scholarly journals A Human Rights-Based Approach: Analysis of Administrative Instruments used in the Fight Against COVID 19 in Zimbabwe and Botswana

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Feddious Mutenheri
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Mixed Methods ◽  
State Power ◽  
Martial Law ◽  
Difficult Decision ◽  
The World ◽  
Wait And See ◽  
Human Rights Based Approach ◽  
The Impact

Subsequent to the appearance of the COVID-19 contagion, governments around the world were confronted with the challenge of combating its spread. It has been established that the infection is predominantly human to human and this reality informed the approaches used to counter it. Governments, particularly those perceived to have impeccable democratic credentials, had the difficult decision to deploy martial laws against laissez faire tactics in order to save lives. Most countries resorted to martial law, which gave leaders of governments unfettered state power to make decisions “to save lives”. Whereas most Western countries took a wait-and-see approach in implementing State of Emergencies, China and most countries in the developing world were quick to declare them. Developing countries’ records on human rights are generally poor. There has been a worldwide human rights confrontation between governments and citizens on the extent of the instruments used to fight COVID 19. Have these instruments been effective? Have they been the only necessary and key instruments to fight the pandemic? To what extent did they impinge on the human rights imperatives of the citizen? This paper interrogates the necessity of using these instruments to combat COVID-19 and their consequences on people’s rights. The paper presents the instruments used in Zimbabwe and Botswana and uses the Human Rights-Based Approach (HRBA) to compare their consequences on people’s freedoms in these countries. This research uses mixed methods in interrogating the impact of the administrative instruments that were used to combat COVID 19. Where necessary, descriptive and ethnographic approaches are employed to deepen the understanding of the impact of these instruments on human rights.

Exploring the World Trade Organisation's Trade and Environment/Public Health Jurisprudence as a Model for Incorporating a Trade–Labour Linkage into the Organisation's Multilateral Trade Regime: Should African Countries Accept a Policy Shift?

2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-65
Author(s):  
Tapiwa V. Warikandwa ◽  
Patrick C. Osode
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
World Trade ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Trade Regime ◽  
Multilateral Trade ◽  
Appellate Body ◽  
The World ◽  
Labour Standards ◽  
The Impact

The incorporation of a trade-labour (standards) linkage into the multilateral trade regime of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) has been persistently opposed by developing countries, including those in Africa, on the grounds that it has the potential to weaken their competitive advantage. For that reason, low levels of compliance with core labour standards have been viewed as acceptable by African countries. However, with the impact of WTO agreements growing increasingly broader and deeper for the weaker and vulnerable economies of developing countries, the jurisprudence developed by the WTO Panels and Appellate Body regarding a trade-environment/public health linkage has the potential to address the concerns of developing countries regarding the potential negative effects of a trade-labour linkage. This article argues that the pertinent WTO Panel and Appellate Body decisions could advance the prospects of establishing a linkage of global trade participation to labour standards without any harm befalling developing countries.

The Impact of COVID-19: Democracy in the Time of a Pandemic

Social Change ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 51 (4) ◽  
pp. 475-482
Author(s):  
Zoya Hasan
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Development ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Domain Experts ◽  
Sharp Focus ◽  
The World ◽  
Democratic Rights ◽  
New Challenges ◽  
The Impact

The recent spread of the delta variant of the COVID-19 pandemic in many countries, though uneven, has once again set alarm bells ringing throughout the world. Nearly two years have passed since the onset of this pandemic: vaccines have been developed and vaccination is underway, but the end of the campaign against the pandemic is nowhere in sight. This drive has merely attempted to adjust and readjust, with or without success, to the various fresh challenges that have kept emerging from time to time. The pandemic’s persistence and its handling by the governments both have had implications for citizens’/peoples’ rights as well as for the systems which were in place before the pandemic. In this symposium domain experts investigate, with a sharp focus on India, the interface between the COVID-19 pandemic and democracy, health, education and social sciences. These contributions are notable for their nuanced and insightful examination of the impact of the pandemic on crucial social development issues with special attention to the exacerbated plight of society’s marginalised sections. In India, as in several other countries, the COVID-19 pandemic has affected democracy. The health crisis came at a moment when India was already experiencing democratic backsliding. The pandemic came in handy in imposing greater restrictions on democratic rights, public discussion and political opposition. This note provides an analysis and commentary on how the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic impacted governance, at times undermining human rights and democratic processes, and posing a range of new challenges to democracy.

