...mostly about northern Africa; southern parts of Africa seem to be all together ignored on the women’s rights front. After about an hour of searching, I finally found what I wanted and the texts that I was able to find were informative in ways that were different from what I expected. I began reading a book called “Human Rights of Women: International Instruments and African Experiences.” In the first chapter of the text, the Human Rights laws of the United Nations are described. The only country on the African continent that does not participate in the United Nations is Western Sahara, and the reason is not lack of desire: the United Nations refuses to recognize them as a territory. The charter of the United Nations proclaims in its preamble the belief in fundamental human rights, and the equal rights between women and men. Men and women, under the protection of the United Nations, are equal in everything, and are entitled to enjoy the same human rights. Many countries do not follow this rule, African countries included. For many years, African governments refused to take on any equal rights amendments for women, and it’s only recently that agreements are being made in order to protect the rights of women’s sexual health, including their rights to choose whether or not to have an abortion. As of November 25, 2005, the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa was adopted by 15 African countries. While this is a great step towards women’s rights in Africa, most of the continents...
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...international migrants can gain protection and/or rights. First is the protection that exists for refugees under the terms of the 1951 Geneva Convention. Under the Convention, a refugee is defined as someone who, ‘owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion is outside the country of his nationality …’. Being a refugee means being unable to seek protection in your country of nationality because of a fear of persecution and so refugee status brings with it the protection of the international community. One of the ways in which potential refugees access protection is by seeking asylum, at which point the receiving state considers the individual’s case to be a refugee. There also exists an extensive human rights framework that should, in principle, protect people regardless of their immigration status and their motive or motives for migration. Universality underlies these treaty regimes and included in this are children’s rights and women’s rights as well as political, civil, economic, social and cultural rights, all enforceable through actions against the state. Finally, there are nation state rights which are stratified by an individual’s citizenship and immigration status within the country of residence (Morris, 2002). Under the stratified system of rights, naturalized citizens and refugees have extensive rights and are at one end of the continuum. At the other ...
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...CV0C=Universality of human rights has always been a extensively challenged and debated topic, especially in the recent decades. In recent decades, a widely contested debate over the universality of human rights has emerged. Rights are certainly not universally-applied today, with oppression, torture and various atrocities committed in many parts of the world. This paper will focus on the notion that both in the Third-World and the West, states have used human rights discussion as a political tool, which has weakened arguments for its universality. This perspective will be utilised to break down arguments made against universal human rights before presenting alternative conceptions of universal human rights and identifying developments which may ensure they can be universally applied and respected. It is important to first define the theoretical basis of ‘universal’ human rights. Universal conceptions argue human rights are inalienable, self-evident and applicable to all human beings (Donnelly, 2003, 10). These arguments are often linked to origins in Western philosophy and natural law, developed from philosophers such as John Locke (Langlois, 2009, 12). Many scholars maintain that human rights are ‘pre-political’, thus unchangeable and unaffected by cultural or political variation. Donnelly identifies the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as the basis in establishing the “contemporary consensus on internationally recognised human rights” (2003, 22). Human rights hold universal...
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...ASSESMENT 2 – Report By Brenda Widjaja Lala Director, Corporate Communications South Africa HSBC Mandela Rhodes Place Cnr Wale Burg Street Cape Town South Africa April 23, 2012 Mrs. Grace Executive of the Local Network 3rd Floor, MPF House 32 Princess of Wales Terrace Sunnyside Office Park Park town Dear Mrs. Anne Marie Gutierrez, Executive of the Local Network Submission to Johannesburg the Local Network of South Africa This proposal is presented to the local network of South Africa in order to against human rights and environment cases. According to the United Global Compact, HSBC strives to encourage the changes of human rights and environmental cases to the better side. HSBC is supporting to the first of ten principles which is “Business should support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights” and also the eighth principles which says that “Business should undertake initiative to promote greater environmental responsibility” (Ten Principles 2012). In 2007, HSBC has encouraged the changes in the environmental cases by cooperating with First Direct, they plant for more than 20.000 trees in each country (First direct 2010). They also encourage their customers to switch to use online banking. More than one million of HSBC and First Direct customers switch to use online banking. On the other hand, there is a risk of doing this system. More than 3.1 million customers are left from the HSBC members (Espiner 2006). This...
