Journal articles on the topic 'Environmental Rights Action (Organization)'

The Convention concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour was adopted by the International Labour Organization in 1999. 174 countries around the world have signed or ratified the convention, which requires countries to adopt laws and implement programs to prohibit and eliminate child labor that poses harms to health or safety. Nonetheless, child labor continues to be common in the agriculture and mining sectors, where safety and environmental hazards pose significant risks. Drawing upon recent human rights investigations of child labor in tobacco farming in Kazakhstan and gold mining in Mali, the role of international human rights mechanisms, advocacy with government and private sector officials, and media attention in reducing harmful environmental exposures of child workers is discussed. Human rights-based advocacy in both cases was important to raise attention and help ensure that children are protected from harm.

Crimes against the environment are actions that in certain circumstances cause Pollution, destruction or damage to the environment. The importance of preventing these crimes is because it relates directly to the health of human beings. Today non-governmental actors play an important role in the national and international arena.The Geographical diversity of activities and their different functions has led to state actors cannot be indifferent to the role of these new actors. NGOs are involved in two "competing" or "partner" forms of governments. In issues related to human rights, these to be a competitor to governments. While in the case of issues such as health development and environment it is considered as a partner of governments. In Iran's legal system the action role of these organizations in regard to environmental protection is undeniable: But there is still a lot of vacuum at the reactionary stage: must provide suitable substrates for the active Participation of this actors in environmental litigation: In a way that they can achieve a favorable position in criminal proceedings: Also, the organization of NGOS as the right hand of governments in helping to solve these problems has also a special place. The research method was descriptive-analytic and the date was collected as a library. In this research we decided to investigate the role of grassroots institutions in preventing environmental crime and accomplish the strengths and weaknesses of these institutions.

Social movements near American military bases have been increasingly successful at opposing the continue militarization of their home communities. Focusing on groups from Puerto Rico, Guam, Hawai'i and Okinawa –as well as the global “No Bases” network – this paper examines how social movements in presently colonized places organize their multi-scalar activism to challenge the legitimacy of militarism. While the American state views many of these places as sacrifice areas for an imperial national security, these organizations resist this banal colonialism through campaigns for a localization of sovereignty and a redefinition of security. Inspired by strategies of decentralized organization, affinity, direct action and mutual aid these ‘newest social movements’ are not merely petitioning the imperial state for greater access to rights through a politics of demand, but are engaged with creating secure physical and social environments through struggles for local self-determination, demilitarization, and environmental decontamination. Through their activism these organizations challenge not only the legitimacy of contemporary imperialism, but also the notion that the nation-state is the proper institution (and scale) to define rights, sovereignty, health and security.

Social movements near American military bases have been increasingly successful at opposing the continue militarization of their home communities. Focusing on groups from Puerto Rico, Guam, Hawai'i and Okinawa –as well as the global “No Bases” network – this paper examines how social movements in presently colonized places organize their multi-scalar activism to challenge the legitimacy of militarism. While the American state views many of these places as sacrifice areas for an imperial national security, these organizations resist this banal colonialism through campaigns for a localization of sovereignty and a redefinition of security. Inspired by strategies of decentralized organization, affinity, direct action and mutual aid these ‘newest social movements’ are not merely petitioning the imperial state for greater access to rights through a politics of demand, but are engaged with creating secure physical and social environments through struggles for local self-determination, demilitarization, and environmental decontamination. Through their activism these organizations challenge not only the legitimacy of contemporary imperialism, but also the notion that the nation-state is the proper institution (and scale) to define rights, sovereignty, health and security.

Scientific development concept and governance theory together constitute the theoretical support for the network mode of Chinese environmental disaster governance. Using the method of governance theory, in democratization and information era, network governance model has unparalleled advantages. The governments environmental disaster governance awareness and ability are key variables to other governance bodies. Enterprises should implement the legal system of the state environmental protection laws effectively, accept initiatively supervisions from the government environmental institutions, environmental organizations, the media and public, and assume the economic and ecological responsibility positively. The environmental organizations should vigorously publicize the environmental protection knowledge, recruit and train volunteers and directly involve in the environment protection action. The media should expose and criticize the damage behaviors. The public should safeguard their environment rights actively.

In the article there is considered the problem of optimization of the control and supervision activities of the Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing on the criterion “prevention of the economic damage”. In the process of the solution of the multi-objectives optimization the task was reduced to one-criterion, to be solved by the methods of mathematical programming. The results were obtained by the use of main criterion methods and successive concessions. The problems were solved with the help of MS Excel means, by using “Search solution” tool. Testing of the solution of the problem was performed on the statistical data at the federal level. The optimal performance indices of the activity of agencies and organizations of Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing were acquired for the script, which preserves the existing level offunding. The use of an optimal model of action allows to predict an increase by 38% of prevention of economic losses from underproduction of Gross Domestic Product due to the loss of health of economically active population of the country at the same cost to the supervisory activities of Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing. The solution of problems of optimization by the criterion offinancial costs of activities of the Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing has shown that the reduction in funding of control and supervisory activities of the Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing even in case of the system of measures ’ optimization could have the effect of lowering the total avoided economic loss. The latter indicates to the relevance of the maintenance of the level of providing health surveillance when improving its structure and organization.

This article proposes a framework for understanding large-scale individualized collective action that is often coordinated through digital media technologies. Social fragmentation and the decline of group loyalties have given rise to an era of personalized politics in which individually expressive personal action frames displace collective action frames in many protest causes. This trend can be spotted in the rise of large-scale, rapidly forming political participation aimed at a variety of targets, ranging from parties and candidates, to corporations, brands, and transnational organizations. The group-based “identity politics” of the “new social movements” that arose after the 1960s still exist, but the recent period has seen more diverse mobilizations in which individuals are mobilized around personal lifestyle values to engage with multiple causes such as economic justice (fair trade, inequality, and development policies), environmental protection, and worker and human rights.

AbstractThe decade of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) coincides with India’s National Voluntary Guidelines on businesses’ social, environmental, and economic responsibilities (NVGs) and the National Guidelines on Responsible Business Conduct (NGRBC) – an updated version of the NVGs. Human rights are one of the core principles in both guidelines and they draw upon the ‘Protect–Respect–Remedy’ framework of the UNGPs. The NVGs and NGRBC go beyond the UNGPs by requiring organizations not only to respect human rights, but also to promote them in their spheres of influence. Several factors, however, derailed the implementation of this progressive policy shift. This article explores the challenges in implementation and calls for the multiple actors involved to work together and shape a collaborative action plan for effective implementation of the NGRBC in the next decade. The authors reiterate the need for alternative lenses to frame the responsible business agenda within developing countries through positive obligations.

In many issue-areas, the world is witnessing a move to law. As the century turned, governments and individuals faced the following international legal actions. The European Court of Human Rights ruled that Britain's ban on homosexuals in the armed forces violates the right to privacy, contravening Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia indicted Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic during a NATO bombing campaign to force Yugoslav forces out of Kosovo. Milosevic remains in place in Belgrade, but Austrian police, bearing a secret indictment from the International Criminal Tribunal, arrested a Bosnian Serb general who was attending a conference in Vienna. In economic affairs the World Trade Organization (WTO) Appellate Body found in favor of the United States and against the European Union (EU) regarding European discrimination against certain Latin American banana exporters. A U.S. district court upheld the constitutionality of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) against claims that its dispute-resolution provisions violated U. S. sovereignty. In a notable environmental judgment, the new Law of the Sea Tribunal ordered the Japanese to cease all fishing for southern bluefin tuna for the rest of the year.

