Search

This study conducts both theoretical and empirical analyses of how non-legally-binding COVID-19 policies affect people's going-out behavior. The theoretical analysis assumes that under a declared state of emergency, the individual going out suffers psychological costs arising from both the risk of infection and the stigma of going out. Our hypothesis states that under a declared state of emergency people refrain from going out because it entails a strong psychological cost. Then, this study estimates a model using regional mobility data and emergency declarations data to analyze self-restraint behavior under a non-legally binding emergency declaration. The results show that, compared with before the declaration of the state of emergency, going-out behavior was suppressed under the state of emergency and after it was lifted even when going out did not result in penalties, which is consistent with the theoretical analysis.

This Chapter summarizes the main developments in international co-operation on aid and trade with developing countries in the period 2000–2008. During this period developing countries made tremendous economic progress. They also participated in a number of international agreements aimed at solidifying the commitment of the international community to help reduce global poverty as well as shape the rules of international trade in ways that would be more supportive of development. The first of these agreements, perhaps the one with the greatest global reach, was the UN Millennium Declaration in late summer 2000 which contained what later became the Millennium Development Goals. Then there was the WTO agreement in 2001 to launch the Doha Round, the International Conference on Financing for Development in Monterrey in 2002, the Paris Agreements on Aid Effectiveness in 2005 and many others. All this spirit of international co-operation came to a crashing halt with the financial collapse of 2008 and has not recovered since.

The Declaration of the World Medical Association (WMA) was adopted in Helsinki in 1962—it states that all research is bound to the respect of ethical principles, with reference to researchers. Among the basic principles, it should be remembered that the research standard is expected to contain implicit ethical considerations and that the principles of the Declarations are to be indicated and accepted for all research.

The adoption of the Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111) marked ILO’s first endorsement to universal non-discrimination and an early equal opportunity approach at work. Albeit considered to be premised upon “a traditional, formal-equality and formal-workplace vision of antidiscrimination law,” the convention marked a genuine new strand in international standard-setting in the Post-World War II and Philadelphia Declaration time. However, due to the implicit formal vision, it is assumed that ratification was more attractive and more feasible for countries of the Global North first. Following, this behavior diffused through colonial ties time-varying toward the Global South. Whether this assumption holds will also be studied regarding the moderating effects of networks of culture, trade, and regional proximity.

The right to development is a concept coined in the so-called modern society based on the timing of its debates and the epochs at which attempts are made to actualize it. In essence, the right to development is a recent concept through which world countries are forced to take stock of their capacity to advance human rights, the notion of equality and fairness in the development process of the rights holders. In this chapter, the authors will delve into explaining why the right to development has always been part of Southern Africans even though the terminology thereof was never part of Africans’ social discourse at the time of colonialism. This exploration seeks to illustrate that the knowledge systems of Southern Africans have always held specific ideals of the right to development. Similar nuances of equality, human rights and fairness were actualized in Southern African life for as long as possible. The existence of equality, human rights and fairness in the process of development were all part of African systems long before the adoption of the African Charter on Human and People's Rights and the United Nations Declaration on the Right to Development. The authors’ exploration in this regard aims to eke out the memory on the things that are modernized concerning the right to development, discarding the fact that these (human rights, equality and fairness) aspects have a normal basis for being part of Africans.

This chapter shows that the idea of a common future is highlighted through awareness that a global collapse may impact the entire planet. Living with a pandemic like Covid-19, since March 2020, has shown that this is a concrete fact and what it means for the planet. For this reason, the choice and recognition of the Global Agendas, Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UN, Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Available: un-org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights, 1948), and Agenda 2030 (UN, Transforming our World: The Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development. Available: un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/70/1&Lang=E, 2015) are concrete options that lead us to recognize that we do have a Common Future. Our predatory way of acting, and the absence of criticism of this model of development, need to be rethought whether through a radical critique of this model or by building new values and ways of living, or the good life.

