Thematic Report Research Articles

Technology Transfer for Climate Change Mitigation: A Perspective from Kenya

The impact of climate change continues to be experienced worldwide. Treaties such as the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) of 1992 and the UNFCCC Paris Agreement of 2015 demonstrate the value that UN Member States attach to reaching consensus on climate change mitigation steps. In this thematic report, the author looks at the issue of climate change mitigation technology transfer (TT) from a Kenyan perspective, specifically with reference to Kenya’s National Climate Change Action Plan (NCCAP), and to provisions in Kenya’s patent law that are relevant to TT licensing agreements between foreign and Kenyan entities.

Copyright, and Photographs or Videos of Public Art, in South Africa: An Imperfect Picture

The rise of digital photography and videography has made the creation, sharing and commercialisation of high-quality photographs and videos more accessible, in terms of both cost and skills required. This thematic report examines the impact on copyright infringement of the increase in photographs and videos containing public art. It then analyses the applicability, for such photographs and videos, of the general exceptions for protection of artistic works in South Africa’s Copyright Act 98 of 1978. The author argues that the Act’s general exceptions are too ambiguous, and in at least one important case too narrow, and thus insufficient to cater to the current digital environment. Accordingly, the author proposes the introduction of broadened and clarified copyright exceptions that include fairness requirements.

Cyber Warfare: African Research Must Address Emerging Reality

This thematic report sets out the case for why studies in cyber security and cyber conflict need to be prominent in the African digital transformation research agenda.

Copyright, and photographs or videos of public art, in South Africa: An imperfect picture

The rise of digital photography and videography has made the creation, sharing and commercialisation of high-quality photographs and videos more accessible, in terms of both cost and skills required. This thematic report examines the impact on copyright infringement of the increase in photographs and videos containing public art. It then analyses the applicability, for such photographs and videos, of the general exceptions for protection of artistic works in South Africa’s Copyright Act 98 of 1978. The author argues that the Act’s general exceptions are too ambiguous, and in at least one important case too narrow, and thus insufficient to cater to the current digital environment. Accordingly, the author proposes the introduction of broadened and clarified copyright exceptions that include fairness requirements.

Geographical Indications (GIs) as Tools for Agricultural Knowledge

This thematic report looks at geographical indications (GIs) as tools of knowledge governance in agricultural development in selected Eastern and Southern African countries. The author identifies features of GI law in these countries, and concludes that properly-crafted GIs can serve as tools for support of production and marketing of a wide variety of African agricultural resources.

The Impact of the Call Termination Rate Reduction on Consumer Surplus in South Africa

This thematic report presents some initial data on mobile call termination rates, and the welfare improvement due to call termination rate regulatory interventions, in South Africa for the period 2010 to 2015.

Assessment of pollination and China’s implementation strategies within the IPBES framework

Pollination is an important ecosystem services closely related to grain products and food security. Recent research has shown that pollinator declines directly affect human wellbeing, which has attracted widespread attention from the global community. Fittingly, the “pollinator, pollination and food production assessment” was listed as a high priority rapid assessment in 2014–2018 work programme of the Intergovernmental Science–Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). The summary for policymakers was adopted at the fourth plenary meeting of IPBES. Within the IPBES framework, we introduce the start point and main contents of the thematic assessment report and explored the relationship between this assessment and other processes and its potential impacts. We also analyze what was learned and current shortcomings. We propose the following actions: (1) to survey pollinator diversity and to assess the value of pollination services; (2) to establish pollination monitoring system; (3) to analyze the risk factors and formulate pollinator conservation and restoration activities; (4) to optimize farming modes and to enhance policy support; and (5) to expand publicity and increase public participation.

Neglect of the Human Rights Dimension in African IP Policymaking

In this thematic report, the authors, both members of the African Scholars for Knowledge Justice (ASK Justice) network, outline the neglect of human rights in IP policymaking; the need to end this neglect, particularly in the African context; and steps to be taken towards this goal.

Strategic Patenting of Pharmaceutical Inventions and the Public's Right to Access Medicines: The South African Context

Pharmaceutical firms’ use of strategic patenting to influence the markets within which their patented inventions sit is legally questionable. Such patenting entails filing patents with the intention of blocking potential competitors from innovating and/or being granted patents within niche technology areas of interest to the patentee. Under this practice, patentees are potentially able to extend the breadth and duration of their monopoly power in the pharmaceutical market sub-sector within which that invention sits. Such practices take on a clear public interest element if they undermine affordable public access to medicines. This thematic report outlines forms of strategic patenting, analyses the degree to which the South African legal system provides remedies against such patenting, and proposes ways forward for South Africa to prevent such practices.

