title: In Legal Limbo? The status and rights of detainees from the 2001 war in Afghanistan

authors: Vant, Megan

subjects: Afghanistan

abstract: During the 2001 war in Afghanistan hundreds of people associated with the Taliban or al Qaeda were arrested by United States forces and transported to the Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The legal status and treatment of these detainees has been an ongoing problem over the last five years. The majority have been given no recourse to justice and allegations of inhuman treatment and torture have been frequent. The first issue raised by the incarceration of these people is whether any of them may be entitled to Prisoner of War status. The evidence shows that, in general, the Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters were not lawful combatants, and hence they are not entitled to Prisoner of War status. While the rights of Prisoners of War are well documented and generally uncontested, the rights of people not entitled to Prisoner of War status are not so easily definable.
Despite classification as unlawful or unprivileged combatants, the detainees are not in legal limbo - they are still entitled to the benefit of certain fundamental human rights. There are applicable protections under the Fourth Geneva Convention, Additional Protocol I, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the United Nations Convention Against Torture. The main rights upheld by these documents are the right to liberty and freedom from arbitrary detention; the right to a fair trial; and the right to life. Furthermore, there is a requirement of humane treatment and an absolute prohibition on torture.
Reports from international humanitarian watchdogs such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch suggest that the United States Government is not upholding the rights held by the detainees. It is essential that the United States Government recognises the fundamental rights owed to the detainees and ensures that they receive the requisite treatment and access to justice.

text: In Legal Limbo? The status and rights of detainees from the 2001 war in Afghanistan During the 2001 war in Afghanistan hundreds of people associated with the Taliban or al Qaeda were arrested by United States forces and transported to the Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The legal status and treatment of these detainees has been an ongoing problem over the last five years. The majority have been given no recourse to justice and allegations of inhuman treatment and torture have been frequent. The first issue raised by the incarceration of these people is whether any of them may be entitled to Prisoner of War status. The evidence shows that, in general, the Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters were not lawful combatants, and hence they are not entitled to Prisoner of War status. While the rights of Prisoners of War are well documented and generally uncontested, the rights of people not entitled to Prisoner of War status are not so easily definable.
Despite classification as unlawful or unprivileged combatants, the detainees are not in legal limbo - they are still entitled to the benefit of certain fundamental human rights. There are applicable protections under the Fourth Geneva Convention, Additional Protocol I, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the United Nations Convention Against Torture. The main rights upheld by these documents are the right to liberty and freedom from arbitrary detention; the right to a fair trial; and the right to life. Furthermore, there is a requirement of humane treatment and an absolute prohibition on torture.
Reports from international humanitarian watchdogs such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch suggest that the United States Government is not upholding the rights held by the detainees. It is essential that the United States Government recognises the fundamental rights owed to the detainees and ensures that they receive the requisite treatment and access to justice.

year: 2007

title: Rethinking hegemony as an educative-formative problem: Gramsci, post-Marxism, and radical democracy revisited

authors: Hill, Debbie J.