An inadequately decentralised world order, as detected 2001 by Andreas Paulus, supported evolvements of global peace and security for the last decades. Much lip-service to regionalisation of action has been paid, also around the foundation of the PBC, but is to be readdressed again under changed circumstances. Strengths and weaknesses of peacekeeping operations are under scrutiny in this section, from observer to stabiliser function, Brahimi, HIPPO and Santos Cruz Reports till the Action for Peacekeeping (A4P) Declaration 2018. No revision of the 2008 Capstone Doctrine has been made until now, but more specialised missions as well as more targeted action were called for and falsified in Afghanistan. The withdrawal of forces from Afghanistan will mark an end or the beginning of a new intervention logic.

We are not interested in studying how and why those departures took place. Our sole objective is to study the refugee problem in the context of Principle 7 of the Pittsburgh Declaration of Principles—August 2011.

In this chapter, the author will examine compulsory licensing in the legal context of Article 5A of the Paris Convention, Article 31 of TRIPS, and the Doha Declaration which clarifies Article 31. A significant attention will be paid to Article 31 because it sets out the procedure to issue a compulsory licence. As seen in Chapter 2 how the patent system has considerably changed from Paris to TRIPS, this chapter also reveals a paradigm shift in the compulsory licensing regime.

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has led to a serious health crisis with unprecedented socioeconomic consequences. Since World Health Organization's pandemic declaration, most governments applied control policies such as lockdown, mobility restriction, social distancing and so on. In this context, adapting educational planning to that scenario carries a major challenge for the global education community. Furthermore, since higher education face-to-face laboratory practice has been temporarily cancelled, creating realistic virtual scenarios by means of modern software applications represent an interesting alternative. This practical approach can be achieved by using two interesting software tools such as Node-RED and Factory I/O. In this paper, the implementation of a virtual laboratory plant using tools mentioned above, with very similar features to the laboratory plants at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of A Coruna is proposed.

While the COVID-19 pandemic posed unprecedented challenges to the education system of Japan, the government and schools took necessary measures to combat the outbreak and ensure student learning continued. The temporary school closure, following the state of emergency, continued for 2 months, from April through May of 2020. Even after the declaration was lifted in May 2020, schools adopted the new-normal way of operations. By shortening the summer break and holding alternative classes, elementary, junior, and senior high schools, except for universities, returned to normal while the COVID-19 pandemic was settling down, and ended the semester regularly in December 2020. The temporary closure, however, led to a huge disparity in implementing online classes, depending on availability of personal laptops in schools. Many private schools, and a substantial number of public schools established by innovative local governments, such as Saga Prefecture and Shibuya Ward, were successful in transitioning to online learning. However, most public schools were unable to hold online courses due to the lack of facilities both in schools and at student households. Aware of the disparities, the government brought forward a policy initiative to distribute personal PCs to all elementary and junior high school students, and to supply high-speed IT networks to each school, with an expected completion of March 2021. In this chapter, we will explore various disparities in depth, particularly underlining the relationship between ICT environments in schools and the issue of school founders. Additionally, we provide an overview on how the government and schools coped with the crisis, capitalized on the policy initiatives, and utilized available resources. As a concluding remark, we aim to leave room for optimism by taking this pandemic as an opportunity to reconsider and reimagine education. Note: This chapter has nothing to do with operations of organizations that respective authors belong to, and the views expressed in this chapter do not represent organizations’, but are authors’ own.

The Stockholm Declaration of 1972 first officially recognized the call for worldwide Sustainable Development. Almost fifty years after that, the world has its greatest opportunity to pursue this goal. Environmental policy and energy policy are key tools for achieving sustainable development as there are a fair (and growing) number of worldwide experiences that show that the focus on environmentally-responsible practices can boost growth. Developing countries are those to get the most benefits, as they are the most affected by environmental threats. In light of the latter, this chapter revisits the theoretical perspectives on micro and macro system on economic development and environmental policy. The case of Europe is stressed as an example of successful integration of the latter into overall policy action. The chapter then discusses the role of Sustainable Energy Technologies (SET) and other alternatives as core elements of a sustainable and economic growth driven framework, and analyzes Portugal context within the European Union as a case study. Lastly, this chapter identifies challenges and opportunities for Mexico to build an integrated energy and environmental policy framework that supports development considering the tension this creates with the policy standpoint of the country’s current administration.

