Questioning the Silence of the Bench: Reflections on Oral Proceedings at the International Court of Justice

The growth of the docket of the International Court of Justice over the last several decades has been both a sign of its success and a source of its troubles. Because the Court\u27s continued attractiveness as a forum for dispute settlement depends not only on the quality of its judgments, but also on the efficiency of its procedures, the Court has responded by attempting to modernize its working methods. Literature concerning the weaknesses of the Court\u27s procedures, however, has not focused on how oral proceedings suffer from an absence of direct exchanges between the judges and counsel. The judges\u27 hesitancy to posit questions stems in part from a long-standing institutional concern about respecting the sovereign status of the parties which appear before it. This Article argues that the Court should shed its anxiety about questioning parties because doing so would not only pose little threat to State sovereignty, but would actually heighten the attractiveness of the Court as a forum for the adjudication of international disputes

An Emerging Norma: The Duty of States to Provide Reparations for Human Rights Violations by Non-State Actors

An international norm is emerging whereby States, in certain circumstances, have a legal duty to provide reparations for violations committed by non-State actors. The reparations programs designed by truth and reconciliation commissions form the most recent and striking evidence this norm\u27s emergence. In particular, the governments of both Peru and Sierra Leone have adopted the recommendations made by their respective truth commissions regarding the provision of reparations to victims, regardless of the status of the perpetrators. While this emerging norm has a basis in certain international human rights treaties as well as in the jurisprudence of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, it goes beyond the principles and guidelines that were adopted by the U.N. General Assembly on the subject of remedies and reparations. In addition, the emergence of this norm has been somewhat halting because of the generally unsatisfactory implementation of reparations programs that provide benefits to victims of violations committed by non-State actors

The Effects of Nutrition Claims on Consumer Purchasing of Snacks in White Collar and Blue Collar Working Environments

The purpose of this experimental study was to determine if signage of nutrition claims increased the purchasing of snacks in white collar and blue collar working environments. Additionally, the study also observed if the nutrition claims were more effective in one working class over the other. The prevalence of obesity in employed adults has significantly increased in the last decade. Dietary patterns, including snacking habits, have been found to play a significant role in the decline of working adults’ health. The percentage change formula was utilized as the statistical analysis for this study. This analysis evaluated the changes in the sales of snacks before and after implementation of nutrition claims. The findings indicated that after nutrition claims were implemented, sales of snacks increased in both working environments. The blue collar snack purchases increased by 79.8% after the six claims were implemented and the white collar snack purchases increased by 33.2%. Overall, the “mindful” nutrition claim had the most influence on total snack purchases. In conclusion, nutrition claims alone can possibly influence snack purchases in white collar and blue collar working environment

Understanding the educational needs of rural teachers: a case study of a rural education innovation in KwaNgwanase.

Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of Natal, 1992This dissertation examines the following key educational issues: the needs of rural teachers, the role of rural parents in education and the nature of support provided by non-governmental organisations. The literature on South African education, rural education and in-service education and training provides a theoretical framework for the evaluation of an education innovation which began in 1986 in KwaNgwanase, in the Ubombo Circuit of the KwaZulu Department of Education and Culture. The focus of the study is to show how an innovation can be adapted by rural teachers to suit their own specific needs. It is acknowledged that improving teacher support and school provision within a rural area in South Africa is only a small step in transforming an inadequate education context. It remains the role of the state to provide a meaningful system of education for all South Africans, but communities can, and should, play a role in deciding how this service can best be utilised. The study suggests that aspects of the innovation has potential for replicability in other rural areas and may provide a strategy to address the need for appropriate in-service education and training for rural teachers

Beyond tokenistic participation: Using representational artefacts to enable meaningful public participation in health service design

A number of recent policies promote public participation in health service design. Yet, a growing literature has articulated a gap between policy aims and actual practice resulting in public participation becoming tokenistic. Drawing on theory from participatory design, we argue that choosing appropriate artefacts to act as representations can structure discussions between public participants and health professionals in ways that both groups find meaningful and valid. Through a case study of a service improvement project in outpatient services for older people, we describe three representational artefacts: emotion maps, stories, and tracing paper, and explain how they helped to mediate interactions between public participants and health professionals. We suggest that using such representational artefacts can provide an alternative approach to participation that stands in contrast to the current focus on the professionalisation of public participants. We conclude that including participatory designers in projects, to chose or design appropriate representational artefacts, can help to address the policy–practice gap of including public participants in health service desig

Bronchoalveolar Lavage Enzyme-Linked Immunospot for Diagnosis of Smear-Negative Tuberculosis in HIV-Infected Patients

Peripheral blood interferon-gamma release assays (IGRAs) have sub-optimal sensitivity and specificity for diagnosis of active pulmonary tuberculosis (TB). However, assessment of local immune responses has been reported to improve the accuracy of TB diagnosis.We enrolled HIV-infected adults with cough ≥2 weeks' duration admitted to Mulago Hospital in Kampala, Uganda and referred for bronchoscopy following two negative sputum acid-fast bacillus smears. We performed an ELISPOT-based IGRA (T-SPOT.TB®, Oxford Immunotec, Oxford, UK) using peripheral blood and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid mononuclear cells, and determined the accuracy of IGRAs using mycobacterial culture results as a reference standard.94 HIV-infected patients with paired peripheral blood and BAL IGRA results were included. The study population was young (median age 34 years [IQR 28-40 years]) and had advanced HIV/AIDS (median CD4+ T-lymphocyte count 60 cells/µl [IQR 22-200 cells/µl]). The proportion of indeterminate IGRA results was higher in BAL fluid than in peripheral blood specimens (34% vs. 14%, difference 20%, 95% CI 7-33%, p = 0.002). BAL IGRA had moderate sensitivity (73%, 95% CI 50-89%) but poor specificity (48%, 95% CI 32-64%) for TB diagnosis. Sensitivity was similar (75%, 95% CI 57-89%) and specificity was higher (78%, 95% CI 63-88%) when IGRA was performed on peripheral blood.BAL IGRA performed poorly for the diagnosis of smear-negative TB in a high HIV/TB burden setting. Further studies are needed to examine reasons for the large proportion of indeterminate results and low specificity of BAL IGRA for active TB in high HIV/TB burden settings

International anti-corruption norms: their creation and influence on domestic legal systems

- Divulgação dos SUMÁRIOS das obras recentemente incorporadas ao acervo da Biblioteca Ministro Oscar Saraiva do STJ. Em respeito à Lei de Direitos Autorais, não disponibilizamos a obra na íntegra.- Localização na estante: 341.4:343.352 R795