Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'United Nations Convention Against Corruption'

The subject of the thesis is the institutional framework of anti-corruption policy, in particular its anchorage in the form of specialized anti-corruption bodies, referred to as anti-corruption agencies. The aim is to address three main research questions: What specialized anti-corruption bodies exist in the world? How do specialized anti-corruption bodies operate in individual countries? What anti-corruption bodies do exist currently in the Czech Republic and what recommendations can be drawn from the foreign institutional arrangements? To answer them, the current state of research, recommendations and standards for the design and operation of specialized anti-corruption bodies is analysed first. The comparison of anti-corruption agencies in Lithuania, Latvia and Slovenia follows. On this basis, the current situation in the Czech Republic is assessed and recommendations are made. Partial aim of the thesis is to present international discussions and documents, the current state of reseach on this topic in the Czech language, as a comprehensive professional processing of this field is still missing.

Magister Legum - LLM
I attempt to analyze South Africa's legal position pertaining to torture, in relation to the international legal framework. Since it has been established that torture and cruel inhuman and degrading treatment (CIDT) usually occur in situations where persons are deprived of personal liberty, I examine legislation, policies and practices applicable to specific places of detention, such as correctional centres, police custody, repatriation centers, mental health care facilities and child and youth care centers. I establish that although South Africa has ratified the UNCAT and is a signatory to the OPCAT, our legal system greatly lacks in structure and in mechanisms of enforcement, as far as the absolute prohibition and the prevention of torture and other forms of cruel and degrading treatment or punishment are concerned. I submit that South Africa has a special duty to eradicate torture, since many of its citizens and several of its political leaders are actually victims of torture, who suffered severe ill treatment under the apartheid regime. I argue that the South African legal system is sufficiently capable of adopting a zero-tolerance policy toward torture and to incorporate this with the general stance against crime. In many respects, South Africa is an example to other African countries and should strongly condemn all forms of human rights violations, especially torture, since acts of torture are often perpetrated by public officials who abuse their positions of authority. I conclude by making submissions and recommendations for law reform, in light of the obstacles encountered within a South African context.
South Africa

This thesis will assess the United Kingdom’s implementation of the United Nations Convention Against Torture and other Cruel Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment. It will first focus on a contextual analysis of the problem of torture, examining the circumstances in which it has historically been used, philosophical and theoretical perspectives on the practice and the political aspects of torture, including its effect on international relations. This will illustrate the circumstances in which torture is used, the motivation behind it and the way in which it affects its victims. The argument will then be made that, in view of the uniquely grave nature of the practice of torture, it is insufficient for States to merely criminalise it and punish the offenders. They must actively seek to eradicate it from society and ultimately prevent it from occurring. It is against this aim that the thesis will examine the compliance of the United Kingdom with its obligations under the Convention. This examination will look first at the international regime for the prevention of torture, focusing on the work of the United Nations Committee Against Torture. The engagement of the United Kingdom with this body will be explored in detail and the argument made that more needs to be done in order to ensure that the Committee’s recommendations are put into effect and that treatment contrary to the Convention is prevented from taking place. The final part of the thesis will assess the United Kingdom’s State practice with a focus on key institutions of the State including the courts and the legislature. This part of the thesis will seek to explore the extent to which the practices of these institutions is consistent with an overall aim of preventing torture and the extent to which they show awareness of the Convention and its requirements of the Convention in the discharge of their functions. The conclusion will be drawn that, while the Human Rights Act has gone some way towards improving compliance, more needs to be done to insure a complete implementation by the United Kingdom of its obligations under the Convention and full prevention of torture. The State must actively engage with the Committee and the organs of the State must consider the Convention Against Torture in the discharge of all of their functions to ensure that these aims are achieved.