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...MADELEINE CLASS: SS 202 SUBJECT: ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPIC: YOU ARE A SPEAKER IN A DEBATE ON THE TOPIC DEMOCRACY IS THE BEST SYSTEM OF GORVERMENT FOR AFRICA. WRITE YOUR SPEECH FOR OR AGAINST IT. DATE: 9TH JANUARY, 2015. DEBATE: DEMOCRACY IS THE BEST SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT FOR AFRICA Good day the Honourable Moderator, Impartial Panel of Judges, Accurate Timekeeper, Co-debaters, My Fellow Students, Ladies and Gentlemen. I am Nwakile Chilotam. I am here to propose the motion which states that “Democracy is the best system of government for Africa”. Before I go on, I will like to give a simple definition of the word, “Democracy”. Democracy is a governmental term which according to late Abraham Lincoln means “the government of the people, by the people and for the people. In other words it is a government where everyone has an equal right to choose their leaders. There is no doubt that democracy is the best system of government not only for Africa but for the whole world at large. I am going to prove this with the following points. Democratic governance involves election of leaders, freedom of speech, freedom of press, accountability, rule of law, equal justice among others and all these are bought about by the power given to the people. It gives people the power to choose who represents them. Democracy gives the citizens of Africa the chance to get involved in governance and in shaping their destinies. This happens by giving citizen the power to vote for leaders, who will guarantee...
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...Assignment 2 Question 1 Essay theme : Contestations around indigenous peoples and their knowledge. 1. Discuss the challenges Khoe-San in southern Africa have faced in reclaiming their indigenous identities and their rights to territory and resources. Introduction This essay I will aim to highlight how the Khoisan group “continue in post-Apartheid South Africa to struggle for the protection of their key collective and human rights as distinct ethnic communities as stipulated by the standards set out by the UN about indigenous people” (Hitchcock 2002). The Khoe and San are still not officially recognized and statistics does not show their presence in South Africa. The Khoisan are made up of five main groupings, namely San, Griqua, Nama, Koranna and the Cape Khoi. However there is no precise number of Khoisan people that currently live in South Africa (Hitchcock 2002). The Khoisan are not constitutionally recognized as Indigenous communities. “The current legal institutions continue to classify them as “Coloureds” just like the apartheid regime did” (Barnard 1992). The San people also called Bushmen, or Basarwa all considered pejorative to some degree are members of various indigenous hunter-gatherer peoples of Southern Africa, whose territory spans Botswana, Namibia, Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa (Barnard 1992). There is a significant linguistic difference between them. The definition for indigenous people is a broad one and is defined differently according...
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...imprisoned in an Africa prison the sectors can be over-crowded and dirty. The budget in this country is pretty non-existing resulting inadequate food for everyone, personal hygiene for example, little or no clothing. These prisons did not have access to soap, shampoo or any comforts they were used to prior to going to school. Throughout the continent you will find it’s not consistent, there are different opinions people may have when it comes to bringing up the subject of “Human Rights”. Critics from the country believe “they did the crime so they must do the time” why should we care about the treatment in the facility. The political side probably influences how the state handles the attention about this subject and relies on the public’s opinions knowing the people are afraid to speak. Ignoring prison conditions has enraged outside countries because Africa neglecting the obvious abuse in their prisons. This only solidifies why an investigation is needed and how their issues can affect then continent’s penal system. Before you can start to help these prisons it is important to understand the history behind them. The human rights issue may not just be the prisons problem however, the whole country has this issue. Human rights, especially when it comes to women they have no rights and under constant fear from being raped or murdered. The male status has more privileges most of them are corrupted because the poor conditions Africa has been under. Accepting that Africa has 53 countries...