The right to health refers to everyone enjoying the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. This right is not new in that it was already mentioned as a fundamental right in the constitution of the WHO in 1946. The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights also mentioned health as part of the right to an adequate standard of living (Article 25). The right to health was again recognized as a human right in the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

This chapter addresses secession and Africa’s responses to the breaking of European-constructed nations, challenging the OAU’s 1964 Cairo Declaration that retained colonial borders and reaffirmed the principle of uti possidetis—retaining pre-independence borders. Africa experienced some interstate conflict, but internal conflict was far more insidious and as Rwanda’s 1994 genocide showed. However, secessionist wars have caused copious numbers of deaths, challenged territorial integrity and the OAU’s ability to broker peace, and the splitting of African nations. The chapter further examines Kenya’s Northern Frontier District (NFD), the Greater Somalia project, former Coastal Sultanates, Nigeria’s Biafra War and Sudan’s conflicts. The First and the Second Sudanese Civil Wars are addressed as are the circumstances leading to South Sudan’s secession in 2011, after the series of Comprehensive Peace Agreements and a referendum, capping 40+ years of conflict and close to 3 million deaths. It examines OAU responses to secession attempts, showing the organization itself to be beholden to Uti possidetis, challenging the OAU’s ability to be a neutral arbiter, but also exposing divisions among African countries—for example, in the Biafra War, 6 countries abstained or voted against reaffirming Nigeria’s territorial integrity. Biafra also mirrored other secession attempts such as Katanga and the Ogaden regions. OAU’s stance appeared to give carte blanche to countries unwilling to deal with internal conflicts even with legitimate causes, sustaining the internal conflicts.

The Colloquium on Cartography for Children and Students was initiated in Brazil in 1995. Its tenth meeting was held in 2018 integrated with the first International Meeting on School Cartography and Spatial Thinking. The background, purpose and themes of this integrated conference are outlined, which focused on ‘the different languages in the contemporary world’ within cartography, geography and spatial thinking. The purpose was to share and promote research across all levels of education, foster new directions of study, encourage sharing and collaboration, stimulate debate, and generate publications. The variety of papers given at the conference provided this, illustrating work in cartographic representations, geographic reasoning and urban spaces, cartographic and spatial reasoning from the early years to high school, the potential of geospatial technologies and atlases, cartography and inclusion, and issues in teacher education. The quality of research was high. To develop this continuing work future directions are discussed for geographical, spatial and cartographic research for children and students, drawing on the International Declaration on Research in Geography Education and the Road Map for Large-Scale Improvement of K-12 Geography Education as key documents that offer relevant research questions. Researchers are encouraged to develop their national and international networks to support and extend their studies, and several research directions are suggested for both dimensions.

The Second Vatican Ecumenical Council (1962–1965) is noted for having instituted a twofold dialogue—dialogue among the Christian Churches and dialogue between itself and other religions. This essay, historical and constructive in nature, first gives a brief overview of how the Catholic Church viewed non-Catholic Churches and other religions. It next presents Vatican II’s teaching on ecumenical unity, especially in its decree Unitatis Redintegratio, and the relations of the Catholic Church to non-Christian religions, especially in its declaration Nostra Aetate. Lastly, it suggests ways to go forward beyond the current impasse in ecumenical and interreligious dialogue, especially under the papacy of Pope Francis.