This thesis investigates whether the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants contains the necessary rules to fulfil its principal purposes—namely, to combat and prevent migrant smuggling and to protect the rights of smuggled migrants. To that end, the thesis examines the rules of the Protocol that regulate the legal definition of the smuggling of migrants, the legal features of smuggling organisations, the obligations and rights of States parties, and finally the rights of smuggled migrants. This thesis uses the legal doctrinal approach, and in doing so critically examines the interpretations of the Protocol provided by primary and secondary sources. This thesis finds that the Protocol fails to provide a clear and comprehensive framework of rules capable of effectively achieving its purposes. It argues that there are deficiencies within the existing rules of the Protocol that address the legal issues aforementioned. The thesis proposes a number of amendments that can address these deficiencies. One of the key contributions of this work is the provision of a guide for States on how to interpret and implement the rules of the Protocol. Furthermore, it assists the international community – in particular the Conference of the Parties – in improving and strengthening the rules of the Protocol to ensure the combating of migrant smuggling and the protection of the rights of smuggled migrants.

Domestic Violence and Gender Violence impact every society on many different layers, loss of capability of work, traumas, and economical losses are amongst the most talked issues. Domestic Violence is not exclusively a violence in which the perpetrator is a male and the victim is a female and they live as a married couple. A lot has been discussed in the last century regarding the equality amongst people irrespectively on their gender, sex, origin, religion. On the International legal level though, legislations protecting victims of Domestic Violence are new and not embraced for the majority of the countries. In this work the goal is to study some International Documents in order to better understand on a legal level if International Law is aiming to protect everyone who is victim of Domestic Violence equally, including members of the extended family. As an International Document there is the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention) that aims to protect everyone who is a victim of Domestic Violence. Unfortunately, it is not compulsory to the state members from the council of Europe to ratify the document and therefore people might not have their Human Rights completely guaranteed in these countries.

The thesis examines the international law pertaining to the use of force by states, in general, and to the use of force in self-defence, in particular. The main question addressed is whether the use of force, which was purported to be in self-defence, by the United States, the United Kingdom and their allies against al Qaeda, the Taliban and Afghanistan, beginning on 7 October 2001, was lawful. The thesis focuses not only on this specific use of force, but also on the changing nature of conflict, the definition of terrorism and on the historical evolution of limitations on the use of force, from antiquity until 2006. In the six chapters which trace the epochs of international law, the progression of five inter-related concepts is followed: limitations on the resort to force generally, the use of force in self-defence, pre-emptive self-defence, the use of forcible measures short of war, and the use of force in response to non-state actors. This historical analysis includes a particular emphasis on understanding the meaning of the 'inherent right of self-defence', which was preserved by Article 51 of the United Nations' Charter. This analysis is then applied to the use of force against Afghanistan which occurred in 2001. Following the terrorist attacks of 11 September, the US and the UK notified the United Nations Security Council of their resort to force in self-defence under Article 51. Each element of Article 51 is analysed and the thesis concludes that there are significant doubts as to the lawfulness of that decision to employ force. In addition to the self-defence justification, other possible grounds for intervention are also examined, such as humanitarian intervention, Security Council authorisation and intervention by invitation. This thesis challenges the common assumption that the use of force against Afghanistan was an example of states exercising their inherent right to self-defence. It argues that if this particular use of force is not challenged, it will lead to an expansion of the right of self-defence which will hinder rather than enhance international peace and security. Finally, this thesis draws on recent examples to illustrate the point that the use of force against Afghanistan could become a dangerous precedent for the use of force in self-defence.

The aim for this thesis is to study the international gender equality work from a perspective of the concept of universalism and particularism, with the United Nation’s Declaration of Human Rights, and especially -“The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women”, in focus. The shadowreports of Namibia and Sweden are used as examples of how countries with different historical, political and social contexts are working with gender equality.A theroetical framework is constitued by theories as postmodernism, postcolonialism and feminism with basis from social constructionism. The thesis is methodological influenced by Critical Discourse Analysis. Notions from former studies were also used as tools in the analysis. Some of the main notions, which within the concept of universalism and particularism, appeared as difficulties in the implementing of the CEDAW, were religion, law, democracy and superior position for men towards women.

