Activities Of Non-state Actors Research Articles

Non-state actors, extractive industries, and the investment regime: What can be learned from six Amazonian investor-state disputes?

The international investment regime was designed to reduce political risks—risks created by government action or inaction—faced by enterprises venturing abroad. It assumes that political risks are due to unitary host states, who, guided by national interests, would confiscate profitable foreign enterprises when opportune. This article argues, however, that political risks can have a different origin. In ecologically vulnerable areas, extractive projects can be polarizing, as some groups benefit from their existence while others suffer their consequences. In this setting, non-state actors may fight legally and politically to attract or expel extractive industries, generating policy uncertainties and political risk. To check this argument, the article examines five investor-state disputes coming from extractive projects located in the Amazon and which were caused, in part or completely, by the actions of non-state actors. The cases studied provide insights into the importance of non-state actors in the investment realm as well as the inadequacies of the current investment regime.

The Role of Non-State Actors in Strengthening the Developmental Capacity of the State: A Case Study of Cross Rivers State, Nigeria

This study examined the role of Non State Actors (NSAs) in strengthening the developmental capacity of the state, using a case study of Cross River State, Nigeria. Primary and secondary data on selected constituents of NSAs including Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs), Privately Owned Companies, Banks, Private Hospitals and Private Schools were analyzed using tables and charts. The results revealed that activities of NSAs significantly enhance the developmental capacity of Cross River State especially in the areas of provision of public services, knowledge and skill acquisition, infrastructural development and employment generation. Besides other recommendations, it was recommended that NSAs and the government should perform complementary roles in enhancing developmental capacity and that the establishment of more NSAs in the rural areas should be encouraged through the provision of special funding and other incentives for NSAs that have their offices in the rural areas.

The Achievements and Limits of Global Counter-Terrorism Cooperation

This chapter investigates the importance of domestic law for international counter-terrorism cooperation. It highlights an important but often forgotten truism: that any response to terrorism requires action by State organs directed against activities of non-State actors, and these actors – most notably individuals – have rights under domestic law that national authorities cannot breach. National law therefore provides a substantial limit on any response to terrorism. This is true both of the conventional counter-terrorism system based on punitive measures, viz. criminalisation and assertion of jurisdiction, as well as of the post-2001 regime established by the United Nations (UN) Security Council, which is essentially preventive, focusing on the freezing of assets and the listing of suspects. This chapter therefore seeks to illustrate both the achievements and limits of international law by focusing on global counter-terrorism cooperation. The chapter is divided into three parts. The first part provides an overview of the origins of transnational criminal law enforcement and some of the historical limitations of the criminal regime, focusing especially on extradition. The following two parts focus specifically on counter-terrorism cooperation before and after 2001, highlighting the incremental improvement in the protection of individual rights and the limits of transnational criminal law enforcement.

Shifting Security Paradigm in Contemporary Era: Role of Law Enforcement Agencies

In setting of today’s security challenges, striving for sound policing of military character through paramilitary, auxiliary and armed police forces has usurped. The law enforcement agencies are engaged to curb the security threats at realm of dynamic security challenges. The changing perspectives of security scenario along with modern security challenges like terrorism, out and in migration, armed activities and actions of non-state actors are very common to states. The security challenges due to the increase in terrorism, extremism, armed conflict, insurgency, civil war, cyber threats, and non-state actor’s activities, are some of the looming security concerns affecting effectiveness and efficacy of the law enforcement agencies. This research is conducted by applying descriptive research method and secondary sources to identify the perspectives of modern-day security situation and role of law enforcement agencies to combat these challenges. This paper highlights the contemporary security challenges contextualized at the global realm to offer possible future strategies in general for the security agencies within and outside the country.

