Search results for: states’ obligations

Authors: Hasrat Arjjumend, Sabiha Alam

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The Nagoya Protocol is landmark international legislation governing access to genetic resources and benefit sharing from utilization of genetic resource and traditional knowledge. The field implications of the international law have been assessed by surveying academic/ research institutions, civil society organizations (CSOs) and concerned individuals, who gave their opinions on whether the provider parties (usually developing countries) would ensure effective participation of Indigenous people and local communities (ILCs) in establishing the mechanisms to inform the potential users of traditional knowledge (TK) about their obligations under art. 12.2 of Nagoya Protocol. First of all, involvement and participation of ILCs in suggested clearing-house mechanisms of the Parties are seldom witnessed. Secondly, as respondents expressed, it is doubtful that developing countries would ensure effective participation of ILCs in establishing the mechanisms to inform the potential users of TK about their obligations. Yet, as most of ILCs speak and understand local or indigenous languages, whether the Nagoya Protocol provides or not, it is a felt need that the Parties should disclose information in a language understandable to ILCs. Alternative opinions indicate that if TK held by ILCs is disclosed, the value is gone. Therefore, it should be protected by the domestic law first and should be disclosed then.

Keywords: genetic resources, indigenous people, language, Nagoya protocol, participation, traditional knowledge

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Authors: Mulindwa Gerald

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Forced Migration is believed to be the most pressing issue in migration studies today, it therefore makes it of paramount importance that we examine the efficacy of the prevailing laws, treaties, conventions and global policies of refugee management. It suffices to note that the existing policies are vague and ambiguous encouraging the hospitality but not assessing the social economic impact to not only the refugees but also their host communities. The commentary around the Off-shore arrangements like one of UK-Rwanda and the legal implications of the same, make it even more fascinating. These are issues that need to be amplified and captured in the Migration Policies. In Uganda, a small landlocked country in East Africa, there always appeared new faces who were refugees from the Congo and Rwanda the neighboring countries to the West and South West respectively. The refugees would migrate to Uganda with absolutely no idea whatsoever how they were going to meet the daily needs of life, no food, no shelter, no clothing. It interest’s one’s mind to conscientiously interrogate the policy issues surrounding refugee management. The 1951 convention sets a number of obligations to states and the conundrum, faced by citizens of the universe interested in Migration studies is ensuring maximum compliance to these obligations considering the resource challenges. States have a duty to protect refugees in accordance with Article 14 of the Universal Declaration for Human Rights which was adopted by the 1951 convention, these speak to rights like the most important right of refugees known as the Principle of Non-Refoulement, which prohibits expulsion or return of refugees or asylum seekers The International Organization for Migrations projection of the number of migrants globally by 2050 was overwhelmingly surpassed by 2019 due to wars, conflicts that have been experienced in different parts of the globe. This is also due natural calamities and tough economic conditions. It is a descriptive analysis that encompasses a qualitative design research based on a case study involving both desk research and field study. The use of qualitative research approaches like interview guides, document review and direct observation methods helped to bring in the experience, social, behavioral and cultural aspects of the respondents into the study, and since qualitative research uses subjective information and not limited to the rigidly definable variables, thus it helped to explore the research area of the study. it therefore verily believe that this paper is going to trigger perspectives and spark a conversation on this really pressing global issue of refugees and asylum seekers, it is suggesting viable solutions to the management challenges while making recommendations like the ensuring that no refugees or asylum seekers are closed at any borders on the globe for instance a concerted effort of all global players to ensure that refugees are protected efficiently.

Keywords: management, migration, refugees, rights

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Authors: Charlotte Lülf

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Migration flows cannot be tackled by single states but need to be addressed as a transnational and international responsibility. However, the current international framework staggers. Widely excluded from legal protection are people that flee from the indiscriminate effects of an armed conflict as well as people fleeing natural disasters. This paper as part of an on-going PhD Project deals with the current and partly contradicting approaches to the protection of so-called war- and climate refugees in the European Union. The analysis will emphasize and evaluate the role of the European judiciary to define, redefine and potentially expand legal protection. Changing jurisprudential practice of national and regional courts will be assessed, as will be their dialogue to interpret the international obligations of human rights law, migration laws and asylum laws in an interacting world.

