratic framework for the country. The thesis seeks to contribute to conversations on building an appropriate democratic framework for Ethiopia. The main research question of this paper is: Does Ethiopia’s current governmental framework truly constitute a democratic approach? The sub-questions are: (i) What democratic model(s) have successive regimes in Ethiopia adopted? (ii) What are the transplanted elements of Ethiopia’s democratic framework? (iii) How have they failed or succeeded to facilitate democracy in Ethiopia? (iv) How can Ethiopia’s democratic framework be redesigned if at all? This thesis is divided into five chapters. The first introduces the background, methodologies, and scope of the research. The second introduces the conceptual and legal frameworks of democracy and contextualises the assessment criteria and evaluation methodologies that the thesis is based on. Chapter three narrates the socio-political history of Ethiopia, during the reign of Emperor Haile Selassie and the Derg. The fourth chapter analyses the democratic approaches of the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) between 1991 and 2019, and the Prosperity Party (PP) from 2019- to 2022 and provides an assessment of their democratic frameworks in theory and in practice. The fifth chapter offers conclusions and recommendations. The findings suggest that Ethiopia has leveraged an eclectic construction of a democratic model. Although having formally established a multi-party ethnic federation, the TPLF rejected the liberal democratic order that customarily accompanies a federalist structure and replaced it with the dogma of ‘revolutionary democracy’. A hybrid ideology of Leninism and liberal democracy applied through a lens of ethnic diversity, ‘revolutionary democracy’ is foundationally controversial and oppositional to the organisation of a federal state. Furthermore, despite constitutional guarantees of separation of powers, free and fair elections and freedom of speech, the Ethiopian federal government has failed to facilitate rule for, of and by the people in practice. Separation of powers in Ethiopia has proven to be an unachievable notion. Possibly handicapped by the nation’s long-running history with ‘big man rule’, Ethiopia more accurately functions as a unitary state. Elections have also proven a contentious issue, even a farce, in Ethiopia. Although consistently holding national elections since 1995 (save the 2020 election), they have failed to yield a political victor other than for the EPRDF and the Prosperity Party. Similarly, freedom of speech lacks effect in practice, despite its guarantees in the constitution, it has been severely limited through domestic laws that curtail Ethiopians’ constitutionally protected rights to freedom of expression. Furthermore, the federal government’s media monopoly put access to receive and disseminate information in the hands of the ruling party, an arguably authoritarian regime that has been unwilling to relinquish power over the past 30 years. With regards to the ultimate success or failure of Ethiopia's democratic framework, if the benchmark for success is the mere existence of constitutional and legislative guarantees for the discussed elements of democracy, then the Ethiopian framework seems to have failed. Considering domestic legislation continues to undercut the constitutional guarantees to democracy, the democratic framework fails to holistically protect the separation of powers, free and fair elections, and freedom of speech. In the sense that the democratic elements considered in this thesis are protected constitutionally, the Ethiopian democratic framework meets the requirements to be considered a democracy. However, where Ethiopia’s framework largely falls short is in the existing domestic legislation that hinders the realisation of such democratic elements and the failure to ensure the enforcement of constitutional mandates. Therefore, despite an explicit constitutional declaration of democracy and corresponding constitutional protections, the conflicting domestic legislation has resulted in a contradictory democratic framework and thus Ethiopia fails to provide comprehensive legal assurance and practically establish democracy.Mandela Rhodes FoundationCentre for Human RightsMPHIL (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)Unrestricte
Separation of powers as a prerequisite for democratic governance : the case of South Sudan
No full textMini Dissertation (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa))--University of Pretoria, 2023.This research focuses more on separation of powers, constitutionalism and checks and balances in South Sudan. The research addresses the challenges the country faces as a result of too many powers vested in the hands of the president which has greatly impacted on the rule of law and good governance. These excessive powers undermine separation of powers and constitutionalism as the president can decree elected governors, decree judges with little or no adherence to the laid down processes to effect such changes. As a result the country has witness serious constitutional breakdown and conflicts.Centre for Human RightsCentre for Human RightsLLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)UnrestrictedFaculty of LawsSDG-16:Peace,justice and strong institution
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