International Bodies Research Articles

Evaluating the Role of Celebrity Endorsements in the Success of ENDSARS Protests in Nigeria

Police brutality or excessive of force by law enforcement can be legally define as a civic right violation, where law enforcement agencies officers exercise due force against a subject. Use for torture as interrogative technique and other wanton abuses of human rights remain some of the major flaws of Nigeria police force which has attracted public odium, opprobrium, and condemnation to the force. Torture described as one of the most extreme forms of violence, resulting to both psychological and physical consequences, is sometimes considered as an indispensible interrogation mechanism for mechanism for gathering strategic intelligence. Afeez(2020) worried by the incessant reports of human right abuse of the member of the police force, the former inspector-General of police, Ibrahim Idris, once warmed the special Anti-Rubbery Squad operative against torture and extrajudicial killings, saying “no policeman in the world had the right or authority to kill crime suspects.” He admonished the SARS personnel to always respect the right of every Nigerian, noting that this was the way they could change the negative public perception about them.Protest against police brutality previously have arisen in Nigeria, as advocates and researchers have documented extensive evidence of human rights abuses by SARS officers and other NPE personnel. In a 2016 report, Amnesty international asserted that SARS officer routinely committed torture and other abuses against detainees, many of whom were arrested arbitrarily, detained in communication, and forces to “confess” or pay bribes to secure release.The EndSARS movement began in 2017, as Nigerians shared experience of police brutality via social media and demonstrated in several cities to call for SARS’s dissolution. In response to those protests, the government pledged an “immediate reorganization” of SARS and an investigation into allegations against the unit. Reported abuses nevertheless persisted. In June 2020, Amnesty International remained pervasive. The 2020 End SARS protest have been noteworthy for their size, direction, and reach. Demonstration began in early October and intensified as celebrities all over the world expressed support for the protesters and as a government crackdown on marchers in mid-October provoked further demonstrations. Many activist deemed the disbanding of SARS on October 11th as inadequate, comparing it to past reforms that broadly failed to curb SARS misconducts, some also have called for broader governance improvements.Ajeez (2020) stated that as unrest continued, governors in several state have imposed curfews or banned protesters. On October 20, army and police reportedly used live fire to disperse demonstrators in Lekki and Alusa areas of Lagos, Nigerian’s commercial capital, killing several and injuring hundreds. Various world leaders criticized the crackdown; on October 22, secretary of state Micheal Pomped condemned the use of excessive force by military forces who fired on unarmed demonstrators in Lagos” calling for Nigerian security services to show maximum restraint and respect fundamental rights for demonstrators to remain peaceful.Therefore, international bodies and personalities tends to hear of this brutality in real time, because the awareness and role/ function were created by social media of which most of these international bodies participated through. Media platform handles. It is therefore upon this foundation that the society seek to examine and evaluated the role of social media in the success of EndSARS protest.

An examination of the relationship between industry structure, debt and multilateral environmental agreements and environmental performance

The United Nations established the Sustainable Development Goals as targets to be achieved by 2030. As part of this initiative, countries worldwide are making efforts to improve on their environmental performance. This study uses environmental performance data for 180 countries provided by the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy to assess the impact of certain important variables on environmental performance. Among other things, it finds that industry structure and commitment to multinational environmental agreements positively impact how well a country performs environmentally. The same was not found to be true for country debt. The paper also created clusters of countries for environmental performance over a period of about 20 years. The study's results have several policy implications for governments as well as international bodies that seek to promote environmental improvement around the world.

Assessing deviations for HPCs obtained during COVID-19 (ADHOC): Evaluating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cellular therapy products and processes, the BEST collaborative study.

