Host State Research Articles

Economic Actors as Human Rights Watchers: The Effects of Government Sexual Violence on Foreign Direct Investment

AbstractDo reports of sexual violence by state forces influence foreign direct investment? While studies have examined the impact of government human rights performance on FDI, how investors react to civilian victimization during wartime remains understudied. We investigate this with a focus on conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV). We argue that sexual violence by state governments results in the loss of FDI during conflict due to reputational and economic costs faced by foreign investors. With increasing international developments on CRSV, ties to governments that perpetrate sexual violence can be harmful to how the global community perceives foreign corporations. Moreover, government sexual violence signals that the government is relatively weaker than its opponent, creating uncertainties for foreign corporations regarding future investment opportunities in the host state. Analyzing sexual violence by government forces for all civil conflicts from 1989 to 2008, our findings show a decline in FDI as government sexual violence increases.

Investor Human Rights and Environmental Obligations: The Need to Redesign Corporate Social Responsibility Clauses

Abstract The article explores the utility of corporate social responsibility (CSR) clauses in international investment agreements to achieve responsible investor conduct on human rights and environmental protection. It provides an empirical overview of the content of such CSR clauses and offers a critical analysis on how and why these clauses, regardless of their formulation, have not yet led to effective investor accountability. Building on the weaknesses identified, it proposes to design new clauses on ‘investor human rights and environmental obligations’ that incorporate established international standards of responsible conduct, such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights; directly address investors as duty-bearers; explicitly recognise affected communities as beneficiaries of the investor obligations; and clarify the central question of access to remedy by providing for clear mechanisms of foreign investor liability in both the domestic courts of the home State and of the host State, separated from any counterclaim a host State may raise in an arbitration proceeding.

Balance between Investment Protection and Sustainable Development under Tanzania-Canada BITs: Need for Progressive Domestic Investment Law

Interactions between foreign investment and host community raise questions as to the proper approach to balance investment protection and sustainable development interests. This article examines how Tanzania balances investment protection with social and environmental concerns. Tanzania has had a mixed practice with foreign investment and Bits. Few Bits were concluded in the early years after independence. But then the country experimented with socialism and self-reliance in late 1960’s and 1970’s, only to reverse trend in mid-1980’s. Tanzania concluded majority of her Bits in 1990s and 2000’s. From 2010, Tanzania concluded Bits which are conscious of sustainable development concerns. Tanzania-Canada BIT is a case in point. These Bits not only inserted explicit sustainable development provisions but also progressive investment standard provisions which afford the government space to regulate legitimate sustainable development objectives. However, this recalibration approach still faces practical challenges due inconsistencies of arbitral tribunals. To help fill this gap, the study considers the role of domestic investment laws in protecting sustainable development interests. In that regard, the study holds the view that domestic investment laws have to be sustainable development oriented in order to supplement other approaches of balancing investor rights with sustainable development interests of host states.

Sticking it out: Instability, regime type, and personnel withdrawals from UN peacekeeping operations

What explains UN member-state personnel withdrawals from peacekeeping operations? Withdrawals can occur at the behest of contributor states, as contributions are voluntary. We argue that withdrawal is motivated by violence in the peacekeeping operation host state. Research shows that well-resourced missions improve the prospects of success. Personnel withdrawals are dangerous, as they are more likely when continued deployments are needed. We thus need to understand why some states resist withdrawing in the face of instability. We argue that democracies are more stalwart than their counterparts given their constituency interests, the democratic benefits of peacekeeping and the political cover offered to democratic policymakers.

The potential role of protein disulfide isomerases (PDIs) during parasitic infections: a focus on Leishmania spp.

Leishmaniasis is a group of vector-borne diseases caused by intracellular protozoan parasites belonging to the genus Leishmania. Leishmania parasites can employ different and numerous sophisticated strategies, including modulating host proteins, cell signaling, and cell responses by parasite proteins, to change the infected host conditions to favor the parasite persistence and induce pathogenesis. In this sense, protein disulfide isomerases (PDIs) have been described as crucial proteins that can be modulated during leishmaniasis and affect the pathogenesis process. The effect of modulated PDIs can be investigated in both aspects, parasite PDIs and infected host cell PDIs, during infection. The information concerning PDIs is not sufficient in parasitology; however, this study aimed to provide data regarding the biological functions of such crucial proteins in parasites with a focus on Leishmania spp. and their relevant effects on the pathogenesis process. Although there are no clinical trial vaccines and therapeutic approaches, highlighting this information might be fruitful for the development of novel strategies based on PDIs for the management of parasitic diseases, especially leishmaniasis.

