Most nations are a mix of various ethnicities and backgrounds, especially prevalent within the European Union. With the emphasis that is currently based on nationality and ‘belonging’, the European...Show moreMost nations are a mix of various ethnicities and backgrounds, especially prevalent within the European Union. With the emphasis that is currently based on nationality and ‘belonging’, the European Migrant Crisis, brought these sentiments to the forefront. With the sudden rise in asylum applications, the shock was reverberated throughout the continent. Since its creation, the EU and its member states have always been a goal destination for those seeking asylum. When member states aim to join the union, they must adhere to certain regulations with regards to various concepts, such as the right to asylum. As each nation had its own asylum system that was not unified under supranational regulations, the communication between the nations were blocked. With the realisation that a unified asylum system had to be created, the EU set out to complete this. But with the unification of asylum processes and regulations, the member states had to change their national asylum systems in accordance with EU regulation as well. But unifying more than 20 asylum systems proved difficult. As an emphasis is primarily based on the EU perspective, this research will be conducted from a member state perspective. This an attempt will be made to further identify and consequently understand the causes of variation within the member states. Instead of focusing on the EU aspect of this, an emphasis will be made in understand the variation from a bottom-up aspect, essentially from the view of the case studies.Show less
In the first decades following decolonisation, African nations were on the forefront of promoting absolute sovereignty and non-intervention. The Constitutive Act of the African Union that was...Show moreIn the first decades following decolonisation, African nations were on the forefront of promoting absolute sovereignty and non-intervention. The Constitutive Act of the African Union that was adopted in 2000, grants the organisation the right to intervene in case of war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity. This reflects a conceptualisation of sovereignty as responsibility. To understand this shift in conceptualisation of sovereignty, this thesis conducts a discourse analysis of nine official declarations of the Organization of African Unity between 1990 and 1999 through the lens of constructivist theory. It finds that collective identity, in the guise of Pan-Africanism, serves an important role in enabling the shift in conceptualisation of sovereignty through narrative and interaction. This suggests that collective identity, explicitly on the regional level, is an important factor to be considered in the institutionalisation of humanitarian intervention and has implications for the Responsibility to Protect.Show less
The existence of a shift in the power structures at the international level functions as a stepping stone for a plethora of additional transformations. Among these are the duration of...Show moreThe existence of a shift in the power structures at the international level functions as a stepping stone for a plethora of additional transformations. Among these are the duration of internationally endorsed norms. In this light, this thesis has set out to uncover the magnitude of the influence that rising powers have on the normative status of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P). These rising powers, which are referred to as the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), are known to value the protection of state sovereignty, which plays a large role in framing their views and subsequent implementation of R2P. With use of the norm life cycle theory, the consequences of their rationale on the norm internalisation of R2P were identified. While Brazil and South Africa attempted to further develop the norm, China, Russia and India attempted the opposite by seeking to prevent the further use of the doctrine in its current form. This has led to the realisation that rising powers hamper the internalisation of R2P as a norm.Show less