Regulatory counter-terrorism: a critical appraisal of proactive global governance

Nathanael Ali sets out to show readers how global governance in regulatory counterterrorism has produced more harm than good. He argues that the global governance structure of counterterrorism ‘is built on the erosion of legal formality’ (p. 12). In particular, he highlights two areas where the erosion of legal certainty has been the most marked: remittances and international air travel (especially in the Horn of Africa). Ali locates the origins of regulatory counterterrorism in proactive regulation; the activities of non-state actors (at the behest of states); and a stereotyping approach to Muslims or people from the global South who are seen as a threat to public safety. These factors, he argues, have led to a new form of global governance that enhances ‘the reach and efficacy of global public power through a strategic move away from certain formal international law precepts regarding law making and enforcement’ (p. 6). What is particularly fascinating about Ali's argument is the way he demonstrates that the breakdown of international law was crucial to creating a system of global regulatory counterterrorism. In other words, policy-makers and non-state actors (as well as intelligence services) gleefully operate on the shadow side of international law by playing on the fear of the other. Ali goes on to discuss the various proactive regulatory measures on counterterrorism financing, noting that financial institutions act as ‘front-line enforcers of international norms’ (p. 67). In international air travel, the various biometric and personal data that passengers must submit prior to travel often violate not only privacy laws but also the dignity of the individual.

Investing upstream: Watershed protection in Piura, Peru

As the world is increasingly urbanized and climate change presents new uncertainties, urban water supply management needs to be flexible and adaptable. This includes reaching beyond city limits to include water supply and watershed management, as well as working with stakeholders outside the boundaries of the city, across the urban/rural divide. Bringing together diverse stakeholders to collaborate on management strategies entails bringing together multiple knowledge systems that interact, compete, and reshape water systems. Large cities located within Peru’s arid coast provide important opportunities to examine these knowledge dynamics, as urban water supplies depend on actions within the rural watersheds. These watersheds, which originate high in the Andes mountains, are populated primarily by campesino communities, who have been marginalized from state-led water governance for centuries. With Peru’s adoption of the 2009 Water Resources Law, campesino communities were brought into management through multi-stakeholder river basin councils. These councils ideally provide a space for stakeholders to deliberate and reach agreements on sustainable water management. Yet, despite the critical importance of upper watershed protection for ensuring water supplies for the large coastal cities, few efforts have resulted in watershed protection.Here, I examine one successful case, where the stakeholders in Piura agreed on a program to protect critical upper basin ecosystems. This study uses a process tracing approach to analyze the knowledge dynamics that led to the agreement and initial implementation. Based on ethnographic research including 112 interviews between 2015 and 2017, I argue that the interaction between knowledge and belief systems needs to be taken into account. I find that stakeholders’ seemingly incongruent worldviews and epistemologies were bridged, enabling them to reach agreement on an ecosystem-based technique for watershed protection. Further, strong leadership and active support of the knowledge and preferences of the historically-marginalized campesino communities was critical for the inclusion of their views and agreement upon watershed protection. Where urban water supplies rest on actions of non-state actors, such as is the case with watershed protection, the ability of stakeholders to voluntarily reach and implement agreements is critical, especially given increased variability and uncertainties associated with climate change.

