As spune ca suntem predestinati la toleranta...
The text is an interview taken by Francisko Kocsis to the Hungarian writer and politician, representing the Hungarian minority in Romania, Marko Bela.
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The text is an interview taken by Francisko Kocsis to the Hungarian writer and politician, representing the Hungarian minority in Romania, Marko Bela.
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The aim of this essay is to show the importance of the Council of Europe (CoE) and its mechanisms during transitional justice processes in European countries. The CoE can provide a broad measure of what might be called transitional justice assistance to build up a new democratic order, encompassing rule of law, democracy and human rights standards. There will be a special emphasis on Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), specifically on one case that appeared before the European Court of Human Rights – Sejdic and Finci v. Bosnia and Herzegovina. In this case it will be shown how different mechanisms of the CoE, the Venice Commission, the Committee of Ministers and primarily the European Convention on Human Rights (Convention) and its ―watchdog the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) can identify violations of human rights and can actively set up standards of human rights, rule of law and democracy.
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During the armed conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992-1995), hundreds of children were born as a consequence of war-related sexual violence perpetrated by the Serbian militias primarily against Bosnian Muslim women. Surprisingly, these children were never acknowledged as victims of human rights abuses in the legal debate concerning the atrocities committed against women and culture. The present paper attempts to fill the existing gap by considering the legal status of this specific category of children from a human rights perspective, with a particular emphasis on the impact of war and post-conflict environments on the right of the child to develop and preserve his or her own identity. In light of the intricate complexity characterising the situation of children born of war, categorical positions are not desirable. To the contrary, the acknowledgement of the competing rights at stake – the right to know one‘s origins, the best interests of the child and the mother‘s confidentiality rights – as equally fundamental makes it possible to achieve a fair equilibrium between the interests of all parties involved.
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The concept of an international administration has lead to a significantly constrained state sovereignty and affects the lives of millions of people directly. The authority exercised by international administrators as in Bosnia and Herzegovina is extensive, including the power to legislate. It is vital for an international administration‘s domestic legitimacy that its authority is justified through participation of citizens within a polity. The right to political participation is recognized as a fundamental right in article 3 Prot. 1 to the ECHR. Therefore, the author examines if article 3 Prot. 1 to the ECHR is applicable to the legislation adopted by the international administrator and thereby if citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina enjoy the right to participate in the legislative procedure of the High Representative. This will be analyzed at the national level in light of the theory of functional duality as developed by the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Lastly, the paper examines if citizens can enforce their right to participation which will be examined by analyzing if the Constitutional Court has the competence to review the legislation of the High Representative on compatibility with article 3 Prot. 1 to the ECHR.
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Despite 15 years of major domestic and international peacekeeping and stabilization efforts, there are still major obstacles to state building in BiH. One of the clear signs of the internal divisions and tensions has been the recent alarming trend of efforts to curtail the development of free and independent media in the country to support the process of reconciliation with the past and the growth of a strong civil society. What has been the role of the media in BiH in the process of transitional justice? Have the print media encouraged a constructive social dialogue about the past or they have contributed to further divisions among BiH citizens? This paper looks at the role of print media in the process of transitional justice in BiH. The study investigates the role of the media as a unifying or dividing factor in the process of transition in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The paper then looks more in depth into the case of BiH and the print media‘s role for transitional justice‘s successes and failures so far. It argues that the print media have had a more negative impact on the processes of transitional justice in BiH because of the persistent nationalistic rhetoric creating a divided image of Bosnian society.
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As it has been pointed out M.Cherif Bassiouni from the mid 20th century to the present, wars, insurgencies, ethnic unrest and the repressive actions of authoritarian regimes have produced enormous human suffering and the deaths of tens of millions, the majority of whom have been civilians. A consistent part of those civilians, killed or injured, are children. What happen to the children in the aftermath of these heinous crimes? International law provides a range of remedies for victims of gross human rights violations and serious violations of international humanitarian law. According to article 39 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, child-victims should also benefit from those remedies, in particular from reparations programs and efforts set up by the State. The aim of the present contribution is twofold: it is meant to provide first the readers with a general overview of the right to reparation for child-victims and then it will focus on the implementation of the right to education in the Bosnian context as a form of rehabilitation for the children directly or indirectly involved in the war which occurred in BiH.
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This article advances the idea that post-conflict societies encounter a twofold challenge in the transitional context; the first challenge is the past – how to heal the wounds, whilst the second challenge is to look forward and provide solutions for a sustainable future, where human rights are promoted and respected. I argue that the complex legal, political, economic and social situation in northern Uganda requires the reconciliation between past, present and future, by merging transitional justice (pastoriented) with economic and social justice (future-oriented), so as to meet the victims‘ needs and in the same time secure a stable transitional regime. The first section of the article will deal with the interplay between conflict and poverty in Uganda and the governmental measures taken in this regard. The following two sections will briefly examine the various transitional justice mechanisms employed here as well as the unfortunate situation relating to socio-economic rights. Based on the arguments advanced in the previous sections, the final part outlines some measures to accommodate economic and social rights within transitional justice mechanisms, suggesting that the later must be part of a broader set of policies for socioeconomic development and reconciliation.
