Institutionalization Of Human Rights Research Articles

Conflict Prevention and Guarantees of Non-Recurrence

Guarantees of non-recurrence of mass atrocity crimes are embedded within the United Nations resolutions and declarations on peacebuilding and sustainable development, particularly SDG 16 linking social integration, justice, and sustainable peace. The United Nations and the World Bank recognize the need to channel conflict towards socially regenerative pathways, and work to prevent conflict prior to its effect on the social, economic, and political systems that drive human development. Yet there is a scarcity of empirical investigations into the requisite societal incentives and capabilities for the fostering of local dynamics to reduce the risk of conflict, including the establishment and function of constitutions, human rights institutions, and transitional justice processes. As part of the joint World Bank-United Nations “Sustaining Peace: Making Development Work for the Prevention of Violent Conflicts” project, this study provides an initial exploration of the relationship between these factors and conflict reoccurrence. In Part I of this report, we define the set of concepts used in the study and set out the hypotheses drawn from the existing literature on relationships of transitional justice mechanisms and institutional and civil society factors to conflict non-recurrence. The section identifies underlying assumptions, their logic, and the scope for their interrogation. It further summarizes existing empirical studies on the hypothesized relationship between post-conflict policy and conflict reoccurrence, and the existing gaps in understanding. In Part II of the paper, with a technical appendix attached, we present a summary of our findings based on a statistical testing of the relationships described in part I. We find that new constitutions and trials of certain perpetrators of violent crimes a correlated with conflict non- recurrence. We do not find any statistically significant relationship between particular provisions of national constitutions, national human rights institutions and ombuds offices, and non- prosecutorial transitional justice mechanisms and conflict non-recurrence. In the concluding section of the report (Part III) we set out the policy implications of our findings and outline areas for further investigation. Our findings suggest that international agencies could most directly target conflict non-recurrence by focusing, first, on the creation of new constitutions and the promotion of prosecutorial mechanisms to advance accountability for middle and low level perpetrators of abuses.. Despite our statistical findings, we would not recommend abandoning support for national human rights institutions and ombuds offices, specific constitutional provisions, truth commissions, and amnesties. These mechanisms do not increase (or decrease) the likelihood of reoccurrence of conflict. However, they may advance other goals, and provide transitional governments the flexibility in determining the set of institutional mechanisms they prioritize following conflict. Moreover, data limitations necessitate further research and analysis. We propose additional qualitative and quantitative analysis of national human rights institutions and ombuds offices, and pre-conflict constitutional provisions, less commonly used forms of transitional justice (e.g., reparations, vetting, and accountability for corporate complicity), qualitative analysis of successful peace processes, and qualitative analysis of conflicts that reoccurred after ten years of peace.

CRITICAL STUDIES OF INDONESIA’S INTEREST IN RATIFICATION PROCESS OF THE 1951 CONVENTION AND 1967 PROTOCOL


 
 The increasing number of refugees each year has caused the government difficulties in handling refugee issues. The absence of law concerning refugees in Indonesia has caused weak coordination between related institutions in field. In this paper will discuss what the urgency, relevance, and obstacles faced by Indonesia in the process of ratification of the 1951 Convention and 1967 Protocol. The research method used in this paper is qualitative normative legal research method with deductive logical thingking. The urgency to ratify this Convention can strengthen the human rights institutions in the country, although this is not the only indicator for good human rights implementation. It is because some human rights norms are in fact also regulated in domestic legislation in the current reform era this. Indonesia can not exclude the existence of the International Convention on Human Rights. Even it is necessary to bring the domestic and international factors closer. The relevance to ratify this Convention will enhance the international accountability of a country through a more objective and civilized way. Meanwhile, in terms of legal technical considerations, the ratification will strengthen and enrich the national legal instruments so that it will better ensure the progress and protection of human rights better. Ratification can even be a shortcut to bring closer the existing gap between legal instruments at the international and national levels. Obstacles faced are categorized into two aspects, namely the security and legal aspects. The security aspect caused by refugees is often seen as a threat to the state. While the legal aspects of the law are caused by the absence of comprehensive rules in regulating the refugees and asylum seekers in positive law in Indonesia that can weaken the coordination between agencies in the field. As a law-based country that highly appreciate human rights, ratification of The 1951 Refugee Convention and 1967 Protocol must be a priority. Both instruments are relevant, since the substance are not only heavily loaded with regulation about human rights but also in line with cultural values and norms in Indonesia. As such, the process of ratification needs to consider the country readiness, in terms of technical, political and legal aspects, since those aspects are sometimes challenging. On this matter, ratification is expected to narrow the gap between national and international instruments of law.
 
