Showing papers in "Journal of Human Rights in 2016"
TL;DR: In this article, the authors highlight the significance of structural violence in producing and reproducing violations of human rights, particularly of socioeconomic rights, and discuss the potential for transformative (rather than transitional) justice in postconflict and postauthoritarian contexts.
Abstract: This article provides a critique of the scope of existing models of transitional justice, which focus on legal and quasi-legal remedies for a narrow set of civil and political rights violations. The article highlights the significance of structural violence in producing and reproducing violations of human rights, particularly of socioeconomic rights. There is a need to utilize a different toolkit and a different understanding of human rights from that typically employed in transitional justice in order to remedy structural violations of human rights. Focusing on a case study of land inequalities in postapartheid South Africa, the potential for transformative (rather than transitional) justice in postconflict and postauthoritarian contexts is discussed. The article outlines a definition of transformative justice, relevant actors, and relationships for such an agenda and discusses the kinds of strategies that promise a more transformative approach.
76 citations
TL;DR: The authors argue that it is possible for governments to implement transitional justice without maintaining an interest in truth, peace, or democracy but rather with the intention of promoting denial and forgetting, perpetuating violence, and legitimizing authoritarianism.
Abstract: Diverse in many respects, one unifying element of research on transitional justice (TJ) concerns the fact that predicted outcomes of these processes are normatively appealing; specifically, advocates argue TJ promotes truth and reconciliation, prevents armed conflict and increases democratization. This perspective further assumes that justice efforts are implemented with these goals in mind. We argue that it is possible for governments to implement TJ without maintaining an interest in truth, peace, or democracy but rather with the intention of promoting denial and forgetting, perpetuating violence, and legitimating authoritarianism—a process we call transitional injustice. In this article, we provide indicators by which scholars and policy makers can determine if transitional injustice is taking place. To further our argument, we conduct a detailed examination of Rwandan politics following the violence of 1994 and demonstrate the ways in which the Rwandan state has been able to use justice processes towa...
54 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a critical, detailed approach to understand the strategic use of information will reveal a more complete image of how human rights organizations build influence through their communications strategies, which has the capacity to radically alter the advocacy landscape.
Abstract: How and why does information become currency in human rights advocacy? Human rights organizations (HROs) produce media content in an increasingly diverse manner today across multiple platforms, for divergent purposes, and for distinct audiences. Advocacy practices are no longer confined to fact-based reporting aimed at exposing abuse. The sheer magnitude of resources expended in communication evidences the early stages of a shift in which HROs widen their broadcast and target mass audiences. However, human rights scholarship has not adequately addressed this new trend, which has the capacity to radically alter the advocacy landscape. Moving beyond the traditionally narrow focus on “naming and shaming,” we contend that a critical, detailed approach to understanding the strategic use of information will reveal a more complete image of how HROs build influence through their communications strategies. Expanding upon Keck and Sikkink's concept of “information politics,” we develop a theoretical framewo...
25 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors draw on Gandy's (1982) influential concept of information subsidies to examine strategies Mexican human rights NGOs employ to get their information into the news, through interpersonal relationships with journalists, through authority with human rights leaders, and through associations with NGO networks.
Abstract: This article draws on Gandy's (1982) influential concept of “information subsidies” to examine strategies Mexican human rights NGOs employ to get their information into the news. By building their credibility as sources — through interpersonal relationships with journalists, through authority with human rights leaders, and through associations with NGO networks — NGOs provide a verification subsidy that shortens the time journalists need to evaluate the sources of their information. By playing to NGOs' strengths, namely their symbolic and social capital, this type of information subsidy holds promise for pluralism and accountability in the public sphere. This promise varies, however, according to what kind of pluralism we mean: namely, pluralism vis-a-vis the field of power, pluralism within the field of human rights NGOs, and pluralism of access to human rights accountability. It also varies according to the resources of the NGO in question, which affect the NGO's ability to demonstrate credibili...
24 citations
TL;DR: The authors proposes a conceptual framework that accommodates the unfolding role of eyewitness video at the crossroad of the cultural, political, and legal mechanisms that together ferret out human rights violations.
Abstract: The advent of visual technologies and digital media has elevated the status of images as an important platform for studying human rights. Focusing on eyewitness video as an increasingly central vehicle through which human rights claims are made public, this article maps out (1) how human rights organizations utilize eyewitness video as an investigative tool in their advocacy work, (2) how eyewitness video configures within global news crises coverage, and (3) how eyewitness footage operates as a form of legal evidence in courtrooms. In doing so, the article proposes a conceptual framework that accommodates the unfolding role of eyewitness video at the crossroad of the cultural, political, and legal mechanisms that together ferret out human rights violations. The article also suggests that new developments in ethnography provide fruitful methodological grounds for studying the relationship between visual media and human rights from within the institutional networks that render images meaningful.