Transformations of Polish Society

Transformations of Polish Society Mira Marody (bio) the successes and failures of the systemic transformation in Poland can be assessed from various points of view. The most frequently used is that of institutional transformation, and hence success or failure is measured by the degree to which the political and economic system of Poland is approaching the democratic-liberal model. From this perspective, Poland—once a leader when it came to systemic transformation—no longer has a glowing reputation. According to a recently published report by the Bertelsmann Foundation, which assessed the quality of democratic governance, in 2018 Poland ranked thirty-seventh among 41 EU and OECD countries, having dropped by as many as 29 places compared to an analogous study from 2014. The main reasons for this decline include a significant deterioration in the rule of law (including limiting the independence of the judiciary), politicizing government-controlled media, limiting the freedom of assembly, increasing police brutality, attempts to control nongovernmental organizations, and changes to electoral law.1 Concurrently, when it comes to the economy, there has been an intensification of activity that is shifting Poland away from a market economy, including the state buying up companies (dubbed "repolonization" of the banking and energy sectors, essentially their nationalization), antiliberal regulations, and using various instruments of economic policy to increase state control over the activities of nonstate actors. It could therefore be said, to paraphrase Ralph Dahrendorf (1990), that although institutional changes were those most quickly accomplished [End Page 57] in the course of transformation, they could be dismantled just as quickly. In this situation, changes in social consciousness—the third factor, along with economic changes of the transformation—appear to be more important in assessing the transformation's results. Although according to Dahrendorf they require the most time to occur, they are in fact more durable, and at the same time they define, to a large extent, the strength of the potential resistance in society to the institutional changes currently being introduced. This brings to the fore the question of what changes have occurred in the attitudes and opinions of Polish society over the past 30 years. Answers to this question are provided by data from the Polish edition of the European Values Study (EVS).2 THE PAST: CHANGES IN SOCIAL ATTITUDES AND VALUES When analyzing the potential impact of the transformation on social consciousness,3 one should above all look at those attitudes and values that can be linked with the overarching goal of the institutional changes, which was to build a democratic-liberal system. At the beginning of the 1990s, the political attitudes of Polish society had many authoritarian features. In 1990, 73 percent of respondents chose "greater respect for authority" as a desired goal for changes in the near future. It is true that even back then, support for a democratic political system was visible, but in 1999, 22 percent of respondents still accepted (very + rather) the idea that a good way of governing the country would be a political system with "a strong leader who does not have to bother with parliament and elections," and nearly 19 percent evaluated positively a political system in which "the army rules the country." As can be seen from table 1, over the past 30 years there has been a constant decline in authoritarian attitudes and a steady increase in prodemocracy attitudes. In 2017, in response to the question, "How important is it for you to live in a country that is governed democratically?"4 on a 10-point scale, 65.8 percent of respondents indicated the highest possible rating: "absolutely important" (10). This percentage increases to 88 percent when we add up answers 8–10 at the positive end of the scale. [End Page 58] Click for larger view View full resolution Table 1. Changes in political attitudes n.a.= not asked aLiberty aspirations are measured as a choice (the first and/or the second) of the items "protecting freedom of speech" and "giving people more say in important government decisions" from Inglehart's most widely used materialism-postmaterialism battery, which asks respondents to choose a first and second priority from four items (the other two items are "maintaining...

Instytucje finansowe a autonomia jednostki– rozważania z perspektywy praw człowieka

This paper seeks to provide a systematic analysis of the changing relations between financial institutions, banks in particular, and individuals in the 20th and 21st centuries. The first part of the study presents the history of relations between the state, financial institutions and individuals in the twentieth century, while the second part is devoted to the changes that have taken place internationally in this area in the 21st century in the activities of non-state actors, including financial institutions, as more and more often obligations in the field of human rights protection are being emphasised. The attribution of such responsibility indicates the fact that the international community is seeking to strengthen the protection of individual autonomy. This is also confirmed by the analysis of the final observations formulated by treaty bodies functioning within the UN system of human rights protection.

Forestry, Forest Fires, and Climate Change in Indonesia

In recent months, strong global growth, rebounding commodity prices, and relatively accommodative financial conditions have benefited the Indonesian economy. The first quarter of 2017 in Indonesia saw resilient GDP growth, moderate inflation, stable exchange rates, an increase in the growth of non-oil exports, and an investment upgrade from ratings agency Standard & Poor's. Investment growth, however, did not pick up enough to drive overall growth to a higher rate. The poor quality of banking-sector assets and the gaps in tax revenue—despite the fulfilment of the government's tax-amnesty program—are two of the most immediate economic concerns. President Joko Widodo (Jokowi), who is well into the second half of his term, is under pressure to deliver on his development platform, which includes making progress in sustainable development and climate change mitigation. The effective management of forests is key to this platform. There has been longstanding tension over Indonesia's forests between the protection of environmental values, including carbon storage, and the production of valuable commodities, including timber, palm oil, and pulpwood, which generate revenue and employment. We survey recent developments in four storylines related to forestry and climate change: first, Indonesia's commitment to reducing emissions to 29%–41% below projected business-as-usual levels by 2030, as well as the international climate agreements and finance that can help achieve this commitment; second, land-use rights and regulations, including a moratorium on clearing, draining, or setting fires on peatland; third, measures to prevent catastrophic forest fires like those during the 2015 El Niño, including the establishment of the Peatland Restoration Agency; and, fourth, the actions of non-state actors, especially large agribusinesses, in managing forests and peatland. We conclude by discussing differences in the approaches of Jokowi's administration and those of former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's administration and by questioning whether Indonesia's budgeted resources, actions, and results to date are commensurate with its climate commitments.