 

From gatekeepers to GONGOs

Despite growing awareness of the importance of the role of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in monitoring international human rights law, there is as yet little analysis of the heterogeneous nature of NGOs and of the relationships between NGOs engaging with the United Nations (UN). This socio-legal analysis was drawn from 26 interviews with key stakeholders across the UN, Governments and NGOs. The article analyses, problematises and maps the NGO role, presenting a taxonomy with six categories of NGOs engaging with UN human rights bodies - international facilitative, gatekeeper, imperialist, domestic self-sufficient, domestic dependent and Governmental Non-governmental Organisations (GONGOs). It also considers the role of National Human Rights Institutions in engaging with the UN, vis-à-vis the NGO role. A preferred NGO model of engagement according to those in the UN receiving NGO reports is presented. The article concludes that NGOs play a pragmatic role in addressing limitations of the UN human rights system, and a normative role in contributing to global democratisation and governance.

А. MAKARENKO'S IDEAS ON THE FORMATION OF PUPILS' CITIZENSHIP AND THEIR IMPLEMENTATION IN THE COUNTRIES OF THE EUROPEAN UNION

The development of modern Ukraine as a legal, democratic, socially oriented state and the creation of a civil society is organically linked with the reform of the education system on a humanistic basis, the definition of a new strategy for education as a multicomponent and multi-vector system, which greatly shapes the future development of the Ukrainian state.At the current stage of Ukraine's development, the lack of civic consciousness of school youth, lack of awareness of the foundations of democratic citizenship, the importance and effectiveness of human rights institutions, the rule of law, and the role of youth in these processes are acutely felt. An important role is played by the question of the formation of a citizen, his civic culture, education in the legal, social and political fields. The problem of preserving the national pride and strengthening the patriotic sentiment of the student youth is acute.The purpose of the article is to consider the relevant domestic pedagogical experience and experience of leading democratic countries, in particular the European Union countries, about the effective process of forming the citizenship of a student as a civil society actress, a citizen-patriot of Ukraine, acting on the basis of national and European values.

Human rights

The RCN has teamed up with the British Institute of Human Rights to produce a series of guides on human rights in nursing, midwifery and end of life care.

National Human Rights Institutions and Oversight of the Security Services

National Human Rights Institutions and Oversight of the Security Services

Evidence for hope: making human rights work in the 21st century

Human rights work. This is the message Kathryn Sikkink delivers in her most recent book, Evidence for hope: making human rights work in the 21st century. Writing in response to the current widespread pessimism about human rights, the author's intention is not necessarily to soothe hostile audiences, as the term ‘hope’ in the title would suggest. Rather, she reclaims powerful human rights lessons and rectifies common misunderstandings to advocate for more proactive, well-informed action at a time when this is sorely needed. Unlike other, conventional academic works in the field, Evidence for hope combines scientific rigour in addressing major, contemporary criticisms of human rights with the ability to propose objective means of promoting them exactly where it seems most crucial. In order to do this, Sikkink relies on both scholarship and practices to suggest tailored policy recommendations to deal with ongoing human rights violations. Such a comprehensive book was made possible by the author's careful review of the history of international human rights laws, institutions and movements around the globe. Sikkink has a firm grasp on human rights, avoiding modish precedents which could suggest imposition from the Global North towards the South. The first chapter legitimizes human rights by reminding readers of their diverse origins: Latin American jurists, diplomats and activists early in the 1940s envisioned and advocated for international human rights law; while states in Africa, Asia and the Middle East took the lead in the 1960s and 1970s to build the first strong international human rights institutions. In other words, here one finds evidence of the global South's protagonism in the international human rights system.

