Research Gamze Erdem Türkelli

Abstract

In recent years, there have been a number of court cases around allegations of businesses cooperating with armed groups in conflict situations. This has included collaboration in international crimes. In international law, it is possible to hold individuals responsible for their involvement in such actions. However, it is complicated to hold a business or armed group itself responsible and enforce legal consequences for corporate/group involvement in international crimes. This is inadequate, since such crimes often arise from the behaviour and policies of the whole organization, and individuals may also not be able to compensate victims. The legal situation is even more complex in situations where businesses and armed groups cooperate with each other, since it must be determined how the responsibility is shared between them. These questions have been researched very little, but as shown by the recent court cases, they are becoming important in practice to make sure that responsible organizations can be held accountable for international crimes. This project will therefore examine legal options to ensure the (shared) international responsibility and accountability of businesses and armed rebel groups where they cooperate in conflict situations in acts that amount to international crimes.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Erdem Türkelli Gamze
• Co-promoter: Casalin Deborah

Research team(s)

• Law and Development

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Just Energy Transition Partnerships (JETPs) – implemented in South Africa, Indonesia, Vietnam and Senegal - are being hailed as novel platforms for supporting developing countries accelerate transitions to low-carbon and climate-resilient economies while addressing socio-economic transition risks. Despite limited study of their efficacy, donors have pledged almost USD29 billion to deliver climate finance through JETPs to meet decarbonisation and climate-resilience targets. This project will be the first global systematic analysis of the plans, processes and practices in all four JETP countries with the broader objective of understanding whether these multi-donor partnerships can serve as models of financing global climate transitions. The research examines: (1) the JETP model and investment plans' effectiveness in meeting multi-dimensional challenges of financing 'just transitions'; and (2) their suitability as platforms for scaling up climate ambitions in developing countries in the context of their intersections with countries' existing domestic and international legal, policy and regulatory frameworks. This research is part of an ongoing academic and civil society collaboration under the auspices of the Climate Finance for Equitable Transitions (CLIFT).

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Erdem Türkelli Gamze

Research team(s)

• Law and Development

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

International law has remained within a state-centric paradigm even with the radical shifts in the global arena over the last half century, including the consistent rise of hybrid actors that simultaneously embody a public and a private character or public and private attributes. These hybrid actors are emblematic of the sustainable development and international law nexus. This project seeks to address the influence of hybrid actors on international law.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Erdem Türkelli Gamze
• Fellow: Erdem Türkelli Gamze

Research team(s)

• Law and Development

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals hail multistakeholder partnerships (MSPs) as key actors in achieving sustainable development. MSPs that bring together states, businesses, philanthropy and civil society are increasingly in the frontlines of providing public goods that are human rights such as food, health, education and water. In these domains, partnerships are spearheading the continued expansion of multistakeholder governance into international law, including human rights law. This expansion has been taking place without critical appraisal with respect to its effectiveness and consequences. GENESIS breaks new ground by exploring the normative and operational implications of this shift, both at the system-level and at the level of specific global partnering initiatives and individual multistakeholder partnerships. GENESIS investigates the interface of international law and multistakeholder governance in the realisation of human rights. It analyses how the paradigms of multilateralism and multistakeholderism diverge or converge as they simultaneously govern the domains of food, health, education and water through human rights law and multistakeholder partnerships, respectively. GENESIS has three main objectives that will generate high research and policy gains. First, GENESIS will uncover and understand how norms that govern human rights through multistakeholder partnerships are made in the post-2015 era in the governance of food (SDG 2), health (SDG 3), education (SDG 4) and water (SDG 6). Second, GENESIS will investigate how multistakeholder partnerships impact the way human rights are operationalised. Third, GENESIS will identify pathways to an effective uptake of human rights legal standards by multistakeholder partnerships. In doing so, GENESIS will derive insights on whether and how international law and multistakeholder governance can generate common ground when governing public goods that are human rights.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Erdem Türkelli Gamze

Research team(s)