The Role of Non-State Actors in Reviewing Ambition, Implementation, and Compliance under the Paris Agreement

Non-state actors will play a unique and crucial role in the implementation of the Paris Agreement. Although much of the focus in the lead-up to Paris was on the mitigation commitments and actions of non-state actors, this essay focuses on another valuable contribution they can make: to hold the parties to their obligations under the Paris Agreement. I argue that, while the formal avenues for non-state-actor participation in review processes—encompassing the review of implementation, compliance, and effectiveness—remain limited, there are several other ways in which non-state actors can be, and already have been, influential.1

Restrictivist Reasoning on theRatione PersonaeDimension of Armed Attacks in the Post 9/11 World

AbstractThis contribution investigates restrictivist reasoning on the origin of armed attacks, and concentrates on the interpretation of Article 51 of the UN Charter and the use of state practice. One particular aspect is examined: the linkage of the armed activities of non-state actors to a state required for an exercise of the right of self-defence to be justified in relation to that state. Many authors have moved away from a restrictive interpretation of Article 51 of the Charter and customary international law, and have proposed various legal constructs –complicity, aiding and abetting, harbour and support, unwillingness or inability to act– to allow for the invocation of self-defence even when armed activities of non-state actors cannot be attributed to a state and its substantial involvement is doubtful. Noticeable among authors generally, with certain exceptions, is a certain lack of concern to account for whatever method of interpretation or analysis they employ.

Information Matters: Informational Conflict and the New Materialism

This paper focuses upon the challenge posed by the concept of ‘information’ to the new materialisms, viewed with reference to the multifaceted worldly phenomenon of informational conflict. ‘Informational conflict’ is a broad term designed to encompass the hi-tech ‘cyber’ operations of inter-state warfare as well as the informational actions of non-state actors, and is contingent not upon information technologies, as commonly understood, but upon ‘information’. Informational conflicts can be viewed as sociotechnical assemblages of humans and non-humans although information is a problematic component of these assemblages, on account of its uncertain ontological status. This paper addresses the ontology of information and asks how the new materialisms might respond in the various ontological registers described. Drawing upon the natural sciences — especially physics — and the emerging ‘philosophy of information’ to outline the metaphysics of information and the differences that exist in its ontological characterisation, the paper outlines informational challenges to materialist perspectives. It concludes by examining two examples of how information and materiality are addressed in International Relations with respect to informational conflict. It concludes by noting the positive contributions the new materialisms can make to the study of information and informational conflict, but challenges them by asking: Information matters for conflict; does it matter for materialism?

Transnational Corporate Constitutionalism: The Emergence of a Constitutional Order for Economic Enterprises

The convergence of public and private law has emerged as one of the great legal issues of the 21st century. It touches everything from the regulation of state activity, to the character and effect of the activities of non-state actors — and particularly those amalgamations of authority organized as juridically distinct persons. At its core, it implicates issues of the character and nature of the state, the state system, and the division of power — political, economic, religious, social and cultural — among a number of actors of which the state is only one. Economic entities are increasingly seen as state-like actors requiring regulation at a transnational level; states seek to participate in domestic and foreign markets as economic rather than as political actors. Large multinational enterprises are increasingly able to self regulate. Simultaneously, the nature of the legal order among states and the principles within which states may constitute themselves have become increasingly regularized — the community of nations has begun to move from an acceptance of constitution as a means of organizing political communities to constitutionalism as a system for the regulation of the organization of non-state communities with political authority. This paper engages emerging principles of transnational constitutionalism as a basis for the organization and integration of economic enterprises. For that purpose, the paper considers the role of two influential efforts in the construction of a global enterprise constitutionalism — the United Nations Global Compact system and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. The paper starts with context, examining the rise and character of the conceptual elements of transnational constitutionalism and its applicability to functionally distinct communities — like that of business enterprises. It then examines the development of and current efforts to ‘operationalize’ the Global Compact and the Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises as two related substantive regulatory frameworks for the transnational governance of economic actors. It also sketches the normative elements of these efforts and their potential limitations as constitutionalist frameworks. The paper ends with an analysis of the utility and effectiveness of these related normative frameworks as a basis for the elaboration of a transnational enterprise constitutionalism and as a regulatory framework for its implementation.

