Non-refoulement and national security

Non-refoulement is a fundamental principle of international law, providing an individual the protection from being returned to a place where he or she risks persecution, torture or other ill treatment. The prohibition on refoulement is recognized in refugee law, human rights law and international customary law. Some would argue that the rule has even attained status as a peremptory norm. While there are exceptions to the right to non-refoulement in the1951 Refugee Convention, human rights law dictate that non-refoulement to face torture or ill treatment is an absolute and non-derogable right. In light of the modern threat of global terrorism, many states are applying a “balancing act” between the interest of the refugee and national security concerns. However, there is no international consensus on the permissibility of a balancing act weighing the interest of the refugee against the security interest of a state. While the UNHCR permits such an approach through the exceptions to non-refoulement in Article 33(2), it has been rejected by the HRC, the ECtHR and the ICCPR. There is a problematic collision between legal and political interests, as states keep challenging the absolute nature of non-refoulement to face torture or ill treatment in the name of counter-terrorism.Non-refoulement är en grundläggande princip inom internationell flyktingrätt och mänskliga rättigheter. Non-refoulement innebär rätten för en individ att inte bli återsänd till en plats där han eller hon riskerar förföljelse, tortyr eller annan inhuman behandling. Förbudet mot refoulement är erkänt i flyktingrätt, mänskliga rättigheter och i internationell sedvanerätt. Somliga skulle argumentera att principen dessutom uppnått status som en jus cogens regel. 1951 års Flyktingkonvention medger att det finns undantag till principen, men internationella konventioner för mänskliga rättigheter dikterar att principen är absolut och att inga undantag kan göras. I ljuset av dagens globala terrorhot använder flera stater sig av en balansmetod för att väga flyktingens intresse mot statens säkerhetsintresse. Det finns dock ingen internationell konsensus om huruvida en sådan balansmetod är legal. UNHCR föreslår att stater använder sig av en proportionalitetsbedömning när de applicerar undantaget Artikel 33(2) men en såväl HRC, Europadomstolen och ICCPR har konstaterat att en sådan balansmetod bryter mot rättighetens absoluta natur. Stater fortsätter att utmana den absoluta statusen för non-refoulement för att bekämpa terrorism vilket skapar därför en problematisk kollision mellan legala och juridiska intressen

Barnets bästa i främsta rummet? En analys av hur bestämmelsen om uppehållstillstånd på grund av synnerligen ömmande omständigheter tillämpas på barn

Bestämmelsen om uppehållstillstånd på grund av synnerligen ömmande omständigheter infördes i den nya utlänningslagen 2005. Enligt bestämmelsen kan en utlänning beviljas uppehållstillstånd om det föreligger synnerligen ömmande omständigheter och vid bedömningen ska särskild hänsyn tas till utlänningens hälsotillstånd, anpassning till Sverige och situationen i hemlandet. I den nya bestämmelsen fördes även in ett förtydligande om principen om att barnets bästa skulle beaktas vid en prövning som rör barn. Detta förtydligande utgör bestämmelsens andra stycke som fastställer att lite lägre krav kan ställas på barns skäl för uppehållstillstånd. Anledningen till detta förtydligande var att den portalparagraf om barnets bästa som förts in i utlänningslagen nästan tio år tidigare inte hade fått tillräcklig genomslagskraft. Sedan införandet av bestämmelsen om synnerligen ömmande omständigheter har en debatt pågått huruvida bestämmelsen nått avsett resultat och om bestämmelsen tillämpas i enlighet med det syfte som angavs i förarbetena. Detta arbete undersöker hur tillämpningen av bestämmelsen om synnerligen ömmande omständigheter ser ut i fall som rör barn och om tillämpningen överensstämmer med se syften som angavs vid införandet av bestämmelsen. Arbetet undersöker även vilken roll principen om barnets bästa spelar vid denna tillämpning och om tillämpningen överhuvudtaget kan anses vara förenlig med principen om barnets bästa. Syftet med införandet av bestämmelsen om synnerligen ömmande omständigheter som rör barn var att förtydliga att principen om barnets bästa ska beaktas i fall som rör barn. Förarbetena är tydliga i att när det gäller barn ska kraven på allvaret och tyngden i de omständigheter som åberopas vara lite lägre än när det gäller vuxna. Det uttalas även att syftet med bestämmelsen är att mildra den praxis som gäller barn. Migrationsöverdomstolen har dock i sina avgöranden rörande bestämmelsen hållit fast vid en mycket restriktiv och strikt tillämpning där skillnaderna på de krav som ställs på barns skäl och vuxnas skäl är ytterst marginella. Principen om barnets bästa lyfts ofta fram av Migrationsöverdomstolen i fall som rör barn men alldeles för sällan sker någon bedömning av barnets bästa i det enskilda fallet. Att barnets bästa beaktas i avgörandena framgår därför ytterst sällan. Det betyder däremot inte att domstolstillämpningen kan anses generellt strida mot principen om barnets bästa, men den kan heller inte generellt anses förenlig med densamma. Något förstärkt skydd för barnets bästa kan inte anses ha uppstått på grund av att Migrationsdomstolen i hög grad lyfter fram principen, viktigt är istället att i varje enskilt fall som rör barn utreda och beakta barnets bästa under hela beslutsprocessen

