Despite some recent successes in Ghana, further improvements in health outcomes are inpart hampered by the lack of skilled service providers, or human resources for health (HRH),particularly in rural areas, where critical health services are needed most. To address thelack of information and guide the development of policies and programs on HRH, TowardInterventions in Human Resources for Health in Ghana: Evidence for Health Workforce Planningand Results aims to paint a comprehensive picture of HRH, consolidating new and existingevidence on the stock, distribution, and performance of h ealth wo
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With lawsuits and petitions flying around, it's not a great time to be one of the Bossier City Council graybeards or their puppy dog – and sitting on potentially a huge bomb waiting to explode over an incident where graybeards' actions cost the city tens of millions of dollars.
For months, the Council majority bloc of graybeards Republicans David Montgomery and Jeff Free, Democrat Bubba Williams, and no party Jeff Darby, plus their newcomer lapdog Republican Vince Maggio, have fought tooth and nail to prevent having to follow the city charter and schedule a referendum on a three-term lifetime and retroactive limit to elected officials (all but Maggio couldn't run for reelection if the referendum succeeded). They even directed City Attorney Charles Jacobs to file with the judiciary a plea for the courts to invalidate the duly certified petition of registered voters triggering the Council to call an election on the matter. On multiple occasions all five of them violated the charter by voting against resolutions to do that.
The rearguard action to date only has caused them more trouble. In trying to cut off the head of the term limits movement, spearheaded by an informal group called the Bossier Term Limits Coalition that the city sued (apparently against the wishes of GOP Mayor Tommy Chandler and Republican Councilors Chris Smith and Brian Hammons), the bloc instead saw more heads of it mushroom into existence. The original petition just had a handful of individuals involved, yet now the Coalition reports several times that number active seeking signatures approving of the same language and maintains at least two locations gathering signatures. It's possible that the group will gather an amount of signatures surpassing the charter-mandated one-third of the number of votes in the previous mayoral election before the court even rules on the validity of the existing petition challenged on the basis of technicalities, where the new petition avoids those ambiguities.
Worse for the bloc and its city allies within the Bossier political establishment, if you're going to go out and gather signatures for one item, you might as well tack some more items onto the effort. Besides a rerun of term limits, organizers also are having registered voters sign a request to drop the one-third signature requirement to one-fifth, and then another that requires Council meeting to start no earlier than 5 PM and to require public comment allowing for as many as four speakers for and four against prior to each agenda item's consideration, for up to three minutes each.
The public comment amendment came directly from efforts by the majority bloc that met in private after the Sep. 5 meeting to change existing regulations in that area. Caught on recorded audio, that caused Republican Atty. Gen. Jeff Landry's office to open an investigation into whether an illegal meeting took place. On it, the voices of Montgomery and Darby detail the content of the proposed resolution and how to put it forth for approval, while Montgomery asserted that it would pass 4-2 as Free planned to miss (and did) the scheduled Sep. 19 meeting.
Forced to respond, Jacobs attempted to avoid further Department of Justice action by providing information and defenses about various allegations, but had to admit that the meeting did take place in Clerk Phyllis McGraw's office (who egged them on to make the change) with Montgomery, Darby, Maggio, and Williams in attendance. He alleged it was an "impromptu and unplanned" gathering and claimed Montgomery "never formally 'polled'" on the matter. These assertions he then used to buttress a declaration that the meeting was not illegal under state law, as that exempts "chance meetings or social gatherings."
Common sense and a prior attorney general's opinion say otherwise. It was by "chance" the exact four members who indicated they would attend the Sep. 19 meeting that Montgomery indicated were the four votes needed to make the change all ambled over to and just happened to end up at the same time in the clerk's office right after the meeting? And that they just happened to take up discussion of the change at that time, only minutes after a contentious exchange between principally Free and Montgomery with citizen commenter Wes Merriott, where Free verbally abused Merriott and Montgomery became so incensed that he asked city marshals to remove Merriott?
Balderdash, and AG Op. 14-0065 makes Jacobs' assertions look even less convincing. It states that for illegal polling to occur it needn't happen in a formal or informal sense, but rather can occur merely as a conclusion that a vote would go a certain way. When Montgomery stated the vote would be 4-2 without Free present and the other three present didn't contest that, it served as a vote count that the opinion states is something "not appropriate for members of a public body to engage in … which permits a public body to know how a majority of the public body would vote on an issue" without public participation – especially as four members present constituted a quorum.
And it appears the legal system will have a chance to review the merit of Jacobs' claims. Because Merriott subsequently sued in federal court over this and other matters involving public commentary at Council meetings. In it, Merriott alleged the existing public comment policy is overbroad to the point it squelches free expression, is vague, induces unconstitutional content-based restrictions, its restrictions are applied in a biased and therefore unconstitutional manner, is retaliatory, violates both Louisiana law and its Constitution, and that additional Jacobs moves to prevent councilors and city employees generally from speaking about the recording was unconstitutional.
Much of this will be an uphill battle. As experts in First Amendment jurisprudence have noted, a policy like Bossier City's – the wordings behind it and procedures attached to it being not uncommon in Louisiana (Shreveport's is quite similar, if not more restrictive) – in theory strikes a balance between the public's right to know and to express itself and in ensuring the public's business is attended to without undue interference, but is one where elected officials easily can cross the line into unconstitutionality in its application.
So, Merriott – who wisely chose a federal venue whose judges aren't elected and are isolated from the existing power structure of which Jacobs is a part in the state's 26th Judicial District, where he once was an elected judge – will have a hard time getting a court to declare on face that the existing policy is unconstitutional. And on the basis of conduct as well since regarding the Sep. 5 incident despite Free's verbal abuse Merriott was able to complete his comments unedited and that Montgomery's demand to shut up Merriott went unheeded, which indicates this particular application didn't veer into unconstitutional behavior.
But he does have one claim in this regard that might win: a vague and uneven application that can have the effect of viewpoint discrimination. Merriott's legal team, if they review the three years' worth of video recordings since the policy went into place will find multiple instances of the rules being significantly fudged, and may find correlation between the issue preference being expressed and how strictly to which the rules are adhered.
Especially worth noting is the basis by which Montgomery blew a gasket: supposed "slander" by Merriott about the role of an outside attorney named Katie Bell in a case where the city was sued successfully by developer Linc Coleman who claimed breach of contract, in large part caused by decisions made by the graybeards, that cost the city at least $35 million. When the majority bloc began its efforts to invalidate the petition, it enlisted Jacobs to call upon Bell to render an opinion about the petition, about whom Jacobs in public said had no connection to the city.
In fact, and as Jacobs eventually contradicted himself and admitted, Bell had worked for city interests in connection with the Coleman case, the final settlement of which never has become public amid claims of judicial secrecy. And the transcripts about the Coleman case that are publicly available suggest that Bell in some capacity, whether he was considered a private individual or public official, represented the interests of Montgomery in that case.
Merriott insinuated that relationship on Sep. 5, which set off Montgomery who wanted to silence Merriott on the basis of his remarks violating the regulation against "slanderous" statements and which led Jacobs later to repeat the assertion that she had no connection with Montgomery. Yet given that Jacobs has turned out to be unmasked publicly as a liar about Bell's past role at least once in his position and given the transcript text, it was not unreasonable for Merriott to make that statement without some degree of confidence that it was true. And legally for slander to take place against a public figure, it has to occur with malicious and reckless disregard for the truth.
So, even as Merriott eventually faced no restrictions on his speech, in his suit he can have a chance to prove he faced unconstitutional behavior because, under the regulations, he could have been punished for slander when it wasn't, which can prove uneven application. And how does he prove he didn't commit slander? By using discovery to reveal through documents heretofore unreleased about the Coleman case what exactly was Bell's role in that.
This means the Merriott suit could open up a whole new can of worms that the graybeards would rather not have made public. Add to that the court gets a chance to vet the circumstances behind the apparently illegal private meeting (discovery capturing electronic messaging, for example, might also prove fruitful), which is the strongest part of the suit, letting it bat away Jacobs' ludicrous assertions of fact and law and declare a violation of Louisiana state law – even if it won't go so far as to find that or anything else a constitutional violation, either federal or state.
None of this does the individual reputations of the members of the majority bloc any good, which imperils their chances for reelection. If it comes to that, for if the original petition doesn't survive to disqualify them, bloc members' antics revealed in open court only enrage the citizenry more and makes registered voters ever more amenable to signing petitions, one of which will accomplish that.
Nel corso degli ultimi cinquant'anni (1970-2020), le comunità indigene nasa del Dipartimento del Cauca (Colombia) si sono confrontate con processi necropolitici di segregazione territoriale e di violenza sistemica (Mbembe, 2006; Rozental, 2017), alimentati dalla secolare problematica del mancato riconoscimento delle terre ancestrali, dal conflitto armato interno colombiano, dall'attività delle transnazionali estrattiviste che operano nella regione e dalla proliferazione della problematica del narcotraffico (Peñaranda Supelano, 2012; Navia Lame, 2013; Peñaranda Supelano, 2015; CRIC, 2020). Per fronteggiare questi radicati dispositivi di espropiazione, violenza e silenziamento etnico, la popolazione nasa ha progressivamente riconfigurato le strategie di difesa della propria autonomia culturale e politica (Wilches-Chaux, 2005; Valero Gutiérrez, 2016). Nel quadro continentale del consolidamento organizzato delle rivendicazioni indigene, culminato nell'ultimo decennio del XX secolo nella cosiddetta emergencia indígena (Bengoa, 2007; Bengoa, 2009), le comunità nasa hanno plasmato modalità di resistenza multidimensionali, dove la tradizionale difesa pacifica dei confini territoriali è stata accompagnata da impulsi alla tutela dei propri spazi del sapere. Nel corso degli ultimi due decenni si sono strutturate strategie di salvaguardia dell'identità culturale comunitaria fondate sull'idea della custodia del "territorio dell'immaginario" (Almendra, 2017) dai dispositivi di invasione discorsiva e simbolica propri del necropotere (López Barcenas, 2007; Walsh, 2010): un meccanismo di protezione di epistemologie, cosmovisioni, lingua e spiritualità nasa, attuato a partire dalla delineazione di una nuova concezione autonoma della parola, tanto nell'esperienza dell'oralità come nelle sue espressioni scritte (Escobar, 2016). In questo contesto di studio, la tesi investiga un corpus di scritture realizzate da membri delle comunità indigene nasa in epoca contemporanea (1970-2020). La ricerca propone un'interpretazione della nozione-pratica del palabrandar, elaborata nell'ambito delle epistemologie nasa, come strumento ermeneutico centrale per la comprensione delle scritture analizzate e degli attuali immaginari di resistenza della popolazione caucana. La proposta del palabrandar si configura nel testo Entre la Emancipación y la Captura (2017) della scrittrice di etnia nasa-misak Vilma Almendra Quiguanás come una modalità autonoma di riflessione sull'esercizio della parola, concepita in una relazione di interdipendenza ontologica con l'azione di beneficio per la comunità (Almendra, 2017). La ricerca è strutturata in due tappe. Nei primi due capitoli si propone uno sguardo di analisi diacronico del processo di costituzione del prisma epistemologico della nozione-pratica del palabrandar, a partire dallo studio della produzione scritta di due autori nasa: Álvaro Ulcué Chocué (1943-1984) e Vilma Almendra Quiguanás (1979). Gli scritti del sacerdote cattolico di etnia nasa Ulcué Chocué, parzialmente inediti, sono interpretati come antecedente fondamentale della concezione autonoma della parola configurata nel testo Entre la Emancipación y la Captura di Vilma Almendra Quiguanas. Nel corso dell'analisi, si suggerisce una collocazione delle connotazioni epistemiche del palabrandar all'interno di una cartografia gnoseologica dei saperi indigeni dell'Abiayala, intesa qui nella sua integralità di pluriverso di enunciazione ed espressione delle conoscenze ancestrali in una dimensione di futuralità (Escobar, 2016; Rocha Vivas, 2017; Escobar, 2018). Nella seconda parte della tesi si elabora un'analisi orientata a delineare le forme semantiche e simboliche attraverso cui la nozione del palabrandar si traduce in pratica di scrittura. Si propone uno studio delle produzione scritte di alcuni membri della comunità nasa, interpretate nella loro dimensione di testualità oralettegrafiche (Rocha Vivas, 2017), ovvero scritture conformate da codici multidimensionali che possono trovare la loro espressione finale in un libro o in altri spazi di trasmissione del sapere nasa, come le pietre o le pareti (Faust, 2001; Rappaport, 2004; Rappaport, 2008; Perdomo, 2013). In questa prospettiva, il corpus di analisi si compone di alcuni passaggi testuali del volume Entre la Emancipación y la Captura di Vilma Almendra Quiguanás e di una serie di scritture (graffiti) realizzate da membri della comunità nasa nello spazio pubblico del territorio di Toribío, decodificato attraverso la contestualizzazione alle epistemologie nasa degli strumenti teorico-metodologici forniti dagli studi sul Paesaggio linguistico in aree di tensione sociale (Shoamy y Gorter, 2008; Delgado, 2011; Rubdy, 2015; Woldemariam, 2016). La traiettoria esegetica elaborata si struttura metodologicamente a partire dall'inquadramento delle scritture contemporanee del popolo nasa in uno spazio ontologico del sapere autonomo, inserito in un processo di dialogo con alcune proposte delle scienze sociali e umane che riproduce la dimensione interculturale delle attuali dinamiche di negoziazione del sapere nelle comunità nasa (Rappaport, 2003; Bengoa, 2009). Categorie come 'scrittura', 'resistenza' e 'territorio' si interpretano quindi a partire dalle significazioni assunte nell'universo epistemologico nasa (Rappaport, 2004; Wilches-Chaux, 2005; Perdomo, 2013; G. Ulcué, 2015; Sanabria Monroy, 2016; Muñoz Atillo, 2018). Il percorso ermeneutico adottato è sostentato da un lavoro sul campo presso diverse comunità nasa del settore nordorientale del Cauca, realizzato attraverso cinque viaggi nel territorio tra il settembre del 2018 e il settembre del 2020. Oltre alla realizzazione di una ricerca di archivio presso la Biblioteca Parrocchiale di Toribío, il lavoro sul campo è consistito in conversazioni, interviste e intercambi con membri della comunità nasa, partecipazione in assemblee e rituali, nell'intento di dialogare con gli spazi del sapere indigeno caucano in ogni sua dimensione di espressione: l'oralità, la ritualità, l'incontro collettivo e la scrittura (Garzón Lopez, 2013; Rocha Vivas, 2017). ; In the last fifty years (1970-2020), indigenous Nasa communities in the Cauca Department (Colombia) have faced necropolitical processes of territorial segregation and systemic violence (Mbembe, 2006; Rozental, 2017), fomented by the century-old problem of the failure to acknowledge their ancestral homelands, by the internal Colombian armed conflict, by the activity of the transnational extractive industries operating in the region, and by the proliferation of narcotraffic (Peñaranda Supelano, 2012; Navia Lame, 2013; Peñaranda Supelano, 2015; CRIC, 2020). To face these entrenched devices of expropriation, violence, and ethnic silencing, Nasa people have progressively reconfigured the strategies in defence of their cultural and political autonomy (Wilches-Chaux, 2005; Valero Gutiérrez, 2016). In the framework of the organised strengthening of indigenous claims in the continent, culminating in the so-called emergencia indígena in the last decade of the 20th century (Bengoa, 2007; Bengoa, 2009), Nasa communities have forged multidimensional modalities of resistance, in which the traditional pacific conservation of territorial boundaries combines with the need to safeguard their own knowledge space. In the last two decades, Nasa communities have developed strategies to safeguard their communal cultural identity. These strategies are based on the idea of the defence of the "territory of the imagination" (Almendra, 2017) from the devices of discursive and symbolic invasion typical of necropower (López Barcenas, 2007; Walsh, 2010): a protective mechanism of Nasa epistemologies, cosmovisions, language, and spirituality, whose starting point is represented by the outline of a new autonomous conception of the word, in both the oral experience and its written expressions (Escobar, 2016). In this context, the present thesis investigates a corpus of writings realized by members of the indigenous Nasa communities in contemporary times (1970-2020). The research proposes an interpretation of the know-how of palabrandar, conceptualised in Nasa epistemologies, as the central hermeneutic tool for an understanding of the selected writings and of the actual images of resistance of the Cauca people. The proposal of palabrandar is defined in the text Entre la Emancipación y la Captura (2017) by the Nasa-Misak writer Vilma Almendra Quiguanás as an autonomous modality of reflection on the word, which is understood in a relationship of ontological interdependence with the action of benefit for the community (Almendra, 2017). The research is structured in two phases. The first two chapters propose a diachronic analysis of the founding process of the epistemological prism of the know-how of palabrandar, starting from an investigation of the written production of two Nasa authors: Álvaro Ulcué Chocué (1943-1984) and Vilma Almendra Quiguanás (1979). The writings, some of them unpublished, of the Catholic priest of Nasa ethnicity Ulcué Chocué are interpreted as a fundamental antecedent to the word's autonomous conception as defined in the text Entre la Emancipación y la Captura by Vilma Almendra Quiguanas. The analysis seeks to discuss a positioning of the epistemic connotations of palabrandar within a gnosiological cartography of the indigenous knowledge of Abiayala, interpreted in its integrality of pluriverse of enunciation and expression of ancestral knowledge in a futural dimension (Escobar, 2016; Rocha Vivas, 2017; Escobar, 2018). The second part of the thesis aims to outline the semantic and symbolic forms through which the notion of palabrandar translates into written expressions. The writings of some members of the Nasa community are discussed taking into account their dimension of oralitegraphic textualities (Rocha Vivas, 2017), that is textual productions shaped by the confluence of multidimensional codes, which can be expressed through books or other spaces where Nasa knowledge is transmitted, such as stones or walls (Faust, 2001; Rappaport, 2004; Rappaport, 2008; Perdomo, 2013). In this perspective, the analysed corpus consists of some textual passages from the volume Entre la Emancipación y la Captura by Vilma Almendra Quiguanás and of a series of written productions (graffiti) realised by members of the Nasa community in the public space of the Toribío territory. The latter has been decoded by contextualising and applying to Nasa epistemologies the theoretical-methodological tools of linguistic landscape research in areas of social tension (Shoamy y Gorter, 2008; Delgado, 2011; Rubdy, 2015; Woldemariam, 2016). The exegetic trajectory developed in the thesis is structured methodologically by inserting the contemporary Nasa written productions in an ontological space of autonomous knowledge, which dialogues with proposals from the social and human sciences. This dialogical process reproduces the intercultural dimension of the actual dynamics of the negotiation of knowledge in Nasa communities (Rappaport, 2003; Bengoa, 2009). Consequently, categories such as 'writing', 'resistance', and 'territory' are interpreted according to the signification they possess in the epistemological Nasa universe (Rappaport, 2004; Wilches-Chaux, 2005; Perdomo, 2013; G. Ulcué, 2015; Sanabria Monroy, 2016; Muñoz Atillo, 2018). The adopted hermeneutic path is supported by fieldwork in different Nasa communities in the North-East Cauca region, and in particular by five research trips between September 2018 and September 2020. Fieldwork has consisted of archival research at the Parish Library in Toribío, conversations, interviews and interchanges with members of the Nasa community, the participation in meetings and rituals in the attempt to dialogue with the spaces of Cauca indigenous knowledge in every dimension of its expression: orality, rituality, collective gathering, and writing (Garzón Lopez, 2013; Rocha Vivas, 2017).