Keywords: human rights law, asylum law, migration, refugee protection

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Authors: Lottie Lane

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It is habitually assumed and stated that the World Bank should engage and comply with international human rights standards. However, the basis for holding the Bank to such standards is unclear. Most advocates of the idea invoke aspects of international law to argue that the Bank has existing obligations to act in compliance with human rights standards. The Bank itself, however, does not appear to accept such arguments, despite having endorsed the importance of human rights for a considerable length of time. A substantial challenge is that under the current international human rights law framework, the World Bank is considered a non-state actor, and as such, has no direct human rights obligations. In the absence of clear legal duties for the Bank, it is necessary to look at the tools available beyond the international human rights framework to encourage the Bank to comply with human rights standards. This article critically examines several bases for arguing that the Bank should comply and engage with human rights through its policies and practices. Drawing on the Bank’s own ‘good governance’ approach as well as the United Nations’ ‘human rights-based-approach’ to development, a new basis is suggested. First, the relationship between the World Bank and human rights is examined. Three perspectives are considered: (1) the legal position – what the status of the World Bank is under international human rights law, and whether it can be said to have existing legal human rights obligations; (2) the Bank’s own official position – how the Bank envisages its relationship with and role in the protection of human rights; and (3) the relationship between the Bank’s policies and practices and human rights (including how its attitudes are reflected in its policies and how the Bank’s operations impact human rights enjoyment in practice). Here, the article focuses on two examples – the (revised) 2016 Environmental and Social Safeguard Policies and the 2012 case-study regarding Gambella, Ethiopia. Both examples are widely considered missed opportunities for the Bank to actively engage with human rights. The analysis shows that however much pressure is placed on the Bank to improve its human rights footprint, it is extremely reluctant to do so explicitly, and the legal bases available are insufficient for requiring concrete, ex ante action by the Bank. Instead, the Bank’s own ‘good governance’ approach to development – which it has been advocating since the 1990s – can be relied upon. ‘Good governance’ has been used and applied by many actors in many contexts, receiving numerous different definitions. This article argues that human rights protection can now be considered a crucial component of good governance, at least in the context of development. In doing so, the article explains the relationship and interdependence between the two concepts, and provides three rationales for the Bank to take a ‘human rights-based approach’ to good governance. Ultimately, this article seeks to look beyond international human rights law and take a governance approach to provide a convincing basis upon which to argue that the World Bank should comply with human rights standards.

Keywords: World Bank, international human rights law, good governance, human rights-based approach

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Authors: Mohsen Qasemi

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In the international economic order multilateral trading system which established by General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1947 (GATT) was dominant until about two decades ago. Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) have changed this order and become an important phenomenon. One of the main objectives of the World Trade Organization (WTO) as a central institution of multilateral trading system is raising standards of living. There are many scholars who suggest that WTO should take steps to protect human rights in its activities. Although it has always been opposing views who declare that since WTO has no explicit rule for human rights, it has no human rights related obligations. At the time that the WTO was established, member states began to join RTAs and since then, the escalating growth of these agreements and their effects on multilateral trading system has been controversial. There are some aspects of RTAs that have received too little attention from scholars. It is important to take a different view and evaluate the RTAs based on non-commercial aspects. The present paper seeks to answer this question: which system could be more useful in protecting human rights, RTAs or WTO?

Keywords: WTO, RTAs, human rights, multilateral trading system, non discrimination

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Authors: A. Dehghani, S. Shirin

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We propose in this article a new configuration of quantum states, |α, β> := |α>×|β>. Which are composed of vector products of two different copies of spin coherent states, |α> and |β>. Some mathematical as well as physical properties of such states are discussed. For instance, it has been shown that the cross products of two coherent vectors remain coherent again. They admit a resolution of the identity through positive definite measures on the complex plane. They represent packets similar to the true coherent states, in other words we would not expect to take spin squeezing in any of the field quadratures Lˆx, Lˆy and Lˆz. Depending on the particular choice of parameters in the above scenarios, they can be converted into the so-called Dicke states which minimize the uncertainty relations of each pair of the angular momentum components.

Keywords: vector (Cross-)products, minimum uncertainty, angular momentum, measurement, Dicke states

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Authors: Tracy Smith-Carrier

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In 1995, the World Health Organization declared that poverty was the biggest killer and the greatest cause of suffering in the world. Income is certainly a key social determinant of health, the lack of which causes innumerable health and mental health conditions. In seeking to provide relief from financial hardship for residents within their populace, states in the Global North have largely turned to the non-profit and charitable sector. The stigma and shame of accessing charity is a significant barrier for many, but what is more problematic is that the embrace of the charitable model has let governments off the hook from responding to their international human rights obligations. Although states are signatories to various human rights treaties and conventions internationally, many of these laws have not been implemented domestically. This presentation explores the limits of the charitable model in addressing poverty in countries of the Global North. Unlike in the ages passed, when poverty was thought to be an individual problem, we now know that poverty is largely systemic in nature. In this presentation, we will identify the structural determinants of poverty, outline why people are reticent to access charitable programs and services and how income security is reproduced through the charitable model, and discuss evidence-informed solutions, such as a basic income guarantee, to move beyond the charitable model in favour of a rights-based justice model. To move beyond charity, we must demand that governments recognize our fundamental human rights and address poverty and hunger using a justice model based on substantive human rights.