Although social movement organizations have established themselves successfully on the European level, there is dispute whether the European Union is conducive or detrimental to movement politics. One view is that the EU's particular opportunity structures and styles of policy making subvert unconventional forms of action and participation, thus transforming social movements into a fragmented field of individual interest groups and lobbies. This article critically assesses this perspective. It traces these processes, showing that they were indeed part and parcel of the gradual Europeanization of social movements during the 1970s and 1980s. It then presents evidence that, in the aftermath of the Single European Act of 1986, the European movement sector began moving towards a more integrated multi-level structure. Data drawn from interviews with Euro-level movement activists and EU functionaries present a picture of this new interorganizational structure and multi-level action forms with reference to the European groups working on environmental protection, and human and social rights. It is argued that the present developments stress sectorial and cross-sectorial networking, self-regulation, and common policy deliberation.

CONTEXT: Many authors have emphasized the importance of worker strength through unionized organizations, in relation to the improvement of working procedures, and have reported on the decisiveness of labor movement actions in achieving modifications within the field of work and health. OBJECTIVE: To describe the ways in which Brazilian unions have tried to intervene in health-illness and work processes, identifying the existence of commonality in union actions in this field. TYPE OF STUDY: Qualitative study. SETTING: Postgraduate Program, Environmental Health Department, Faculdade de Saúde Pública, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil. METHODS: Union health advisers and directors were interviewed. Documents relating to union action towards protecting workers' health were collected and analyzed. RESULTS: Unions articulate actions regarding workers' health of a technical and political nature that involve many aspects and high complexity. These have been divided into thematic categories for better analysis. DISCUSSION: Union actions regarding workers' health in Brazil are restricted to some unions, located mainly in the southern, southeastern and northeastern regions of the country. Nonetheless, the unions undertaking such actions represent many professions of great economic and political importance. CONCLUSIONS: The recent changes in health and safety at work regulations, recognition of professional diseases, creation of workers' health services and programs within the unified health system, and operational improvements in companies' specialized safety and occupational medicine services, all basically result from union action. There is commonality of union action in this field in its seeking of technical and political strengthening for all workers and their general and local representation. This has the objective of benefiting collective bargaining between employers and workers. Inter-institutional action on behalf of workers' rights guarantees and amplifies the improvement of health and working conditions.

This article deals with the proposal of the Pan American Health Organization for the prevention of violence, following the precepts of the "World report on violence and health" of the WHO. In this analysis the authors distinguish the approach of public safety (generally based on repression) from the way public health approaches this issue, based on the traditional concepts that constitute its patrimony: promotion of health, prevention of physical and emotional injuries, and the strengthening of citizenship. The authors show that the health sector has already embraced the issue definitively but that even so the problem is still far from occupying the outstanding place it deserves in the public health agenda, together with other health problems of the contemporaneous populations of the world and the Americas. The text concludes establishing a link between prevention of violence and the Millennium development goals, which in principle urge society for taking action towards human rights, solidarity and quality of life.

Today, communal urban gardening (CUG) is a widespread phenomenon in European cities. Gardening has many positive qualities, ranging from growing healthy food to meaningful everyday life activities and political action. However, its integration into existing urban planning processes remains a challenge. Planning has a great influence on the qualities that can actually be realized by the gardeners. In order to develop a more appropriate planning process for CUG, a deeper understanding of the different activities that people engage in when they are gardening in an urban environment under given conditions is needed. In this paper, a garden project from Vienna is discussed against the background of Arendt’s theory of political action to advance the theoretical debates on the planning of CUGs. The case study shows that the three central spaces of a vita activa can emerge in one place if the appropriate framework conditions are provided through planning: containment, sovereign rights of use, egalitarian participation, plurality, and spatial organization towards the three activities of a vita activa: labor, work, and action.

Multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs) are a form of private governance sometimes used to manage the social and environmental impacts of supply chains. We argue that there is a potential tension between input and output legitimacy in MSIs. Input legitimacy requires facilitating representation from a wide range of organizations with heterogeneous interests. This work, however, faces collective action problems that could lead to limited ambitions, lowering output legitimacy. We find that, under the right conditions a relatively small group of motivated actors, who we call institutional stewards, may be willing to undertake the cost and labor of building and maintaining the MSI. This can help reconcile the tension between input and output legitimacy in a formal sense, though it also results in inequalities in power. We test this claim using a case study of organizations’ activities in the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). We find that a small group of founding members—and other members of long tenure—account for a disproportionate level of activity in the organization.

The research investigates the problems and maps the solutions to the serious threat that plastics pose to the oceans, food safety, and human health, with more than eight million tons of plastic debris dumped in the sea every year. The aim of this study is to explore how to better improve the regulatory process of ocean plastics by integrating scientific results, regulatory strategies and action plans so as to limit the impact of plastics at sea. Adopting a problem-solving approach and identifying four areas of intervention enable the establishment of a regulatory framework from a multi-actor, multi-issue, and multi-level perspective. The research methodology consists of a two-pronged approach: 1. An analysis of the state-of-the-art definition of plastics, micro-, and nanoplastics (respectively, MPs and NPs), and 2. The identification and discussion of loopholes in the current regulation, suggesting key actions to be taken at a global, regional and national level. In particular, the study proposes a systemic integration of scientific and regulatory advancements towards the construction of an interconnected multi-tiered (MT) plastic governance framework. The milestones reached by the project SECURE at UiT - The Arctic University of Norway provide evidence of the strength of the theory of integration and rights-based approaches. The suggested model holds substantial significance for the fields of environmental protection, food security, food safety, and human health. This proposed MT plastic governance framework allows for the holistic and effective organization of complex information and scenarios concerning plastics regulation. Containing a clear definition of plastics, grounded on the precautionary principle, the MT plastic framework should provide detailed mitigation measures, with a clear indication of rights and duties, and in coordination with an effective reparatory justice system.

While climate change has been framed as an environmental issue from the very beginning of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations, over the years the concept has expanded to further emphasize it as a fundamental issue of human rights and global justice. This paper examines the evolution of the conception of climate change since 2009, arguing that the issue framing utilized by UNFCCC member states has increasingly trended toward some aspects of the climate justice frame, including disparities in vulnerability to climate change (loss and damage), human rights impacts, and social inequalities. This shift also extends to the framing adopted by civil society organizations in the form of the Climate Action Network (CAN International), in which a larger focus on issues of climate justice can be seen in recent years. These trends are then reviewed alongside the objectives, mechanisms, and language of the ratified text of the Paris Agreement in order to evaluate the status of the growing international norm of climate justice.

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Strategic Plan 2020–2025 committed to reduce children’s consumption of energy-dense nutrient-poor food and beverage products high in fat, sugar and salt (HFSS) and promote healthy eating patterns to reduce malnutrition in all forms. This paper describes the capacity-building needs in PAHO’s Member States to restrict the marketing of HFSS food and beverages to children. We asked Ministries of Health officials or national institutes/departmental representatives (n = 35) to complete a 28-item web-based survey (January to July 2020). Capacity-building needs were assessed using an adapted version of the World Health Organization’s government capacity-building framework with three modules: public health infrastructure, policies and information systems. Notable achievements for the PAHO’s Plan of Action were identified. State representatives reported strong infrastructure and information systems; however, policy improvements are needed to increase comprehensive national responses. These include using a constitutional health and human rights approach within the policies, policies that document conflict of interest from non-state actors, and strengthening regulatory oversight for digital media platforms. These findings provide baseline data and we suggest priorities for further action to strengthen national governments’ capacity-building and to accelerate the development, implementation, and monitoring systems to restrict the marketing of HFSS food and non-alcoholic beverages to children in the region of the Americas.

