3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
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Item The role of the UN Organisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MonUC) with regard to democracy and human rights in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)(2011-07-06) Bope, Mikobi EugeneThe Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is a vast country in the Great Lakes region of Africa torn apart by repeated armed conflicts. As from September 1998, the conflict in the country attracted attention of the international community with the number of deaths estimated at around 3.3 million people. The 1998 armed conflict was the most complex in Africa, due to an intricate cluster of international and external factors, with up to nine states militarily involved inside the Congolese territory. These are grouped into two opposing sides, composed on the one side by the Kinshasa government with its Angolan, Namibian and Zimbabwean allies and on the other side a divided set of rebel groups composed of the Rassemblement Congolais pour la Démocratie (RCD) and the Mouvement pour la Libération du Congo (MLC) with their allies from Rwanda and Uganda. The United Nations (UN) Security Council is engaged in supporting international peace and security according to Chapters VI, VII and VIII of the UN Charter. The UN Organisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) is a special mission sanctioned by the UN as an effort to solving the political problems in the DRC in line with the adoption of resolutions 1355 (2001), 1376 (2001), 1417 (2002), 1445 (2002), 1493 (2003), 1565 (2004) and 1625 (2005) by the UN Security Council. It was established that MONUC confronted challenges of peace implementation, especially in the Eastern DRC. The aim of this research is to examine the role of MONUC with regard to the promotion of democracy and human rights in the DRC. Thus, from November 1999, MONUC started to operate in the Congolese peace process for the restoration of democracy, as well as the promotion of human rights in the country. This research report will demonstrate that MONUC contributed with strong political support towards the organisation of the 2006 national democratic elections. Meanwhile, the war was ended throughout the country, but human rights abuses continued to be committed in some Eastern areas up to date.Item Access to health care in South Africa: an ethical and human rights obligation(2010-10-15) Meyer, Ellenore DoretteAccess to health care is a constitutionally recognized right, under section 27 of the South African Constitution. Fifteen years post the first democratic election in South Africa the realization of this right is the focus of this research report. In 1997 the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), a statutory body assigned to evaluate the realization of access to health care, held a public enquiry into the matter. The report was released in early 2009. The public health care system was found to be in a „lamentable state‟. South Africa faces a number of challenges that complicate the progressive realization of access to health care . For example, the country is currently in recession; the HIV / AIDS statistics is among the highest in the world placing a huge burden on public health; South Africa has the highest income inequality globally and the gap between public and private health care, with regards to affordability and quality of service remains a great concern. A way of addressing this problem is to engage ethical principles such as beneficence, non-maleficence, autonomy and (distributive) justice. Each of these in application can argue a case for the moral obligation to initiate a more effective national health care system. Rawls1 (1999) emphasized the centrality of justice in consideration of the bio-medical principles. 1 Rawls, J. 1999. A Theory of Justice. Revised edition. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press., 1971. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972. The principle of justice and its derivative, distributive justice, is of importance when making a moral argument for equal access to health care for all. Farmer and Campos (2004:28) rightly asks2: “What does it mean, for both bioethics and human rights, when a person living in poverty is able to vote, is protected from torture or from imprisonment without due process, but dies of untreated AIDS? What does it mean when a person with renal failure experiences no abuse of his or her civil and political rights, but dies without ever having been offered access to dialysis, to say nothing of transplant?” There is a need for ethicists to become more involved in arguments pertaining to the inequalities in distribution of social goods. Legislation and case law in South Africa also affirm the right to access health care services and have as their grounding normative ethical tenets. The recommendations made by the SAHRC, together with the planned national health insurance aimed at addressing the gap between public and private health care, can only become a reality through successful implementation of a monitored process based on ethical principles. There is a need for a practical implementation of current ethico-legal and human rights principles through every phase of the health care system to serve as monitors to ensure the success of this guaranteed right that so few people have genuinely seen realized. The findings of the SAHRC, together with the response from the Department of Health, serve as a basis for planning towards successful 2 Farmer, P. and Campos, N.G. 2004. Rethinking Medical Ethics: A view from below. In: Developing World Bioethics, 4 (1), 17-41 implementation of an equitable health service system that is of an excellent standard. To aid in this process an ethical framework could be of use to assess the policies formed along the way as well as the practical implementation thereof. This research report is an analysis of current literature and data available on access to health care in South Africa in light of human rights and ethical arguments for its provision. The aim is to reflect on the realization of greater access to health care since 1994, identifying current hampering factors in achieving this and proposing a broad set of guidelines that can be applied to the reform process already underway in South African health care.Item Water utilization and population demography in South Africa: key ethical and human rights issues(2010-09-23) Mugabi, BrianAccess to sufficient water is a constitutionally recognized right in the Republic of South Africa as well as being a Universal Human Right. Despite this however, the world wide population numbers are ever growing and water is known to be finite. The Constitution’s Bill of Rights gives South African citizens the right to reproductive choices. South Africa is a water stressed country, with three forces feeding into availability of freshwater, namely; climate change, demographic factors, and policies. Currently, the problem of accessing safe freshwater is under question. This is presents a problem as the Constitution also addresses the right to a healthy environment. Uncontrolled population growth is detrimental to environmental integrity. It is arguable as to whether it is possible to conserve the environment, and at the same time realize human reproductive rights as envisioned in the Constitution. In this research report I reflect on the state of water and environmental resources in view of the right to procreate. I suggest that environmental education could play a major role in finding “the right balance”.Item War on terror or war on human rights? Implications of the "war on terror" for human rights in Kenya.