Suchergebnisse

The situation in Europe in 2015 and 2016 has raised many questions about state responses to what has been called "the refugee crisis", and how these responses correspond with claims of upholding respect for the principle of asylum, and of refugee and migration policies being humanitarian and fair. Refugee policy is influenced by a number of different factors, including a state's legal obligations, economic situation, political ideology and public opinion. This paper gives an overview of relevant legislation in the field, and of events and developments in migration and asylum policy in 2015 and early 2016. I discuss whether a state's self-image, and the image it wishes to present, has any impact on policy in extraordinary situations such as the one unfolding in Europe over the last eighteen months. It is argued that the self-image can indeed have some impact, in particular on the way increasingly restrictive measures are presented and explained, however, it is also held that regardless of a state's self-image or good intentions, a humanitarian asylum policy which upholds respect for human rights, and the principle of asylum in particular, only seems possible when not actually put to the test.

This dissertation examines the child's right to participation in theory and practice within the context of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and other international human rights instruments. Article 12 of the Convention establishes the right of the child to express views and to have those views respected and properly taken into consideration. The emphasis of the study is on the democracy aspects of child participation and on how the implementation of the right to participation could become more effective. For these purposes, the theoretical underpinnings of the child's right to participation are examined with a particular focus on the impact of power structures. In order to clarify how state parties to the Convention have implemented article 12 and the way they argue regarding possible obstacles for implementation, jurisprudence and case law (practice) of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, as well as supervisory bodies of other international human rights instruments, are studied. In particular, the importance of traditional attitudes towards children on the realisation of participation rights for children is analysed. The case of India is presented as an example of how a state party to the Convention can argue on this matter. The conclusion drawn from the analysis is that the problem lies not in certain societies/cultures (often labelled traditional) being less inclined to allow and facilitate matters for children to participate in decision-making than in other more "modern" societies. Instead, the same view of the child prevails, regardless of the society in question. The challenge thus lies in changing adult attitudes towards children and child participation. In the final chapter, suggestions are presented in relation to how state parties can be encouraged to find the political will essential for effective treaty implementation and for bridging the gap between theory and practice.

Abstract
In the Nordic countries children's rights generally hold a particularly high normative status. All Nordic countries except for Denmark have incorporated the key human rights treaty on children, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (the crc), into the domestic legal order, giving the crc status as domestic law. Drawing on wider literature to define a key set of "expectations on incorporation", the article analyses the extent to which incorporation of the crc in the domestic legal order of four out of five Nordic countries has had an impact on legal developments in the Nordics in the wake of the 2015 "refugee crisis". It is suggested that in asylum law, where the risk of a conflict of interest between the individual and the State in many ways is obvious, there seems to be significant room for improvement when it comes to the actual impact of the crc.

This article discusses how arguments related to urgency and crisis affected the quality of the legislative process in relation to three cases of law-making related to the so-called refugee crisis in 2015/2016 in Sweden. It is argued that derogations from the steps of the legislative process based on a feeling of urgency are detrimental for the quality of the specific legislation and, in a long-term perspective, also for the rule of law.