Multiscale Effects of Hedonic Attributes on Airbnb Listing Prices Based on MGWR: A Case Study of Beijing, China

An investigation into the pricing mechanism of Airbnb is crucial for achieving the sustainable development of sharing economy accommodations and has great academic and practical significance. The existing pricing studies on sharing economy accommodation have identified a set of important factors impacting prices based on the hedonic price model. However, the spatial scale of the impact of various hedonic attributes on Airbnb listing prices is not yet clear. This study takes Beijing, China, as a case study; develops a conceptual framework that incorporates four categories of hedonic attributes; and uses a spatial heterogeneity perspective to investigate the multiscale spatial effects of various attributes on the prices of Airbnb listings. Our findings revealed the following: (1) The explanatory power of different categories of attributes towards listing prices varies from high to low, as follows: functional attributes, locational attributes, reputational attributes, and host status attributes, among which the functional attributes are the most important determinants of Airbnb listing prices. (2) There are multiscale, spatially heterogeneous relationships between Airbnb listing attributes and prices. Specifically, the functional attribute variables have local influencing scales, the reputation attribute variables have regional scales, and the variables of host status and locational attributes have global scales. (3) Compared with ordinary least squares (OLS) regression and geographically weighted regression (GWR), multiscale geographic weighted regression (MGWR) improves overall modelling ability by introducing multiple scales and is better suited to illuminating the hedonic pricing of sharing economy accommodations. This study provides new insights into the spatially varied relationships between listing attributes and Airbnb listing prices, which can deepen our understanding of sharing economy accommodation and help hosts formulate location-based pricing strategies.

Children or productive adults? Infantilisation and exploitation of refugees in Germany and Austria

ABSTRACT The persisting poor labour market integration of refugees and asylum seekers is puzzling, especially given host states’ declared desirability of refugees and asylum seekers being employed. Existing research on the determinants of refugees’ lack of labour market integration has analysed possible factors such as refugee health and education as well as host countries’ policies and discrimination. Based on original ethnographic data generated in Berlin and Vienna in 2019, I argue that the poor labour market integration can be better understood when we consider colliding perceptions, called scripts, of refugees and asylum seekers: At the same time that they are constructed as potentially useful labour, they are also constructed as helpless children who can never quite be ready for the labour market. I present each script’s ascriptions and prescriptions towards refugees and asylum seekers, show how these are enacted by the people subjected to them and analyse how disruptions occur when there are simultaneous, contradictory demands. Policy implications are that the host society’s perceptions do matter and that integration measures must be reviewed with regard to their potentially infantilising tendencies.

The impact of the advanced lung cancer inflammation index on the outcomes of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer who receive chemotherapy.

Advanced lung cancer inflammation index (ALI) is reported to be a prognosticator in various cancer patients with chemotherapy. However, the clinical impact of the ALI on treatment strategies in metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) patients remains unclear. A total of 356 patients, who received first-line chemotherapy for mCRC between April 2005 and November 2019 in a single institution, were retrospectively enrolled. The association of pretreatment ALI (calculated as follows: BMI × albumin value/neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio) status with clinicopathological factors and patient survival outcome was analyzed, using subgroup analysis. The ALI-low cases were significantly associated with female sex, more synchronous metastasis, multiple metastatic sites, less primary tumor resection, less liver resection after chemotherapy, and poor overall survival (OS). A multivariate Cox proportional hazards analysis clarified that the ALI-low status was independently associated with poor OS (HR: 1.78, 95% CI 1.27-2.48, P = 0.001), in addition to right side tumor, multiple metastatic sites, and the non-performance of liver resection after chemotherapy. A subgroup analysis revealed that primary tumor resection and the resection of liver metastases after chemotherapy could not improve the prognosis of ALI-low cases in comparison with ALI-high cases, and the type of first-line chemotherapy did not significantly affect the association between the prognosis and the ALI status. ALI comprehensively evaluates the prognostic host status and is a reliable prognosticator for the mCRC patients with chemotherapy. Calculating pretreatment ALI may serve as a cost-effective and easily available tool for constructing treatment strategies.