This thesis conducted the first comprehensive analysis of Indian criminal laws about child sexual abuse offences. It explored social science studies on the nature, prevalence and effects of child sexual abuse, including a focus on India. It synthesized Indian legislation and case law, and provisions of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. It identified and analysed six problematic aspects of Indian law. Finally, it conducted a theoretical analysis of four of these key issues, informed by the social science evidence and the UNCRC. The thesis identified key areas of recent progress, and areas requiring further reform.

La Convention des Nations Unies contre la corruption, adoptée en 2003, est le premier outil international criminalisant la corruption de façon aussi détaillée. Ce mémoire tente d'évaluer sa portée en analysant les dispositions concernant la prévention, la criminalisation, la coopération internationale et le recouvrement d'avoirs. Il tente d’évaluer la pertinence et l'efficacité de la Convention en illustrant ses défis en matière de conformité, pour ensuite étudier d'autres outils internationaux existants qui lui font compétition. Malgré sa portée élargie, il est débattu que la Convention souffre de lacunes non négligeables qui pourraient restreindre son impact à l'égard de la conduite d'États Membres.
The United Nations Convention Against Corruption (adopted in 2003) is the first global in-depth treaty on corruption. This work attempts to assess its significance by analyzing its provisions, in particular concerning the areas of prevention, criminalization, international cooperation and asset recovery. It then seeks to assess its relevancy and effectiveness by giving an overview of the Convention's main compliance challenges, as well as other existing initiatives that tackle corruption. Although the Convention innovates in many respects, it is argued that it also suffers from weaknesses that cannot be overlooked, preventing it from having a real impact on States' behavior.

碩士
國立臺灣海洋大學
海洋法律研究所
106
The purpose of this study is to study the purpose of this paper. This is based on the requirements of the "United Nations Convention against Corruption" and the "United Nations Anti-Corruption Convention Implementation Act". The government should deal with corruption and bribery among the private sector, take related measures, and deliberately engage in bribery and bribery to obtain unjustified benefits and identify crimes and take criminal sanctions. In order to examine the current legal deficiencies in the implementation of anti-corruption laws in the private sector in Taiwan,Investigating the problems of decentralized integration of powers and authority and other issues, trying to propose a solution or improvement direction. This study finds that in the past, it focused on the prevention and control of corruption in the public sector. Since the publication of the UN Anti-Corruption Convention, it gradually came to be known that the anti-corruption behavior of the private sector should be considered a crime, especially private. Inter-branch bribery. While the implementation of anti-corruption prevention and control work by the private sector in Taiwan is still in its infancy, the effectiveness of anti-corruption protection in the private sector still needs to be improved. The reasons for this include strategic planning. The Agency Against Corruption , Ministry of Justice （AAC） emphasizes the anti-corruption strategy of the public sector. The private sector's anti-corruption measures have failed to adopt a more active strategy of prevention. The anti-corruption strategy planning fails to incorporate and integrate the complete private sector; the lack of private sector bribery related anti-corruption policies. Corruption laws prevent the private sector from bribery and corruption; lack of private sector charity notice protects the law and protects internal whistle-blowers; the AAC's rank is too low, and independent diametrically exercising its powers is questioned. As far as enforcement practices are concerned, the AAC and the Investigation Bureau, Ministry of Justice investigate the extent of anti-corruption work overlap. The powers are not unified. The AAC has not actively conducted anti-corruption investigation and control of the private sector; it has not been able to form a public-private sector anti-corruption awareness. Based on the research findings, we proposed that Taiwan’s specialized agencies handle the private-sector anti-corruption and anti-corruption proposals. First, the government must demonstrate the determination of the private sector to fight corruption. The government should change its past focus on the anti-corruption strategy of the public sector and change its The private sector focuses on anti-corruption strategies and reviews the private sector anti-corruption related laws and regulations in a comprehensive manner. Are there any cases of non-compliance, lack of disclosure, etc., the development or amendment of laws and regulations, and the investigation and advocacy of anti-corruption cases in the private sector? Corruption is determined by will. Second, the development of private sector bribery-related anti-corruption laws, the current practice of bribery against the private sector, there is no law can be punished, the development of private sector bribery-related anti-corruption laws is a top priority. Third, the private sector public interest notice protects the law to encourage people inside the private sector to learn about corruption and illegal corruption. They are willing to act rashly to show wrongdoing so that those who commit corruption in the private sector can be sanctioned by the law. The person is properly protected. Fourth, enhance the integrity of the AAC, integrate anti-corruption work, strengthen the power of supervisory checks and balances, and supervise the independent exercise of its powers. The AAC integrates anti-corruption prevention and control strategies, promotion and investigation work of the public and private sectors, and integrates and utilizes resources. Enhance Taiwan's anti-corruption anti-corruption prevention strategy and promote effectiveness. The AAC strengthens the supervision and balance of power Through its "Integrity Commission" to set up an "information panel", to strengthen the system of "arresting prosecutors," to set up an "Anti-Corruption Advisory and Advisory Committee," and to establish an internal oversight mechanism to carry out checks and balances.The Independent Commission Against Corruption (AAC) has stepped up its ranks and is directly responsible to the President and the independent body of the Legislative Yuan to ensure that the AAC will not be harassed by higher administrative authorities and maintain administrative neutrality without intervening in disputes among political parties in order to establish the independence of the Independent Commission Against Corruption. Through this study, the proposed proposal hopes to provide a reference for the anti-corruption and anti-corruption agency, the Independent Commission Against Corruption, in the planning, promotion and investigation of anti-corruption strategies in the private sector in the future. Strengthening and formulating laws on corruption in the private sector and the Protection Law on Debts from the Private Sector will enable Taiwan's anti-corruption laws to be more complete, and private sector personnel will not be greedy, unwilling to be greedy, and dare to defraud in order to achieve "great greed for the private sector." The goal of zero tolerance of corruption makes our country truly a clean, fair and economically competitive country.