Das Subjekt der Menschenrechte

This paper proposes a political understanding of human rights which allows not to dissolve the contradiction between the positive and the normative aspect entailed in the idea and the institution of human rights, but rather to keep them together dialectically. I discuss the relationality of human rights through Hannah Arendt’s idea of the right to have rights and I develop it further through Jacques Rancière’s concept of subjectivity. This allows me to explain the dialectic of the human rights as a conflict between existing positive rights, which assign specific subjects or groups to specific territories and legal spheres, and a universal claim of human equality and freedom, which is challenged from excluded, unclassified social groups and which is performed in situations of protests. I further explain the radical democratic potential of human rights on the paradigmatic case of struggles for a right to global movement and to political belonging. In order to grasp the complexity of those subjectivity practices, I distinguish four different dimensions of subjectivity: a legal and political one, an affective one, an epistemic one and finally an ethical transcultural one

Freedom of Assembly in the Practice of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation

Freedom of assembly is a complex institution of human rights containing norms, both legislative acts and mandatory prescriptions of the highest bodies of the judiciary, primarily the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation. Since the adoption of the Federal Law No. 54-FZ of June 19, 2004, On Meetings, Rallies, Demonstrations, Processions and Picketing, the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation has issued about two dozen different decisions on the most important issues for public life in organizing and holding public events. Analysis of these decisions is an actual problem, since without their understanding and systematization it is difficult to regulate social relations related to such a fundamental political right as freedom of assembly. This article is devoted to the analysis and systematization of the entire practice of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation on freedom of assembly. To date, there are some works devoted to the analysis of some decisions of constitutional court proceedings. The most complex overview of them is an article by T.M. Khramova in which the decisions of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation for the period 2012-2013 on the verification of the compliance of the Constitution with legislative acts that toughen the freedom of assembly after the protest demonstrations of 2011-2012 are analyzed. In the present work eighteen definitions and decisions for the period from 2003 to 2017 on various aspects of freedom of assembly were analyzed. In particular, issues such as: the duality of freedom of assembly; restriction of freedom of assembly at the level of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation and restriction by regulatory legal acts of the President of the Russian Federation; ban on holding public events in certain places; specially designated places for public events; giving notice of a public event on public holidays; coordination of the time and place of the public event; regulation of picketing; prohibition of preliminary agitation of a public event prior to its approval; concealment by participants of their persons at public events; stop picketing by delivering to the police station to protect against the threat to life and health; responsibility for participation in an unsanctioned rally; prohibition to be the organizers of public events for persons who have committed separate offenses or crimes; responsibility of the organizer for exceeding the number of participants indicated in the notification for holding a public event; administrative and civil liability of the organizer of a public event for the harm caused by the participants; the limitation period for bringing to administrative responsibility for violation of legislation on public events; the amount of administrative fines and penalties for violation of legislation on public events; the imposition of a fine for violation of legislation on public events below the lowest limit; criminal responsibility for the repeated violation of legislation on public events.

"Language coach" – інструмент формування та розвитку крос-культурної компетентності

The article reveals the description of a scientific and practical project aimed at developing cross-cultural competence among students of the Borys Grinchenko University of Kyiv. The mechanisms of formation and development of cross-cultural competence among students of the youth are revealed, as well as theoretically, the structural components of the above mentioned competence are researched in order to further successful adaptation of the personality in the process of intercultural communication. These components include: sensitivity to intercultural differences and linguistic understanding. An interactive tool for the formation and development of cross-cultural competence, author's personal diary "Language coach" was developed and tested. The principles and levels of this tool are described. Principles include: principles of conscious learning and conscious choice, interaction, positive attitude, creativity, reflexivity, self-motivation and readiness to act, self-management and monitoring, active and productive action. The content of the co-educational, interactive, creative, activity and reflexive levels of the proposed author's interactive tool is revealed. The peculiarities of the linguistic and socio-cultural component of the indicated instrument are revealed. Italso describes the filling and specificity of the tasks, designed for the 21st day of the diary. Project Duration: February 2017-December 2018. Testing of interactive tools took place during the first semester of the academic year 2018. The participants were students of the 2nd year, numbering 20 people, specialty "Psychology", the Institute of Human Rights of the CUBA. The article provides in detail the format of organization and implementation of the project, interaction with its participants. As a result of the quantitative and qualitative indicators of the empirical part, a psychological portrait of users is created. The advantages and disadvantages of this tool are revealed.

