Duty Bearers Research Articles

Key Factors That Influence Sustainability of Community Based Advocacy Groups After Phaseout of Donor Support

It is the wish of every stakeholder to see that donor supported structures such as community-based advocacy groups (CBAGs) continue to operate beyond donor support. Various studies show that donor-initiated structures which are often instituted at huge costs experience difficulties with regards to sustainability. This is because such structures reportedly cease to operate after their initial funding runs out resulting into wastage of human and financial resources that could have been invested effectively. However, there is dearth of information regarding the extent to which donor-initiated advocacy groups continue to serve the grassroots, years after phasing out of the donor support. The present study investigated the sustainability of CBAGs, taking a case of advocacy groups initiated and supported by DanChurchAid (DCA) in Malawi. Specifically, the study identified key factors that influence continued operation of CBAGs after years of donor cessation. A combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches was used to collect data from 226 respondents and 16 CBAGs sampled from Karonga, Dowa, Lilongwe, Mwanza and Neno districts from May to June 2020. Secondary data provided preliminary information and cross-validation of information. Descriptive statistics, logit regression and Critical Content Analysis were used to analyze the data. The study identified nine factors that are essential for continued operation of CBAGs namely age of the respondent, marital status of respondent, responsiveness of duty bearers, availability of basic systems and procedures, unity among members, community contribution, linkages and networking, fundraising skills, and availability of exit strategy. It was also noted that need to end corruption, increased prevalence of community problems, and expectation for future benefits were key motivators for members to continue serving in the CBAGs, years after donor support. The study recommends the need to encourage supporting organisations to develop exit strategies which would help to concretize the phasing out plan for supporting the CBAGs. Donors and well-wishers should consider investing in the weak institutional areas of the CBAGs such as organization registration, fundraising and organization systems and procedures which are critical to the institutionalization of the CBAGs. Finally, supporting organisations should design integrated advocacy interventions that achieves advocacy agenda without compromising the personal needs of the CBAGs members. This would require supporting the members with livelihoods activities which will in turn offer immediate needs as the members pursue advocacy work.

A perspective on utilizing legal frameworks to obligate service providers to protect human rights in Malawi: A Case of the Mandatory Provision on Pro Bono Services under the Legal Education and Legal Practitioners Act, 2018

Malawi's Constitution of 1994 changed the law in a pro-human rights direction. It provides for safe guarding measures aimed at protecting human rights. Malawi also has progressive pro-human rights legislations which emulate provisions of international and regional human rights instruments. However, enforcement of legal frameworks remains a challenge, partly due to poverty hence a large percentage of the population is unable to meet legal costs; lack of legal literacy and distance hinders access justice. A culture of silence continues to perpetuate human rights violations, so too uncoordinated efforts by service providers in protecting human rights. The majority of legal practitioners practice commercial law hence over burdening the Legal Aid Bureau with under privileged clients, whose cases mostly border on human rights violations. This paper will look at the opportunities government has in utilizing the legal frameworks to obligate duty bearers to provide services that aim to promote human rights including access to justice for under privileged Malawians. Legal practitioners are now, under the Legal Education and Legal Practitioners Act of 2018, obligated to provide pro bono legal services in order to have their licenses renewed. This has seen a rise in the number of under privileged people, particularly women, able to access justice at various levels. This can also be attributed to human rights awareness done by the Human Rights Commission, human rights lawyers and civil society organizations. This paper will therefore examine the positive impact such an initiative has had in protecting human rights and upholding the rule of law in Malawi.

Towards education in children’s languages in Jharkhand, India

Abstract Jharkhand, India, is home to around 20 indigenous languages. People from around 33 indigenous communities use these languages. Around 2010, the state used to experience children’s highest dropout from primary schools in the nation. In the education system there was no clarity about how to address this persistent issue. In 2011, the author set up a research cell titled M-TALL (Mother-Tongue-based Active Language Learning) akhra in the state. The center undertook a socio-linguistic survey which revealed that around 96% children in the state did not speak in Hindi. They communicated in their local indigenous languages at home, playground and market. The study also found out that children failed to understand their teacher and textbooks written in Hindi. Initially the duty bearers did not pay any attention to the findings. The M-TALL akhra researchers continued their exploration and collected a lot of learning resources from each community. They developed bilingual picture dictionaries in 9 indigenous and regional languages for use in children’s early grades. Then M-TALL akhra developed a pre-school education package. In 2016, the state government with help of M-TALL akhra developed culturally sensitive new textbooks in 5 indigenous and 2 regional languages. Using these, the state initiated a mother-tongue-based multilingual education programme in around 1000 schools.

