The end of the dictatorship in Chile happened in a climate of almost euphoria for the associations of victims and their families. The return of democracy to Chilean society was met with a hope that they would go back to the agenda for social justice laid out by Salvador Allende. 27 years after, the mobilisations of memory still struggle to be heard and have their claims met. Indeed, the groups are still ever present in the fabric of the society, searching for complete truth and effective justice. This paper seeks to shed light on the historical struggle for justice, truth and memory of three Santiago-based associations (Association of families of Detained Disappeared, Association of families of Executed Politically and Londres 38, Space for Memory). Using a discursive methodology, I studied five historical conjunctures and came upon the realization that the efforts of the administrations were perceived as a way to close the box of the past, whereas the organizations still pursued their historical goals (i.e., effective justice and complete truth). The ineffectiveness of the consecutive post-dictatorship governments is perceived as a betrayal of the cause the victims and their families have suffered to defend all these years.
The protection of children’s rights is an obvious task of independent children’s rights institutions (ICRIs), though achieved through a variety of means. Based on the guiding principles of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UN CRC), the best interests of the child must be a primary consideration in protecting these fundamental rights, including the right to be heard. ICRIs carefully examine children’s rights through investigation and research. But are rights-defenders upholding these principles in their own work? In this brief article I examine the requirements of being a child-friendly and participatory ICRI, and through a three-element comparison of European ombudsman institutions, I present some examples.
Many minority immigrants currently face severe human rights violation through discrimination and racism, influencing how they rate their life satisfaction in their host destinations. This paper examines the factors that affect African immigrants’ life satisfaction in a mid-sized Canadian city. Using a combination of descriptive and multivariate methods applied on a sample survey (n=236) conducted in Hamilton, Ontario, this article investigates socio-demographic and health-related factors that predict life satisfaction amongst African immigrants, specifically, Ghanaians and Somalis. Findings suggest that Ghanaian immigrants reported greater life satisfaction than their Somali counterparts. People with residency in Canada over 10 years are more likely to report higher life satisfaction than those with length of residence from zero to ten years. Older individuals (i.e., age 25-54) are more likely to express higher life satisfaction compared to younger individuals (i.e., 18-24). The findings indicate that socio-demographic conditions matter for immigrants’ life satisfaction. 2 Societies Without Borders, Vol. 14, Iss. 1 [2020], Art. 12 https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/swb/vol14/iss1/12 INTRODUCTION While migration can be a positive and empowering experience for individuals and communities and can benefit both countries of origin and destination, it is important to note that conditions that place people in vulnerable situations are serious human rights concerns (Human Right Council 2016). As Ward (1996) notes, immigration and a different cultural background raises questions of psychological and sociological adaptation, along with belonging and acceptance. In addition to factors such as lower income, unemployment and underemployment, lower education, and poorer health; being identified as an ethnic minority adds life challenges and discrimination that can lower general quality of life (Statistics Canada 2003; CIC 2010) and therefore how minorities rate their overall satisfaction of life in Canada. Human rights are a general form, which encapsulates civil rights, liberties and social, economic and cultural rights. These may constitute the extent to which the needs of individuals are satisfied and their aspiration for better life fulfilled. It is noted that most immigrant groups have higher levels of life satisfaction than their source-country population (Statistics Canada 2014). These differences, however, decrease over time for several immigrant groups when socio-demographic factors are controlled, which means immigrant selectivity does not play a major role in life satisfaction (Statistics Canada 2014). Since the publication of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1982 (Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms 1982), the comparative approach to equality in the system has played a pivotal role in Canada’s minority immigrant receiving communities. In addition to the achievement of positive results toward equality, the high degree of social inequalities in many spheres of life is currently a main focus of human rights debate. In general, the Charter guarantees rights of equality, specifically prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, ethnic or national origin, colour, religion, etc. However, very few studies have looked at differences in life satisfaction across different ethnic groups (see Bruni and Porta 2007; Dolan, Peasgood and White 2008). Understanding life satisfaction amongst visible minorities is essential as it relates to whether individual’s rights to life chances have been met in their host destinations. The Canadian Human Right Act (1977) states that ‘every individual should have an equal opportunity with other individuals to make for himself or herself the life that he or she is able and wishes to have, consistent with his or her duties and obligations as a member of society, without being hindered in or prevented from doing so by discriminatory practices based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, age, and sex. Indeed, it would be naïve to assume that some discrimination would not be present. Further, the Canadian Immigration Act in section 3(f) states that an immigration objective is ‘to ensure that any person who seeks admission to Canada on either permanent or temporary basis is subject to standards of admission that do not discriminate in a manner inconsistent with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (4). The inclusion of these rights illustrates, at least officially, a government commitment for non-discrimination principles underlying the Canadian Human Right Act. Even so, racism and discrimination continue to be part of many people’s daily lives in Canada, particularly amongst visible minorities in immigrant receptive communities. Visible minority members who feel out of place or discriminated against are likely to be less satisfied with their life in the country of residence. Researchers have found relatively low life satisfaction amongst ethnic and racial minorities (Michalos and Zumbo 2001; Verkuyten 2008; Ullman and Tatar 2011), which may have bearings on their settlement and integration in a host society. There are approximately 7 million