Human Rights and the Rights of the Society as a System: Philosophical View on the Problem

The formation and development of the Institute of Human Rights is the main political and legal project of the Postmodern Age. However, this project is rather one-sided; in general, the interaction between the man and society creates rights for both parties. The main purpose of the article is to scrutinize a specific social system that arises as the result of such interaction. Relying on the philosophical essence of human rights and the dialectic of individuality and collectivity, the author develops the theoretical construct of "mutual rights and duties of the man and society" as an element of legal reality. It is based on a system-forming attribute, i.e. mutual saving and development of the man and society, which determines self-adjustment of the structure in question. Methodologically, a research objective is achieved by means of systematization of the provisions existing in the philosophical-legal theory and court practice and reflecting different approaches to resolving the problems concerning the dominance of human rights or the rights of the society during different historical epochs, the tendency of giving absolute priority to the human rights under modern conditions, the possibility of "the golden mean" that allows to avoid the extremes and to consider the interests and rights of both the individual and society. Analysis of approaches of this kind revealed the absence of the system enshrining the rights of collective entities in the modern legislative practice: the rights of the society are either of political nature or reflect the civilizational specificities of a number of societies and States, or protect the interests of certain social groups, strata, and minorities. The current situation has largely been the result of neglect on behalf of the legal-philosophical and legal theory towards the understanding of rights in the system of "individual - society." Changes are even more necessary in connection with the emergence of law of the rights of Mother Earth that appeared in the modern legislative practice of a number of Latin American States. The research focused on such issues is carried out under the guidance of human rights of the third generation that are collective in their nature, and that can be implemented only in the course of joint activities aimed at saving and developing both the individual and society.

