Connecting-Africa | Find publications

Advanced search

Find:


Title Human Rights of Unaccompanied Migrant Minors in Melilla
Full text http://rudar.ruc.dk/handle/1800/28321
Date 2016
Author(s) Vega Paúl, María; Holmgaard Christensen, Tea
Contributor(s) Pace, Michelle
Abstract Violations of human rights of migrant minors have been reported at the borders of the European Union. This is a clear discrepancy in terms of the EU's perception of identity as protectors of democracy, rule of law and human rights, as well as the international convention of protection and rights of the child. Human rights is a concept constructed over time on the basis of historical events, development of societies and a continuously more global world. By analysing the perceptions of local policy agents we contribute with an understanding of how the construct of human rights affects the ability to make efficient policy to secure human rights of unaccompanied migrant minors. Our analysis will in general outline perceptions of human rights in order to discuss implementation of policy measures to secure human rights principles as set by international law. We provide the readers with background chapters covering the area of Melilla, the Spanish enclave in Morocco that is the case for this reports and the legal framework. We thus give an understanding of the issues of sovereignty as well as the political relation between Spain, Morocco, and the European Union. We furthermore describe the legal issues of our thesis in terms of migration laws, the UN charter on human rights as well as the child convention. These issues, we believe, are central to the understanding of process and societal development that impact the social construction of human rights. We present a conceptual and theoretical overview of social construction of human rights, as the framework for our thesis. The framework contains two parts: 1) a review of relevant literature of human rights and the social construction of human rights of migrant children, and 2) a theoretical framework in terms of the presentation of the theory of Makau Mutua (2010) and his concepts of saviour, victim and savage. It is thus the theoretical framework that structures our analysis, and the conceptual framework that functions as our understanding of the social construction of human rights. The analysis and discussion will focus on the social construction of human rights based on the conceptual framework of Mutua's text on the dynamics between the 'victims', the 'saviours' and the 'savages'. We will thus analyse and discuss how the situation of unaccompanied migrant minors is perceived, how the local policy agents perceive the roles of victim, savage and saviour, and how these perceptions have an impact on the implementation of human rights. We hope that our analysis produces new understandings of the interests behind dominant conceptions of knowledge or discourses, and that we are able to establish which consequences these perceptions of the truth have had for the unaccompanied migrant minors. Finally, we recommend that in order to secure norms of human rights, the entire system must be reformed to make all actors from the international to the micro regional level accountable for their actions regarding human rights. A reform of the system that turns the current state-based system into a new system that goes beyond the sovereign state and acknowledges multilateralism. The system should be based on a common principle of solidarity and humanity and upheld the accountability of each actor so the actions of the state of the micro regions, and of the EU comply with and respect the international conventions of human rights.
Subject(s) Donnelly; Human Rights; EU; Melilla; Spain; Migrant; Social Constructivism; Unaccompanied migrant minors; savage-victim-saviour; Mutua
Language en
Type of publication Thesis; International Public Administation and Politics / International Public Administation and Politics - Master thesis
Repository Roskilde - Roskilde University Digital Archive (RUDAR)
Added to C-A: 2016-06-30;09:10:07