Judicial responses to the migration crisis: The role of courts in the creation of a European identity. Kap. 1

I : C. B. Giovanni Carl, F. M. Palombino & A.D. Stefano (Eds.), Migration Issues before International Courts and TribunalsEurope has been struck by what is commonly described as a ‘migration crisis’. The crisis has resulted in the upsurge of far-right and nationalist parties, supported by their voters’ fear and resentment of migrants. However, in the assessment of migration and the perception thereof, the jurisprudential pillar is commonly overlooked. It is in times of crisis that identity changes are most probable, but is this true for jurisprudence too? In taking a foremost human rights-based approach to analyzing the discrimination of migrants, this chapter seeks to advance insight into the role of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) for the construction of a (perceived) European identity, contrasted to the identity of the ‘others’ from beyond Europe. The law and the jurisprudence of the European courts are highly effective tools to influence popular and political views on migration. Indeed, current developments suggest that the courts constrain the attribution of rights and, thus, adjust to expectations and perceptions of their constituency. The recognition of the connection between the judicial creation of an ostensible European identity, domestic policy, and public opinion has yet to be explored. Unlike earlier strategic documents, the EU Global Strategy (2016) treats migration as a challenge and reveals the EU’s internal crisis due to migration inflows. Research has demonstrated that the Global Strategy provides different narratives of migration, e.g. in connection with purported values. It even explicitly emphasises that “remaining true to our values is a matter of law as much as of ethics and identity”. Such value narratives are indicators of the community’s understanding of social relations and can, arguably, influence the European judiciary. Because, if the legal analysis is underpinned by references to policy documents, then the narratives of migration contained therein is likely to be reflected in the courts’ case law. Not only does case law mirror the values contained in policy documents. Moreover, the increasing referral of the ECtHR to the ECJ’s case law streamlines the human rights standard in Europe. Indeed, the human rights approach of both European courts appears to be largely, if not fully, coherent. What does this signify for judicial treatment of migrants? If the ECtHR increasingly discusses migrants as the ‘others’, this jurisprudence will reflect in the ECJ’s case law, thus amplifying their negative perception. In turn, if the hypothesis is correct that courts’ decisions can influence the public opinion, then the migrants’ situation is further deteriorated.publishedVersio

Breaking Bars: An investigation into how performance art as an intervention program inside prison may lead to a behavior change among male gang members in Cape Town, South Africa

Violence has been declared a public health problem by the World Health Organisation (1996). Violence prevention strategies are actively used in efforts to rehabilitate offenders during their incarceration, and are intended to prepare them for reintegration into society and to prevent recidivism. Given the lack of research undertaken on violence prevention strategies in the gang-ridden context of Cape Town, South Africa, this dissertation looks at a prison intervention programme, Help I am Free, that uses performance arts as a case study to investigate the potential impacts of such intervention strategies. The paper does so by outlining the experiences of five male gang members before, during, and after their time in prison. Using a cross-sectional qualitative research design, the dissertation explores participants’ life histories and seeks to shed light on the ways in (and degrees to) which such programmes may influence the men’s attitudes towards themselves and others, and the likelihood of their successful reintegration into society. The theoretical frameworks used draw on applied theatre theories, social-cognitive theories, and theories of masculinities. The paper argues that programmes such as Help I am Free may impact participants’ perceptions of self and others strongly, and may also lead to an increased sense of self-worth and motivation to change lifestyle. However, it also indicates the limitations of the programme to achieve sustained success, given the structural barriers which afflict South Africa. The paper outlines a number of challenges that the men face while on parole, and concludes that while prison intervention programmes, and art programmes specifically, may trigger a sense of healing and encourage more positive notions of self, there are more comprehensive strategies in post-release urgently needed in order to prevent recidivism and to achieve authentic social re-integration