Following the declaration of COVID-19 as a global disaster, one of the affected events is the Hajj. Ideally, the desire by the faithful to observe their religious practices calls for collaborative efforts. Ideally, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia can adopt smart technology in facilitating the fight against the spread of the disease. After declaring Covid 19 as a global pandemic, new challenges for the healthcare sector in Hajj have emerged. Hajj represents a major challenge to the Saudi Ministry of Health (MOH) in addressing early detection of infection and controlling it at large gatherings of people. As seen in countries such as Australia, Bahrain, and China, smart technology enhances contact tracing, isolation, and even monitoring. Through the proposed Smart Hajj application, pilgrimage will be facilitated in a manner allowing the collection of data on the people. Ideally, the application will be applied from the start of the trip to the end. As such, the application allows the generation a solution from different data resources for the prevention of COVID-19 thus enhancing the pilgrimage experience.

Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal Secretariat of the Basel Convention UNEP/SBC International Environment House 13-15 chemin des Anemones

This article explores how international criminal courts and tribunals (ICCTs) can overcome challenges to efficiency through the recommendations contained in the Paris Declaration on the Effectiveness of International Criminal Justice. It posits that a host of ambiguous expectations placed on ICCTs has contributed to negative perceptions of their pace and cost and overall efficiency. Arguing that, by focussing assessment on core aspects fundamental to criminal justice processes, it is possible to enhance the effectiveness of judiciaries at ICCTs. Against this backdrop, this article assesses how the thirty-one recommendations in the Paris Declaration can serve as a means to this end. The article concludes that, far from being inherently inefficient, ICCTs are capable of self-motivated and self-initiated reform designed at enhancing their efficiency.

Flag of Compassion is an ongoing conceptual artwork, initiated in 2002. It explores how an artwork can activate ethical questions within the field of the arts as well as in society as a whole. The Flag is a symbol of the notion of compassion with which everyone can share their own understanding of compassion. The artwork consists out of various elements: the word ‘compassion,’ an instrument ‘the Flag,’ a Manifesto, a foundation managing the artwork ‘the Unda Foundation,’ a distribution network and a website. www.flagofcompassion.com.

It is becoming increasingly clear that human settlements are part of the future of the space sector. With the advent of NewSpace, it is also clear that as long as there are potential economic benefits, private companies will play a key role in the habitation of space. This article focuses on answering two questions: how five rights recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights could be threatened in privately-funded space settlements and what provisions should the Mars Agreement make to protect them. In particular, the ban on arbitrary detentions, the right to privacy, the right to a nationality, the right to marriage and family, and the right to freedom of assembly and association are discussed.

Human rights education (HRE) is mandated as an important vehicle for dissemination of human rights education in both the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. While some nations and schools have incorporated some aspects of HRE, it has not been comprehensively or universally embedded at the primary, secondary or higher education levels. Reasons why are explored. Possible explanations include variability of HRE, lack of teacher training, inadequate knowledge of resources, lack of system support, cultural bias, and insufficient research on best-practices. Four tables provide online resources that teachers can access to assist them to incorporate HRE, for primary, secondary, higher education, and programs that aren’t HRE but are designed to promote pro-social student behaviors.

The paper examines the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) rules on anticipatory breach of contract. Following an introduction, the author presents an overview of the general rules of the CISG on anticipatory breach, with special reference to fundamental breach of contract as a general ground for contract avoidance under the Convention. The central theme of the paper is focused on future fundamental breach of contract, the duty to give notice to the debtor of the intention to avoid contract, and the debtor’s refusal to perform. A consideration of declaration and legal effects of contract avoidance wraps up the examination of CISG rules. Since a comprehensive examination of the CISG rules on anticipatory breach requires a comparative analysis of the solutions from other sources of uniform contract law, the solutions offered by the UNIDROIT Principles and the Principles of European Contract Law (PECL) concerning anticipatory non-performance are given special consideration. In conclusion, the paper sums up the issues raised by the CISG rules on anticipatory breach and suggests optimum solutions for their application and interpretation.