碩士
國防大學
法律學系
106
The public consider that corruption is just related to the public service department. However, Germany, England, the United Nations Anti-Corruption Convention, and the International Transparency Organization define the range of corruption not only in the public service department but also in the private sectors. Taiwan mainly focuses on the prevention against the corruption in the public service department. Take the bribery as an example, our laws and regulations punish the accepting bribes who violate the Anti-Corruption Act. And the proportion of guilty charge to the offering bribery is out of balance. The environment in the public service department has changes from the “bureaucratic guidance type” to the "private guidance type", that is the influence of the privately owned business on the government is on the rise, which should be severely punished or the charges is equivalent to civil servants. The study will survey the intact and integrity of the regulations and acts on offering bribery in Taiwan. We discuss the existing regulations against bribery in the public service department, such as official act and Quid Pro Quo on laws, and how to define or classify. On the other way, we further discuss the characteristics of the offering bribery, the crime between the relationship of offering and accepting bribery, only be limited to the official act, and whether the bribery test is a crime. In accordance with to connect with the international communities, the core is offering bribery on the relevant provisions of the United Nations Anti-Corruption Convention, and the other measures, foreign legislation to discuss the imperfect in Taiwan. Especially after Act of the implement United Nations Anti-Corruption Convention has been enacted, it is necessary to review our laws and regulations, and how to enact to our laws system under the influence of the Convention on the trading in influence and commercial bribery in order to against the public and private departments. By integrating and intact act to strengthen corporate governance, enterprise social responsibility and the integrity, it makes the corporation to continuous operation. Further, it will make the chance of the offering bribery reduction and increase the integrity of the government and competitiveness of the business.