The success of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation is dependent on a world-wide network of collection centers providing donations that predominantly have been infused as fresh cells. The logistics chain that supports the just-in-time delivery model for stem cell and immunotherapy products was severely stressed by the COVID pandemic, and in early 2020 a number of national and international bodies recommended that cells should be cryopreserved at the collection or transplant center to avoid interruptions in their acquisition or delivery to patients who had started conditioning. To assess the potential consequences of such pandemic-related deviations to normal practice, we surveyed nine international laboratories to determine if the characteristics or transplant outcomes of allogeneic stem cell donations differed in the immediate periods before and after the switch to routine cryopreservation. Nine centers on two continents provided data for 72 HSC donations just before, and 71 just after, switching to cryopreservation for allogeneic HSC products. No statistically significant differences between the period before and after cryopreservation were noted for time from product collection to receipt, product temperature at receipt, or CD34+ cell viability at receipt. There was an indication of slower absolute neutrophil count recovery after cryopreservation was required (mean time of 15 vs. 17.6 days). While there were no apparent changes to most parameters studied, there was an indication of slower neutrophil engraftment that will need to be examined in larger, longer term studies.

Is the Bad News about Compliance Bad News about Human Rights? Evidence from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights

AbstractHow do authoritative international bodies decide that states have complied with their orders? Compliance research has mostly focused on how states react to rulings and how interest groups mobilize for and against compliance. Less has been said about how international bodies certify compliance with their orders in contexts of conflicting interests and incomplete information. Because in theory the seal of compliance could be given to different types and volumes of state actions, we argue that when nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) monitor implementation closely, international adjudicators will be more demanding in compliance certification, resulting in more protracted compliance monitoring processes. We test our expectations in the case of the Inter- American Commission of Human Rights and find that recommendations take longer to reach status of full compliance when more NGOs act as petitioners and when they have more experience with monitoring compliance. If NGOs help that more effective implementation receives an international organization's seal of approval, large numbers of orders without full compliance might not necessarily be bad news about human rights on the ground.

Implementing risk management in local authorities: An exploratory case study of Moroccan municipalities

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the main challenges and obstacles that local authorities may face in implementing risk management. Interest in this issue in the public sector, and especially in local authorities, is relatively recent, and only a few studies have been performed in this area concerning some developed and emerging countries. Consequently, this research aims to explore risk management adoption and diffusion in Moroccan local authorities. To this end, a risk management model developed in our previous research was used. This model is based on a comparison of nine of the soundest risk management standards released by national and international professional bodies. A research framework was created to transpose and test this model within Moroccan local authorities. In addition, an exploratory study was carried out based on qualitative data collected from interviews with middle and high officers from four Moroccan municipalities. The results show that Moroccan local authorities are facing both strategic and operational challenges in their implementation of risk management. To overcome these challenges, key recommendations are proposed to successfully implement risk management. Accordingly, this study provides an overview of risk culture, risk awareness, and risk management practices among Moroccan local authorities. It offers a practical guide for local authorities’ stakeholders who want to promote risk culture and lay a foundation for risk management implementation.

PHEIC and Global Health Governance: Do Human Rights and Sovereignty Carry Any Value?

The emergence of COVID-19 and subsequent declaration of a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) by the World Health Organization (WHO) has brought into focus the role of the international health body in global health governance. Declaration of PHEIC under the ‘International Health Regulations’ empowers the WHO Director General (DG) to make emergency recommendations for measures which may require suspension of travel, halting of movement of goods suspected of spreading the disease; isolation or quarantine of suspected cases of infection and compulsory medical examination of individuals in certain cases. The declaration of a PHEIC may also amount to a threat to international peace and security as the ‘Security Council’ has determined through its resolution 2177 in the case of the Ebola crisis. In this context, the article seeks to investigate the importance of the two principles that play a role in the governance of health during a pandemic—one is the principle of human rights of individuals since it is the fundamental principle which forms a part of a governance regime; second, the principle of sovereignty since it is the States that decide whether to impose the measures and the extent to which the measures must be imposed.

Prisoner Lives Cut Short: The Need to Address Structural, Societal and Environmental Factors to Reduce Preventable Prisoner Deaths

Abstract The State duty to prevent preventable prisoner deaths is easy to state and substantiate. Yet prisoner death rates are increasing around the world and are often much higher than those in the community. To understand why this is happening, the findings and recommendations of the country reports of international oversight bodies and thematic reports from international rapporteurs are synthesised with contemporary rights-informed penal standards, multi-disciplinary scholarship, non-governmental organization reports and media extracts. On the basis of this knowledge, this reform-oriented article explores the impact of structural, societal and environmental factors on natural and violent prisoner deaths and how these factors operate cumulatively to create dangerous and life-threatening custodial environments. The paper makes recommendations to reaffirm and enumerate the positive obligation to protect prisoners’ lives, develop specialist standards, adopt a broader approach to prison oversight and create a specific United Nations mandate on prisoner rights.

