The aim for this thesis is to study the international gender equality work from a perspective of the concept of universalism and particularism, with the United Nation?s Declaration of Human Rights, and especially -?The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women?, in focus. The shadowreports of Namibia and Sweden are used as examples of how countries with different historical, political and social contexts are working with gender equality.A theroetical framework is constitued by theories as postmodernism, postcolonialism and feminism with basis from social constructionism. The thesis is methodological influenced by Critical Discourse Analysis. Notions from former studies were also used as tools in the analysis.

The purpose of this study is to find out how teachers in preschool interact with children.By unstructured observations of teachers in preschool I intend to find out how they interact with children. Is it possible to see that the operation is built on guided interaction speciality?Positive interaction between adults and children is of importance to a good childhood and a child?s learning. I have asked myself how teachers interact with children in preschool. There are different ways of interaction.

This thesis provides a good introduction to the American environmental certification system LEED, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, and trough compar-isons between Sweden and the United States an explanation to the systems design is given. The work is closely linked to a LEED Core & Shell project in Stockholm, Swe-den, where the goal is to reach the second highest rating in LEED - Gold.This thesis gives a broad description of the LEED system and a more profound study of the energy sector, Energy and Atmosphere. Here, for example, an analysis has been made of how the energy consumption of an imaginary building designed according to the requirements of the BBR (Swedish building code) performs in comparison to the Baseline building in LEED.The existing model of Borgarfjord 3, which served as a case study in this work, has al-so been modified to investigate the energy savings that could have been achieved by adding extra insulation to the building. A description of the problems, regarding how the Swedish district heating system (DES) is treated in LEED, is given as well as the suggested modifications. This is an issue that will be pursued during the process of shaping a new, international, version of LEED due to be launched 2012..

The main aim of this study is to examine the development policies of Sweden and the European Union from a postcolonial perspective. Sweden and the European Union are increasingly coming to be viewed as normative powers rather than military powers. So how does the colonial past of the western societies affect the policies of today? Are there any signs of the power structures of the past, and if so, how are these power structures manifested in the development policies of today? Since both Sweden and the European Union have come to be viewed as normative powers they are compared with each other to highlight their similarities and differences. The results of the study shows that both Sweden and the European Union can be seen as carriers of western values and interests.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze Martti Ahtisaari?s comprehensive reportfor Kosovo, CPS, based on theories about democracy, democratization andmulticulturalism. The essay is a way to make a contribution to research on howthe international community can contribute to democratization processes ingeneral, as the CPS gives the expression and democratization of contextscharacterized by multicultural problems in particular. In this paper, we implementa qualitative text analysis of our main material CPS. The qualitative text analysiscan be applied in studies as ours when sought contents of the text are hidden underthe surface.

This thesis investigates the Designated Operational Entities (DOEs) under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol. The DOEs serves as independent third-party auditors with the task of validating, verifying and certifying projects under the CDM. The majority of the DOEs are private entities. This is in line with the CDM objective of including the private sector in the climate change combat. The introduction of private entities in the role of DOEs can be questioned from a legitimacy point of view, but is corresponding to a development in international environmental governance where private actors are increasingly involved in governance arrangements.The thesis concludes the DOEs to be a form of public-private partnership and investigates the legitimacy of this form.

The purpose of this thesis is to explore and analyze the processes and efforts involved in rebuilding the war-torn state of Afghanistan. The examined period span from the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001, to the elections in 2005. This period, commonly known as the Bonn-process, sets out the initial time for the reconstruction of the state.A theoretical framework, which considers the necessary mechanisms for successful state-building, will be used to analyze Afghanistan's re-building process. The mechanisms include the prerequisite of a stable security environment, emerging from a cease-fire, together with the development of a well-functioning economy, re-introduction of rule of law and rejuvenating civil society.The failure to establish a secure environment has had a devastating impact on all analyzed aspects of the re-building process. It is therefore crucial that the international society continuing to assists the Afghan government in its efforts to strengthen its capacity, in order to improve the security situation.

This paper explores the accessibility for patrons with different physical disabilities in regards to materials, service, the library building and its website at two typical, medium-sized public libraries in Sweden.The case study is based on interviews, observations, and document and literature studies. As a theoretical framework for this study, Buckland?s model of information barriers is used to describe, discuss and evaluate how the two libraries work with accessibility. In addition, international and national guidelines are used to measure whether additional actions are required of the libraries to improve the accessibility.The results show that both libraries are well suited in various respects to provide for the different needs and the requirements of patrons with physical disabilities. Some obstacles still exist in both libraries, especially in the lack of literature in accessible formats in different languages.

The failure of Structural Adjustment Programs and its neoliberal policies to effectively reduce poverty have led to the creation of Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) by The World Bank and International Monetary Fund. PRSP, connected to both the Comprehensive Development Strategy and the HIPC initiative, are built on the notion of national ownership and stakeholder participation and thereby expand potential conditionality to include matters of governance. This thesis examines the evolution of PRSP and how the process of participation affects national governance structures. By analyzing the role of rules and norms within the World Bank and IMF from a historical point of view the thesis explains why the participation process has developed the way it has. It concludes that neoliberal norms, still at heart within the World Bank and IMF, have an impact on the process of participation within nation states and thereby its governance structure.

