Global Campus Open Knowledge Repository

Our Open Knowledge Repository is a digital service that collects, preserves, and distributes all digital materials resulting from the rich and varied production of the Global Campus of Human Rights. It is an ever growing collection which aims to give visibility to our research outputs, educational content, and multimedia materials; sustain open access for knowledge transfer; and foster communication within and beyond academia.

 

Communities in DSpace

Select a community to browse its collections.

Now showing 1 - 5 of 7

Recent Submissions

Thumbnail Image
Item
Between media representations and lived experiences. Refugees in German media and their everyday realities
(2026) Mauricio Tampe, Philine Muriel; Finlay, Graham
Representations of refugees in the media play a significant role in shaping how they are perceived by mainstream society. This study examines how refugees are portrayed in traditional German media and identifies the dominant narratives and frames. By incorporating the perspectives of social workers as well as the voices of people who came to Germany to seek protection, the study reveals that the identified media narratives differ significantly from refugees’ everyday experiences in Germany. Furthermore, the study provides insights into how media narratives, and the media more generally, can affect the daily lives of refugees. Moreover, participants offered a range of constructive ideas on how media representations could become more diverse, nuanced, and authentic. Building on these ideas, as well as the findings of the study, a media policy recommendation was developed at the end of this thesis. This recommendation is based on the idea that the media are not only part of the problem but can also be part of the solution.
Thumbnail Image
Item
Digital campaigns and deliberative politics: the EU regulatory framework of online political advertising under the ECHR
(2026) Mantzarlis Arzimanoglou, Stefanos; Refors Legge, Maria
The impact of online political advertising on democratic integrity, political deliberations and electoral outcomes is a central topic of political discourse and a main concern for EU citizens regarding the future of Europe. Unlike offline political communication, algorithmic dissemination in digital campaigning allows for constant, unfiltered and highly personalized messaging, transforming democratic dialogue. From the Brexit referendum and the 2016 US presidential elections to the 2026 Hungarian Elections, online political advertising has exposed significant regulatory gaps and democratic vulnerabilities in the digital era. This raises the question of how democracies adapt to rapid technological developments while effectively maintaining human rights and democratic values. The European Union has adopted an ambitious regulatory framework composed of the 2022 Digital Services Act and the 2024 Regulation on the Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising, aiming to protect freedom of movement and competition in the Common Market and enhance democratic legitimacy. In implementing this framework domestically, EU Member States are obliged to uphold freedom of expression and the right to free elections under ECHR. This research critically analyses whether EU law effectively protects deliberative capacity in the digital era while upholding these ECHR standards. Methodologically, this thesis adopts the theoretical lens of deliberative democracy and conducts a doctrinal legal analysis of ECHR jurisprudence and EU legislation, but grounds findings to empirical illustrations. By performing this analysis, this thesis argues that the EU digital acquis remains only partially effective in safeguarding democratic participation, as practical and structural features of online infrastructure inherently limit regulatory reach.
Thumbnail Image
Item
Exploring human rights and environmental impacts of foreign fishmeal factories on children in Kombo South in the Gambia
(2026) Manneh, Alieu; Lanzavecchia, Alberto
The expansion of foreign-owned fishmeal factories in The Gambia has generated increasing debate regarding their environmental and socio-economic impacts on coastal communities. While these factories are often promoted as contributors to economic growth, employment creation, and export earnings, concerns have emerged regarding environmental degradation, depletion of fish stocks, and the implications of these developments for the rights and wellbeing of children. This study examines the environmental and human rights impacts of foreign-owned fishmeal factory operations on children in Kombo South, The Gambia, with particular focus on the communities of Sanyang, Gunjur, and Kartong. The study adopts the Human Rights-Based Approach (HRBA) as its theoretical framework and employs a qualitative doctrinal research methodology based on the review and analysis of secondary sources, including academic literature, policy documents, legal instruments, government reports, and publications from civil society organizations. Particular attention is given to the rights of children as recognized under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). The findings reveal that fishmeal factory operations have contributed to environmental challenges including air pollution, wastewater contamination, marine ecosystem degradation, and increased pressure on small pelagic fish stocks. These environmental impacts have significant implications for children’s rights to health, food