Vacated Municipal Buildings – in Search of Strategies for Reactivation

As of May 2023 there are 197 vacated municipally owned buildings spread over 96 properties in Oslo. Buildings where the vacancy extends beyond natural phases of transition represent a waste of financial resources and they might also have negative social implications for their local neighbourhoods and surroundings. Further, a neglect of maintenance repeatedly leads vacated buildings to a state of disrepair, and to be replaced by new (and often bigger) construction. Failing to reuse existing buildings and instead rebuilding is not appropriate if the Paris Agreement´s 2030 objectives are to be met. Hence, this study asks how cities can develop strategies to reactivate vacated municipal buildings. To answer this question, the potential impacts of reuse are investigated, significant barriers to reactivate vacated buildings are identified, and tools and approaches for reactivation are explored. The former Munch Museum (Old Munch) has been selected as the case for this study, shedding light on the process of finding new use for a municipally owned purpose-built museum building. The study is designed as an instrumental case study, meaning that Old Munch is used to explore the greater phenomenon of vacancy in Oslo and processes of reactivation. A broad theoretical review has created the basis for one-to-one interviews with different stakeholders involved in the process of reactivating the closed down museum. Further, GIS-, and document analysis have been conducted to elaborate the issue. Three main barriers for building reactivation are identified, namely a substantial maintenance backlog, inflexible legislation and the sector division of municipal real estate management. Both informants and previous research highlight that reactivating vacated buildings is considered to positively impact all three dimensions of sustainable development – social, economic and environmental. Several promising tools and approaches to reactivating vacated buildings are mapped out, but they are considered to have little impact if they are not seen in connection to each other. Further, the complex system framing processes of reactivation calls for better cooperation between various sectors and disciplines – public as well as private. Such a cooperation could be formalized as a dedicated reception centre working operationally and strategically with reactivation, both long-term and temporary. The particular focus on strategical approaches has previously been discussed to a little extent. However, a recently published report (the Audit Office, 2023) highlights the inadequately functioning system that exists today to clarify the future use of empty municipal buildings. This study goes further in suggesting possible and alternative approaches for reactivation. Drawing on this, strategic approaches for reactivation must be put on the agenda – both in the academic and professional field – to be further revised and refined

Directing the legal radar at forced labour — Under special consideration of male victims in Norway

Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).Human trafficking in the form of labour exploitation appears to have gone under the legal radar domestically, regionally, and internationally, with ensuing grave consequences for the victims concerned. This paper critically discusses the current legal developments and interpretations of global and regional legal sources on forced labour and the challenges they face. A legal analysis is supplemented by information obtained through interviews with 14 presumed male victims of forced labour, who recently escaped a coercive work situation and were living in a safe house in Oslo (Norway). The paper will demonstrate the shortcomings of the law and its application, using the case of Norway and the affected men as an example. It examines the case law of the European Court of Human Rights using a vulnerability approach and argues that the inaction in preventing and prosecuting crimes committed towards people who are exploited for forced labour is a violation of their human rights and may be interpreted as granting impunity to their perpetrators. The situation for male victims of forced labour is particularly severe.publishedVersio

The disciplinary identity of international criminal law: Balancing between positivism and multidisciplinarity

This essay discusses how the character and nature of international criminal law influence the way it is studied. By providing a historical review of its intellectual origins, it shows why international criminal law’s disciplinary identity remains under the influence of positivistic principles. In going beyond international criminal law, this essay also critically discusses why some hold a multidisciplinary analysis of international law in contempt and exposes the challenges of placing legal scholarship in distinct categories by labelling legal academics as positivists, doctrinalists, practice-oriented, policy-driven, or as multidisciplinarians. This piece will describe how international criminal law is being studied, how scholarship developed, and whether the value of the research lies in its relevance for the practice before international criminal courts. In discussing the pitfalls of pure doctrinal or multidisciplinary research, it weaves together theoretical considerations beyond the traditional positivistic paradigm with a plea to study international criminal law under different sensibilities and disciplinary protocolspublishedVersio