碩士
世新大學
法律學研究所(含碩專班)
105
There are legislations for public official’s corruption crime in Chapter IV Offences of Malfeasance in Office of Criminal Code and Anti-Corruption Act, but there are still criticisms about related legislations from law circle and judicial practice. When the party in power or ruler has changed, there will be misgivings about profiteering certain constructions or cases of some enterprises and it will cause unstable society politics and negative thinkings about social costs, such as enrichment by collusion, giving undercover payments of corruption and unqualified constructions due to rebates. This paper will survey related regulations and explore associated clarity and proportionate punishment. To gear international anti-corruption awareness, United Nations Convention Aaginst Corrution (UNCAC) is the most completed agreement amoung anti-corruption agreements and every country is devoting itself to preventing corruption. Act to Implement United Nations Convention against Corruption (AIUNCC) has been promulgated by our country and UNCAC has made specifications for subjects, objects and types of actions including public official’s corruption, embezzlement, larceny, diversion, trading in influence and abuse of power. This paper will discuss whether our country has already made corresponding regulations. This paper concludes that special Criminal Code is necessary and suggests that AIUNCC should be implemented. In addition to AIUNCC, the complement of this paper should bring reference or research basis for regulations of corruption made by law circle or judicial practice.

碩士
國立臺北大學
公共行政暨政策學系
107
The study focuses on the current promotion of anti-corruption policy from the perspec-tive of policy marketing, highlighting the part in relation to the United Nations Convention against Corruption. The studying questions are as follows: 1. What are the perceiving channels for public servants to the policies addressed United Na-tions Convention against Corruption? 2. Are there significant differences between the correct cognition and the individual charac-ters of the public servants regarding the United Nations Convention against Corruption? 3. Are there significant differences between the acceptance and the individual characters of the public servants regarding policies in relation to United Nations Convention against Cor-ruption? The research method of the study is the through the usage of literature analysis and ques-tionnaire survey. Questionnaire targets are public servants from central and local authorities. Recovered questionnaires are then analyzed using SPSS statistical software, along with statis-tical approaches such as descriptiveness, t-test, and one-way analysis of variance. It is ex-pected that matters to be improved regarding the communication channel between policy con-veyer and policy receiver may be found through information from the questionnaire. The research findings of the study are as follows: 1. Traditional publicity and promotional activities organized by the authorities are still the primary sources for public servants to receive policy information. 2. There is no correlation between attitude in political acceptance and attitude in policy ac-ceptance. 3. Young and the middle-aged groups place more emphasis on the differences between the policy perceiving channels. 4. Public servants with college/university education background are more familiar with the Convention. It is hoped that through the study an increase in the effectiveness and comprehensibility of anti-corruption policy as it is applied to the targeted group may be achieved.

碩士
國立臺灣大學
國家發展研究所
107
The United Nations Assembly adopted the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) on October 31, 2003, which came into force on December 14, 2005. The goal of which is to instruct and provide anti-corruption laws and policies to governments with its content covering the preventive measures, conviction, law enforcement, and international cooperation against corruption, recovery of illegal assets, and implementation mechanism of the Convention to facilitate all countries devotion to the anti-corruption issues. Taiwan’s government stipulated and promulgated the Act to Implement United Nations Convention against Corruption on May 20, 2015, and the Executive Yuan stipulated the enforcement date as December 9, 2015. In the Act, Article 2 expressly provides that the provisions contained in the United Nations Convention against Corruption have domestic legal status. To have a general observation on Taiwan’s anti-corruption system and measure in accordance with the corruption prevention framework established by the United Nations Convention against Corruption, the research focuses on the provisions concerning public sector corruptions in the second chapter of the United Nations Convention against Corruption, “Preventive Measures.” It first explores the content of public sector corruption prevention measures, policies and legal framework, advised implementation, and the compliance of the review standard of the Convention as stipulated in the United Nations Convention against Corruption. Then, the research conducts an overall review of Taiwan’s system of anti-corruption preventive measures and its operation and examine and compares the implementation thereof and flags the part where the implementation is incomplete, to understand the shortfalls of Taiwan’s implementation thereof. Through such inductions, the research also reviews the implementation in “stipulating anti-corruption policy based on data”, “open government and public participation,” and “independency of the anti-corruption agency” of other countries as leverage. For the shortfalls of Taiwan’s anti-corruption work, the research proposes suggestions that are categorized as “establishing a systematic database of anti-corruption related data”, “firm control on corruption risks”, “strengthening external participation”, “re-ensuring the independency of Agency Against Corruption and integrity policy units”, “continuous reinforcement of government procurement system”, “promotion of the enactment of whistleblower protection act”, which include, “proactive evaluation on the effectiveness of anti-corruption measures”, “promoting government agency ethics evaluation”, “analyzing corruption risks information and publishing the reports regularly”, “stipulating special procedures for high risk government positions”, “specifying a dedicated agency for promoting the freedom of government information laws”, “engaging civil society in the autonomous operation of promoting anti-corruption”, “including external participation in the implementation of ‘National Integrity Building Action Plan’”, “continuously developing the function of public policy participation through the Internet platform”, “rethinking the design of corruption investigation organizations”, “increase the budget.” These are to urge our government to connect with the current global trend of anti-corruption and the international legal system in order to more effectively prevent and remove corruption.