Keywords: basic income, charity, poverty, income security, hunger, food security, social justice, human rights

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Authors: Zhaohui Tian

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China’s growing and deepening engagement in Africa has attracted numerous controversial debates on Chinese-African social-racial relations both in the media and academia. Most research tends to discuss this issue and the tensions involved at the state level, but limited attention has been given to the individual relating processes of those two racial groups from an intercultural politeness evaluation angle. Thus, taking Kenya as a country focus and putting it under recent perspectives on pragmatics and politeness, this study explores the Chinese-Kenyan workplace relating experience in Chinese-owned companies with the aim to offer new insights on Chinese-African social-racial tensions. The original data were collected through 25 interviews from 29 Chinese and Kenyan participants working in different Chinese companies and industries, some of which had been later on converted into 182 short story data in order to better capture the process and content dimensions of their experiences using Spencer &Kádár’s politeness evaluation model. Both interview and story data were analysed in MAXQDA to understand the personal relating process and the criteria they were drawing from when making evaluative judgements of their relations. The result particular draws attention to tensions around goals, rights, and obligations, and social-moral dimensions that had been underrepresented in intercultural and pragmatics literature. The study offers alternative empirical insights into Chinese-Kenyan relations from an intercultural politeness management perspective and the possible mismatches of the evaluative criteria that potentially cause tension in this context.

Keywords: chinese-kenyan, evaluation, relating, workplace

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Authors: Ayyoub Jamali, Alena Kozlova

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The Russian invasion of Ukraine has tested the mettle of the international community, prompting not only States but also non-state actors to take deterrent action in response. Indeed, international sports organisations, namely FIFA and UEFA, have been rather successful in shifting the power dynamics by introducing a complete ban on the Russian national and club teams. This article aims to inquire into the human rights implications of such actions taken by international sports organisations. First, the article departs from an assessment of the legal status of FIFA and UEFA under international law and reflects on how a legal link could be established vis-à-vis their human rights obligations. Second, it examines the human rights aspects of the impugned measures by FIFA and UEFA on the part of the Russian athletes, further scrutinising them against the international human rights law principle of non-discrimination through a proportionality test. Last, it draws basic pathways for how possible human rights violations committed in the context of measures adopted by such organisations could be remedied, outlining the challenges of arbitration and litigation in Switzerland.

Keywords: FIFA, UEFA, FUR, ban, human rights, Russia, Ukraine, non-state actors

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Authors: Tapiwa Shumba, Nyaradzo D. T. Karubwa

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Dispute resolution is the plinth of regional integration initiatives anchored on the rule of law and compliance with obligations. Without effective and reliable despite resolution mechanisms, it may be difficult to foster deeper integration. Within the Southern African Development Community (SADC) legal and institutional framework exists an apparent recognition that dispute resolution is an integral part of the regional integration. Almost all legal instruments of SADC include some provision for dispute resolution. Institutionally, the somewhat now defunct SADC Tribunal is meant to be the fulcrum for resolving disputes that arise under SADC instruments. However, after a closer analysis of the substance of these legal provisions and the attendant procedural mechanisms for addressing disputes, an argument can be made that dispute resolution in SADC is somewhat scant, fragmented and neglected. In most instruments, the common provision on dispute resolution appears to be a ‘mid-night clause’. In other instruments which have specialised provisions and procedures, questions of practicality and genius cannot be avoided. Worse still there now appears to be a lack of magnanimity between the substantive provisions in various instruments and the role of the transformed Tribunal. This scant, fragmented and neglected dispute resolution system may have an impact on the observance of the rule of law and compliance with obligations in the rules-based SADC system. This all, in turn, has an effect on the common agenda for deeper regional integration. This article seeks to expose this scant, fragmented and neglected SADC dispute resolution system and to propose a harmonised system that addresses these challenges. A ‘one stop shop’ system under a strengthened SADC tribunal is proposed as a responsive solution.

Keywords: regional integration, harmonisation, SADC tribunal, dispute resolution

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Authors: Nadine Rashed, A. Samer Ezeldin, Engy Serag

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The principle of good faith plays a critical role in shaping contractual relationships, yet its application varies significantly across different types of construction contracts and legal systems. This paper presents a comparative analysis of how various construction contracts perceive the principle of good faith, a fundamental aspect that influences contractual relationships and project outcomes. The primary objective of this analysis is to examine the differences in the application and interpretation of good faith across key construction contracts, including JCT (Joint Contracts Tribunal), FIDIC (Fédération Internationale des Ingénieurs-Conseils), NEC (New Engineering Contract), and ICE (Institution of Civil Engineers) Contracts. To accomplish this, a mixed-methods approach will be employed, integrating a thorough literature review of current legal frameworks and academic publications with primary data gathered from a structured questionnaire aimed at industry professionals such as contract managers, legal advisors, and project stakeholders. This combined strategy will enable a holistic understanding of the theoretical foundations of good faith in construction contracts and its practical effects in real-world contexts. The findings of this analysis are expected to yield valuable insights into how varying interpretations of good faith can impact project performance, dispute resolution, and collaborative practices within the construction industry. This paper contributes to a deeper understanding of how the principle of good faith is evolving in the construction industry, providing insights for contract drafters, legal practitioners, and project managers seeking to navigate the complexities of contractual obligations across different legal systems.