While Levi’s suicide was a scandal, Amery’s suicide was reasonable, almost necessary (that is, if we accept the Theory—that writing generated by acting out can lead to loss of self). Indeed, Amery would have been the first to sign a declaration that no one wants survivors of his kind. The difference between Levi and Amery is clear. For example, it is hard to imagine Levi writing a sentence such as ‘I speak as a victim and examine my resentments’ (Amery, At the mind’s limits: Contemplations by a survivor on Auschwitz and its realities. Trans. Sidney Rosenfeld and Stella P. Rosenfeld. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1980, 63). Moreover, it seems that Amery (On suicide: A discourse on voluntary death. Trans. John D. Barlow. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999) believed that, sometimes, suicide—perhaps only suicide—can make us human. It is hard to see Levi agreeing with such a statement (although, as we shall see, he may have fully embraced the idea in the end). In any event, the open dialogue between Levi and Amery demands a closer examination of the link between their suicides.

The UNESCO Universal Declaration on cultural diversity, states that “cultural diversity is as necessary for humankind as biodiversity is for nature”, recognizing cultural diversity as “humanity's common heritage”. In this perspective it is urgent to discuss the relationship between cultural diversity and heritage preservation policies. In 1980, Chastel and Babelon published a work which would become a reference for those researching on cultural heritage: “La notion de patrimoine”. Starting from this work, and arguing that heritage is as much cultural as it is economic and political, we propose to discuss the relationship between heritage and cultural diversity from the idea of “national fact”. To this end, we resort to the process developed by the Brazilian Constituent Assembly of 1987/1988. We analysed minutes of hearings and other documents to conclude that the construction of the constitutional article concerning heritage (article 216) shook the apology of national identity that had shaped public Brazilian policies since the 1920s and 1930s.

Dignity as an essential element of humanness has been professed through the senses of seekers, supporters, and critics. The extensive literature on human dignity highlights the elusiveness and potency of the concept, both from the side of its proponents as well its detractors. Indeed, that evocative resonance and emotional charge of the dignity concept, that “phenomenological approach to the valuation of human life” which is awkward to define, contributes to concerns about its legal application. Nevertheless, human dignity features prominently as a foundational concept for human rights across the globe, all while being essentially contested. Dignity denotes universality and is emblematic within international and European human rights law. In fact, the drafters of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) inserted dignity into the document as an effort to make human rights philosophically grounded and it passed without extensive deliberation. Notably, as this chapter will explore, dignity also has a psychological underpinning and impact, and it can be considered an inclusionary concept. And yet, a definitive understanding of human dignity remains elusive and calls for unpacking in psychological terms.

Basic social and economic needs that are not met can result in health problems that cannot be addressed without the involvement of civil society. Although healthcare services are not discrete interventions in themselves, they demand a systemic approach guided by local knowledge. The Declaration of Istanbul focuses explicitly on the organ trade.

Universities have a number of functions in developing Education for Sustainable Development (ESD): conducting study/teaching process themselves, participation in the development of study materials for other fields of studies, involvement in the development of study methods, as well as a responsibility for Sustainable Development Science. An equally important role of universities in the ESD process is the “training of trainers”—preparation of new teachers, who are aware of the need to promote the sustainable development process, are equipped with a systemic understanding of processes in the society and natural world, and know the local culture and traditions. The Aichi-Nagoya Declaration on Education for Sustainable Development clearly defines tasks for universities in promoting ESD. Due consideration to the complexity and diversity of issues related to the implementation of ESD is extremely important for identifying priorities and actions by universities, so that the contribution of academic stakeholders in promoting the ESD process could be optimised. For universities, the priority action to promote ESD is their involvement in the development of an ESD-supporting educational system—a task to which the contribution of university actors can be most efficient. Another priority task is the development of study approaches and study materials to support the implementation of ESD in all study programmes at a university level. A further challenge concerns a new initiative aimed at strengthening the links between ESD and Science Education in order to promote the Education for Environmental Citizenship.