Este trabajo, enmarcado en la problemática de la eficacia de las políticas públicas de distritos de riego en Colombia, tuvo el propósito de examinar la incidencia de la acción colectiva en la aplicación de esas políticas. Se identificaron y discutieron variables individuales y organizacionales, al igual que las políticas vigentes en el contexto de su evolución histórica. Complementado con un marco conceptual, este análisis fue la base para la formulación de recomendaciones orientadas a mejorar la eficacia de las políticas públicas en riego asociativo. Esta investigación se originó en la experiencia del autor en la dirección de la interventoría integral que adelantó la Universidad Nacional de Colombia a los proyectos de riego asociativo, seleccionados por el gobierno en 2011. Entre 2012 y 2014 al tiempo que se construían las obras, se trabajó desde la interventoría con las organizaciones ejecutoras. En ese proceso se detectaron dificultades en su desempeño, lo que motivó a profundizar en su conocimiento. Se estructuró, entonces, un programa complementario al de la interventoría que permitió en 2012 censar a los miembros de las organizaciones, adelantar pasantías de estudiantes en los proyectos y realizar grupos focales. Esta información, como base de esta investigación, tuvo que ser depurada y sistematizada. En lo cuantitativo se dispuso de datos de 2184 usuarios de 20 organizaciones. En lo cualitativo se hicieron pasantías en 12 asociaciones y grupos focales en 8. Este universo corresponde a la totalidad de la aplicación de la política de riego asociativo en ese periodo, después del cual no ha habido avances adicionales significativos. La aplicación del método mixto de investigación enriqueció la comprensión de los resultados: los cuantitativos concernientes a las características de los individuos y los cualitativos a sus percepciones sobre las organizaciones y el contexto. En cuanto a la dimensión individual se encontró que la inclinación favorable a la acción colectiva se relaciona con propietarios de predios y de unidades agrícolas familiares con predominio de ingresos relativos más elevados, con títulos de tenencia, participación creciente en los mercados, disponibilidad de medios de transporte para la venta de productos y mayores niveles de acceso a servicios sociales como educación y salud, lo que explica, a su vez, que sean los de mejor conocimiento de las normas de funcionamiento de los distritos de riego. No obstante, se encontró que la mayoría de productores vive en condiciones de pobreza, con carencias en las variables referidas, lo que explicaría la baja inclinación a la acción colectiva en las organizaciones conformadas por este tipo de productores. Complementariamente, la perspectiva organizacional sugiere que en la acción colectiva interviene negativamente: una conciencia del agua sesgada hacia su aprovechamiento como recurso productivo, sin contemplar los intereses grupales y los acuerdos de gestión colectiva; una visión instrumental de las organizaciones, concebidas exclusivamente como medio para acceder a financiación pública sin propósitos de largo alcance; una estructuración de las organizaciones limitada a las exigencias estatales, sin preocuparse por acuerdos que interpreten los intereses de sus miembros más allá de la construcción de las obras; un fraccionamiento interno de las organizaciones entre directivos y bases, expresado en desconfianza mutua, ausencia de liderazgos y existencia de dos grupos de productores, el minoritario de disposición a la acción colectiva y el mayoritario de ausencia de esa inclinación; a lo anterior se suma un entorno adverso en lo ambiental, socio económico y político institucional que refuerza la ocurrencia de los factores mencionados. La conexión de estos resultados con la trayectoria de las políticas de riego en Colombia sugiere la gestación de una transición en la que el protagonismo histórico del ingeniero civil, está siendo equiparado por el de grupos de productores de avanzada quienes, al asumir una visión integral de los proyectos, articulan de acuerdo con sus intereses la perspectiva de infraestructura con la de producción y del mercado. En paralelo, el cambio de las políticas, desde un enfoque de oferta hacia uno de demanda, evidencia las limitaciones de este último. La investigación indica que debería ir acompañado de un conjunto de políticas orientadas a la creación de condiciones para que los productores puedan desempeñarse mejor en sus organizaciones y asumir funciones para las que no están capacitados. Ello supondría la provisión de bienes públicos y la atención a los problemas estructurales de la vida en el campo, como el acceso a la tierra, los derechos de propiedad, la inserción a los mercados, la educación y servicios sociales. En ese orden de ideas, también es relevante para la acción colectiva, la creación de acuerdos propios y autónomos en las organizaciones, fundamentados en el entendimiento del agua para riego como bien común y, por ende, con visión de largo alcance. El análisis conduce a concluir que no es deseable para el país que se mantengan las políticas de riego centradas solamente en infraestructura física, sumado a que la acción colectiva afecta, según lo investigado, su éxito esperado. De ahí que sería recomendable que éstas articularan factores como los identificados en esta investigación. Adquiere relevancia, un acompañamiento responsable por parte del Estado a la iniciativa de los productores, en el entendido de que los integrantes de las organizaciones son quienes pueden resolver mejor sus propios propósitos y acuerdos para una acción colectiva sólida. ; This work, framed in the problematic of the effectiveness of the public policy of irrigation districts in Colombia, had the purpose of examining the incidence of collective action. Individual and organizational variables were identified and discussed, as well as existing irrigation policies in the context of their historical evolution. Complemented by a conceptual framework, this analysis was the basis for the formulation of recommendations aimed at improving the effectiveness of public policies on associative irrigation. This research originated in the author's experience in the direction of a comprehensive audit carried out by the National University of Colombia on associative irrigation projects selected by the government in 2011. Between 2012 and 2014, at the same time that the works were being built, we worked from the audit with the executing organizations. In this process, difficulties were detected in its performance, which motivated to deepen its knowledge. A complementary program to the audit was then structured, which in 2012 allowed for the census of the organizations members, the advancement of student internships in the projects, and the holding of focus groups. This information, as the basis of this research, had to be refined and systematized. In quantitative terms, data was available for 2184 users from 20 organizations. In qualitative terms, internships were carried out in 12 associations and focus groups in 8. This universe corresponds to the entire application of the associative irrigation policy in that period, after which there have been no additional advances. The application of the mixed method of research enriched the understanding of the results: the quantitative ones concerning the characteristics of the individuals, and the qualitative ones to their perceptions on the organizations and its context. With regard to the individual dimension, it was found that the favorable inclination to collective action is related to land owners and family agricultural units with a predominance of higher relative income, with tenure titles, increasing participation in markets, availability of means of transportation for the sale of products and higher levels of access to social services, such as education and health, which explains, in turn, that they are the ones with the best knowledge of the rules of operation of irrigation districts. Nevertheless, it was found that the majority of producers live in conditions of poverty, with deficiencies in the referred variables, which would explain the low inclination to collective action in the organizations conformed by this type of producers. Complementarily, the organizational perspective suggests that in collective action it intervenes negatively: an awareness of water biased towards its use as a productive resource, without considering group interests and collective management agreements; an instrumental vision of organizations, conceived exclusively as a means to access public financing without long-range purposes; a structuring of organizations limited to state demands, without worrying about agreements that interpret the interests of their members beyond the construction of works; an internal division of the organizations between directors and bases, expressed in mutual distrust, absence of leadership and existence of two groups of producers, the minor one with a willingness to collective action and the major one with absence of that inclination; to the above is added an adverse natural, socioeconomic and political environment that reinforces the occurrence of the mentioned factors. The connection of these results with the trajectory of irrigation policies in Colombia suggests the gestation of a transition in which the civil engineer historical leading role is being equated by that of groups of advanced producers who, by assuming an integral vision of the projects, articulate the infrastructure approach with that of production and marketing, according to their interests. At the same time, the change in policies, from a supply to a demand approach, shows the limitations of the latter. The research indicates that it should be accompanied by a set of policies aimed at creating conditions for producers to perform better in their organizations and assume functions for which they are not trained. This would involve the provision of public goods and attention to the structural problems of wellbeing in the countryside, such as access to land, property rights and insertion into markets, as well as education and social services. In this order of ideas, it is also relevant for collective action, the creation of own and autonomous agreements in the organizations, based on the understanding of water for irrigation as a common and, therefore, with a long-range vision. The analysis leads to the conclusion that it is not desirable for the country to maintain irrigation policies focused solely on physical infrastructure and that collective action affects, according to the research results, its expected success. It would therefore be advisable for these policies to articulate factors such as those identified in this research. A responsible accompaniment by the State to the producers' initiative acquires relevance, in the understanding that the members of the organizations are the ones who can best solve their own purposes and agreements for a solid collective action.