21 citations
TL;DR: This paper found that decreases in the use of extrajudicial killing in International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights member states are associated with increased use of forced disappearances, a violation that is more difficult to tie to the incumbent regime.
Abstract: Political leaders not only assess the costs and benefits of repression but also act strategically in their use of particular repression types. Choices amongst repression types depend partly upon leaders being held responsible for their particular actions. The codification of the international human rights regime indicated by broad ratification of the core International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights increases the likelihood of criminal responsibility, and political leaders who repress but want to avoid accountability for their actions respond strategically. These governments refrain from extrajudicial killing, which is easier to link to the government, relying instead on forced disappearances, a violation that is more difficult to tie to the incumbent regime. Using a sample of 194 countries from 1981 to 2009, we find that decreases in the use of extrajudicial killing in International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights member states are associated with increases in the use of forced dis...
18 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explored the possibility of a similar relationship between women's rights and terrorism and found that women rights overall are not a panacea for both types of terrorism.
Abstract: Previous large-N studies have found that the advancement of women's rights leads to a decline in conflict, but no large-N research has explored the possibility of a similar relationship between women's rights and terrorism. Nevertheless, policymakers have long argued that the advancement of women's rights forms a key component of counterterrorism policy. Simply put, we lay out a rationale for the argument that increased women's rights reduce the likelihood of terrorism. We test this hypothesis using CIRI's women's rights data combined with two datasets accounting for domestic terrorism and the production of transnational terrorism. While the results show that women's rights overall are not a panacea for both types of terrorism, the provision of women's rights is shown to have a negative relationship with domestic terrorism. States and international institutions should take the differing effects of women's rights across different types of terrorism into account when designing counterterrorism policies.
18 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that climate ethics must basically be risk ethics and propose a solution to the problems rights-based moral theories have with risks and outline the basic criteria of permissible and impermissible risk impositions.
Abstract: In this article, I argue that climate ethics must basically be risk ethics. But risk ethics is still an underdeveloped field of normative ethics. For example, rights-based ethical theories, the attractive features of which are outlined in this article, tend to prohibit all risk impositions. Such inability of rights-based theories to deal convincingly with risks could be a reason why the standard approach of climate economics, which as I try to show is based on questionable normative presuppositions, is still as influential as it is. I propose a solution to the problems rights-based moral theories have with risks and outline the basic criteria of permissible and impermissible risk impositions. Finally, I indicate that this will enable us to tackle climate risks in a promising way. The main aim of the article, however, is not to contribute to concrete questions of climate ethics but to the improvement of its normative foundations.
18 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors focus on the way in which the United Nations have addressed human rights issues, especially through the Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) and its successor the Human Rights Council (UNHRC).
Abstract: Over time human rights have gained prominence in international organizations. At the same time, dealing with them has proved difficult and contentious. The present article focuses on the way in which the United Nations have addressed human rights issues, especially through the Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) and its successor the Human Rights Council (UNHRC). Drawing on data on resolutions debated and (largely) adopted in these two bodies in the last 17 years, I offer a comparison of the voting record in these two periods. By analyzing in detail in a comparative fashion the votes in these two bodies, the article shows that despite the high hopes, the UNHRC faces some of the same challenges as its predecessor. More specifcally, I find that the conflict lines have largely remained the same in these two bodies, and the degree of polarization has slightly increased in the new UNHRC.
17 citations
TL;DR: A new era of human rights news, characterized by the expansion of information producers and social contexts to which human rights frames are ascribed, has been discussed in this paper, where the authors suggest ways to study this new era so as to integrate findings with past research.
Abstract: Past research suggests that news coverage of human rights is shaped primarily by interactions between journalists, political elites, and leading NGOs. To what degree do contemporary transformations in media, politics, and civil society alter this established wisdom? In this article, I sketch out the possibility that we are witnessing a new era of human rights news, characterized by the expansion of information producers and social contexts to which human rights frames are ascribed. In this era, leading NGOs and news organizations must increasingly interact with individual activists and others on the selection, framing, and dissemination of human rights news. These developments may remedy some of the weaknesses identified in previous research on human rights news, even as they create new concerns about the veracity and pluralistic nature of human rights news content. I suggest ways to study this new era so as to integrate findings with past research.
17 citations
TL;DR: This article found that the interaction of Internet access and media freedom has positive effects on women's rights regardless of regime type, and that the effect of media freedom will depend on Internet access.
