Human Rights In Countries Research Articles

States living in glasshouses …: Why fighting domestic insurgency changes how countries vote in the UN human rights council

How do conflicts within a country's borders affect its behavior beyond them? We argue that fighting insurgencies at home shapes a country's human rights posture at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC). States often suppress insurgencies using methods that violate their international human rights commitments. They are therefore hesitant to condemn other countries’ alleged violations for fear of reciprocal condemnation of their own actions. This is especially true in countries with greater media freedom where the media is more likely to hold the state accountable for human rights violations, and to highlight its apparent hypocrisy internationally. Such states, we argue, are more likely to vote against or abstain from resolutions that target individual states for human rights transgressions. We test this claim with a global statistical analysis of country voting patterns at the UNHRC from 1973 to 2017. Our results yield new insights into the determinants of countries’ voting behavior in multilateral human rights fora.

Covid-19, racism and the ‘state of exception’? A theological ethical engagement with identity and human rights in an age of ‘Corona’ and beyond

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the role that religion and politics play at the intersection with individual and social rights. Religiously informed political actors capitalised on fears and prejudices to further science denialism, normalise nationalist ideologies, and curtail human rights. In the United States of America, Brazil, and South Africa, it took the form of problematic political theologies. In many instances, a state of exception, as understood in the work of Giorgio Agamben, was enacted. Such actions often have biopolitical significance revolving around making political choices informed by religious beliefs that impact on individual bodies and social freedoms. This extends from individual bodies tosocieties. This research employs a qualitative literature approach to investigate the intersection of political and theological beliefs during the pandemic. It highlights the impact of populist political theologies on the erosion of democracy and human rights in countries that have highly religious populations. It is argued that these strategies reach beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.

Utopia Lost – Human Rights in a Digital World

The long progress towards universal human rights is regressing. This regression is pronounced within digital spaces once thought to be potential bulwarks of a new era in human rights. Yet, new technologies have given rise to threats that undermine the autonomy, empathy, and dignity of human beings. Early visions of human rights being strengthened by networked technologies have instead crashed into technological realities which not only do not advance human rights discourses but rather serve to actively undermine fundamental human rights in countries around the world. The future of human rights is increasingly threatened by advances that would make George Orwell blush. Omnipresent data collection and algorithmic advances once promising a utopian world of efficiency and connection are deeply interwoven with challenges to anonymity, privacy and security. This paper examines the impact of technological advances on the regression of human rights in digital spaces. The paper examines the development of human rights through changes in concepts of autonomy, empathy, dignity and charts their regression as technologies increasingly prey on these very same characteristics that undergird human rights discourses.

Seeking the Hypocrisy of Biden Administration’s Human Rights Discourse from its Policy toward the Palestinian-Israeli Issue

After taking office, the Biden administration raised human rights and other values to a much higher position in foreign policy than during the Trump administration, claiming that it would regard the protection of human rights in countries around the world as an important goal of its foreign policy. However, from the perspective of its policy practice on the Palestinian-Israeli issue, its relevant human rights discourse cannot stand the test of facts at all. Although Israel has seriously violated Palestinian human rights for a long time, the Biden administration has paid little attention to the Palestinian-Israeli issue and basically inherited the Trump administration’s policy on key issues of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, which is tantamount to supporting Israel’s human rights violations. During the Gaza war that broke out in May 2021, the Biden administration refused to condemn Israel’s bombing of Gaza, repeatedly stressed that Israel’s actions were in self-defense, and not only continuously obstructed the Security Council’s adoption of statements condemning Israel and calling for a ceasefire between the two sides, it also approved arms sales to Israel. The above actions of the Biden administration fully reflect the hypocrisy of its human rights discourse.

"It's because We are 'Loose Girls' That's why We had Children with MINUSTAH Soldiers": A Qualitative Analysis of Stigma Experienced by Peacekeeper-Fathered Children and Their Mothers in Haiti.

Sexual abuse and exploitation (SEA) perpetrated by UN peacekeepers while on mission is a violation of human rights and undermines the goal of upholding human rights in countries that host peacekeeping missions. In addition to survivors, children fathered by peacekeepers are also victims of SEA that need protection. Stigma poses negative life course consequences for SEA survivors and their peacekeeper-fathered children. However, there is a considerable lack of empirical research concerning the stigma experiences of SEA survivors and their children in post-colonial contexts. The present study addresses this knowledge gap by drawing on The United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti as a case study to examine the lived experiences of stigma among SEA survivors and their resultant children. Using 18 qualitative semi-structured interviews conducted in 2017 with Haitian women raising peacekeeper-fathered children, we organized qualitative codes according to Link and Phelan's conceptual model of stigma. The stigmatization process was explored through the themes of labeling, stereotyping, separation, and status loss and discrimination, as described by Link and Phelan. In addition, we nuanced the lived experiences of stigma by discussing the buffering roles of familial acceptance, skin phenotype, and the Haitian context. The findings have implications for the UN. We advocate that stigma be recognized and acted upon as a fundamental protection concern for SEA survivors and their children. Accordingly, the UN has an obligation to provide stigma-related supports for victims and complainants as well as to facilitate long-term child support for the children left behind by peacekeepers.

