Guardian: Electronic System Aimed at the Protection of Mistreated and At-risk People

Ambient Intelligence (AmI), based on ubiquitous computing, represents the most promising approach between people and technology to solve the challenge of developing strategies that allow the early detection and prevention of problems in automated dependence environments. One of the most influenced areas by AmI-based systems will be security and, more specifically, the protection of people under risk situations, including cases of mistreatment or loss. This will contribute to improve important aspects of the quality of life of these people, specially their safety. This paper describes Guardian, an integral solution designed for improving the protection of mistreated and at-risk people

Operating in the dark: The identification of forced labour in the UK

Presented here are the findings of a research study undertaken between 2015 and 2018 that focused on existing arrangements and mechanisms for front-line identification of the victims of forced labour in the UK. The study drew upon interviews with service professionals in en-forcement and policing organisations together with workers in non-governmental victim sup-port agencies. These findings reveal significant failings in current approaches, that suggest processes for the identification of victims remain, at best, uneven from service to service, lo-cation to location, at worst wholly inadequate. The study also exposed widespread stake-holder concerns around UK government regulatory guidance and immigration policies, suggesting that these were hindering rather than assisting them in the process of identification. Further, that the deregulated employment environment was one in which forced labour practices could both thrive and remain well-hidden amongst wider employer exploitation and abuse

A Report on Child Trafficking and Care Provision: Towards Better Survivor Care

First paragraph: Child trafficking in the UK has attracted increasing political, media, academic, policy and practice interest recently, with a developing literature base providing comment on the extent of the problem and possible responses under the UKs obligations to international law. Until recently, trafficking was perceived primarily as an immigration issue; a view which has not altogether dissipated, resulting in children being slotted into existing services for separated and asylum seeking children. Often children received no service, without or with limited assessment of continuing risk and needs

To what extent has the Investigatory Powers Act 2016 achieved an appropriate balance between the competing interests of privacy and intrusion?

Investigating how recent Privacy and Intrusion laws have changed to affect individual’s rights around the areas of terrorism, data retention and the recent Investigatory Powers Act. Accompanying this, research into how participants perceive storing personal sensitive data and whether this should be held by a specific authority is considered. This assessment on whether the public should have their information stored and investigated, with the aim to aid in the prevention/detection of serious crime and terrorism is needed. The necessity to find a balance between both privacy and intrusion is key in a society with expanding modern technologies. By analysing past legislation to show where the Government has misused its powers to find specific crimes will give an understanding on the next step to combatting threats against the nation, while also weighing in on how to combat the growing intrusion against ones privacy rights. The balance needed must ensure privacy, and the correct processes to ensure national security is upheld

Odvraćanja migranata na Sredozemnom moru ‒ između mjera zaštite državnih granica i obveze poštovanja ljudskih prava

This paper explores the practice of pushback operations in the Mediterranean Sea in the last decade, observing it both through the prism of states’ security interests and through their obligations under human rights law. Analysis of the content of some of the basic human rights – in particular the right to life, the prohibition of refoulement and the prohibition of collective expulsions – and their applicability in the context of pushback operations reveals that it is virtually impossible to reconcile pushbacks as a means of safeguarding states’ borders and states’ human rights obligations. It seems that the Mediterranean states and the European Union have come full circle – from the Italian pushback programme in 2009, through the condemnation of the practice by the European Court of Human Rights in the landmark decision of Hirsi Jamaa v. Italy and the subsequent replacement of the practice of pushbacks with the practice of pullbacks, to renewed systemic hot returns. A viable solution at the European Union level needs to be found or otherwise the states which are on the front line of migratory flows will continue to prioritise their own security interests over their human rights obligations.U radu se analizira praksa odvraćanja migranata na Sredozemnom moru u posljednjih desetak godina, i to kroz prizmu, s jedne strane, zaštite sigurnosnih interesa država i, s druge strane, obveze država na zaštitu ljudskih prava. Analiza sadržaja nekih temeljnih ljudskih prava – u prvom redu prava na život, zabranu refoulementa te zabranu kolektivnih protjerivanja stranaca – i njihova primjenjivost u kontekstu operacija odvraćanja na moru ukazuje na to kako je praktički nemoguće provoditi operacije odvraćanja, a da se istodobno postupa u skladu sa standardima zaštite ljudskih prava. Čini se kako su države Sredozemlja, kao i Europska unija, napravile puni krug – od talijanskog programa odvraćanja iz 2009. godine, preko odluke Europskog suda za ljudska prava u predmetu Hirsi Jamaa protiv Italije te naknadne prakse zamjene operacija odvraćanja operacijama povlačenja (pullbacks), do ponovnih sustavnih odvraćanja migranata. Potrebno je i dalje tražiti na razini Europske unije zadovoljavajuće i održivo rješenje jer dokle god se to ne postigne, države koje su na prvoj liniji priljeva migranata zasigurno će dati prednost svojim sigurnosnim interesima, nauštrb zaštite ljudskih prava