Magister Legum - LLM
Several international instruments relating to the forfeiture of assets derived through unlawful means have been developed in the last decade. These relate to both civil and criminal forfeiture proceedings. Nevertheless, the processes of tracing the assets and having them forfeit to the State present formidable obstacles to justice authorities enforcers around the world. The fact of the matter is that the advent of the internet has made it easier for money launderers to camouflage the nature and the physical locality of their ill-got gains. This has made it all the more necessary for states and financial institutions to co-operate more closely in hitting the criminals where it hurts most – their pockets. However, the international structures that provide for mutual legal assistance procedures are drafted in broad terms or in guideline-form. Most of the books and journal articles dealing with money laundering devote scant attention to this very important aspect of combating transnational economic criminality. In most of the literature, this topic is simply avoided. This paper, which confines itself to civil recovery proceedings, strives to determine first, what international mechanisms are available for obtaining information located abroad that could be used for domestic civil forfeiture, and second, to identify some of the most intractable problems encountered by justice authorities in their attempts to attach property situated abroad. The idea is to identify the principal point of discordance, and to suggest ways in which the international instruments governing civil forfeiture could be amended so as to make them more user friendly.

I attempt to analyze South Africa&rsquo
s legal position pertaining to torture, in relation to the international legal framework. Since it has been established that torture and cruel inhuman and degrading treatment (CIDT) usually occur in situations where persons are deprived of personal liberty, I examine legislation, policies and practices applicable to specific places of detention, such as correctional centres, police custody, repatriation centers, mental health care facilities and child and youth care centers. I establish that although South Africa has ratified the UNCAT and is a signatory to the OPCAT, our legal system greatly lacks in structure and in mechanisms of enforcement, as far as the absolute prohibition and the prevention of torture and other forms of cruel and degrading treatment or punishment are concerned. I submit that South Africa has a special duty to eradicate torture, since many of its citizens and several of its political leaders are actually victims of torture, who suffered severe ill treatment under the apartheid regime. I argue that the South African legal system is sufficiently capable of adopting a zero-tolerance policy toward torture and to incorporate this with the general stance against crime. In many respects, South Africa is an example to other African countries and should strongly condemn all forms of human rights violations, especially torture, since acts of torture are often perpetrated by public officials who abuse their positions of authority. I conclude by making submissions and recommendations for law reform, in light of the obstacles encountered within a South African context.