Until very recently, in the debates on water in the Spanish and European context, the concept of the Human Right to Water and Sanitation (HRWS) evoked foreign realities, typical of Latin American countries or other regions of the global south. However, since the beginning of the Great Recession in 2008, as a result of the consequent emergence of situations of poverty and precariousness, the concern to defend the recognition and implementation of this right became present. The declaration of the HRWS by the United Nations in 2010 (United Nations 2010a,2010b), coinciding with this historical juncture, has promoted processes and debates around its effective implementation at an international, European and Spanish level. The current health crisis and the consequent economic debacle caused by the COVID-19 at the beginning of 2020 have updated the urgency of the debate on the HRWS. In 2015, the plenary session of the European Parliament supported the citizens' initiative Right2Water, which sought to guarantee the right to water for all people and the transposition of the HRWS into the legislation of member states. The current reform process of the Drinking Water Directive (98/83/EC) is justified, among other reasons, by the need to adapt these regulations to the aforementioned commitment to coherence. The Right2Water initiative was transferred to Spain, mainly thanks to the encouragement of the Association of Public Water Supply and Sanitation Operators (Asociación de Operadores Públicos de Abastecimiento y Saneamiento Agua, AEOPAS), within the framework of the statewide Public Water Network (Red Agua Pública, RAP), through the Social Pact for Public Water (Pacto Social por el Agua Pública, PSAP). The effects of the crisis also coincided with privatization processes of water services that, justified by austerity policies, European institutions promoted in the countries most affected by the crisis, despite strong social opposition. In some of these countries, such as Spain, the process of privatization has been especially related to the seek of funding by municipalities in crisis, through the perverse mechanism of the 'concession fee', which allows for a rapid injection of money into the municipal treasury in exchange for a decades-long privatization of the service. This process is usually accompanied by increasing rates and greater pressure on users with payment problems. The relations between the causes and consequences of the crisis and privatization, as well as the emergence of situations of water poverty of different types, have led to the present existence of a social movement, with a solid discourse that is committed to defending the human right to water, as well as the model of public management, in our cities. At the same time, the existence of public water management companies, which formally maintain public ownership of the service but practice a mercantile management style (priority of profit and loss accounts, opacity, consideration of users as clients) has led to demands to renew public management models to guarantee compliance with the human right to water in a broad and deep sense, redefined in an antagonistic way: a recognition of access to drinking water and sanitation as a human right rigorously conceived that puts into question the neoliberal logic of managing water services. This is one of the core arguments this article addresses: the HRWS today constitutes the banner of a movement that is articulated around the concept of water as a common good and that is oriented towards the objective of building a collaborative and transparent model of public management. The ownership of water and sanitation services operators (in their different modalities, from strictly public to strictly private formulas) is related to the implementation of the HRWS, which contributes to the reactivation of debates on the need to preserve or recover ('remunicipalización') the public character of these services, and with the need to generate legal frameworks that guarantee effective local democratic policies. To this social dimension, committed to the public and democratic dimension, open to new debates on common goods management, another characteristic is added: the human rights movement in Spain has been in tune from its beginnings in discourse and organizational structure with socio-eco-integrating perspectives of natural resources, aquatic ecosystems management, which is at the foundation of the possibility of implementing the human right to water. This is a relevant and somewhat distinctive quality of the Spanish experience, which contrasts with the unfortunate, although historically explainable, disagreements and conflicts that frequently characterize the social and environmental perspectives in the movements in defense of water. In addition to the above, this article presents a new approach to the typology of water poverties. Until recently, the efforts that have been carried out in the implementation of the HRWS have been focused especially on accessibility, condemning and trying to alleviate the deficits in supply and sanitation coverage in the Global South. In contrast, its recent reception in European countries has focused especially on affordability (prohibition of cuts, guarantee of a vital minimum, social rates) and on implications for governance (transparency, accountability) and the management model (public versus private). However, throughout this research it has been found that accessibility remains a significant problem in certain European regions, especially related to the existence of marginal settlements, slums, homelessness, temporary immigrant workers in rural areas, etc. The problem of HRWS is thus situated in the broader context of access to housing and dignified living conditions, and is related to the marginalization and exclusion of groups or social sectors, due to various factors, generally combined, of economic, cultural and/or ethnic nature. Finally, another issue that this article addresses is the question of the legal regulation of the human right to water in Spain. It will seem strange to a non-expert observer of this matter that after the intense concern, organization and reflection on the subjects that have been mentioned, and which are presented in detail below, and in a country with such a long tradition of water policy and legislation as Spain, we lack a state or autonomic-wide regulatory framework for the management of urban water. And not only do we still lack this or these framework(s) but we have been discussing their need for many years (the jurisdictions and responsibilities over the urban cycle are municipal) and, if they are really needed, their nature, contents and scale of formulation. The article analyzes the keys to this process and ends by presenting the latest propositions on this subject from the HRWS social movement in which its authors are conceptually situated. From a theoretical (urban political ecology) and methodological (transdisciplinary participatory research-action) point of view, the article has been developed in the double framework in which the authors operate. On the one hand, the working group on the urban water cycle of the New Water Culture Foundation (Fundación Nueva Cultura del Agua) and, on the other, the Research Networks of Excellence of the National Research Agency on water poverty (WAPONET, CSO2017-90702-REDT), made up of researchers from seven Spanish universities (Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, Politécnica de Catalunya, Oberta de Catalunya, Jaume I de Castellón, Alicante, Oviedo, Granada y Sevilla). As a space for transdisciplinary action-participation on which this work has been specifically based, mention should be made of the Andalusian Social Committee on Water (Mesa Social del Agua de Andalucía), whose composition and main activities between 2017 and 2020 are reflected throughout these pages. We owe information, ideas and experiences to all the colleagues who participate in these spaces, where we carried out a real process of co-production of knowledge, throughout years of work in common. ; El derecho humano al abastecimiento y al saneamiento (DHAS) constituye hoy en España y en Europa la bandera de un movimiento que se articula en torno al concepto del agua como bien común y que se orienta al objetivo de construir un modelo de gestión pública participativa y transparente. La materialización efectiva del DHAS se relaciona discursivamente con la titularidad pública o privada de los operadores de los servicios urbanos de agua, lo que ha contribuido a la reactivación de los debates sobre la necesidad de conservar o recuperar el carácter público de estos servicios, y sobre la necesidad de generar marcos jurídicos que garanticen políticas de democracia local efectiva. A esta dimensión sociopolítica, se añade otra característica: el movimiento del DHAS en España sintoniza en discurso y articulación organizativa con las perspectivas socio-eco-integradoras de la gestión del agua como recurso natural, de los ecosistemas acuáticos. Ésta es una cualidad importante y en cierta manera distintiva de la experiencia española, que contrasta con los desencuentros y conflictos que frecuentemente caracterizan a las perspectivas social y ambiental en los movimientos de defensa del agua, y en general de los recursos naturales. Complementariamente a lo anterior, este artículo presenta un nuevo enfoque de la tipología de pobrezas hídricas. La reciente recepción del DHAS en los países europeos se ha focalizado especialmente en la asequibilidad (prohibición de cortes, garantía del mínimo vital, tarifas sociales) y en las implicaciones para la gobernanza (transparencia, rendición de cuentas) y el modelo de gestión (publico versus privado). No obstante, a lo largo de la investigación que se presenta, se ha constatado que la accesibilidad sigue siendo un problema significativo en ciertas regiones europeas, relacionado especialmente con la existencia de asentamientos marginales, chabolismo, personas sin hogar o trabajadores temporeros inmigrantes en áreas rurales. Finalmente, este artículo aborda la cuestión de la regulación legal del derecho humano al agua en España, analizando las claves de este proceso y presentando las últimas propuestas del movimiento del DHAS en el que sus autores conceptualmente se sitúan. Desde un punto de vista teórico (ecología política urbana) y metodológico (investigación-acción participativa transdisciplinar), el artículo se ha desarrollado en el doble marco en el que los autores se desenvuelven. Por una parte, el grupo de trabajo de ciclo urbano del agua de la Fundación Nueva Cultura de Agua (https://fnca.eu/oppa/ciclo-urbano-del-agua); y, por otra, la Red de Excelencia de la Agencia Estatal de Investigación sobre pobreza hídrica (WAPONET, CSO2017-90702-REDT, https://waponet.org/approach/).
Jevrejski istorijski muzej (JIM) u Beogradu predstavlјa jednu celovitu, po mnogo čemu jedinstvenu muzejsku ustanovu u Srbiji. To je jedini jevrejski muzej u našoj zemlјi, tematski specijalizovan, a sadržajno veoma kompleksan. Osim muzejskog materijala, Jevrejski istorijski muzej ima sopstveni, srazmerno veliki arhiv čija dokumentacija i foto-dokumentacija svedoči kako o Holokaustu, u kojem su mnoge jevrejske opštine bukvalno nestale, tako i o životu i aktivnostima jevrejskih zajednica iz Srbije i sa teritorije cele bivše Jugoslavije u 19, još više 20. veku, uklјučujući i savremene periode. Jevrejski istorijski muzej je osnovan 1948. godine u okviru Saveza jevrejskih opština bivše Jugoslavije. Zanimlјiva je činjenica da je ideja o osnivanju muzeja ovakvog tipa mnogo starija. Već posle prvog Redovnog kongresa Saveza jevrejskih veroispovednih opština Kralјevine Srba, Hrvata i Slovenaca održanog 1921. godine u Zagrebu, bilo je predloga i planova za stvaranje muzeja - pravog mesta za čuvanje jevrejske baštine i kulturnog identiteta. Ipak, ova ideja nije ostvarena. Imajući u vidu Drugi svetski rat i događaje koju su usledili počev od 1941. godine u Jugoslaviji, sa ove vremenske distance, može se slobodno reći da je ״sreća u nesreći" što jevrejski muzej nije tada osnovan. Pošto je uspeo da se obnovi, kao vodeća institucija preživelih jevrejskih opština oslobođene Republike Jugoslavije, Savez se, u jesen 1945. godine, obratio svojim članicama sa molbom da prikupe sve raspoložive podatke o Holokaustu i učešću Jevreja u Norodnooslobodilačkoj borbi. Bio je to prvi, ali sasvim konkretan korak ka muzeju. Relativno brzo, u Zagrebu je formiran Muzejsko-istorijski odsek u okviru Pravnog odelјenja Saveza. Otpočelo je sistematsko traganje za sačuvanom arhivskom građom. Godine 1952. do tada sakuplјena građa je preselјena u Beograd, kada se nastavilo sa traganjem i sakuplјanjem. ״Odsek" je počeo da se razvija u pravcu kompletne muzejske ustanove. Te 1952. godine, organizovana je izložba povodom otkrivanja impresivnog spomenika Bogdana Bogdanovića na sefardskom groblјu u Beogradu, posvećenog jevrejskim žrtvama Holokausta. Povodom obeležavanja desetogodišnjice obnove, Savez je 1955. postavio još jednu izložbu o radu celokupne jevrejske zajednice u tadašnjoj Jugoslaviji. Za sve to vreme, kao osnivač i vlasnik Muzeja, Savez je bio u stalnom kontaktu sa svim svojim jevrejskim opštinama, obnovlјenim posle neviđenog stradanja 1941-1945. godine. Za zajednički Muzej i dalјe su stizali materijali koji su se odnosili na istoriju jugoslovenskih Jevreja. Pozivu Saveza su se odazivali i pojedinci, preživeli Jevreji koji su donosili poneki predmet ili porodične fotografije, kolekcionari čije su zbirke opstale sakrivene, i drugi . Mnogi su Muzeju zaveštali predmete iz porodičnih kuća od istorijskog, etnološkog ili umetničkog značaja, a povremeno je vršen i otkup eksponata, u zavisnosti od trenutnih uslova. Počev od datuma osnivanja, pa do 1959. godine, sakuplјen je muzejski i arhivski materijal, dovolјan da se iste godine otvori lepa, slikovita - prva stalna, muzejska postavka. Na dan 19. maja 1960. godine, za javnost je otvoren Muzej Saveza jevrejskih opština Jugoslavije, u istoj zgradi u kojoj je i Savez. Posle izvesnog vremena, naziv muzeja je preinačen u Jevrejski istorijski muzej (JIM), što mnogo više odgovara njegovoj nameni i sadržaju. Sa sakuplјanjem i stručnom obradom materijala se nastavilo, pa je 1969. godine otvorena druga stalna postavka Jevrejskog istorijskog muzeja, znatno bogatija i izražajnija. Za njenu koncepciju je bila zaslužna prof. dr Vidosava Nedomački, prvi upravnik Muzeja. Posle raspada Jugoslavije 1992. godine, formiran je Savez jevrejskih opština Srbije u kojem se okupilo deset jevrejskih opština, koliko ih ukupno ima u našoj zemlјi. Status Jevrejskog istorijskog muzeja ostao je isti - on je deo Saveza jevrejskih opština Srbije. Iako je u sastavu Saveza, Muzej se razvio u instituciju za sebe, sa svojim specifičnim životom, svojom stručnom ekipom i svojim poslovnim kontaktima sa drugim muzejima. S obzirom na to da je stalna izložbena postavka Muzeja otvorena mnogo pre raspada Jugoslavije, ona se bavi istorijskim, etnološkim i opštekulturnim temama vezanim za jevrejstvo celokupnog nekadašnjeg jugoslovenskog područja. Usled teških političkih i ekonomskih problema koji su, počev od 1992. godine pritiskali našu zemlјu, Srbiju, nisu se zasad stekli uslovi za izradu nove, drugačije koncipirane postavke. Međutim, ako imamo u vidu činjenicu da su Jevreji ovog dela Balkana imali zajedničku istoriju i kulturna obeležja - onda je neizbežno da i koncept nove postavke zadrži, bar delimično, širi pristup u svojoj budućoj prezentaciji. Zbog svega toga, a i zahvalјujući složenoj i veoma suptilno osmišlјenoj koncepciji, realna starost stalne izložbene postavke Jevrejskog istorijskog muzeja nikome ne smeta, jer ne utiče na izvanredan kvalitet informacija o jevrejskoj istoriji i načinu života. ; The Jewish Historical Museum (JHM) in Belgrade is a comprehensive and, in manу ways, a unique museum in Serbia. It is the only Jewish museum in the country, thematically specialized, and very complex in terms of contents. Apart from museum exhibits, the Jewish Historical Museum also has its own, relatively large, archives whose documentation and photo documentation are testimony both of the Holocaust, during which manу Jewish communities literally perished, and of the life and activities of Jewish communities from Serbia and the whole territory of former Yugoslavia during the 19th and, even more, the 20th century, including the present times. The Jewish Historical Museum was founded in 1948, as part of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Yugoslavia. It is interesting to note that the idea of founding a museum of this type dates much further back. Already after the First Congress of the Federation of Jewish Religious Communities of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, held in 1921 in Zagreb, there were recommendations and plans concerning the foundation of such a museum as the right place to preserve the heritage and cultural identity. Yet, the idea had not materialized. Having in mind the World War II and the events that followed from 1941 in Yugoslavia, from this time perspective one could say that it is, in fact, a lucky coincidence that the Jewish museum had not been founded at that time. After the Federation managed to revive itself as the leading institution of the surviving Jewish communities of the liberated Republic of Yugoslavia, in autumn of 1945, it invited its members to collect all data available about the Holocaust and the participation of Jews in the National Liberation Movement. This was the first and very specific step towards founding a museum. Relatively soon afterwards, the Museum - Historical Department was established in Zagreb within the Legal Division of the Federation. Systematic efforts to identify and preserve the archives began. In 1952 all the archives collected until that time were moved to Belgrade, and the search and collection efforts continued. The ״Department" was beginning to develop towards a full museum institution. The same уеаг, 1952, an exhibition was organized on the occasion of launching the impressive monument by artist Bogdan Bogdanovic at the Sephardic cemetery in Belgrade, dedicated to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust. On the occasion of commemorating the tenth anniversary of its revival, in 1955, the Federation staged another exhibition on the topic of activities of the whole Jewish community in the then Yugoslavia. During that period, the Federation, as the founder and owner of the Museum, was in permanent contact with all the member Jewish communities that were revitalized after the unprecedented persecution during the period 1941-1945. The Museum continued to receive materials relevant to the history of Yugoslav Jews. The individual, surviving Jews also responded to the invitation of the Museum and contributed individual exhibits and family photographs, and there were contributions from collectors whose collections were hidden and preserved, and others as well. Маnу of them made legacies to the Museum containing artefacts from their families and homes, and these legacies possessed historical, ethnological and artistic value; also depending on its resources available the Museum on occasions also purchased exhibits. From its very establishment, until the уеаг 1959, the Museum had managed to collect sufficient museum and archive materials to establish that same уеаг a good and picturesque permanent museum exhibition. On 19 Мау 1960, the Museum of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Yugoslavia was opened to the public, in the same building which presently houses the Federation. Soon afterwards, the name of the Museum was changed to The Jewish Historical Museum (JHM), which is much better suited to its purpose and content. The collection and professional processing of collected materials continued, so that in 1969 the second permanent exhibition of the Jewish Historical Museum, much richer and more expressive, was presented. The credit for its concept goes to Vidosava Nedomacki, Ph.D., the first Museum Manager. After the disintegration of Yugoslavia in 1992, The Federation of Jewish Communities of Serbia was established, consisting of ten Jewish communities, which is the total existing in our country. The status of the Jewish Historical Museum remained unchanged - it is an integral part of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Serbia. Although existing within the framework of the Federation, the Museum developed into an institution of its own right, living its own specific life, its professional team and business contacts with other museums. Since the permanent exhibition of the Museum was opened long before the disintegration of Yugoslavia, it deals with the historical, ethnological and general cultural topics relevant to the Jewery of the overall then Yugoslav region. Due to the grave political and economic difficulties which, beginning in 1992, overwhelmed our country, Serbia, it has not yet been possible to develop a new, differently designed museum exhibition. However, having in mind the fact that the Jews from this part of the Balkans have had a common history and cultural features - it is unavoidable that the concept of such a new exhibition should maintain, at least partially, a more comprehensive approach to such a presentation which will develop in the future. For all of these reasons, and thanks to the complex and subtly designed concept, the actual age of the permanent exhibition of the Jewish Historical Museum does not bother аnyone, as it does not have an impact on the excellent quality of information regarding Jewish history of the way of life. ; 2. dopunjeno izdanje (2nd enlarged edition). ; Uporedo srpski tekst i engleski prevod. ; Ilustracija za korice knjige: Tora i jad - pokazivač za tekst Tore iz Judaika zbirke Jevrejskog istorijskog muzeja (motive for the cover page: The Torah scroll with a Torah pointer from the Judaica collection of the Jewish Historical Museum).
