1,720,956 research outputs found
The mandate of Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission in promoting and protecting the rights of persons with disabilities
Full text linkPersons with disabilities are vulnerable to systematic discrimination, social exclusion and prejudice within political, social and economic spheres. They are at the highest risk of human rights violations. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), of which the main object is to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms for all persons with disabilities, implicitly nominates National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) as key institutions in the advancement of rights of persons with disabilities. Similarly, the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Africa impliedly designates NHRIs as institutions responsible for monitoring the implementation of the rights of persons with disabilities. In the same spirit, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights recognises that NHRIs compliant with the Principles on the Status of National Human Rights Institutions commonly referred to as the Paris Principles are the cornerstone of national human rights protection systems. The Paris Principles enjoin NHRIs to take comprehensive action towards both human rights promotion and protection. The Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission is the NHRI of Zimbabwe and is accredited by the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions as fully compliant with the Paris Principles. The ZHRC’s mandate to advance the rights of persons with disabilities is drawn from the CRPD, and most importantly, domestic legislation sanctioning its existence. This paper seeks to explore the mandate of the ZHRC in the promotion and protection of the rights of persons with disabilities in Zimbabwe
The constitutional court ruling against child marriages in Zimbabwe: a landmark decision for advancing the rights of the girl child
No full textOn the 20th of January 2016, the Constitutional Court of Zimbabwe went a step ahead to protect children’s rights by banning child marriages and other harmful practices that are detrimental to childhood. The ruling comes at an opportune time to denounce the inadequacy of marriage laws, and to ban all archaic practices responsible for an upsurge in child brides. This is undeniably a groundbreaking ruling in the eyes of diverse actors who for long have been battling it out against the upsurge and impact of child marriages. This article goes beyond acknowledgement of the ruling to commend the judiciary’s role in ending harmful practices, and to decipher post-ruling strategies to end child marriages. Amongst other efforts, the legislature is urged to expedite harmonisation and alignment of marriage laws to the 2013 Constitution, and other international best practices as well as implementation of innovative and multi-sectoral approaches in tackling child marriages. The paper advocates for litigation in lower courts, as well as widespread awareness campaigns at all levels of society to rethink attitudes, beliefs and practices which are inconsistent with best practices in child protection.Keywords: Child marriages, harmful practices, judiciary, girl chil
Improving Zimbabwe\u27s Public Policy Environment as a Regional and Global Strategy for Re-Engagement
Full text linkFor almost four decades, Zimbabwe\u27s economy has been on a downward trend. Several economic policies have been adopted in an effort to mend the ailing economy, to no avail. According to the World Bank (2005), for public policies to be effectively implemented, political and economic fundamentals should balance. However, the politics of Zimbabwe continues to negatively impact on economic recovery and integration with regional and international trade networks. The net effect of this public policy imbalance is the ballooning of the national debt, skyrocketing of national inflation and pathetic positioning of the country on the human development index. The current government\u27s \u27Zimbabwe is now open for business\u27 mantra is failing to turn the country\u27s economic fortunes. It is against this backdrop that this qualitative research paper interrogated through desk research, the main challenges curtailing Zimbabwe\u27s complete re-engagement with international economic communities so as to proffer recommendations for successful economic re-engagement
A vehicle for peacebuilding or cloak of impunity? The Zimbabwe National Peace and Reconciliation Commission
Full text linkABSTRACT:
This article interrogates the efficacy of truth commissions as mechanisms for peacebuilding and reconciliation in Africa, with reference to Zimbabwe’s National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC). It questions the credibility and effectiveness of this institution in an attempt to establish whether the NPRC is a vehicle for peacebuilding or just a veil covering state impunity. Through a review of literature, the article explores the efficacy of the NPRC in comparison with the truth commissions established in Rwanda and South Africa. The article establishes that some of the challenges faced by the NPRC include a limited tenure, suppression of truth, limited institutional independence and resources, lack of political will, as well as usurpation of functions by the executive. Lessons identified from South Africa and Rwanda include adoption of diverse peacebuilding initiatives such as combining restorative justice with reparation, and provision of psychosocial care so as to achieve holistic reconciliation. In order to strengthen the capacity of the NPRC to usher in sustainable peace in Zimbabwe and enhance its credibility, the authors recommend extension of the tenure of the NPRC, truth-telling, cessation of state control and interference with operations of the NPRC, and adequate resourcing it.
TITRE ET RÉSUMÉ EN FRANCAIS:
Mécanisme de consolidation de la paix ou instrument d’impunité? La Commission nationale pour la paix et la réconciliation du Zimbabwe
RÉSUMÉ:
Cet article questionne l’efficacité des «commissions vérité» en tant que mécanismes de consolidation de la paix et de réconciliation en Afrique avec un accent particulier sur la Commission nationale pour la paix et la réconciliation du Zimbabwe (NPRC). Il remet en question la crédibilité et l’efficacité de cette institution pour tenter de déterminer si le NPRC est un mécanisme de consolidation de la paix ou simplement un voile couvrant l’impunité de l\u27État. À travers une revue de la littérature, l’article explore l’efficacité du NPRC en comparaison avec les commissions vérité établies au Rwanda et en Afrique du Sud. L’article établit que certains des défis auxquels le NPRC est confronté comprennent un mandat limité, la suppression de la vérité, une indépendance institutionnelle et des ressources limitées, un manque de volonté politique, ainsi que l’usurpation de ses fonctions par l’exécutif. Les leçons identifiées de l’Afrique du Sud et du Rwanda comprennent l’adoption de diverses initiatives de consolidation de la paix telles que la combinaison de la justice restauratrices et la réparation, ainsi que la fourniture de soins psychosociaux afin de parvenir à une réconciliation holistique. Afin de renforcer la capacité du NPRC à impulser une paix durable au Zimbabwe et d’améliorer sa crédibilité, les auteurs recommandent l’extension du mandat du NPRC, la révélation de la vérité, la cessation du contrôle de l’État et l’interférence avec les opérations du NPRC, et de la ressourcer
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe 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
Full text link“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
Full text linkWe 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
Full text linkWe 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
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