Abstract: Human rights organizations have long heralded media freedom as critical to holding government accountable and thereby improving a wide range of human rights. Similarly the Internet and social media are assumed to empower citizens by enabling them to document repression and thereby discourage future abuse. So what does this mean for women's rights? I propose that, when it comes to women's rights, the combination of media freedom and Internet access will make a difference and that the effect of media freedom will depend on Internet access. I test my hypotheses across countries and over time and find that the interaction of Internet access and media freedom has positive effects on women's rights regardless of regime type.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the extent to which health care access and provision for irregular migrants in these two countries is in agreement with international human rights and examine what constitutes an infringement of the international human right to health care.
Abstract: Debates about human rights have often questioned their potential for generating rights at national levels. In this article, we use the case of irregular migrants' access to health care in the United Kingdom and France to explore the extent to which international human rights influence national health care provisions for irregular migrants. We explore the extent to which health care access and provision for irregular migrants in these two countries is in agreement with international human rights. In so doing, we examine what constitutes an infringement of the international human right to health care. Finally, we sketch out some hypotheses about the role played by different state structures in the implementation of human rights norms, comparing the United Kingdom with France. We argue that, although international human rights often have a largely symbolic role in nation-state jurisdiction, they may sometimes represent a force for change.
TL;DR: This paper argued that if the goal is to promote Western liberal ideals, press freedom should be the centerpiece of human rights advocacy and democracy promotion in international relations, not merely a side note to freedom of expression or freedom of information.
Abstract: Liberal theory regards a free press as vital not only to political processes, but also to the development and maintenance of personal autonomy and the right to self-determination. Yet, press freedom receives very little attention in the wider debate on international human rights and in the academic literature on the subject. This article submits that press freedom matters in its own right and not merely as a means to secure other human rights like free speech and freedom of information. This article places press freedom at the center of how we think about democracy and human rights promotion. If the goal is to promote Western liberal ideals, press freedom should be the centerpiece of human rights advocacy and democracy promotion in international relations, not merely a side note to freedom of expression or freedom of information.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explored whether constitutional provisions promote fulfillment of economic and social rights and found that there is a positive correlation between enforceable law provisions and the right to health and education components of the SERF Index.
Abstract: This article explores whether constitutional provisions promote fulfillment of economic and social rights. This is accomplished by combining unique data on both enforceable law and directive principles with the Social and Economic Rights Fulfillment Index (SERF Index), which measures government fulfillment of such rights. The results indicate that there is a positive and significant correlation between enforceable law provisions and the right to health and education components of the SERF Index. The strongest relationship appears to be for the right to health component where the inclusion of an enforceable law provision on economic and social rights in the constitution is correlated with an increase in the health component by 9.55, or 13.0%, on average. These results support the idea that constitutional provisions may be one way to improve economic and social rights outcomes.
TL;DR: In this paper, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and International Criminal Court (ICC) have been examined for defining, status, and integration of victims into these institutions.
Abstract: Contemporary developments in international criminal justice have led to new systems of victims' rights and redress. A number of studies have identified the processes of victim protection, participation, and reparations at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Court (ICC). However, little attention has been paid to how these changing practices have served to constitute victim identities. This article seeks to address this gap in scholarship through an analysis of the changing definitions, status, and integration of victims into these institutions. It explores how institutional practices serve to construct victims as either “passive objects” or “active agents” of the law. It then considers whether this “active agent” translates to ideas of the person in all social contexts. The article argues that the ICC needs to consider whether victims hold the necessary personal, material, and social “resources” required to action their rights in this institu...
TL;DR: In this article, the relationship between human rights and long-term global ecological challenges is investigated and a human rights approach to questions of sustainability would be different from other approaches and what would be required to see those ecological challenges as human rights questions.
Abstract: Questions of sustainability will be of crucial importance for the twenty-first century. But do we have to think about questions of responsibilities regarding future people in terms of human rights? And if duties regarding sustainability fall outside the scope of human rights, what would this imply for the moral and political importance of human rights in general? This article investigates conceptually how we should see the relationship between human rights and long-term global ecological challenges. We will discuss how a human rights approach to questions of sustainability would be different from other approaches and what would be required to see those ecological challenges as human rights questions. We will discuss the possibilities for conceptualizing the relationship between human rights and sustainability. And we will briefly draw some conclusions in terms of topics for further debate.