La presente tesis doctoral se estructura en torno a la pregunta de investigación acerca de cómo construyen su identidad las personas que cruzan habitualmente la frontera entre Ceuta (España) y Tetuán (Marruecos) de acuerdo a sus distintos motivos de cruce. Esta pregunta se desglosa en tres objetivos específicos que guían y organizan las tres publicaciones que conforman el cuerpo de la tesis doctoral. En primer lugar, se hizo necesario conocer quiénes son las personas que cruzan la frontera entre España y Marruecos y cuáles son las principales actividades que motivan esos cruces. Seguidamente, se desarrolló un marco teórico que permitiera entender los procesos psicológicos que se dan en el contexto fronterizo. Finalmente, se propuso describir qué significados tiene la frontera para algunas de las personas que la cruzan cotidianamente y su vinculación con la identidad o self, entendido en tanto conjunto de posiciones y voces. Se presentan primeramente algunos datos del contexto concreto de producción de datos, que permitirán perfilar las características particulares de la citada frontera. En concreto, conocer los datos socio-demográficos, económicos, políticos e históricos que moldean los discursos y prácticas de este contexto. Estos median las relaciones entre los habitantes fronterizos y forman parte de los conflictos y voces a las que apelan en su construcción identitaria. Los pilares teóricos que sustentan este trabajo son los estudios sobre el desarrollo de la identidad a nivel psicológico, los estudios de frontera y el marco teórico de la psicología cultural. Sobre la identidad, entendemos que es una construcción narrativa y dinámica que está en continua revisión y se amolda según las audiencias y cánones culturales. Es una construcción que da sentido a la vivencia de la persona que la relata y que está compuesta de múltiples voces de los otros significativos que la rodean. Por otro lado, el contexto de estudio, al tratarse de la zona fronteriza internacional, posee ciertas características específicas señaladas por los estudios de frontera, como es la separación y unión que se dan al mismo tiempo a causa del establecimiento de la misma. Igualmente, esta materialización de la frontera se traslada a prácticas concretas que siguen reproduciendo las dinámicas fronterizas, las denominadas, prácticas fronterizas (bordering practices). Si entendemos estas prácticas desde los conceptos propuestos por la psicología cultural, podremos entrever sus implicaciones a nivel psicológico. La frontera se entiende desde esta propuesta como el artefacto creado por las personas que le permite mediar su relación con el ambiente. Este artefacto se internaliza a través de la participación en el contexto fronterizo y acaba constituyendo la herramienta para la percepción, guía y gestión del mundo psicológico y la relación con el ambiente y los otros. Así, la frontera y sus prácticas asociadas acaban siendo parte constituyente de la mente. Los principales resultados de las publicaciones son: la descripción de las personas que viven alrededor de la frontera hispano-marroquí y las principales actividades que realizan, así como los presupuestos metodológicos que guían el proceso de identificación y definición de las personas fronterizas o border people; el desarrollo y la aplicación del marco teórico propuesto por la psicología cultural en dos casos de fronteras exteriores de la Unión Europea a partir de la descripción de las figuras encarnadas de las fronteras nacionales: los agentes fronterizos y el cuerpo diplomático; y los principales significados que tiene la frontera (border experience) para dos grupos de mujeres que la usan por motivos diferentes (marroquíes que trabajan como empleadas domésticas en Ceuta y ceutíes que cruzan para realizar actividades de ocio y visitas a familiares) y las posiciones (border positions) y voces (border inner-Other) relacionadas con dichas experiencias, que conforman sus identidades personales. A la vista de estos resultados proponemos las actividades y motivos de cruce como un factor explicativo para entender las funciones que cumpla la frontera en la vida de las personas que habitan a su alrededor. En segundo lugar, entendemos las funciones que tiene la frontera a nivel psicológico y el sistema triádico que genera su establecimiento, para establecer puentes entre las disciplinas de la psicología cultural y los estudios de frontera. Finalmente, subrayamos la importancia de los significados personales para entender el impacto de la experiencia particular de la frontera a nivel identitario y la relevancia de los conflictos sociales materializados en las voces de los otros significativos como parte constituyente de la identidad personal. Estos diferentes factores ayudan a entender cómo construyen su identidad las personas que cruzan habitualmente la frontera entre Ceuta (España) y Tetuán (Marruecos) según sus motivos de cruce. Esta depende de los significados que las personas establecen en torno a su experiencia fronteriza particular, dada, entre otros, por las actividades que les facilita o impide la frontera, las prácticas y discursos relevantes de los otros significativos que la persona internaliza y comienza a forma parte de sí misma, así como el propio sistema triádico y co-genético que genera la materialización de una frontera, haciendo que exista una continua tensión entre la separación y conexión que genera la dinámica fronteriza y por tanto, en la construcción de la propia identidad. ; This doctoral thesis is structured around the research question about how people who usually cross the border between Ceuta (Spain) and Tétouan (Morocco) create their identity according to their different reasons for crossing. This question is broken down into three specific aims that guide and organize the three publications that make up the basis of the dissertation. In the first place, it became necessary to know what people cross the border between Spain and Morocco and what the main activities that motivate these crossings are. Next, a theoretical framework was developed that allowed understanding the psychological processes that occur in the border scenario. Finally, it was proposed to describe what meanings the border has for some of the people who cross it on a daily basis and its relationship with the self, understood as a set of positions and voices. First, we present some data about the concrete context of data production, which will allow to outline the particular characteristics of the aforementioned border. In particular, the socio-demographic, economic, political and historical data that shape the discourses and practices of this context. These characteristics mediate the relations among the border inhabitants and are part of the conflicts and voices to which they appeal in their selves. The theoretical pillars that sustain this work are studies on identity and self from a psychological perspective, border studies and cultural psychology. The self is understood as a narrative and dynamic creation that is constantly being revised and adapted according to the audiences and cultural canons. It is a story that gives meaning to the person's experience that is composed of multiple significant other's voices that surround them. On the other hand, the context on focus, being the international border zone, has certain specific characteristics indicated by border studies, such as the separation and union that occur at the same time since its establishment. Likewise, the border materialization is translated into concrete practices that continue to reproduce the border dynamics, titled as bordering practices. If we understand these practices from the concepts proposed by cultural psychology, we can glimpse their implications at the psychological level. The border is understood from this proposal as the artefact created by people that allows it to mediate its relationship with the environment. This artefact is internalized through participation in the border scenario and ends up constituting the tool for the perception, guidance and management of the psychological world and the relationship with the environment and others. Thus, the border and its associated practices end up being a constituting part of the mind. The main results of the publications are: the description of the people living around the Spanish-Moroccan border and the main activities they carry out, as well as the methodological assumptions that guide the process of identification and definition of border people; the development and application of the theoretical framework proposed by cultural psychology in two European Union's external borders cases based on the description of the embodied figures of national borders: the border guard and the diplomatic corps; and the main meanings of the border (border experience) for two groups of women who use it for different reasons (Moroccan women who cross to work as domestic workers and Spanish women who cross for leisure purposes) and the positions (border positions) and voices (border inner-Other) related to these experiences, which make up their personal identities. In view of these results, we propose the activities and reasons for crossing as an explanatory factor to understand the functions that the border fulfils in the inhabitants' daily life. Second, we understand the border functions at the psychological level and the triadic system that generates its establishment, to create links between the disciplines of cultural psychology and border studies. Finally, we emphasize the importance of personal meanings in order to understand the impact of border experience at the identity level and the relevance of social conflicts materialized in the voices of significant others as a constituting part of selves. These different factors help to understand how people who usually cross the border between Ceuta (Spain) and Tétouan (Morocco) create their selves according to their reasons for crossing. It depends on people's meanings about the border established from their particular border experience, given the activities that facilitate or prevent the border, the relevant practices, and significant others' discourses that the person internalizes and constitutes their selves, among others. As well as the triadic and co-genetic system that generates the materialization of the border, producing a continuous tension between the separation and connection generated by the border dynamics and, therefore, in the one's self.
Jurnal Ruang-Space mendedikasikan publikasinya untuk memperoleh pemahaman terhadap ruang dan lingkungan binaan. Jurnal ini ditujukan untuk menjembatani kesenjangan dalam publikasi ilmiah, khususnya yang menempatkan lingkungan binaan sebagai bagian yang tidak terpisahkan dari ilmu-ilmu sosial maupun politik. Dalam konteks ini, Jurnal Ruang mempublikasikan artikel-artikel yang mendorong kemunculan pemikiran-pemikiran kritis, sebagai salah satu karakteristik dari era pasca-modern dan globalisasi. Pemahaman terhadap lingkungan binaan secara menyeluruh dilaksanakan dengan memproposisikan pendekatan lintas disiplin, dan cara berpikir yang tidak semata dibatasi bidang keprofesian tertentu. Adapun fokus pembidangan Jurnal ini adalah pada isu-isu yang muncul sebagai akibat pembangunan keruangan untuk mengakomodasi kebutuhan bermukim umat manusia di era milenium ketiga. Fokus ini mencakup disiplin arsitektur, perencanaan, arsitektur landskap, perancangan kota, termasuk juga pandangan serta interprestasi terhadap lingkungan binaan dari kacamata urban geografi, sosiologi dan ilmu politik. Dalam mendukung visi global ini, kami mengundang partisipasi dari penulis, baik yang berasal dari dalam maupun luar Indonesia.Secara detil, Jurnal Ruang-Space menerima artikel yang membahas isu-isu berkenaan sustainabilitas, wujud kota (urban form), urban landskap (urban landscape), desain kontrol, wujud serta organisasi spasial kemasyarakatan, etnik arsitektur, perumahan untuk masyarakat berpendapatan rendah, kebijakan serta urban politik, and desain perkotaan. Jurnal ini menyambut baik kajian terhadap beragam teori dalam wujud aplikasi maupun temuan, baik yang berupa fakta maupun analisis baru. Dalam konteks ini, pendekatan serta pemikiran berbasis multidisiplin menjadi sebuah keharusan, dan bukan perkecualian. Pendekatan berpikir 'outside the box' akan menjadi karakter penting dalam pencapaian tujuan ini. Melalui publikasi Jurnal Ruang -Space kami berharap bisa membangun visi yang dinamik dan menarik, yang berbeda dengan wujud publikasi yang hanya dilandasi oleh pandangan bahwa perencanaan dan perancangan arsitektur sebagai satu-satunya elemen penentu kualitas fisik maupun sosial dari lingkungan binaan, dimana kita berada.Selain bertujuan menyediakan ruang untuk publikasi terkait topik-topik di atas, Jurnal Ruang-Space juga mempublikasikan artikel berdasarkan tema spesifik, yang secara khusus dan mendalam membahas isu-isu tertentu. Tema ini dibangun dalam batas lingkup topik publikasi, misalnya: pembangunan keruangan desa, ruang pada sistem kemasyarakatan tradisional, pengaruh globalisasi terhadap budaya keruangan lokal, dan mekanisme penggendalian pembangunan keruangan di daerah. Disamping itu, sebagai sebuah produk publikasi dari Program Studi Magister Arsitektur, Universitas Udayana, Bali, kami memiliki misi menjadikan Jurnal ini sebagai media untuk mendiskusikan isu-isu penting yang sedang dihadapi masyarakat di Pulau Dewata. Ini khususnya mencakup permasalahan pembangunan dan budaya secara keseluruhan. Di permukaan, debat berkenaan topik ini bertautan erat dengan industri kepariwisataan, yang dampaknya sudah sangat jelas bisa diidentifikasi, dan telah diinterprestasikan secara beragam. Di satu sisi, industri ini seringkali dipandang memiliki peran destruktif terhadap lingkungan dan budaya lokal, namun pada saat yang sama telah berkontribusi secara besar-besaran terhadap pembangunan ekonomi. Sirkumsatansi ini bukanlah hal langka yang hanya dialami Bali, namun pulau ini memiliki potensi untuk dijadikan sebagai laboratorium, dimana permasalahan yang muncul sebagai akibat pembangunan pariwisata bisa dipelajari secara mendalam. Selain mempublikasikan artikel dengan format dan substansi tersebut di atas, ke depannya, Jurnal Ruang-Space juga mengundang tiga tipe publikasi. Pertama, book review (maksimum 1000 kata). Kedua, viewpoints yang memamaparkan pandangan-pandangan kekinian atau kritik terhadap sebuah teori, metode, topik-topik tertentu, dan lain-lain yang dipandang oleh penulis telah terlalaikan atau dimisinterprestasikan (1000-2000 kata). Ketiga, review terhadap artikel yang tidak hanya mereview buku tertentu, tetapi melingkup juga sejarah, dampak, buku-buku yang memiliki kemiripan, kritik terhadap teori (2000-3000 kata). Melalui kesempatan ini, kami ucapkan selamat bergabung kepada anggota Dewan Editor Jurnal Ruang-Space. Terima kasih yang sedalam-dalamnya kami sampaikan kepada Ibu dan Bapak Anggota Dewan Editor atas kesediaannya untuk berpartisipasi dalam publikasi ini. Kami berharap, melalui dukungan Ibu dan Bapak, Jurnal Ruang-Space akan mencapai misinya untuk berperan sebagai media komunikasi bagi pemikiran-pemikiran baru serta hasil-hasil studi di bidang lingkungan terbangun. Anggota Dewan Editor Jurnal Ruang-Space memiliki latar belakang kepakaran yang beragam dan telah memiliki pengakuan di bidangnya masing-masing. Ini melingkup kepakaran di bidang rancang bangun, pembangunan dan perencanaan, perancangan kota, politikal ekonomi, sosiologi, sejarah dan antrofologi. Edisi perdana Jurnal Ruang-Space diawali dengan artikel yang dikontribuskan oleh Profesor Alexander Cuthbert (UNSW, Australia), salah satu guru besar tamu di Universitas Udayana. Artikel pertama ini mempersonifikasikan beberapa aspek dari permasalahan yang dihadapi dalam perancangan kota, dengan menawarkan sebuah pendekatan teoritis baru. Tulisan ini memandang bahwa estetika dan interprestasi terhadap budaya di bidang arsitektur bisa dilihat melalui kacamata teori-teori sosial. Artikel kedua ditulis Ni Made Dhina Avianthi Irawan, salah seorang staf Kementrian Pekerjaan Umum Bali di bidang Penataan Bangunan dan Lingkungan. Dhina membahas tentang pembangunan citra Kota Blahkiuh berdasarkan pengalaman serta pandangan masyarakat pengamat perkembangan kota. Blahkiuh merupakan salah satu contoh kota golongan IV di Bali. Tulisan ketiga disajikan oleh Ni Made Emmi Nutrisia Dewi, salah satu staf pengajar dari Sekolah Tinggi Desain, Bali. Tulisan Emmi mengkaji tentang pemanfaatan ruang-ruang komunal di Desa Pedungan (Denpasar), wujud perubahan fungsi yang ada dan faktor-faktor penyebab perubahan ini. Artikel keempat ditulis oleh I Made Wirata (arsitek profesional) dan Ngakan Putu Sueca (profesor Jurusan Arsitektur, Universitas Udayana). Tulisan ini membahas tentang konsep rumah adat Suku Sasak di Dusun Segenter, Lombok Utara. Keunikan permukiman ini adalah pada penempatan ruang-ruang yang sangat tergantung dari penempatan pintu dan bale sakanem (bangunan dengan 6 tiang struktur). Artikel kelima ditulis oleh Dinar Sukma Pramesti, seorang arsitek profesional. Tulisan Dinar mendiskusikan tentang tipe rumah panggung di Kampung Loloan, Kabupaten Jembrana, Bali. Dinar menggarisbawahi jika bentuk arsitektur rumah panggung kampung ini telah berkembang, menyesuaikan kondisi sosial-budaya, ekonomi, umur bangunan, ketersediaan lahan, dan preferensi dari penghuni. Artikel keenam disusun oleh I Nengah Riana, Widiastuti, dan Ida Bagus Gde Primayatna, staf akademik dari Jurusan Teknik Sipil, Universitas Pendidikan Nasional, (Bali) dan Jurusan Arsitektur, Universitas Udayana. Paper ini menstudi salah satu permasalahan serius yang semakin dihadapi Kota Denpasar, yaitu perubahan pemanfaatan ruang terbuka hijau. Perubahan ini dilihat dari wujud perubahannya serta faktor-faktor yang menyebabkan terjadinya alih fungsi ini. Artikel ketujuh mengkaji tentang relevansi dari perumahan berlantai banyak dalam pemenuhan kebutuhan perumahan untuk masyarakat berpendapatan rendah di daerah perkotaan di Indonesia, yang ditulis oleh Gusti Ayu Made Suartika, seorang akademik dari Program Studi Magister Perencanaan dan Pembangunan Spasial Desa/Kota, Universitas Udayana. Akhirnya terima kasih yang sebesar-besarnya disampaikan kepada para penulis, wakil editor, anggota dewan editor, staf editor, dan team produksi, yang telah berkontribusi dan bekerja keras sehingga publikasi Jurnal RUANG-SPACE terealisasikan. ??? Ruang-Space is a new journal dedicated to the understanding of space and the built environment. It has been created to fill a major gap in academic publishing in Indonesia, where the physical built environment remains somewhat detached from its counterparts in social science and urban politics. To this extent Ruang-Space focuses on development in general, encouraging lateral thinking as a dominant characteristic of post-modern thought and the politics of globalisation. The intention is to address the built environment as a whole, and to dispense with the barriers and silos that define professional thinking. So the subject matter of the journal will focus on major issues emerging from the development of human settlements in the third millennium. These will of necessity include the disciplines of architecture, planning, landscape architecture and urban design, as well as interpretations of the built environment emerging from urban geography, sociology and political science. In order to support our global vision, we encourage articles and reviews from around the world. In greater detail, we welcome submissions dealing with sustainability, urban form, the urban landscape, design control, community organisation, ethnic architecture, housing for the poor, urban politics and policy, and the design of cities. But in addition to our overall intention to broaden the analysis of settlement form and structure in Indonesia and abroad, we wish to push forward the barriers on significant theory, either in its application or in the discovery of new facts and forms of analysis. In so doing we accept that in the increasingly globalising world of