Litigating Indigenous Peoples' Rights in Africa: The Impact of Convention 169

8 | International Union Rights | 25/4 FOCUS | INDIGENOUS PEOPLES & UNIONS Litigating Indigenous Peoples’ Rights in Africa: The Impact of Convention 169 Thirty years after the adoption of ILO Convention No. 169 (C169), only twenty-three States have ratified it. Only one ratifying country is in Asia (Nepal) and one in Africa (Central African Republic). This sparse support is disappointing given that many more ratified its precursor, Convention No. 107: Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan in Asia, and Angola, Egypt, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Malawi, and Tunisia in Africa. In replacing C107 with C169, the ILO was responding to the emergent indigenous peoples’ movement, which rejected C107 as founded on an out-dated integrationist approach. In so doing, C169 re-imagined indigenous peoples as communities deserving of special protections vis-à-vis the majority population and presented a new way of understanding these communities’ concerns. The principles enshrined in C169 — which formalised a more expansive view of the rights of indigenous peoples in international law — and the conceptual shift harkened by its adoption, have informed the way these issues have been subsequently framed and understood by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and by regional human rights institutions. Although many of the concepts and terminology of international human rights law on indigenous peoples derives from the Conventions, much work remains in the realm of C169’s ratification and implementation. This article examines the lack of support for the Convention in Asia and Africa, and assesses the ways in which practitioners have sought to protect the rights of indigenous communities despite C169’s limited ratification. In particular, this article will focus on the experience of Minority Rights Group (MRG), a non-profit organisation working to secure the rights of ethnic, religious, and linguistic minorities and indigenous peoples worldwide. MRG’s experience litigating land rights cases on behalf of indigenous and tribal communities in Africa shows that a more expansive view of the rights of indigenous peoples has made its way into the jurisprudence of the African Human Rights system. Although C169 has informed the way African human rights bodies have interpreted the rights of indigenous peoples under the African Charter of Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Charter), its narrow ratification base and the lack of meaningful implementation models in the countries that have ratified the Convention limit its utility from a strategic litigation perspective. States’ reticence to ratify C169 Although it is hard to know precisely why the majority of African and Asian States have chosen not to ratify C169, particular concerns were voiced in discussions at the ILO, as well as in discussions leading to the adoption of the UNDRIP. The most intractable sticking point involves an ongoing debate surrounding the applicability of the term ‘indigenous peoples’ in Asia and Africa1. In submissions during the C169 drafting sessions, China flatly denied that any indigenous populations lived in their country2. The Indian representative reiterated that, ‘the tribal peoples in India were not comparable in terms of their problems, interest and rights, to the indigenous populations of certain other countries. For this reason, attempts to set international standards on some of the complex and sensitive issues involved might prove to be counter-productive’3. Some governments particularly feared that use of the term ‘peoples’ instead of ‘populations’ could give rise to secessionist aspirations. The representative for India ‘felt that the Committee should carefully consider the impact that the use of “peoples” could have in countries beset with the problems of integration’4. Similar objections were raised to the use of the word ‘territories’ in relation to the ancestral lands of indigenous and tribal peoples. Notably, some of the countries that had ratified C107 simply clung to its integrationist approach. During the C169 drafting sessions, for example, the representative for Bangladesh stated that ‘the existing provisions of [C107] were sufficiently comprehensive. He expressed concern that any attempt to introduce radical changes in the focus and orientation of the Convention would have detrimental effects on territorial integrity and conflict with existing constitutions and legal systems of many countries, and could discourage many countries from ratifying it’5. While each country has its own historical, political, and social context that informs debates over indigeneity...

The Promise and Peril of Human Rights Technology (Introduction)

The first two decades of the twenty-first century have seen a simultaneous proliferation of new technological threats to and opportunities for international human rights. New advances – not only the Internet, social media, and artificial intelligence but also novel techniques for controlling reproduction or dealing with climate change – make clear that scientific and technological innovations bring both risks and benefits to human rights. Efforts to protect and promote human rights have to take seriously the ways in which these technologies, and the forms of knowledge creation, production, and dissemination they enable, can create harms and be exploited to violate rights. At the same time, human rights practitioners must continue to seek creative ways to make use of new technologies to improve the human condition. This dichotomy is the central tension that animates both this volume and the emerging field of human rights technology. The overriding purpose of the volume, and of the University of Connecticut workshop that launched it, is to encourage human rights institutions, experts, and practitioners to take seriously the risks and opportunities of technology for the promotion and protection of human rights. The volume uses diverse case studies to examine how the dynamic of intertwined threat and opportunity plays out in a range of contexts. Case studies focus on assisted reproductive technologies, autonomous lethal weapons, climate change technology, the Internet and social media, and water meters. Considering the relationship between technology and human rights across these diverse areas reveals areas of both continuity and discontinuity in terms of how technology affects the enjoyment of human rights. We begin by laying out the principles that animate the project. These principles have been derived chiefly from international human rights law and practice, and also draw on the scholarly study of science, technology, and the law. Based on these principles, we define a “human rights” approach to the study of technology. Finally, we identify and analyze the cross-cutting themes that unite the book – power and justice, accountability, and the role of private authority – to chart a road map for further study of the relationship between technology and human rights.