TL;DR: The authors examines the significance of the mens rea-related evidence present in specific language and discourse identified in the records of the International Military Tribunal, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and the International criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
Abstract: This article examines the significance of the mens rea-related evidence present in the specific language and discourse identified in the records of the International Military Tribunal, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. The author argues that international proceedings have seen the emergence of a new type of evidence: a cognitive, linguistic, culturally determined plural of genocidal mens rea. As a result, the mental element of genocidal intent can neither be interpreted nor understood without an advanced forensic approach to the language used by the network of genocidaires. Based on a combination of cognitive and social science research with the humanities, the article applies a hybrid method of analysis to some of the genocide cases in international criminal justice and demonstrates how and why this approach ought to be introduced into the process of identification of the guilty minds of the architects of genocide.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the dynamics of domestic legislatures' application of international human rights law and examine case studies on religion in schools in the United Kingdom, Germany, and France.
Abstract: This article examines the dynamics of domestic legislatures' application of international human rights law. Specifically, this article asks the following: What factors shape how domestic legislatures apply international human rights law while they enact national law and policy? Lawmakers have a variety of motives for invoking and deliberating international law. Given these motives, the article identifies two factors — civil society actors and legal experts and the flexibility of international law — that are likely to contribute to if and how national legislatures interpret and apply international human rights law while legislating. These factors are examined through case studies on religion in schools in the United Kingdom, Germany, and France. This article argues civil society actors and legal experts and the flexibility of international law inform lawmakers' estimation of political costs related to compliance and thus how they apply international human rights law to domestic legislation.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that human rights theorists miss an important element of the human qua human if they take ecological embeddedness to be contingently rather than necessarily relevant to human rights.
Abstract: Human rights are rights held “simply in virtue of humanity.” In unpacking this claim, we find that theories of human rights disclose (1) something about what we understand a minimally decent human life to be and (2) who we consider to belong within a community of rights-bearers. In this article, I address two interrelated questions: When and why do future persons have standing as rights-bearing members of a shared moral community? Are the rights held by future generations best expressed in the “greening” of existing rights or in a new distinctly environmental right? I argue that human rights theorists miss an important element of the human qua human if they take ecological embeddedness to be contingently rather than necessarily relevant to human rights. I therefore argue that there are reasons to favor a new distinctly environmental human right.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue against limiting the use of the practice by tracing its potential to promote identification with the Other, thus undermining cases of dehumanization, and argue for conceptualizing external witnessing as a prominent form of social and political activism.
Abstract: The practice of external witnessing—bearing witness to someone else's suffering—is often criticized as further destroying the victim's subjectivity. As a result, this approach limits the use of the practice to extreme cases in which victims lack the ability to speak for themselves. This article argues against limiting the use of the practice by tracing its potential to promote identification with the Other, thus undermining cases of dehumanization. This claim is developed through an analysis of the Checkpoint Watch movement in Israel, which reveals the way the movement challenges the dehumanization of the Palestinians. The activists address the delegitimation of the voice of the Palestinians through witnessing as representation and the unwillingness of the Israeli public to understand their experiences as suffering by witnessing as transformation. As such, this account calls for conceptualizing external witnessing as a prominent form of social and political activism.
TL;DR: The authors assesses the outcome of the proposed UN Convention on the Rights of Older People (CROP) by comparing its political, economic, and social contexts with those of the 2006 Convention of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), concluding that weakness of the aging advocacy network compared to the disability network and a relatively more closed political opportunity structure negatively influence the CROP's prospects.
Abstract: This article assesses the outcome of the proposed UN Convention on the Rights of Older People (CROP) by comparing its political, economic, and social contexts with those of the 2006 Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). The research draws on interviews with those involved in the debates, nonparticipant observation, and analysis of primary and secondary literature. The article concludes that weakness of the aging advocacy network compared to the disability network and a relatively more closed political opportunity structure negatively influence the CROP's prospects. However, many of the hurdles proponents of the CROP face are similar to those faced at the beginning of the CRPD campaign, so progress and eventual adoption are possible. By comparison with the closely related CRPD, social scientists can better understand the institutional and contextual factors that influence campaign success in the contemporary context and advocates of the CROP can better anticipate roadblocks.
TL;DR: Hertel and Buerger as mentioned in this paper assumed the mantle of editorial team for the Journal of Human Rights (JHR) in 2013 and worked closely with our Editorial Board and with our Associa...
Abstract: Since Shareen Hertel and Catherine Buerger assumed the mantle of editorial team for the Journal of Human Rights (JHR) in 2013, they have worked closely with our Editorial Board and with our Associa...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors consider the gap between the universal promise of human rights and the reality of the rights enjoyed by irregular immigrants in liberal democracies such as Australia and the United States and explore how irregular immigrants might employ the language of rights more effectively in their political mobilizations.