• Law and Development

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

While large scale development projects in various sectors such as transport, energy and urban development may result in a number of benefits to the wider public, involuntary and arbitrary displacements that may result from such projects remains to be the most significant adverse impacts of development projects that potentially affect the enjoyment of human rights by the people (in)directly affected by development projects. And noting that large scale development projects usually involve multiple actors ranging from host country's government entities, financiers, project developers and international investors among others, there is need to analyze the duties of each of the actors towards the project affected persons. Apart from host States which bear primary responsibility for protection of its people against displacement, tracing responsibility for human rights violations against the affected communities arising from such projects in a web of actors is usually complicated task thus often leaving such violations unaddressed. The research seeks to analyze the role of Development Finance Institutions in preventing or mitigating impacts of displacements caused or likely to be caused by their financed projects in the Global South. The project uses select countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and European Development Financing Institutions as case studies.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Erdem Türkelli Gamze
• Fellow: Sego Janet

Research team(s)

• Law and Development

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals hail multistakeholder partnerships (MSPs) askey actors in achieving sustainable development. MSPs that bring together states, businesses, philanthropy and civil society are increasingly in the frontlines of providing public goods that are human rights such as food, health, education and water. In thesedomains, partnerships are spearheading the continued expansion of multistakeholder governance into international law, includinghuman rights law. This expansion has been taking place without critical appraisal with respect to its effectiveness andconsequences.GENESIS breaks new ground by exploring the normative and operational implications of this shift, both at the systemleveland at the level of specific global partnering initiatives and individual multistakeholder partnerships. GENESIS investigates theinterface of nternational law and multistakeholder governance in the realisation of human rights. It analyses how the paradigms ofmultilateralism and multistakeholderism diverge or converge as they simultaneously govern the domains of food, health, educationand water through human rights law and multistakeholder partnerships, respectively.GENESIS has three main objectives that will generate high research and policy gains. First, GENESIS will uncover and understand how norms that govern human rights through multistakeholder partnerships are made in the post-2015 era in the governance of food(SDG 2), health (SDG 3), education (SDG 4) and water (SDG 6). Second, GENESIS will investigate how multistakeholderpartnerships impact the way human rights are operationalised. Third, GENESIS will identify pathways to an effective uptake of human rights legal standards by multistakeholder partnerships. In doing so, GENESIS will derive insights on whether and how internationallaw and multistakeholder governance can generate common ground when governing public goods that are human rights.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Erdem Türkelli Gamze

Research team(s)

• Law and Development

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Tanzania has one of the world's highest child marriage prevalence rates. Child marriage, which impacts girls and young women disproportionately, is a gendered issue that various frameworks such as international human rights law as well as the Sustainable Development Goals aim to tackle. While legal approaches have focus mostly on prohibition, successful prevention of child marriage requires addressing root causes and principal risk factors and bolstering and building on people's capacities and resources. Existing risk factors for child marriage that mainly include socioeconomic factors such as poverty, lack of educational opportunities for girls and alternatives to build livelihoods are expected to be compounded by environmental risks caused by climate change such as droughts or floods. The Re-Empower project builds on empirical findings of and the human rights-based approach espoused in a previous collaborative project on the health impacts of child marriages in Tanzania and aims to build resilience among girls and young women and their social environs by empowering them by leveraging the positive impact of customs and traditions.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Erdem Türkelli Gamze
• Co-promoter: Vandenhole Wouter

Research team(s)

• Law and Development

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) act as interlocutors and catalyzers to foster the private sector growth in developing countries through the use of bilateral development assistance to finance their projects. DFIs may be fully or partially state-owned and are often themselves set up as private sector companies in their countries of origin. Multiple DFIs operate in the same developing country settings, often deploying different governance norms. They also conclude different private contractual arrangements in financing the private sector. Although they have broad reach with respect to the sectors that they finance, which include manufacturing and infrastructure but also health care, education, agricultural production, they do not always have mechanisms to keep track of their impacts on people, planet and prosperity. This research project seeks to understand how different DFIs factor in accountability around people, planet and prosperity in their work and identify shortcomings based on real life experiences on the ground. It also aims to make a normative contribution to international law scholarship by evaluating whether and how international law can accommodate obligations incumbent upon hybrid public-private actors and their responsibility under international law.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Erdem Türkelli Gamze
• Fellow: Sego Janet

Research team(s)

• Law and Development

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

International law has remained within a state-centric paradigm even with the radical shifts in the global arena over the last half century, including the consistent rise of hybrid actors that simultaneously embody a public and a private character or public and private attributes. These hybrid actors are emblematic of the sustainable development and international law nexus. This project seeks to address the influence of hybrid actors on international law.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Erdem Türkelli Gamze
• Fellow: Erdem Türkelli Gamze

