Browsing by Subject "colonialism"

Climate migration raises both justice and human rights concerns, yet no existing treaty explicitly addresses it, leaving climate migrants in a legal limbo. This study assesses how the European Union's international protection system can evolve to effectively mitigate the vulnerability of climate migrants. The analysis incorporates the principle of non-refoulement from the European Convention on Human Rights and the principle of Common but Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities in climate agreements. Using a legal doctrinal approach, the study analyses existing legal frameworks, uniquely integrating the perspective of vulnerability theory. This ethical framework emphasizes the universal vulnerability of individuals and seeks strategies to reduce vulnerability, rooted in societal structures and legal constructs. The study applies vulnerability theory specifically to the context of climate migration. Vulnerability analysis reveals that both the vulnerabilities driving migration and the uncertain legal status of climate migrants are products of the international community necessitating a collective response. The study centers on the 1951 Refugee Convention and the interpretation of the principle of non-refoulement by the European Court of Human Rights. It examines the right to life in the context of environmental disasters and its application to socio-economic rights. The research investigates the compatibility of the European Union’s international protection residence permit system with the non-refoulement principle and climate agreement burden-sharing principles. Relevant sources include recommendations from the United Nations Refugee Agency, decisions from the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the European Union, along with existing scholarly literature. The Qualification Directive (2011/95/EC) mirrors the refugee definition of the Refugee Convention. The study reveals that individuals seeking international protection due to the adverse effects of climate change may have legitimate fears of persecution when addressing climate change's adverse effects in the broader social policy framework. Additionally, the study argues that adopting a vulnerability-based approach, especially under Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, can broaden the scope of the non-refoulement principle in the context of climate change and enhance substantive equality, addressing climate migrants' material deprivation in their countries of origin. However, the European Convention on Human Rights does not regulate residence permits; instead, they fall under European Union law. The Court of Justice of the European Union has clarified that subsidiary protection necessitates the deliberate infliction of severe harm by a specific actor and cannot be attributed to general deficiencies in the country of origin. This perspective diverges from the interpretation of the European Court of Human Rights. To bridge the gap in current protections, the European Union should introduce a new category of residence permits for climate migrants, humanitarian protection, recognizing the connection between human rights and the environment. Such humanitarian protection would reflect fair burden-sharing, safeguard against refoulement, and address the vulnerability experienced by climate migrants within the framework of international human rights law.

This thesis examines the effects of the legal framework of the indigenous peoples defined in the study on different aspects of the lives of the Kola Sámi living in the Kola Peninsula. In Russia, both the Constitution and Federal laws guarantee the protection of indigenous peoples’ way of life through various rights. Despite this, several scholars and the media have increasingly written about the challenges related to the realization of the rights of indigenous peoples, especially during the last decade. In this thesis, the effects of Sámi rights are examined by using the theory of legal pluralism, which takes into account the colonial nature of laws and their outcome. The data of the study consists of f interviews, 21 news articles and one podcast. Due to the restricting political atmosphere in Russia in 2022 and the research pressure on the Sámi people, the data has been compiled using different, mutually supporting and reinforcing qualitative methods. The research topic is approached with content analysis, which emphasizes the three main themes identified from the background literature, in light of which the effects of Sámi rights are discussed. These three themes are bureaucracy, environment and economy. In addition to the three main themes, the analysis identifies three different fields of influence of Sámi rights: control of rights through self-governance and self-determination; obstacles related to the pursuit of traditional livelihoods; and contradictions in the existence of rights de jure. The results show that the realization of Sámi rights is secondary to the interests of the state and local actors. The colonialist attitude of the Russian Federation towards its Arctic regions manifests itself in the primacy of the capitalist benefit of the Kola Peninsula at the expense of the rights and traditions of the Kola Sámi. The results show that during V. V Putin’s current administration, the nature of the rights of the Kola Sámi has become repressive and further limiting. In order to fulfill Arctic interests, the Sámi are controlled and assimilated through their legal framework. Obstacles and difficulties in the exercise of rights as well as harassments against the Kola Sámi contribute to the alienation of the population from their environment and traditions. Thus, in this thesis, the effects of Sámi rights are seen as intentional, oppressive and suppressing the population instead of their protection.

This Master’s thesis examines the modes of nature’s resistance to colonialism in E. M. Forster’s 1924 novel A Passage to India. The theoretical background for the analysis consists of discussion and definition of the nature of “nature”, and the inevitability of the postcolonial inflection to ecocriticism when examining nature in a work of literature set in colonial context. The analysis locates colonialism in the British characters of the novel, as they are either part of the colonial apparatus in British India or have personal connections to the aforementioned type of characters, thus oftentimes nature’s resistance to colonialism is directly exemplified by what it “does” against the characters. Nature resists the characters’ various efforts to get a hold of India, realized through desire to identify and catalogue various aspects of it, to have a specific aesthetic experience of it, or through actually being involved in the colonial apparatus. The resistance is realized through two modes: elusiveness and hostility. Various aspects of India’s nature in the novel elude the characters’ attempts to attain definitive knowledge or certain aesthetic experience of them, denying them the power of knowledge. On the other hand, the instances of nature’s hostility, which is sometimes real and sometimes perceived by the characters as such, functions to repel the colonizers from India, or at least to weaken their hold on it. Overall, nature in A Passage to India is a powerful “other” that compliments the native Indians’ struggle against the British Raj.