Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Minority Rights Group'

July 26, 2010 marked the twentieth anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act; the greater implications of comprehensive disability policy are yet to be seen. Nearly twenty percent of Americans have a disability. With such a significant portion of Americans affected, is equal access to employment opportunities, transportation, and communication available? The history of disability in America tells a story of isolation and institutionalization. The civil rights movement of the 1950’s and 60’s opened up an opportunity for America’s most versatile minority group. A survey conducted by the International Center for the Disabled in 1986 showed sixty-six percent of non-institutionalized disabled individuals wished to be employed but did not have access to a job. The ADA attempts to knock down the societal barriers facing these individuals. Two decades later, the efficacy of the ADA is under fire. A series of legal battles during the 1990’s narrowed the scope of ADA regulations. The ADA Amendments Act of 2008 attempts to “restore the intent and protections” of the original bill but does it succeed? Disability rights experts and disabled citizens agree: there is much work to be done.

The purpose of this study was to plan the provision of education for the Griquas in South Africa within the context of the educational rights of minority groups. Its main focus was on how to make the education system in South Africa more responsive to the histories, heritages, life experiences and cultural conditioning of the Griquas as a minority group in all its policymaking, programme planning and instructional practices. International trends have shown that the rights of minority groups have been described in different treaties and conventions of international organisations such as the United Nations (UN), the European Community (EC) and the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). These rights focused on two main issues, namely the right to own identity and the right not to be discriminated against. In order to implement the above acknowledged rights (which include the educational rights) of minority groups, several countries have implemented specific measures in their respective education systems, thereby serving the particular religious and/or cultural needs of minority groups in their countries. In nation-states across the world a situation has developed that, while the world is experiencing globalisation of, for example, trade and communication, the area of control and power is being questioned by groups on a regional level. It is primarily minority groups, defined by their ethnic or cultural distinctiveness, in the relevant nation states, that are seeking to obtain more direct control over their own affairs. Experience has furthermore shown that national unity is not endangered by the recognition of the rights of minority groups but is promoted if the rights of minorities are recognised in a country. In the educational arena it has become clear that the focus of education should be to equip each learner with the required knowledge, skills and attitudes to effectively fulfil his/her different roles in life. With regard to the issue of the relationship between the minority group and the educational institution, the trend has been to focus on specific educational institutions in order to provide in the minority groups' educational needs. The characteristics and culture of a particular educational institution should be acceptable to the minority group to ensure that the particular minority group takes ownership of it. In the light of the above information the educational needs of the Griquas, as a case study, were determined by using the focus group discussion as a technique according to the qualitative research method. The results ofthe focus groups were then compared with the findings of the literature study. In order to make the necessary adjustments, the method of strategic educational planning was used in order to provide in the educational needs of the Griquas. The following trends emerged, amongst others: universal primary education, a diversified high school curriculum with emphasis on science, technology and agriculture, local control of education by the Griquas and special arrangements and/or alternatives for schooling.<br>Thesis (Ph.D.)--Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, 2001

Minority protection mechanisms in international law aim to guarantee certain individual rights to persons belonging to ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities, such as freedom of culture, religion and language. These rights can be considered to be of collective interest for minority group identity and therefore often require the possibility of collective enjoyment. In addition to general human rights and principles of non-discrimination, minority protection can alternately be ensured through minority specific rights. However, minority specific rights would not operate effectively without evolving a concept of collective (or group) rights in international law. Hence, while this kind of approach can provide legal methods for balancing the interests of individuals, groups and the state, it creates the possibility of conflicts with the international framework of individual rights. The ottoman millet system sets a historical example of minority protection instruments based on a collective concept of human rights. Furthermore, the ottoman history offers an illustration of what could go terribly wrong with a collective rights model. By analyzing the millet system and the ottoman legal reforms in the nineteenth century I will discuss reoccurring issues with collective rights. I will argue that incorporating collective rights within a structure founded on individual rights is a problematic way of protecting individuals belonging to minorities and other vulnerably ethnic groups. Looking through the historical development of universal human rights some important aspects of its main principles will be brought up in this paper.

