Ghana and the Paradoxical Situation of Its Asylum-Seekers: Selected Grounds for Alleged Persecution in a Supposed Democratic Country

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-204
Author(s):  
Cristiano d'Orsi
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Paradoxical Situation ◽  
The Us ◽  
Protection Of Human Rights ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Democratic Country

This study investigates the paradoxical situation of the relatively high number of Ghanaian nationals applying for asylum in various countries, whereas Ghana is widely recognised as having a positive record on the protection of human rights. This study analyses the requests for asylum submitted by 30 Ghanaian nationals (10 women and 20 men: generally men outnumber women in asylum applications) to seven countries (Australia, Canada, France, Ireland, New Zealand, the UK and the US) over the last 25 years.

Expanding refugee ineligibility: Canada’s response to secondary refugee movements

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Idil Atak ◽  
Zainab Abu Alrob ◽  
Claire Ellis
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Critical Assessment ◽  
Effective Protection ◽  
Refugee Protection ◽  
Refugee Law ◽  
The Us ◽  
International Refugee Law ◽  
Legislative Changes ◽  
The Uk

Abstract In 2019, Canada introduced legislative changes that made asylum seekers ineligible for protection if they have made a previous refugee claim in a country that Canada shares an information-sharing agreement with. Such agreements are currently in place with the US, Australia, the UK, and New Zealand. This article offers a critical assessment of the new ineligibility ground, arguing that the policy is designed to deter secondary refugee movements, particularly those across the Canada–US border which have considerably intensified since 2017. Based on the ‘first safe country’ rule, the new ineligibility ground enables Canada to exclude some asylum seekers from refugee protection without offering any alternative effective protection in Canada. This article demonstrates that the policy is inconsistent with Canada’s obligations under international refugee law.

scholarly journals Changing the rules of the game: some necessary legal reforms to United Kingdom intelligence

2009 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 943-955 ◽  
Author(s):  
IAN LEIGH
Keyword(s):  
National Security ◽  
The Political ◽  
Legal Proceedings ◽  
Legal Reforms ◽  
Political Independence ◽  
The Us ◽  
Protection Of Human Rights ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Rules Of The Game

AbstractThis article argues that there is a need to modernise the law governing accountability of the UK security and intelligence agencies following changes in their work in the last decade. Since 9/11 the agencies have come increasingly into the spotlight, especially because of the adoption of controversial counter-terrorism policies by the government (in particular forms of executive detention) and by its international partners, notably the US. The article discusses the options for reform in three specific areas: the use in legal proceedings of evidence obtained by interception of communications; with regard to the increased importance and scle of collaboration with overseas agencies; and to safeguard the political independence of the agencies in the light of their substantially higher public profile. In each it is argued that protection of human rights and the need for public accountability requires a new balance to be struck with the imperatives of national security.

Do Imports Increase Unemployment? Empirical Estimates That Are Not Model Dependent

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 447-469
Author(s):  
Jonathan E. Leightner ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Theoretical Model ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
South Korea ◽  
Trade Liberalization ◽  
Empirical Results ◽  
Empirical Estimates ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Uk

Some Ricardian models would predict a fall in unemployment with trade liberalization. In contrast, the Heckscher-Ohlin model (Stolper Samuelson Theorem) would predict trade liberalization would cause a fall in wages for labor scarce countries, resulting in greater unemployment if there are wage rigidities. The choice of which theoretical model is used affects the empirical results obtained. This paper produces estimates of the change in unemployment due to a change in imports that are not model dependent. The estimates produced are total derivatives that capture all the ways that imports and unemployment are correlated. I find that unemployment increases with increased imports for Austria, Greece, Japan, Portugal, South Korea, Slovenia, and Sweden, but that unemployment decreases with increased imports for Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, the UK, and the US.

Disability and forced migration

2021 ◽  
pp. 193-200
Author(s):  
Rebecca Yeo
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
National Health Service ◽  
Health Service ◽  
National Health ◽  
Basic Principle ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Forced Migration ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
Case Histories ◽  
The Uk

Forced migration and disability often are ignored in the research literature. In spite of the equalities legislation for the rights of disabled people, often the responses to disabled migrants are not helpful. In theory, the UK’s National Health Service is founded on the basic principle of universalism. The theoretical hegemonic commitment to universal human rights has often been most overtly broken in relation to migrant rights. In contrast to official condemnation of racism and disablism, successive governments of different political persuasions have continued to, and indeed competed to, prove their hostility towards migrants, whether they are disabled or not. The British asylum system itself is disabling by design. Some people are disabled on arrival in the UK; others become disabled later on. Disabled asylum seekers often describe the system as psychological torture. Therefore, ongoing mental distress can create difficulties in further adjustment, thus compounding problems. Using case histories, this chapter illustrates some of the difficulties faced by migrants with disabilities. A fundamental systemic change is needed to address the injustice encountered by disabled asylum seekers.

