1,721,184 research outputs found
Migration, Gender and Social Justice
No full textThis book is the product of a collaborative effort involving partners from Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America who were funded by the International Development Research Centre Programme on Women and Migration (2006-2011). The International Institute of Social Studies at Erasmus University Rotterdam spearheaded a project intended to distill and refine the research findings, connecting them to broader literatures and interdisciplinary themes. The book examines commonalities and differences in the operation of various structures of power (gender, class, race/ethnicity, generation) and their interactions within the institutional domains of intra-national and especially inter-national migration that produce context-specific forms of social injustice. Additional contributions have been included so as to cover issues of legal liminality and how the social construction of not only femininity but also masculinity affects all migrants and all women. The resulting set of 19 detailed, interconnected case studies makes a valuable contribution to reorienting our perceptions and values in the discussions and decision-making concerning migration, and to raising awareness of key issues in migrants’ rights.
All chapters were anonymously peer-reviewed. This book resulted from a series of projects funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada.UCR::Vicerrectoría de Investigación::Unidades de Investigación::Ciencias Sociales::Instituto de Investigaciones Sociales (IIS
Migration, gender and social justice: Perspectives on human insecurity
Get PDFThis book is the product of a collaborative effort involving partners from Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America who were funded by the International Development Research Centre Programme on Women and Migration (2006-2011). The International Institute of Social Studies at Erasmus University Rotterdam spearheaded a project intended to distill and refine the research findings, connecting them to broader literatures and interdisciplinary themes. The book examines commonalities and differences in the operation of various structures of power (gender, class, race/ethnicity, generation) and their interactions within the institutional domains of intra-national and especially inter-national migration that produce context-specific forms of social injustice. Additional contributions have been included so as to cover issues of legal liminality and how the social construction of not only femininity but also masculinity affects all migrants and all women. The resulting set of 19 detailed, interconnected case studies makes a valuable contribution to reorienting our perceptions and values in the discussions and decision-making concerning migration, and to raising awareness of key issues in migrants' rights. All chapters were anonymously peer-reviewed. This book resulted from a series of projects funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada
Large-scale land transactions in Karamoja region, Uganda: a right to food perspective
No full textThis paper uses the socio-legal approaches of Legal Consciousness, Legal
Translation and the Human Rights-Based Approach to development to address
the question of access to land and the realisation of the right to food.
This is in the context of an indigenous Karimojong pastoral community in
Uganda, where large chunks of land have been allocated by the government to
mining companies. Accordingly, the influence of international human rights
norms on state behaviour at the local level is analysed.
The empirical findings of the study illustrates how lack of access to land
has affected the pastoralists’ realisation of their right to food, through denial of
access to grazing grounds, contamination of water sources and lack of access
to wild fruits. This is a consequence of a mismatch between the indigenous
pastoralists’ conception of property rights; coupled with limited knowledge of
the existing laws and procedures, and inadequate monitoring and control
mechanism by the state. The none-fulfilment of the right to food is also attributed
to limited involvement of the affected communities in the processes
of land transactions. The paper argues that whereas the adoption of international
human rights standards in relation to property rights and the right to
food are necessary for addressing human rights concerns at the local level, the
process of framing these norms to suit the local context determines its effectiveness
Displaced by oil exploration: examining violations of social economic rights of the IDPS in Hoima District, Uganda
Get PDFDevelopment projects are conventionally linked with the protracted internal displacement and involuntary resettlement of hundreds of millions of people in the world. Uganda is not an exception, the demand for land for oil exploration projects displaced a large number of people and continue to displace people in Albertine Graben oil region which in turn make them become IDPs in their own country in the name of development. Unfortunately, the Uganda government IDP policy did not account for development-induced IDPs, as a result making thousands of people displaced to suffer from food insecurity, homelessness, jobless-ness among others.