碩士
國立臺灣大學
法律學研究所
107
The United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (“UNTOC”), as the product of era, properly reflected the world’s needs for crime control as well as the current trends of crimes. UNTOC’s fundamental purposes include not only to combat transnational organized crimes, but also to create an integrated framework consisting of prevention, investigation and prosecution on transnational organized crimes. While the world is overwhelmingly being challenged by transnational organized crimes, the UNTOC has become one of the guidelines for the development of an international mechanism to control, to re-define “transnational organized crime” and to create a new system of international cooperation. However, there were few domestic literature introducing and/or discussing the meaning of UNTOC. Here we firstly introduce the UNTOC – including its backgrounds, foundations, relevant articles and obligations – in order to offer an in-depth knowledge on the impact on the international society. Further, we would like observe the past and present status of the UNTOC’s domesticalization process with a focus on the interaction between the Organized Crime Prevention Act of Taiwan (“OCPA”) and the definition of transnational organized crimes of UNTOC. Besides, in terms of our current situation of Taiwan’s legal framework and the methodology that Taiwan tries to adapt to, we would also like to further learn from Japan’s experience in promoting UNTOC and its experience of the legislation on conspiracy. With an focus on Article 5 of UNTOC and the relevant theories of accomplices in conspiracy, we try to discuss the possible impact on the UNTOC’s domesticalization in Taiwan, as well as the difference between Japan’s and Taiwan’s experiences of the legislation regarding conspiracy and/or accomplice. We therefore believe that, once enforcing the Treaty-Making Law of Taiwan (“TML”), the UNTOC could directly be domesticalized according to the TML procedures. Thus it is unnecessary to discuss any other possible means of domesticalization. Once the UNTOC’s domestic legislation is complete, relevant issues we would immediately be confronting are the legislative and administrative measures Taiwan has to adapt to, and the obligation as well as domestic legal framework Taiwan has to abide by. While the OCPA’s definition of “organized crime participation” is not 100% compatible with the Article 5 of UNTOC. We therefore conclude that, we should evaluate the feasibility of implementing Article 5 of UNTOC, by elements including the expectation of the Taiwan society as a whole, the fundamental legal principles of our legal system, and the idea that the law should reflect the human needs. We should strive for a balance point between UNTOC’s requirements and the fundamental principles of our legal system, in order to offer a better option for the legislative policy.

Women’s rights occupy a contested moral and political position internationally. They are neither accepted as core values everywhere, nor always struggling for acceptance. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1979, was designed to be an ‘international bill of rights for women’ (Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights 2009). It codified non-discrimination within an international treaty to add legitimacy and strength to the implementation of women’s rights. The treaty’s reception reflects the contested nature of women’s rights. While the vast majority of UN member states are signatories, of all comparable treaties CEDAW has the largest number of reservations, many counter to fundamental provisions. CEDAW has supported women’s rights for more than three decades. Several barriers to implementation have been highlighted; a lack of resources for the CEDAW Committee and associated bodies and the quarantine of women’s rights from the human rights work of the UN (Chinkin 2010, p. 5; Lawson 1996, p. xxix). Delegates at the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights raised the slogan ‘women’s rights are human rights’ to force acknowledgement that human rights were not equally applied to women. While these difficulties have begun to be addressed within UN processes, CEDAW’s efficacy has not been explored. The treaty’s content has received little critical attention, and my research helps fill this gap. Using philosophical inquiry, I have compared CEDAW to the International Bill of Human Rights (the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and associated Covenants). Also I have assessed CEDAW against criteria drawn from Amartya Sen’s perspective on human rights as an ethical system and considered a range of feminist viewpoints critical of international law. I have found that, as well as strengths, CEDAW has limitations, omissions and flaws. Importantly, CEDAW does not provide a list of women’s rights (Burrows 1986, p. 80). Its focus on ending discrimination means that women’s relation to rights is mediated through actions by the state. This failure to recast the claimant of human rights as female undermines CEDAW’s legitimacy.

This thesis investigates both substantive and procedural issues pertaining to allegations of crimes committed by UN peacekeepers in three African countries, Somalia, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Under the current UN Model Status-of-Forces Agreements, criminal jurisdiction over peacekeepers rests with their sending States. However, although the UN has no criminal jurisdiction, it has been the Office of Internal Oversight Services that has conducted investigations. It is argued that every Status of Force Agreement and every Memorandum of Understanding should contain specific clauses obligating Troop-Contributing Countries to prosecute and the UN to follow-up. If rape, murder, assault, and any other crimes by UN peacekeepers go unpunished, the message sent to the victims is that peacekeepers are above the law. Rape is the most commonly committed crime by peacekeepers, but is usually considered as an isolated act. The procedural issue of prosecuting peacekeepers is investigated in order to establish whether troops can be caught under the ambits of the criminal law of the Host State to hold UN troops criminally accountable for their acts. The laws relative to the elements of each crime and the possible available defences under the three Host States, and the criminal law of South Africa as a Troop-Contributing Country, are discussed. The apparent lack of prosecution is investigated and existing cases of prosecution discussed. Alternatives to the unwillingness by States with criminal jurisdiction under the Status of Forces Agreement or under the Memorandum of Understanding are considered. Considering the current rules related to crimes committed by peacekeepers, the argument put forward is that crimes by peacekeepers must be dealt with completely and transparently though a Convention aiming at barring Troop-Contributing Countries who do not meet their obligations under international law from participating in future operations of peace. This thesis, furthermore, suggests a tripartite court mechanism to fill the lacunae in the law relating to the prosecution of peacekeepers. It considers the issues of reserving jurisdiction over peacekeepers to the Troop-Contributing Countries which are reluctant to prosecute repatriated alleged perpetrators. The victims’ importance in criminal proceedings and their their right to a remedy are highlighted.
Criminal & Procedural Law
LL.D.