Teaching 5- and 6-Year-Olds to Count: Knowledge of South African Educators

Mathematics learning and teaching continues to be a challenge in the South African education system. This challenge is observed in the poor performance of students in national and international assessments. Research suggests that teachers’ content knowledge and knowledge of teaching mathematics contribute significantly to students’ performance. In this paper, I explore educators’ understanding of counting concepts and how they go about teaching 5- and 6-year-old children to count. A questionnaire using scenarios was administered to 17 educators in the Eastern Cape to gauge their understanding of these areas. A qualitative analysis was conducted and this was followed by a thematic report. The findings of this study indicate that teacher knowledge for teaching counting is superficial. The building blocks that 5–6 year old students need to develop counting skills are not fully understood by educators. In addition, the educators demonstrated some understanding of the role of assessment in mediating learning but used assessment jargon without necessarily comprehending its meaning.

Human Rights of Roma and Travellers in Europe

Article reviews the thematic report on Human Rights of Roma and Travellers in Europe (commissioned by the Commissioner for Human Rights, Thomas Hammarberg), which is supposed to be the first overview of the human rights situation of Roma and Travellers in all member states of the Council of Europe. It focuses mainly on the following areas: racially motivated violence against Roma and Travellers, the treatment of Roma and Travellers by law enforcement and judicial authorities (including ethnic profiling in the context of the movement of Roma across international borders), disproportionate subjection to arbitrary detention measures, Roma and trafficking in human beings, statelessness and difficulties Roma face in applying for asylum in other EU states (including a problem of the ‘tolerated’ (gedulget) status).

What corporations do with foresight

Foresight involves future-oriented awareness and planning, enabling businesses to respond quickly and effectively to future market threats and opportunities. However, knowledge about corporate foresight practices and outcomes is limited. Corporations interested in implementing foresight are unable to identify best practices or anticipate results from foresight activities. Therefore, this qualitative, multiple holistic case study was a foundational investigation of foresight phenomenon within contemporary American corporations. A convenience sample of 14 foresight practitioners represented American corporations or American divisions of European corporations actively using foresight. Interview queries aligned with the guiding research questions explored corporate foresight methods and outcomes. Interview data were coded and synthesized for thematic report of common and unique responses; this documented practices used in and outcomes derived from corporate foresight. Foresight practitioners revealed specific actions taken by corporations in response to foresight outcomes. Actions included organizational changes, introduction of new products or product variations, new research and development projects, and inclusion of foresight project outputs such as reports, presentations, recommendations, in departmental plans. The findings suggested standardization of terminology for professional discourse, education, and practice, would benefit practitioners and corporations. Four tenets emerging from the themes were short-termism, corporate culture, implementation, and feedback loop; these tenets should guide future use of foresight in the context of for-profit corporations.

UN Report Says Common Psychiatric Practices Amount to ‘Torture’

UN Report Says Common Psychiatric Practices Amount to ‘Torture’

Domestic Courtss Engagement with UN Human Rights Treaty Monitoring Bodies: A Thematic Report for the ILA Study Group on Principles on the Engagement of Domestic Courts with International Law

This thematic report, prepared for the ILA Study Group on Principles on the Engagement of Domestic Courts with International Law (May 2011), supplements the trends and principles provided in the ILA Study Group’s Preliminary Report (2012). The report examines (I) how domestic courts engage with the findings of UN human rights treaty monitoring bodies; (II) on what basis; and (III) why some courts are more willing to engage with the findings while others are not. This report highlights the selective and partial accommodation of the international findings by domestic courts which thereby approve and contest the treaty bodies’ opinions and their legitimacy.

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Workforce Modernisation in the Police Service

This article considers the application and potential impact of workforce modernisation in England and Wales. It highlights some problems surrounding current police hierarchies and specialisation particularly in relation to the decline in visible policing. It suggests that bureaucratic growth within police forces can be matched to a decline in effective command and control of police services. Lengthened chains of command and narrower spans of control have, within larger police forces, diluted the supervisory capacity and effectiveness of police managers. It is argued that this feature reinforces the need for smaller, more manageable units of policing. The article thereafter highlights a central theme identified within HMIC's 2004 Thematic Report on Modernising the Police Service. This is the creation of a career pathway for all police personnel and, long term, the ability to move between warranted and non-warranted police posts. It recognises the positive position taken by ACPO in relation to modernisation. It also draws on data collected from one workforce modernisation pilot site, Bexley Operational Command Unit (OCU), particularly in relation to the successful use of police staff ‘Investigative Support Officers' in processing low-level cases. Evidence from the Bexley site indicates that workforce modernisation strategy provides the opportunity to improve both overall police effectiveness and the relationship between police and community.

Students' accounts of the need for continuous support in a distance learning programme

This paper looks at a qualitative case study of distance learning at Universiti Utara Malaysia as described by a small group of distance learners as they progress through their courses at the institution. It concerns the learners – it is their story, their experience, their perspective. In particular, this thematic report looks at learning support in distance learning as it surfaced as one of the central findings of this research. This is an issue that arose from discussions with the students, rather than being predetermined by the research design. Conclusions have been drawn regarding the role of learning support to facilitate distance learning at Universiti Utara Malaysia. The concept of need and support is important as it relates to the different requirements from support into action that enables the learners to connect with their teachers, the course content and with other learners.