The chapter discusses the issue of counteracting crime against the environment in the context of the concept of a culture of lawfulness initiated by the Doha Declaration of the Thirteenth United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice. Demonstrating selected environmental problems, the authors present how crime against the environment negatively affects implementation of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The authors also indicate the cultural determinants that play an important role in the origins of crime against natural heritage. Based on selected examples, including the United Nations Education for Justice (E4J) initiative and other educational programmes aimed at youth, the authors emphasise the importance of promoting a culture of lawfulness in terms of preventing crime against the environment.

This paper explores the key-factors that can promote people to form a consensus remotely in such an Internet environment, and designs the agent according to the found key-factor for a better online communication. To address this issue, this paper focuses on “declaration of intent” and regards that people form a consensus when sharing one thought with declaring their intents. To investigate an influence of declaration of intent in a group, this paper employs cross-cultural game, Barnga, in which the players are forced to form a consensus for progressing the game. Through the human subject experiments of Barnga, the following insights are revealed: (1) the players are promoted to form a consensus when their rate of declaration of intent is high in the early stage of the game; and (2) the relationship between the rate of declaration of intent and the winning rate of the players shows the weak positive correlation.

Digitalization in health care is often discussed from the professionals’ point of view (e.g. physicians, dentists, nurses), but what about the patients’ perspective? Patients face new challenges: They are a cost factor, which has to be monitored. This requires access to all their health care data plus additional information. Patients’ behavior may well be measured in the future—mandatory genetic testing could be on the horizon, and in times of coronavirus the question of compulsory vaccinations arises once again. There is more: Should every German citizen automatically become an organ donor by law? Should opting out mean having to make a written declaration? And should the system punish people who opt out, e.g. by putting them last on the waiting list if they need an organ transplant? Is this environment really conducive to creating high acceptance of digitalization from the patients’ point of view? We conducted the following three studies, which will help to understand patients’ needs and perspectives in the age of digitalization in health care, especially in the hospital environment. Ultimately, patients’ acceptance of innovation and digitalization is crucial to the success of implementing new technologies in health care. To achieve higher acceptance, policymakers should promote public campaigns to communicate the advantages of these technologies for all patients in the health care system.

The Rio Declaration adopted in 1992 at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development is widely known as the Earth Summit. The conference in Rio de Janeiro was a follow-up to the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment that took place in Stockholm in 1972. The Earth Summit was a significant global event. It was the largest gathering of world leaders in history. Its purpose was to reconcile protection of the environment with economic development. The summit agreed on several legally binding agreements and opened them for signature such as the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Framework Convention on Climate Change, and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. The conference also established the Commission for Sustainable Development.

Health education and promotion is part and parcel of public health. Its importance was emphasized in the Declaration of Alma Ata sponsored by the WHO in 1978.

Since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was adopted in 1948, the fundamental human rights and freedoms have been underway in the world as a common standard. Yet it is rarely remembered that this document, which seems to embody western “human rights” and values, also engages the wisdom of Chinese culture, contributed through its Chinese co-drafter Peng-chun Chang. Chinese Confucian legal culture not only addresses human rights thoughts but also the political governance. The core ideas of that culture may be put in concert with United Nations, the new goals of sustainable development, whose progress and impact depend on Member States’ commitment to the Organisation’s objectives.

This chapter gives an overview of the situation of the Uniate Churches after the Balamand Declaration and especially after the present Ukrainian crisis. As a solution, it is recommended that the Greek Catholics in Ukraine, after the recent developments in Ukraine, can really become bridges to the eventual unity of the One Church of Christ. Presenting a quite positive assessment of Uniatism, not only in the predominantly Greek-speaking Orthodoxy but also in the Orthodox diaspora, an appeal to the bishops of the Old and the New Rome is made, to encourage this development, with the New Skete being one, though not the only, thoroughly ecumenical precedent that will certainly promote full Eucharistic unity between the Christian East and West.