Direct Rights of Individuals in the International Law of Armed Conflict

This contribution examines whether, under which conditions the international law of armed conflict (international humanitarian law, IHL) generates individual rights, and against whom. These primary rights are distinct from secondary rights which may accrue from a relationship of responsibility between violator and victim in the event of a breach of a primary norm of IHL, and from procedural rights to a remedy in the sense of access to institutions deciding on individual claims to reparation. Various provisions of IHL speak of “rights” of individuals on the primary level. Although some observers favour duties as the appropriate regulatory technique for achieving effective protection of humans, a reading of IHL which encompasses direct rights can be well explained and justified. The acknowledgment of rights has symbolic and practical consequences, notably for remedies, reparation, and waiver. A follow-up question is then against whom the IHL-based rights are opposable, who are the duty bearers. Overall, the recognition of IHL-based rights is helpful for steering IHL between the two evils of an overreach of human rights on the one side and a paternalist fixation on states on the other side.

Refugee and Asylum-Seeking Children: Interrupted Child Development and Unfulfilled Child Rights.

The 21st century phenomenon of “global displacement” is particularly concerning when it comes to children. Childhood is a critical period of accelerated growth and development. These processes can be negatively affected by the many stressors to which refugee and asylum-seeking children are subjected. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is the most ratified human rights treaty in history, with 196 States Parties (SPs). The CRC provides a framework of 54 articles outlining government responsibilities to ensure the protection, promotion, and fulfillment of rights of all children within their jurisdictions. Among these are the rights of refugee and asylum-seeking children, declared under Article 22 of the CRC. Refugee and asylum-seeking children, similarly to all other children, are entitled to their rights under the CRC and do not forgo any right by virtue of moving between borders. The hosting governments, as SPs to the CRC, are the primary duty bearers to fulfill these rights for the children entering their country. This manuscript provides an overview of the health and developmental ramification of being displaced for refugee and asylum-seeking children. Then, an in-depth analysis of the provisions under Article 22 is presented and the responsibilities of SPs under this article are described. The paper provides some international examples of strengths and shortcomings relating to these responsibilities and closes with a few concluding remarks and recommendations.

Empty Rituals or Workable Models? Towards a Business and Human Rights Treaty

In this article, we do not seek to engage directly with ongoing discussions regarding the potential merits, and conversely the risks, of seeking to conclude a Business and Human Rights (BHR) treaty at all. Instead, our aim is to promote a greater focus, in the context of the BHR treaty debate, on regulatory effectiveness. That is, we believe that proposals for a BHR treaty should be assessed in terms of their likely efficacy, relative to other available forms of regulatory intervention, in advancing effective enjoyment of human rights in the business context. Whereas many contributions to the BHR treaty debate so far have explicitly or implicitly advocated one or other treaty model they have side-stepped the difficult question of how practically effective these models might be in influencing the conduct of duty bearers.

The Missing Link

As the mandate of peace support operations has evolved since the mid-1990s to embrace a protection of civilians mandate, the necessary linkages have not been made with international human rights law and associated jurisprudence in relation to the right to life. Consequently, the extent and scope of the UN’s human rights obligations and the range of duty bearers involved is not properly appreciated and integrated into relevant instruments and administrative frameworks, which has a detrimental impact on the right to life. Given the absence of an oversight human rights mechanism for the UN, this article argues that jurisprudence from regional and international human rights bodies should be applied mutatis mutandis to peace support operations to bring more pressure and accountability to UN staff regarding adherence to international human rights standards. This includes not only front-line personnel using force, but also personnel responsible for: planning and controlling operations; operating command and coordination structures; providing training, information and equipment; establishing legal and administrative frameworks; and formulating operational guidelines and strategies.