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...“I am one or two days away from death; they will shoot me dead, thus if you give birth to a son please name him after me.” ----An Eritrean victim of human trafficking from The Sinai Desert INTRODUCTION This paper examines the issue of human trafficking as it relates to human security in the Horn of Africa. Trafficking takes place by criminal means through the threat or use of force, coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, abuse of positions of power or abuse of positions of vulnerability. Further, it relates to all stages of the trafficking process: recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of person. An agreed definition of human trafficking exists under Article 3 of the “Palermo Protocol” on trafficking in persons which went into effect on 25 December 2003. This internationally agreed definition focuses on exploitation of human beings – be it for sexual exploitation, other forms of forced labor, slavery, servitude, or for the removal of human organs. Trafficking is not just a transnational crime across international borders; the definition applies to internal domestic trafficking of human beings. In the Horn of Africa (HOA), both cross border and internal trafficking of women and children is prevalent. For example, in Ethiopia, children are being trafficked into armed conflict where it is reported that over 20,000 of them have been victims. Almost all of the countries in the region have been identified as sources, transit points or destination...
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...Christians Brygge 3 1219 København K Denmark www.kvinfo.dk KVINFO is the Danish Centre for Information on Gender, Equality and Ethnicity. Since 2006 and with funds from the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, KVINFO has established partnerships with more than 70 partners in the Middle East, North Africa and Denmark with the aim of strengthening gender equality and women’s rights. PROGRAMME WOMEN IN A CHANGING MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA – FACING CHALLENGES AND SEIZING OPPORTUNITIES APRIL 16TH 2012 THE ROYAL LIBRARY, QUEENS HALL COPENHAGEN, DENMARK 09.15-09.45 09.45-10.00 10.00-10.15 10.15-10.35 REGISTRATION AND COFFEE Welcome speech by Director of KVINFO, Ms. Elisabeth Møller Jensen Opening speech by Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Villy Søvndal Special address by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Ms. Tawakkul Karman AFTERNOON SESSION 13.45-15.00 “Seizing Change – Who are the promoters of change and how will they drive the agenda for equality and inclusion in the MENA region” Examples of and experiences from successful promotion of equality and women’s rights across the region. Panel of Experts: • Ms. Fatima Sidiqi, Professor of Linguistics and Gender Studies and President of the National Union of Women’s Organizations, Morocco • Ms. Jamila Garmouma, Member of the presidium of the Fédération de la Ligue Démocratique des Droits des Femmes (FLDDF), Morocco • Ms. Nadia Shamroukh, General Manager of the Jordanian Women’s Union, Jordan Ms. Tanya Habjouqa, Photographer...
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...The Right Stance By Caltex in South Africa? The Right Stand By Caltex in South Africa? In looking back in retrospect over things that have happened in an individual’s life as well as events in the world, it is both difficult and easy to look at a tense, volatile situation in the present and decide which course of action might have been the better choice. There is also no denying that it is difficult for leadership of all levels to decide if the needs of the group as a whole outweigh the needs of those few who are not satisfied for whatever reason. Often many managers in a business setting find themselves weighing the decision to push forward to do what it takes to earn a profit for the organization or side with personal morals in key decisions. The following are issues both positive and negative that were facing Caltex in 1977 as they were looking building a plant in South Africa: Positive • Caltex had a clear responsibility to develop income for their shareholders. • By building this plant, Caltex estimated a 20% annual return on the original investment. • Caltex was committed to improving the economic condition of its employees in South Africa. • If Caltex had not decided to build the plant, another company may have stepped in to do so; one who whose morals and ethics may not have been so focused. Negative • South Africa had enacted a policy for decades known as apartheid (where the black majority was suppressed by the white minority). • Apartheid negated basic...
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...Africa: Female Genital Mutilation GEO102B: Final Project May 20, 2013 Female circumcision seems to be the hottest trend in the United States right now. Females are having the hood of their clitorises removed to gain greater sexual pleasure and sensation. Another type of female circumcision done in the United States, which is considered cosmetic, is having the labia reshaped and evened up. According to Sandra Bell, there are unsubstantiated reports that some women in the United States are in communities where an extreme form of female circumcision is the ritual sacrifice of the entire external clitoris (Bell, 2012). In Africa an estimated 114 million women and girls have undergone female genital mutilation (FGM), that consists of partial or total removal of the external female genitalia (WHO, 2012). In Africa those procedures are not done for pleasurable or cosmetic reasons. FGM is internationally recognized as a violation of the human rights of girls and women in Africa. Before we label female circumcision a trend, we need to be informed of what FGM is considered in other countries, why it’s done, and what is being done to eliminate this practice. FGM is mostly practiced in the western, eastern, and north-eastern regions of Africa. It was a part of the tribal coming of age and remains, a cultural, not a religious practice. It is highly controversial and condemned by most religious organizations. FGM is practiced in many forms. Listed...
