Deconstructing gender: evidence on how programmes address gender inequalities to improve health

A growing body of evidence demonstrates that incorporating approaches to address gender inequality in programmes can lead to improved health outcomes. This article aims to deconstruct the various dimensions of gender and identify how programmes address these domains to improve health. This study draws on a broader systematic review examining the impact of gender-integrated programmes on health outcomes in low- and middle-income countries. We identified 68 programmes meeting our criteria for inclusion. Our analysis found considerable variation in gender domains addressed across programmes, suggesting that more evidence is needed to understand the pathways through which gender-integrated programmes influence health.     

Migrants, Civil Society and Sovereign States: Investigating an Ethical Hierarchy

Many actors in global politics profess both a commitment to basic human rights and to a system of sovereign democratic states. There are clear tensions between these commitments which become apparent when seeking ethical answers to the increasingly urgent problem of migrants who cross state boundaries in pursuit of better life chances elsewhere. Is it possible to achieve a coherence between a commitment to individual human rights and to sovereign democratic states? It is argued that a neo-Hegelian constitutive theory of individuality provides a useful guide to our thinking about this matter.     

Umweltschutz in den Verfassungen der EU-Mitgliedstaaten Aktuelle Entwicklungen in Frankreich, Griechenland und den neuen Mitgliedstaaten

Angesichts der jüngst zu beobachtenden Dynamik im mitgliedstaatlichen Umweltverfassungsrecht enth?lt der folgende Beitrag in Anknüpfung an die Untersuchung von Thym (NuR 2000, 557 ff.) sowohl eine erforderliche Aktualisierung – insbesondere im Hinblick auf die umfassende Inkorporierung des Umweltschutzes in die franz?sische Verfassung im Jahre 2005 sowie die Erweiterung der EU im Jahre 2004 – als auch eine zukunftsorientierte Analyse des Verfassungsvergleichs mit Blick auf die Normierung des Umweltschutzes in der „Charta der Grundrechte der Europ?ischen Union (GRC)“     

No Just War: Political Reflections on Australian Churches' Condemnation of the Iraq War

This paper analyses the potentially positive role churches can play in encouraging public debate and moral reasoning on security matters. In particular, it explores Australian churches' vocal condemnation of Australia's involvement in the Iraq war through examining responses of spokespersons from the three largest Christian churches in Australia, namely Catholic, Anglican and Uniting Churches. It examines three types of reasons given for the condemnation: legal explanations of the lack of a plausible justification for war without UN sanctions; religious and moral reasons that defend peace and reconciliation; and political reasons that a war led by the “Christian West” increases global enmity and the likelihood of terrorism. I situate this analysis within just war theory. I suggest that churches can play an important social role in fostering tolerance, inter‐faith dialogue and peace.     

Perceived justice of ecological policy and proenvironmental commitments

A model was outlined (i) to explain readiness to proenvironmental commitments and decisions in everyday life by six categories of predictor variables, including justice appraisals of pollution control, basic rights, appraisals of pollution, of pollution causation, of the efficacy of pollution control measures, and of ecological responsibility, and (ii) to generate hypotheses on the relationships between the predictor variables. Model variables were assessed by a questionnaire study (N=518) referring to the problem of air pollution. Proenvironmental commitments and decisions could be well predicted by morally relevant appraisals, especially by justice appraisals (e.g., approving proenvirommental laws, taxes, and subsidies, rejecting the justice of the current environmental policy and of mere appeals), whereas predictors representing self-protective motivations remained insignificant. Justice appraisals are in line with the “causation principle of justice”: Those who caused the pollution are made responsible for its reduction and should pay the costs for the pollution control. Results demonstrate that justice appraisals are essential determinants of people's ecologically relevant emotions, cognitions, and engagements. Moreover, they reveal that the responsibility for pollution control is not left with state and economy but is also regarded as a matter that concerns the citizens.