https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/71685 Sat, 18 Apr 2026 14:05:24 GMT 2026-04-18T14:05:24Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/75267 Title: The protection of the human environment : water as a human right Abstract: As a society, we must understand that everything and anything that influences our environment directly influences our human conditions, and a violation of our environment is a violation of our human rights. Worldwide, more than fifty-one million people die annually. Nearly a third of these deaths are due to the lack of access to water and to water- related diseases, which constitute the main cause of world mortality rates. Access to adequate amounts of clean water, for both consumption and sanitation, is a necessity for a healthy life. There are certain basic needs that are essential for a dignified life, and for life itself. Water is one of these essential human needs that should be protected and preserved. Water is a key to improved health, improved nutrition and quality of life. Water is a common resource and we all have an equal right to this precious resource and a responsibility to protect it. The recognition of water as a human right is a necessary step for the achievement of the most fundamental human rights. The legal obligation that ensues from the acknowledgement of a right to water is a needed precondition to effective action and change. Description: M.A.HUMAN RIGHTS&DEM. Thu, 01 Jan 2004 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/75267 2004-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/75198 Title: The right to life of people with mental disabilities : reconsidering abortion and euthanasia Abstract: The right to life is one of the most comprehensively guaranteed Human Rights. It is no absolute right but the whole of it, including its restrictively interpreted exceptions, is non-derogable, meaning no justification for its violation is possible, not even in times of public emergency. Despite this comprehensive protection of the right to life, abortion and euthanasia are not automatically violations of it but instead, they seem to lie beyond the scope of the right to life. However, where abortion and euthanasia are allowed, their applications must not discriminate. Despite this fact, most of the world's permissive abortion laws do discriminate against people with disabilities, even though the discrimination is difficult to prove because the foetus is not protected by Human Rights Law. Simultaneously, most formal or informal applications of euthanasia, to people not competent to request the practice themselves, discriminate against them. They base the decision to withhold or withdraw treatment on quality of life judgements that are not legitimately possible in Human Rights logic. A state which tolerates these practices is in violation of its duties to protect the right to life, to accord special protection to the vulnerable and not discriminate against them and to prevent discrimination by third parties. Description: M.A.HUMAN RIGHTS Sat, 01 Jan 2005 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/75198 2005-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/75188 Title: The influence of religion on women's rights within legislation : a comparative study on Christianity in Malta and Judaism in Israel Abstract: A methodical review of the written Maltese and Israeli laws, regarding the procedures of marriage, divorce and abortion, as a touchstone for the existence of promotion or violation of human rights, presents the religious law each country holds (Cannon Law and Jewish Law, respectively) as the un doubtful fundamental source of the civil law. In each country the influence of religious law on the civil one varies, by its traits within the written civil law, and by the effects of on human and especially women rights. While the Cannon Law is practically replicated in the Maltese civil law, verbally in the marriage act and the civil code, and doctrinally in the criminal code, the Jewish law is the text of marriage and divorce regulations in Israel. The Maltese legal system has introduced the civil form of marriage, but is still reluctant regarding the issues of divorce and abortion, by which it violates the woman's freedom to control her own body, the right for privacy and the right to choose the observance, or not, of religious life. The Israeli legal system gives the almost total jurisdiction on personal matters to the religious establishment, allowing some very upsetting gender based segregation, and discriminating women regarding marriage and divorce rights. The abortion procedure, however prioritize the women's rights over her body than the fetus' right to live (under certain criteria), and gives the husband no rights on that matter. Description: M.A.HUMAN RIGHTS Mon, 01 Jan 2001 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/75188 2001-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/75151 Title: Child exploitation and the international children's rights Abstract: This thesis has two main purposes. First, it explores the exploitation of children in all its forms including abuse, prostitution, pornography, child labor, child servants, corporal punishment and it studies the protection of children and the international conventions relating to children's rights. First, I defined basic concepts which are the definition of the child and stated what are the child's rights, child sexual abuse, child prostitution, child pornography, corporal punishment and child labor taking Morocco as a case study. Second, I studied how children's rights are implemented and protected under the UN convention on the rights of the child the European convention on the exercise of children's rights and the African charter on the rights and welfare of the child. This thesis will conclude with how these exploited children are protected under the international instruments: the UN convention on the rights of the child, the African charter on the rights and the welfare of the child and the European convention on the exercise of children's rights. The task of protecting children from those who would sexually exploit them is an enormous one. But it is a task that must be done. Description: M.A.HUMAN RIGHTS Wed, 01 Jan 2003 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/75151 2003-01-01T00:00:00Z