abstract: There has been a move in recent times to utilize Antonio Gramsci's concept of hegemony as a central feature of a revisionist movement known as 'post-Marxism'. Post-Marxism employs hegemony in support of its thesis of the impossibility of a homogeneous social order. It does this by interpreting the concept as one that encourages society to be viewed as a horizontal space within which is constituted a 'suturing' of various groupings connected agonistically though a shared allegiance to what post-Marxists now call the 'radical' principles of democracy. By their own assessment, the Gramscian concept has thus become fundamental to the theoretical dismissal of the historical aspirations of socialism, prompted no less by their anti-democratic interpretation of Marxist theory with its alleged modernist,essentialist focus. 
This thesis has been written in opposition to this displacement of hegemony from the historical materialist foundations that underpin Gramsci's own distinctive usage of the concept. My opposition centres particularly on the post-Marxist renunciation of the philosophical assumptions upon which socialism is founded, and upon the inevitable loss of the distinctive nuances of hegemony as a concept centring on the problem of the pathological reach of a capitalist epistemology and ontology upon human identity. As I argue within this thesis, it is precisely the impress of capitalism's economic and extra-economic aspect upon humanity's own cognitive and moral capacity - upon its relational and valuational capability – which Gramsci's writings attempted to articulate. In this respect, Gramsci differentiated himself in Marxist circles by the depth of his insights into Marx's historical materialist method and the practical reasoning ('praxis') that this methodology simultaneously engendered. Explaining this method, and the problem of education that this perspective further implies, is therefore the aim of this thesis. As I argue here, his entire written legacy reflects his historical materialist allegiance: the problem of 'education' as no less than the educative-formative problem of practical reasoning. 
In defending Gramsci's own historicist, dialectical and organic worldview, I argue here that the fullest extent of capitalism's sway, and its permeation into every aspect of cultural and social practice, remains seriously under-theorized within post-Marxist discourse: that, rather ironically, the very associational preferences sanctioned by post-Marxist adherents lend further weight to the merits of Gramsci's assessment of the normative power of existing forms of thought to distort mankind's own socio-human potential. As I endeavour to illustrate within this study, Gramsci conceived the problem of 'democracy' as essentially one of overcoming the cognitive and moral submissiveness that pervades our 'normal', everyday worldview. Insofar as this worldview is embedded into the deepest recesses of our language and psychology, Gramsci's historiographical method - that of mapping these multiple aspects of capitalist dominance and social containment and modelling the value of criticality in relation to one's historical and social insights - should be viewed simultaneously as his practice of a new, democratic politics. The work presented here is therefore a study that re-examines and re-clarifies the concept of hegemony in relation to this goal.

text: Rethinking hegemony as an educative-formative problem: Gramsci, post-Marxism, and radical democracy revisited There has been a move in recent times to utilize Antonio Gramsci's concept of hegemony as a central feature of a revisionist movement known as 'post-Marxism'. Post-Marxism employs hegemony in support of its thesis of the impossibility of a homogeneous social order. It does this by interpreting the concept as one that encourages society to be viewed as a horizontal space within which is constituted a 'suturing' of various groupings connected agonistically though a shared allegiance to what post-Marxists now call the 'radical' principles of democracy. By their own assessment, the Gramscian concept has thus become fundamental to the theoretical dismissal of the historical aspirations of socialism, prompted no less by their anti-democratic interpretation of Marxist theory with its alleged modernist,essentialist focus. 
This thesis has been written in opposition to this displacement of hegemony from the historical materialist foundations that underpin Gramsci's own distinctive usage of the concept. My opposition centres particularly on the post-Marxist renunciation of the philosophical assumptions upon which socialism is founded, and upon the inevitable loss of the distinctive nuances of hegemony as a concept centring on the problem of the pathological reach of a capitalist epistemology and ontology upon human identity. As I argue within this thesis, it is precisely the impress of capitalism's economic and extra-economic aspect upon humanity's own cognitive and moral capacity - upon its relational and valuational capability – which Gramsci's writings attempted to articulate. In this respect, Gramsci differentiated himself in Marxist circles by the depth of his insights into Marx's historical materialist method and the practical reasoning ('praxis') that this methodology simultaneously engendered. Explaining this method, and the problem of education that this perspective further implies, is therefore the aim of this thesis. As I argue here, his entire written legacy reflects his historical materialist allegiance: the problem of 'education' as no less than the educative-formative problem of practical reasoning. 
In defending Gramsci's own historicist, dialectical and organic worldview, I argue here that the fullest extent of capitalism's sway, and its permeation into every aspect of cultural and social practice, remains seriously under-theorized within post-Marxist discourse: that, rather ironically, the very associational preferences sanctioned by post-Marxist adherents lend further weight to the merits of Gramsci's assessment of the normative power of existing forms of thought to distort mankind's own socio-human potential. As I endeavour to illustrate within this study, Gramsci conceived the problem of 'democracy' as essentially one of overcoming the cognitive and moral submissiveness that pervades our 'normal', everyday worldview. Insofar as this worldview is embedded into the deepest recesses of our language and psychology, Gramsci's historiographical method - that of mapping these multiple aspects of capitalist dominance and social containment and modelling the value of criticality in relation to one's historical and social insights - should be viewed simultaneously as his practice of a new, democratic politics. The work presented here is therefore a study that re-examines and re-clarifies the concept of hegemony in relation to this goal.

