- PhD student
- Date
- Wednesday 22 Nov 2023, 15:00 - 17:00
- Type
- PhD defence
- Spoken Language
- English
- Room
- Aula B
- Location
- International Institute of Social Studies
On 22 November 2023, Travor Murai will defend his thesis exploring the operationalization of Human Rights-based Approaches (HRBAs). The thesis uses the case of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) advocating for the Sexual Rights of Men who have Sex with Men (SR-MSM) in Zimbabwe.
In his thesis he explores how the political context within which donor-funded MSM projects are implemented, global funding rules, conditionalities, dependencies, capacities and constraints internal to CSOs, influence the nature and extent to which the CSOs operationalize HRBAs.
He shows that the Mugabe government mobilized homophobic tropes and tightened sodomy laws as a ploy to promote a homophobic national agenda and set the tone for cultural and religious debates regarding SR-MSM, all in the name of regime self-preservation. This had a significant adverse impact on the potential for HRBA operationalization.
Download the abstracts
Doctoral Board
Chair
Doctoral dissertation supervisors
Professor Wendy Harcourt
Dr Sylvia Bergh
Dr Silke Heumann
Full Doctoral Committee
- Professor Frans Viljoen, Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria
- Professor Emerita Rudo Gaidzanwa, University of Zimbabwe
Professor Marc Epprecht, School of Environmental Studies, Queen’s University
Professor Thea Hilhorst, ISS
Dr Karin Astrid Siegmann, ISS
- More information
The ceremony will begin promptly at 15:00 hrs in the ISS auditorium (Aula B) of the ISS, Kortenaerkade 12, The Hague. The doors will be closed after the start of the Public Defence, but will be briefly opened after the candidate’s introduction to allow latecomers to enter.
Children under 7 years old are not allowed in the Aula during the first part of the ceremony.
The ceremony will be followed by a reception in the Atrium of the ISS.
Professors are invited to join the academic procession.
- Related links
- ISS PhD programme