The Oram firm was really a different animal. We cherished a strong anticorporate corporate culture, we were cause-driven, and we served liberal and left-wing counter-cultural organizations.Since its founding in 1939, the Oram Group has been a maverick in the field of fundraising, lending its expertise to the areas of education, welfare, social action, civil rights, the arts, and the environment. Beginning with the organization's founder, Harold Oram, continuing to the current president and chief executive officer Henry Goldstein, Oram staff members have had an interest in supporting progressive (i.e., social justice-oriented) causes. Influenced by Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal policies and Lyndon B. Johnson's vision of a Great Society, the Oram Group staff has been steadfast in its dedication, with founder Harold Oram referring to the organization's work as “saving the world.” This approach was different from that of earlier fundraising organizations, such as Marts and Lundy or John Price Jones—firms that worked, by and large, with elite white institutions and with black colleges under the direction of white philanthropists. For example, according to Robert L . Payton, for Arnaud C. Marts [and his colleagues at Marts and Lundy],Philanthropy [was] closely linked to the free market economy, local government, and individual responsibility. The emerging civil rights movement, the decay of the inner cities, environmental pollution, and the radical challenges to authority were not yet part of Mart's [sic] consciousness nor of the general public's. Freedom and patriotism were the dominant slogans rather than equality and justice.

European Union (EU)-based Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) are usually pictured as well-established professionalized actors basing their advocacy strategies on the provision of expertise. Does the focus on expertise imply the removal of emotions and feelings from political communication? Following the emotion turn in social movement and collective action studies, this article investigates how and why EU-based CSOs use emotions in their advocacy strategies. The article shows first how CSOs use rhetorical appeals to emotions and rhetorical appeals to reason in their communication. Secondly, the focus is directed to emotion-inspired advocacy strategies, namely blaming and shaming, fear-mongering and boosting. The choice of rhetorical appeals and strategies is mainly explained by three different inter-related factors: the logics of influence, the logics of membership and media logics. Empirical data is drawn from a content analysis of press releases and policy documents of environmental (climate change) and human rights (refugee crisis) CSOs active at the EU level and from semi-structured interviews with key CSO representatives.

Protection of the marine environment within the framework of international law is actually an accumulation of The Principle of National Sovereignity and The Freedom of High Sea. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) states that "a right on the part of an astat threatened with the environmental injury from sources beyond its territorial jurisdiction, at least where those sources are located on the high seas, to take reasonable action to prevent or abate that injury ". The general principle of good neighbor liness can be found in international customary law as well as in Article 74 of the UN Charter. This principle is reflected in several international treaties and is supported by the country's main practices in dangerous and emergency activities. Cooperation is contained in the 24th Principle of the Stockholm Declaration and the 27th Principle of the Rio Declaration which states that countries must cooperate in the principles of good faith and the spirit of partnership as efforts to protect the environment. Keywords: protection of the marine environment, principles of good faith, International Maritime Organization (IMO)

PurposeThere is dearth of research pertaining to how persons with disability (PWDs) view their career and the issues they face in career development; past studies highlight either the organizational initiatives or individual factors in this regard. The present study bridges this gap by studying the PWDs' experiences and perceptions on challenges in their career development.Design/methodology/approachAn exploratory study through interview of professionally qualified PWDs in India, who have a permanent employment.FindingsPWDs experience that affirmative action has a negative fallout as it leads to positive discrimination and hence, adversely affects their confidence and development.Research limitations/implicationsThe present study throws up new themes in the organizational climate that the PWDs face in career development, future studies can understand the aspirations of PWDs toward career and focus on the how the PWDs engage in shaping their career. Researchers can explore strategies that PWDs plan/adopt in creating a sustainable career for themselves. Scholars can also map the issues raised by PWDs with the career outcomes.Social implicationsThe Rights of Persons with Disability Act, 2016, of Government of India introduces a social model of disability in India. This paper deploys the social model of disability to enhance our understanding of the disability climate in India from a new lens.Originality/valueThis study introduces new themes that depict the environmental factors and are related to the organizational climate rather than self-focused issues of PWDs. The paper introduces two new subjective criteria, voiced by PWDs, for career development – a well-crafted capability-based career path and role of inspirational platforms. It introduces hitherto undiscovered issues toward career development, faced by PWDs who have a secure employment and a professional career. This is the first exclusive study of PWDs employed in public sector and thus, brings uniqueness in the context.

Synopsis In 2014, PZ Wilmar announced a new oil palm business worth $650 million in Cross River State, which would aggressively expand Nigeria’s palm oil production. In July 2015, a year after the plan was announced, a report jointly released by Friends of the Earth US and Environmental Rights Action Nigeria alleged that Wilmar was not complying with Nigerian laws, and accused them of human rights violations, environmental destruction, fraud, and land grabbing. The multifaceted nature of the “Cross River State crisis” permits “close-ups” from different vantage points to analyze the economic, environmental, social, and governance implications of palm oil expansion from a corporate sustainability perspective. Research methodology The case was researched utilizing secondary data, all materials are readily available to the public. There is no disguise of any actual person or entity and no relationship between the authors and the organizations or individuals mentioned in the case. Relevant courses and levels The case is best used at graduate level. It is very well suited for a MBA-level sustainability, business and society, or corporate social responsibility, or business ethics courses. Theoretical bases The case is grounded on the stakeholder theory, yet offering a fresh perspective, leveraging on the uniqueness of the Nigerian context. The authors argue that, while the assessment of the stakeholder salience of environmental groups operating in Nigeria might be different vis-à-vis other countries with sounder institutional environments, the normative question on whether the company should address these claims persists. The authors also draw from the social movements literature and bring forth the idea that the characteristics of the Nigerian context may jeopardize the prospects of success of adversarial tactics such as the issuing of lawsuits and extensive media exposure, which have been deemed effective elsewhere.

What drove the transition from small-scale human societies centred on kinship and personal exchange, to large-scale societies comprising cooperation and division of labour among untold numbers of unrelated individuals? We propose that the unique human capacity to negotiate institutional rules that coordinate social actions was a key driver of this transition. By creating institutions, humans have been able to move from the default ‘Hobbesian’ rules of the ‘game of life’, determined by physical/environmental constraints, into self-created rules of social organization where cooperation can be individually advantageous even in large groups of unrelated individuals. Examples include rules of food sharing in hunter–gatherers, rules for the usage of irrigation systems in agriculturalists, property rights and systems for sharing reputation between mediaeval traders. Successful institutions create rules of interaction that are self-enforcing, providing direct benefits both to individuals that follow them, and to individuals that sanction rule breakers. Forming institutions requires shared intentionality, language and other cognitive abilities largely absent in other primates. We explain how cooperative breeding likely selected for these abilities early in the Homo lineage. This allowed anatomically modern humans to create institutions that transformed the self-reliance of our primate ancestors into the division of labour of large-scale human social organization.

Strategy is a comprehensive program for an action which defines the major directions of an organization and provides guidelines for resources allocation on the course to achieve the long-term goals of the organization. Choosing the right strategy is a complex and even risky task. This is because each strategy leads the organization to a specific competitive environment and determines how managers plan to match the strengths and weaknesses of an organization with the environmental opportunities and threats. SWOT analysis alone does not provide an analytical tool for recognizing the importance of identified factors and evaluating various strategic options based on the factors. For this reason, SWOT analysis has some deficiencies and shortcomings in the measurement and evaluation of the factors. Although the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) can overcome these deficiencies, when there is a lack of independency and dependency between factors, the approach loses its efficiency. This is due to the fact that AHP assumes the possibility of factors involved in an independent hierarchy of structure if this assumption cannot be accepted for examining the effects of the internal and external environment. Therefore, a tool to consider and assess the possible dependencies among the factors has been needed. In this paper, an algorithm is presented based on the network analysis process, which can work well even when there is a dependency between the SWOT factors. Then, the green space conditions in Tehran's district 19 are analyzed by SWOT analysis where this algorithm is considered as a real case.