Litigating Indigenous Peoples' Rights in Africa: The Impact of Convention 169

8 | International Union Rights | 25/4 FOCUS | INDIGENOUS PEOPLES & UNIONS Litigating Indigenous Peoples’ Rights in Africa: The Impact of Convention 169 Thirty years after the adoption of ILO Convention No. 169 (C169), only twenty-three States have ratified it. Only one ratifying country is in Asia (Nepal) and one in Africa (Central African Republic). This sparse support is disappointing given that many more ratified its precursor, Convention No. 107: Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan in Asia, and Angola, Egypt, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Malawi, and Tunisia in Africa. In replacing C107 with C169, the ILO was responding to the emergent indigenous peoples’ movement, which rejected C107 as founded on an out-dated integrationist approach. In so doing, C169 re-imagined indigenous peoples as communities deserving of special protections vis-à-vis the majority population and presented a new way of understanding these communities’ concerns. The principles enshrined in C169 — which formalised a more expansive view of the rights of indigenous peoples in international law — and the conceptual shift harkened by its adoption, have informed the way these issues have been subsequently framed and understood by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and by regional human rights institutions. Although many of the concepts and terminology of international human rights law on indigenous peoples derives from the Conventions, much work remains in the realm of C169’s ratification and implementation. This article examines the lack of support for the Convention in Asia and Africa, and assesses the ways in which practitioners have sought to protect the rights of indigenous communities despite C169’s limited ratification. In particular, this article will focus on the experience of Minority Rights Group (MRG), a non-profit organisation working to secure the rights of ethnic, religious, and linguistic minorities and indigenous peoples worldwide. MRG’s experience litigating land rights cases on behalf of indigenous and tribal communities in Africa shows that a more expansive view of the rights of indigenous peoples has made its way into the jurisprudence of the African Human Rights system. Although C169 has informed the way African human rights bodies have interpreted the rights of indigenous peoples under the African Charter of Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Charter), its narrow ratification base and the lack of meaningful implementation models in the countries that have ratified the Convention limit its utility from a strategic litigation perspective. States’ reticence to ratify C169 Although it is hard to know precisely why the majority of African and Asian States have chosen not to ratify C169, particular concerns were voiced in discussions at the ILO, as well as in discussions leading to the adoption of the UNDRIP. The most intractable sticking point involves an ongoing debate surrounding the applicability of the term ‘indigenous peoples’ in Asia and Africa1. In submissions during the C169 drafting sessions, China flatly denied that any indigenous populations lived in their country2. The Indian representative reiterated that, ‘the tribal peoples in India were not comparable in terms of their problems, interest and rights, to the indigenous populations of certain other countries. For this reason, attempts to set international standards on some of the complex and sensitive issues involved might prove to be counter-productive’3. Some governments particularly feared that use of the term ‘peoples’ instead of ‘populations’ could give rise to secessionist aspirations. The representative for India ‘felt that the Committee should carefully consider the impact that the use of “peoples” could have in countries beset with the problems of integration’4. Similar objections were raised to the use of the word ‘territories’ in relation to the ancestral lands of indigenous and tribal peoples. Notably, some of the countries that had ratified C107 simply clung to its integrationist approach. During the C169 drafting sessions, for example, the representative for Bangladesh stated that ‘the existing provisions of [C107] were sufficiently comprehensive. He expressed concern that any attempt to introduce radical changes in the focus and orientation of the Convention would have detrimental effects on territorial integrity and conflict with existing constitutions and legal systems of many countries, and could discourage many countries from ratifying it’5. While each country has its own historical, political, and social context that informs debates over indigeneity...

Globalização, transnacionalismo e a efetivação de direitos humanos

A abordagem em apreço tem como objetivo a análise da efetivação dos direitos humanos em uma nova ordem causada pelo fenômeno da globalização e uma das suas principais consequências, o transnacionalismo. Para isso, o estudo inicia com a demonstração de consequências dos referidos fenômenos, a citar a diminuição de fronteiras entre países e a alteração de bases legitimadoras. Em seguida, faz-se a verificação de algumas considerações importantes para o instituto dos direitos humanos, em especial sua proteção pelos sistemas regionais de proteção, entre eles o Americano, Europeu e Africano. Na sequência e ao arremate constrói-se a partir de alguns exemplos práticos e com fundamentação doutrinária como tem se dado a efetivação de direitos humanos nesse novo cenário, em especial com a atuação destacada e eficiente de atores particulares no que tange à concretização desses direitos, postura antes esperada principalmente dos Estados e nunca vista com tanta eficiência através de atores transnacionais. Ademais, quanto à metodologia utilizada, o método é o dedutivo e a técnica é a bibliográfica.