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The present paper aims at describing the need for a reform of the Dayton Constitution, given the prospective accession of BiH to the European Union. Notwithstanding the signing in June 2008 of the Stabilization and Association Agreement with the European Union, the country is still threatened in its unity and in its political life by ethnic nationalism; moreover, its inefficient and cumbersome institutional framework requires heavy intervention from the international community in order to function, through the Office of the High Representative, thereby impeding the development of proper self-government. The only possible solution which would not endanger the unity of the state seems to consist in a federalist choice, which could go beyond the ―institutional racism enacted by the Dayton Constitution, without risking jeopardizing the considerable autonomy enjoyed by the cantons and entities. Such a solution has to be reached with the utmost urgency, because an efficient state based on European perspectives and values is not an overly ambitious goal, which could be pursued once the political situation is finally stabilized, but it rather represents one essential condition to allow Bosnian society to develop, rejecting nationalism and ethnic hatred.
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Political instability and economic recession impede the development of social reforms and, ultimately, adversely affect the well-being of the population on both banks of the Dniester. Health care reform in Transdniestria requires operational. It is important to determine which medical services should be provided to the population free of charge within the guaranteed minimum of medical care, and for which you will have to pay, taking into account the current level of economic development and budget financing.Based on the reading, it is clear that the leadership of Transnistria itself solves the most acute problems in health care, not relying on the help of Western funds, and representatives of the civil society of Transnistria see absolutely different way to which available European funds to solve which problems and assistance to which category of Transnistrian population.
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This article is an analysis of the linguistic and educational policies promoted by Transnistrian authorities and the repercussions of educational strategies on the realization and respect of education rights of Moldovans living on the left bank of the Dniester. Author consider that the most important problems that have been proliferated over time at the educational level in the Transnistrian region are:1. Ensuring the right to education in the mother tongue for Moldovans in the formula developed by Tiraspol (Moldovan language with Cyrillic script); 2. Situation of Moldovan schools with teaching in Latin script, and 3. Integration of the studies obtained by the inhabitants from the left bank of the Dniester River into the educational system of the Republic of Moldova and recognition of the diplomas issued by the institutions subordinated to the unconstitutional authorities in Tiraspol. Respectively, the realization of the analysis of the subject of the linguistic and educational policy in the transnistrian region in this article will be achieved through these key dimensions.
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The social economy organizations and especially the work insertion social enterprises prove to be viable instruments for revitalizing the local economies undergoing difficulties. Due to the limited capacity of the communities in the underprivileged areas to generate income and the inability to activate endogenous development processes and create jobs, social economy is regarded as a component of the community development process. The article handles the issue of social economy organizations, focusing on the social insertion enterprises as the main mechanisms for increasing the employment within vulnerable persons. Starting from the analysis of the social economy contribution to the implementation of the European social policy, the author reviews the social insertion means, forms and models of vulnerable persons currently existing on national and international level. The research entailed the use of an indirect observation by analyzing the specialized Romanian and foreign literature and by analyzing various official documents available at variosus non-governmental organizations and European research institutes and networks, interested and involved in the wide and various range of problems related to the management of social enterprises.
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Official figures drastically understate the scale of migration to the EU, according to a new study.
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This article discusses the specifics of the functioning of the Church and local communities in Belarus in the face of social challenges. It presents the statistics of religious confessions, outlines the structure of the „local community” in its scientific, theoretical and practical aspects, shows the role of the Church and local communities in the implementation of civil defense and defines arsenal of general self-defense.