Comparative studies on brain asymmetry date back to the 19th century but then largely disappeared due to the assumption that lateralization is uniquely human. Since the reemergence of this field in the 1970s, we learned that left-right differences of brain and behavior exist throughout the animal kingdom and pay off in terms of sensory, cognitive, and motor efficiency. Ontogenetically, lateralization starts in many species with asymmetrical expression patterns of genes within the Nodal cascade that set up the scene for later complex interactions of genetic, environmental, and epigenetic factors. These take effect during different time points of ontogeny and create asymmetries of neural networks in diverse species. As a result, depending on task demands, left- or right-hemispheric loops of feedforward or feedback projections are then activated and can temporarily dominate a neural process. In addition, asymmetries of commissural transfer can shape lateralized processes in each hemisphere. It is still unclear if interhemispheric interactions depend on an inhibition/excitation dichotomy or instead adjust the contralateral temporal neural structure to delay the other hemisphere or synchronize with it during joint action. As outlined in our review, novel animal models and approaches could be established in the last decades, and they already produced a substantial increase of knowledge. Since there is practically no realm of human perception, cognition, emotion, or action that is not affected by our lateralized neural organization, insights from these comparative studies are crucial to understand the functions and pathologies of our asymmetric brain.

In this issue of Pacific Conservation Biology, Bob Fox responds to the conservation and animal welfare policies of environmentalists and animal rights activists. It would be easy to dismiss his reaction as those of a frustrated public servant and a person who enjoys hunting. I have sympathy with Bob's ideas and not just because I also enjoy hunting and have had my share of frustrations in working for scientifically based environmental management. I have long felt that too many environmentalists and environmental organizations not only had a narrow agenda, but failed to understand the simplest ecological principles necessary for conserving and managing Australia's biodiversity. Too often the actions and policies of environmental organizations were not only counterproductive, but created an environment within which politicians could grandstand as being environmentally sensitive and concerned, while implementing policies inimical to the long-term needs of biodiversity conservation and ecological sustainability. As for animal rights groups, their actions frustrate the conservation of Australia's native flora and fauna and lead to more animals suffering than are ever saved. They also fail to recognize the simplest of ecological principles, such as the well-known ability of herbivores to increase beyond the carrying capacity of their food supply; the plight of koalas on Kangaroo Island is just one of many examples that could be cited where animal rights and welfare activists prevent essential conservation management causing needless suffering of animals and environmental degradation.

The author's key role in advocating and leading One Health (OH) initiatives in India (especially in Kerala), review the need for and progress of OH from concept to approach and proposes its institutionalization as the way forward. India is currently facing many health threats such as antimicrobial resistance, environmental health hazards, and food safety risks and most importantly, zoonotic diseases such as Nipah, Avian Influenza, Scrub typhus, Congo fever, Kyasanur forest disease, COVID-19, and leptospirosis that grossly impact country's economy. The recent pandemics had exposed the gaps in public health policy and government is prepared to commit on the OH approach and to invest more on public health infrastructure. Further, as challenges have increased in recent years, OH approach was clearly advocated by the experts not only to cope up the pandemic but also to manage the infodemic by promoting the timely dissemination of accurate information. Right from the endorsement of OH in 2007 by India's Prime minister to the present fight against COVID-19 pandemic, the actions to control and manage the disease was ideally oriented toward a collaborative approach. Last year (2019), the representatives from relevant ministries and department had a ground-breaking dialog to develop charter and constitute a National policy on OH. Recently, Health Ministers of the Member States of the World Health Organization South-East Asia signed "Delhi declaration" where the key essence was to implement intersectoral coordination mechanisms following the "OH" approach. India's future policy intervention will emphasize on strengthening of integrated public health labs and contributing to building a national institutional platform for OH to boost research initiatives. Taking stock of OH happenings, resources, challenges, and priorities, the implementation strategy has been proposed across human, animal and environmental health. The article further highlights the key areas that need OH intervention in India, the country's progress in OH and the success stories of OH for a sustainable action to confront emerging health threats.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present the knowledge gained from the experiences of community-based, women-led organizations of workers in the informal economy which strengthen food security, enhance livelihoods in peri-urban areas through solidarity economy initiatives, and advance women’s empowerment as they respond to disasters arising from climate change. Design/methodology/approach – This paper is based on case studies of Buklod Tao in San Mateo, Rizal, and the PATAMABA chapter in Sta. Barbara, Iloilo. The study was conducted within the tradition of gender-responsive participatory action research anchored on a human rights-based approach. Findings – Experience of flooding motivated mature organizations of women informal workers to establish community-based peri-urban gardens connected to other solidarity-based sustainable livelihood initiatives to address food security concerns, increase income, and mitigate the impact of similar disasters. Although women have been empowered through these initiatives, much still has to be done to transform gender relations in various spheres. Research limitations/implications – This research process lends itself toward unearthing gender inequalities which would otherwise remain hidden. Practical implications – The solidarity-based initiatives documented in these case studies may be adopted by women informal workers’ organizations in similar situations to advocate for and attain food security. Originality/value – Solidarity-based strategies to attain food security among women informal workers are rarely documented for assessment and knowledge sharing. How they are or can be further empowered by these initiatives is a significant contribution to the literature on gender and disasters.

This concluding article of the special issues summarizes the empirical results presented in the previous contributions within a comparative perspective, with particular attention to locate them within previous research on youth mobilizations. From the theoretical point of view, the articles, based on the research conducted in the context of the CRY_OUT project, have tried to bridge some concepts in youth studies and social movement studies. Using the concept of generations in a critical way, we have in fact aimed at deconstructing it by looking at the meaning given to generations by movement activists, to their self-perception in terms of generational identification, as well as their taste in terms of contentious frames and practices. Empirically, we have addressed, in particular, the mobilization of Millennials in anti-austerity protests on issues such as labor and also women’s and gender rights, antiracism, environmental protests, and alternative cultural and/or recreational initiatives. Focusing on Europe, we have chosen some paradigmatic cases of protests in the United Kingdom, Southern European Italy and Spain, and Eastern European Poland. In light of the theoretical questions presented in the introduction, this article addresses, in turn, the conceptions of generations in movements, the self-assessment by Millennials, as well as some characteristics of their mobilizations in terms of organizational structures, repertories of action, and collective framing.

AbstractThis paper contributes to the study of new forms of transnational power constituted by the action of international and nongovernmental organizations, to which gravitate loose networks of activists variously promoting democracy, human rights, the empowerment of women, and environmental conservation. The paper's focus is impacts that the massive reconstruction effort is having on Afghan society, examined through a case study of The National Solidarity Programme (NSP), the main project of rural rehabilitation underway in the country. Launched in 2003, its objective is to bring development funds directly to rural people and to establish democratically elected local councils that will identify needs, and plan and manage the reconstruction. Although the NSP's political significance faded in the context of the presidential elections of 2009, which were characterized by quickly evolving alliances, the program illustrates how reconstruction funds are an integral part of Afghanistan's social and political landscape. My arguments are four-fold: First, the NSP subtly modifies participants' body gestures and codes of conduct. Second, the program's fundamental assumptions are at odds with the complex social fabric and the overlapping sources of solidarity and conflict that characterize rural Afghanistan. Third, the ways in which political actors use material and symbolic resources channeled through the NSP mirror national struggles for power. Finally, such programs are one element in a much larger conceptual and bureaucratic apparatus that promotes new forms of transnational governmentality that coexist with and sometimes challenge the more familiar, territorialized expressions of state power and sovereignty.