National Human Rights Institutions and ASEAN Intergovernmental Human Rights Commission (AICHR): Are They Complementary?

The adoption of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Charter in 2008 and the establishment of the ASEAN Intergovernmental Human Rights Commission (AICHR) in 2010 have pushed ASEAN to be more responsive to human rights commitments in the region. In view of the regional developments and the increase of transboundary concerns, the six government-established national human rights institutions (NHRIs) in the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Timor-Leste and Myanmar formed the Southeast Asia National Human Rights Forum (SEANF) in 2009 to organise itself as a regional mechanism for human rights promotion and protection in ASEAN. So far, the relationship between the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission of Human Rights (AICHR) and the SEANF has not been progressing. The purpose of this paper is to examine the potential role of SEANF in addressing human rights issues with the existing regional human rights mechanism, the AICHR.

Geography, Politics and Culture in the United Nations Human Rights Committee

The United Nations Human Rights Committee, the monitoring treaty body of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, is one of the most important and highly regarded international human rights institutions. This article seeks to explore if geograph ical, political and cultural considerations influence the votes of committee members in decisions on individual communications. This article introduces an original dataset of the votes and backgrounds of committee members (CMs), hand coded by the author. The method used in the article is an empirical-quantitative analysis of the votes of CMs. The article finds that certain geopolitical voting patterns do exist in the votes of CMs. Evidence for cultural voting patterns is more limited. However, the article finds that usually voting patterns of individual CMs do not influence the final decision of the committee and that the decisions of the committee should be generally regarded as unbiased.

The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and Networked Governance: Improving the Role of Human Rights Ombudsman Institutions as National Remedies

National human rights institutions (NHRIs) fully compliant with the United Nations (UN) Paris Principles are important actors for implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (GPs). Their work is facilitated by networked governance including the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions, the global network of NHRIs, and regional NHRI networks. NHRIs must have mandates to promote and protect a full range of human rights and jurisdiction over public and private sector conduct, although complaints investigation is not required. National human rights ombudsman (HRO) institutions are NHRIs, but their core responsibility is human rights protection through complaints-based and own-motion investigations. Increasing numbers of HRO institutions have some human rights promotion powers and private sector jurisdiction, and some are addressing business and human rights issues. In this article I argue that the HRO institutional ability to implement the GPs can be strengthened through expansion of their human rights promotion powers, expansion of their jurisdiction over the private sector and capacity-building assistance.

In the Shadow of the Ombudsman: Civil Society and the Struggle for an Independent Human Rights Institution in St Petersburg, Russia

National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) have become hallmarks of good governance and democracy. Although many countries have an NHRI, it remains unclear how they operate on the regional level in political systems where democracy malfunctions and human rights are under pressure. Drawing on interviews, this essay examines how Russian nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) established a shadow Ombudsman—the Human Rights Council (HRC)—to protest against the appointment of an Ombudsman in St Petersburg and put pressure on authorities to inaugurate a new and independent Ombudsman. Although we would expect relations between the Ombudsman and NGOs to deteriorate when civil society is under pressure, this essay finds that political repression and the persona of the current Ombudsman, Alexander Shishlov, have brought civil society and the Ombudsman closer together.

Regional Human Rights Institutions and R2P: The Role of State Monitoring in Atrocity Prevention

This paper considers the potential of regional human rights institutions in the global South – including the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and the asean Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights – to exercise atrocity prevention functions. Specifically, it considers the possibilities and limits of their institutions and activities in contributing to early warning, direct prevention, and ‘root cause’ prevention, finding that much potential exists for the Inter-American and African Commission to make tangible contributions to prevention, broadly conceived, but that there remain important gaps between mandate and actual practices. The asean Commission lags significantly behind the others because of the Southeast Asian grouping’s continued commitment to non-interference. Despite this fact, asean norms and institutions are ever-evolving – even if slowly – and so opportunities may arise for the creation of prevention-relevant mandates and mechanisms that mirror those already embedded in the Inter-American and African systems.