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Kazivanje o knjizi prof. dr Šerba Rastodera, Komunisti i muhadžiri (1958–1971) – slučaj Opštine Rožaje, može da krene od svega, ali ponajviše sa vizure ovovremenske zbilje i distance, prvenstveno podstaknuto onim što nam ona iz prve ruke svjedoči. Namjera mi je, da vašu pažnju zadržim na ono zbog čega ovu knjigu smatram izuzetno vrijednom, naučno-istraživački dokumentovanom, pa stoga i obaveznim štivom za one koji se bave ili će se baviti izučavanjem prošlosti, one koji hoće i smiju da saznaju istinu, prije svega mladom naraštaju, a posebno našoj raseljeničkoj dijaspori. […]
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The low success on the Eastern Front had shown the year of 1916 as the most difficult for Austria-Hungary. The strenghtening of the Antanta which was additionally supported by Italy and Romania resulted in dispersing of the Austrian-Hungarian Army on the fronts, and was forced to fight on multiple theaters of war and needed more manpower. Since Imperial Germany transfered all of its troops to the Western Front, Austria-Hungary was forced to request the company of their Ottoman allies to successfully accomplish their war efforts. The improvement of Austro-Hungarian military positions requested a ruthless war propaganda during the period between the fall of 1916 and the spring of 1917 when the XV Ottoman Corpse containing 10 thousand volunteers and recruits has left for the Galician Front. The Ottoman Military explained their excursion to Galicia as a defensive effort against a possible Russian invasion of the Balkan Peninsula. Circumstances which included bad organization, poor discipline, lack of clothes, hunger, a great number of injured and disabled soldiers, lack of vaccines against infectious diseases affected the moral of the volunteers. The triumphant Ottoman Volunteer Army assissted its European allies by accomplishing secondary war maneuvers at the Galician, Romanian and Macedonian Front which costed them many martyrs and prisoners of war. The extensive documentation from Austrian, German, Yugoslav, Serbian, British and Ottoman archives we can detect a large number of Rumeli Volunteers ending up in British P.O.W. camps which previously joined the intense fightings at the Galician, Caucassus, Dardanelle, Mesopotamian and Arabian war theaters. According to the reports of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, a huge portion of them was recruited and deported by the Austro-Hungarian and Bulgarian occupation authorities which deported them to areas of Mesopotamia where they eventually became British prisoners of war. By the end of the war more than 3 thousand Muslim volunteers from Rumelia were deported to Istanbul where they applied to Yugoslav authorities with a request for readmission into their homeland. For these prisoners of war, the difficult war was transformed into a difficult fight for survival and return to their families. Many war veterans have returned to Macedonia, Kosovo and Sanjak wounded, carrying diseases, without material support, food and water. Their return has lasted for many consequent years. A huge number of them were molested and murdered by the Serbian Chetnik formations because of the Ottoman Turkish uniforms they had been wearing. A large portion of the volunteers have returned from the British P.O.W. camps in Egypt burdened by serious physical and psychological trauma.
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In this paper, besides the previous knowledge of the origin of the Vlachs, their status in the Ottoman Empire, voynuks as a military order in the militant system of the Ottoman state, an overview of the administrative-territorial division of the Sanjak of Herzegovina in the middle of the 16th century was given, as well as the statistical data from the Vlachs and Voynuk defter of Herzegovinian liva from 1533 and about the defter itself in general.
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Extremely important for understanding the public discontent in Jordan is the nature of the relationship of groups consisting of citizens of the kingdom, the kingdom’s economy and demography, is crucial for a good understanding of the situation currently prevailing in it. Analysis of the protests shows the reader in a simple and transparent way to put forth demands of the protesters, what were the reasons for their appearances, formations and ideological trends that occurred in protest groups, and the reaction of the authorities, they met with social unrest. Detailed description of all these factors will help the reader understand the dynamics of expressions of social discontent that took place in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. The fact that the trend of protest characteristic of almost the whole Arab world in 2011 also occurred in Jordan, was obvious. The Kingdom has been since its inception showed incredible sensitivity to the historical processes that involved the whole region. However, not only economic and social situation in the region motivated the Jordanian protests, but also demand changes and greater freedoms in the political and free speech. Jordan is an authoritarian monarchy, built and controlled by the family of Jordan. Despite the legislation, which seems like the Middle East very liberal terms, the present King of Jordan Abdullah II, consistently, since taking control of the country, tends to concentrate the greatest power in its own hand or in a group of people directly reporting to him. However, the king took the effort of reform and is likely to be one of the leading reformers in the region.
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Hidden explosives have taken hundreds of civilian lives so far as the war rolls into its sixth year.
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The European Union exists in the current context in the shape of an incomplete social contract, combining characteristics traditionally attributed to states with specific elements of intergovernmental structures. The result of this unprecedented addition consists in a hybrid structure, an open-ended experiment that exceeds the limits of fixed theoretical frames. Built on a solid democratic foundation, the European Union has created a new community with shared identity and goals that are more or less assumed by its citizens. Thus, the public factor has acquired a central dimension both for the gradual process of European integration and for the very existence of the European project. Starting from these premises, this paper seeks to frame the concepts of public support and Euroscepticism, as well as to elucidate the relationship between the aforementioned concepts.
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The connections between the rationalistic way of founding, or politics understanding and the political life, between the rationalistic structures of argumentation, legitimation or rejection and the political decisions sphere are largely debated subjects in political theory. There are many ways of approaching these themes. There are some attempts meant to show the continuity and the coherence of rationalism in modern politics. Others, as conservatism, postmodern pragmatism or decisionism strongly criticize rationalism. Some theories, as in the case of rational choice theory, or of critical differentialism, try to adjust the rationalistic view, so that it could match with a certain part of political life. These critical prospects, together with those meant to adjust rationalism, do have consistent arguments pleading that rationalism could no longer be seen as the only or the absolutely certain lens, offered by modern political theory, supposed to observe, legitimate and evaluate politics correctly.
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