In my postgraduate formation during the last years of the 80’s, we had close to thirty hospital beds in a pavilion called “sépticas” (1). In Colombia, where abortion was completely penalized, the pavilion was mostly filled with women with insecure, complicated abortions. The focus we received was technical: management of intensive care; performance of hysterectomies, colostomies, bowel resection, etc. In those times, some nurses were nuns and limited themselves to interrogating the patients to get them to “confess” what they had done to themselves in order to abort. It always disturbed me that the women who left alive, left without any advice or contraceptive method. Having asked a professor of mine, he responded with disdain: “This is a third level hospital, those things are done by nurses of the first level”. Seeing so much pain and death, I decided to talk to patients, and I began to understand their decision. I still remember so many deaths with sadness, but one case in particular pains me: it was a woman close to being fifty who arrived with a uterine perforation in a state of advanced sepsis. Despite the surgery and the intensive care, she passed away. I had talked to her, and she told me she was a widow, had two adult kids and had aborted because of “embarrassment towards them” because they were going to find out that she had an active sexual life. A few days after her passing, the pathology professor called me, surprised, to tell me that the uterus we had sent for pathological examination showed no pregnancy. She was a woman in a perimenopausal state with a pregnancy exam that gave a false positive due to the high levels of FSH/LH typical of her age. SHE WAS NOT PREGNANT!!! She didn’t have menstruation because she was premenopausal and a false positive led her to an unsafe abortion. Of course, the injuries caused in the attempted abortion caused the fatal conclusion, but the real underlying cause was the social taboo in respect to sexuality. I had to watch many adolescents and young women leave the hospital alive, but without a uterus, sometime without ovaries and with colostomies, to be looked down on by a society that blamed them for deciding to not be mothers. I had to see situation of women that arrived with their intestines protruding from their vaginas because of unsafe abortions. I saw women, who in their despair, self-inflicted injuries attempting to abort with elements such as stick, branches, onion wedges, alum bars and clothing hooks among others. Among so many deaths, it was hard not having at least one woman per day in the morgue due to an unsafe abortion. During those time, healthcare was not handled from the biopsychosocial, but only from the technical (2); nonetheless, in the academic evaluations that were performed, when asked about the definition of health, we had to recite the text from the International Organization of Health that included these three aspects. How contradictory! To give response to the health need of women and guarantee their right when I was already a professor, I began an obstetric contraceptive service in that third level hospital. There was resistance from the directors, but fortunately I was able to acquire international donations for the institution, which facilitated its acceptance. I decided to undertake a teaching career with the hope of being able to sensitize health professionals towards an integral focus of health and illness. When the International Conference of Population and Development (ICPD) was held in Cairo in 1994, I had already spent various years in teaching, and when I read their Action Program, I found a name for what I was working on: Sexual and Reproductive Rights. I began to incorporate the tools given by this document into my professional and teaching life. I was able to sensitize people at my countries Health Ministry, and we worked together moving it to an approach of human rights in areas of sexual and reproductive health (SRH). This new viewpoint, in addition to being integral, sought to give answers to old problems like maternal mortality, adolescent pregnancy, low contraceptive prevalence, unplanned or unwanted pregnancy or violence against women. With other sensitized people, we began with these SRH issues to permeate the Colombian Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology, some universities, and university hospitals. We are still fighting in a country that despite many difficulties has improved its indicators of SRH. With the experience of having labored in all sphere of these topics, we manage to create, with a handful of colleagues and friend at the Universidad El Bosque, a Master’s Program in Sexual and Reproductive Health, open to all professions, in which we broke several paradigms. A program was initiated in which the qualitative and quantitative investigation had the same weight, and some alumni of the program are now in positions of leadership in governmental and international institutions, replicating integral models. In the Latin American Federation of Obstetrics and Gynecology (FLASOG, English acronym) and in the International Federation of Obstetrics and Gynecology (FIGO), I was able to apply my experience for many years in the SRH committees of these association to benefit women and girls in the regional and global environments. When I think of who has inspired me in these fights, I should highlight the great feminist who have taught me and been with me in so many fights. I cannot mention them all, but I have admired the story of the life of Margaret Sanger with her persistence and visionary outlook. She fought throughout her whole life to help the women of the 20th century to be able to obtain the right to decide when and whether or not they wanted to have children (3). Of current feminist, I have had the privilege of sharing experiences with Carmen Barroso, Giselle Carino, Debora Diniz and Alejandra Meglioli, leaders of the International Planned Parenthood Federation – Western Hemisphere Region (IPPF-RHO). From my country, I want to mention my countrywoman Florence Thomas, psychologist, columnist, writer and Colombo-French feminist. She is one of the most influential and important voices in the movement for women rights in Colombia and the region. She arrived from France in the 1960’s, in the years of counterculture, the Beatles, hippies, Simone de Beauvoir, and Jean-Paul Sartre, a time in which capitalism and consumer culture began to be criticized (4). It was then when they began to talk about the female body, female sexuality and when the contraceptive pill arrived like a total revolution for women. Upon its arrival in 1967, she experimented a shock because she had just assisted in a revolution and only found a country of mothers, not women (5). That was the only destiny for a woman, to be quiet and submissive. Then she realized that this could not continue, speaking of “revolutionary vanguards” in such a patriarchal environment. In 1986 with the North American and European feminism waves and with her academic team, they created the group “Mujer y Sociedad de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia”, incubator of great initiatives and achievements for the country (6). She has led great changes with her courage, the strength of her arguments, and a simultaneously passionate and agreeable discourse. Among her multiple books, I highlight “Conversaciones con Violeta” (7), motivated by the disdain towards feminism of some young women. She writes it as a dialogue with an imaginary daughter in which, in an intimate manner, she reconstructs the history of women throughout the centuries and gives new light of the fundamental role of feminism in the life of modern women. Another book that shows her bravery is “Había que decirlo” (8), in which she narrates the experience of her own abortion at age twenty-two in sixty’s France. My work experience in the IPPF-RHO has allowed me to meet leaders of all ages in diverse countries of the region, who with great mysticism and dedication, voluntarily, work to achieve a more equal and just society. I have been particularly impressed by the appropriation of the concept of sexual and reproductive rights by young people, and this has given me great hope for the future of the planet. We continue to have an incomplete agenda of the action plan of the ICPD of Cairo but seeing how the youth bravely confront the challenges motivates me to continue ahead and give my years of experience in an intergenerational work. In their policies and programs, the IPPF-RHO evidences great commitment for the rights and the SRH of adolescent, that are consistent with what the organization promotes, for example, 20% of the places for decision making are in hands of the young. Member organizations, that base their labor on volunteers, are true incubators of youth that will make that unassailable and necessary change of generations. In contrast to what many of us experienced, working in this complicated agenda of sexual and reproductive health without theoretical bases, today we see committed people with a solid formation to replace us. In the college of medicine at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia and the College of Nursing at the Universidad El Bosque, the new generations are more motivated and empowered, with great desire to change the strict underlying structures. Our great worry is the onslaught of the ultra-right, a lot of times better organized than us who do support rights, that supports anti-rights group and are truly pro-life (9). Faced with this scenario, we should organize ourselves better, giving battle to guarantee the rights of women in the local, regional, and global level, aggregating the efforts of all pro-right organizations. We are now committed to the Objectives of Sustainable Development (10), understood as those that satisfy the necessities of the current generation without jeopardizing the capacity of future generations to satisfy their own necessities. This new agenda is based on: - The unfinished work of the Millennium Development Goals - Pending commitments (international environmental conventions) - The emergent topics of the three dimensions of sustainable development: social, economic, and environmental. We now have 17 objectives of sustainable development and 169 goals (11). These goals mention “universal access to reproductive health” many times. In objective 3 of this list is included guaranteeing, before the year 2030, “universal access to sexual and reproductive health services, including those of family planning, information, and education.” Likewise, objective 5, “obtain gender equality and empower all women and girls”, establishes the goal of “assuring the universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights in conformity with the action program of the International Conference on Population and Development, the Action Platform of Beijing”. It cannot be forgotten that the term universal access to sexual and reproductive health includes universal access to abortion and contraception. Currently, 830 women die every day through preventable maternal causes; of these deaths, 99% occur in developing countries, more than half in fragile environments and in humanitarian contexts (12). 216 million women cannot access modern contraception methods and the majority live in the nine poorest countries in the world and in a cultural environment proper to the decades of the seventies (13). This number only includes women from 15 to 49 years in any marital state, that is to say, the number that takes all women into account is much greater. Achieving the proposed objectives would entail preventing 67 million unwanted pregnancies and reducing maternal deaths by two thirds. We currently have a high, unsatisfied demand for modern contraceptives, with extremely low use of reversible, long term methods (intrauterine devices and subdermal implants) which are the most effect ones with best adherence (14). There is not a single objective among the 17 Objectives of Sustainable Development where contraception does not have a prominent role: from the first one that refers to ending poverty, going through the fifth one about gender equality, the tenth of inequality reduction among countries and within the same country, until the sixteenth related with peace and justice. If we want to change the world, we should procure universal access to contraception without myths or barriers. We have the moral obligation of achieving the irradiation of extreme poverty and advancing the construction of more equal, just, and happy societies. In emergency contraception (EC), we are very far from reaching expectations. If in reversible, long-term methods we have low prevalence, in EC the situation gets worse. Not all faculties in the region look at this topic, and where it is looked at, there is no homogeneity in content, not even within the same country. There are still myths about their real action mechanisms. There are countries, like Honduras, where it is prohibited and there is no specific medicine, the same case as in Haiti. Where it is available, access is dismal, particularly among girls, adolescents, youth, migrants, afro-descendent, and indigenous. The multiple barriers for the effective use of emergency contraceptives must be knocked down, and to work toward that we have to destroy myths and erroneous perceptions, taboos and cultural norms; achieve changes in laws and restrictive rules within countries, achieve access without barriers to the EC; work in union with other sectors; train health personnel and the community. It is necessary to transform the attitude of health personal to a service above personal opinion. Reflecting on what has occurred after the ICPD in Cairo, their Action Program changed how we look at the dynamics of population from an emphasis on demographics to a focus on the people and human rights. The governments agreed that, in this new focus, success was the empowerment of women and the possibility of choice through expanded access to education, health, services, and employment among others. Nonetheless, there have been unequal advances and inequality persists in our region, all the goals were not met, the sexual and reproductive goals continue beyond the reach of many women (15). There is a long road ahead until women and girls of the world can claim their rights and liberty of deciding. Globally, maternal deaths have been reduced, there is more qualified assistance of births, more contraception prevalence, integral sexuality education, and access to SRH services for adolescents are now recognized rights with great advances, and additionally there have been concrete gains in terms of more favorable legal frameworks, particularly in our region; nonetheless, although it’s true that the access condition have improved, the restrictive laws of the region expose the most vulnerable women to insecure abortions. There are great challenges for governments to recognize SRH and the DSR as integral parts of health systems, there is an ample agenda against women. In that sense, access to SRH is threatened and oppressed, it requires multi-sector mobilization and litigation strategies, investigation and support for the support of women’s rights as a multi-sector agenda. Looking forward, we must make an effort to work more with youth to advance not only the Action Program of the ICPD, but also all social movements. They are one of the most vulnerable groups, and the biggest catalyzers for change. The young population still faces many challenges, especially women and girls; young girls are in particularly high risk due to lack of friendly and confidential services related with sexual and reproductive health, gender violence, and lack of access to services. In addition, access to abortion must be improved; it is the responsibility of states to guarantee the quality and security of this access. In our region there still exist countries with completely restrictive frameworks. New technologies facilitate self-care (16), which will allow expansion of universal access, but governments cannot detach themselves from their responsibility. Self-care is expanding in the world and can be strategic for reaching the most vulnerable populations. There are new challenges for the same problems, that require a re-interpretation of the measures necessary to guaranty the DSR of all people, in particular women, girls, and in general, marginalized and vulnerable populations. It is necessary to take into account migrations, climate change, the impact of digital media, the resurgence of hate discourse, oppression, violence, xenophobia, homo/transphobia, and other emergent problems, as SRH should be seen within a framework of justice, not isolated. We should demand accountability of the 179 governments that participate in the ICPD 25 years ago and the 193 countries that signed the Sustainable Development Objectives. They should reaffirm their commitments and expand their agenda to topics not considered at that time. Our region has given the world an example with the Agreement of Montevideo, that becomes a blueprint for achieving the action plan of the CIPD and we should not allow retreat. This agreement puts people at the center, especially women, and includes the topic of abortion, inviting the state to consider the possibility of legalizing it, which opens the doors for all governments of the world to recognize that women have the right to choose on maternity. This agreement is much more inclusive: Considering that the gaps in health continue to abound in the region and the average statistics hide the high levels of maternal mortality, of sexually transmitted diseases, of infection by HIV/AIDS, and the unsatisfied demand for contraception in the population that lives in poverty and rural areas, among indigenous communities, and afro-descendants and groups in conditions of vulnerability like women, adolescents and incapacitated people, it is agreed: 33- To promote, protect, and guarantee the health and the sexual and reproductive rights that contribute to the complete fulfillment of people and social justice in a society free of any form of discrimination and violence. 37- Guarantee universal access to quality sexual and reproductive health services, taking into consideration the specific needs of men and women, adolescents and young, LGBT people, older people and people with incapacity, paying particular attention to people in a condition of vulnerability and people who live in rural and remote zone, promoting citizen participation in the completing of these commitments. 42- To guarantee, in cases in which abortion is legal or decriminalized in the national legislation, the existence of safe and quality abortion for non-desired or non-accepted pregnancies and instigate the other States to consider the possibility of modifying public laws, norms, strategies, and public policy on the voluntary interruption of pregnancy to save the life and health of pregnant adolescent women, improving their quality of life and decreasing the number of abortions (17).