Research team(s)

• Law and Development

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

There is an acknowledgement in law and development studies that institutions, including law, matter for development. There is 'a massive surge in development assistance for institutional reform projects'. Lawyers, 'who often conceive of themselves as institutional designers', hence become important actors in development (Trebilcock and Mota Prado 2014: 27-31). However, lawyers have often been given a rather technical training, and are often not able to understand and oversee the broader implications of legal engineering for questions of sustainable development and global justice. The ITP Sustainable Development and Global Justice (SUSTJUSTICE) aims to offer a comprehensive teaching programme based on the research lines of the University of Antwerp Law and Development Research Group (LDRG). It responds to the demonstrated interest and need of participants from the South in comprehensive and focused training on the role of law in pursuing sustainable development and global justice in a development context.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Vandenhole Wouter
• Co-promoter: Erdem Türkelli Gamze
• Co-promoter: Lizarazo Rodriguez Liliana

Research team(s)

• Law and Development

Project website

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project aims at reducing child marriage rates and its associated health challenges in Tanzania by using a human rights based approach (HRBA) with a 3-tier capacity-building approach. The first tier is capacity-building for the staff of Mzumbe University (MU) Faculty of Law (FOL) to engage in empirical socio-legal research to better understand dynamics in relation to the health challenges associated with child marriages in Tanzania. The empirical findings gathered by FOL, MU will set the ground for the second tier of the project. The findings will be used to design a training programme based on a HRBA to train social workers in the selected Dodoma region and other regions through a mobile application. In the third tier, the mobile application will be developed and used to equip social workers to become translators of international human rights standards by applying a HRBA in their interventions to deal with health challenges associated with child marriages which will contribute to the reduction of child marriages and its associated health challenges.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Vandenhole Wouter
• Co-promoter: Erdem Türkelli Gamze

Research team(s)

• Law and Development

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The research seeks to explore the human rights accountability implications of mobilizing private actors in the post-2015 development era by inspecting multi-stakeholder partnerships (MSPs) in education. Private actors are increasingly infused into global policy-making and implementation as a proposed panacea to governance gaps through hybrid public-private engagements. In this vein, being formalized and supported under the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals, MSPs have now become ubiquitous in the governance of sustainable development. While MSPs manage substantial financial resources and operate in ways that affect the lives of a great number of people, they lack a clear legal status, mandate and duties under international law, giving rise to accountability challenges. In domains that are both public goods and human rights such as education the involvement of private actors has previously paved the way for the commercialization and corporate capture of agendas, exacerbating accountability challenges. This research seeks to overcome the paucity of critical legal reflection seeking to evaluate and address the human rights accountability challenges posed by the policy-driven mobilization of private actors in MSPs in achieving public objectives such as the delivery of quality education. To this end, the project will employ empirical research methods using quantitative and qualitative analysis as well as key informant interviews.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Vandenhole Wouter
• Fellow: Erdem Türkelli Gamze

Research team(s)

• Law and Development

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The conception of nation States as the sole subjects of international law has been strongly shaken by challenges brought about by globalization. The emergence of non-State economic actors (NSEAs) such as transnational corporations or international financial institutions (IFIs) with de facto economic and political power is a reality that needs to be reckoned with, both politically and legally. Recent years have seen an ever-growing academic interest in illuminating the human rights obligations of these actors and an upsurge of international initiatives aiming to regulate their behaviour. Even more recent is the recognition that children and their rights should be given special consideration, as is evidenced by the 2012 Children's Rights and Business Principles and the 2013 General Comment 16 of the Committee on the Rights of the Child. Yet existing frameworks fall painfully short of responding to challenges and resolving pressing issues about the children's rights obligations of NSEAs to accord the necessary level of human rights protection to children everywhere. As such, many children are left without the much-needed shelter of human rights law and find themselves in situations detrimental to their wellbeing and best interests. The research project seeks uncover in what ways can the responsibility for children's rights that befalls upon nation States be complemented or shared by the responsibility of NSEAs and to develop principles applicable to the different array of NSEAs for the attribution and apportioning of this responsibility.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Vandenhole Wouter
• Fellow: Erdem Türkelli Gamze

Research team(s)

• Law and Development

Project type(s)

• Research Project