Keywords: construction contracts, contractual obligations, ethical practices, good faith

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Authors: Lisa Tragbar

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In post-war scenarios, reconstruction is a principle towards creating a Just Peace in order to restore a stable post-war society. Just peace theorists explore normative behaviour after war, including the duties and responsibilities of different actors and peacebuilding strategies to achieve a lasting, positive peace. Environmental peace ethicists have argued for including the role of nature in the Ethics of War and Peace. This text explores the question of why and how to rethink the value of nature in post-war scenarios. The aim is to include the rights of nature within a maximalist account of reconstruction by highlighting sumak kawsay in the post-war period. Destruction of nature is usually considered collateral damage in war scenarios. Common universal standards for post-war reconstruction are restitution, compensation and reparation programmes, which is mostly anthropocentric approach. The problem of reconstruction in the aftermath of war is the instrumental value of nature. The responsibility to rebuild needs to be revisited within a non-anthropocentric context. There is an ongoing debate about a minimalist or maximalist approach to post-war reconstruction. While Michael Walzer argues for minimalist in-and-out interventions, Alex Bellamy argues for maximalist strategies such as the responsibility to protect, a UN-concept on how face mass atrocity crimes and how to reconstruct peace. While supporting the tradition of maximalist responsibility to rebuild, these normative post-Bellum concepts do not yet sufficiently consider the rights of nature in the aftermath of war. While reconstruction of infrastructures seems important and necessary, concepts that strengthen the intrinsic value of nature in post-bellum measures must also be included. Peace is not Just Peace without a thriving nature that provides the conditions and resources to live and guarantee human rights. Ecuador's indigenous philosophy of life can contribute to the restoration of nature after war by changing the perspective on the value of nature. The sumak kawsay includes the de-hierarchisation of humans and nature and the principle of reciprocity towards nature. Transferring this idea of life and interconnectedness to post-war reconstruction practices, post bellum perpetrators have restorative obligations not only to people but also to nature. This maximalist approach would include both a restitutive principle, by restoring the balance between humans and nature, and a retributive principle, by punishing the perpetrators through compensatory duties to nature. A maximalist approach to post-war reconstruction that takes into account the rights of nature expands the normative post-war questions to include a more complex field of responsibilities. After a war, Just Peace is restored once not only human rights but also the rights of nature are secured. A minimalist post-bellum approach to reconstruction does not locate future problems at their source and does not offer a solution for the inclusion of obligations to nature. There is a lack of obligations towards nature after a war, which can be changed through a different perspective: The indigenous philosophy of life provides the necessary principles for a comprehensive reconstruction of Just Peace.

Keywords: normative ethics, peace, post-war, sumak kawsay, applied ethics

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Authors: Nahid Ferdousi

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Juvenile justice is a key component of the child rights to keep the best interest and completely different from criminal justice. After independence of Bangladesh in 1971, the Children Act 1974 and the Children Rules 1976 were considered as the basic law for juvenile justice which written before many international instruments on children’s rights came into existence, did not align with the international mandate set by those instruments. These Acts were not really child rights-based and modern concept such as diversion, restorative justice and community-based rehabilitation has not developed accordingly. In this backdrop, government has enacted the new Children Act 2013 and introduced extensive reforms to the juvenile justice system in Bangladesh. The Act has been adopted with the provisions for child-friendly juvenile courts in each district and different kinds of child-oriented practices in a number of settings, such as, child affairs police officer, probation officer, national child welfare board, diversion, alternative preventive measures on the basis of international principles. Prior to the Act, there had been a number of High Court rulings which considered the international standards for juvenile justice. But the recent reforms to juvenile justice system hail a new commitment to the country’s international obligations to its children and a change in the philosophy guiding the treatment of offender children. This is high time to create an effective juvenile justice system for the 21st century in Bangladesh by the proper implementation of the Children Act 2013. Additionally, the new Children Rules should be enacted and juvenile courts along with correctional institutions should be established in each district in Bangladesh. This study assesses the juvenile justice reforms in Bangladesh over the five decades (1974-2014) and focuses on changes that will improve the system as a whole and enable us to better achieve the ends of fair juvenile justice.

Keywords: Juvenile justice reforms, international obligations, child-oriented practices, commitment of the state

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Authors: Obinna Emmanuel Nkomadu

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Many illegal activities take place on the sea, including trafficking in arms, which constitutes one of the major threats to maritime security. Indeed, the dissemination of arms has hampered the peaceful settlement of many States in Africa, fuelled disputes into armed conflicts, and contributed to the prolongation of armed conflicts in many African States. The absence of international standards on the importation, exportation, and transfer of conventional arms is a contributory factor to conflict, displacement of people, crime, and terrorism on the continent of Africa, which in turn undermines peace, safety, security, stability, and sustainable development. South Africa and Nigeria have taken steps to address the illicit arms, but, despite those steps, arms trafficking at sea continues. To suppress the illicit arms and to combat a number of other threats to maritime security around the continent of Africa, the majority of AU members in 2016 adopted the African Charter on Maritime Security and Safety and Development in Africa (“the Lomé Charter”). However, the Lomé Charter is yet to come into force. This paper set out the pre-existing international legal instruments on arms to ascertain the domestic laws of South Africa and Nigeria relating to arms with the relevant provisions of the Charter in order to establish whether any legal steps are required to ensure that South Africa and Nigeria comply with its obligations under the Lomé Charter should it decide to ratify it. The legal steps include cooperating in establishing policies, as well as a regional and continental institution, and ensuring the implementation of such policies. The paper concludes ratifying the Lomé Charter is a step in the right direction in suppressing arms trafficking at sea, in addition to filling those gaps or limitations in their relevant legislation.