Tannhelseinformasjon på norske blogger

Det har blitt vanlig å søke etter helseinformasjon på nett, og dermed også tannhelseinformasjon. Blogger er en del av sosiale medier i Norge, og hensikten med oppgaven var å undersøke hva norske bloggere skriver om tannhelserelaterte tema. Vi ønsket også å undersøke om noen av innleggene relatert til tannhelse var reklame for et firma, og i så fall hvor mange. I tillegg ønsket vi å kartlegge hvilke typer produkter eller behandlinger det ble reklamert for. Den metodiske tilnærmingen var en dokumentanalyse av et utvalg norske blogger. Det var totalt 50 blogger i utvalget for oppgaven og disse utgjorde essensen i det metodiske arbeidet. Resultatet var en deskriptiv analyse av relevante funn i utvalget, presentert i kategorier basert på meningsfortetninger. Hovedkategoriene var innlegg om egne meninger og sponsede innlegg, hvorav disse fikk egne underkategorier. Forskningsspørsmålene som lå til grunn for oppgaven formet presentasjonen av resultatene. I oppgaven vår konkluderte vi med at norske bloggere skriver om egne erfaringer fra tannhelsetjenesten i både positiv og negativ forstand, og reklamerer for tannhelserelaterte produkter og behandlinger på bloggene sine, hvorav hovedvekten av reklameinnleggene vi analyserte inneholder reklame for tannbleking. For oss klinikere er det viktig å være klar over at det finnes mye tannhelserelatert informasjon på norske blogger, og være bevisst på hvilken påvirkning denne informasjonen kan ha på våre pasienter

Uncertainty principles for magnetic structures on certain coadjoint orbits

By building on our earlier work, we establish uncertainty principles in terms of Heisenberg inequalities and of the ambiguity functions associated with magnetic structures on certain coadjoint orbits of infinite-dimensional Lie groups. These infinite-dimensional Lie groups are semidirect products of nilpotent Lie groups and invariant function spaces thereon. The recently developed magnetic Weyl calculus is recovered in the special case of function spaces on abelian Lie groups.Comment: 19 page

The fundamental need for unifying phenotypes in sudden unexpected pediatric deaths

A definitive, authoritative approach to evaluate the causes of unexpected, and ultimately unexplained, pediatric deaths remains elusive, relegating final conclusions to diagnoses of exclusion in the vast majority of cases. Research into unexplained pediatric deaths has focused primarily on sudden infant deaths (under 1 year of age) and led to the identification of several potential, albeit incompletely understood, contributory factors: nonspecific pathology findings, associations with sleep position and environment that may not be uniformly relevant, and the elucidation of a role for serotonin that is practically difficult to estimate in any individual case. Any assessment of progress in this field must also acknowledge the failure of current approaches to substantially decrease mortality rates in decades. Furthermore, potential commonalities with pediatric deaths across a broader age spectrum have not been widely considered. Recent epilepsy-related observations and genetic findings, identified post-mortem in both infants and children who died suddenly and unexpectedly, suggest a role for more intense and specific phenotyping efforts as well as an expanded role for genetic and genomic evaluation. We therefore present a new approach to reframe the phenotype in sudden unexplained deaths in the pediatric age range, collapsing many distinctions based on arbitrary factors (such as age) that have previously guided research in this area, and discuss its implications for the future of postmortem investigation

EMR-linked GWAS study: investigation of variation landscape of loci for body mass index in children