The creation of the first riders'-rights organization [RRO] at Mallory Park in 1960 heralded a transformation among Britain's motorcyclists. Until this time, motorcycling was exclusively a practical and/or social activity, the main organized expression of which was the Auto Cycle Union; a sports-oriented organization dedicated primarily to racing. However, since that time the riders'-rights organizations – that is, organizations dedicated not to motorcycles but to the political rights of motorcyclists – have expanded both nationally and on an international basis.

Although a growing body of evidence underscores the contributions of community-based participatory research, community coalitions and other community engagement approaches to addressing health equity, one of the most potent forms of engagement—community organizing—has attracted far less attention in our field. Yet, organizing by and for communities, to build power, select issues, develop and use strategies, and take action to address the goals they collectively have set, may offer important lessons for public health professionals in these fraught times. We share, largely in their own words, the experiences and reflections of ~140 grassroots organizers across the United States who attended regional convenings of organizers in 2017, planned and run by four leading community capacity and base-building organizations, and where diverse organizers shared strategies that work, challenges faced, and the deep concerns among their already often disenfranchised communities in the contemporary sociopolitical and cultural context. After briefly reviewing some of community organizing’s core tenets and complexities, we share our qualitative research methods and key findings about the primary cross-regional concerns raised (mass incarceration, voter suppression, and immigrant rights), the themes that emerged (e.g., centering leadership by women of color and of using a health lens to frame community issues), as well as the challenges faced (e.g., the retraumatization often experienced by organizers and the difficulties in building alliances between groups “that have been taught to distrust each other”). We conclude by discussing how many of the promising practices and lessons shared by the community organizers might enhance our own field’s health equity-focused efforts, particularly if we take seriously one of their most bedrock messages: that there can be no health equity without racial equity and social justice, and that to get to health equity, we must first address equity writ large, particularly in troubling times.