Keywords: cooperation against arms trafficking at sea, Lomé Charter, maritime security, Nigerian and South Africa legislation on arms

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Authors: Charlotte Lülf

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Migration flows, resulting from war, climate change or economic crisis cannot be tackled by single states but need to be addressed as a transnational and international responsibility. The traditional architecture surrounding the work of the UNHCR and the 1951 Convention, however, is not equipped to deal with these challenges. Widely excluded from legal protection are people not individually persecuted for the statutory criteria, people that flee from the indiscriminate effects of an armed conflict as well as people fleeing natural disasters. With the lack of explicit legal protection and the political reluctance of nation states worldwide to extend their commitment in new asylum laws, the judiciary must be put in focus: it plays a unique role in interpreting and potentially expanding the application of existing regulations. This paper as part of an ongoing Ph.D. Project deals with the current and partly contradicting approaches to the protection of war- and climate refugees. Changing jurisprudential practice of national and regional courts will be assessed, as will be their dialogue to interpret the international obligations of human rights law, migration laws, and asylum laws in an interacting world. In recent judgments refoulment to an armed conflict as well as countries without adequate disaster relief or health care was argued as violating fundamental human and asylum law rights and therefore prohibited – even for applicants without refugee status: The first step towards access to subsidiary protection could herewith be established. Can one observe similar developments in other parts of the world? This paper will evaluate the role of the judiciary to define, redefine and potentially expand protection for people seeking refuge from armed conflicts and natural disasters.

Keywords: human rights law, asylum-seekers, displacement, migration

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Authors: A. Albar, U. Schwingenschlogel

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Device applications of transparent conducting oxides require a thorough understanding of the physical and chemical properties of the involved interfaces. We use ab-initio calculations within density functional theory to investigate the electronic states at the SnO/SnO2 hetero-interface. Tin dioxide and monoxide are transparent materials with high n-type and p-type mobilities, respectively. This work aims at exploring the modifications of the electronic states, in particular the charge transfer, in the vicinity of the hetero-interface. The (110) interface is modeled by a super-cell approach in order to minimize the mismatch between the lattice parameters of the two compounds. We discuss the electronic density of states as a function of the distance to the interface.

Keywords: density of states, ab-initio calculations, interface states, charge transfer

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Authors: Tutku Ak, Abdullah Kelkit, Cihad Öztürk

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An increase has been witnessed with the number of multinational environmental agreements in the past decade, particularly in Europe. Success with implementation, however, shows variation. While many countries are willing to join these agreements, they do not always fully honor their obligations to put their commitments into practice. One reason for this is that countries have different legal and administrative systems. One example of an international multilateral environmental agreement is the European Landscape Convention (ELC). ELC expresses a concern to achieve sustainable development based on a balanced and harmonious relationship between social needs, economic activity, and the environment. Member states are required to implement the convention in accordance with their own administrative structure, respecting subsidiarity. In particular, the importance of cooperation in the protection, management, and planning of the resources is expressed through the convention. In this paper, it is intended to give a broad view of ELC’s implementation process in Turkey and what factors have influenced by the process. Under this context, the paper will focus on the objectives of the convention for addressing the issue of the loss of European landscapes, and the justification and tools used to accomplish these objectives. The degree to which these objectives have been implemented in Turkey and the opportunities and constraints that have been faced during this process have been discussed.

Keywords: European landscape convention, implementation, multinational environmental agreements, policy tools

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Authors: Tomasz Kosicki

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The subject of the presentation will be the administrative and legal instruments of disciplining maintenance debtors adopted by the Polish legislator, the substantive legal bases of which were adopted in the Act of 7 September 2007 on assistance to persons entitled to maintenance (Journal of Laws of 2022, item 1205). These provisions are complemented by procedural regulations resulting from the Act of 14 June 1960 - Code of Administrative Procedure (Journal of Laws of 2021, item 735, as amended). The first part of the paper will focus on the administrative proceedings regarding the recognition of the debtor as evading maintenance obligations. The initiation of this procedure ex officio is preceded by a number of actions by public administration bodies, including Conducting a maintenance interview with the debtor, during which his health and professional situation and the reasons for non-payment of maintenance are determined, Professional activation in a situation where the lack of payment of maintenance results from the lack of employment. The reasons for initiating the above-mentioned administrative proceedings ex officio will be indicated, taking into account the current views of the judicial decisions. The second part of the paper will focus on the instrument of retaining the driving license of the debtor, who was previously found to be evading maintenance. The author points out that the detention of the driving license is one of the types of administrative sanctions of a very severe nature. Doubts of a constitutional nature will also be highlighted, as well as those concerning the effectiveness of this legal instrument and the protection of the debtor's rights. The thesis will be presented that the administrative procedure for the retention of a driving license does not fulfill its role and especially does not affect the collection of maintenance obligations from debtors. All the considerations will be based on the current and most representative views of the literature on the subject and the jurisprudence of Polish administrative courts.

