The ADA as a Tool for Advocacy: A Strategy for Fighting Employment Discrimination against People with Disabilities

There are essentially three different theories that are used to prove discrimination against people with disabilities: disparate treatment- that a person has been treated differently because of membership in a protected class - may be proved by direct evidence of discrimination or by inference. Today, employers are often open about discriminating against people with disabilities. They frequently know little about disabilities and make their decisions based on stereotypes rather than on individualized assessments. Further, medical examinations and inquiries are required by the ADA to be conducted after a job has been offered thereby enabling job applicants to determine that their disability was the determining factor in the hiring decision. Once an employer admits that the individual was treated differently because of a disability, a prima facie case of discrimination has been established and the question then becomes whether the discrimination was unlawful

Diasporas and secessionist conflicts : the mobilization of the Armenian, Albanian and Chechen diasporas

This article examines the impact of diasporas on secessionist conflicts, focusing on the Albanian, Armenian and Chechen diasporas and the conflicts in Kosovo, Karabakh and Chechnya during the 1990s. How do diasporas radicalize these conflicts? I argue that despite differences in diaspora communal characteristics and the types of the secessionist conflicts, a common pattern of mobilization develops. Large-scale diasporic support for secessionism emerges only after independence is proclaimed by the local elites. From that point onwards diasporas become engaged in a conflict spiral, and transnational coalitions are formed between local secessionist and diaspora groups. Depending on the organizational strength of the local strategic centre and the diasporic institutions, these coalitions endure or dissipate. Diasporas exert radicalization influences on the conflict spiral on two specific junctures – when grave violations of human rights occur in the homeland and when local moderate elites start losing credibility that they can achieve the secessionist goal

Kinstate intervention in ethnic conflicts : Albania and Turkey compared

Albania and Turkey did not act in overtly irredentist ways towards their ethnic brethren in neighboring states after the end of communism. Why, nonetheless, did Albania facilitate the increase of ethnic conflict in Kosovo and Macedonia, while Turkey did not, with respect to the Turks of Bulgaria? I argue that kin-states undergoing transition are more prone to intervene in external conflicts than states that are not, regardless of the salience of minority demands in the host-state. The transition weakens the institutions of the kin-state. Experiencing limited institutional constraints, self-seeking state officials create alliances with secessionist and autonomist movements across borders alongside their own ideological, clan-based and particularistic interests. Such alliances are often utilized to advance radical domestic agendas. Unlike in Albania's transition environment, in Turkey there were no emerging elites that could potentially form alliances and use external movements to legitimize their own domestic existence or claims

The ADA as a Tool for Advocacy: A Strategy for Fighting Employment Discrimination against People with Disabilities

There are essentially three different theories that are used to prove discrimination against people with disabilities: disparate treatment- that a person has been treated differently because of membership in a protected class - may be proved by direct evidence of discrimination or by inference. Today, employers are often open about discriminating against people with disabilities. They frequently know little about disabilities and make their decisions based on stereotypes rather than on individualized assessments. Further, medical examinations and inquiries are required by the ADA to be conducted after a job has been offered thereby enabling job applicants to determine that their disability was the determining factor in the hiring decision. Once an employer admits that the individual was treated differently because of a disability, a prima facie case of discrimination has been established and the question then becomes whether the discrimination was unlawful

Primordialists and Constructionists: a typology of theories of religion

This article adopts categories from nationalism theory to classify theories of religion. Primordialist explanations are grounded in evolutionary psychology and emphasize the innate human demand for religion. Primordialists predict that religion does not decline in the modern era but will endure in perpetuity. Constructionist theories argue that religious demand is a human construct. Modernity initially energizes religion, but subsequently undermines it. Unpacking these ideal types is necessary in order to describe actual theorists of religion. Three distinctions within primordialism and constructionism are relevant. Namely those distinguishing: a) materialist from symbolist forms of constructionism; b) theories of origins from those pertaining to the reproduction of religion; and c) within reproduction, between theories of religious persistence and secularization. This typology helps to make sense of theories of religion by classifying them on the basis of their causal mechanisms, chronology and effects. In so doing, it opens up new sightlines for theory and research

Diasporas and transitional justice : transnational activism from local to global levels of engagement

Scholarship on transitional justice, transnational social movements, and transnational diaspora mobilization has offered little understanding about how memorialization initiatives with substantial diaspora involvement emerge transnationally and are embedded and sustained in different contexts. We argue that diasporas play a galvanizing role in transnational interest-based and symbolic politics, expanding claim-making from the local to national, supranational, and global levels of engagement. Using initiatives to memorialize atrocities committed at the former Omarska concentration camp in Bosnia and Herzegovina, we identify a four-stage mobilization process. First, initiatives emerged and diffused across transnational networks after a local political opportunity opened in the homeland. Second, attempts at coordination of activities took place transnationally through an NGO. Third, initiatives were contextualized on the nation-state level in different host-states, depending on the political opportunities and constraints available there. Fourth, memorialization claims were eventually shifted from the national to the supranational and global levels. The article concludes by demonstrating the potential to apply the analysis to similar global movements in which diasporas are directly involved

The Implications of the Acquisition of a New Nationality for the Right of Return of Palestinian Refugees

This article examines the legal consequences of the acquisition of a new nationality for the right of return of Palestinian refugees. The article argues that since the right of return is independent of the refugee status, the cessation of the latter should not necessarily abrogate the former. By examining the underpinnings of the right of return to one’s own country, especially the link between the individual and her territory, this article argues that this link is somehow weakened in a situation of naturalization in a different country. However, this weakening of the link should not automatically lead to the deprivation of rights. The circumstances that lead refugees to leave their country of origin, the circumstances preventing their return, and the decisions made by the individuals in view of their available options should be examined