Managing Long COVID Syndrome

The textbook titled Managing Long COVID Syndrome is an educational and tractable reference for not only medical providers, but also the general public. This is one of the first texts dedicated to long COVID syndrome and is an important publication for readers in search of a deeper understanding of long COVID syndrome, which has stricken so many throughout the world.Impressively, this 52-chapter, 310-page book was written by a single author, Dr. Thanthullu Vasu, who practices management of long-term conditions and pain management in the United Kingdom. Much merit should be given to any single-author textbook, such as Managing Long COVID Syndrome. The advantages include a decrease in repetition of material, a uniform cadence of information that is meted out, and maintenance of stylistic conformity.Due to the relative novelty of long COVID syndrome, the author humbly asks for readers to send comments in order to improve future iterations of the text. This will undoubtedly be warranted as deeper understanding of COVID and the repercussions of this disease will continue to evolve.Aesthetically, the cover and pages are of high-quality material that will last many years, but not as costly and heavy as a hardback text. The size of the book allows it to easily fit into most any bag or perhaps some pockets. Of note, there are no graphics, figures, or tables, which could be considered with future iterations to enhance understanding of mechanisms and when comparing research.This book was written with a wide demographic audience in mind, making it an applicable resource for nearly everyone who wishes to learn more about the coronavirus and the management of long COVID syndrome. The text is easy to read with understandable language applicable to not only healthcare providers, but also the non–medically trained public. Of particular interest to those with medical backgrounds is chapter 50, which provides a concise and digestible overview of groundbreaking research on long COVID syndrome.Each chapter is short and concise without overwhelming focus on medical literature, but instead overarching themes of scientific knowledge and beliefs concerning long COVID syndrome. The “Key Point” bulleted boxes at the end of each chapter are a nice feature that succinctly summarizes main points and allow readers to focus their understanding. Last, the table of contents and index are superbly organized and allow for ease in finding specific topics of interest.Notably, the book dedicates a chapter to describing the coronavirus and the known variants beginning with the alpha lineage. As with any book dedicated to an ever-changing virus, the text may already be outdated as the last coronavirus variant described is the B.1.1.529 variant. Undoubtedly, future iterations of this worthy text will include detailed knowledge of newer coronavirus variants and the effect of these on the human body. Similarly, the chapter on new medications will need to be revised with future iterations to update findings on the ineffectiveness of ivermectin and other new findings since publication. Last, this chapter on medications and investigational therapies will need to be read with the knowledge that these practices are being studied or are approved in the United Kingdom, and perhaps not generalizable to other countries.In that vein, this is a United Kingdom–centric book in terms of agencies and research geared toward long COVID syndrome. For example, one chapter is dedicated to long COVID support groups and focuses on a campaign titled LongCOVIDSOS. This campaign predominately works with United Kingdom–based government departments and ministers, including the National Health Service, National Institute for Health and Care Research, Office for National Statistics, and National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, and international bodies such as the World Health Organization. Other support groups mentioned are from Wales and Scotland. As far as guidelines aimed at long COVID syndrome, the book emphasizes guidelines from the National Health Service and National Institute for Health and Care Excellence concerning the diagnosis and management of long COVID syndrome. There is one chapter dedicated to the American guidelines for long COVID syndrome.Some specific examples of care concerning long COVID syndrome include management of fatigue, shortness of breath, sleep disturbances, mental health and mood issues, and nutrition. Additionally, this book spends several chapters on pain management issues associated with long COVID syndrome. This is not surprising as the text is written by a pain specialist who has cared for patients with the unfortunate aftermath of this pandemic disease.Overall, the novel textbook is a timely publication that meets a heretofore unmet need in the management of long COVID syndrome. Increased dissemination of educational material concerning this disease is warranted as it will likely affect the world for many years.