AbstractThe politics of affirmative action are currently structured as a litigious conflict among elites taking polarized stances. Opponents call for colorblindness, and defenders champion diversity. How can marginalized activists subvert the dominant terms of legal debate? To what extent can they establish their legitimacy? This paper advances legal mobilization theory by analytically foregrounding the field of contention and the relational production of meaning among social movement organizations. The case for study is two landmark United States Supreme Court cases that contested the University of Michigan’s race-conscious admissions policies. Using ethnographic data, the paper analyzes BAMN, an activist organization, and its reception by other affirmative action supporters. BAMN had a marginalized allied-outsider status in the legal cases, as it made a radical civil rights claim for a moderate, elite-supported policy: that affirmative action corrects systemic racial discrimination. BAMN activists pursued their agenda by passionately defending and, at once, critiquing the university’s policies. However, the organization’s militancy remained a liability among university leaders, who prioritized the consistency of their diversity claims. The analysis forwards a scholarly understanding of the legacy of race-conscious policies.

Background: A particular challenge in the work to realize the global goals for sustainable development is to find ways for organizations to identify and prioritize organizational activities that address these goals. There are also several sustainability initiatives, guidelines and tools to consider when planning, working with and reporting on sustainable development. Although progress has been made, little has been written about how organizations rise to and manage the challenge. The paper explores how organizations address sustainable development, which sustainability aspects they prioritize and whether previous research can improve the priority process by using materiality analysis approach. Methods: A case study approach was chosen. Data was collected by interactive workshops and documentation. The participating organizations were two Swedish municipalities; Results: The municipalities have introduced a number of sustainability aspects into their organizational governance, especially in terms of society, human rights and the environment. A materiality analysis was conducted to determine the relevance and significance of sustainability aspects. The result shows that climate action, biodiversity and freshwater use are aspects that should be prioritized; Conclusion: The materiality analysis methodology chosen for prioritizing of sustainability aspects was useful and easy to work with. However, the sustainability aspect matrix and the risk assessment have to be updated regularly in order to form an effective base for the materiality analysis.

The author of the article study problems of enforcement and implementation of principles in activities of police and mechanisms of implementation of principles in activities conducted by police. Its mean that the operations of the police shall be organised observing lawfulness, humanism, human rights, social justice, transparency and an undivided authority, and relying on the assistance of the public. The police shall protect the rights and lawful interests of persons irrespective of their citizenship, social, economic and other status, race and nationality, gender and age, education and language, attitude towards religion, political and other convictions. The police, by its operations, shall ensure the conformity with the rights and freedoms of persons. Restriction of such rights and freedoms shall be permitted only on the basis of law and in accordance with procedures specified in law. Author discloses the meaning and content of the principles of the organization and activities of the police, enshrined in the law. The authors also stress out particular disadvantages of law ”On Police” and make suggestions how to improve it.

The purpose of this study is to find out how the role of the community and community lawsuits according to Law No. 23 of 1997 concerning Environmental Management. The research method used in this study is a qualitative method. While the approach uses the normative juridical approach. The type of data used is primary data and secondary data. Data collection methods by interview and documentation. The process of community participation must be open to the public, community participation will affect the credibility and accountability of the relevant institutions. By documenting the actions of this State decision, it is expected to be able to provide satisfactory means if the public and the court will examine the considerations that have been taken when making the decision. The right of community claim can be filed through NGOs if there are similarities in facts or events and the legal basis and types of claims between group representatives and group members. As for environmental organizations, they can file a lawsuit if they meet the requirements, among others in the form of legal entities, confirm in their articles of association that the organization was established for the purpose of preservation of environmental functions, and have carried out concrete activities with a statute of at least 2 years

The need to feed the population growth conducts to the development of material intensive production systems in many countries. However the absence of adequate policies has adverse consequences on the environment and the performance of the agricultural and rural sectors. Benin Republic, through its Strategic Plan for Agricultural Sector Development (PSDSA) focuses on improving food and nutrition security, improving farm level income and building resilience to climate change within the Government Action Plan (PAG Bénin Révélé) 2016-2021. The aim of this study is to analyze the current agricultural policies and his link with the current environmental policies in Benin Republic. The data from Ministries and Structures in charge of Agriculture, Environment, Health and Human being were used. Reports from some international organizations such as FAO, PNUD and FIDA were also used. It is observed and planed an increase in cultivation area, all crops yields and crops production from 2016 to 2021. That will involve the more use of agricultural machinery, fertilizers and pesticides. Added to the current environment challenges, it appears the risk of soil degradation, deforestation, water and air pollution, then global impact on the environment when this plan will be implemented. It is right that some Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) are purposed for many of the actions. However, these EIA are sometime neglected and sacrificed for the profitability of agricultural production. To achieve this agricultural goal without affect the environment, the respect of the adequate law and EIA for each single activity becomes necessary.

This article evaluates the case for a new World Environmental Organization. It suggests that the main purpose of such an institution could be to accomplish the internalization of global environmental externalities which, for a variety of reasons, has not been achieved to any significant degree in recent decades. This stands in contrast to recent proposals that call for a mere strengthening of existing global arrangements. The benefits of this approach, as well as some of its problems, such as ambiguous property rights, are discussed.

Based on perspectives of organizational mobilization, action strategy and political opportunity structure, this study systematically examines the effects of five factors – type of dispute, number of participants, rights-defending method, homeowners’ organization, and government response – on the results of homeowners’ collective actions by analyzing data collected from 191 cases of homeowners’ rights protection activities that took place in China between 1999 and 2012. Findings include the following: (1) in administrative disputes and mixed disputes which involve government departments, homeowners are less likely to successfully protect their interests than in other types of disputes; (2) mobilizing a certain number of participants is conducive to homeowners achieving a satisfactory result, but this does not mean that the more participants are mobilized, the more likely they are to succeed in a collective protest; (3) different kinds of rights protection methods and their combinations influence the results of homeowners’ rights-defending activities; (4) non-institutionalized radical actions do not help homeowners to realize their claims; (5) a well-functioning homeowners’ organization which truly represents the interests of homeowners can significantly increase the success rate of a homeowners’ collective action; and (6) government maladministration (improper intervention or administrative nonfeasance) severely hinders homeowners from successfully defending their legitimate rights and interests. These findings confirm the reality of a strong state and weak society in contemporary China.