Keywords: maintenance debtor, administrative proceedings, detention of driving license, administrative sanction, polish administrative law, public administration

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Authors: Fatih Ozaydin

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Quantum Fisher information (QFI) is a multipartite entanglement witness and recently it has been studied extensively with separability and entanglement in the focus. On the other hand, bound entanglement is a special phenomena observed in mixed entangled states. In this work, we study the QFI of W states under a four-dimensional entanglement binding channel. Starting with initally pure W states of several qubits, we find how the QFI decreases as two qubits of the W state is subject to entanglement binding. We also show that as the size of the W state increases, the effect of entanglement binding is decreased.

Keywords: Quantum Fisher information, W states, bound entanglement, entanglement binding

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Authors: Tomasz Kosicki

Abstract:

The subject of the presentation will be the administrative and legal instruments of disciplining maintenance debtors adopted by the Polish legislator, the substantive legal bases of which were adopted in the Act of 7 September 2007 on assistance to persons entitled to maintenance (Journal of Laws of 2022, item 1205). These provisions are complemented by procedural regulations resulting from the Act of 14 June 1960 - Code of Administrative Procedure (Journal of Laws of 2021, item 735, as amended). The first part of the paper will focus on the administrative proceedings regarding the recognition of the debtor as evading maintenance obligations. The initiation of this procedure ex officio is preceded by a number of actions by public administration bodies, including Conducting a maintenance interview with the debtor, during which his health and professional situation and the reasons for non-payment of maintenance are determined, Professional activation in a situation where the lack of payment of maintenance results from the lack of employment. The reasons for initiating the above-mentioned administrative proceedings ex officio will be indicated, taking into account the current views of the judicial decisions. The second part of the paper will focus on the instrument of retaining the driving license of the debtor, who was previously found to be evading maintenance. The author points out that the detention of the driving license is one of the types of administrative sanctions of a very severe nature. Doubts of a constitutional nature will also be highlighted, as well as those concerning the effectiveness of this legal instrument and the protection of the debtor's rights. The thesis will be presented that the administrative procedure for the retention of a driving license does not fulfill its role and especially does not affect the collection of maintenance obligations from debtors. All the considerations will be based on the current and most representative views of the literature on the subject and the jurisprudence of Polish administrative courts.

Keywords: maintenance debtor, administrative proceedings, detention of driving license, administrative sanction, polish administrative law, public administration

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Authors: Pepur Sandra, Bulog Ivana, Rimac Smiljanić Ana

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During the COVID-19 pandemic, stress and family financial fragility arose worldwide. Economic and health uncertainty created new pressure on the everyday life of families. The work from home, homeschooling, and care of other family members caused an increase in unpaid work and generated a new division of intrahousehold. As many times before, women have taken the higher burden. This paper analyzes family stress and finance during the COVID-19 pandemic. We propose that women's inclusion in paid and unpaid work and their financial literacy influence family finances. We build up our assumptions according to the two theories that explain intrahousehold family decision-making: traditional and barging models. The traditional model assumes that partners specialize in their roles in line with time availability. Consequently, partners less engaged in payable working activities will spend more time on domestic activities and vice versa. According to the bargaining model, each individual has their preferences, and the one with more household bargaining power, e.g., higher income, higher level of education, better employment, or higher financial knowledge, is likely to make family decisions and avoid unpaid work. Our results are based on an anonymous and voluntary survey of 869 valid responses from women older than 18 conducted in Croatia at the beginning of 2021. We found that families who experienced delays in settling current obligations before the pandemic were in a worse financial situation during the pandemic. However, all families reported problems settling current obligations during pandemic times regardless of their financial condition before the crisis. Women from families with financial issues reported higher levels of family and personal stress during the pandemic. Furthermore, we provide evidence that more women's unpaid work negatively affects the family's financial fragility during the pandemic. In addition, in families where women have better financial literacy and are more financially independent, families cope better with finance before and during pandemics.

Keywords: family financial fragility, stress, unpaid work, women's financial literacy

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Authors: R. B. Mishra

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Hidden Markov Model (HMM) has been used in prediction and determination of states that generate different neural activations as well as mental working conditions. This paper addresses two applications of HMM; one to determine the optimal sequence of states for two neural states: Active (AC) and Inactive (IA) for the three emission (observations) which are for No Working (NW), Waiting (WT) and Working (W) conditions of human beings. Another is for the determination of optimal sequence of intentionality i.e. Believe (B), Desire (D), and Intention (I) as the states and three observational sequences: NW, WT and W. The computational results are encouraging and useful.