postmodernity, cross disciplinarity is becoming the rule rather than the exception, and that thinking 'outside the box' is now a necessary characteristic of this process. Hence submissions which further these ideas will be encouraged in the peer-refereeing process that we will pursue. Under the umbrella of Ruang-Space, we hope to generate a dynamic and interesting vision of the built environment that stands in contrast to journals whose subject matter is contained within a narrow vision of architecture and planning as constraining determinants of social space. While it is our intention to make space available on a continuing basis to a diversity of submissions, as is now the norm we intend to publish occasional 'themed' issues that cover particular subjects in significant depth, for example in kampung development, space in traditional societies, the impact of globalisation on local cultures and development control. Additionally, since this journal is being produced by the Masters Program in Architecture at Udayana University in Bali, it is also our intention to use it as a forum for the diversity of problems that now inundate Balinese society, specifically those that affect development and culture as a whole. In the forefront of this debate lies the nemesis of tourism. Its impacts are ubiquitous and variously interpreted on the one hand as destructive of environment and culture yet on the other as a making a massive contribution to the local economy. While Bali's problems are not original, the island paradise offers a singular laboratory where the conflicts brought by tourism can be studied in significant depth. It is also our intention to generalise our content, not only in subject matter but also in the form in which it is presented. In future issues we will also welcome three other types of submission. First, book reviews (up to 1000 words). Second, viewpoints which provide a new insight or critique of a theory, method, subject matter etc that the author feels is being ignored or is otherwise misinterpreted (1000-2000 words). Third, review articles which not only review a particular book, but cover its history, influences, similar texts and a theoretical critique of content (approx 2-3000 words). We also take this opportunity to welcome our editorial board members, whom we gratefully thank for their participation. We hope that with your support, this journal will achieve its mission to be a medium for communication for new thoughts and study findings in the area of the built environment. Our editorial board includes experts in a variety of fields dealing with the built environment, individuals who have attained great respect in their diverse disciplines, including architecture, urban planning, urban design, political economy, sociology, sustainability, anthropology and history. This first Volume and first issue is opened by Professor Cuthbert who is a distinguished Visiting Professor at our University (Guru Besar Tamu), whose work has had international acclaim in the area of urban design. His article personifies many of the above qualities by offering a new theoretical framework for urban design from within the realm of social theory that he suggests can replace aesthetic and 'cultural' interpretations of architecture. This is followed by the second article written by Ni Made Dhina Avianthi Irawan, a civil servant of Ministry of Public Works, Department of Building and Environment in Bali. Dhina discusses the development of Blahkiuh image based on observers experiences and perception. Blahkiuh is classified as a city of class IV status in Bali. The third paper is authored by Ni Made Emmi Nutrisia Dewi, an academic of the Design Institute of Bali. Emmi's article studies the use of communal spaces of Pedungan Village (Denpasar), and the changes and factors behind them. The fourth article is written by I Made Wirata, a professional architect, and Ngakan Putu Sueca (Professor in the Department of Architecture, Udayana University). It discusses concepts behind the Sasak houses of Segenter Village, North of Lombok. The uniqueness of these settlements is the layout of spaces that relies heavily on the placement of doors and the bale sakanem (building with six structural columns). The fifth article is authored by Dinar Sukma Pramesti, a professional architect. Dinar studies the stilt houses of Loloan community, Jembrana, Bali. She underlines that the form of stilt houses has changed over time in line with various elements including socio-cultural aspects, economic factors, building age, land availability, and occupants' preferences. The sixth article is written by I Nengah Riana, Widiastuti, and Ida Bagus Gde Primayatna, academic staff from the Department of Civil Engineering, National University (Bali) and the Department of Architecture, Udayana University. It examines the conversion of green open spaces, a major problem in Denpasar. The seventh paper is authored by Gusti Ayu Made Suartika. It examines the relevance of multi storey housing in fulfilling the need for affordable houses by low income urban dwellers in Indonesia. Finally, a big thank you to all our contributors, editorial board, production team and publishing staff who have worked faithfully to bring the journal RUANG- SPACE into being.
In this dissertation I explore the co-emergence of multinational corporations and the consolidation of the discourse on human rights at the level of the United Nations throughout the second half of the twentieth century and analyse the resulting conceptual gap that created tensions in the international legal order. Despite attempts by developing countries to alleviate this imbalance through the New International Economic Order (NIEO), a multitude of soft law initiatives and the reluctance to address human rights issues in MNCs at the level of the United Nations failed to make MNCs incorporate human rights standards in their operations. The merging of the two concepts became increasingly more challenging throughout the 70s and 80s when the world was faced with the oil crisis and the rise of neoliberalism. This shift in the global legal architecture forced the Third World to take a new approach to tackle the conceptual gap, this resulted in the emergence of the Third generation of human rights and ultimately, the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). CSR is a concept of international private business self-regulation that aims at merging human, socio-economic, and political rights into the world of the corporation. As a response to the concerns for human rights violations by corporate actors, CSR slowly came to the forefront of the global business scene to enable the continuation of the operation of multinational enterprises. CSR presented a platform for global soft law initiatives to minimise the conceptual gap they had created over throughout the preceding decades. This allowed people such as John Ruggie to develop the Guiding Principles, the most successful initiative to date. This dissertation will provide its readers with a fruitful understanding of the crucial role that international law played in this development and further, what implications this had on the political and economic level. - Introduction In the words of Sundhya Pahuja and Anna Saunders, the second half of the twentieth century staged a 'series of encounters between rival practices of world making, each of which travelled with rival accounts of international law'.[1] Anti-colonial disputes, the Cold War, the rise of developmental issues and the increasing popularity of neoliberalism are only some of the events that generated these competing views of the international legal order. These events brought different coalitions across the Global North and Global South, and different 'alliances of interest between 'public' and 'private' actors'.[2] At the heart of the system that emerged lie two fundamental elements: the modern multinational corporation and human rights. How to conceptualize multinational corporations (MNCs) and how to define their relation to the law and the State was part of these rival stories. In this paper I explore the co-emergence of multinational corporations and the consolidation of the discourse on human rights at the level of the United Nations throughout the second half of the twentieth century and analyze the resulting conceptual gap that created tensions in the international legal order. In particular, I examine how this encounter, which became evident as calls for a New International Economic Order (NIEO) were being advanced within the UN, came to produce the idea of 'Corporate Social Responsibility' (CSR). I show that CSR emerged from the failure of the NIEO, particularly in relation to the roles and responsibilities of private actors in the global economy and how this can be traced to the limits of initiatives addressing the tensions between human rights claims and the interests of multinational corporations. In so doing I provide an understanding of the crucial role that international law played in this development and the implications this had at the political and economic level. The first section of this essay examines the lack of direct use of human rights language in the UN literature focusing on MNCs and their role in world development from the 1960s to the 1970s. This includes an analysis of the report entitled 'Multinational Corporations in World Development'.[3] I demonstrate the emphasis and enthusiasm for multinational corporations displayed at the level of the United Nations and how the concepts of the corporation and human rights were kept separate due to their respective supporters during the Cold War. I then focus on the attempts by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the 'Group of 77' (G77) to bridge this conceptual gap through the imposition of policies and initiatives, though without major success. The second section analyzes the influence of the oil crisis and the rise of neoliberalism on the shift of the global legal architecture, ultimately promoting the birth of the new developmental state. Here concern is with the new legal structures' attempt to merge the concepts of multinational corporations and human rights through a third generation of human rights, [4] and I engage in theoretical approaches by legal scholars such as Samuel Moyn and Antonia Darder. In the third section investigates the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and analyzes its application and limitations. CSR is a concept of international private business self-regulation that aims at merging human, socio-economic, and political rights into the world of the corporation. As a response to the concerns for human rights violations by corporate actors, CSR slowly came to the forefront of the global business scene to enable the continuation of the operation of multinational enterprises. I demonstrate how CSR aspired to close a gap between human rights and corporate action in a way that would harmonize them through a multitude of soft law initiatives. This leads to the question of whether direct regulations can apply to MNCs under international law and a discussion of the UN Global Compact, at the time the world's largest and most far-reaching CSR initiative.[5] Finally, this paper closes with the most recent developments in the global legal order designed to tackle the conceptual gap between MNCs and human rights, namely through the United Nations Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises[6] and the development of the Guiding Principles. Dawn of co-existence The United Nations lies at the heart of the international regime with its normative, institutional and procedural human rights activities.[7] By adopting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, the UN created a milestone document in the history of human rights. The Declaration has had an enormous influence on the world both in terms of 'spreading the philosophy of human rights, and in terms of inspiring legal texts and decisions'.[8] New states have used the Declaration as a basis for their constitutions, while domestic and international courts have invoked the Declaration in their judgments.[9] As human rights law developed, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, followed by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, were both drafted under the auspices of the United Nations, adopted in 1966 and entered into force in 1976. Together, these three instruments make up the 'International Bill of Human Rights'.[10] Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the world became a stage for global changes that altered the legal order. The end of colonialism dawned in the Global South, and during the height of the Cold War the West faced the Soviet Bloc and its mission of 'exporting revolution'.[11] Leaders of nationalist resistance movements received military as well as financial aid from the Soviet Bloc which intensified anti-colonial mobilization for self-determination.[12] Simultaneously, globalization was increasing rapidly, with multinational corporations emerging onto the global scene with heightened awareness of their existence as an entity with legal personality. As outlined by Sornarajah, their distinct bases of power allowed them to assert their interests through the law. With economic resources often exceeding those of their host state, MNCs had the ability to sculpt and manipulate legal outcomes through arbitration processes concerning foreign investment protection. This was done by exerting lobbying pressure on a host state which might be reluctant or even unable to object to the activities of MNCs.[13] The 'Multinational Corporations in World Development', report drafted by the UN Secretariat's Department on Economic and Social Affairs in 1973, considers 'the role of multinational corporations and their impact on the process of development, especially that of developing countries [.] [and] international relations'.[14] From the outset, the Report identifies the emerging phenomenon of the MNC in international economic affairs, how its size and spread has increased, and identifies the wide array of its activities and its use of natural resources which 'rival traditional economic exchanges between nations'.[15] It is surprising therefore, that a Report from the Department on Economic and Social Affairs, does not contain the term 'human rights' throughout the entire document. In the Report's introduction the UN makes a clear distinction between the differing views of impacts MNCs have on host countries. While 'depicted in some quarters as key instruments to maximizing world welfare, [they] are seen in others as dangerous agents of imperialism'.[16] The fact the United Nations recognized the potential neo-colonial nature of multinational corporations further highlights the need for guidance on human rights violations by MNCs. Yet the Report's reluctance to engage in the area of human rights provides a first glimpse into the divergence of the concepts of multinational corporations and human rights. An explanation for this can be identified by analyzing the Conventions, on Civil and Political Rights and on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, with the UN's reluctance to avoid tensions between the supporters of both Conventions, respectively the United States and the Soviet Union. The US pushed for the development of civil and political rights, reflecting the protection of the freedom and liberties of individuals. Stemming from a Western philosophy, John Locke identified that in a 'state of nature' humans had 'natural rights' including the right to life, liberty and property. Similarly, French legal philosophers such as Rosseau, Montesquieu and Voltaire argued that such rights emerge from the inherent nature and virtue of man.[17] As Joseph and Castan argue, 'natural rights theories were highly influential [.] particularly in the revolutionary fervor of the United States'.[18] The advancement of civil and political rights reflects the capitalist ideology of the United States, conforming to the libertarian nature of Western capitalist societies.[19] In contrast, the Soviet Union pushed for the advancement of economic, social and cultural rights. These included the right to work, the right to an adequate standard of living, and the right to physical health. Contrary to the civil and political rights, these rights were based on the idea of equality, one deeply rooted in the political ideology of socialism. As the US would not commit to a proposition that there is a right to social goods, the US has never ratified this Convention.[20] The Soviet Bloc promoted the right of self-determination by providing military and financial aid to indigenous political activists in their fight for independence; an idea enshrined in Article 1 of the Covenant which states that: 'All peoples have the right to self-determination'.[21] For the Soviets 'national self-determination was an adjunct to revolutionary communism'.[22] They envisioned self-determination as the tool for the transition from dismantling a colonial empire to establishing a socialist state.[23] However, while the United Nations was reluctant to adhere to human rights in the framework of multinational corporations, other international institutions were motivated to develop this area. The OECD attempted to impose human rights on MNCs by adopting the Guidelines for MNCs (hereinafter 'OECD Guidelines') in 1976.[24] These were 'voluntary recommendations for business practices relating to human rights, disclosure of information, anti-corruption, labour relations, taxation, the environment and consumer protection'.[25] The Guidelines were intended to strengthen the international investment climate by improving the relationship and confidence between MNCs and host countries. National Contact Points (NCPs) were created that bore the responsibilities of enforcing and promoting the Guidelines, and any natural person could make a claim related to the violation of the Guidelines.[26] This aspect of the Guidelines provided an enforcing mechanism accessible to the public. But although the Guidelines were formally adopted by member states as a corporate responsibility instrument, they were subject to widespread criticism in the international legal order. As explained by Cernic, the Guidelines are ambiguous while the NCPs are limited in their influence on host states. Even though they outlined the need to respect human rights, the obligations were not framed in mandatory terms.[27]. Since the Guidelines lacked legal basis, the OECD was unable to assert sanctions on non-compliant corporations, and critics labeled them weak and ineffective. However, it was the intention of the OECD to guide rather than to legislate, because they saw voluntary versus legally binding standards as less of a dichotomy and more a continuum.[28] Although voluntary, corporations would be under scrutiny and potentially harm their reputation if they violated the Guidelines.[29] Yet, the Guidelines were hardly successful in the international legal order. A year later, in 1977, the ILO attempted to bridge this gap by adopting the Tripartite Declaration of Principles Concerning MNCs and Social Policy. These also attempted to 'encourage the positive contribution the MNEs can make to economic and social progress'.[30]. Article 8 emphasizes the respect for the Universal Declaration and the International Covenants. However, its voluntary and non-binding nature, as well as its weak monitoring process made this instrument as frail as the OECD Guidelines.[31] The lack of responsibility and perseverance stemming from international organizations and their disappointing attempt at bridging the gap between multinational corporations and human rights forced national and regional change. On the one hand, developing nations began taking matters into their own hands. To portray unity and solidarity throughout the 'Third World' the G77 coalition, formed in 1964 by developing member countries with the primary intention of promoting its members' economic and humanitarian interests through cooperation at the level of the United Nations, took a strong initiative. In the late 1970s the Group expressed its concern at the 'imbalance of negotiating power between TNCs [transnational corporations] and their host countries and inability on the part of the latter to control the activities of the TNCs within their territories'.