GyanPrakashEmergency Chronicles: Indira Gandhi and India's Turning PointPrinceton: Princeton University Press, 2019. 439 pp. Index.

GyanPrakashEmergency Chronicles: Indira Gandhi and India's Turning PointPrinceton: Princeton University Press, 2019. 439 pp. Index.

Modern slavery and international business scholarship: the governance nexus

PurposeModern slavery is a problem that international business (IB) research can no longer ignore. Multinational enterprises (MNEs) are often contributors to the persistence of modern slavery, by virtue of the regulatory challenge they pose to states and their insufficient oversight of supply chains. The purpose of this paper is to show that governance inadequacies with respect to modern slavery will be lessened if IB scholars give more attention to MNEs’ governing role within and beyond global value chains.Design/methodology/approachA set of arguments is presented in support of intensified effort in IB research with respect to studying the role of MNEs in transnational labour governance. The paper draws inspiration from IB theory and the conceptualisation of the MNE in neighbouring disciplines that regard it as a bearer of duties toward labour, consistent with its role in multilevel governance. Insights from the literature on global and multi-level governance are utilised.FindingsThe paper construes modern slavery as a multi-level governance challenge and argues that MNE capabilities and responsibilities with respect to labour governance and the deterrence of slavery exceed those identified on the margins of IB literature. MNEs are underappreciated as governors within the multilevel transnational labour governance system. The IB discipline is in a strong position to develop our understanding of the MNE’s different roles in governance and thereby contribute to the reduced incidence of modern slavery.Originality/valueThis paper represents an attempt to mobilise the IB academy to help eliminate slavery from workplaces that rely on MNE patronage or where labour rights abuses are made possible by MNE diversion of governance resources. It places particular emphasis on the use and abuse of MNEs’ governance capabilities in the sphere of international relations and calls attention to over-simplification of the MNE, IB’s primary unit of analysis.

The weight of fairness

Many philosophers argue that individuals have duties to do their fair shares of the demands of achieving important common ends. But what happens when some individuals fail to do their fair shares? Are the remaining duty bearers required to take up the slack? The most prominent view, Fair Shares, holds that individuals are never required to take up the slack. But this view has counterintuitive implications; in many cases, it would show callous disregard not to take up the slack to help those in dire need. The central alternative, Slack-Taking, holds that considerations of fairness have no bearing in determining whether individuals are required to take up the slack. But this view fails to capture the practical importance of fairness in nonideal circumstances. I defend an alternative view, Weighing, according to which individuals properly weigh the value of fairness against the value of taking up the slack in determining whether they are all-things-considered required to take up the slack. While this view has been suggested before in the literature, I develop it by clarifying its structure and underlying rationale and defending it against important recent objections.

Justifying Extraterritorial Regulations of Home Country on Business And Human Rights

The regulation of home country to govern business and human rights has been commonly debated. It is argued that home states regulations have a potential role to play in the regulation of multinationals on business and human rights. It particularly can fill the gap due to the extraterritorial nature of MNC operations which requires an integrated regulatory approach and it can also provide alternative forum for victims to human rights violation by corporation to seek justice. The question is in what sense home states should be responsible for violations of human rights by subsidiaries in host countries. What are the justifications and what are the limitations? This article tries to answer those questions by highlighting the debates over the duty bearer, a right or obligations of home countries to impose extraterritorial regulations to other countries.

Breaking barriers: Using evidence from a Community Treatment Observatory (CTO) to enhance uptake of HIV services in Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone has a low HIV prevalence (1.5 per cent) but is faced with low uptake of HIV services, including testing, treatment, and treatment monitoring. The Network of HIV Positives in Sierra Leone (NETHIPS) established a Community Treatment Observatory (CTO) with support from its partners to generate evidence and engage duty bearers in improving service delivery. The CTO provides the unique advantage of galvanising efforts of civil society actors and affected populations on ways to tackle new infections and improve care for selected key populations in Sierra Leone.