Ecumenists are crazy anyway, Pope Francis told young Lutherans and Catholics celebrating their collaboration and dialogue in Sweden, and so continue in this craziness for the love of God and one another, he urged and prayed that the voice of hope they heard from the start would continue to move their hearts. More reason exists after 2017 to hope for success in ecumenism than at any time in 500 years. Unlike previous centennials, the fifth in 2017 of the Lutheran Reformation epitomized a commemoration for the ecumenical age. By 1999, the dialogues had realized a differentiating consensus for agreement on the doctrine of justification and as a model the future. Hope impelled the dialogues; hope topped the themes of 2017; and hope directs five communions of churches sharing the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification to discern its spiritual and ecclesiastical consequences for greater fellowship and communion.

As in any other country, the health crisis caused by COVID-19 forced the Colombian government to adopt urgent measures of various kinds since last March 2020. However, the declaration of emergency that grants greater constitutional powers to the president in addition to the partial closure of the congress and to the leadership style adopted by Ivan Duque, which is characterized by an erratic and confused political communication and by a conflictive relationship with different political sectors and territorial entities, has produced ambiguous results in his management of the pandemic, which intersect with the structural problems of his government, such as the increase in violence and the political crisis that has unleashed waves of social protest since last year. Therefore, this chapter aims to describe the way in which the Duque government has dealt with the pandemic, emphasizing the political-institutional changes adopted during this time and the management conflicts at the territorial level.

The organ trade involves the selling and buying of human organs and reducing them to goods or merchandise subject to laws of the market such as supply and demand. It is the overwhelming need for life-saving organs combined with their scarcity that trigger and foster the organ trade. Although organs are usually sold in exchange for money, there are other kinds of payment such as goods or favors. In Western countries the organ trade is forbidden and there are strict rules to prevent it.

The initial filling of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) with its storage capacity of 74 BCM has been the concern of downstream countries since its construction in 2011. The three countries (Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan) have been negotiating to establish filling and annual operation rules and guidelines within the umbrella of equitable and reasonable water use without causing significant harm, despite no water-sharing agreement of the riparian countries. They also try to use adaptive, cooperative principles as affirmed by signing the declaration of principles in 2015. Researchers formulated various year-based filling strategies considering different hydrological scenarios—however, the traditional fixed year filling plan, non-flexible by its nature, is unable to tackle the problem. The situation motivated the authors to think and to come up with an innovative concept called stage-based filling. Stage-based filling is flexible, adaptive, and cooperative by its nature. Stages neither refer to the flow conditions nor refer to any water-sharing arrangements. They also do not use a fixed filling year or minimum release and can be accelerated or decelerated based on hydrological variability and cooperation. Based on these concepts, there are five filling stages of GERD; the first stage entirely depends on the construction phase, and the others are more flexible to adapt and cooperate with the changes. Unlike previously proposed filling schedules, GERD’s stage-based filling is accepted and adopted by the three countries to solve their concerns. Furthermore, the countries use multiple modeling approaches to evaluate the filling schedule and its impacts according to their perspectives, like using the year of filling, amount of release during filling, energy production, and water level in the reservoir.

The chapter aims to address the restrictions that banking regulations on risk would affect the ability for the integration of banking ESG to meld better with corporate ESG goals. The chapter is going to discuss and put a special stress on: Directives of the European Parliament linked to sustainable finance (among others 2019/2088, 2016/1011, 2019/2089, 2017/828, 2014/95/UE), The Equator Principles, United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative, Collevecchio Declaration, European Union Action plan for sustainable finance, EU taxonomy for sustainable activities, and others related to sustainable reporting, PRI, solvency, Basel.

This chapter is concerned with examining how the development of modern adoption policy, law and practice has been influenced by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) and the United Nations Declaration on Social and Legal Principles relating to the Protection and Welfare of Children, with Special Reference to Foster Placement and Adoption Nationally and Internationally (1986), the Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption (1993), particularly the Hague Convention. The generic nature of some Convention principles and their broad remit ensures their equal applicability to many jurisdictions.