Eritrean refugees are compelled to flee their country mainly to avoid forced conscription into indefinite military service, arbitrary arrest and detention for prolonged periods without trial. The majority of Eritrean refugees are young people, who leave their country in search of a better life and sources of livelihoods. The mass migration of Eritrean refugees has started to have adverse effects on the country’s socio-economic landscape. The main destination and country of refuge for the majority of Eritrean refugees is Ethiopia. Although no serious violations of human rights have been reported among Eritrean refugees living in Ethiopia, it a well-known fact that the Ethiopian Government has not fully extended the internationally accepted rights of those who have been forced to flee their own states, to refugees. For example, freedom of movement for refugees is restricted, which is obviously compounded by the encampment policy, which requires that all refugees should be confined to designated refugee camps. This situation seriously undermines the UNHCR’s efforts to enhance refugees’ self-reliance, independence, and chances of local integration. There has not been much research undertaken regarding the Ethiopian Government’s legal framework on refugees and its impact on the protection of the rights of refugees. In 2014, Ethiopia hosted the largest number of refugees in Africa. This phenomenon was largely attributed to the Ethiopian Government’s ‘open door’ policy towards refugees. The present study is an attempt to critically examine Ethiopian refugee law and determine the extent to which the national laws protect the rights of refugees. Although the study is limited in scope to the situation of Eritrean refugees, the principles and standards of treatment discussed apply to all refugees living in Ethiopia.
Public, Constitutional and International Law
LL. M.

Bank demand guarantees have become an established part of international trade. Demand guarantees, standby letters of credit and commercial letters of credit are all treated as autonomous contracts whose operation will not be interfered with by courts on grounds immaterial to the guarantee or credit itself. The idea in the documentary credit transaction/demand guarantee transaction is that if the documents (where applicable) presented are in line with the terms of the credit/guarantee the bank has to pay, and if the documents do not correspond to the requirements, the bank must not pay. However, over the years a limited number of exceptions to the autonomy principle of demand guarantees and letters of credit have come to be acknowledged and accepted in practice. In certain circumstances, the autonomy of demand guarantees and letters of credit may be ignored by the bank and regard may be had to the terms and conditions of the underlying contract. The main exceptions concern fraud and illegality in the underlying contract. In this thesis a great deal of consideration has been given to fraud and illegality as possible grounds on which payment under demand guarantees and letters of credit have been attacked (and sometimes even prevented) in the English, American and South African courts. It will be shown that the prospect of success depends on the law applicable to the demand guarantee and letter of credit, and the approach a court in a specific jurisdiction takes. At present, South Africa has limited literature on demand guarantees, and the case law regarding the grounds upon which payment under a demand guarantee might be prevented is scarce and often non-existent. In South Africa one finds guidance by looking at similar South African case law dealing with commercial and standby letters of credit and applying these similar principles to demand guarantees. The courts, furthermore, find guidance by looking at how other jurisdictions, in particular the English courts, deal with these issues. Therefore, how the South African courts currently deal/should be dealing/probably will be dealing with the unfair and fraudulent calling of demand guarantees/letters of credit is discussed in this thesis.
Jurisprudence
LL.D