Impact of trade facilitation reforms on tax revenue

2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (5) ◽  
pp. 765-780 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sena Kimm Gnangnon
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Data Availability ◽  
Empirical Literature ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Tax Revenue ◽  
Trade Facilitation ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The World ◽  
The Impact

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the empirical literature of the macroeconomic effect of trade facilitation reforms by examining the impact of the latter on tax revenue in both developed and developing countries. The relevance of the topic lies on the fact that at the Bali Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2013, Trade Ministers agreed for the first time since the creation of the WTO (in 1995) on an Agreement to facilitate trade around the world, dubbed Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA). The study considers both at-the-border and behind-the border measures of Trade Facilitation. Design/methodology/approach To conduct this study, the authors rely on the literature related to the structural factors that explain tax revenue mobilization. The authors mainly use within fixed effects estimator. The analysis relies on 102 countries (of which 23 industrial countries) over the period 2004-2007 (based on data availability). A focus has also been made on African countries, within the sample of developing countries. Findings The empirical analysis suggests evidence of a positive and significant effect of trade facilitation reforms on non-resources tax revenue, irrespective of the sample of countries considered in the analysis. Research limitations/implications This finding should contribute to dampening the fear of policymakers in developing countries, including Africa that the implementation of the TFA would entail higher costs, without necessarily being associated with higher benefits. An avenue for future research would be to extend the period of the study when data would be available. Originality/value To the best of the authors knowledge, this study had not been performed in the literature of the determinants of tax revenue mobilization, although fact-based analysis was performed.

scholarly journals The Impact of Lack of Clean Cooking Fuels on Sustainable Development in Developing Countries

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ifeoluwa Garba ◽  
Richard Bellingham
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Clean Energy ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The World ◽  
Cooking Fuels ◽  
The Impact

Access to energy is crucial in tackling many of the current global development challenges that impact on people’s economic, health and social well-being as well as the ability to meet the commitments of reducing carbon emissions through clean energy use. Despite increased attention from multiple governments and agencies, energy poverty remains a serious sustainable development issue in many developing countries. To date, most research have focused on general access to electricity and the generation of clean energy to replace fossil fuels, failing to address the lack of basic access to clean energy for cooking and heating. More people in the world lack access to clean cooking fuels than to electricity. This issue is one aspect of a broader research which investigates the impacts of optimized energy policy and energy business models on sustainable development in developing countries.

scholarly journals Managed infrastructure and services to empower meteorological services in developing countries

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Smith
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Value Chain ◽  
Life Cycle Management ◽  
Observation Data ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Observation Systems ◽  
Spatial Coverage ◽  
The World ◽  
The Impact

<p>Often in developing countries the spatial coverage with surface weather observations is sparse and the reliability of existing systems is lower than in other parts of the world. These gaps in the availability of observation data have significant negative consequences, locally and globally. For decades international funds have been used to acquire meteorological infrastructure with little to no focus on life-cycle management. Furthermore, improvements in one part of the value chain are often not connected with further downstream services meaning local benefits are generated with substantial delay, if at all.</p><p>DTN is one of the few organizations offering comprehensive solutions across the value chain from deployment and operation of observation systems through to weather analytics creating valuable insights for business, consumers and governments across the globe. DTN not only project manages the setup of weather observation systems but also maintains and operates measurement networks on different continents. The sensor agnostic approach enables us to offer the right sensor solution for each situation.</p><p>We see an opportunity to correct the mistakes of the past, changing the focus from acquiring observation systems to life cycle management to ensure the systems are maintained and leveraged effectively to provide forecasts and warnings for protection of life and property and enabling NMSs to focus on fulfilling their mission.</p><p>Funding organizations such as the World Bank must change the focus from hardware procurement to a performance-based PPE/P model that ensures the value of investments in infrastructure are realized. This sustainable approach will; ensure long lasting partnerships, harness the innovation in the private sector, create local jobs maintaining infrastructure and enable economic development through improved ability to manage the impact of weather and climate events.</p>