Vilket rättssystem har enligt folkrätten företräde vid konflikt mellan folkrätten från FN, Europakonventionen och gemen-skapsrätten, beträffande giltigheten av säkerhetsrådets resolutioner för bekämpande av den internationella terrorismen, i förhållande till mänskliga rättigheter?Säkerhetsrådets resolutioner har ändrat karaktär när det gäller att bekämpa världens terrorism. Genom så kallade intelligenta sanktioner är säkerhetsrådets mål nu att frysa egendom för enskilda individer och företag, utan att de drabbade har någon rätt till rättvis rättegång, efter att dessa svartlistats som knutna till terroristorganisationer. Svartlistningen sker på mer eller mindre godtyckliga grunder som inte finner stöd inom folkrättens regler om jus cogens och säkerhetsrådet har förklarat att i kampen mot terrorismen är det nu tillåtet att med alla medel slå tillbaka hot mot fred och säkerhet.Mänskliga rättigheter utvecklades inom FN och dess stadga tillkom före Europakonventionen och torde i princip ha företräde framför konventionen och Europadomstolens praxis, vid tillämpning av principen lex posterior derogat priori.Dock har det tillskapats ett rättssystem av nytt slag (sui generis) inom gemenskaps-rätten, med ett starkare skydd för mänskliga rättigheter; i synnerhet egendomsrätten och rätten till rättvis domstolsprövning. Vid tillämpning av principen lex specialis legi generali derogat, torde dessa regler ha företräde framför de generella reglerna från FN.EG-domstolens förstainstansrätt har i fallet Somaliasvenskarna (T-306/01) förklarat sig själv och unionen som bunden av FN:s stadga och säkerhetsrådets resolutioner och därmed åsidosatt egendomsskyddet och rätten till rättvis rättegång för unionsmedborgare.I fallet går rätten emot tidigare praxis från EG-domstolen, genom att förklara unionen som bunden av FN-stadgan och genom att tilldela EU-rådet en kompetens som inte står att utläsa i fördragen.En oroväckande fråga är vilka rättigheter som kommer att inskränkas framledes.

To establish sustainability reports is an increasing trend for more and more companies. This has led to a spread of the international framework Global reporting initiative, GRI, guidelines to make a sustainability reports. This trend has got a lot of critics from various stakeholders who believe that companies in these reports communicate the information in a way of window dressing. Both negative and positive information has to be represented according to GRI: s principle of balance.  Window dressing is created by adding a greater emphasis on the positive information. The researchers review the context of the negative information to study the extent to which it is reported and whether there are patterns and variations in the reported information.

Assessment of hearing aids can be done by inventories. The result of the inventories can show the patients need and how the hearing aids works in the patients daily life. The result of the inventories can be influenced by the difference in languages and the cultures. The inventory IOI-HA should not be sensitive to those factors.The aim of this study was to compare and analyse material, method and to report and analyse the result from a pilot study made at Sahlgrenska University.The result showed that IOI-HA is a natural inventory which is able to be used internationally. The four studies in England, USA, the Netherlands, and Germany showed that the psychometric properties are similar across languages and cultures.

Det finns mycket forskning kring hur individer med Parkinson har möjlighet att förbättra sina fysiologiska funktioner genom träning. Det finns dock få studier som beskriver upplevelser av träningen. Syftet med denna studie var att beskriva upplevelser av sjukgymnastledd gruppträning hos individer med Parkinson och undersöka hur resultatet överensstämde med domänerna i Internationella klassifikationen av funktionstillstånd, funktionshinder och hälsa (ICF). En kvalitativ deskriptiv innehållsanalys tillämpades. Fem deltagare medverkade i studien.

This essay discusses and evaluates the international currency market in regards to efficiency. To prove the theory that, the difference between expected and actual exchange rates is explained by the difference in expected and actual interest rates and the difference in expected and actual inflation between countries, a model was developed. This model was inspired by the paper of Sebastian Edwards (1982), and is based on three theories; UIP, IS/LM and the Efficient Markets Hypothesis. The model uses 16 regressions estimated from three pairs of curriencies: $/SEK, £/SEK and ?/SEK.

Learning Resource Centre, or LRC, is an international phenomenon and a response to the changing society that came with the development of information technology. The LRC concept spread internationally during the 1990s and began to influence Swedish collage libraries at the end of the decade. The main purpose of this study is to analyze if and how Swedish college libraries have incorporated the LRC concept. Is there a Swedish LRC model? Is the LRC concept still interesting or was it a trend that is now out of date? Interviews with eleven people from six college libraries aim to show how they define the concept LRC and how it has been integrated in to their organisations.