Roots, Rights and Risk: Canada, Childhood and the COVID-19 Global Pandemic.

The COVID-19 global pandemic highlights pre-existing inequities as well as the challenge of ensuring the protection of children’s human rights in countries like Canada that have ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. SARS-CoV-2, referred to as the 2019 novel Coronavirus disease or COVID-19, presents a significant threat to public health. Although children are considered to be low risk of contracting, spreading, and serious complications of the disease, are considerably impacted by COVID-19 government-sanctioned distancing measures. COVID-19 is a persistent public health threat, thus, the long-term consequences are largely unknown. This qualitative research study, a content analysis of online Canadian media reports of COVID-19 and children, engaged transdisciplinary social justice methodology, social constructions of childhood at the intersection of race, socio-economic status, gender, and disability. The findings suggest COVID-19 reinforces the impact of social exclusion and economic disparity on equity-seeking young people and families in Canada.

Restricting NGOs: From Pushback to Accommodation

Restricting NGOs: From Pushback to Accommodation

European Media Coverage of Brazil's New Human Rights: 1964–1985

Drawing from a study of Brazilians' interactions with the transnational human rights movements and advocacy networks of the 1960s-1980s, this paper discusses the channels through which Brazilians' concerns for rights and development during their military dictatorship reached audiences of national newspapers in Belgium, France, the UK, and Switzerland. It reveals, to a previously unacknowledged degree, the significant role played by Brazilian Liberation Theology in framing the country's human rights struggles, and points to various ways that local environments and institutions influenced the framing of solidarity and news reporting on Brazil.

Teaching Human Rights in Commonwealth University Law Schools: Approaches and Challenges, With Passing References to Some South African Experiences

There have been a number of international commitments by members of the United Nations, including Commonwealth countries, to include human-rights education in their formal and informal education programmes. In addition, the Commonwealth Legal Education Association (CLEA), under the auspices of the Commonwealth Secretariat, has produced a Model Human Rights Curriculum for Commonwealth countries. Despite these initiatives, there appears to have been no systematic programme for introducing human-rights education at Commonwealth universities. An increasing number of Commonwealth law schools, however, have introduced human-rights law by integrating it into existing law courses as a “stand-alone” optional or core course, or as a combination of both. In addition, university-based centres for human rights have been established. The importance of the role that universities can play in advancing human rights in countries transitioning from autocracy to democracy is illustrated with passing references to the South African experience.

Human rights in countries of origin and the mental health of migrants to Canada.

This study explores the effect of human rights violations in countries of origin on migrants' mental health, using archival data on human rights violations from 1970-2011, merged to a representative probability sample of 2412 adults living in a large Canadian metropolitan area. The context of exit is defined at the country level, as opposed to self-reported individual experiences of trauma. While most studies start from a question about direct exposure to human rights violations, they may miss the effect of the national-level social context - threat, instability, disruption of lives, and uncertainty - on mental health. Findings indicate that high levels of human rights violations in countries of origin have long-term effects on migrants’ mental health. The impact of human rights violations is substantially explained by the combined effect of stressors both before and after migration, suggesting a cumulative process of stress proliferation following this context of exit.

The contribution of Project Team Personal Competence to Sustainable Outcomes in Development Projects

Projects are undertaken to serve the particular purposes of organizations. Many projects focus on having monetary benefits, but some projects are non-profit oriented and funded by international or national non-governmental organizations (NGOs) or donors to serve the development of communities. These funded projects are usually established in many disciplines including health, environment, economics, education, social and human rights in countries where the welfare of the population is deficient. From perspectives of project teams and sponsors, having a project-oriented approach allows more project control over their available resources and expected outcomes, especially long-term or sustainable outcomes. In this study, the term ‘sustainable outcomes’ refers to project activities and their outcomes that survive after the termination of external funding. Sustainable outcomes are derived from the maintenance of benefits generated from an initial project, the continuation of project activities within a new organization, and the maintenance of benefits realization. The sustainable outcomes are impacted by abilities to carry out both on¬going and long-term implementation. Therefore, it is important to ensure that personal competence in development projects contribute to sustainable outcomes. This study employs a correlation coefficient analyses to identify personal competence of project team members that contribute to achieving sustainable outcomes. Seventy-five respondents from development projects participated in the questionnaire survey. The research findings show that each of the sustainable outcome domain required different combinations of personal competence attributes.