The thesis concerns itself with the fundamental rights of ethnic, religious and linguistic groups in contemporary international law. The rights outlined are to be found in multilateral treaties and general or customary international law. The first right identified is the right to existence which is principally associated with the Genocide Convention 1948. The second right outlined is the right of individuals belonging to minorities to an identity in cultural, religious and linguistic terms. This right is found in treaties rather than general customary law. The principal vehicle for the right to identity is Article 27 of the United Nations Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The relationship between this right and the right of individuals not to be discriminated against on grounds of race, language or religion is a major focus of the text. The rights of indigenous and tribal populations are also discussed: in addition to being in most cases minorities in their States, these populations have been the subject of specific action mainly in the International Labour Organisation. They are therefore entitled to all the rights of minorities as well as those rights specifically drawn up in their favour. The thesis commences with an outline of the legal and philosophical problems raised by the existence of minorities and indigenous populations and discusses the history of the protection of minority groups by international law, culminating in the League of Nations regime for their protection. A consistent theme running through the work is the relationship between individual and collective rights in international law and the conclusion of the work attempts to characterise international law in this respect, and to forecast the direction which the law will take in the future.

This thesis looks at the role of discrimination and ethnic group identity as explanations of political behaviour of ethnic minorities in Britain. Chapter 2 examines vote choice and partisanship, arguing that a group utility heuristic explains the high level of support for the Labour party among ethnic minorities. I provide individual-level evidence of this heuristic by showing that ethnic minority voters support the Labour party to the extent that they are (i) conscious of the experiences of their ethnic group members with regards to discrimination, and (ii) believe that the Labour party is the best political party to represent their interests. These two attitudes mediate the effects of group-level inequalities. Chapter 3 asks whether Muslims are alienated from mainstream politics by Islamophobia and British military intervention in Muslim countries. I find that perceptions of Islamophobia are linked with greater political alienation, to a greater likelihood of non-electoral participation, but also to a lesser likelihood of voting. Likewise, disapproval of the war in Afghanistan is associated with greater political alienation and a greater likelihood of some types of non-electoral participation. I also provide strong evidence that Muslims in Britain experience more religious discrimination than adherents of other minority religions. Chapter 4 considers the interaction between the extreme right and ethnic minority political attitudes and behaviour. I find evidence that the extreme right British National Party (BNP) increases voting for the Labour party, at the expense of minor parties and abstention. Surprisingly, the BNP effect also benefits the other main parties. Although they do not benefit in increased vote share, Liberal Democrat and Conservative party and leader evaluations are more positive where the BNP stood and performed better in 2010, which I suggest is due to the electoral contrast provided by the BNP. Chapter 5 looks at the mobilisation effect of ethnic minority candidates on ethnic minority voters. I find a positive mobilisation effect of Pakistani and Muslim Labour candidates on Pakistani and Muslim voters, conditional on someone trying to convince the respondent how to vote. I also find a demobilisation effect of Labour Muslim candidates on Sikh voters.

Despite the increasingly common situation of statelessness in the contemporary Middle East, a majority of the theoretical tools used to study nationalism are contingent upon the existence of a sovereign state. As such, they are unable to fully explain the mechanisms of national identity, political participation, and integration in non-institutional contexts, where other social identities continue to play a significant political role. In these contexts, the position of demographic minorities in society is significant, as actors with the most popular support –majorities -- tend to have the strongest impact on the shape of the political field. This thesis demonstrates what we can learn from studying the mechanisms of nationalism and political participation for one such minority group, the Palestinian Christians, particularly with regards to how national identity fails or succeeds in instilling attachment to the state and society. This is accomplished by applying the theoretical framework of social identity theory to empirical field research conducted in the West Bank in 2014, combined with an analysis of election and survey data. It is argued that the level of attachment individuals feel towards the “state” or confessional communities is dependent on the psychological or material utility gained from group membership. If individuals feel alienated from the national identity, they are more likely to identify with their confessional community. If they are alienated from both, then they are far likelier to emigrate. Additionally, I suggest that the way in which national identity is negotiated in a stateless context is important to future state building efforts, as previous attempts to integrate national minorities into the political system through, e.g., devolved parliaments and quotas, have failed to instil a universal sense of the nation.