and nutrition, education, and a safe, clean, healthy, and sustainable environment. The study further finds that the expansion of the fishmeal industry has contributed to declining access to affordable fish, food insecurity, livelihood disruptions, and environmental conditions that disproportionately affect vulnerable groups, particularly children and women. Applying the Human Rights-Based Approach, the study identifies shortcomings relating to participation, accountability, transparency, empowerment, and the protection of vulnerable groups. It concludes that current patterns of industrial fisheries development in Kombo South are insufficiently aligned with children’s rights and sustainable development objectives. The study recommends stronger environmental regulation, improved fisheries governance, enhanced community participation, greater transparency, and the integration of child-rights considerations into environmental and development decision-making processes. Keywords: Fishmeal factories, children's rights, environmental degradation, Human Rights-Based Approach, fisheries governance, food security, Kombo South, The Gambia.
Thumbnail Image
Item
Environmental justice in the era of green extractivism. How governance of lithium shapes environmental justice in Chile’s Salar de Atacama
(2026) Malkin, Emily; Duarte, Felipe
The global transition to low-carbon energy systems has driven unprecedented demand for critical minerals, positioning lithium as essential to decarbonisation while intensifying concerns over the environmental and social impacts of extraction. This dissertation examines how environmental justice is shaped by the governance of lithium extraction through a case study of Chile's Salar de Atacama. Using a qualitative case study methodology, the research analyses the evolution of Chile's lithium governance and evaluates the role of domestic and international legal frameworks through the environmental justice dimensions of distributional, procedural and recognitional justice. The analysis draws upon legal and policy documents, academic literature, government publications, corporate reports and secondary empirical evidence. The findings demonstrate that Chile has strengthened governance through increased state involvement, enhanced environmental regulation and greater recognition of Indigenous participation. These reforms have improved aspects of environmental justice but have not eliminated persistent inequalities. Environmental burdens remain concentrated among Indigenous communities, participation largely operates through consultation rather than shared decision-making, and Indigenous knowledge systems continue to receive only partial recognition within governance processes. The dissertation argues that these limitations arise not only from weaknesses in legal implementation but also from the broader political economy of the green transition, in which governance primarily manages the impacts of extraction rather than determining whether extraction is compatible with environmental justice. It concludes that while governance reforms can improve environmental justice outcomes, they remain structurally constrained in their ability to reconcile an expanding extractive economy with the principles of environmental justice.
Thumbnail Image
Item
Defending human rights defenders in the European Union: protection mechanisms, structural gaps and hybrid repression
(2026) Maguta, Pavel; Suntinger, Walter
Human rights defenders play a vital role in turning human rights, democracy and the rule of law into lived practice. However, within the EU, those who document violations, support affected communities, litigate public-interest cases or challenge abuses of power increasingly face criminalisation, abusive litigation, security-based narratives, surveillance, funding insecurity and bureaucratic obstruction. This thesis uses the concept of hybrid repression to capture how such distinct pressures may converge across legal, administrative, political, financial, technological and discursive domains, narrowing the space in which human rights work remains possible. This thesis examines the safeguards available to defenders within the EU and the wider European legal and institutional setting, and asks why they often remain insufficient when pressure takes cumulative and dispersed forms in Member States. Its focus is the Union’s internal sphere, rather than EU external human rights policy or defenders outside the EU as a distinct field. Methodologically, it combines doctrinal analysis of EU, Council of Europe and OSCE instruments with socio-legal and political-science insights into cumulative pressure on rights-defending activity. Selected national examples are used to illustrate recurring patterns, without developing country case studies. The thesis shows that EU law and policy provide important resources for defenders, including fundamental-rights guarantees, sector-specific instruments, monitoring channels, funding tools and broader European standards. However, these resources remain dispersed and unevenly accessible. Their effectiveness is constrained by limited recognition of defenders in that capacity, inconsistent implementation, delayed remedies and limited capacity to respond to cumulative patterns of pressure. The thesis concludes that effective protection depends on practical recognition, institutional coordination, early response, accessibility and sustained follow-up, so that rights-defending activity remains viable in practice.