During the reallocation exercise rights of the indigenous people were violated among them are the social economic rights which this paper puts a depth analysis on through making use of both available documents and carrying out selected interviews with concerned stake-holders. Examining the processes through which the inhabitants of Hoima district who lived in the area where oil was discovered were displaced to camps of Kabale and Buseruka reset-tlement villages, deeper analysis of how the government and the oil companies acquired the land from the inhabitants while focusing on social economic rights violations in reference to various court cases that have so far taken place both on local and international scene. Re-gardless of the violation of their rights, the study was able to show how the IDPs through the concepts of legal mobilization and empowerment mobilized the law to challenge the injustice meted on the by the government
A socio-legal critique of the legal framework for the promotion of rights of persons with disabilities in Kenya
Get PDFThis research is a critical analysis of the legal framework on the rights of per-sons with disabilities in Kenya. It looks at the legal framework which in-cludes the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), the Constitution of Kenya, 2010 and the Persons with Disabilities Act, 2003 (PDA) with a view to establishing their shortcomings and why despite their provisions, the rights of persons with disabilities (PWDs) in Kenya continue to be violated. It therefore looks at and discusses the efficacy of the legal framework; the potential of the work done thus far; the potential of the relatively new concept known as “diffability” which recognises that PWDs have different abilities and should therefore be empowered to claim their rights based on these abilities.
The research delves into the right of PWDs to participate in positions of lead-ership in a bid to bring out the fact that those in power continue to violate the rights of PWDs. The research uses a human rights based approach; the social and medical models of disability; and socio-legal approaches to argue that the legal framework in Kenya has serious shortcomings. It goes ahead to make recommendations on possible ways of improving the legal framework
The post-Fordist regulation of the US prison sector
Get PDFThis paper seeks to answer a two-fold question; what were the economic and socio-political conditions that gave rise to a penal system which uses prison labour in the way we see today? And what, if any, role does the penal system play within these larger systemic issues? The prisoner strikes in the Fall of 2018 that specifically focused on prison labour sparked this reflection on the historical formation of the prison system from the late 1970s to the mid-1990s. In order to help me answer this question I am using Régulation Theory (RT) which has provided a methodology to investigate economic dimensions in relation to social and political institutions.
RT has allowed me to reach some interesting conclusions that refocuses the debate about the use of prison labour we see today. The current manifestation of the prison system and the use of prison labour therein has typically been attributed to the re-privatization of prison labour through the Prison Industry Enhancement Program legislated by Congress in 1979. While this is definitely a major point of departure which can be traced with the rise of neoliberalism, the economic and socio-political conditions that gave rise to the current penal system cannot be isolated to privatization. In conjunction, this means that the de-bate about neoliberalism, and the role that prison labour plays within it, also extends beyond these boundaries. By outlining the historical institutional moment before the economic crisis of the 1970s and how the response to the crisis led to the emergence of new institutional compromises, I am able to propose in this research paper that the rise of neoliberalism within the US prison sector was championed by the emerging work-first welfare strategies laid out by the state. This operated in tandem with international liberalization and the effects of the Volcker Shock at the beginning of the 1980s, which feed into the system that exacerbated economic inequality particularly by subjugating African American labour
Syrian refugees’ right to human dignity in reception centers of Greece: An analysis of the right to an adequate standard of living
No full textHuman dignity defined in terms of an adequate standard of living is a key figure within refugees’ treatment discourses. Respecting them as a vulnerable group of people forced to leave their homes for a wide variety of reasons and protecting their unalienable rights is always an issue at stake within societies, even in the most liberal and democratic states. The present paper problematizes the idea of providing humane living conditions for refugees as long as their asylum process is under consideration. Using a socio-legal approach in understanding human rights norms and laws, it is argued that these norms do not constitute independent values but are embedded in social, cultural and economic contexts. Through the lenses of the Greek society’s characteristics and specific needs, the study examines the necessity for international