Rights Beyond Words: Mapping Human Rights Scholar-Organization Partnerships

Abstract

For many human rights scholars, the study of human rights is more than intellectual curiosity; it is the motivation for their work. They try to use their research and expertise to improve human rights conditions and work with policymakers and advocacy groups. This article explores the complexities of partnerships between scholars and human rights organizations and groups (HROGs). Focusing primarily on the experience of social science and humanities scholars with HROGs, we identify a range of collaborations and possible areas of tension in each type of relationship. The immediate goal of the article is to draw attention to the areas of tension in the interest of enabling human rights scholars to develop more fruitful relationships with HROGs. The article also constitutes a critical step toward developing a more formal typology of scholar-organization relationships and formulating concrete hypotheses that can be used to explore variation in human rights outcomes stemming from different types of collaboration, while also identifying best practices.