[32] Simultaneously, home countries wanted to ensure their investments abroad would be protected, 'specifically from expropriation without a commitment to compensation based on international law'.[33] In accordance with the principles and concerns of the freshly adopted NIEO, developing countries raised the issue of the dominance of MNCs over natural resources and strongly urged the UN for a reaffirmation of their sovereignty over their resources. The NIEO was an attempt by Third World developing states, in the wake of decolonization, to deploy international law to achieve economic justice and improvements in the areas of development and socio-economic rights.[34] Pushed by the G77, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) member states devised a set of NIEO proposals in 1974 including (1) that developing states are entitled to control and regulate all activities of MNCs within their territory; and (2) that international trade must be based on equitable, stable and remunerative prices for raw materials.[35] Despite its impressive aims and careful compilation, the NIEO was unsuccessful. It failed 'to displace the power and advantage held by influential states', it failed to alter international law which favoured the economic interests of capital-exporting states and, most importantly, it demonstrated the Third World's acceptance of the economic ideology of the capitalist mindset, inflating the value of foreign capital including the exploitation of local labour in developing countries.[36] Consequently, the UN set up the United Nations Commission on Transnational Corporations which drafted a code of conduct for TNCs, one of the first formalized instruments drafted by the UN that set an obligation upon MNCs to respect human rights in host countries.[37] However while developing countries insisted on the idea of adopting an international instrument that was binding on MNCs, developed countries were not prepared to go beyond the voluntary sets of guidelines already in place.[38] On the other hand, due to the ineffectiveness of the international institutions, some MNCs that sought to abide by human rights law attempted to create some provisions themselves. An example is the Sullivan principles designed by Leon Sullivan, former member of the General Motors' Board of Directors. These principles included the elimination of discrimination based on race, and the concept of equality in the workplace. The objective was that by engaging in human rights concepts like dignity and respect, MNCs could be a lever for the elimination of apartheid in South Africa. However, like the previously established soft law on obligations on multinational corporations, these principles were voluntary and unlike the OECD Guidelines which had the NCPs, there was no enforcement mechanism. The great majority of MNCs that adopted his principles did so with the sole motive of being able to continue to prosper in South Africa.[39] In summary, throughout the 1960s and 1970s, there were attempts at a variety of levels to bring together the concepts of human rights and multinational corporations. Though it was largely absent on the level of the United Nations until the late 1970s there were many first steps by international institutions to bridge this gap. The NIEO was the first set of concrete economic principles that were prescribed in international law 'articulating a form of justice based not on domination of one people over another'.[40] It was an 'effort to assert the sovereign autonomy of the non-western world',[41] exemplifying the importance of linking human rights and development, and the fundamental values of duties of international cooperation. However, there was still much to be done as the new decade of the 1980s saw a drastic restructuring of the global trade and investment system - ultimately ending in massive international debt and a dramatic increase in foreign direct investment. A Change in the Global Legal Architecture An accumulation of capital obtained by the main oil producing states in the Middle East led to the establishment of the Organization for Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Cartel in 1972. With the intention of creating a monopoly and obtaining major profits, OPEC raised the price of oil by approximately 400%, with its members keeping revenue in US or European banks, from which developing countries regularly borrowed in the form of aid and loans.[42] However, banks were now lending at higher interest rates to these countries as they were deemed less creditworthy. As a result of sovereign debt and the surplus problem in the international banking system, developing states were forced to rely on foreign direct investment (FDI), as opposed to private borrowing. The very principle that developing states wanted to control with the establishment of the NIEO was now negated by Western states selling MNCs to the developing world as necessary for their survival.[43] Simultaneously to the effects of the oil crisis, the political ideology of neoliberalism emerged on the global scene. Conservative governments gained power in western countries, communism collapsed in Eastern Europe with a move towards market economics, and Latin America implemented stabilization policies to boost their economies.[44] This process saw neoliberalism became an enemy for structural equality, political inclusion, economic access and human rights.[45] Prior to the implementation of neoliberal policies, the relationship between multinational corporations and their host state was formed through the conflict between the host country's national developmental interests as opposed to the corporation's global investment interests. The state being the more powerful actor, attempted 'to channel its private investments to serve its own developmental objectives'.[46] However, as Michael Peters argues, neoliberalism provides 'a universalist foundation for an extreme form of economic rationalism'[47], which according to Paul Haslam, was a re-forming of the modern state rather than the perceived notion of the state 'unambiguously withering away'.[48] As a result, power shifted from host countries towards multinational corporations as the era was characterized by liberalization of foreign investment rules.[49] As the United Nations World Investment Report of 2000 showed, out of the 1035 changes made in national legislation regarding Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) from 1991 to 1999, only 5.9% were directed at restricting FDI.[50] Now more than ever before, the existence and nature of human rights were jeopardized in the sphere of multinational corporations led by neoliberal politics. Yet when analyzing human rights and neoliberalism, the two concepts have a plethora of similarities that run counter to this assertion. Samuel Moyn states that human rights and neoliberalism share (1) a predecessor and (2) a target, namely the welfarist West and the post-colonial nation state seeking economic autarky respectively.[51] Both concepts emerged and were formalized in the West. As a target, developing countries need both economic (neoliberalism) and social (human rights) elements to establish economic control. Furthermore, the two concepts share key foundational building blocks. Firstly, the principle of prioritizing the individual 'whose freedoms matter more than the collectivist endeavours' and secondly, their shared antipathy toward the state due to their rejection of its moral credentials.[52] As described by Darder, neoliberalism is characterized by a rampant greed that subsumes any notions of equality and public responsibility.[53] At the heart of this lies the ultimate subversion of human rights. When faced with the powers of global capitalism, human rights struggle to maintain themselves in the Third World. A prime example countering this thesis is the idea that human rights are a handmaiden to neoliberal policies. The argument follows that human rights are so tightly related to the role of a freely functioning market that there could be no socio-economic rights without extreme capitalism.[54] Unfortunately under this notion, human rights fall victim to being seen as dependent upon the capitalist order, creating the illusion that multinational corporations enhanced and promoted human rights in the developing World. What Wolfgang Streeck termed as 'non-market notions of social justice' became impossible to secure. Any attempt to place social commitments over economic ones were expelled, leaving market pressures to form human obligations and be governed by the dictatorship of neoliberalism.[55] The World Bank and the IMF, backed by the United States and other western states, became key in the project for liberalization, privatization, and market-friendly policies, known as the Washington Consensus. MNCs were given the protection they needed to flourish, be it proprietary or intellectual property rights. The interests of human rights on the other hand were not regarded. Though excelling and growing more than ever before, human rights had done so 'on a discrete track spearheaded internationally through the UN'.[56] Directed by developing states, human rights were intentionally dealt with by the United Nations while international economic law was being dealt with by the international institutions where they hold the balance of power.[57] Simultaneously, the developing world saw the third generation of human rights emerge as a result of anti-colonialist movements in the post-Second World War era. Newly born independent nations voiced their concerns over repeating their colonial past and demanded a new set of rights. These included the right to self-determination, the right to a healthy environment and the right to participation in cultural heritage. These are reflected in Declarations and Conventions such as the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples of 1960, the Proclamation of Teheran of 1968 and the Stockholm Declaration of 1972.[58] What makes this generation of human rights exceptional however is that while they reflect neither the traditional individualistic approach of the first generation, nor the socialist tradition of the second generation, they simultaneously demand certain recognitions from the state while being able to be invoked against the state. Most importantly though, as articulated by Vasak, the third generation of human rights 'can be realized only through the concerted efforts of all the actors in the social scene: the individual, the State, public and private bodies and the international community'.[59] In other words, these rights belong to the community as a collective, rather than to an individual.[60] Drafted in 1986 by the UNGA, the Declaration on the Right to Development [61] (DRD) calls for effective international cooperation towards development objectives through the enhancement of human rights and the distribution of benefits.[62] The DRD gained inspiration from the NIEO as it relied on providing equal national opportunity through measures of fair distribution of natural resources and income. Alongside neoliberal policies, the two contradicting concepts were forced to work in tandem. Foreign investment in the developing world could proceed under the neoliberal ideology as long as it did not infringe the DRD. Interestingly, the right to development was coined by the former UN Independent Expert on the Right to Development, Arjun Sengupta, as 'growth with equity'. Growth should not only focus on the economic aspect, but also emphasize human rights and the principles of justice. This focus on equity, would require a 'a change in the structure of production and distribution in the economy to ensure growth was equitable', including the required international cooperation and not having to rely on the market.[63] Though the United Nations are promoting and enhancing the development of human rights, they are disregarding the fact that their work should be focused more on the human rights aspects entailed in the market, rather than solving human rights issues outside of the market framework. The development of human rights and the regulatory frameworks supporting multinational corporations attended very different interests. The new global legal architecture born of the oil crisis and rise of neoliberalism reorganized the relations between the Global South and Global North. At this point human rights and the regulation of corporations, with their distinctive genealogies, were forced to come together, but the failure of this exercise could not be challenged until the late 1980s when the third generation of human rights provided another opportunity for the merging of the two concepts. The outcomes of these new sets of discussions produced a more clearly defined relationship between human rights and multinational corporations which, although more sophisticated, was still unable to produce a satisfactory result. Nevertheless, the right to development began to take root in the corporate world. For the sake of their reputations, corporations were forced to appreciate the power held by vulnerable individuals that could act together as a strong collective.[64] As Claire Dickerson argues, multinationals became more aware of their relationship with human rights not only in regards to the individual, but rather to the society as a collective.[65] These were the first formalized steps to the recognition of what came to be known as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The Heterodox Approach What became apparent in the sphere of business and human rights were two situations, (1) that states were either unable or unwilling to implement human rights; and (2) that multinational corporations acting in such states were unprepared to deal with the risks of harming human rights through their activities. This was seen especially in the private extracting sector, such as oil, gas and coal, using aggressive means to exploit remote areas and leaving large physical and social 'footprints'. Local communities began resisting the activities by the multinationals and the language of human rights became increasingly popular in challenging corporate norms.[66] Some of the world's largest MNCs had become culprits of violating human rights standards, including Nike, Shell or Yahoo. Nike was guilty of using child labour, while Shell misused public funds to practice corruption and theft at all levels.[67] The effects were reflected in local communities that resorted to violence and criminal behaviour, significantly affecting the living conditions of these areas. In the early 1990s, some corporations began adopting measures to comply with responsible business conduct. CSR was a voluntary form of business self-regulation that attended the current societal goals. It involved the creation of monitoring schemes that regulated the workplace standards and policies of the global supply chains. However, what caused CSR to emerge, was not only pressure exerted by nations that felt their human rights had been impinged, but also a wider global political ethos. With its emphasis on privatization and deregulation, neoliberalism promoted CSR initiatives in order for corporations to gain self-control and rely less on direct government initiatives. Due to its voluntary nature, CSR was not conceived as a regulatory instrument but as a learning forum to promote strategies that enhanced socially responsible policies. This included the enhancement of human rights, environmental protection and anti-corruption efforts. [68] CSR had now progressed to the forefront of the global business scene by morphing out of corporate philanthropy.[69] Corporations began adopting voluntary schemes that not only adhered to social policy, but at times even went beyond the standard set by local requirements, which occasionally created conflict between the two.[70] Unilateral corporations produced company codes, with companies such as Gap and Nike adopting theirs in 1992. This involved internal audit teams and ethics officers to be established, verifying that contractors were complying with their company's codes of conduct. Gradually, social audit teams emerged onto the global scene. As one of the most prominent, the Fair Labour Association (FLA) monitored the working conditions for some of the top athletic brands such as Nike, Puma and Patagonia. In the food industry, the label of Fair Trade emerged, ensuring for local farmers the social, economic and environmental standards they deserved. Corporations adopted CSR measures mainly to improve their reputation. However, perhaps a greater incentive for corporations to adopt CSR measures lies in the financial risks posed by community pushback as a result of human rights violations. These pushbacks cause delays in design, operation, construction, siting, granting of permits etc. Further, they can create problems and relations with local labour markets, higher costs for financing, insurance and reduced output.[71] In a study of a large multinational company that wished to remain anonymous, Goldman Sachs found that it had accrued $6.5 billion in such costs over a two year period.[72] A great percentage of these costs could be related back to the staff time in managing conflicts that arise in communities as a result of human rights violations. In some instances between 50% and 80% of an assets manager's time can be devoted to these issues. Thus, it is clear that in this lose-lose situation, where MNCs violate human rights and thus incur losses, it makes sound corporate sense to adopt some sort of CSR measures.[73] Despite the improvements and the clear step forward the business world took in addressing human rights, CSR involved limitations and fragmentations that challenged its success. It was built on the assumption that it is an effective mechanism for a corporation to positively reconnecting with the community it is based in. Thus, in practice, CSR operates under the presumption that society has granted authority to corporations with naturally applying legal responsibilities.[74] In 2000 John Ruggie conducted research in the Fortune Global 500 and a wider range of corporations to assess the extent and success of voluntary initiatives promoting human rights. Staff monitoring schemes had evolved, demands by socially responsible investors had grown, and large public sector funds all aided in this development. However, the research also found 'company-based initiatives fell short as a stand-alone approach'.[75] Most companies still did not have the capabilities of managing human rights risks and instead were acting on a reactive based notion. Moreover, it was within the company's discretion to decide which human rights the company would address and furthermore how to define its measures. Thus, their voluntary nature could often be used as a camouflage to delay real reform.[76] A logical response to such a broad limitation would be to impose direct obligations under international law upon MNCs. Though only states and international organizations have legal standing in international law, the general view on this contention is that it would be possible to impose obligations upon MNCs due to their major economic and political influence as explained earlier, and their capabilities of influencing the enjoyment of human rights.[77] However, as explained by Zerk, the challenge lies in 'developing jurisprudence which refines and makes precise the vague aspirational statements [.] in the CSR debate'.