As the liberal international order recedes, China has emerged as the principal challenger of global governance institutions that promote human rights. While China used to act as an ostensible norm...Show moreAs the liberal international order recedes, China has emerged as the principal challenger of global governance institutions that promote human rights. While China used to act as an ostensible norm taker in the sphere of human rights, it is increasingly asserting its own authoritarian human rights norms ‘with Chinese characteristics’ on the global stage. Using Chinese ‘tianxia’ theory and realism, this thesis endeavours to uncover how China is working to subvert international human rights governance with a case study of the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC); the preeminent global forum for safeguarding human rights. A discourse analysis of China’s ‘counter- institutionalisation’ of the HRC, reveals a strategic effort to block criticism, prevent independent monitoring, and change established conceptions about the very meaning of human rights. The robustness of the HRC’s mandate thus appears to be under growing duress. How other states respond to China’s affront may determine the direction of global human rights governance for decades to come.Show less
Mega sporting events (MSEs) like the Olympic Games and FIFA World Cup are seen by many as pathways for promoting human rights. While MSEs seek to promote ideals like peace and equality, there have...Show moreMega sporting events (MSEs) like the Olympic Games and FIFA World Cup are seen by many as pathways for promoting human rights. While MSEs seek to promote ideals like peace and equality, there have been numerous occasions where hosts of these events undermine the same values the MSEs strive to foster. This can be seen with the most recent edition of the FIFA World Cup in Qatar with the host accused of undermining human rights controversies related to migrant labor, women’s rights, and LGBTQ rights in the country. Given the phenomenon of state’s reacting differently to norm contestation, the central research question this project assesses is: How did democratic states respond to human rights norm contestations at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar? Building on literature from the schools of human rights, protests, and state responses to norm contestation, this study uses democracy level as an independent variable see its effects on state behavior at the 2022 World Cup. Using a most-similar systems design, a QCA is conducted on Croatia and The Netherlands. This study provides mixed support for realist thought that finds that the closer a state is to being a full democracy, the more likely it is to respond to a norm contesting MSE host.Show less
State-centric, collective resource governance in a world of finite resources is an undertaking struggling with opportunistic behaviour and competitive thinking. Rapidly developing climate change...Show moreState-centric, collective resource governance in a world of finite resources is an undertaking struggling with opportunistic behaviour and competitive thinking. Rapidly developing climate change makes the ability of collective action on vital resources only more difficult. Although states band together in global organisations to address shared issues such as water shortages the academic literature finds stately led collective action to be inadequate for effective, sustainable resource governance. The suggested solution to the found collective action problems is a change in governance approach, namely polycentrism. This study aims to analyse the viability of polycentric governance in global organisations by applying a comparative content analysis on two global institutions, one based on statal and one on municipal membership. These two organisations will be analysed and compared on their ability to collectively govern water resources and avoid collective action problems, which are categorized in coordination, cooperation and division problems. The comparison bases on the organisation’s membership type, being statal or municipal, the institution’s networking structure and the paradigm used for resources which is found to influence discourse and thus governance. If the global organisation based on municipal membership is able to compensate for the found collective action flaws of the state-membership based organisation and vice versa the case can be made that polycentrism is viable. If not, the realizability of polycentrism can be put into question.Show less
With the arrival of over 800.000 migrants to Europe in 2015 during the ‘migration crisis’, the debate on migration rights shifted its discourse from compassion and solidarity to more negative...Show moreWith the arrival of over 800.000 migrants to Europe in 2015 during the ‘migration crisis’, the debate on migration rights shifted its discourse from compassion and solidarity to more negative stances, such as systematic racist behaviors, including demoralization, dehumanization and hate speech against migrants. This thesis aims to delve into the deteriorated image of migrants in the media and determine the consequences of national decision-making at the European level. To do this, this thesis refines existing theories on the relationship between media, the public and policymakers, as these present important academic inconsistencies. By employing a combined approach including the relevance of the political orientation of media outlets and the constraints of collective action problems, this thesis aims to show that media outlets hold similar frames on asylum-seekers and EU asylum cooperation as their political affiliates. With the use of Poland as a case study, this thesis conducts a discourse analysis on Gazeta Wyborcza & Rzeczpospolita Polish press media outlets and parliamentary speeches to uncover frame patterns and the influence media has on a government. This is done by tracing the frames in a chronological manner. Ultimately, this thesis finds that there is a political affiliation between press outlets and politicians, and that the discourse on asylum-seekers significantly impacted asylum-application rejection rates, thus undermining the EU asylum cooperation.Show less