scholarly journals HORIZONS OF RESEARCH IN GEOGRAPHY OF THE WORLD ECONOMY

HERALD ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (20) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vladimir Alexandrovich Kolosov ◽  
Elena Alexandrovna Grechko ◽  
Xenia Vladimirovna Mironenko ◽  
Elena Nikolayevna Samburova ◽  
Nikolay Alexandrovich Sluka ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Division Of Labor ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
World Economy ◽  
Spatial Organization ◽  
Modern World ◽  
High Tech ◽  
Research Activities ◽  
The World ◽  
The Impact

The advent of "world economic transition" and the formation of a multipolar world is closely linked, according to experts, with loss of globalization advances, which strengthens regionalism, increases diversification and fragmentation of the modern world, creating risks and threats to the world development. In this light studying the spatial organization of the global economy becomes more important, and at the same time that complicates the choice of priorities in the research activities of the Department of geography of the world economy, Faculty of Geography, Moscow State Lomonosov University in 2016-20, requiring a new research “ideology”. The article summarizes some ideas expressed by the department staff. It specifies that concept of territorial division of labor, as well as the defined set of key actors in the world economy and common assumptions regarding their contributions to its development needs a significant revision. The above firstly concerns giant developing countries, in particular rapidly growing China – a kind of locomotive entraining other developing states. Further, the impact of multinationals on the overall architecture and the territorial organization of the global economy becomes more and more tangible. This phenomenon requires the creation of a new scientific area of concern – the corporate geography as a tool to thoroughly investigate the transnational division of labor. Changes in the balance of acting forces are closely related to changes in industry composition and spatial organization of the global economy. The article raises the issues of development of such processes as tertiarization of the economy, reindustrialization and neoindustrialization, the latter being understood as an evolutionary transition to a knowledge-intensive, high-tech, mass labor-replacing and environmentally efficient industrial production. Basing on preliminary research from the standpoint of a relatively new methodological approach – formation of value chains – the vector of "geographical transition" " in their creation from developed to developing countries was designated. This means increasing complexity of the territorial structure of the world economy and an increase in the importance of semi-periphery. A spatial projection of globalization processes in the form of emerging “archipelago of cities”, which consolidates the international network of TNCs as the supporting node frame of the global economy requires close attention and analysis. The need of comprehending the study scope in the field of geography of the world economy in medium Atlas Information Systems (AIS), which in terms of functionality belong to the upper class of electronic atlases, is noted.

scholarly journals Expanding the Impact of the Psychology of Working: Engaging Psychology in the Struggle for Decent Work and Human Rights

2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
David L. Blustein ◽  
Maureen E. Kenny ◽  
Annamaria Di Fabio ◽  
Jean Guichard
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Significant Loss ◽  
Decent Work ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Human Needs ◽  
The World ◽  
Psychology Of Working ◽  
The Impact

Building on new developments in the psychology of working framework (PWF) and psychology of working theory (PWT), this article proposes a rationale and research agenda for applied psychologists and career development professionals to contribute to the many challenges related to human rights and decent work. Recent and ongoing changes in the world are contributing to a significant loss of decent work, including a rise of unemployment, underemployment, and precarious work across the globe. By failing to satisfy human needs for economic survival, social connection, and self-determination, the loss of decent work undermines individual and societal well-being, particularly for marginalized groups and those without highly marketable skills. Informed by innovations in the PWF/PWT, we offer exemplary research agendas that focus on examining the psychological meaning and impact of economic and social protections, balancing caregiving work and market work, making work more just, and enhancing individual capacities for coping and adapting to changes in the world of work. These examples are intended to stimulate new ideas and initiatives for psychological research that will inform and enhance efforts pertaining to work as a human right.