[78] However, as the law stands, the most promising and efficient method for applying obligations on multinational corporations remains to be the national courts. Yet the fact that claims must be raised as a tort-based litigation proving a violation of domestic tort principles rather than claiming a violation under international human rights casts doubt over this method. An interesting exception to this is the US Alien Tort Statute of 1789. The tort states that district courts 'have original jurisdiction of any civil action by an alien for a tort only, committed in violations of the law of nations or a treaty of the United States'.[79] The original intention of the statute was to establish a civil remedy for violation of international law norms such as piracy, mistreatment of ambassadors and the violation of safe conducts.[80] This piece of legislation lay dormant until the 1980s when human rights lawyers discovered its potential for foreign plaintiffs to raise a claim for certain human rights abuses against an individual of any nationality, or a corporation as long as they had a presence in the United States. The question whether the Act could be enforced against a corporation was considered in 2012 in the U.S. Supreme Court case of Kiobel.[81] The court held that there was a presumption against extraterritoriality applying to claims under the Statute. There is therefore no application of the statute abroad unless it is explicitly stated in the international law which is the subject of the claim.[82] As stated by John Ruggie in his advice to the Human Rights Council in 2007 'no single silver bullet can resolve the business and human rights challenge. A broad array of measures is required, by all relevant actors.'[83] Ultimately, as a measure to seek guidance on the matter, this led to the UN Global Compact in 2000, the largest global CSR initiative.[84] The UN Global Compact was a strategic policy initiative posed by the former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan that aimed at improving corporate conditions in areas such as human rights, environmental protection and labour rights.[85] It was a prospective and hopeful initiative that was designed as a learning forum to develop, implement and disclose sustainability principles among corporate actors.[86] At its time, the Global Compact was the most far-reaching, non-governmental set of policies aimed at catalyzing the voluntary nature in the corporate citizenship movement.[87] Legal scholars such as Meyer and Stefanova felt the Global Compact could shape the relationship between MNCs and human rights through 'rewarding responsible TNCs [MNCs], while shaming at least some of the irresponsible TNCs [MNCs] into better promoting human rights'.[88] Their only concern about the extent of the success of the Global Compact lay, in the Global Compact's voluntary nature. Comparing it to the OECD Guidelines implemented 25 years earlier, an initiative like the Global Compact will only be successful if there is commitment to the initiative at all levels of the international system. Thus, the main task is to put a human face on globalization through the values and principles shared by the people, the corporation and the state.[89] However, Aravalo and Fallon dispute this. Published in 2008, their Report uses the Compact Quarterly and UNGC Annual Review to critique the Global Compact's activities and practices throughout its eight years of existence. Published by local networks and the UN respectively, they evaluate new businesses adhering to the Global Compact, as well as Global Compact practices and responses. Aravalo and Fallon found that after evaluating the various progress reports, the Global Compact falls short of being a successful initiative. According to the UNGC Annual Review, there are a multitude of gaps existing in the Global Compact framework. Research instruments for instance, under the principles of human rights and labour protection, have been deemed as inadequate as participants have failed to voice their concern over the protection of such rights within their corporation. The Global Compact has solely used online surveys to administer data, which smaller businesses are often unwilling or unable to provide. The methodology applied by the Global Compact was ambiguous and did not show the extent of the success of CSR initiatives.[90] Alavaro and Fallon argue that it would be highly beneficial for the Global Compact to re-think its methodology process of evaluating its success by introducing a chronological component into its future research models. [91] It would allow for a clearer comparison not only for participants of the Global Compact, but also for the comparison with non-Compact companies in the area of corporate responsibility.[92] As a result of this poor research methodology, the Global Compact has difficulty assessing its direct influence on the broad and voluntary concept of CSR. There are key principles of CSR that fail to receive the attention they deserve in the scope of the Global Compact. However, this is not to say that the Global Compact has been an outright failure. The Annual Review, though lacking quantifiable data, has provided a wide array of case studies providing evidence for the practical influence of the Global Compact on participants. These include programs in education and working relationships the Global Compact has encouraged and facilitated. It can be said therefore, that the Global Compact is making a difference, even if only in these cases. Until shortly after the turn of the millennium, neither company codes nor multilateral initiatives such as Global Compact, successfully achieved the necessary, concrete obligations in regard to human rights and environmental protection demands. This was set to change with the arrival of the United Nations Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises (Norms). Drafted in 2003, the United Nations Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights attempted to merge the concepts of MNCs and human rights and transform these newly developed principles into hard law. The intention was to impose human rights obligations upon companies through the domestic legal systems of their host countries. The Norms clearly express that 'states retain primary, overarching responsibility for human rights protection' and that corporations are identified as 'Duty-bearers' based on that expectation of following human rights principles.[93] The expectations expressed by the Norms are supported by enforcement mechanisms for their implementation which address the requirements that MNCs must adopt in terms of their internal practice. Furthermore, there are a multitude of rights that go beyond what is traditionally accepted as international human rights law. Examples include rights associated with consumer protection, the environment or corruption which are covered by different areas of the law.[94] However, the Norms failed to achieve promising results. Described as a 'train wreck' by John Ruggie, the Norms fell under heavy criticisms for a plethora of reasons. Firstly, the Norms fall under heavy scrutiny for attempting to impose obligations upon corporations, while simultaneously imposing parallel obligations on the state. The intention was to address the fact that MNCs operate in a legal vacuum due to their status of acting as a multinational. To alleviate this issue, it was thought that binding MNCs to hard international law would be the best option. On the one hand, minimalists argue that binding multinational corporations to international law is not an appropriate method as this would go beyond the concept of soft law initiatives such as Global Compact. This argument is developed by stating that binding corporations to international law would 'privatise human rights'. The Norms would be placing obligations on an entity that was never democratically elected, nor eligible to make reasonable decisions in regard to human rights at the level of international law.[95] On the other hand, maximalists lobby for a judicial body solely focused on the practice of multinational corporations and argue that corporations should be bound by international law.[96] Secondly, there was severe backlash against the Norms from states, corporations and businesses who argued that there was a lack of consultation from the Sub-Commission when drafting the Norms. However, this argument has since been disputed by institutions such as the Corporate Europe Conservatory or the scholars Weissbrodt and Kruger.[97] In regard to the discontent presented by states, many argued that there was a lack of involvement on their behalf in the Norms' development. As stated by Kinely, Nolan and Zerial, it is of vital importance that in issues revolving around CSR and their wide variety of stakeholders, everyone's voice must be heard when protecting human rights.[98] Thirdly, issues were raised regarding the language used by the Norms. Terms like 'sphere of influence'[99] and 'complicity' were deemed as vague and unclear.[100] It is agreed upon, even by supporters of the Norms, that such terms must be defined more definitively and where possible, draw definitions from more grounded areas of the law like criminal law, tort or contract law. This attitude towards the Norms from corporations shows the extent of their distrust and the scare factor used to attempt to dismantle the Norms.[101] However, even though the Norms failed as a concept, as Kinley, Nolan and Zerial maintain, 'the Norms have been a beneficial and fruitful initiative, reinvigorating debate on business and human rights'.[102] Previous to the imposition of the Norms, CSR had found itself in a position that was stagnant, focusing solely on codes of conduct that should be implemented by corporations using a bottom-up approach. The Norms altered the position of CSR to now provide a top-down approach and provided human rights activists with hope that human rights protection in regard to multinational corporations was now in the hands of the United Nations. However, the reactions to the Norms from the CSR community varied. CSR had been a newly emerging concept which was still unclear when fitted into the international legal order. It was still in its early years of development with highly broad-reaching initiatives in the fields of both soft and hard law. The playing field for CSR was simply too big for such an underdeveloped concept to handle. Further, it was attempted to implement CSR through domestic laws and quasi-legal initiatives raised to the level of international law. It is therefore often perceived that the implementation of the Norms were an attempt to remedy CSR by uniting these various aspects into one document at the level of the United Nations. The Norms conjoined national and international levels of CSR while maintaining that states continued to hold the primary responsibility of ensuring that businesses protect human rights. The world was a 'deeply divided arena of discourse and contestation lacking shared knowledge, clear standards and boundaries; fragmentary and often weak governance systems concerning business and human rights in states and companies alike'.[103] A range of governments still expressed their demand for further attention to be given to the relationship between human rights and the practices of multinational corporations. Thus, the United Nations appointed a team led by John Ruggie to establish the Guiding Principles. Rather than establishing a new international framework as was previously attempted with the Norms, Ruggie was 'urged [.] to focus on identifying and promoting good practices and providing companies with tools to enable them to deal voluntarily with the complex cluster of business and human rights challenges'.[104] Ruggie moved away from the traditional 'mandatory approach' which involved the compliance of national laws in correspondence to a corporation's voluntary measures and practices, to a heterodox approach. This heterodox approach was devised to create an environment of mixed reinforcing policy measures that provided cumulative change and large-scale success. The Guiding Principles lay on three foundations: (1) the state duty to protect against human rights abuses; (2) the responsibility by corporations to respect human rights and the implied obligation of acting in due diligence; and (3) the need for greater access to remedies for victims. However, there are two things that the Guiding Principles fail to accomplish. Firstly, to create binding international law and instead rely on normative contributions which further elaborate the implications of existing standards. Secondly, the Guiding Principles 'fail to ensure the right to an effective remedy and the need for States' measures to prevent abuses committed by their companies overseas'.[105] Amnesty International goes further by reiterating that aside from lacking accountability measures, the Guiding Principles should mandate a due diligence approach rather than only recommending it, as this would solve internal as well as extraterritorial accountability issues. Alongside Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch criticized the Guiding Principles for not adopting a global standard in corporate responsibility, and instead resort to a 'sliding scale' based on a corporation's size and geographic location.[106] However, when compared to other governance regimes in the past and present, the Guiding Principles seem to be a robust framework. Although various human rights organizations and NGOs identify neglect of human rights in the framework of MNCs, the Guiding Principles reiterate business as an instrument to contribute to societal welfare.[107] Thus, it acts as a basis for the empowerment of society and a benchmark to judge practices and conduct of corporations and governments.[108] Conclusion The discourse of the co-emergence of multinational corporations and human rights took the world by storm. The ongoing globalization of multinational corporations and the evolution of the concept of human rights were born attending different aims in the global legal order. Their greatest challenge however was not necessarily their harmonization and co-existence, but more importantly co-existing under the intentional gap created through the world's largest and most influential actor, the United Nations. This was clearly visible in the 1960s and 1970s. Throughout the various Reports and Declarations that were passed through the international institution, the two concepts were kept separate. While the United Nations was enthusiastic for the growth of both MNCs and human rights, it intentionally avoided discussing the harmonization of both concepts. Due to the underlying pressures imposed on the United Nations by the tensions from the Cold War, the UN was left in a legal vacuum unable to merge the two distinctive genealogies. The global international legal order was unaware of the extent of the importance of such a gap being eradicated before adopting a resolution as complex as the NIEO. Thus, from this point onwards, the NIEO was therefore already bound to be unsuccessful. Not only had international law not developed enough to impose such obligations upon MNCs, the corporations themselves were not aware of the ramifications and necessity for abiding human rights obligations as I showed in the third section of this dissertation. Enthusiasm for further initiatives such as the push by the G77 or the United Nations Commission on Transnational Corporations was only short lived. The events of the 1980s greatly disrupted the already turbulent environment of the global international legal order creating a greater gap between the concepts of multinational corporations and human rights. The 1980s became a stage which saw a great change in the global legal structure. The NIEO was an already broken concept from the outset as the conceptual gap had already created a disparity in the relationship between MNCs and human rights. This meant that although they were not aware of it at the time, the Global South could not rely on the imposition of the NIEO. Fostering the Western neoliberal policies, the conceptual gap between MNCs and human rights was now well established. For human rights to become a globally instructed concept, MNCs are a useful tool to spread, promote and enhance human rights across the globe. This of course is under the condition that the MNC does not violate human rights. From the other perspective MNCs rely on human rights in terms of their societal and financial risks. It becomes clear that when this is not realized by the proponents of both concepts, it can lead to major discrepancies and disparities as was proven in the Global South during this period. If there had not been this conceptual gap, and instead there had been a clear and devised relationship between MNCs and human rights, the effects of the oil crisis and neoliberalism would not have left the detrimental mark in developing countries that they did, potentially allowing the NIEO to prevail. However, the ongoing persistence of developing countries and their call for the third generation of human rights to gain prominence forced MNCs to catch up with their relationship to human rights. What emerged, were essentially the first initiatives and practices of CSR. CSR was heavily affected by the fact that it relied on the voluntary nature of businesses to adhere to as well as practice CSR. Even though corporations had an incentive to adopt CSR measures, weak monitoring systems allowed violations to still occur on a grand scale. The issue was that the multinational corporation as a concept was still unclear and lacked definition and that tying MNCs down with hard international law was not possible due to the diversity of MNCs. CSR allowed for too large a divergence from the issue at hand and required to approach human rights at a different angle. This was the key reason for the partial success of the Guiding Principles. Ruggie's unconventional, heterodox approach provided clarity and distinct concepts that individuals, business and states could adhere to. Although the conceptual gap has still not vanished, the UN has after an array of various attempts, managed to narrow the gap that it had created almost sixty years ago by continuously forcing society to rethink and redefine the relationship. What exactly lies in the future is uncertain and impossible to foresee. It can be said with great certainty however, that if initiatives such as Global Compact or the Guiding Principles are enhanced and given more attention, the world will be faced with a much clearer and concise relationship between multinational corporations and human rights. Focusing on monitoring mechanisms, methodological research and greater transparency and accountability among all actors involved will undoubtedly seal the conceptual gap that has caused the international legal order to experience such unsettling times. [1] Pahuja, Sundhya. Saunders, Anna. Rival Worlds and the place of the Corporation in International Law in Dann and Von Bernstorff (eds). Decolonisation and the Battle for International Law (OUP, 2018) p.1 [2] Ibid. [3] UN, Multinational Corporations in World Development ST-ECA/190 [4] Linarelli, John. Salomon, Margot. Sornarajah M. The Misery of International Law. (OUP, 2018) p.245 [5] Ruggie, John. Just Business. (W.W. Norton & Company, 2013) p.70 [6] United Nations Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises E/CN.4/Sub.2/2003/12/Rev.2 [7] Alston, Philip. Mégret, Frédéric. (eds) The United Nations and Human Rights: A Critical Appraisal (Second Edition, OUP, 2020) p.1 [8] Clapham, Andrew. Human Rights: A Very Short Introduction (OUP, 2007) p.42 [9] (n.8) p.108. [10] ibid . p.109 [11] Allina, Eric. Imperialism and the Colonial Experience in Paul A. Haslam, Jessica Schafer and Pierre Beaudet, Introduction to International Development (3rd Edition, OUP, 2017), pp. 24-42. p.39 [12] Ibid. p. 40 [13] Sornarajah M. International Law on Foreign Investment (CUP, 2010) p.5 [14] United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Multinational Corporations in World Development, 1973 ST-ECA/190 p.VI [15] ibid. p.1 [16] ibid. [17] Joseph, Sarah. Castan, Melissa. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights: Cases, Materials. (3rd Edition, OUP, 2013) p.4 [18] ibid. p.5 [19] ibid. [20] Alston, Philip. U.S. Ratification of the Covenant on Economic, Social And Cultural Rights: The Need for an Entirely New Strategy. The American Journal of International Law Vol.84, No.2 (CUP,1990) pp.365-393, p.4 [21] UN General Assembly, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 1966, Article 1 [22] Simpson, Gerry. The Diffusion of Sovereignty: Self-Determination in the Post-Colonial Age (Ashgate Publishing, 2000) p.266 [23] Ibid. [24] Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, 1976 [25] Carasco, Emily. Singh, Jang. Towards Holding Transnational Corporations Responsible for Human Rights. European Business Review Vol.22, No.4, (Emerald Publishing Group, 2010). p.4 [26] Cernic, Jernei. Corporate Responsibility for Human Rights: A Critical Analysis of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises Hanse Law Review, Vol.4, No.1, (2008). p.16 [27] Ibid. p. 12 [28] Sanchez, Juan Carlos Ochoa. "The Roles and Powers of the OECD National Contact Points Regarding Complaints on an Alleged Breach of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises by a Transnational Corporation." Nordic Journal of International Law (2015) Vol.84, No.1, pp: 89-126 p. 18 [29] Bolt, Cassidy. "Leveraging Reputation in Implicit Regulation of MNEs: An Analysis of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises' Capacity to Influence Corporate Behavior." Corporations and International Law, 20 Jan. 2018, Available at: sites.duke.edu/corporations/2018/01/20/leveraging-reputation-in-implicit-regulation-of-mnes-an-analysis-of-the-oec