INTERNATIONAL LAW AND HUMAN RIGHTS IMPLEMENTATION: ALBANIA AFTER THE FALL OF DICTATORSHIP (1990-2018)

International law is one of the main legal instruments which has influenced the implementation of Human Rights in various countries, especially in the last decades. Conventions regarding the protection of these kind of rights have gained a substantial importance especially after the Cold War. Nevertheless, the protection of human rights is still one of the most debatable issues among scholars, authors, and other societal actors. However, this paper will focus on the progress that Albania has made in the context of the Human Rights after the fall of dictatorship, since only at this point Albania was ready to embrace the international system’s set of values. During the early 1990s, several international actors played a major role in regard to human rights in the country [Albania]. Not only its political system was changed due to the international intervention, but also its economic and societal environment was considerably transformed. However, this paper aims to analyze the Albanian context regarding some of the main Fundamental Human Rights like the protection of human dignity, the right to life, the freedom of expression and the right to a fair trial, since these were some of the basic Human Rights which were suppressed under the dictatorial regime. Furthermore, this study will also focus on the actual debate of Human Rights by analyzing the right of good administration as one of the main fundamental rights that individuals should enjoy nowadays, as it is stated in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. Despite the fact that Albania has shown substantial progress in this background [amelioration of Human Rights] since the fall of dictatorship, according to several international organizations’ reports there is still considerable work to be done in this background.

The EU’s dual-use export control and human rights risks: the case of cyber surveillance technology

Export of cyber technology can undermine human rights in countries of destination. In the aftermath of the Arab Spring, political controversies have arisen around EU-exported cyber surveillance technology, which allegedly helped autocratic states monitor and arrest dissidents. While cyber technology is indispensable to our lives, it can be used to suppress the right to privacy, the freedom of expression and the freedom of association, not only in the EU, but also in the countries it trades with. The EU has taken a proactive role in reforming the export of human rights-sensitive cyber technology. In September 2016 the European Commission proposed the integration of human rights due diligence in the process of export control. The Commission’s proposal, however, invited strong contestations both from industry and Member States. Essentially, dual-use export control has developed in order to mitigate military risks. Attempts to integrate human rights risks in export control have thus invited discomfort among stakeholders. This paper unpacks normative tensions arising from the EU’s attempts to integrate human rights risks in its export control regimes. By so doing, the paper highlights fundamental tensions embedded in the EU’s value-based Common Commercial Policy, of which dual-use export control forms an integral part.

JURIDICAL AND PHENOMENOLOGICAL HERMENEUTICS OF HUMAN RIGHTS FUNDAMENTS / HERMENEUTICA JURÍDICA E FENOMENOLÓGICA DOS FUNDAMENTOS DE DIREITOS HUMANOS

This article explores the issue of international Human Rights proclamations and their vague application concerning the rights disposed. It also elaborates on the phenomenological philosophy in Edmund Husserl and its application as a scientific research method, emphasizing in applications in juridical research. It proposes the implementation of the phenomenological method as a solution to fulfill the need of understanding the essence of Human Rights as proclaimed in legal documents. Phenomenology, in Edmund Husserl is understood as a philosophy that allows an intuitive comprehension of the essence of things. That being, the phenomenological method of scientific research would be able to find the essence of phenomena and their fundamentals. It is a descriptive, phenomenological research, having as methodology the investigation of international legal documents that talk about ratified Human Rights in countries in all five continents, as well as the Brazilian juridical ordering and the existing lack of fundament concerning Human Rights such as freedom, equality and dignity.

Realising Rights in Low Quality Democracies: Instructive Asian Cases

Do justiciable legal frameworks for the protection of human rights (JLFPHR) promote the realisation of human rights in countries with low quality democracies? If so, under what conditions? And what do answers to these questions imply for activists’ strategies for promoting human rights? This essay considers these questions drawing on the papers published here on Indonesia, Nepal, Malaysia and Timor Leste. It suggests that while rights agendas encounter serious political, social and institutional obstacles in low quality democracies, JLFPHR make a positive contribution to rights realisation by: (i) aiding political mobilisation by poor and marginalised groups and their supporters in the NGO movement and (ii) providing a legal basis for these groups to challenge rights breaches through the courts, at least where viable legal pathways for such efforts exist and these groups can muster the financial, organisational and technical resources required to launch and sustain court cases. In terms of strategy, the paper thus suggests that, in addition to constructing JLFPHR, rights activists should focus on facilitating political mobilisation around rights issues, constructing legal pathways that are likely to be receptive to rights causes, and creating support structures to enable citizens to exploit these pathways.