In 1994 Ethiopia introduced a federal system of government as a national level approach to intra-state conflict management. Homogenisation of cultures and languages by the earlier regimes led to the emergence of ethno-national movements and civil wars that culminated in the collapse of the unitary state in 1991. For this reason, the federal system that recognises ethnic groups' rights is the first step in transforming the structural causes of civil wars in Ethiopia. Against this background this research examines whether the federal arrangement has created an enabling environment in managing conflicts in the country. To understand this problematic, the thesis conceptualises and analyses federalism and conflict management using a qualitative research design based on in-depth interviewing and content-based thematic analysis - taking the case study of the Benishangul-Gumuz regional state. The findings of the study demonstrate that different factors hinder the federal process. First, the constitutional focus on ethnic groups' rights has led, in practice, to lessened attention to citizenship and minority rights protection in the regional states. Second, the federal process encourages ethnic-based elite groups to compete in controlling regional and local state powers and resources. This has greatly contributed to the emergence of ethnic-based violent conflicts, hostile intergovernmental relationships and lack of law and order along the common borders of the regional states. Third, the centralised policy and decision making process of the ruling party has hindered genuine democratic participation of citizens and self-determination of the ethnic groups. This undermines the capacity of the regional states and makes the federal structure vulnerable to the dynamics of political change. The conflicts in Benishangul-Gumuz emanate from these causes, but lack of territorial land use rights of the indigenous people and lack of proportional political representation of the non-indigenous people are the principal manifestations. The research concludes by identifying the issues that determine the sustainability of the federal structure. Some of them include: making constitutional amendments which consider citizenship rights and minority rights protection; enhancing the democratic participation of citizens by developing the capacities of the regional states and correcting the organisational weakness of the multi-national political parties; encouraging co-operative intergovernmental relationships, and maintaining the territorial land use rights of the Benishangul-Gumuz indigenous people.

Thesis (Ph.D. in Nursing) -- University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center, 2005.<br>Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 165-174). Free to UCDHSC affiliates. Online version available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations;

This project considers the ways in which Wiccan marriage and American marriage law interact with each other. The thesis examines certain aspects of the history of 20th-century American marriage law, the concurrent development of contemporary marriage ritual in Wicca, developing problems in this area, and possible solutions. In particular, the project focuses on the recognition of religious groups and their officials as they are authorized by state and federal law to perform marriages and how this process has affected Wiccan ritual.

Global capital is transforming the spaces in which we live, thereby transforming culture: this thesis challenges a set of liberal assumptions about culture and cultural transformation by elaborating upon this very hypothesis. Specifically, it argues that cultural identities are being formed in global cities, where disjunctive global flows of cultural, financial, technological, ideological, and human capital intersect. These global flows are creating cultural contexts of choice that can be as central to individual and group identities as national institutions or inherited or native cultural norms. And as these modern contexts of choice emancipate the imagination from the influence of national institutions, they enable peculiar new forms of agency. I use Arjun Appadurai’s notion of imagination and his model of “scapes”—cultural landscapes formed by intersecting flows of capital—to explain how the global is becoming the decisive framework for social life. In contrast, I use Will Kymlicka’s model of multicultural citizenship and Jeremy Waldron’s model of cosmopolitanism primarily to demonstrate the limits of a class of liberal theories of cultural accommodation that oversimplify the relationship of the individual to culture, and of culture to modernity, and which ignore the role of “scapes” in constituting cultural identities. To conclude, I propose an alternative, three- dimensional and ultimately non-comparative treatment of culture inspired by Henri Lefebvre’s concept of the right to the city.<br>Graduate

