Waste management and human rights to the environment in Polish and Lithuanian legal solutions

Basic human rights are set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Moreover, human rights to the environment were identified with 3rd generation human rights as the principles of solidarity and subsidiarity. These rights may be disturbed through pollution of the environment causing by improper waste management…Therefore, it is important to comply with the various principles of waste management specified in the Directive 2008/98/EC, which provisions were implemented into the legislation of Poland and Lithuania. The purpose of this article is indicate the legal principles of waste management and human rights to the environment for example of these countries. In Poland, waste management should be carried out with the protection of human health and life, in particular, it must not pose a threat to environmental elements and effects on cultural and natural areas. Similarly, there are protected the same resources in Lithuania with paying attention to not exceeding the normative standards. Therefore, principles of environmental law and waste management plays a crucial role in safeguarding human right to environment due to their needs.

Feeling Wronged: The Value and Deontic Power of Moral Distress

This paper argues that moral distress is a distinctive category of reactive attitudes that are taken to be part and parcel of the social dynamics for recognition. While moral distress does not demonstrate evidence of wrongdoing, it does emotionally articulate a demand for normative attention that is addressed to others as moral providers. The argument for this characterization of the deontic power of moral distress builds upon two examples in which the cognitive value of the victim’s emotional experience is controversial: the case of micro-aggression, and the case of misplaced distress. In contrast to appraisal and perceptual models of distress, it is argued that its epistemic and normative value is dialogical rather than evidential, in that it presses claims that engage the audience in a normative discussion about the normative standing of the claimant, the proper grounds of the attitude, and the normative standards used to assess them.

Resilience and permanence of public values: an analysis of administrative contracts in Brazil

This article analyzes the resilience of the public values in the Brazilian public administration’s management models, considering the rules adopted in administrative contracts. This sociological research argues that such public values reflect society’s normative and cultural standards. The study’s theoretical relevance lies in its contribution to understanding the cultural dimension of Brazilian society, recognizing that the law reflects normative standards given the environment in which it is elaborated and enforced. In practice, the study seeks to foster the comprehension of rules, their purposes, and the public ethos that gives identity to the administration. The values attributed to the management models observed in a historical framework were dialogicity, modernization, efficiency, productivity, and professionalization. Finally, administrative contracts are technologies with characteristics of historical models of public management and represent a normative standard that needs improvements.

A Psychological Perspective on Vicarious Embarrassment and Shame in the Context of Cringe Humor

Cringe humor combines the seemingly opposite emotional experiences of amusement and embarrassment due to others’ transgressions of norms. Psychological theories and empirical studies on these emotional reactions in response to others’ transgressions of social norms have mostly focused on embarrassment and shame. Here, we build on this literature, aiming to present a novel perspective on cringe humor. To do so, we introduce the psychological literature on embarrassment and shame, as well as the processes involved that allow humans to also experience these emotions on behalf of others, and draw theoretical links to cringe comedy. We then systematically disentangle contexts in which audiences experience vicarious embarrassment, and structure our argument based on the ongoing processes and consequences of the observed transgressions of norms based on the constituting dimensions of awareness and intentionality of the normative transgression by the social target. We describe how the behavioral expressions of the target along with the social distance and the current motivations of the audience shape the emotional experience and negotiation of social norms, specifically in response to intentional normative transgressions. While this perspective makes it evident that cringe humor is closely linked to the debate around social normative standards between the actor/actress and the audience, we conclude that the different manifestations and specific situational characteristics have fundamentally different consequences for the affirmation or renegotiation of social normative standards.

GOING AGAINST THE TIDE: SEEKING REGULATIONS FOR PRIVATE MILITARY/SECURITY COMPANIES IN A GLOBALIZED WORLD

This article discusses the role of privatization of security in Africa, but its focus is on private military and security companies (PMSCs). The article proceeds on the basis that there is need for effective regulatory frameworks for PMSCs that operate in conflict zones of Africa. Thus, it begins by appraising the existing normative standards at the international, regional and domestic level that apply to these companies, and thereafter, identifies their shortcomings in light of the prevailing security conditions within the continent. The article then posits broad theoretical imperatives for designing a more effective regulatory framework for PMSCs and concludes by proposing the establishment an overarching continental regime constructed on the basis of the suggested imperatives.

Air protection policy in the 2019 parliamentary campaign in Poland. An analysis of positions

This article seeks to investigate whether the election committees that won seats in the 2019 parliamentary elections had noted the public concerns about the issue of air not meeting the normative standards, and whether they offered Poles a specific vision of an air protection policy in their election manifestoes. This analysis concerns the proposals of election committees to limit low-stack emissions. Answering the research questions posed: (1) to what extent do election manifestoes address the issue of air pollution in Poland?; (2) are the tools for the implementation of environmental policy as concerns the reduction of low-stack emissions indicated, and can they be effective? leads to the conclusion that the successful election committees noted public concerns about air pollution, and addressed air protection policy to a varied extent, though not always presenting specific solutions to eliminate low-stack emissions To achieve the purpose of the research the methods of source and comparative analysis were used.

The Influence of Spiritual Traditions on the Interplay of Subjective and Normative Interpretations of Meaningful Work

This paper argues that the principles of spiritual traditions provide normative ‘standards of goodness’ within which practitioners evaluate meaningful work. Our comparative study of practitioners in the Buddhist and Quaker traditions provide a fine-grained analysis to illuminate, that meaningfulness is deeply connected to particular tradition-specific philosophical and theological ideas. In the Buddhist tradition, meaningfulness is temporal and rooted in Buddhist principles of non-attachment, impermanence and depending-arising, whereas in the Quaker tradition, the Quaker testimonies and theological ideas frame meaningfulness as eternal. Surprisingly, we find that when faced with unethical choices and clashes between organizational normativity and spiritual normativity, Buddhist practitioners acknowledge the temporal character of meaningfulness and compromise their moral values, whereas in contrast, Quaker practitioners morally disengage from meaningless work. Our study highlights how normative commitments in different spiritual traditions can influence different levels of adaptability in finding work meaningful and stresses the central importance of normative commitments in meaningful work. Our study concludes with practical implications and future pathways for inter-disciplinary research.

Instrumental or intrinsic? Human rights alignment in intergovernmental organizations

Why do states’ human rights records converge with co-members in intergovernmental organizations (IGOs)? This study provides new insights on whether interactions in IGOs have the capacity to genuinely transform state preferences or whether norm diffusion is a consequence of instrumental processes. We leverage information about the timing of human rights alignment to disentangle intrinsic from instrumental motives. We hypothesize that instrumental motives find expression in pre-membership alignment and reversions to original normative standards after IGO exits. Intrinsic motives lead to gradual alignment during IGO membership and result in stable normative changes beyond IGO exits. Using varying-slopes, varying intercepts models, we investigate the distance on human rights indices between individual states and IGO means. While we find evidence for systematic convergence during IGO membership, no significant changes occur before and after IGO membership. Testing alignment of different physical integrity rights, we find no evidence for instrumental shifts to clandestine repression during IGO membership. Overall, the results suggest that norm alignment in IGOs is at least not exclusively instrumentally motivated. Our findings support constructivist arguments on state interests and suggest that IGOs are capable of transforming states’ human rights related preferences.