Martii Koskenniemi on Human Rights: An Empirical Perspective

Martii Koskenniemi argues that human rights law is indeterminate, and that arguments based on human rights unavoidably reflect the policy preferences of the speaker. I connect this argument to empirical evidence of the failure of international human rights treaties to improve human rights in countries that have ratified them. I argue that many features of the human rights regime that are celebrated by lawyers — the large number of treaties, the vast number of rights, the large amount of institutionalization, and the involvement of NGOs — actually reflect the failure of the regime. Governments tolerate these developments because they add to the indeterminacy of the legal regime, freeing them to act in the public interest when they are motivated to do so.

Beyond ‘Don't Be Evil’: The European Union GSP+ Trade Preference Scheme and the Incentivisation of the Sri Lankan Garment Industry to Foster Human Rights

AbstractOrthodox discourse on business and human rights tends to conceive of the human rights responsibility of corporations in terms of minimising the negative human rights impacts of their own activities, as opposed to exerting a net positive effect on human rights. On 15 August 2010, however, Sri Lanka's access to the EU's Generalized System of Preferences (GSP)+ trade incentives was withdrawn for reasons relating to that country's human rights record, creating an actual positive economic incentive for Sri Lankan businesses to actively engage the government on its human rights record. In this context, the author explores the potential for the Sri Lankan garment industry, which is highly dependent on exports to the EU, to effect positive human rights change in Sri Lanka.

Certification Schemes and the Governance of Land: Enforcing Standards or Enabling Scrutiny?