visible minority immigrants in Canada (Statistics Canada 2017), representing 19.1% of the total population, and are expected to reach 33% by 2031.Visible minority immigrant families represent a wide variety of socio-economic, cultural and linguistic backgrounds and continually face multiple challenges integrating into the Canadian society, including racism and discrimination (Agyekum and Newbold 2019). While many visible minorities are able to successfully integrate into the mainstream society, others struggle, with 3 Agyekum: A Logistic Regression Analysis of Life Satisfaction amongst Afric Published by Case Western Reserve University School of Law Scholarly Commons, 2020 health implications in their attempt to adapt to their new conditions. Research on immigrants indicates that visible minorities and their offspring are sometimes denied access to good jobs and are often not given the opportunity to gain necessary skills or utilize their existing skills and education (Yap and Everett 2012). A visibly minority is defined by the Government of Canada as ‘persons, other than aboriginal peoples, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour’ (Statistics Canada 2015). Under this definition, regulations specify the following groups as visible minorities: Chinese, South Asians, Blacks, Arabs, West Asians, Filipinos, Southeast Asians, Latin Americans, Japanese, Koreans, and other visible minority groups such as pacific Islanders. As Boatswain and Lalonde (2000:217) rightly put it: ‘it would be naïve to assume that the politics of visible minority identity in Canada are not influenced by events and trends taking place in the United States. Similar to the white/non-white dichotomy in the United States, Canada employs white versus visible minorities. The two categories, despite differences in appearance, perform the same process of exclusion and inclusion (Kusow 2006). It creates ‘us’ and ‘them’ that can be used for discrimination. Thus, although exclusion and inclusion differences between visible minorities and non-visible minorities (i.e. Aboriginal peoples and Caucasians) can put the former at risk of increased racism, discrimination and associated health problems, and also decreased their potential for socio-economic advancement. This constitutes a human right violation against visible minorities and impinges on integrity of national culture and identity. This risk may be reduced if resettlement workers and other stakeholders exhibit greater involvement in visible minority immigrants’ integration. LIFE SATISFACTION AND AFRICAN IMMIGRATION Being and staying healthy is a fundamental right of every human being, and it is important that immigrants, particularly the visible minorities are given the opportunity to feel satisfied in their respective communities. Immigrants to Canada are generally happy with life in their new destination, with most immigrant groups typically expressing higher levels of life satisfaction than their source-country populations (Citizenship and Immigration Canada 2014) (CIC). Most of the attention on the relationship between migration and happiness has focused on income (i.e. greater income leading to greater happiness). However, the relationship between happiness and income is not necessarily linear: increased income does not generally lead to greater happiness (Bartram 2013; Cai, Esipova, Oppenheimer and Feng 2014). More importantly, many social scientists do not believe that standard measures of income equitably capture the happiness of individuals (see Bartram 2014; Cai et al. 2014; Olgiati, Calvo and Berkman 2013), with happiness challenged by complexities due to different preparedness and different expectations and/or aspirations for migrating. Further, Graham and Markowitz (2011) observed that people who intend to migrate are generally less satisfied than those who do not; however, they found that migrants are “frustrated achievers” (see Olgiati et al. 2013), people who have relatively high levels of objectives, such as income, but who are dissatisfied with their conditions and seek to improve them through migration. Happiness and life satisfaction are used interchangeably in the literature (see Bartram 2014; CIC 2014), yet happiness may differ from life satisfaction due to a concern for the happiness of others, along with differences in language and cultural backgrounds. Early constructs of life satisfaction addresses individuals’ ability to (1) have a life that meets their needs (Cummins 1996) and (2) be “happy” (Andrews and McKennell 1980). The term “Life Satisfaction” is defined as an individual’s subjective appraisal of life, composed of cognitive and affective components ( Edwards and Lopez 2006). Many factors predict the life satisfaction of immigrants in a host society. McCullo
The role of independent children’s rights institutions is a multifaceted one, which can lead them to be pulled in many different directions. For most such institutions the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) provides a fundamental underpinning for their work, and many institutions place particular emphasis on Article 12 and on children’s rights to participation more generally. At the same time a principal focus of activity is on influencing law and policy in their national jurisdictions. In this paper we explore some ways in which these separate objectives can be combined in ways that challenge, or at least compensate for, children’s exclusion from political influence. Drawing on research conducted with independent children’s rights institutions in Europe, we point to some weaknesses in the current pattern of activity which can lead to a lack of impact, and some examples of how institutions can engage more effectively, both with children and with powerful actors, by promoting and facilitating dialogue between them.
Independent children’s human rights institutions (ICHRIs) developed rapidly worldwide over the last three decades. Their implementation was aided by the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the diffusion of participatory practices, and the growth of children’s rights advocacy. In addition, ICHRIs are supported by the emergence and subsequent consolidation of children’s rights studies as a field within academia, and the increase of political will to further develop evidence-based policies dedicated to children. This article will explore the positioning of ICHRIs between the local and the global, especially regarding trends towards decentralisation of State structures as well as relating to two-way translations of human rights. First, we will analyse the evolution of European State structures towards decentralization. We will then examine the extent to which State decentralization dynamics affect children’s human rights fulfilment. The next part will look at how ICHRIs can be conceptualised as institutions that stand ‘in the middle’ between local and global human rights perspectives. Our main idea is that, since their creation, independent human and children’s rights institutions have been particularly constructive to facilitate a two-way dynamic between local and global perspectives on children’s rights, especially in decentralized states.