Keywords: hiden markov model, believe desire intention, neural activation, simulation

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Authors: Katarzyna Olejko

Abstract:

The need to redefine the goals and adapt the operational activities carried out in accordance with the concept of sustainable management to these goals results in the increasing importance of information on the company's activities perceived from the perspective of the effectiveness and efficiency of environmental goals implementation. The narrow scope of reporting data on a company's impact on the environment is not adequate to meet the information needs of modern investors. Reporting obligations are therefore imposed on companies in order to increase the effectiveness of corporate governance and to improve the process of assessing the achievement of environmental goals. The non-financial reporting obligations introduced in Polish legislation increased the scope of reported information. However, the lack of detailed guidelines on the method of reporting resulted in a large diversification of the scope of non-financial information, making it impossible to compare the data presented by companies. The source of information regarding the level of the implementation of standards in Environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) is the report on compliance with best practices published by the Warsaw Stock Exchange. The document Best Practices of Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) Listed Companies (2021), amended by the WSE in 2021, includes the rules applicable to this area (ESG). The aim of this article is to present the level of compliance with good practices in the area of ESG by selected companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange The research carried out as part of this study, which was based on information from reports on the compliance with good practices of companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange that was made available in the good practice scanner, have revealed that good practices in the ESG area are implemented by companies to a limited extent. The level of their application in comparison with other rules is definitely lower. The lack of experience and clear guidelines on ESG reporting may cause some confusion, which is why conscious investors and reporting companies themselves are pinning their hopes on the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) adopted by European Parliament.

Keywords: reporting, ESG, corporate governance, best practices

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Authors: Reham Barakat

Abstract:

Over the last few decades, the influence of International Financial Institutions (IFIs), especially the World Bank (WB), has significantly increased. Since the early 1980s, IFIs have assumed greater role, especially in developing countries; their total lending has dramatically increased, affecting billions of people in their Borrower States. Though the purpose of the development assistance provided by IFIs is to alleviate poverty and promote economic and social development in their member countries, IFIs have been subject to massive criticism by civil society institutions, international NGOs and local communities for the harmful environmental, social and economic impacts resulting from their development interventions in borrower countries, such as deforestation, displacement of indigenous peoples, and unemployment. While the role of IFIs has expanded over time, affecting billions of people, their accountability mechanisms remained behind and were criticized for lacking sufficient independency and enforceability. The serious adverse environmental impacts of the World Bank’s funded projects, along with their weak accountability mechanisms, raises the question of 'To what extent IFIs should be held internationally responsible for the harmful environmental consequences arising from their development interventions?'. This paper argues that IFIs are legally responsible for the harmful environmental consequences arising from their development interventions. The study (i) identifies the applicable laws and relevant primary rules from which the international environmental obligations of IFIs towards their borrower countries are derived (ii) assesses the World Bank’s compliance to the principles of the International Environmental Law including the precautionary principle, the polluter pays principle, and the principle of Good-Neighborliness, (iii) assesses the World Bank’s current internal accountability mechanisms for harmful environmental impacts resulting from the World Bank’s funded projects, and finally (iv) identifies the appropriate dispute settlement mechanisms to which states and non-state actors could raise their claims against IFIs for harmful environmental consequences arising from their interventions.

Keywords: international environmental law, international financial institutions, international responsibility, world bank, environmental and social safeguards

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Authors: Allwell Uwazuruike

Abstract:

With the withdrawal, in 2016, of 3 African states from the ICC, the discourse took an interesting twist. African states, or at least some of them, had now shown their resolve to part ways with the ICC and, by implication, focus on further enthroning regional control and governance through an improved continental justice system. A range of views has been expressed over the years on the allegations of bias by some African states and the continued membership of the ICC. While there may be a split on the merits of the allegations of bias, academic analysts have generally not opposed African states’ membership of the ICC nor been particularly optimistic about the prospects of an African criminal court. There is also a degree of ambivalence on whether there are positives to be taken from African states’ withdrawal from the ICC. This article examines the recent developments with the ICC and analyses whether these could be viewed from the positive (or, at least, alternative) spectrum of the AU’s spirited march towards regional sovereignty or entirely negatively from the point of view of African Heads-of-State seeking to enthrone an era of authoritarianism and non-accountability.

Keywords: international criminal court, Africa, regionalism, criminal justice

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Authors: Jyotsna Rosario, K. R. Shanmugam

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Since elementary education is a merit good, considerable public resources are allocated to universalise it. However, elementary education outcomes vary across the Indian States. Evidences indicate that while some states are lagging in elementary education outcome primarily due to lack of resources and poor schooling infrastructure, others are lagging despite resource abundance and well-developed schooling infrastructure. Addressing the issue of efficiency, the study employs Stochastic Frontier Analysis for panel data of 27 Indian states from 2012-13 to 2017-18 to estimate the technical efficiency of State governments in generating enrolment. The mean efficiency of states was estimated to be 58%. Punjab, Meghalaya, and West Bengal were found to be the most efficient states. Whereas Jammu and Kashmir, Nagaland, Madhya Pradesh, and Odisha are one of the most inefficient states. This study emphasizes the efficient utilisation of public resources and helps in the identification of best practices.