Beyond Watchdog Journalism: Media and Social Accountability in South Africa

ABSTRACTThis article offers an analysis of newspaper coverage of education in the Eastern Cape. Using content analysis of news print media as a method of investigation, the findings illustrate a gap in education journalism in South Africa between 2005 and 2016. This study is an exploration of the education landscape in the Eastern Cape across two interrelated fields—social accountability and journalism. The aim is to understand the gaps in coverage in a key sector in the province, one that has continually been visible in the media, but which has also consistently failed to improve despite that visibility. The argument made herein is that for the media to be effective in holding duty bearers to account and fulfilling their role as “watchdogs” of society, what is required is a shift in the assumption that simply reporting on or highlighting corruption, maladministration or mismanagement of public resources is sufficient. Rather, the episodic reporting which is currently prevalent in education coverage keeps citizens information-poor and lacking the knowledge they require to actively hold public officials to account. The findings point to a failure by the printed press in fulfilling any accountability role and suggest that they are currently not contributing meaningfully to social accountability in the education sector in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province.

Using ICTs to enhance duty bearer accountability and transparency to citizens in Eastern and Northern Uganda

This article explores the use of ICTs to enhance engagement between citizens and leaders in Eastern and Northern Uganda. It highlights how ICT empowers citizens to demand accountability and transparency from leaders. The key objective was to establish the extent to which the use of ICT promoted leaders responsiveness to citizens' concerns about accountability and transparency. A participatory action research was used through key informant interviews, focus group discussions and survey targeting 180 citizens and leaders. Findings show that nearly 83.1% of the citizens (108 of the 120 who responded to the question) do use ICT to engage duty bearers on government programmes and accountability issues and the most commonly used ICTs by citizens to engage with leaders are mobiles phones (about 83.1%) and radios (64.6%). It was clear that use of ICT does indeed improve leader responsiveness to citizen concerns.

Administrative Check as a Form of Control in Executive and Administrative Activities of State Bodies

The relevance of the study of institutionalization of administrative checks in the control mechanism of executive authorities of general and special competence is predetermined by the contradiction between the constitutional foundations of these public relations and their implementation in modern Russia. The aim of the article is a comprehensive analysis of the theory, legislation and practice of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation on the issues of administrative checks organization. General scientific and special legal methods of cognition were used. The author proves that legal entities and individual entrepreneurs being autonomous bearers of rights and duties are not under administrative authority of federal ministries, agencies and services, executive and administrative bodies of constituent entities of the Russian Federation and municipalities. In this case subordination is limited due to administrative requirements that the law imposes on the activities of economic entities. The market economy involves a significant degree of self-regulation in organization of business. Management of small business, as well as large corporate management, as a general rule, implies independent planning, organization and control without state or municipal administration. The latter is required only in special cases when market competition is not able to ensure realization of public interests due to the natural striving of counterparties only to private advantage to the detriment of common values.

Using ICTs to enhance duty bearer accountability and transparency to citizens in Eastern and Northern Uganda

Using ICTs to enhance duty bearer accountability and transparency to citizens in Eastern and Northern Uganda

Human Rights and Public Health Ethics

This paper relates human rights to public health ethics and policies by discussing the nature and moral justification of human rights generally, and the right to health in particular. Which features of humanity ground human rights? To answer this question, as an alternative to agency and capabilities approaches, the paper offers the “fundamental conditions approach,” according to which human rights protect the fundamental conditions for pursuing a good life. The fundamental conditions approach identifies “basic health”—the adequate functioning of the various parts of our organism needed for the development and exercise of the fundamental capacities—as the object of a human right. A human right to basic health entails human rights to the essential resources for promoting and maintaining basic health, including adequate nutrition, basic health care, and basic education. Duty bearers include every able person in appropriate circumstances, as well as governments and government agencies, private philanthropic foundations, and transnational corporations.