Open educational resources (OERs) and massive open online courses (MOOCs) are being developed and utilized in higher education institutions across the globe. Activities related to OERs in tertiary institutions (22.4%) are higher than those in primary or secondary institutions (UNESCO 2012a, b). As of July 2019, a total of 1071 organizations in 248 countries participate in the development and dissemination of OERs (OER World Map 2019). As of 2018, over 900 universities offered MOOCs, 101 million individuals enrolled, and over 11,000 courses were created (Class Central 2019). A survey of faculty members of higher education institutions in the United States found that one-third were aware of OERs, wished to take advantage of them, and recognized them as equal in quality to traditional educational resources (Allen and Seaman 2014). Many higher education institutions utilize OERs daily as learning materials in the form of open textbooks or supplemental materials. Moreover, the movement of open educational practice—called “Open Pedagogy”—is evolving (EDUCAUSE 2018). Introducing learner-centered design to use OERs for not only substituting publishers’ textbooks but also “interacting” with open-licensed textbooks in the learning process by editing or revising them has become widespread among educational practitioners (DeRosa and Robison 2017). The OER movement has expanded on a global scale, led by international organizations like UNESCO, which has organized the World OER Congress twice and promotes the creation and introduction of OERs in K-12 and post-secondary education based on its declaration (UNESCO 2012a, b) and recommendation (UNESCO 2018).

As late as 2018, academic publications have still been recommending more research on sustainability reporting in higher education. This chapter focuses on how the University of South Africa (Unisa), an open-distance e-Learning institution, reports sustainability matters under the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) and examines the opportunities and challenges in mainstreaming the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The study is premised on lived experiences and participatory action research (PAR). Findings reveal that Unisa has made progress in sustainability reporting. It further emerged that there is evidence of reporting on sustainability matters as reflected in both Unisa’s annual and UNGC reports. However, with the advent of twin globally recognised sustainability mainstreaming and reporting frameworks such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially through the higher education and colleges SDG Accord and Global Reporting Initiative’s (GRI) Sustainability Standards, Unisa is awakening to the need to mainstream these to enable both implementation and reporting. Hence, the latest UNGC report embeds the Unisa SDGs Localisation Declaration of November 2019. The chapter recommends a hybrid sustainability reporting model. The work further recommends that both the GRI Practical Guide and the Global Alliance’s SDG Accord be used in localising the SDGs across Unisa to enhance implementation and reporting.

Commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) is defined by the Declaration of the First World Congress against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children, held in Stockholm in 1996, as “sexual abuse by an adult accompanied by remuneration in cash or in kind to the child or third person(s).” CSEC usually takes the form of child prostitution or child pornography, and is often facilitated by child sex tourism. CSEC is particularly a problem in developing countries of Asia. In recent years, new innovations in technology have facilitated the trade of Internet child pornography.

In the light of the human rights era, in particular following the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, this Chapter will assess whether the right to diplomatic asylum may be legitimately granted on humanitarian grounds i.e. where the human rights of the person seeking diplomatic asylum risk being seriously breached without such sanctuary. Where a threat to life or limb is deemed to be immediate, this practice may be referred to as humanitarian asylum. Indeed, maintaining human rights is one of the primary aims of the Latin American institution of asylum, which encompasses the concept of diplomatic asylum. It will be determined whether a state’s positive human rights obligations under modern international law may provide an alternative legal basis for the practice of diplomatic asylum in cases where threats to fundamental human rights exist. In particular, this Chapter will explore various principles and provisions of international human rights law in order to determine whether a state’s right to grant diplomatic asylum on such grounds is founded either directly thereunder or by way of a rule of customary international law status. In the context of this chapter, diplomatic asylum will be presented as constituting a human rights conundrum in which both the decision not to grant asylum but also the decision to grant asylum may facilitate violations of fundamental human rights.