African Leadership in Human Rights: The Gambia and The Commonwealth Human Rights Commission, 1977–83

2020 ◽  
pp. 002200942091106
Author(s):  
James Kirby
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Human Rights Movement ◽  
Nuanced Understanding ◽  
Commonwealth Of Nations ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Human Rights History ◽  
Global Arena

This article examines The Gambia’s campaign from 1977-83 for a new international mechanism to protect human rights in the Commonwealth of Nations. President Dawda Jawara’s crusade for a Commonwealth Human Rights Commission complicates the dominant scholarly interpretation of human rights history, which tends to dismiss or overlook African participation in the international human rights movement. The article explains The Gambia’s display of human rights idealism as a strategy to attract aid and legitimacy in the global arena. It also shows how The Gambia’s project was thwarted by the ‘Old Commonwealth’, including the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. Western member states worked together to surreptitiously weaken and defeat The Gambia’s initiative, while deflecting blame and counting on ‘New Commonwealth’ governments in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and the Pacific to play the role of antagonist. Overall, the article contends the Commonwealth Human Rights Commission was killed because it threatened illusions and assumptions about the human rights movement that were convenient for western powers. With the use of archival sources from the UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, this article spotlights the need for a more nuanced understanding of African and Global South actors in human rights history.

scholarly journals After the Honeymoon: The Uneasy Marriage of Human Rights and the Environment Under the European Convention on Human Rights and in UK Law Under the Human Rights Act 1998

2014 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
pp. 317-368
Author(s):  
Karen Morrow
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
European Convention ◽  
The Right To Privacy ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Protection Of Human Rights ◽  
Human Rights Act ◽  
Human Rights Act 1998 ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Right ◽  
Domestic Law

The European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (1950) (ECHR) regime has, in the absence of specific coverage of environmental rights, developed a “creative” approach in its jurisprudence in this area, pressing a variety of other rights, notably: Article 6 (the right to a fair hearing); Article 8 (the right to privacy and family life); and Article 1 to the First Protocol of the ECHR (the right to enjoyment of property) into service. This creativity has achieved much in according indirect protection to individuals in this regard, but has also placed additional pressure on the already congested Convention system. The entry into force of the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA) made long-held rights under the ECHR directly accessible in domestic law in the United Kingdom. This naturally spawned a wave of litigation. One of the most prominently litigated areas concerned the pursuit of a variety of environment-based rights claims. In the intervening decade, the application of the ECHR to environmental claims in the UK courts has generated somewhat mixed results. This is in part a result of the “patchwork” approach that has developed toward environmental claims within the Convention regime itself, but it is also a product of the nature of the relationship between the ECHR and domestic law and the content and ethos of both regimes. This article will conclude by briefly considering the on-going role of the ECHR regime in environmental cases in light of subsequent developments in this area of law, notably under the Aarhus Convention.

scholarly journals The Ethics and Dilemmas of Preventive Detention

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Geetanjali Bhim
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Considerable Increase ◽  
Preventive Detention ◽  
Western Society ◽  
The Public ◽  
Dangerous Offenders ◽  
The Us ◽  
Case Files ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Made In

<p>There has been a considerable increase in the use of preventive sentencing in New Zealand since the mid-1980s. It has become widely accepted across Western society that preventive sentencing and supervision regimes are needed to protect the public from dangerous offenders. This thesis examines whether the development and use of preventive sentencing regimes is ethically justified, and if not what changes need to be made in order to alleviate some of the ethical dilemmas associated with indeterminate sentencing regimes. Preventive detention practices in Australia the UK and the US are reviewed to establish general practice regarding the development of legislation, use of risk assessment and the detention of dangerous offenders. This is compared to New Zealand practices, through research and analysis of three preventive detainee case files. The files confirm that the ethics of preventive detention has shifted from protecting the rights of individual offenders to protecting the public from them.</p>

scholarly journals Human Rights in the Hungarian Labour Code

1998 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 573
Author(s):  
Alexander Szakats
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Market Economy ◽  
Free Market ◽  
Economic Change ◽  
Private Enterprises ◽  
Free Market Economy ◽  
Labour Relations ◽  
Statutory Protection ◽  
Protection Of Human Rights

Protection of human rights, particularly the rights of persons working in the free market economy, features prominently in the Hungarian Labour Code enacted after the great political and economic change.  As the state ceased to be the only, or the principal employer, either directly or in the guise of various "voluntary" cooperatives, the proliferation of private enterprises necessitated a law to regulate labour relations between the employers and employees.  In this article Professor Szakats provides an overview of the Code by selecting certain provisions which emphasise human rights, and comparing them with the corresponding New Zealand statutory protection, and relevant ILO Conventions and Recommendations.

scholarly journals The Constitutionalism Doctrine in Criminal Proceedings: The Russian and U.S. Experience

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 9-14
Author(s):  
Viktor A. Shestak ◽  
◽  
Vadim A. Shaynurov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Detailed Analysis ◽  
Significant Influence ◽  
Constitutional Rights ◽  
Criminal Proceedings ◽  
Judicial Practice ◽  
The Us ◽  
Protection Of Human Rights

Тhe authors have researched the role of the doctrine of constitutionalism in criminal proceedings, as well as identified modern tendencies in the development of criminal proceedings in the sphere of protection of human rights and freedoms. Besides, on the basis of detailed analysis of the US legislation, the peculiarities of implementation of the principle of constitutionalism in criminal proceedings were identified. The US judicial practice that had a significant influence on guarantees of constitutional rights and freedoms of a person was considered.

scholarly journals Noted: Taking scalps and vicious ‘attack’ politics

2014 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 258
Author(s):  
Philip Cass
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Political Environment ◽  
National Party ◽  
Hard Drives ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Uk

Review of Dirty Politics: How attack politics is poisoning New Zealand's political environment, by Nicky Hagar. Nelson: Craig Potton Publishing, 2014, 166pp. ISBN978-1-927213-36-0.Nicky Hager's revelations of dirty tactics by the National Party will come as no surprise to those numbed by the vicious politics of the US, the UK or Australia, but they have raised hackles in New Zealand and no doubt prompted many people to wipe their hard drives as thoroughly as they can.

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