Features of interaction between law enforcement agencies during the investigation of criminal offenses according to international standards

The purpose of the research was to highlight the interaction between law enforcement agencies during the investigation of crimes in accordance with international standards. It also highlights the main areas of cooperation between law enforcement agencies in different States during the investigation of criminal offenses. Taking into account the great public danger of criminal offenses, it is worth noting that they have long since acquired a transnational character and it is therefore interesting to pay special attention to the issue of cooperation between the National Police of Ukraine and various international police organizations in the investigation of this category of criminal offenses. The methodological basis of the research is presented as comparative-legal and systematic analysis, formal-legal method, method of interpretation, hermeneutic method, as well as methods of analysis and synthesis. Among the main conclusions, it draws attention to the necessity of the issue of strengthening cooperation between the operational units of the National Police of Ukraine engaged in the fight against criminal offenses and international police bodies engaged in operational and investigative activities, as a condition of possibility to combat crime in all its manifestations.

Israel's Moment: International Support for and Opposition to Establishing the Jewish State, 1945–1949 by Jeffrey Herf

<i>Israel's Moment: International Support for and Opposition to Establishing the Jewish State, 1945–1949</i> by Jeffrey Herf

Good Practices for the Laboratory Performance Testing of Aqueous Oral Inhaled Products (OIPs): an Assessment from the International Pharmaceutical Aerosol Consortium on Regulation and Science (IPAC-RS).

Multiple sources must be consulted to determine the most appropriate procedures for the laboratory-based performance evaluation of aqueous oral inhaled products (OIPs) for the primary measures, dose uniformity/delivery, and aerodynamic particle (droplet) size distribution (APSD). These sources have been developed at different times, mainly in Europe and North America, during the past 25years by diverse organizations, including pharmacopeial chapter/monograph development committees, regulatory agencies, and national and international standards bodies. As a result, there is a lack of consistency across all the recommendations, with the potential to cause confusion to those developing performance test methods. We have reviewed key methodological aspects of source guidance documents identified by a survey of the pertinent literature and evaluated the underlying evidence supporting their recommendations for the evaluation of these performance measures. We have also subsequently developed a consistent series of solutions to guide those faced with the various associated challenges when developing OIP performance testing methods for oral aqueous inhaled products.

An Assessment of Internally Displaced Persons’ [IDPs] Needs in Flood Prone Areas of Kogi State

Purpose: The devastating effect of flooding has led to associated serious problems and socio-economic implications. Displaced people are faced with being over-crowded in camps with the attendant consequences which include displaced children facing many dangers, especially if they have become separated from their families. Poor nutrition, poor sanitary conditions and inability to access health services make displaced persons prey to a host of diseases, most of which could be preventable. The study aim is to identify the socio-economic impacts resulting to devastating flood among internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Nigeria.&#x0D; Methodology: A cross sectional study involving 4 IDP camps in Kogi State. Information on social, economic and health impacts of the devastation was collected and data analyzed using SPSS version 20.0. A total of 660 respondents (100%) were interviewed in the study. The mean age was 37.1 years and 31.9% of respondents completed secondary school education. Majority were farmers (77.3%). Of the 357 (54.09%) who had children in school before the occurrence of the disaster, only 168 (25.46%) had children in school after the flooding. Over 61.4% lost their job, 51.2% were at risk of infectious diseases and 44.35% felt insecure in the camp. Only 19.72% IDPs had access to insecticide treated net.&#x0D; Findings: This study shows that IDPs face diverse challenges including food shortages, threats to health, financial constraints and psychological trauma as well as poor access to educational facilities for the children involved.&#x0D; Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: Government should ensure that necessary facilities, first aid treatment and urgent medical treatment should never be denied to any internal displacement persons, regardless of the camps. To make funds available for the management of IDPs in Nigeria governments should solicit for donations and financial aids from more international bodies. They should also collaborate with more international humanitarian organizations for assistant.