Keywords: technical efficiency, public expenditure, elementary education outcome, stochastic frontier analysis

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Authors: Arman S. Kussainov, Altynbek K. Beisekov

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This work focuses on building an efficient universal procedure to construct a single density of states from the multiple pieces of data provided by the parallel implementation of the Wang Landau Monte Carlo based algorithm. The Ising and Pott models were used as the examples of the two-dimensional spin lattices to construct their densities of states. Sampled energy space was distributed between the individual walkers with certain overlaps. This was made to include the latest development of the algorithm as the density of states replica exchange technique. Several factors of immediate importance for the seamless stitching process have being considered. These include but not limited to the speed and universality of the initial parallel algorithm implementation as well as the data post-processing to produce the expected smooth density of states.

Keywords: density of states, Monte Carlo, parallel algorithm, Wang Landau algorithm

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Authors: Agata Ferreira

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Rapidly increasing debates and initiatives in the area of Corporate Social Responsibility (“CSR”) have reached the world of international investment law. CSR standards that focus on the operations of multinational companies are increasingly relevant in the context of international investment policy making. In the past, the connection between CSR standards and legal framework for foreign direct investment has been largely non-existent. Recently, however, there is a growing trend of a more balance approach to rights and obligations as between investors and states under investment treaties. CSR principles join other social and environmental measures slowly being included in the investment treaties to enhance their sustainable development dimension. Issues of CSR are present on negotiation tables of new mega regional investment treaties like TTIP for example. To date, only a very few bilateral investment treaties and a handful of other international treaties with investment provisions include CSR clauses. In addition, the existing provisions tend to be of a soft type, where parties merely acknowledge importance of good corporate governance and CSR for sustainable development or generally affirm their aim to encourage enterprises to observe internationally recognised guidelines and principles of CSR. The relevant provisions often leave it up to the states to encourage enterprises operating within their territories to voluntarily incorporate CSR principles. The interaction between general non-binding CSR standards, domestic laws and policies and provisions of international investment treaties have not been tested by investment tribunals yet. The role of investment treaties in raising awareness and promoting CSR is still in its infancy. The use of CSR standards in the international investment protection regime for promotion of CSR standards, and as a tool for disciplining investors into complying with such standards, pose a number of questions and is met with resistance from investors` lobbies. Integration of these two areas, CSR and international investment law, both consisting of multilayered, diverse and often overlapping instruments is by no means an easy task. Whether international investment world is ready to embrace CSR standards or shrug them off is a matter of uncertain future. The subject however has been raised, first introductions have been made and the time will show whether the relationship between legal framework of international investment and CSR will flourish or remain dormant.

Keywords: corporate social responsibility, foreign direct investment, investment treaties, sustainable development

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Authors: Shabnam Dadparvar, Laijin Shen

Abstract:

After a period of conflict between Russia and the West, new signs of confrontation between the United States and China are observed. China, as the most populous country in the world with a high rate of economic growth, neither stands the hegemonic power of the United States nor has the intention of direct confrontation with it. By raising the costs of the United States’ leadership at the international level, China seeks to find a better status without direct confrontation with the US. Meanwhile, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), as a soft balancing strategy against the hegemony of the United States is used as a tool to reach this goal. The authors by using a descriptive-analytical method try to explain the policies of China and the United States on Shanghai Cooperation Organization as well as confrontation between these two countries within the framework of 'balance of soft power theory'.

Keywords: balance of soft power, Central Asia, Shanghai cooperation organization, terrorism

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Authors: Padmaja Kaja, Kiran Kumar Gellaboina

Abstract:

A lion’s share of agricultural work is contributed by women in India as it is the case in many developing countries, yet women are not securing the pride as a farmer. Many policies are supporting women empowerment in India, especially in agriculture sector considering the importance of sustainable food security. However these policies many times failed to achieve the targeted results of mainstreaming gender. Implementing the principles of governance would lead to gender equality in agriculture. This paper deals with the social norms and obligations prevailed with reference to Indian context which abstain women from having resources. This paper is formulated by using primary research done in eight districts of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh states of India supported by secondary research. Making amendments to Hindu Succession Act in united Andhra Pradesh much prior to the positioning of the amended act in the whole country lead to a better land holding a share of women in Andhra Pradesh. The policies like registering government distributed lands in the name of women in the state also have an added value. However, the women participation in decision-making process in agriculture is limited in elite families when compared to socially under privileged families, further too it was higher in drought affected districts like Mahbubnagar in Telangana when compared to resource-rich East Godavari district in Andhra Pradesh. Though National Gender Resource Centre for Agriculture (NGRCA) at centre and Gender Cells in the states were established a decade ago, extension reach to the women farmers is still lagging behind. Capturing the strength of women self groups in India especially in Andhra Pradesh to link up with agriculture extension might improve the extension reach of women farmers. Maintenance of micro level women data sets, creating women farmers networks with government departments like agriculture, irrigation, revenue and formal credit institutes would result in good governance to mainstream gender in agriculture. Further to add that continuous monitoring and impact assessments of the programmes and projects for gender inclusiveness would reiterate the government efforts.

Keywords: food security, gender, governance, mainstreaming

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