Kupang is the most corrupt city based on a survey by Transparency International Indonesia. The problem is what are the causes of corruption in Kupang City? and what are the strategies the Kupang City Government could adopt to prevent and eradicate corruption in its regions? This research identifies corruption behavior based on terminology, behavioral factors, a mode that is often used to commit corruption, and what must be done to overcome it The method used in this research was an explanatory method using secondary data. Qualitative analysis was then conducted using SWOT analysis. Results showed that corruption is an action to enrich themselves, their families, groups, and corporations by violating rules, norms, and human rights through the exploitation of economic, political, socio-cultural, and environmental resources by maximizing the potential of their resources (position, network, and power). Factors that cause corruption are individual motivations and poor government organization systems and will increase the influence of corruption if it is supported by an environment in which individuals and poor systems are located. Based on this, the strategies that can be carried out by Kota Kupang Government are to immediately carry out an MoU with law enforcement institutions; to use electronic or online systems for all financial transactions within the government; to form a task force against extortion in the government; to enforce financial reporting for all officials within the government; to have a more efficient government budget for a dual and unnecessary function to open access for public monitoring through electronic database, and to have an integrity pact-based performance measurement. AbstrakPenelitian ini mengidentifikasi perilaku korupsi berdasarkan terminologi, faktor penyebab perilaku, modus yang sering dilakukan untuk melakukan korupsi, dan apa yang harus dilakukan untuk mengatasinya. Metode yang digunakan untuk melakukan penelitian ini adalah penelitian eksplanatif menggunakan data sekunder. Kemudian dianalisis secara kualitatif berdasarkan hasil analisis SWOT. Hasil penelitian menunjukan bahwa korupsi adalah tindakan untuk memperkaya diri, keluarga, kelompok, dan korporasinya dengan cara melanggar aturan, melanggar norma, melanggar hak asasi manusia melalui eksploitasi sumberdaya ekonomi, politik, sosial budaya, dan lingkungan hidup dengan memaksimalkan potensi sumberdaya yang dimiliki (jabatan, jaringan, dan kekuasaan). Faktor penyebab korupsi adalah motivasi individu dan sistem organisasi pemerintah yang buruk, dan akan semakin meningkat pengaruh korupsi jika didukung oleh lingkungan dimana individu dan sistem yang buruk berada. Berdasarkan hal tersebut maka strategi yang dapat dilakukan oleh Pemerintah Kota Kupang adalah segera melakukan Memorandum of Understanding dengan lembaga penegakan hukum, segala transaksi keuangan di pemerintahan menggunakan transaksi elektronik atau online, pemerintah membentuk gugus tugas pemberantasan pungli di pemerintahan, memberlakukan pelaporan keuangan pada pejabat di lingkup pemerintahan, efisiensi anggaran pemerintahan yang ganda fungsi dan tidak bermanfaat, membuka akses pemantauan publik melalui base data elektronik, dan pengukuran kinerja berbasis pakta integritas.

How can we explain variation in the organization of LGBT activism in postcommunist Europe, both across countries and over time? Much of the extant scholarship has analyzed the comparative politics of homosexuality in the region in terms of transnational norm diffusion occurring within the context of EU accession and integration. Thus, it emphasizes the empowerment of domestic gay rights groups either through maximizing the leverage of their external allies or through increasing their linkage with transnational advocacy networks. This paper argues that the effectiveness of these diffusion mechanisms is strongly constrained by the collective action problems faced by gay rights activists in societies with a legacy of civil society underdevelopment, such as in postcommunist Europe. We argue that hard-right backlash is a critical domestic factor that can help overcome these collective action problems, enabling gay rights activists to find resonant frames, build internal solidarity, and win allies—even when social movement resources are minimal. The research focuses on a close comparison of Poland and the Czech Republic since 1989 and draws on field interviews and original sources to process-trace the resonance of LGBT rights frames and how activism is organized. By building organizationally robust activism, postcommunist gay rights movements lay claim to full membership in the political community, exercise civil rights as LGBT citizens (not merely as private ones), and expand the sphere of “sexual citizenship.”

AbstractAll social life is based on people's ability to recognize what others are doing. Recently, the mechanisms underlying this human ability have become the focus of a growing multidisciplinary interest. This article contributes to this line of research by considering how people's orientations to who they are to each other are built-in in the organization action. We outline a unifying theoretical framework in which the basic facets of human social relations are seen as being anchored in three orders—epistemic order, deontic order, and emotional order—each of which, we argue, also pertains to action recognition. This framework allows us to account for common ambiguities in action recognition and to describe relationship negotiations involving a complex interface between knowledge, power, and emotion. (Action recognition, social relations, conversation analysis, status, stance, epistemic rights, deontic rights, emotion)*

We surveyed 351 inhabitants of a part of the Netherlands that suffers from gas-extraction-induced (and thus “human-caused”) earthquakes. Based on geological reports, we distinguished between three differently affected subregions. We first tested whether being more strongly, objectively affected also implies a stronger subjective disadvantage. Second, we tested whether objective disadvantage moderates which type of perceived rights violations (i.e., perceived violations of personal/family, or collective rights to safety, health, and financial stability) predict collective action intentions. In line with our hypotheses, the participants living in the objectively most affected area perceived their rights to be violated the most, and their collective action intentions were motivated by perceived violations of personal/family rights. In contrast, the collective action intentions of those in the least affected areas were motivated by perceived violations of collective rights. We discuss the importance of understanding the interplay between objective disadvantage, perceived rights violations, and collective action.

The International Labor Organization (ILO) is not an effective force for raising labor standards in the developing world and could become considerably more effective by taking account of two of the most important and interrelated recent theoretical developments in understanding labor standards. First, countries derive no comparative advantage in the global trading system from most very low labor standards. The ILO should therefore concentrate its energies on lifting these, rather than (as it so often does) concentrating on labor standards that are a source of comparative advantage, the elimination of which is resisted strongly and effectively. Second, the tools of game theory may be used to identify the collective action problems that prevent countries from lifting their own labor standards, and create a role for a transnational agency that may assist them.

PurposeThe paper seeks to explore how globalization processes have shaped the nature, scope, and time frame of considerations of social responsibility and the development of a corporate social responsibility (CSR) regime. The paper identifies three generations of human rights' values embedded within the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and aims to argue that they inspire and influence contemporary discussions about, and practices of CSR.Design/methodology/approachEmploying the emergence of the human rights regime as a paradigmatic case comparison, the interrelationships of states, non‐governmental organizations (NGOs), and corporations in the development of new conceptions and expectations of, and organizations for CSR were explored.FindingsThe paper finds strong parallels between the growth of the global human rights regime and the burgeoning international attention paid to issues of CSR and sustainability. Four critical stages are identified: the formal articulation of norms, the increasing role of NGOs, changing power dynamics between state, NGOs, and multinational corporations, and the reconfiguration of network density and diversity.Practical implicationsThe paper suggests that attention to the communicative processes associated with the development of the international human rights regime provides important insights for the future development of a global CSR regime.Originality/valueThrough the introduction of the three generations of human rights discourse, communicative actions and pathways from which a global corporate social responsibility regime may emerge were articulated.

What leads individuals to be motivated to act for human rights causes? Human rights organizations (HROs) often use personal and emotional stories of the abused in order to gain the attention of individuals reading newspapers or emails directly from the organization. McEntire, Leiby, and Krain show that personal frames are most successful at increasing knowledge about a specific human rights situation and motivating individuals to act. However, HROs are not operating in a political vacuum; repressive governments often try to spin information about abuses and the abused to their advantage. This study uses an experimental approach to address how the discursive interactions between states and HROs influence individual-level support of HRO efforts. When governments respond to HRO claims by labeling the abused as a terrorist, individuals are much less likely to be spurred into certain types of action, like signing a petition, and feel differently about the specific case. Interestingly, we do not find that trust in the information provided by an HRO is harmed by being associated with someone labeled a terrorist.

<p class="1Body">The study was conducted in three main eco-regions, namely Bale Mountains, South-West and Semien Eco-Regions in Ethiopia with the following objectives - to: (i) review the current institutional arrangements in terms of rights and responsibilities, planning system, capacity, and motivation of local communities for the management of environmental resources in Ethiopia in general, and the forest sector in particular and (ii) assess constraints for the successful implementation of policies/legislation, strategies, programs, projects and actions at a landscape level. Focus group discussion and semi-structured questionnaires were used to collect data. Purposive sampling method was employed to select respondents. Environmental resources conservation and management (ERCM) institutions considered in this study were agriculture and natural resources, water, irrigation and electricity, land and environmental protection, local administration, and road authorities. Within the above-mentioned institutions a total of 56 questionnaires were administered and 48 interviews were conducted. The results show that the capacity of the existing institutions is constrained by lack of clear rights and responsibilities, absence of common result framework, absence of common planning system, high staff turnover, absence of spatial planners and failure to respond to the demands of community-based organizations. The institutional arrangements need critical review and analyses in order to design responsible institutions for ERCM at all levels, which includes availing knowledgeable and all-rounded professionals at all levels, with proper incentive mechanisms, who would be able to cope with future challenges emanating from climate change and other social tensions.</p>