ANALYSIS AND PROSPECTS FOR IMPLEMENTATION OF THE INVESTMENT LIBERALIZATION REGIME IN THE WORLD ECONOMY

2021 ◽  
pp. 99-109
Author(s):  
Shokhrukh B. Akhmedov ◽  
◽  
Vladimir M. Kutovoi ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
World Economy ◽  
Trade Openness ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
Foreign Companies ◽  
The World ◽  
Local Sources ◽  
Political Conditions ◽  
The Impact

The article assesses a significance of the most important component of the agreement on accession to the WTO, namely the agreement on trade-related investment measures (TRIMs), in increasing the attractiveness of developing countries to investors from abroad. In addition, traditional determinants of FDI placement, such as the macroeconomic stability, trade openness, and economic development, are considered. The authors carry out an analysis in the field of regulation of TRIMs by the example of economic policies in developing countries. The study shows that the extent to which TRIMs contributed to achieving the goals varied significantly, reflecting the specific economic and political conditions of the country using them. In some cases, they played a role in encouraging foreign companies to make more use of local sources or increase their exports from the host country. In other cases, the impact seemingly was negligible.

Health Disparities and New Health Technologies – A Patients’ and Human Rights Perspective

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Mette Hartlev
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Health Disparities ◽  
Digital Health ◽  
Population Based ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Health Technologies ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Human Rights Based Approach ◽  
Based Medicine ◽  
The Impact

Abstract The human right to health requires that everyone should have equal opportunities to enjoy the highest attainable standard of health. In practice, this is hard to achieve, as health is shaped by social determinants. This article explores the impact personalized medicine and use of big data may have on health disparities. New health technologies offer a lot of hope for more individual and better health promotion and care, which potentially could be beneficial for the most deprived. However, there are also concerns that not all population groups will profit equally from this new population-based medicine, and that new digital health technologies will maintain – or even reinforce – existing health disparities. This article suggests using insights from poverty studies combined with a patients’ and human rights-based approach to ensure that the most deprived are not left behind in the application of new health technologies.

Indigeneity

Anthropology ◽  
2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paulette F. Steeves
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Indigenous People ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Political Identity ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Indigenous Populations ◽  
Historical Continuity ◽  
Regional Area ◽  
The World ◽  
The Impact

There are minimally 370 million Indigenous people in the world. The term Indigenous was not used to identify human groups until recently. Indigenous people are often identified as the First People of a specific regional area. Indigeneity as applied to First People came into use in the 1990s, as many colonized communities fought against erasure, genocide, and forced acculturation under colonial regimes. An often-cited definition of Indigenous peoples is one by Jose Martinez Cobo, special rapporteur for the UN Sub-Commission. Cobo’s 1986 report was completed for the United Nations Economic and Social Council, Commission on Human Rights, Sub-Commission on Prevention and Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, thirty-fifth session, item 12 of the provisional agenda, titled, “Study of the Problem of Discrimination against Indigenous Populations.” Cobo described Indigenous people, communities, and nations as groups that have a “historical continuity with pre-colonial societies” within territories they developed, and as communities that “consider themselves distinct from other sectors of societies” now in their territories. Cobo further stressed that Indigenous people and communities are minorities within contemporary populations that work to preserve their ethnic identities and ancestral territories for future generations. It is important to include displaced people whom prior to colonization identified with specific land areas or regional areas as homelands, as well as Indigenous communities that have for decades been in hiding in areas away from their initial homeland areas. Many descendants of Indigenous people were forced to hide their identities for their own safety due to colonization and genocidal policies focused on physical and cultural erasure. That does not make them non-Indigenous. It makes them survivors of genocide, erasure, and forced acculturation. Many Indigenous people are just coming to terms with the impact of ethnic cleansing and the work to reclaim and revive their identities and cultures. Indigenous is both a legal term, and a personal, group, and pan-group identity. Scholars have argued there are at least four thousand Indigenous groups, but that number is likely very low. Indigeneity is not as simple as an opposition to identity erasure or a push back against colonization. Indigeneity is woven through diverse experiences and histories and is often described as a pan-political identity in a postcolonial time. However, that can be misleading, as the world does not yet exist in a postcolonial state, despite ongoing concerted efforts by Indigenous people and their allies in political and academic spheres to decolonize institutions and communities. Diverse Indigenous communities weave Indigeneity through a multifaceted array of space and time to revive identities and cultural practices and to regain or retain land, human rights, heritage, and political standing.

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