White Light Emission from Single-Component Cs7Cd3Br13:Pb2+,Mn2+ Crystals with High Quantum Efficiency and Enhanced Thermodynamic Stability

Single-component white light emitters are particularly attractive for fabricating economical solid-state devices for display and lighting. Herein, an efficient white light with photoluminescence quantum yields approaching 98% has been obtained in Mn2+ and Pb2+ co-doped Cs7Cd3Br13 crystals. The quantified bonding and nonbonding characters calculated by the crystal orbital Hamilton population analysis demonstrate that the Mn2+ and Pb2+ occupy preferentially in the [CdBr4]2– tetrahedrons rather than the [CdBr6]4– octahedrons in Cs7Cd3Br13. According to the PL spectral characteristic and the theoretical results, the broadband white light emission from Cs7Cd3Br13:Pb2+,Mn2+ crystals is ascribed to the multiple PL origins, i.e., the first self-trapped exciton (STE1) from the intrinsic trapping states of host lattice Cs7Cd3Br13, the d–d transition of Mn2+, and the second self-trapped exciton (STE2) induced by the introduction of Pb2+, respectively. The results calculated by density functional theory reveal that the incorporation of Mn2+ and Pb2+ has significantly improved the thermodynamic stability of the Cs7Cd3Br13 structure with lower defect formation energies, which is verified by the experimental observation in the temperature-dependent PL spectra of the emitting crystals. The findings here provide a new perspective for a single-component white light via creating multiple PL centers in a single matrix as well as help in the elucidation of the preferential site occupancy mechanism of the dopants in different symmetrical units.

Liberal intervention's renewed crisis: responding to Russia's growing influence in Africa

Abstract Liberal intervention actors often understand Russian engagements in Africa through a great power vacuum logic. This logic sees Russian influence as resulting from Russia filling a vacuum where other (notably liberal) interveners downscale. This article unpacks that vacuum logic and explores its consequences and effects. On the one hand, the vacuum logic is central to representations of Russia as an entirely external ‘other’, which contribute to constituting a ‘liberal’ intervention approach and community. On the other hand, exploring Russia's presence in the Central African Republic (CAR) and in Mali challenges this representation, as examples of pragmatic co-existence between Russian and liberal actors become visible. The cases of Mali and CAR also illustrate other challenge, including how the vacuum logic dismisses host state agency and renders longstanding critique of liberal intervention seemingly unnecessary, legitimizing a one-directional critique of Russia's presence in Africa. Failing to appreciate the constitutive and dismissive effects of this great power vacuum logic risks confronting liberal interveners in ways that make them ill-equipped to address critical shortcomings of their own approach. Leaving shortcoming unaddressed may inadvertently provide further grounds for (rather than counter) Russian influence, where Russian actors may take advantage of anti-colonial sentiments and security shortcomings.

Bone Healing Gone Wrong: Pathological Fracture Healing and Non-Unions-Overview of Basic and Clinical Aspects and Systematic Review of Risk Factors.

Bone healing is a multifarious process involving mesenchymal stem cells, osteoprogenitor cells, macrophages, osteoblasts and -clasts, and chondrocytes to restore the osseous tissue. Particularly in long bones including the tibia, clavicle, humerus and femur, this process fails in 2-10% of all fractures, with devastating effects for the patient and the healthcare system. Underlying reasons for this failure are manifold, from lack of biomechanical stability to impaired biological host conditions and wound-immanent intricacies. In this review, we describe the cellular components involved in impaired bone healing and how they interfere with the delicately orchestrated processes of bone repair and formation. We subsequently outline and weigh the risk factors for the development of non-unions that have been established in the literature. Therapeutic prospects are illustrated and put into clinical perspective, before the applicability of biomarkers is finally discussed.