year: 2004

title: A Relationships Framework for Organisational Responsiveness to Te Tiriti/Treaty of Waitangi in the Work of Groups and Organisations in the Community and the Public Sector of Aotearoa New Zealand

authors: Spelman, Anthony Cyril

subjects: Organisation Development

abstract: This thesis is focussed on the development and implementation of a Relationships Framework based on Te Tiriti/Treaty of Waitangi.  The Framework has been designed to enable working together between Tangata Whenua and Tangata Tiriti in the community and Public Sector in Aotearoa New Zealand.  Its development is explored and its implementation critiqued.  Within that Framework, an original organisation development tool based on a Tiriti/Treaty two-worldview approach is examined in terms of its potential to facilitate change in the operation and management of public life in Aotearoa New Zealand.
My aim is to establish an effective approach for working with worldview difference in the context of Tiriti/Treaty of Waitangi relationships and their implications.  I have a belief that Tangata Whenua are currently excluded from participating in processes that govern public life due to the dominance of Tangata Tiriti worldviews.  Therefore I am committed to making a contribution to a change in this dynamic so that Tangata Whenua views are not only heard but form an integral part of how the infrastructure of our public life is developed and managed. 
The Tiriti/Treaty of Waitangi Relationships Framework [The Framework] presented in the thesis is critiqued in two ways: i) through an examination of the concepts that inform it, and ii) by exploring six examples of its operation and further development in the community and public sector in Aotearoa New Zealand.  The Framework and the Tiriti/Treaty Two-worldview approach used to inform it has worked effectively in a variety of settings.  Through my research I show that organisation development of this type is complex.  It appears that there need be no fixed starting point in the development process within an organisation.  However all key elements of that process must eventually be addressed if effective relationships are to be achieved and the resulting organisational change is to be sustained.  Commitment to organisation development of this type is therefore long-term and requires a commitment to leading and supporting change in behaviour, systems and processes, and structures.

text: A Relationships Framework for Organisational Responsiveness to Te Tiriti/Treaty of Waitangi in the Work of Groups and Organisations in the Community and the Public Sector of Aotearoa New Zealand This thesis is focussed on the development and implementation of a Relationships Framework based on Te Tiriti/Treaty of Waitangi.  The Framework has been designed to enable working together between Tangata Whenua and Tangata Tiriti in the community and Public Sector in Aotearoa New Zealand.  Its development is explored and its implementation critiqued.  Within that Framework, an original organisation development tool based on a Tiriti/Treaty two-worldview approach is examined in terms of its potential to facilitate change in the operation and management of public life in Aotearoa New Zealand.
My aim is to establish an effective approach for working with worldview difference in the context of Tiriti/Treaty of Waitangi relationships and their implications.  I have a belief that Tangata Whenua are currently excluded from participating in processes that govern public life due to the dominance of Tangata Tiriti worldviews.  Therefore I am committed to making a contribution to a change in this dynamic so that Tangata Whenua views are not only heard but form an integral part of how the infrastructure of our public life is developed and managed. 
The Tiriti/Treaty of Waitangi Relationships Framework [The Framework] presented in the thesis is critiqued in two ways: i) through an examination of the concepts that inform it, and ii) by exploring six examples of its operation and further development in the community and public sector in Aotearoa New Zealand.  The Framework and the Tiriti/Treaty Two-worldview approach used to inform it has worked effectively in a variety of settings.  Through my research I show that organisation development of this type is complex.  It appears that there need be no fixed starting point in the development process within an organisation.  However all key elements of that process must eventually be addressed if effective relationships are to be achieved and the resulting organisational change is to be sustained.  Commitment to organisation development of this type is therefore long-term and requires a commitment to leading and supporting change in behaviour, systems and processes, and structures.

year: 2013