Masters Dissertation

Squatters, especially poor illiterate women, are particularly vulnerable to breaches of their human socio-economic rights to access land, clean water, food and shelter. This dissertation explores how the Kenyan State’s persistent neglect of squatter settlements exacerbates the harmful effects of the breaches of these crucial rights, especially the right to own land, which are protected […]

This dissertation critically analyses the reasons why, despite being the target of various governmental and NGO peace building initiatives over the past two decades, Njoro District (a significant microcosm of the rural, multi-ethnic and tribal violence which still plagues so much of Kenya) still only enjoys a fragile modicum of order that is liable to […]

Using several modern methodologies, in particular, the Women’s Law Approach, and suitable data collection methods, this study reveals the undignified and unjust ordeal women rape victims are forced to endure at the initial reporting stage of the crime. At the mercy of an under-resourced criminal justice system, manned by poorly-trained and often gender-insensitive police officers, […]

In the quest for gender equality in Zambia’s colleges of education and nursing schools, the exclusion of pregnant students from some of these training institutions has dealt a heavy blow to the advancement of women’s right to education. Despite the existence of competent national laws, including the Constitution, which prohibit discrimination against women, this illegal […]

This research seeks to improve Malawi’s national budget making process in Parliament by making it more responsive to the gendered needs of its population, especially its poor rural women who represent the majority of its citizens. The researcher does this by conducting an initial investigation into the weaknesses of the current process which is heavily […]

Although more and more women are gradually entering Zimbabwe’s formal labour market, the majority of them remain in the lower echelons of most organisations, including Government parastatals, involved, typically, in secretarial, administrative and clerical work or concerned with customer care or human resource management. They seldom take up technical posts or advance to senior management […]

In this dissertation the writer employs a meaningful combination of methodologies and methods of collecting evidence to prove that Tanzanian law is in danger of putting to death women who kill their partners while they are suffering from the universally accepted, but only recently acknowledged, “battered women’s syndrome.” He shows how the existing traditional (i.e., […]

This dissertation examines the extent to which the current economic meltdown of the Zimbabwean economy has impacted upon the human right of pregnant women to enjoy good health within a large government hospital. The writer utilizes several gender-centred methodologies (especially the Women’s Law, Grounded Theory and Human Rights based Approaches) and complementary data collection methods […]

The writer of this dissertation, a social worker, employs a combination of modern research methodologies (especially, the Women’s Law Approach) to collect a wide range of data to trace the effects of the cynical and unlawful destruction of the pastoralist way of life of the Endorois tribe, forcibly evicted from their ancestral lands in 1986, […]

The writer of this dissertation, an experienced senior legal officer in Kenya’s Ministry of Labour, critically analyses the effect of improved and ILO-inspired maternity benefits (enshrined in Kenya’s new Employment Act of 2007) on employees, especially women, in the formal and informal sector, employers, the government and society at large. Not only do women comprise […]