Older adult mistreatment, dementia, and the family caregiver in the Northeastern Ontario home: the influence of context on professional agency

This integrated-article thesis presents the findings of a qualitative critical inquiry with three related aims: to understand the experience of formal care practitioners who encounter mistreatment of an older adult with dementia by their family caregiver in the home; to explain the influences of the domestic, health care, geographical, and socio-political contexts upon that experience; and to facilitate empowerment and collective action to improve policy, practice and care outcomes. Viewing this experience through a Critical Social Theory lens, data collection methods consisted of interviews, reflective journals, and inquiry and action focus groups. Practitioners representing 23 organizations providing care to older adults in their homes in urban and rural Northeastern Ontario participated over the course of two phases of Understanding and Empowerment. In this thesis, Chapter 1 will review the literature, identifying gaps in knowledge and describing the critical theoretical underpinnings, methodology and theoretical thematic analysis which were instrumental to facilitate self-reflection of past cases, critique of socially dominant ideologies and structures, dialogue with other practitioners also encountering these cases, and dialectic reasoning, a process of examining contradictions of what is, versus what should be in cases of older adult mistreatment and dementia. Chapter 2 presents the findings on the experience of practitioners with these cases. More specifically, practitioners described a lack of professional agency defined as the ability to control outcomes and act in a meaningful way in their cases. Next, Chapter 3 examines the home, familial, health care, geographical and socio- political contexts and their influences on professional agency. Those findings describe the oppression of these contexts on practitioners who could not control the outcomes of older adult mistreatment [OAM] within them. Chapter 4 then presents the process of empowerment during which practitioners shared their concerns related to these oppressive contexts and collaborated towards collective action projects to improve policy, practice and outcomes. Chapter 5 situates the significance of the findings within the field of OAM and dementia and discusses cross- cutting themes linking the papers. Limitations of the study will be reviewed as well as recommendations for policy, practice and research.Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Interdisciplinary Rural and Northern Healt

The Illusion of Greener Pastures: Violence and Justice for Female Ugandan Migrant Workers in the Middle East

High levels of unemployment especially among the youth remains one of Uganda’s challenges. About 165,000 Ugandans currently work in the Middle East; some in search of greener pastures through what the labour movement terms as labour expropriation. The Ugandan Government has recognised this expropriation as one providing employment opportunities for young people and good for Uganda’s economy. However, many youth - mostly young women - have fallen prey to violence and abuse meted on them by their employers, including physical and sexual abuse. This article illustrates through real experiences of Ugandan women, the negative consequences of labour expropriation, which have attracted national visibility because of the obvious human rights and gender-based violations that arise especially in the form of violence against women. The article also examines the legal and policy framework relevant to expropriation, including bilateral agreements signed between Uganda and receiving countries in the Middle East. Making reference to interviews with returnees or former domestic workers in the Middle East as well as key informants working in key institutions, this interrogation finds both the laws and structures for protection of young women inadequate in terms of meeting their subjective needs and expectations for protection against violence while working abroad. Going forward, the Ugandan Government should make deliberate efforts at addressing the plight of female migrant workers in the Middle East through strengthening the legal framework and facilitating the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development to undertake stronger monitoring of recruitment agencies, among other initiatives