human rights norms’ translation and their framing into familiar for local people terms. The role of institutional and transnational actors is deemed to be determinant towards this direction by simply constituting mediators between the international or regional and the national level. Consequently, when a state or society itself is not able to realize the value of human rights norms and regulations and effectively implement them, non-state actors such as NGOs lay the foundations by providing the guidelines for local people and government officials to follow. Thus, delinking human rights ideas from the ambiguity and embedding them into each society’s context will be the main argument in order to approach refugees’ right to human dignity and adequate living standards. Negotiation for a better quality of living conditions and opportunities for improvement can also be encountered during the journey of this academic analysis
Challenges of Access to Justice in Tanzania to Obtain Legal Assistance for Street Children Facing Physical Violence by Police
Get PDFHaving access to justice in obtaining legal assistance and representation is a fundamental right of every child without bias and discrimination of any kind. However, premised on several factors that push children into the streets and the prevalence of violence against them, obtaining legal assistance and legal representation seem crucial to access justice when their rights are being violated. Street children who are victims of violence are entitled to legal assistance for the purpose of justice attainment in rights violation (OHCHR 2011:20 ), which indicates that street children deserves equal right in obtaining access to justice. But the lack of access to justice in respect of having adequate legal assistance and representation for street children when encountered with physical violence remains questionable in Tanzania as the observed gap in child protection laws unintentionally limits their access in obtaining legal assistance and representation
When Retributivism Triumphs: Challenges to the Human Rights of Prisoners in Cebu, Philippines
Get PDFWhy are international human rights norms plagued with the problem of huge
gap between the promise of formal rights and the harsh realities that people
they are supposed to protect experience on the ground? In answering the question,
this paper investigates the right-reality divide of the human right of prisoners
against cruel, inhuman, or degrading punishment or treatment. Using
socio-legal approach in understanding laws as not existing in a vacuum and
therefore not insulated from the socio-cultural and political economic structures
of society, this paper argues that the rift between right and reality in the
case of the human right of prisoners against cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment
or treatment is due to the lack of full acceptance of this right by society.
In conclusion, this paper posits that the non-acceptance of this right is
caused by the dominance of the retributive perspective of punishment in society
over the rehabilitative ideal set by human rights norms, leading to the nonrecognition
and non-promotion of this right on the ground
“No Time For Dreams”: The Challenges in Realising Socio-Economic Rights in Contemporary South Africa
Get PDFDespite the South African Constitution guaranteeing socio-economic
rights and explicitly recognising that everyone has inherent dignity, every day,
millions of South Africans are denied constitutionally guaranteed rights
through ineffective service delivery by the state. The objective of this research
was to therefore explore the factors that limit the realisation of socio-economic
rights, focussing on the implementation of a basic sanitation policy in the informal
settlement of Makhaza, Khayelitsha, Cape Town, as an example exposing
these limitations. While the right to basic sanitation is not explicitly mentioned
in the South African Constitution, due to its personal nature it is
intrinsically linked to the right to dignity. This research has sought to argue that
a multi-dimensional approach should be adopted when analysing the challenges
that inhibit the realisation of such rights. A three-tiered approach was
adopted to analyse the Makhaza case-study: namely, a socio-legal approach,
theories of citizenship and Black Consciousness. The research has further
sought to argue that factors that inhibit the realisation of this right include aspects
of power politics, and a lack of engagement between actors including
politicians and civil society, which impacts on both policy implementation and
the claiming of rights. The principal conclusion drawn was that successful
judgments confirming socio-economic rights alone are not enough to ensure
that citizens receive the rights they are entitled to – making use of both the
courts as well as grassroots strategies outside of the court arena are required to
realise rights. Further, communities are calling for policy-implementers to include
them in decision-making processes that directly affect them, in addition
to meeting their basic needs as a matter of urgency. A failure to achieve constructive
civil-state engagement will result in the values embodied in the Constitution
remaining but a dream
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