(2006-11-15T12:08:27Z) Wahome, Patrick MutahiIt is interesting how a specific date and month has come to define the world. In the dawn of the millennium, few people would have thought international politics would suddenly change. It was even harder to envisage that America would be a direct target of terror groups’ right inside their country in such a huge magnitude, in this age after the end of cold war when it was the only super power. The events of September 11, 2001 will forever remain entrenched in history and even more so the political events that followed after, since they have redefined the world and its political ideology. Different states have responded to the attacks differently, springing surprises, twists and turns that have shaped the agenda of the human rights discourse. The response to the attack on the Pentagon and World Trade Centre has posed a dilemma to scholars in international human rights law, some of them whom have questioned if this is the end of human rights era.1 This is because of how the human rights discourse has been put at cross purpose with the anti-terror efforts that have been employed. After Al-qaeda operatives crashed three airlines into the Pentagon and World Trade Centre, while a fourth one crashed in a field in Shanksville, this was seen as a direct act of aggression on America and President George Bush vowed revenge. On October 8th 2001, Bush launched a campaign to track Osama Bin Laden and followers of his Al-qaeda group, who were responsible for the attacks. The “war on terror” began the same day with the bombing of Afghanistan that aimed at toppling the Afghanistan government, which supported Al-qaeda. While doing this, Bush placed terrorism above any other global agenda. It is important to note that the toppling of the Afghanistan regime was through the UN Security Council. When a new government was set up after the regime was toppled, the “war on terror” entered new frontier. In his State of the Union address in January 2002, President Bush declared that Iran, Iraq and North Korea were “rogue states” and alleged that the three countries were developing weapons of mass destruction. Bush feared that terrorists would use these chemical and biological weapons to attack other countries, more so American interests and hence measures had to be taken before this happened. He next turned to Iraq which was suspected of having chemical and biological weapons and links with Al-qaeda. He vowed to topple the Iraq regime of Saddam Hussein on these pretexts.2 These actions led to a lot of international debate, with many countries urging America not to use force to push its agenda. Specifically, most countries were of the view that inspectors from the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNIMOVIC) should be allowed to inspect Iraq to authenticate the claims.3 In addition, many countries felt that for such a war to happen, the UN Security Council had to pass a resolution allowing the attack of Iraq. Nevertheless, America and its allies went ahead with their plans of toppling Saddam. On April 9, 2003 the regime of Saddam Hussein was toppled and he was captured on December 14, 2003. However, Osama has not yet been caught. At the same time, the United Nations (U.N.) has passed various resolutions condemning terrorism and urging countries to enact anti-terror measures that do not infringe on the people’s human rights. Despite this, the anti-terrorism measures adopted by many countries have fallen short of the U.N. human rights requirements and have proved to be a challenge to internationa l human rights law and refugee law. This has led to various scholars arguing that the U.N. charter should be reviewed to adequately cater for the “war on terror” and the enforcement of human rights while engaging in these efforts. In any case, it is clear that legal safeguards that were once viewed as unchangeable are now being challenged. As David Rieff avers, “…the threat that internal war and terrorism poses to the edifice of international law would have become apparent sooner or later. If anything, September 11 only hastened and focused the process.” This research report aims to study the implications of the “war on terror” for the protection of human rights in Kenya. In doing so, it is noted that even though Kenya has been a victim of terrorist activities, it was only after America began the “war on terror” in October 2001 that it started putting up structures to address terrorism. Thus, the main thrust of this research is to investigate the human rights dilemma that Kenya faces in these efforts includ ing interrogating the reasons for the tensions that resulted from the draft Suppression of Terrorism bill 2003 that was drawn up by the government in its effort to fight terrorism. In order to do this, several research questions inform the study. a) How has the “war on terror” shaped the understanding and practices of human rights in Kenya? b) How has the “war on terror” shaped Kenya’s approach to terrorism? c) How did the draft Suppression of Terrorism bill 2003 emerge? d) Was the draft bill a result of social struggles and history of the country as regards terrorism? e) What are the human rights concerns that have emerged from the draft bill? f) What are the tensions that have cropped up between protecting human rights and ensuring national security in Kenya? This will include a study of local campaigns by the Civil Society and Muslim community against the draft antiterror bill. g) Why have the tensions come up between the citizens and the government? To do this, the study will look into the human rights history of Kenya and relationship between the government and its citizens. h) What has been the impact of anti-terrorism measures on certain ethnic and religious groups? i) How have suspected terrorists in Kenya been treated while under custody? Human rights as applied in this research report refers to a set of internationally agreed upon principles which have been set down in the various declarations of United Nations human rights instruments, African Charter and other legal documents like Constitutions. Over the years, these principles have continuously been refined and extended to ensure that more people especially the minorities are catered for and have since been evoked when oppression occurs.