Given the challenges of upholding human rights in countries where land grabbing has been most acute, attention has turned to alternative regulatory mechanisms by which better land governance might be brought about. This essay considers one such approach: certification schemes. These encourage agricultural producers to adopt sustainability standards which are then monitored by third-party auditors. Used by the European Union to help govern its biofuel market, they now also have an important mandatory dimension. However, through a study of Bonsucro and the Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels, we find both flaws in their standards and shortcomings in their ability to discipline the companies they are financially dependent upon. In sum, we suggest that the real value of these roundtable certification schemes might lie less in their ability to enforce standards than their (partially realised) role in enabling scrutiny, providing new possibilities for corporate accountability in transnational commodity chains. Dados los retos para defender los derechos humanos en países a donde el acaparamiento de tierras ha sido más grave, se ha prestado atención a mecanismos reguladores alternativos que hubieran podido aportar mejor gobernanza de las tierras. Este artículo considera uno de estos enfoques: esquemas de certificación. Estos fomentan a los productores agrícolas a adoptar estándares de sostenibilidad, que luego son monitoreados por auditores externos. Ahora ellos tienen también una importante dimensión obligatoria, usada por la Unión Europea para ayudar a gobernar su mercado de biocombustible. Sin embargo, a través de un estudio de Bonsucro y la Mesa redonda sobre biocombustibles sostenibles, hemos encontrado tanto defectos en sus estándares, como fallos en su habilidad para disciplinar a las compañías de las que dependen económicamente. En suma, sugerimos que el valor real de estos esquemas de certificación de la mesa redonda pueda radicar menos en su habilidad para imponer estándares que su rol (parcialmente realizado) en permitir un análisis minucioso, brindando nuevas posibilidades para la rendición de cuentas corporativas en las cadenas de artículos de consumo trasnacionales. 面对维护土地掠夺已经严重加剧的国家人权的挑战，关注已经转向可选择性的调控机制，通过这些机制，可以实现较好的土地管理。本文探讨这样一种方法：认证方案。这鼓励农业生产者采取被第三方审核者监督的可持续性标准。这被欧盟用来管理生物燃料市场，现在也具有重要的强制性方面。尽管如此，通过对Bonsucro和可持续燃料圆桌会议的研究，我们看到了标准中的缺点和在监管其财政上依靠的公司方面的能力不足。总之，我们提出这些圆桌会议认证方案的真正价值可能比它们（部分实现的）审查监督功能更少地存在于其执行标准的能力中，同时为跨国商品链中的公司责任提供了新的可能性。 بالنظر إلى تحديات توطيد حقوق الإنسان في البلدان التي تتسم فيها عمليات الاستيلاء على الأراضي بالحدِّة، فقد تحول الاهتمام إلى آليات تنظيمية بديلة يمكن من خلالها تحقيق حوكمة أفضل للأرض. وتنظر المقالة الحالية في المقاربة التالية: خطط التصديقات. وهي تشجع المنتجين الزراعيين على اعتماد معايير مستدامة يرعاها طرف ثالث مراجع. وقد سبق أن استخدمها الاتحاد الأوروبي للتحكم في سوق الوقود الحيوي، واكتسبت الآن بعدًا إلزامياً مهماً. غير أنه من خلال دراسة بونسوكرو Bonsucro والمائدة المستديرة بشأن الوقود الحيوي المستدام، نجد نقائص تشوب معاييرها، وإخفاقات في قدرتها على فرض الانضباط على الشركات المعتمدة مالياً عليها. ثم نقترح بإيجاز أن القيمة الحقيقية لخطط التصديقات قد تكمن في قدرتها على "فرض المعايير" أكثر من دورها (المفهوم جزئياً) في "التمكين من التدقيق"، مما يوفر إمكانيات جديدة لمساءلة الشركات في السلاسل السلعية العابرة للقوميات. 토지 매입이 가장 심한 나라들에서 인권 옹호라는 과제가 주어지면서 더 나은 토지 거너번스가 가져올 대안적인 규제 기제에 관심이 주어졌다. 이 글은 한 가지 이러한 접근으로 자격증 형식을 다룬다. 이것은 농업 생산자들이 제3의 회계사들에 의해서 감시되는 지속가능성 기준을 채택하는 것을 독려한다. 현재 바이오 연료 시장을 관리하기 위해 유럽 연합이 사용하고 있는 그 방법은 또한 중요한 강제적인 차원을 지니고 있다. 그렇지만, 본스쿠로와 지속가능한 바이오 연료 라운드테이블의 연구를 통해서 그것이 기준에서 문제를 지니고 있고, 재정적으로 의존하고 있는 기업을 규율하는 능력에서의 실패를 발견하였다. 결론적으로 우리는 이러한 라운드 테이블 자격증 조치의 실질적인 가치는 초국적 상품 쇄에서 기업의 책무성에서 새로운 가능성을 제공하여, ‘특별한 권한을 부여하는 조사(enabling scrutiny)’에서의 역할보다는 ‘기준 강제(enforce standards)’의 능력에서 덜 하다는 점을 제안한다. Учитывая проблемы соблюдения прав человека в странах, где захват земель был наиболее острым, наше внимание обратилось к альтернативным регулирующим механизмам, с помощью которых может быть улучшено земельное управление. Наше эссе рассматривает один из таких подходов - системы сертификации. Они поощряют сельхозпроизводителей принять стабильные стандарты, которые затем контролируются сторонними аудиторами. Теперь у них тоже есть обязательные измеряемые показатели, используемые Европейским Союзом в управлении своим рынком биотоплива. Вместе с тем, исследовав Bonsucro и Круглый стол по устойчивому биотопливу, мы находим недостатки в их стандартах и недостатки в их способности дисциплинировать компании, от которых они финансово зависят. В целом, мы полагаем, что реальная ценность этих круглых столов и схем сертификации в меньшей степени состоит в способности обеспечивать соблюдение стандартов, нежели (частично понятая) в роли обеспечения контроля, новых возможностей для корпоративной ответственности в транснациональных товарных цепях.

Measuring National Human Rights: A Reflection on Korean Experiences

This article proposes a research strategy to construct national human rights indicators and indices and uses this strategy for the assessment of human rights observance in the Republic of Korea during the period 1990 to 2007. To ensure reliability, the proposed indicators are derived from the Concluding Observations issued by the committees of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). The analysis of the constructed composite indices reveals a dramatic trend of a country's human rights improvements and setbacks over time. The article maintains that the proposed strategy is easily replicable by countries seeking to systematically assess and subsequently improve their human rights.

Where Is the Tipping Point? Bilateral Trade and the Diffusion of Human Rights

Drawing on a panel of 136 countries over the period 1982–2004, we study a tipping point version of Vogel's ‘California Effect’ in the context of the diffusion of human rights practices. Because human rights practices are often deeply embedded in a society's customs and political institutions, we expect that a high level of pressure from the importing countries is needed to bring about changes in an exporting country's human rights records. We find strong empirical support for this threshold effect; provided that the average level of respect for human rights in importing countries is sufficiently high, trading relationships can operate as transmission belts for the diffusion of human rights practices from importing to exporting countries.