Workforce modernisation in the police service

This article considers the application and potential impact of workforce modernisation in England and Wales. It highlights some problems surrounding current police hierarchies and specialisation particularly in relation to the decline in visible policing. It suggests that bureaucratic growth within police forces can be matched to a decline in effective command and control of police services. Lengthened chains of command and narrower spans of control have, within larger police forces, diluted the supervisory capacity and effectiveness of police managers. It is argued that this feature reinforces the need for smaller, more manageable units of policing. The article thereafter highlights a central theme identified within HMIC’s 2004 Thematic Report on Modernising the Police Service. This is the creation of a career pathway for all police personnel and, long term, the ability to move between warranted and nonwarranted police posts. It recognises the positive position taken by ACPO in relation to modernisation. It also draws on data collected from one workforce modernisation pilot site, Bexley Operational Command Unit (OCU), particularly in relation to the successful use of police staff ‘Investigative Support Officers’ in processing low-level cases. Evidence from the Bexley site indicates that workforce modernisation strategy provides the opportunity to improve both overall police effectiveness and the relationship between police and community.

Remarks by Dinah Shelton

I wanted Jim to start this discussion precisely because there are UN instruments, and we do not have a specific instrument in the Inter-American system as yet on the rights of indigenous peoples. There has been one in progress for 23 years. We may break the UN record in terms of how long it takes to negotiate a final text. We are meeting again in the middle of April for another negotiating session, so there does seem to be some slow progress. But, ironically, the adoption of the UN instrument has provided an excuse for not going forward with an American declaration in the minds of some governments, and they say, What's the point? The UN has done the state-of-the-art, and I think that's not accurate. There are some issues the UN declaration does not touch upon, and we can come back to that later in terms of what those are. The question is then, what do we do and what law do we make reference to in the Inter-American system? I'll do a little compare-and-contrast about my mandate and the Inter-American system compared to Jim's mandate. Unlike the UN, we do not pull in outside people, by and large, to be our rapporteurs. Instead, the members of the Commission themselves are country and thematic rapporteurs. We have seven members elected for four-year terms by the OAS General Assembly, and they are staggered terms. So during every even-numbered year we have a certain number of new commissioners come in, and in January, we sit down and do orientation for the new commissioners and play OAS monopoly. We divide up the 35 countries in the hemisphere in terms of who is going to be the rapporteur for the countries, and then we allocate the thematic rapporteurship. I have a couple of countries in which indigenous issues are prevalent--Guatemala and Ecuador. Then, to balance that with a slightly easier mandate, I have the English-speaking Caribbean. I'm still waiting for my yacht to visit all of them. [Laughter] And so in that context, we each have a certain population. We are much less like the UN in terms of having rapporteurships for specific rights. We tend to have seven of our eight rapporteurships deal with vulnerable populations. We only have one--freedom of expression--that deals with a specific right. So the mandate of the Commission is to promote and protect human rights, which we do not see as promote or protect. We see them as overlapping, and we do many of the same things that Jim does. We do country visits. We do thematic reports. We hold hearings. Jim didn't mention anything about invoking people to have hearings, but we hold hearings in two of our three sessions. We just finished the spring session yesterday, so we have five days of hearings during the session. That can be either addressing a country/case, or a theme/ issue that crosses several countries. This year, eight out of our approximately 50 hearings concerned indigenous peoples. I think that is the highest number that we've ever had on this issue, and it's indicative of the demand for the hearings--we get over 200 requests for hearings--and also the issues that are seen to be particularly important by the Commission. As I mentioned, we issue thematic reports. I've put our most recent thematic report on indigenous peoples on the back table, which is a compilation of the standards and jurisprudence of the system on the land and resource rights of indigenous peoples. Please feel free to take that with you. It came out at the beginning of last year, and it was a very long process of drafting. In addition to hearings and thematic reports, we sometimes issue country reports that can either be on the general situation of human rights in a country or on a specific issue. One of the specific ones that was done by the Commission some years ago was on the Miskito Indians of the eastern region of Nicaragua. We have in mind to be doing another of those this year. We also are in the planning stage of having a joint report done by my rapporteurship and the rapporteurship on the status of women on the issue of discrimination against indigenous women and the problems they face in the hemisphere. …

Resettlement the Criminal Justice Act 2003 and NOMS: prospects &amp; problems

Through the Prison Gate was the first thematic report which I (together with Anne Owers) launched as incoming Chief Inspector of Probation in early autumn 2001. Our report was closely followed by parallel exercises undertaken by the National Audit Office (Reducing Prisoner Reoffending, January 2002) and, with an even higher profile, the Social Exclusion Unit (Reducing Re-offending by Ex-prisoners, July 2002).