A Universal System of Collective Security Based on the Charter of the United Nations: A Commentary on Article 2(6) UN Charter

It is not only the acts of States, whether members of the UN or not, which may give rise to threats to international peace and security. The actions of non-State actors such as regional governmental organizations, national liberation movements, rebel groups and terrorist organizations may equally affect or endanger international peace and security. A system of collective security, as envisaged by the UN Charter, thus cannot operate successfully without embracing all sources of threats to the peace, irrespective of whether they originate from within the UN membership or from outside. The paper demonstrates that Art 2(6) of the UN Charter with its limited scope of application does not allow the UN to adequately address threats to international peace and security from outside the Organization. It has therefore been superseded by a customary international law based universal system of collective security which is based upon the relevant Charter provisions but does not derive its legal force from the Charter as a treaty. This universal, that is, generally applicable system of collective security goes beyond a general obligation incumbent upon all international actors not to conduct themselves in a way that constitutes a threat to the peace, breach of the peace or act of aggression. It rather subjects all relevant international actors to the authority of the UN, and in particular the SC, with regard to measures necessary for the maintenance of international peace and security.

FDI, BITS and the Marginalization of Labour Standards

The primary aim of this paper would be to establish whether the international investment treaty regime can, at all, exert an influence on international labour standards. The researcher shall first examine the impact that foreign direct investment may have on labour standards. Authors have directly linked foreign direct investment to a lowering of labour standards, by stating that higher labour standards lead to greater labour costs, which could discourage foreign direct investment, as, all things being equal, investors would prefer the country with lower labour costs. However, empirical evidence has suggested that this linkage may be exaggerated, and that in many cases, the positive influence of higher labour standards may offset the negative (if any) influence that they may create through higher costs. This brings us to the second leg of the argument, namely, how labour regulations can possibly be challenged in investment disputes. The paucity of direct jurisprudence on the interface between IIAs and labour standards means that the researcher shall examine the stand of arbitral tribunals in cases which have referred to anti-corruption provisions and environmental rights, in order to estimate the possible position of labour rights vis-a-vis investor protection. There have been cases with respect to denial of permits on alleged environmental grounds. Subsequently, the researcher would also examine labour standards as human rights obligations. The human rights obligations of a state may require that states regulate the activities of non-state actors, so as to ensure that their citizens enjoy their rights.

Losing Heart: Declining Support and the Political Marketing of the Afghanistan Mission

Abstract. Public opinion shifted markedly between 2006 and 2007 regarding Canadian military participation in Afghanistan. Multivariate analysis of survey data reveals that the interplay of cognitive and emotional responses fractured support and consolidated opposition to the mission. Subsequently, a major government communication strategy, aimed at bolstering support for the Afghan mission succeeded at an informational level but failed to connect at an emotional one, leaving overall support for the mission essentially unchanged. Our analysis points to the need for nuanced interpretation of shifts in public support for war as well as in assessing political marketing efforts by government.Résumé. L'opinion publique s'est nettement décalée entre 2006 et 2007 concernant la participation militaire canadienne en Afghanistan. L'analyse multi variée des données d'aperçu indique que l'effet des réponses cognitives et émotives a divisé l'appui et a consolidé l'opposition à la mission. D'ailleurs, une stratégie importante de communication du gouvernement, destinée à augmenter le soutien de la mission afghane a réussi à un niveau informationnel, mais ne s'est pas reliée au niveau émotif, laissant le soutien global de la mission essentiellement inchangé. Notre analyse indique le besoin d'une interprétation diversifiée et nuancée des variations de soutien public face à la guerre ainsi qu'une évaluation du marketing politique du gouvernement.

