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.

 

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Beyond the contained critique: structural failure and the redirection of human rights in post-conflict justice
(2026) Bernales Oliva, Ashly Stephanie; Rossa, Elisabeth
This thesis addresses a critical paradox within post-conflict justice: while the human rights framework is treated as the standard pathway to peace, it systematically fails to deliver substantive justice. Moving beyond the “contained critique” of dominant peace-justice, human security, and transitional justice literatures, which conflate structural shortcomings with mere implementation failures, this study asks whether such recurring failures are contingent or structurally built into the framework’s structure. Methodologically speaking, combining doctrinal legal analysis with theoretically informed comparative readings (Sierra Leone, Timor-Leste, Bosnia, Afghanistan, Colombia, Mozambique, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo) while applying simultaneously decolonial, feminist and securitisation theories, the study reveals that these studies converge in the same underlying problem. Each lens reveals the recurring institutional tendencies, from market-compatible governance, the bureaucratic management of gendered vulnerability, to the prioritisation of state stability over accountability. This produces a “virtual peace” that secures the absence of direct violence while leaving oppressive material and political conditions intact. Crucially, this thesis analyses genuine exceptions to demonstrate this systemic failure as a structural tendency rather than an immutable determinism. Colombia’s 2016 accord and Latin American domestic prosecutions demonstrate that the framework’s defaults can be displaced. Such displacement requires organised, grassroots mobilisation from below, as well as reciprocal accountability, under which actors can turn rights language against its own default biases. Ultimately, this thesis concludes that the human rights framework is structurally colonial, patriarchal, and securitised, yet it paradoxically constitutes the most viable vocabulary available to be turned against its own exclusions.
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Democracy beyond the present. Exploring the participation and representation of future generations in democratic systems
(2026) Berchtold, Jana; Hauser, Agata
The actions of the present generations shape the lives of those yet to be born, creating a temporal bond. Raising questions of intergenerational justice and solidarity, this concept of future generations is an emerging issue in International Human Rights Law that is becoming increasingly influential in relation to global issues. On a national level, it exposes fundamental deficiencies in democracy’s capacity for long-term decision-making and its presentism-bias. This is reflected in the structural and substantive exclusion of future generations in democratic processes. Against this background, the thesis addresses the central research question: How can democracies realise the rights of future generations through the tools of participation and representation, and what part can children play in this process? Using a desk research methodology that combines systematic literature review with empirical examples, and building on democratic theory and human rights frameworks, this thesis argues that future generations should be recognised as rights holders, while present generations act as duty bearers responsible for safeguarding their interests. The findings reveal a significant gap between theoretical commitments and their practical application. Despite recent normative developments, the implementation of the promotion, protection, and democratic representation of future generations remains limited to a few exceptions. Strengthening mechanisms of participation and representation is therefore essential for embedding long-term thinking in democratic systems and for effectively delivering for future generations. Subsequently, this thesis proposes a multi-layered approach that combines legal recognition with institutional innovations, including dedicated bodies, procedural reforms, and participatory mechanisms. Particular attention is given to the potential role of children for future generations, for example through models of participation or representative roles.
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Profiles of dependence in defense AI: strategic autonomy and human rights in Israel and the United Arab Emirates
(2026) Basbous, Claire; Marouda, Maria Daniella
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a rapidly developing technology especially in the field of defense. And while some countries develop it domestically, others rely on external procurement to obtain it. However, even with domestic production, reliance on different parties whether foreign governments or private firms still exists across the supply chain. Knowing this, this thesis aims to understand why some countries manage to reduce their dependence and produce their defense AI locally while others are unable to. It also aims to understand how the varying levels of dependence differently affect state autonomy, security decision making, and human rights. To answer these questions, the thesis compares the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Israel’s AI production mechanisms, and relies on four theoretical frameworks, of which an extended version of dependency theory forms the central structure. This theory is complemented by technological sovereignty, Morgenthau’s elements of national power, and international humanitarian and human rights law. These frameworks work together, and are adapted when needed to incorporate the modern dynamics brought by AI and the emergence of private companies as players in the field of defense. The research found that the conditions that determine where a state ends up on the dependence axis are historical, economic, political, and also institutional. These elements interact together and produce unique profiles for each country. The findings confirmed also that full autonomous production is not an attainable goal in the foreseeable future, and that states have shifted toward managing and reducing dependence rather than eliminating it. For Israel, the findings show that the country is dependent in specific areas across its supply chain but in a measurable way that makes it easier to address in the future, unlike the UAE which is reliant on procurement and unequal partnerships pushing itself further into dependence. Findings also show that local production can strengthen a state's autonomy, particularly in security decision-making, and can increase a state’s strategic power rather than its operational capability contrary to a procurement heavy model. Local production can also create better conditions for protecting human rights, but in a less straightforward way, as this depends heavily on the political context since the same production capacity can either protect or threaten human rights depending on who controls it.