Common variations at the loci harboring the fat mass and obesity gene (FTO), MC4R, and TMEM18 are consistently reported as being associated with obesity and body mass index (BMI) especially in adult population. In order to confirm this effect in pediatric population five European ancestry cohorts from pediatric eMERGE-II network (CCHMC-BCH) were evaluated. Method: Data on 5049 samples of European ancestry were obtained from the Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) of two large academic centers in five different genotyped cohorts. For all available samples, gender, age, height, and weight were collected and BMI was calculated. To account for age and sex differences in BMI, BMI z-scores were generated using 2000 Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) growth charts. A Genome-wide association study (GWAS) was performed with BMI z-score. After removing missing data and outliers based on principal components (PC) analyses, 2860 samples were used for the GWAS study. The association between each single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and BMI was tested using linear regression adjusting for age, gender, and PC by cohort. The effects of SNPs were modeled assuming additive, recessive, and dominant effects of the minor allele. Meta-analysis was conducted using a weighted z-score approach. Results: The mean age of subjects was 9.8 years (range 2–19). The proportion of male subjects was 56%. In these cohorts, 14% of samples had a BMI ≥95 and 28 ≥ 85%. Meta analyses produced a signal at 16q12 genomic region with the best result of p = 1.43 × 10-7 [p(rec) = 7.34 × 10-8) for the SNP rs8050136 at the first intron of FTO gene (z = 5.26) and with no heterogeneity between cohorts (p = 0.77). Under a recessive model, another published SNP at this locus, rs1421085, generates the best result [z = 5.782, p(rec) = 8.21 × 10-9]. Imputation in this region using dense 1000-Genome and Hapmap CEU samples revealed 71 SNPs with p < 10-6, all at the first intron of FTO locus. When hetero-geneity was permitted between cohorts, signals were also obtained in other previously identified loci, including MC4R (rs12964056, p = 6.87 × 10-7, z = -4.98), cholecystokinin CCK (rs8192472, p = 1.33 × 10-6, z = -4.85), Interleukin 15 (rs2099884, p = 1.27 × 10-5, z = 4.34), low density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 1B [LRP1B (rs7583748, p = 0.00013, z = -3.81)] and near transmembrane protein 18 (TMEM18) (rs7561317, p = 0.001, z = -3.17). We also detected a novel locus at chromosome 3 at COL6A5 [best SNP = rs1542829, minor allele frequency (MAF) of 5% p = 4.35 × 10-9, z = 5.89]. Conclusion: An EMR linked cohort study demonstrates that the BMI-Z measurements can be successfully extracted and linked to genomic data with meaningful confirmatory results. We verified the high prevalence of childhood rate of overweight and obesity in our cohort (28%). In addition, our data indicate that genetic variants in the first intron of FTO, a known adult genetic risk factor for BMI, are also robustly associated with BMI in pediatric population

Frequencies of genes for coat colour and horns in Nordic cattle breeds

Gene frequencies of coat colour and horn types were assessed in 22 Nordic cattle breeds in a project aimed at establishing genetic profiles of the breeds under study. The coat colour loci yielding information on genetic variation were: extension, agouti, spotting, brindle, dun dilution and colour sided. The polled locus was assessed for two alleles. A profound variation between breeds was observed in the frequencies of both colour and horn alleles, with the older breeds generally showing greater variation in observed colour, horn types and segregating alleles than the modern breeds. The correspondence between the present genetic distance matrix and previous molecular marker distance matrices was low (r = 0.08 – 0.12). The branching pattern of a neighbour-joining tree disagreed to some extent with the molecular data structure. The current data indicates that 70% of the total genetic variation could be explained by differences between the breeds, suggesting a much greater breed differentiation than typically found at protein and microsatellite loci. The marked differentiation of the cattle breeds and observed disagreements with the results from the previous molecular data in the topology of the phylogenetic trees are most likely a result of selection on phenotypic characters analysed in this study

Rotujen välisten erojen arviointi ei riitä rotujen suojelullisen arvon määrittämiseen

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Determination of the Biological Activity and Structure Activity Relationships of Drugs Based on the Highly Cytotoxic Duocarmycins and CC-1065

The natural antibiotics CC‑1065 and the duocarmycins are highly cytotoxic compounds which however are not suitable for cancer therapy due to their general toxicity. We have developed glycosidic prodrugs of seco-analogues of these antibiotics for a selective cancer therapy using conjugates of glycohydrolases and tumour-selective monoclonal antibodies for the liberation of the drugs from the prodrugs predominantly at the tumour site. For the determination of structure activity relationships of the different seco-drugs, experiments addressing their interaction with synthetic DNA were performed. Using electro­spray mass spectrometry and high performance liquid chromatography, the experiments revealed a correlation of the stability of these drugs with their cytotoxicity in cell culture investigations. Furthermore, it was shown that the drugs bind to AT-rich regions of double-stranded DNA and the more cytotoxic drugs induce DNA fragmentation at room temperature in several of the selected DNA double-strands. Finally, an explanation for the very high cytotoxicity of CC-1065, the duocarmycins and analogous drugs is given