[spa]Enmarcada en el estudio de la reacción internacional y la participación extranjera en la guerra civil española, esta Tesis analiza la respuesta al conflicto que se dio en Irlanda. Tal y como ocurrió en el resto de países democráticos, el contencioso español captó la atención de los habitantes de la isla de un modo significativo. El público se formuló su propia opinión al respecto, abriéndose un debate que se instaló en los principales resortes de la sociedad civil. Las formaciones políticas tomaron partido a favor de uno u otro bando y animaron a sus seguidores a secundar su postura. El Gobierno en funciones hubo de lidiar con una serie de imperativos que la conflagración impuso en su agenda, y los grupos de poder que ostentaban un peso relevante manifestaron su visión sin tapujos. Esto se advino en un momento en que la coyuntura interna de la isla atravesaba por un periodo delicado, puesto que el Free State pugnaba por consolidar el estatus que el Tratado de 1921 le había conferido, mientras que las élites dirigentes se disputaban el control del nuevo Estado. El carácter católico de la nación irlandesa jugó un papel crucial en la reacción que la guerra de España despertó entre sus ciudadanos. Pensemos que la defensa de este credo alimentaba una sangrienta disputa sectaria en el Norte, al tiempo que servía de factor diferencial para aislar la identidad gaélico-celta del resto de las Islas Británicas, de mayoría anglosajona y protestante. El tratamiento de las noticias sobre la Península que implementaron los rotativos del Sur, la postura adoptada por la Iglesia católica y la campaña a favor de los insurgentes que impulsó el conservadurismo irlandés, contribuyeron a decantar en un primer momento la opinión pública del lado rebelde. El conflicto fue interpretado como una pugna religiosa, condición que eclipsó otro tipo de lecturas posibles. La intensidad del clivaje vino acompañada, cuando no motivada, por una manipulación interesada de la información que se daba a la población. Las clases dominantes de la isla habían hecho un esfuerzo en los años precedentes por alejar a los sectores populares de las propuestas emancipadoras más radicales, alimentando para ello un temor rojo que terminó cuajando en el ánimo mayoritario. La corporación eclesiástica venía mostrando su cara más reaccionaria, enfrentándose sin complejos a cualquier atisbo de modernidad que pudiera cuestionar su poder. De hecho, muchos de sus adalides recibieron con gusto las formulaciones ideológicas que abogaban por reconquistar su preeminencia en todas las áreas de la vida comunitaria, es decir el corporativismo católico o, en su defecto, el vocacionalismo de Estado. La ultraderecha irlandesa adoptó una postura beligerante, volcando todas sus energías en la defensa de los facciosos. Los factores que motivaron esta actitud son complejos y variados, aunque en líneas generales respondieron a intereses propios, internos, antes que a una verdadera afección desinteresada. Por su parte, la izquierda radical no dudó en ofrecer toda su solidaridad a los republicanos españoles. Respuesta que le valió el acoso de muchos sectores sociales, políticos y religiosos. La insistencia de la contra-propaganda obrerista y la progresiva falta de legitimidad en la que cayó el discurso pro-franquista, terminaron por bascular el apoyo popular a la causa insurgente hacia una postura más templada. De este modo, las opiniones divergentes pudieron expresarse con un cierto margen de libertad. Aún así, la defensa de la causa lealista continuó chocando con la firme condena de la Iglesia y la oposición frontal de los estratos más acomodados. De Valera subscribió el plan de No-Intervención desde fechas tempranas, decisión que le valió la crítica de los contrincantes parlamentarios y de sus enemigos políticos. Dublín se esforzó en marcar un perfil de actuación diferenciado respecto a la Gran Bretaña, aunque no llegó a permitir que la cuestión española abriera ninguna brecha de disentimiento profundo entre ambos países. Salamanca encontró un aliado potencial en algunos grupos de presión irlandeses como el Irish Christian Front, la jerarquía católica y ciertos grupúsculos filo-fascistas como los blueshirts o el NCP. De hecho, a punto se estuvo de organizar una cruzada moderna en defensa de la cristiandad, que hubiera traído hasta España a millares de voluntarios dispuestos a combatir. Diversos intereses truncaron esta iniciativa y, finalmente, la propuesta se tradujo en una pírrica participación en la guerra de una pequeña compañía expedicionaria que no tardó en ser devuelta a su hogar. Por su parte, las formaciones que asumieron en la isla la salvaguarda del Gobierno de Madrid se vieron obligadas a aunar fuerzas y conglomerarse en un Frente Unido, a imagen y semejanza del Frente Popular español, para resistir el embate de la reacción. Contra viento y marea, esta plataforma convocó diversos actos de solidaridad en defensa de la legitimidad republicana, organizó comités de apoyo al pueblo español y trató de advertir a los trabajadores irlandeses del verdadero significado del conflicto. Aún más, algunos de sus mejores activos no dudaron en alistarse a las filas de las Brigadas Internacionales, haciéndose un lugar en la historia por su ardor en el combate y su sacrificio heroico. El objetivo de esta Tesis consiste, por un lado, en evocar el avance del estado de la cuestión que se ha alcanzado en Irlanda durante los últimos años, y por el otro, en aportar aquella información que las investigaciones que nos anteceden habían eludido. La justificación de todo ello, guarda relación con la escasa atención que la historiografía española ha prestado a esta temática hasta el momento, circunstancia que contrasta con la cantidad de trabajos que se han dedicado a analizar la respuesta que se dio en lugares como la Gran Bretaña, Francia, Italia o Alemania. Dicha carencia se presenta como un motivo de peso para tratar de llenar el vacío que existe en este campo. Para ello, hemos tratado de comprender los paradigmas que la historiografía irlandesa había establecido en torno al objeto de estudio, revisando las principales fuentes que habían consultado sus representantes y, en segundo lugar, hemos intentado descubrir y analizar otras fuentes novedosas que no habían sido trabajadas hasta la fecha. Los antecedentes de nuestra disertación se asientan en el trabajo desarrollado unas décadas atrás por algunos académicos irlandeses. Michael O'Riordan fue la primera persona que estudió con una cierta solidez la vivencia de los reclutas isleños en las Brigadas Internacionales. Su obra Connolly Column, se insería en la vertiente de publicaciones que analizaban el papel jugado por los distintos contingentes de voluntarios extranjeros que lucharon a favor del Gobierno de Madrid. Diletante antes que historiador de formación, su libro fue superado un tiempo después por la labor de los profesores Robert Stradling y Fearghal McGarry, quienes a finales de los años noventa editaron, respectivamente, el resultado de sus investigaciones centradas en la reacción irlandesa ante la guerra civil. Estos fueron los trabajos que nos pusieron en la pista del fenómeno que ocupa nuestra atención. La estructura de los temas abordados responde a un doble condicionante. Por un lado, resultaba complicado esquivar la división del contenido de sus obras que habían usado McGarry y Stradling. Por el otro, las propias fuentes que hemos consultado han impuesto, a tenor de las deducciones obtenidas, una determinada distribución de los resultados. El primero de estos imperativos guarda relación con el deseo de implementar una exposición holística del fenómeno. En este sentido, era menester acotar el marco histórico, construir una narración general de los hechos, y, profundizar en el relato de la experiencia vivida por los voluntarios que se trasladaron hasta la Península para combatir. Estas secciones de nuestro trabajo ocupan las Partes primera, segunda y tercera del mismo, y la estructura de sus capítulos guarda un parecido con los trabajos de McGarry y Stradling. La redacción de los apartados que los integran ha contado, aún así, con el auxilio de ciertas fuentes que estos autores no habían usado en su momento. Esto se hace patente en lo que concierne a la primera Parte. La segunda y tercera Parte incorporan algunos datos novedosos que derivan del análisis de periódicos y artículos que los susodichos investigadores pasaron por alto. El segundo condicionante al que nos habíamos referido guarda relación con la cuarta y quinta Parte de esta Tesis, donde se presenta la mayor dosis de originalidad que encierra nuestro ensayo. Son fruto de un estudio documental intensivo, que nos ha permitido recoger el testimonio aportado por una cantidad nada deleznable de material de archivo prácticamente inédito. La extensión de estos descubrimientos ha exigido ordenar los resultados de manera diferenciada según su contenido o procedencia. Así, la cuarta Parte aloja toda la información derivada de las cajas y legajos albergados por el National Archive of Ireland, vinculada eminentemente con la reacción de las autoridades irlandesas ante la guerra. Por el contrario, la quinta Parte expone los hallazgos encontrados en diversos archivos que se ubican en el Estado español, los más destacados de los cuales son el Archivo General Militar de Ávila y el Centro Documental de la Memoria Histórica. La elección de las fuentes ha respondido a un criterio abierto, inclusivo, en cuyo origen subyacía el deseo de cotejar la mayor cantidad posible de inputs de información. Este trabajo se sitúa en el campo de la historia política, a lo que se suman algunas consideraciones de otra índole. A efectos de contenido temático, los centros a los que debíamos acceder en Irlanda eran, sin lugar a dudas, la National Library y el National Archive. La faena de biblioteca, en lo que a bibliografía y sección de hemeroteca se refiere, quedó satisfecha en el University College Cork, donde pude permanecer como investigador visitante. Por otro lado, la sanción de una aportación novedosa al estado de la cuestión debía resolverse a base de indagar con detenimiento en los archivos españoles. Era éste un campo de trabajo relativamente virgen en relación con los estudios que se habían impulsado en la isla, hecho que lo convertía por sí mismo en uno de los motivos que justificaban la elaboración de esta Tesis. Stradling y McGarry, tal y como habían hecho hasta entonces algunos especialistas extranjeros en materia de guerra civil, habían visitado, sin obtener grandes rendimientos, los centros de Ávila y Salamanca. En este sentido, mi primer cometido consistía en superar el alcance de la exploración que ambos habían llevado a cabo en estos archivos. La disponibilidad de tiempo, un mejor dominio del castellano y la voluntad de perseverar, permitían atisbar algunas expectativas de éxito en torno a este objetivo. Mi proyecto de investigación preveía extender las pesquisas a otros centros del Estado, meta que me condujo hasta las salas del Archivo General Militar de Segovia y el Archivo General Militar de Guadalajara. Anhelaba encontrar aquí más datos acerca de los voluntarios irlandeses que lucharon en la guerra y, aunque en poca cantidad, di con algo interesante. Las visitas al Arxiu Nacional de Catalunya, al Centro de Patrimonio Documental de Euskadi y al Archivo del Nacionalismo Vasco, tenían por objetivo la detección de relaciones y concomitancias entre el nacionalismo de estos lugares e Irlanda. De nuevo, estas diligencias concluyeron con un resultado favorable. Finalmente, requerí consultar los fondos de algunos equipamientos como la Biblioteca Foral de la Diputación de Bizkaia o los depósitos documentales y bibliográficos del Pavelló de la República (Universitat de Barcelona), para trabajar con algunas ediciones de prensa que podían enriquecer el trabajo. Las revistas y publicaciones periódicas que han sido citadas en esta Tesis fueron localizadas, de forma mayoritaria, en el archivo Special Collections y en la biblioteca de la universidad de Cork. Los fondos inter-universitarios a los que se puede acceder hoy en día a través de la Red, hicieron el resto. La prensa escrita que consulté en Irlanda ha representado un elemento de primer orden a la hora de obtener datos suculentos e información precisa con la que operar. Pude ocuparme de algunos portavoces radicales como el United Ireland o The Irish Democrat gracias a los microfilms que se guardan en la universidad de Cork. El análisis de otros periódicos de ámbito más general como el Irish Press o el Irish Independent, me vino facilitado por los servicios on-line de la Boole Library que ofrece la UCC, a los que logré tener acceso gracias a la condición de 'visiting researcher' con la que decidieron congraciarme. La inspección de rotativos como La Vanguardia y el ABC pudo solventarse sin problemas en España. Por el contrario, la depuración de algunos noticiarios como el Our Fight o el Volunteer for Liberty exigió pasar algunas jornadas de trabajo en archivos especializados como el Centre d'Estudis Històrics Internacional. La mayor parte de la bibliografía utilizada en esta Tesis es de manufactura anglosajona, predominantemente irlandesa. La estancia de investigación que realicé en Irlanda me facilitó, en gran medida, su consulta. Años atrás, en motivo de mi primera visita a la isla, logré adquirir aquellos títulos más esenciales que habrían de sentar las bases de este ensayo. Desde Granada, mientras cursaba los estudios del DEA, continué alimentando esta actividad compilatoria. Posteriormente, cuando ya trabajaba en la Tesis, el CDMH y el CEHI me sirvieron para localizar algunas obras que podían ser de utilidad. A grandes rasgos, puede señalarse que nos hemos servido tanto de obras contemporáneas del estilo de The Book of the VX International Brigade o las memorias de O'Duffy, como de obras actuales redactadas por historiadores de nuestro tiempo. Lógicamente cada capítulo y apartado ha requerido una contextualización bibliográfica en particular. Algunos libros guardaban una utilidad transversal, por lo que han servido como herramientas generales. Otros fueron requeridos para atajar simples cuestiones puntuales, de modo que han ocupado una categoría secundaria. Finalmente, hemos usado algunas publicaciones a modo de instrumentos auxiliares. Eso sí, la mayor parte de los textos de los que nos hemos servido, ya fuesen recuerdos de veteranos, manuales escritos por historiadores, crónicas periodísticas de la guerra, artículos de prensa o revistas de corte académico, entre otros, estaban escritos en lengua inglesa. ; [eng]This project of investigation surveys Irish responses to the Spanish Civil War, recounting the participation of Irishmen on both sides of that conflict. Specially, it analyses the motives behind their involvement in Spain, their experiences there, and it attempts to place both in the context of comparative international responses to the war. It's correct to say that the Spanish Civil War aroused strong passions in Ireland, so this research examines various interest groups on the Irish front: supporters of the Spanish Republic, the pro-Franco Irish Christian Front, the Catholic Church, etc. It also considers the formation of diplomatic policy, and the party political responses. However, all those reactions help to illustrate the impact on Ireland of the rise of radical ideologies in 1930s Europe. So, this P.H.D. describes the political culture of interwar Ireland. The central part of this research studies the corps of 700 Irish volunteers, formed by Eoin O'Duffy (politician who had previously organised the banned quasi-fascist Bueshirts in Ireland), that fought on the Nationalist side of Franco. And by the other hand, explains the history about the group of IRA members and Irish Socialists who fought in support the cause of the Second Republic (around 250-300 men), organized by the Republican Congress and the Irish Communist Party with Frank Ryan as their leader; sometimes referred to as the "Connolly Column". Moreover, this work turns around different axes of research related with the connections between Ireland and Spain during the interwar period. This is, the foreign affairs among both countries, their diplomatic relations, the reception of Irish news and events in the Spanish medias of that time, etc. Specially, trying to put forward the Catalan and Basque particular ties with Ireland. By doing so, it analyzes several bonds that were established between various political parties, institutions, organizations and other bodies from those lands.
In this issue, we explore the challenges and opportunities lower-middle income countries in Asia face in the wake of mass reverse migration movements in 2020, brought about by COVID-19. Can governments respond to the unprecedented number of returned migrant workers in ways that benefit migrant workers and their families, contribute to COVID response and recovery, and build stronger policy frameworks for future migration cycles?
The following bulletin focuses on remittance inflows into Georgia in 2020 and its development in 2021. The social and economic stability of Georgia strongly relies on the money sent from emigrants to their families. Based on World Bank Data1, in 2019, in terms of dependence on remittance inflows, Georgia ranked 21st in the world, with remittance inflows to GDP ratio. Moreover, the study conducted by the State Commission on Migration Issues revealed that in 2016 money sent by every second emigrant to their families accumulated half or 3/4 of family budget, and for the 15% of families remittance was the only source of income in Georgia.
Remittances are considered a lifeline of developing countries and are especially vital for migrants and their families. Digital data technology can help alleviate many of the "pain-points" in the remittances industry. For example, it can significantly enhance the convenience, speed, security, and affordability of sending and receiving remittances. This publication discusses the importance of remittances in Asia and the Pacific, the key challenges faced by the industry, and the impacts of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. It also includes country case studies that demonstrate the benefits of digitization and makes recommendations on how the digitization of remittances across the region can be further advanced.