A Disproportionate Risk of Being Executed: Why Pakistani Migrants Are Vulnerable to Capital Punishment in Saudi Arabia

Abstract Many labour migrants in the Arab Gulf countries are from South Asia. Necessary to local economies, they enjoy few rights and protections from host states, particularly when accused of serious crimes. Our original empirical data suggests a disproportionate number of Pakistanis sentenced to death and executed in Saudi Arabia and we explore explanations within a wider discussion of the place and experiences of South Asian migrants in the Gulf. Our data suggest that drug laws and penal policies leave migrant workers particularly susceptible to capital punishment, with the administration of migrant employment recruitment processes exposing Pakistanis to coercion into drug trafficking such that some could be regarded not as criminally liable but as victims of human trafficking.

Navigating Insecurities in Foreign Territory: The Experiences of Zimbabwean Irregular Immigrants at a South African Informal Settlement

This article discusses the insecurity challenges faced by irregular Zimbabwean immigrants as well as mitigatory strategies they deploy to survive in an informal settlement in Pretoria East, South Africa. Globally, immigrants (especially irregular immigrants) have been and continue to be viewed and treated as societal and state security threats in the host societies. In response to this perceived or real security threat, a raft of often punitive ‘defensive’ measures is implemented by the host state and society. By contrast, the insecurity experienced by the immigrants themselves at the hands of the host state and society is rarely highlighted, but rather glossed over or at worst played down as non-events. More so, their defensive survival strategies are heavily policed if not criminalised. This article analyses the range of short- to long-term individual and collective strategies deployed by the state, its agents, the host society and immigrants alike in navigating and negotiating insecurity. The article concludes by noting that the varied security strategies deployed are underlined by self-interest on the part of the many actors involved in the security–insecurity matrix, hence the recurrence of insecurity over time.

PROMOTION AND PROTECTION OF FOREIGN INVESTMENT VERSUS THE PRINCIPLE OF PERMANENT SOVEREIGNTY OVER NATURAL RESOURCES (PSNR): LESSONS FROM TANZANIA

Promotion and protection of foreign investment in many years now has been in dilemma. This dilemma is influenced mainly by competition between foreign investors and host states for more benefits from investment. This has led to development of two groups of concepts, theories and principles in the investment arena. Thus, concepts, theories and principles said to promote and protect foreign investment and those that are said to discourage it. The previous concepts, theories and principles are encouraged by capital exporting states, because they protecting their investments in the host states, while the later concepts, theories, and principles are encouraged by investment hosting states to achieve maximum benefits from the resources exploited in their countries, hence a dilemma. In natural resources sector, there have been conflicts between foreign investors and the host states for a long time now. The main issue being investors rights against those of the host state over the Principle of PSNR. This paper reviews the principle of PSNR and its impact on the promotion and protection of foreign investment in the world, exploring Tanzanian experience in implementing it in its legal regime. In the review, the author discovers that the principle is a valid principle of international law, nevertheless it does not encourage foreign investment since it tend to favor host states than the foreign investors. This is because the principle calls for maximum control of the resources by the host country. This can be well described by the laws enacted by Tanzania when domesticating the principle of PSNR. It is recommended that the international community should come as one and create a single law that guides international investment and especially on matters concerning investment disputes. This will set a clear ground and eliminate all competitions between host states and investors.

The International Investment Regime and Climate Change Goals: Clash of the Existing Systems and Available Balancing Tools

International commitments of states require them to adopt regulatory measures aimed at reducing CO2 emissions to combat climate change. This is likely to trigger a wave of investor-state claims by affected foreign investors, mostly from the fossil fuel industry. As no precedent currently exists, this article seeks to analyse how investment tribunals might approach such claims and balance substantive protections under international investment agreements with host states’ obligations under the international climate change regime. After a brief overview of international climate change law, the article considers whether investor-state dispute settlement may serve as an enforcement mechanism for states’ international climate change commitments, or rather investors’ claims cause a regulatory chill. The article further analyses how international climate change law might be applied in investment treaty disputes and concludes that it is likely to be invoked to interpret standards of investment protection. Finally, the view is adopted that the police powers doctrine defence and invocation of general public policy exceptions, contained in new generation investment treaties, might excuse host states from compensation for regulatory measures adopted in furtherance of climate goals.