“Dangerous Individuals”: Erasing or enhancing genocidal perpetrators in social media GIFs

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properlycited. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.What role do user-generated GIFs (Graphics Interchange Format) have in social media and how do they contribute to distorted representations of genocides? This article analyses the availability of GIFs in Facebook Messenger in light of Facebook’s own Community Standards that prohibit the sharing of content with references to “dangerous individuals.” The company explicitly proscribes the representation of perpetrator(s) of multiple-victim violence. This article examines the narrative power of GIFs related to the Holocaust, the former Yugoslavia, and the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia and the representation of political and military leaders. Our systematic search documents a selective execution of the Community Standards as well as selective censorship of génocidaires. Rather than analysing how users create and Facebook manages these GIFs, we take this observation as a troubling indication of selective portrayal of historical truths. By making some perpetrators hypervisible, GIFs privilege certain narratives, while simultaneously muting the crimes and victims. While much attention has been given to social media’s power to (mis)represent and (re)create truths about ongoing conflicts, less attention has been given to the representation of past conflicts. Few studies examine the role of GIFs in the representation of historical figures. Drawing on memory studies and studies of historical and social representation, this article contributes to filling this gap. It argues that Facebook creates and reproduces a distorted understanding of “dangerous individual.” GIFs depicting convicted perpetrators of genocide are especially problematic given current strong trends of denialism and revisionism in countries like Serbia.publishedVersio

Is physical activity maintenance from adolescence to young adulthood associated with reduced CVD risk factors, improved mental health and satisfaction with life : the HUNT Study, Norway

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«Foreldrene er like viktige». Hvilke diskurser ser terapeutene i psykisk helsetjeneste for ungdom ut til å være styrt av i samarbeidet med foreldre?

Denne masteroppgaven er en kvalitativ studie der fokusgrupper ble benyttet for å samle inn data. Deltakerne i fokusgruppen er familieterapeuter som jobber med ungdom og familier. Datamaterialet forstås ved hjelp av en diskursanalytisk tilnærming, i en poststrukturalistisk og sosialkonstruksjonistisk forståelsesramme. Hensikten med oppgaven er å se nærmere på om familieterapeuter legger til rette for samarbeid med foreldre. Konteksten er kommunal psykisk helsetjeneste for ungdom. Foreldre kan involvere seg ulikt, og en vanlig antakelse kan være at mødre er mest involvert. Denne studien setter søkelyset på hvordan familieterapeuter involverer alle foreldre, fedre som mødre. Problemstillingen er: Hvilke diskurser om foreldreskap ser ut til å være styrende for familieterapeuter i møte med foreldre? Hvilken betydning vil diskursene kunne få for terapeutenes involvering av foreldre/foresatte? Utgangspunktet for analysen er terapeutposisjonen, og diskurser som preget terapeutenes forståelse og praksis. En overordnet diskurs som kom til uttrykk, var at begge foreldre er like viktige for ungdommen. Ved å analysere materialet fremstod fire diskurser som dominerende: diskursen om at foreldre utfyller hverandre; diskursen om at mor er den som er mest bekymret; diskursen om at den viktigste foreldrekompetansen er å møte ungdommens følelser og; diskursen om at den forelderen ungdommen bor mest hos vet best. Diskusjonen tar utgangspunkt i familieperspektivet og noen sentrale prinsipper i familieterapi og systemisk praksis. Denne masteroppgaven ser på hvorvidt diskursene kommer i konflikt med hverandre, med familieperspektivet og med idealet om likeverdig foreldreskap. Oppgaven viser behovet for et kritisk blikk på hvor ideene kommer fra, og hvordan de setter sitt preg på praksis. Det sentrale er at begreper om foreldreskap, farskap og samarbeid kan forstås som sosiale konstruksjoner. Språket opprettholder og generaliserer, og denne oppgaven viser at det stadig er behov for kunnskap, perspektiver og refleksjoner om hva som får betydning for om terapeuter involverer foreldre