Determinants of Accountability in the Bureaucracy: The Case of Nepal

Accountability of the position holders is an instrument for ensuring quality governance within the bureaucratic structure throughout the world, and Nepal is not an exception. Time and again, the government of Nepal has practiced various plans, policies, and institutional mechanisms to make duty bearers accountable for their actions and performance. However, it is a general feeling that still these have not resulted as expected. Citizens often feel that bureaucrats are being irresponsive and unaccountable, and bureaucrats are openly criticized. In this background, we examine the determinants of accountability in Nepali Bureaucracy using the primary data collected from 213 bureaucrats form the central level organization, i.e., Ministry of Education employing widely accepted framework as proposed by Yamane [56]. The estimated results show that the bureaucrats seem to be accountable. Transparency, responsibility, and responsiveness also appear to be good; however, liability and controllability were not found to meet the expectations. This scenario reveals that there is a weak controllability mechanism. Similarly, there was a weak system for performance-based reward and punishment. It is interesting to note that accountability of bureaucrats differs by their demographic attributes.

Government as a Key Duty Bearer in Transition Reforms from Socialism to Capitalism-The Case of Albania

The paper “Government as a key duty bearer in transition reforms from socialism to capitalism – the case of Albania”, addresses the way in which the government should exercise its power to ensure that citizens have equal access to social welfare services, enjoying their rights. Albania, like other Central and Eastern European countries experienced the past socialist system, which failed. The failure of the socialist system was the failure of the state: in political, economic and social terms. As far as economic policies are concerned, all data demonstrate the collapse of socialism, because the system was based on inefficiency, which eroded growth. Regardless of the principles of communist regimes adopted in former communist countries’ Constitutions, the past system brought neither equity nor justice, and therefore instead of “social cohesion”, the contradictions among social groups and categories, deepened. After the failure of socialism, Albania embarked on the new path aimed at establishing democratic regimes through the protection of human rights and at raising the standard of living. Albania has been proactive in ratifying international conventions relating to human rights in general and to vulnerable groups. Very recently, on June 2014, the European Council granted Albania candidate status, as a recognition for the reform steps undertaken in harmonizing its domestic organic laws and legislation with international standards. As part of these twin obligations from UN intergovernmental and EU processes, Albanian governments after the 90s have been progressively taking measures vis-à-vis efficient allocation of resources and effective distribution of social welfare. Nevertheless, Albanian citizens live in a dire reality. Therefore, after 25 years of transition, one of the main goals of reforms, “Efficient allocation of resources to boost growth and effective distribution of social welfare to enhance equity”, seems not to have been achieved. Undoubtedly, this influences the controversial opinions about the government’s control vis-à-vis government’s mode of functioning, advancing arguments that examine whether it is a question of abuse or that of concentration of power.

The Impacts of Climate Change and Human Rights: Some Early Reflections on the Carbon Majors Inquiry

The quest for remedies to address harm associated with the impacts of climate change has recently seen a surge in complaints based on human rights arguments. The use of human rights law as a tool to redress harm caused by climate change depends upon whether a victim can substantiate a claim that a duty bearer has contributed to climate change, in such a way as to amount to a human rights violation. Qualifying the effects of climate change as human rights violations, however, poses technical obstacles concerning causality, retrospectivity, attribution, as well as the provision of an adequate remedy. Yet, these obstacles are not insurmountable. As scientific knowledge improves, tracing causal connections between particular emissions and resultant harms is becoming less difficult. These arguments are being tested in the context of the so-called ‘Carbon Majors’ inquiry by the Human Rights Commission of the Philippines. The inquiry concerns the responsibility of a group of global corporations – dubbed the ‘Carbon Majors’ and including the likes of BP, Chevron, Exxon and Shell – for human rights violations or threats thereof resulting from the impacts of climate change. This paper looks at the Carbon Majors inquiry to critically appraise the role of human rights law in solving complex questions associated with responsibility for the impacts of climate change, until other areas of law raise to this challenge. The paper builds on the authors’ experience providing expert advice in the context of the Carbon Majors inquiry. The inquiry will therefore be used as a point of departure to unpack the questions concerning jurisdiction, causality, retrospectivity, and attribution associated with harm for the impacts of climate change.