Localizing Human Rights

International human rights lawyers tend to focus on establishing the universality of human rights rather than on improving the usefulness of human rights in addressing local problems. This paper draws attention to the need to make human rights more locally relevant, particularly in a context of economic globalisation. Human rights can be made more locally relevant by interpreting existing global norms in the light of needs identified by community organisations, and by developing human rights further, particularly at the local and regional levels in the light of these same needs. If made more locally relevant, human rights can offer protection against adverse effects of economic globalisation at the local level. There are also consequences for the activities of international institutions: the field work of the UN High Commissioner for human rights, and current developments in the opening up of state-investor arbitration to the consideration of human rights impact are taken as examples.

The International Financial Institutions and Human Rights – Law and Practice

The broader issue dealt with in the paper is to what extent multi-party development efforts are accountable to their intended beneficiaries. One mechanism for ensuring accountability is human rights. Traditionally, only States carried human rights obligations. International law has evolved, however, and now recognises that intergovernmental organisations, including the international financial institutions, are also bound by human rights law. The World Bank has responded to some extent to this shift by creating the Inspection Panel. Beneficiaries can use the Inspection Panel to query compliance by the Bank with its own operational policies, some of which reflect human rights concerns.

Femtosecond dynamics of hydrogen elimination: benzene formation from cyclohexadiene

Using femtosecond-resolved mass spectrometry in a molecular beam, we report real-time study of the hydrogen elimination reaction of 1,4-cyclohexadiene. The experimental observation of the ultrafast stepwise H-elimination elucidates the reaction dynamics and mechanism. With density-functional theory (ground-state) calculations, the nature of the reaction (multiple) pathways is examined. With the help of recent conical-intersection calculations, the excited-state and ground-state pathways are correlated. From these experimental and theoretical results we provide a unifying picture of the thermochemistry, photochemistry and the stereochemistry observed in the condensed phase

Impact of international donors' new policy agenda on project collaboration between community-based women organizations and NGOs in the Kibera slums of Nairobi, Kenya

This article first describes the New Policy Agenda (NPA), a market-based ideology influencing donor agencies’ strategies for international development. The article then continues to discuss how community-based women organizations (CBWOs) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) evaluate their collaborations or ‘partnerships’ in practice in the Kibera slums of Nairobi, Kenya. We tested the research hypothesis that the NPA reduces the likelihood of achieving equitable partnerships because of its insistence on ‘contracting’ partners, i.e. creating a patron-client relationship. This was carried out through qualitative research consisting mainly of semi-structured interviews and participatory observation with NGOs and CBWO representatives working in Kibera. Research results show that the contract conditions for CBWOs to enter into a partnership may reduce the chances of the most vulnerable groups in society of obtaining assistance. This ‘contracting’ relationship may also cause a loss of CBWO members’ motivation. The NPA and its emphasis on saving time and money also has a negative impact not only on the external development actors’ knowledge about the development context, but also on the multiple accountabilities in a CBWO-NGO partnership, on the quick-fix nature of the solutions applied to remedy the lack of accountability and on the practical implementation of ‘participatory development’ in Kibera

Monoclonal antibodies in type 2 asthma : a systematic review and network meta-analysis

Since novel treatments to target eosinophilic inflammation in Type 2 asthma are emerging, we aimed to evaluate and meta-analyze the efficacy of monoclonal antibodies to reduce exacerbation rate. PubMed and Web of Science were searched for phase II and phase III randomized clinical trials with monoclonal antibodies targeting key mediators of type 2-associated asthma. Thirty trials were selected involving biologics that target the IL-5 pathway, IL-13, the common IL-4 and IL-13 receptor, IL-9, IL-2 and TSLP. As no head-to-head trials were retrieved from literature, we performed an arm-based network meta-analysis to compare effects on exacerbation rate between the different treatments. Mepolizumab, reslizumab and benralizumab significantly reduced the risk of exacerbations compared to placebo (by 47-52%, 50-60%, and 28-51% respectively). Reslizumab and benralizumab also improved lung function. Dupilumab and tezepelumab improved lung function in frequent exacerbators. Lebrikizumab had no significant effect on the number of exacerbations, symptom control or health-related quality of life. Tralokinumab improved lung function compared to placebo. Network meta-analysis of all treatment and placebo arms, showed no superiority of one biologic over the others. Large reductions in exacerbation rates were observed compared to placebo, though only benralizumab was sufficiently powered (n = 2051) to demonstrate significantly decreased exacerbation rates in the subgroup analysis of IL-5 acting agents compared to placebo. Monoclonal antibodies such as mepolizumab, reslizumab and benralizumab have proven their benefit to reduce exacerbation rates in severe persistent eosinophilic asthma in the published trials. However, no statistically significant superiority was observed of one biologic over the other in the network meta-analysis. More studies with direct head to head comparisons and better defined endotypes are required

Dynamics in Self-assembled Organic Monolayers at the Liquid/Solid Interface Revealed by Scanning Tunneling Microscopy

The liquid/solid interface provides an interesting medium for molecular self-assembly and scanning tunneling microscopy is the preferred technique to analyse the structural features of the surface-supported self-assembled monolayers in this medium. An interesting aspect is the phenomenon of molecular dynamics at the liquid/solid interface. In this mini-review, we report on our efforts and strategies to investigate and even induce molecular dynamics at the liquid/solid interface, bringing insight to various kinds of processes such as conformational, translational and adsorption/desorption dynamics

Thrombolysis of acute total occlusion of the left main coronary artery in evolving myocardial infarction

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Preferred Formation of Minority Concomitant Polymorphs in 2D Self‐Assembly under Lateral Nanoconfinement

Control over polymorph formation in the crystallization of organic molecules remains a huge scientific challenge. Now, preferential formation is presented of one polymorph, formed by chiral molecules, in controlled two‐dimensional (2D) nanoconfinement conditions at a liquid–solid interface. So‐called nanocorrals to control concomitant polymorph formation were created in situ via a nanoshaving protocol at the interface between 1‐phenyloctane and covalently modified highly‐oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG). The preferentially formed polymorphs, which were less stable in the large‐scale monolayers, could be selected simply by varying the orientation of the square nanocorrals with respect to the HOPG lattice