Spheres of Governance in the Global Linkage: Collapse of American Ambition and Transnational Advocacy Coalition Networks

Globalization prompts governance activities to become more transnational and brought about the chain of reciprocal relations between multiple actors. Global governance is defined as the whole processes of making rules and norms and implementing governance activities to facilitate the coordination and interdependency of collective actions of multiple actors at the global, transnational regional, national, domestic regional, local levels. While there is no single polity like a world government, global governance does neither belong to a single hegemonic nation state, nor a single institution with a regulatory authority. As global governance activities are not limited to the activities of nation states, but should be carried by the activities of nonstate actors, they would be achieved through partnerships and participatory ways of multi-level actors by multiple linkages.Though globalization brings about two dimensional dynamics of convergence and divergence, the latter typical example was the 9/11 terrorist attacks. While we were faced with the dysfunction of the existing rules and norms, we were obliged to reconsider how to deconstruct the structure and architecture of global political framework. Over this point, we will consider the present situation of global political governance after American ambition to become a single hegemonic state was collapsed at that point of 9/11 and America had to change its unilateralism to multilateralism to carry the two wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. And next, we will scrutinize what kind of theoretical framework can explain both global governance and global activities. We will introduce theories of hyper state centrism and hyper globalism and propose to make up the transnational advocacy coalition networks by the global linkages among positive actors.

The Applicability of International Human Rights Law to Non-State Actors: What Relevance to Economic, Social and Cultural Rights?

In recent years, non-state actors (NSAs) such as transnational corporations, civil society groups, international organisations (including the World Trade Organisation, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund) as well as armed opposition or terrorist groups have assumed major roles in relation to the progressive enjoyment throughout the world of all human rights, and economic, social and cultural rights in particular. Despite this development, NSAs are still not bound directly by existing international human rights treaties which apply to states parties. The fact, however, is that the growth in the wealth and power of NSAs has meant an enhanced potential for NSAs to promote or undermine respect for human rights. This raises two fundamental questions examined in this article: (1) how should international human rights law ensure that the activities of NSAs are consistent with international human rights standards? (2) How should accountability of NSAs be promoted effectively when violations of international human rights law occur? It is concluded that in order to ensure more accountability for human rights violations by NSAs, it is relevant to consider the adoption of a Statute of an International Court of Human Rights, to which NSAs could also become parties in addition to states.

Positive Obligations and Gender-based Violence: Judicial Developments

AbstractInternational human rights protection traditionally protects individuals from human rights violations committed by their own states. This has been criticised by many, and feminists in particular, as failing those who are violated in the 'private sphere', by actions perpetrated by non-state actors not the state itself. Yet protection from the actions of non-state actors is now increasingly falling within the ambit of international human rights law through positive obligations on states, particularly seen in the concept of due diligence. Developments in this area are analysed in this article with focus on recent decisions of international human rights judicial institutions on cases concerning gender-based violence to show how gender-based violations committed by non-state actors are increasingly being included and interpreted as human rights violations. Whilst not without problems, it is argued that the creativity and potential for protecting all persons from human rights violations is shown, particularly through developments towards a right to personal autonomy, identity and integrity.

Nonstate Actors in the Global Climate Regime

This paper, written for a forthcoming volume on climate change, provides a positive analysis of the roles and impact of non-state actors (NGOs) in the global climate change regime. It first identifies some of the major actors and distinguishes between two main types of nonstate actors: NGOs and epistemic or expert/scientific communities. Special attention is given to a uniquely important scientific, though not purely nongovernmental, body: the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). We then describe and analyze the activities of nonstate actors, examine their influence on current international responses to global climate change, and assess the significance of their current prominence for theories of international cooperation.