Abstract: This article considers the gap between the universal promise of human rights and the reality of the rights enjoyed by irregular immigrants in liberal democracies such as Australia and the United States. Against the idea that stronger international rights enforcement mechanisms will automatically improve the position of irregular immigrants, it argues that international law currently provides a warrant for the way in which countries like Australia and the United States treat irregular immigrants. After developing this argument, the article explores how irregular immigrants might employ the language of rights more effectively in their political mobilizations.
TL;DR: In this article, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and 26 third-party states implicated in the pursuit of the court's 91 indicted suspects were examined, and support for the pro-compliance influence of liberal democratic norms and foreign aid dependency on thirdparty states was found.
Abstract: Why do some states comply with their legal obligations to arrest suspects indicted by international criminal tribunals (ICTs) while others do not? Research on this question has mostly focused on “target” states, like the former Yugoslav republics, where ICTs have intervened. In contrast, this article offers the first test of theories regarding ICT arrest-warrant compliance and noncompliance by third-party states. I examine the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and 26 third-party states implicated in the pursuit of the court's 91 indicted suspects. Using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis, I find support for the procompliance influence of liberal democratic norms and foreign aid dependency on third-party states. I also find that noncompliance — something existing studies tend to leave untheorized — can be explained by the presence of either non- compliance constituencies or high official corruption. By testing several theories of compliance and noncompliance on a so far unde...
TL;DR: In this article, a combination of arguments concerning intergenerational justice and the systemic implications of human dignity yield a more constitutive account of human rights and therefore an internal critique of the overall architecture of international law.
Abstract: This article draws attention to the constitutive requirements of intergenerational justice and exposes the limitations of regulative arguments based on international human rights law. Intergenerational justice demands constraining the regulative freedom of the international community, and it is tempting to assume that adequate constraints are already contained within existing treaties including international human rights treaties. In fact, intergenerational justice demands bespoke constitutional norms at the international level, and it demands entrenching constitutional norms. International human rights law per se implies neither of these constitutive propositions and both are problematic in light of the present structure of international law. Nevertheless, a combination of arguments concerning intergenerational justice and the systemic implications of human dignity yield a more constitutive account of human rights and therefore an internal critique of the overall architecture of international law.
TL;DR: The authors analyzes the Cote d'Ivoire and Haiti cases to demonstrate that not only government policies (the realist hypothesis) but also independent bureaucratic powers exerted by senior UN officials have contributed to the emergence of interventionist policies at the UN.
Abstract: During recent years, the United Nations (UN) peacekeeping system has exerted robust interventions in the domestic jurisdiction of target states for human rights purposes. The existing literature attributes the explanation mainly to the “new politics of protection” pursued by Western governments and thus validates the realist hypothesis. This article analyzes the Cote d'Ivoire and Haiti cases to demonstrate that not only government policies (the realist hypothesis) but also independent bureaucratic powers exerted by senior UN officials (the social constructivist thesis) have contributed to the emergence of interventionist policies at the UN. Moreover, “bottom-up” initiatives stemming from the virtue ethics of senior UN officials have played a much more decisive role in generating the interventionist turn than “top-down” institutional guidelines and doctrines, such as the Responsibility to Protect (RtoP) principle. Instead of RtoP, UN officials draw upon broad legitimating principles of the UN, notably huma...
TL;DR: Eggers's stories test the limits of promoting rights on the basis of an innate shared humanity by exposing how such a basis easily slides into other universalist practices such as those of neocolonialism and neo-imperialism as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: This article examines the ways in which two literary texts by the American author Dave Eggers, his novel You Shall Know Our Velocity (2002) and his short story “Up the Mountain Coming Down Slowly,” interrogate the abstract humanism that underlies universalist rights and explore the reasons for their ineptitude at effecting their promise of universalism when faced with the particularity of individual cultures. Thematically, Eggers's stories test the limits of promoting rights on the basis of an innate shared humanity by exposing how such a basis easily slides into other universalist practices such as those of neocolonialism and neoimperialism. At the character level, these narratives consider the possibilities for meaningful cross-cultural relationships within the context of these discourses, revealing the ease with which they in turn can slip into hierarchical relations that reaffirm existing divisions. In doing so, they also engage and challenge the conclusions of cosmopolitan thinkers such as Kwame Anth...
TL;DR: In this paper, the modern human rights movement has relied on the press and media as an essential partner in its work to hold governments accountable for human rights violations, and from the outset human rights movements have relied on media as a essential partner.
Abstract: From the outset the modern human rights movement has relied on the press and media as an essential partner in its work to hold governments accountable for human rights violations. When Peter Benens...