Critical thinking in higher education: taking Stiegler’s counsel on the digital milieu

ABSTRACT Critical thinking is embedded in national university graduate outcomes and included in international bodies’ statements on higher education. At the same time, there are tensions surrounding critical thinking in higher education, such as its commodification, Eurocentrism, and relationship to rapidly digitalising cultures. Drawing from the philosopher Bernard Stiegler’s writings on human originary technicity, this paper argues that critical thinking takes different forms according to technical and cultural milieus. For Stiegler, human originary technicity makes prosthesis the human condition: we are biological and technical, both organic and inorganic matter. Reasoning, reflection, and evaluation are relative to the technologies of memory that form everyday and intellectual culture. Stiegler’s analysis articulates how digitalisation threatens and protects reasoning and reflection, enabling the demonstration of how critical thinking takes specific forms in digitalised societies. The paper proposes prosthetic critical thinking as a practice that can embrace differing understandings of critical thinking, namely as skills and dispositions associated with reasoning and as the practice of critical pedagogy. The resulting understanding of critical thinking shows it to be a plural, inclusive, and contingent practice relevant to higher education.

Unilateral Sanctions in the Context of Modern International Law

The author discusses the modern international legal framework governing the application of sanctions. The author focuses on the following issues: international and regional sanctions in the context of the UN Charter, restrictions on sanctions regimes, sanctions in humanitarian law, the legitimacy of unilateral economic sanctions. The methodological base of this work is a systematic approach, which allows to consider sanctions as part of the modern international legal system. As a result of the study, it was revealed that within the framework of the existing international legal system, only the UN Security Council is authorized to impose sanctions in order to ensure global peace and security. The resolutions of the UN Security Council on the issue of the application of restrictive measures are dominant in comparison with the decisions of other international bodies and the obligations of member countries under international treaties. The legitimacy of applying regional sanctions is limited by the statutes of regional organizations. The novelty of the study lies in a comprehensive consideration of the reasons why unilateral sanctions are a violation of international law. Unilateral economic restrictions violate the free trade regime of the WTO and the principle of non-discrimination that underpins the GATT. They represent a violation of the fundamental principles of sovereign equality, as well as the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of other states. As a result of the application of economic sanctions by certain states, extraterritorial jurisdiction is manifested, which creates a dangerous precedent for international law.

Regulation of the Concept of "Electric Energy Power" in Acts of International Law and Decisions of International Judicial Instances

The subject of the study is the peculiarities of the regulation of the legal category "electric energy (power)" in international acts (regulatory and judicial). The object of the study is recognized as the international foundations of the legal regulation of the concept of "electric energy (power)", reflected in the sources of international law and in the decisions of international judicial bodies. The purpose of the scientific article is to substantiate the need to unify the norms of international law with a reflection of the generally recognized position regarding the concept of "electric energy (power)" and the formation of the author's vision of the definition of this term.The author examines in detail the positions regarding the understanding of this term in international acts of various international organizations and judicial instances, emphasizes the importance of international unification in this direction, expresses the author's position on the meaning of the dynamically developing spheres of activity and economy of each modern state. Each State is called upon not only to provide its citizens and their collective entities with electric power resources on a safe and uninterrupted basis, but also to implement these functions in international relations regulated by acts of international law. The importance of the unification of the concept of "electric energy (power)" as a tool for the approximation of the legislation of individual countries aimed at fst)" in the acts of international law is designed to ensure both energy security and the identity of national legal regulation by including in the sources of law to the maximum extent textually and essentially similar from a legal point of view categories and their definitions. A special contribution of the author is to conduct a detailed analysis of numerous acts of international law (normative, judicial), which include in their content the concept of "electric energy (power)", the characteristics of various positions, carrying out their comparative characteristics. The novelty of the research is reflected in the formation of an opinion regarding the understanding of the legal category "electric energy (power)", its reflection in the author's definition.

Global overview of pharmacy support personnel training programmes: a scoping review protocol

IntroductionA global variation in the pharmacy support personnel training programmes has been observed. The objective of this scoping review is to map out global evidence available on the pharmacy support...