Dissertação de Mestrado em Direito apresentada à Faculdade de Direito<br>Estima-se que a quantidade de água presente na superfície da Terra é de 71%, no entanto, aproximadamente 96.5% da água é salgada, restando apenas 3.5% de água doce, destinada ao consumo. Da totalidade de água doce, por volta de 2% está localizada em rios e lagos e 1/3 refere-se às águas subterrâneas. Todavia, no contexto atual, a água vem sendo vista de uma forma diferente, de modo que, conforme afirma Silva , “deixou de ser símbolo e torna-se elemento de possíveis conflitos devido à sua degradação e escassez”.O ciclo natural da água, também conhecido como ciclo hidrológico, possui grande importância por ser responsável pela reciclagem de água doce e, além disso, conforme Reis , “é simultaneamente o grande distribuidor e o grande purificador clã de água doce, isto é, da água potável”.Apesar de o ciclo hidrológico não ter um ponto de partida específico, pode-se, para melhor exemplificá-lo, utilizar os oceanos como ponto inicial, já que considerável parte da água da Terra encontra-se neles. Dessa forma, o ciclo é acionado primeiramente pelo Sol, aquecendo a água, que evapora para a atmosfera. Depois de elevarem-se na atmosfera, as correntes de ar, junto com a água da evapotranspiração (água que transpirou das plantas e é evaporada da terra), transportam o vapor para cima da atmosfera. Esse vapor sobe no ar, onde, devido às temperaturas baixas, é condensado em forma de nuvens. Em seguida ocorre uma precipitação ou chuva, decorrente das correntes de ar que movimentam as nuvens, de modo que as partículas de água colidem e caem do céu. Em seguida ocorre uma precipitação ou chuva, decorrente das correntes de ar que movimentam as nuvens, de modo que as partículas de água colidem e caem do céu. Também pode ocorrer, conforme ilustra a United States Geological Survey (USGS) , que alguma precipitação caia em forma de neve e se acumule como camadas de gelo e geleiras. Nos climas mais quentes é provável que a neve derreta na chegada da primavera e que a água derretida escorra sobre a terra, todavia, nem toda neve passa pela fusão, sendo, portanto, de maneira diversa, convertida em vapor (sublimação). Grande parte da precipitação acaba por cair nos oceanos e na terra, de modo que, por conta da gravidade, flutua sobre o terreno como corrente de superfície. Logo, parcela da corrente entra nos rios, com seu fluxo indo em direção ao mar. Em seguida, a corrente de superfície e a água subterrânea acumulam-se em lagos e rios, contudo, parte da corrente pode não ir para os rios e acaba infiltrando-se nas profundezas do solo de modo a preencher aquíferos. Normalmente alguma infiltração acaba<br>It is estimated that the amount of water present on the Earth's surface is 71%, however, approximately 96.5% of the water is salty, leaving only 3.5% of fresh water for consumption. Of the total freshwater, around 2% is located in rivers and lakes and 1/3 refers to groundwater. However, in the current context, water has been seen in a different way, so that, as Silva says, "it is no longer a symbol and becomes an element of possible conflicts due to its degradation and scarcity." The natural cycle of water , also known as hydrological cycle, has great importance for being responsible for fresh water recycling and, furthermore, according to Reis, "is both the great distributor and the great purifier clan offresh water, ie drinking water ".Although the hydrological cycle does not have a specific starting point, one can, to better exemplify it, use the oceans as a starting point, since a considerable part of the water of the Earth is in them.In this way, the cycle is first activated by the Sun, heating the water, which evaporates into the atmosphere. After rising in the atmosphere, the air currents, along with evapotranspiration water (water that has transpired from the plants and is evaporated from the earth), transport the vapor up the atmosphere. This vapor rises in the air, where, due to the low temperatures, it is condensed in the form of clouds.Then there is a precipitation or rainfall, due to the currents of air that move the clouds, so that the particles of water collide and fall from the sky.Then there is a precipitation or rainfall, due to the currents of air that move the clouds, so that the particles of water collide and fall from the sky.It may also occur, as the United States Geological Survey (USGS) illustrates, that some precipitation falls as snow and accumulates as layers of ice and glaciers. In warmer climates it is likely that snow melts at the onset of spring and that the molten water flows over the earth, yet not all snow passes through the melting, and is thus in a different way converted into vapor (sublimation).Much of the precipitation eventually falls to the oceans and the earth, so that, because of gravity, it floats on the ground as a surface current. Soon, a portion of the stream enters the rivers, with its flow going towards the sea.Then the surface current and groundwater accumulate in lakes and rivers; however, part of the stream may not flow into the rivers and eventually infiltrate deep into the ground to fill aquifers. Usually some infiltration ends