Negotiating change: working with children and their employers to transform child domestic work in Iringa, Tanzania

This paper documents the practical and action-oriented findings of an investigation into child domestic work undertaken in Iringa, Tanzania from 2005 to 2007. It provides an overview of the experiences of both child domestic workers and their employers, before discussing their suggestions for how child domestic working arrangements may be improved. The latter sections of the paper relate the attempts to regulate child domestic work that emerged from such dialogue. In providing detailed information on that process, the paper is positioned within the field of action research and resists the boundary frequently applied between academia and activism. It also moves beyond the tendency - observed in many existing studies of child (domestic) work - to document problems without proposing solutions. The regulatory focus of the project is theoretically supported by a social constructionist reading of the situation facing (child) domestic workers in Iringa (and elsewhere). Domestic workers have been discursively constructed as one of the family rather than employees. This paper posits that the exploitation of child domestic workers relies on such constructions, and that improved regulation of this employment sector may offer an opportunity to discursively and tangibly reconstruct child domestic work as real work. Although formulated in the Tanzanian context, the recommendations are of broader geographical relevance. 2011 Taylor and Francis

The UN Security Council and EU CSDP operations: exploring EU military operations from an outside perspective

This article examines European Union (EU) military operations from the perspective of the United Nations (UN) Security Council and UN collective security. The EU has supported UN peacekeeping missions through its own military operations within the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP), based on the authorisation of these operations by the UN Security Council. However, the EU’s military operation on the Mediterranean Sea, Operation Sophia, was established in 2015 without such prior UN Security Council authorisation. Although the UN Security Council authorised the operation subsequently, it was received in a less positive light than previous operations and was criticised not only for the way in which it was established, but also for its performance. The article argues that this break with prior practice does not indicate a new direction being taken by the EU as it has retreated from this approach and established a new military operation in the Mediterranean (Operation Irini), again firmly in line with a mandate issued by the UN Security Council in 2020. The assessment of EU military operations can be complex as there might be other EU agencies involved in the process such as Frontex, and their role in future operations, in particular in the field of migration, should be monitored. Yet this internal complexity does not alter their evaluation under international law. As soon as EU military operations are conducted on the territory of a third State, the EU needs to secure either a UN Security Council authorisation or State consent. Looking at this process from the perspective of the UN Security Council sheds light on the complexity of EU military operations and their position within UN collective security

Effect of heat exposure on viability and contractility of cultured prostatic stromal cells

Objectives: Different thermotherapeutic modalities such as transurethral microwave therapy or transurethral needle ablation have been developed to provide effective alternatives to surgical management of benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH). The mechanisms of thermotherapy, however, are not completely understood. We developed a model to investigate the effects of heat application on stromal cell viability and contractility. Methods: Cells isolated from prostatectomy and cystoprostatectomy specimens were cultured in a selective medium. Temperatures ranging from 37 to 50 degrees C were applied for 1 h. Cell contraction was visualized by means of a cell culture microscope equipped with a time-lapse video system. For quantitative analysis, the percentage of contracting cells was evaluated; 10 mu M of phenylepherine were applied for adrenergic stimulation of the eel Is. Results: On immunohistochemistry and phase-contrast microscopy, these cells were identified as prostatic myofibroblasts. Incubation at 50 degrees C for 1 h in vitro induced immediate death of all cells, whereas at 45 degrees C a II cells survived. At 37 degrees C 55% of the cells were seen to contract after addition of phenylephrine. Immediately after incubation at 45 degrees C contraction rate decreased to 29%, but returned to 46% 1 day later. Conclusions: With this model, it is possible to study the mechanisms of thermotherapy in vitro. The results suggest that the effects of thermotherapy are due to the induction of cell death rather than to reduced stromal cell contractility. Furthermore, the data show that treatment is probably only successful if temperatures in excess of 50 degrees C are maintained. Copyright (C) 2000 S. Karger AG, Basel

Diversifying ethnicity in Australia\u27s population and environment debates

Population–environment debates in Australia are at an impasse. While the ability of this continent to sustain more migrants has attracted persistent scrutiny, nuanced explorations of diverse migrant cultures and their engagements with Australian landscapes have scarcely begun. Yet as we face the challenges of a climate changing world we would undoubtedly benefit from the most varied knowledges we can muster. This paper brings together three arenas of environmental debate circulating in Australia—the immigration/carrying capacity debate, comparisons between Indigenous and Anglo-European modes of environmental interaction, and research on household sustainability dilemmas—to demonstrate the exclusionary tendencies of each. We then attempt to reorient them in productive ways, by attending to the complexity of environmental sustainability in a context of immense ethnic diversity. Attentiveness to ethnic diversity offers three important insights: (1) Anglo-European Australian understandings of nature and environmentalism are culturally specific, but other perspectives are possible; (2) tensions can arise when ethnic differences in environmental attitude or practice come into contact; and (3) cultural environmental research offers scope to identify ethnically diverse vernacular sustainability practices that should be supported. Each of these threads requires attention in a context where population–environment debates often overlook cultural complexity, and readily spiral into strident anti-immigration sentiments

