The Protection of Animals through Human Rights. The Case-Law of the European Court of Human Rights

The chapter discusses the potential of a human rights framework to contribute to the growth and development of global animal law. It takes as example the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, and examine the major trends in the Court’s judgments and admissibility decisions that directly or indirectly concern the rights or welfare of animals. It is concluded that the Court is not indifferent to the welfare of animals, but that animal welfare is instrumentalised: it is understood not as a good in itself, but is instead valued for its implications for human welfare and rights. The chapter then considers the obstacles that the anthropocentrism of the human rights idea and the instrumentalisation of animal concerns present to the use of human rights frameworks to further the development of global animal law, as well as the opportunities that exist in the meeting of these paradigms. It concludes that although the telos of human rights law is different from that of animal law, nevertheless there exist many overlapping concerns within which mutually beneficial interactions are possible

Context-aware ontology for dengue surveillance

Ovitrap survey is one of dengue surveillance techniques employed by Ministry of Health Malaysia to identify current rate of vector population in a selected area. Result obtained from this activity is used to determine suitable control method to eradicate vector in the said area. This research study proposes a context-aware ontology that provides foundation of dengue surveillance system based on Ovitrap survey procedures exercised in Malaysia to assist ento-mologies on data analysis and decision-making. Ontology concepts are derived following guidelines provided by METHONTOLOGY methodology. The sub-activities of Ovitrap survey are categorized into two and formed two main concepts, which are field activities and lab activities. The other two main concepts represent instruments required to carry out Ovitrap survey and context information for the ontology. Context-awareness in ontology allows information flow and sharing between these main concepts. Result obtained could be used as support when requesting deployment of vector control activities. An entomologist expert validated the information flow of the proposed ontology while the ontology quality is measured following ontology quality metric suite. Accurate and correct representation of dengue surveillance activity via ontology could assist entomologist to carry out Ovitrap survey faster and easier