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...HUMAN RIGHTS LAW IMPACT OF GLOBALISATION ON HUMAN RIGHTS TABLE OF CONTENTS Contents INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................... 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY............................................................................................... 5 CHAPTER 1 GLOBALISATION ............................................................................................. 7 CHAPTER 2 INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAW ................................................. 10 CHAPTER 3 IMPACT OF GLOBALISATION ON HUMAN RIGHTS............................... 13 Economic Rights .................................................................................................................. 13 Political Rights ..................................................................................................................... 17 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................ 21 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................................... 23 Articles ................................................................................................................................. 23 Books .................................................................................................................................... 24 Miscellaneous ..........
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...Investment 1 South Africa Investment August 30, 2010 Investment 2 I feel that Texaco and SoCal should be forced to terminate their operations in South African because of the unfit working conditions of the South African People. I find it absolutely amazing that such inhuman working condition and treat still exist towards certain minorities. The conditions that some of the oil refiners have to endure is not easy to bear. The workers that are unwilling to participate in the wrongful working condition are beaten, imprisoned and killed. The South African Minorities have no voice in society because they were never given any rights. The South African apartheid system legalizes racial discrimination and limits the black population from their normal human rights. I cannot believe a company like Texaco and SoCal could have ownership in a country that has a government that has such discriminating practices. Texaco and SoCal are opposed to ideal of terminating any involvement with South African oil refiners because they would stand to lose millions of dollars. This becomes of issues of whether it is ethical for a large oil company such as Texaco to stay loyal to its shareholders by making as much profit as possible or doing the right thing by pulling out of South Africa. You have to question how many other major companies that we rely to function day to day are actually involved in some form of corruption within their company. I think that Texaco and SoCal...
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...THE PROTOCOL ON THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN AND PEACE BUILDING IN AFRICA Protocol refers to an international agreement that adds to an existing international instrument. Ratification refers to a formal action under international law that makes a state a party to particular treaty and indicates a state’s consent to be bound by the treaty The African union protocol is an African law made by Africans for Africans and it does among other things call for: * An end to all forms of violence against women in all its forms and in all situations * It promotes the use of corrective measures (Affirmative action) for women’s equal participation and representation. In elected and appointive offices * It clearly provides for the reproductive health rights of women and girls * It provides for remedies for any woman whose rights and freedoms are violated and denied * It also entitles her to seek and obtain redress through accessible government and non governmental agencies mechanisms and services Defending women’s human rights is often seen by state authorities, and even by communities, as a challenge to culture, tradition and a way of life. Through their work, many directly or indirectly challenge social stereotypes regarding the proper role and status of women. As a result, women activists not only face repression by governments, but also by their families and other community members. Ongoing armed conflicts on the continent place women at even further risk of violence...
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...Labor and Rights Violations MGM366 October 17, 2011 Abstract This paper will cover child labor violations as well as human rights violations, I will address each topic and then give my personal opinion about what I think about the subject and what legal recourse might be readily available to remedy the situation. Labor/Rights Violations Human rights and labor violations have and will continue worldwide due to the extenuating needs of individuals to care for their families and the greed of the everyday businessman to save or turn an easy dollar. These violations are not only found in third world countries as the United States is just as guilty when it comes to hiring children to carry out work that is often unsafe and illegal. Although many view child labor and human rights violations as a scourge plaguing the business field, some of the people that choose or are forced into such unfair practices do it as a means to help support the family unit or to try and make it out of the belly of poverty. United States (Child Labor) In May 2008 a Kosher meatpacking plant was raided by the state labor investigators and found to have 57 underage workers, some as young as 13 all illegal immigrants from Guatemala working in their plant. The workers were forced to work up to 17 hours a day often without overtime pay, being exposed to chemicals and being forced to use saws and knives which according to Iowa law are prohibited unless...
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