Collective punishment and human rights - from Israel to Russia

This thesis analyses collective punishment in the context of human rights law from a New Legal Realist perspective. Collective punishment is a concept deriving from the law of armed conflict. It describes the punishment of a group for an act allegedly committed by some of its members and is prohibited in times of armed conflict by treaty and customary international law. Recently, the imposition of collective punishment has been witnessed in situations outside armed conflict. This means that the applicable legal framework is human rights law and not the law of armed conflict. Human rights instruments do not explicitly address collective punishment. Consequently, there is a genuine gap in the protection of groups affected by collective punishment in situations outside of or short of armed conflict. Supported by two case studies on collective punishment in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and in Chechnya, the thesis examines potential options to close this gap in human rights law in a way contributing to the empowerment of affected groups. This analysis will focus on the European Convention on Human Rights due to its relevance to the situation in Chechnya. The protection and empowerment of groups necessitates a reconsideration of group rights under the human rights framework and challenges the traditionally individual focus of human rights law. By questioning whether human rights instruments can encompass such rights and adapt to the changing circumstances, the thesis contributes to the broader academic debate on rights held by collectivities in general and on collective human rights in particular. The thesis is therefore centred on the following research question: What is the relationship between the legal regulation and state policies on collective punishment under the law of armed conflict and human rights law and what effects does this relationship have on the protection and empowerment of affected groups

The Migration of Horticultural Knowledge: Pacific Island seasonal workers in rural Australia-a missed opportunity?

In 2012, Graeme Hugo wrote the article \u27Migration and Development in Low-income Countries: A Role for Destination Country Policy?\u27 for the inaugural issue of the journal Migration and Development. That article, which continues to be the journal\u27s most viewed work,1 used the case of Asian and Pacific migration to Australia to question \u27whether policies and practices by destination governments relating to international migration and settlement can play a role in facilitating positive developmental impacts in origin communities\u27 (Hugo 2012, 25). The importance of such structural support for development has been underscored, in relation to seasonal worker programs, by growing evidence that their broader development benefits-beyond the household or family unit-cannot be taken for granted (Basok 2000; Craven 2015; Joint Standing Committee on Migration (JSCM) 2016). In this essay we take inspiration from the above-mentioned paper (Hugo 2012), as well as an earlier discussion of \u27best practice\u27 temporary labour migration for development (Hugo 2009). Reflecting on Australia\u27s Seasonal Worker Programme (SWP), we make a case for the importance of maximising \u27development benefits for origin countries via the transfer of remittances, skills and knowledge\u27 (Bedford et al. 2017, 39; emphasis added). Remittances have been a regular area of policy and research focus. However, less attention has been directed towards the knowledges and skills that move with seasonal workers as part of this circular and temporary migration process-in which the choice is not reduced to one \u27between staying or going\u27 (Methmann and Oels 2015, 53), but both staying and going (often repeatedly). Here we draw on our own ongoing research with Pacific Island seasonal workers in Australia\u27s horticultural sector, which points towards the potential for the SWP to facilitate the bi-directional transfer of horticultural knowledges and skills.2 Many seasonal workers have extensive farming experience developed in their countries of origin. Acknowledgement of their farming skills and identities prompts contemplation of how the horticultural knowledge transfers that already happen spontaneously under the SWP could be better supported

Protected areas and indigenous rights in Sapmi: an agonistic reading of conflict and collaboration in land use planning

The recognition of Indigenous Peoples' rights has sailed up as one of the most critical issues in land use planning, globally. In this paper, we use a recent planning process for a national park on traditional Sami territory in northern Sweden to demonstrate how state officials engaged in everyday conservation planning are pivotal in navigating colonial legislation and promoting policy change on Indigenous rights. The analysis contributes, among other, to scholarly debates about the role of conflict in land use planning and the practices of frontline bureaucrats in natural resource governance. Our contribution demonstrates the value of an agonistic lens that attends to the constructive role of conflict in democratic change in pluralistic societies. This concerns both how state officials approach disagreement as well as the way contestation can create novel spaces to promote structural changes towards sustainability and justice. By not assuming collaboration but respectfully seeking it, the state officials succeeded in re-designing a collapsed process to help actors explore larger structural issues around Indigenous rights and government policy. In our agnostic reading, then, contestation should be perceived not as oppositional to the establishment of collaboration but as a necessary, and productive, part of inclusive land use planning

Low-frequency oscillations of the Atlantic Ocean meridional overturning circulation in a coupled climate model

International audienceUsing a 3-dimensional climate model of intermediate complexity we show that the overturning circulation of the Atlantic Ocean can vary at multicentennial-to-millennial timescales for present-day boundary conditions. A weak and continuous freshwater input into the Labrador Sea pushes the overturning circulation of the Atlantic Ocean into a bi-stable regime, characterized by phases of active and inactive deep-water formation in the Labrador Sea. In contrast, deep-water formation in the Nordic Seas is active during all phases of the oscillations. The actual timing of the transitions between the two circulation states occurs randomly. The oscillations constitute a 3-dimensional phenomenon and have to be distinguished from low-frequency oscillations seen previously in 2-dimensional models of the ocean. A conceptual model provides further insight into the essential dynamics underlying the oscillations of the large-scale ocean circulation. The model experiments indicate that the coupled climate system can exhibit unforced climate variability at multicentennial-to-millennial timescales that may be of relevance for Holocene and future climate variations