Some problems related to the supervision of the activities of the International Criminal Court

The article deals with the problems related to the supervision of the activities of the International Criminal Court, including some aspects of the activities of one of the mechanisms of control and supervision of the work of the International Criminal Court – the Independent Oversight Mechanism. The author examines in detail how the activities of the ICC affect the interests of the Russian Federation and other countries, and also analyzes the possibilities for the state to monitor and supervise the activities of the ICC if the ICC Statute has not been ratified and the country is not a State party. The author considers the recommendations made by the expert group concerning the work of the Independent Oversight Mechanism. The object of the study is the social relations developing in the field of activities of officials of international criminal justice bodies related to the work of an Independent oversight Mechanism. Topics related to the responsibility of officials of international judicial institutions, their accountability, as well as the control and supervision of their activities have been little studied. Meanwhile, although Russia is not a State party to the ICC Statute, nevertheless, the judicial acts of this international judicial body have an impact on the reputation of the state. The author comes to conclusions, firstly, about the need to develop scientific thought in this direction, in order to increase the effectiveness of protecting state interests, and secondly, about the possible consideration of an initiative to create an independent monitoring mechanism that would function within the framework of the UN Security Council.

Social inclusion: a fundamental PROM for evaluating recovery-oriented global mental health programmes

AbstractSocial inclusion is a multidimensional concept, referring to ample participation in key social, cultural, economic and political activities. Since the turn of the century, social inclusion has become a guiding principle in policy recommendations of many international (United Nations, WHO, EU) and national bodies, aiming to improve the lives of people with mental ill-health. More recently, social inclusion has been increasingly used as an outcome measure, to test the effectiveness of complex interventions, especially in the field of global mental health.This presentation will focus on: (1) current definitions and controversies in research on social inclusion for and with people with mental ill-health; (2) measuring social inclusion; and (3) the evidence-base of interventions to improve social inclusion. Special attention will be given to recovery-oriented interventions in global mental health such as peer support.In summary, over the last years, impressive conceptual and methodological advances have been made to transform policy rhetoric into meaningful and effective interventions. However, challenges remain, including consensus on culturally appropriate measurement of social inclusion, and balancing the roles and responsibilities of all stakeholders (service users, mental health service providers, wider society) across the entire exclusion-inclusion continuum to promoting social inclusion and mental health.Disclosure of InterestNone Declared

EFFECT OF DIGITAL DIPLOMACY TO ENHANCE PUBLIC AND DEFENCE DIPLOMACY IN SRI LANKA

Sri Lanka has faced negative coverage of its security and human rights situation since 2009. One of the main reasons for the negative security and human rights coverage since 2009 is that the country continues to engage in traditional diplomacy which is ineffective in today’s era of rapid and extensive information dissemination through the internet and social media. The aim of this study was to analyze how Sri Lankan has used Digital Diplomacy DD to mitigate security and human rights situations and to analyze how DD could be used to enhance public and defence diplomacy in Sri Lanka. Findings from the study revealed that DD has not been adopted in Sri Lanka to mitigate the negative coverage of the security and human rights situation. Failure to adapt to combat negative coverage of the security and human rights situation in the country can be attributed to several factors. These factors include financial challenges, employee-related, and policy-related issues, and the lack of support from Government leadership for adopting DD. Findings from the study indicate that DD can be used to enhance public and defence diplomacy in Sri Lanka in several ways. These ways include using social media to counter the negative publicity of security and human rights situations by state and non-state actors, dissemination of the actual picture of the security and human rights situation in the country, facilitating low costs and effective two-way communication with all stakeholders, effectively present the Sri Lanka Government position at legislative meetings and other social activities in foreign countries, build effective support for Sri Lanka among member nations at international bodies and forums, and identify and mitigate existential threats to the country.

Mobile financial services and household welfare in a developing economy: boon and bane

PurposeThis study aims to investigate whether the introduction of innovative financial products increases welfare for low-income households working in the manufacturing sector. Specifically, the authors measure the impact of mobile financial services (MFSs) on economic opportunities and wellbeing of garment factory workers in Bangladesh.Design/methodology/approachThe study is based on Amartya Sen’s Capabilities Approach. Close to 400 textile factory workers were interviewed about their experience using Bangladesh’s most popular MFS, and how their household welfare has changed over time. Results were tabulated and analyzed with simple statistical tools.FindingsWhile there remains an abundance of friction in the system, financial innovation still assisted low-income households in savings, and expedited and secured their fund transfers. The introduction of the new technology, especially when it is made mandatory, seems to have disempowered married women by reducing their financial independence from their husbands.Originality/valueThis study should help policy makers and international bodies in their efforts to design and support the inclusive growth of mobile financial technology.