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Reinterpreting the right to be forgotten: a doctrinal and feminist analysis of article 17 GDPR in cases of non-consensual deepfake pornography
(2026) Banak, Aleksandra Katarzyna; Buchholtz, Gabriele Margarete
Non-consensual deepfake pornography has become one of the fastest-growing forms of image based sexual abuse and the people it targets are overwhelmingly women. It causes lasting psychological and reputational harm and strikes directly at human dignity, yet the existing legal response remains fragmentary. Criminal law tends to intervene only once the harm is done and varies considerably between Member States, while the available civil routes such as defamation, copyright, image rights and harassment, each reach only part of the injury. This thesis asks whether the General Data Protection Regulation and specifically the right to be forgotten from Article 17, can offer victims a more effective remedy than these alternatives. Two doctrinal obstacles stand in the way. The first concerns whether fabricated imagery of an identifiable individual qualifies as personal data and potentially as special-category data under Article 9. Drawing on the case law of the Court of Justice, the thesis argues that the question should turn on the effect of the processing on the data subject rather than on the authenticity of the image. The second obstacle lies in the balancing exercise under Article 17(3)(a), which presumptively treats synthetic intimate imagery as protected expression. Through a feminist reading of that framework, the thesis shows that the presumption is far from neutral and works to the systematic disadvantage of victims. Combining doctrinal analysis with feminist legal theory and grounding its argument in Articles 1, 3, 7 and 8 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights together with the substantive-equality guarantee in Article 23, the thesis proposes a constitutionally consistent reinterpretation of Article 17. It acknowledges the limits of this approach and positions the right to erasure as one component of an integrated European response, working alongside the AI Act, the Digital Services Act and Member State criminal law.
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Between risk and referral: child marriage protection for Rohingya girls in Cox’s Bazar. Legal ambiguity, camp governance and community decision-making in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh
(2026) Ara, Mst Jesmin; Lee-Winter, Fiza
This thesis examines how ambiguities within Bangladesh’s child-marriage protection framework affect the implementation of child-marriage protections for Rohingya girls in the refugee camps of Cox’s Bazar. Although Bangladesh formally prohibits child marriage through the Child Marriage Restraint Act 2017, the framework contains interpretive uncertainties concerning “special circumstances”, the best interests of the minor, guardian consent, child participation, age verification and the continuing protection of girls who have already been married. These uncertainties become more complex in the Rohingya camp context, where formal law operates through humanitarian administration, documentation systems, camp-level governance and community-based decision-making. The thesis adopts a qualitative socio-legal methodology. It combines doctrinal analysis of international and domestic legal instruments with secondary literature, humanitarian reports and empirical material from three semi-structured interviews. The interviews provide situated perspectives on child-marriage decision-making, legal awareness, community mediation, documentation and access to protection. The analysis is guided by feminist legal theory, legal pluralism and a human rights-based approach. The thesis argues that the implementation gap is not caused by legal ambiguity alone. Rather, ambiguity becomes harmful when it travels through unequal family relations, community mediation, partial documentation and fragmented protection pathways. The interview findings suggest that child marriage may be understood by adults as safety, honour or betterment before it is recognised as a rights violation. As a result, Rohingya girls’ access to protection may depend on whether their situation becomes visible to the right actor at the right time. The thesis concludes that effective protection requires child-sensitive participation, reliable age verification, accountable referral pathways and continuing support for married girls as rights-holders.