Health issues of women migrants in slums of urban Aligarh

Globally and nationally, women are migrating in a similar pattern as men, although they are differently affected by migration. Female migrant workers face a new set of challenges in the host states. The neglected and deprived women in slums often suffer from physical and mental health issues along with exposure to poor sexual and reproductive health, maternal morbidities and risk of infectious and non-communicable diseases. The present study has used a qualitative research design to highlight the mental, sexual and reproductive, maternal and general health-related perspectives and issues faced by migrant women in the slums in Aligarh city. The qualitative data were collected using a purposive sampling design from women in slums using open-ended interviews to understand the plight and vulnerability. The study found the health of migrants to be in a highly deteriorated state and recommended the need for the state to streamline the provisional care needs of women migrants in slums.

Protection against expropriation of investments under the European Convention on human rights

International investment law protects investors from unlawful expropriation of investments by the host state. This article focuses on the problems of protection of investors against such unlawful actions by the state and the possible application of the right to property which is established in the European Convention on Human Rights as the possible defence mechanism. The purpose of this study is to assess whether, in cases of expropriation of investments, investors may effectively defend before the national tribunals relying on Article 1 of the Protocol 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The authors analyse complicated questions related to this problem, namely, whether investment shall be full under the notion of “property” under the said international convention, what kind of protection may be provided in case of expropriation of investment in the European Union Member States and how investors shall be compensated against the violation of their right to property in such cases. The authors use comparative, systematic analysis of deductive methods for the assessment of the relevant sources and formulation of the conclusions and proposals. The authors found that though the right to property under the European Convention on Human Rights protects foreign investments against expropriation, one of the most problematic issues related to the application of the right to property under this act in investment disputes is the question of fair compensation to investors.

A 4-state acid-base controlled molecular switch based on a host-guest system.

A novel ZnII funnel complex that presents three phenol functions within a calix[6]arene macrocycle is described. Host-guest studies, monitored by 1H NMR spectroscopy, evaluate the impact of the replacement of three anisole moieties present in a previously described system with phenols. It is now shown that the dicationic complex is responsive to anions, whereas deprotonation of one phenol unit completely inhibits any hosting response. These properties, combined with those of the corresponding protonated ligand, allow us to obtain different molecular switches, and one of them shows guest embedment changes between four different host states, thus giving rise to a rare case of a triple molecular switch.

THE EROSION OF STATES’ RIGHT TO REGULATE IN ISDS

Arbitral awards of ISDS cases have greatly contributed to the emergence of the “regulatory chill” through broad and investor-protection-oriented interpretation of investment treaty provisions. Therefore, it is essential to examine cases concerning the public-interest actions of the states, which shed light on the lessons to be learnt for drafting “balancing provisions”. One of these cases is Bear Creek Mining v. Peru. It involves a dispute arising out of circumstances, where the investor seeks damages from the host state for having revoked a permit in response to protests by a local population against the investment operations. This article analyzes how arbitral award of Bear Creek Mining case has contributed to the “regulatory chill” and proposes certain mechanisms aimed at eliminating the “chilling effect” of the treaty provisions.

CONFLICT AND REFUGEES CRISIS IN THE INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM

The paper examines conflict and migration in different countries couple with the new crisis facing global governance in battling refugee’s problem. The major causes of conflict are irreconcilable differences between political elites and rebels, bad governance and economic crunch leading to war and refugees movement. Refugees movement have overpopulated border in some states causing socio- economic disputes in host state sparking up confrontation between the local people and the migrants. The method used in this research is secondary and interview of returned migrants to ascertain the patterns of treatment and problems of migration. The study reveals that the pressure of escaping from their homeland either through war or seeking for jobs in another country have made migrants to be confrontational whenever they get to border that security guards are mindless of their long distance suffering. The study recommends that there should be development centres in both developed and developing countries to accommodate migrants running away from war-like state to stay for four years before repatriation to a place that demand their services, in doing so, they would have save for the purpose of investment and at the same time discourage request for permanent status in host state.