International Human Rights and National Discretion

This paper argues that the EuropeanCourt of Human Rights couldserve as a model for an international court ofhuman rights to be builtupon the United Nations Committee on HumanRights. It argues that theconcerns states might have over the surrenderof a significant portion oftheir national sovereignity might be lessenedif such an internationalcourt were to incorporate the margin ofappreciation doctrine employed bythe European Court of Human Rights. Thisdoctrine is intended to respectthe customs and traditions of sovereign statesin dealing with humanrights issues, while maintaining that somerights such as the right not tobe tortured will be considered as basic andwill stand independently ofthe customs and traditions of sovereignstates.     

Thoughts on representation in therapy of Holocaust survivors1

This paper presents the problems of representation and lack of representation in treating Holocaust survivors, through clinical vignettes and various theoreticians. The years of Nazi persecution and murder brought about a destruction of symbolization and turning inner and external reality into the Thing itself, the concrete, or, in Lacan’s words, ‘The Thing’. The paper presents two ideas related to praxis as well as theory in treating Holocaust survivors: the first is related to the therapist’s treatment of the Holocaust nightmare expressing the traumatic events just as they happened 63 years previously; the second deals with the attempt at subjectification, in contrast to the objectification forced by the Nazis on their victims.     

Intelligence culturelle comme prédicteur de la performance au travail en expatriation : rôle médiateur de l’ajustement culturel

The present study aims at testing the effects of cultural intelligence (metacognitive, cognitive, motivational and behavioural facets) onto job performance in expatriation (dimensions relevant to task, effort demonstration, leadership, discipline maintenance, communication, administrative and managerial responsibilities) mediated by cross-cultural adjustment (global, interactional and job facets). Data are collected via an electronic survey administered to French expatriates (N = 201) and further processed in SPSS 20.0 and Lisrel 8.80. An output latent variable model globally confirms a mediation hypothesis and leads to a number of original findings. Namely, motivational and behavioural facets of cultural intelligence have the largest effect onto job performance in expatriation, while metacognitive facet has no effect at all. As regards job performance itself, the task dimension is the least dependent upon cultural intelligence and cross-cultural adjustment as compared to job performance aspects relevant to workplace relationships and team management (e.g., communication or leadership performance). The results are discussed in terms of their novelty and several research perspectives are proposed.