Towards a Study of Human Rights Practitioners

The expansion of human rights provisions has produced an increasing number of human rights practitioners and delineated human rights as a field of its own. Questions of who is practicing human rights and how they practice it have become important. This paper considers the question of human rights practice and the agency of practitioners, arguing that practice should not be conceived as the application of philosophy, but instead approached from a sociological point of view. Whatever the structuring effect of political institutions, human rights is being defined more expansively by practitioners. The weakness of international institutions and the interpretive scope of human rights discourse produce significant opportunity for practitioners to interpret the meaning of human rights. Our exploratory interviews of a small sample of practitioners reveal widely varying histories, in which they interpret their own work as “human rights” practice in differing ways. Practitioners who in the past thought of themselves differently, now identify as human rights activists. They are also becoming more professional, but concerned about professionalization. Their self-interpretations reflect these concerns and also respond to the necessities of career events. Through the conscious and unconscious aspects of their practice, practitioners exercise considerable agency in adapting human rights discourse to their own concerns while also being critical of it.     

Digital Privacy and Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

This article considers the impact of digital technologies on privacy and, specifically, the issues arising from metadata. It takes the 2016 Investigatory Powers Act as an exemplar and argues, by reference to European case law, that while data arising from new technologies undoubtedly fall within the scope of privacy protections, there are questions as to the level of protection awarded. Questions arise from how the nature and intensity of intrusion is understood against a backdrop of ‘dataveillance’, as well as the underlying issue of whether ex post controls—through oversight mechanisms—are sufficient to safeguard privacy.     

国际人权保护与尊重国家主权

国际人权保护是现今国际人权活动中的一项重要内容。以美国为首的西方国家把国际人权保护同尊重国家主权的原则对立起来,为其干涉别国内政制造借口。其实,国际人权保护与尊重国家主权是一致的。国家主权没有过时,国际人权保护以尊重国家主权为前提,不能以人权为借口干涉别国内政,国际干预也不能单方面地进行。     

江泽民人权与主权辩证观解析

江泽民人权与主权辩证观的基本内涵是 ,国家主权是一国人民充分享有人权的前提和保障 ,尊重和保障人权是发展社会主义民义政治、建设社会主义政治文明的内在要求。正确理解人权与主权辩证关系 ,有利于我们维护国家主权 ,为人民享有广泛人权提供前提和保障 ;有利于发展社会主义人权事业 ,以人权来巩固社会主义制度、维护社会主义国家主权 ,推进社会主义政治文明发展     

Localizing the Human Rights Council: A case study of the Declaration on the Rights of Peasants

The Human Rights Council (HRC) can enact and proclaim global human rights standards. To date the impact of local communities on such international standard-setting remains unclear. This study analyzes how local communities gain access to the HRC's mechanisms and investigates whether standard setting “from below” has been taken up by the HRC. As a case study, the research studies the trajectory of the network of organizations that have lobbied for a Declaration on the Rights of Peasants at the HRC.     

Domestic Attitudes Towards International Jurisdiction over Human Rights Violations

Building on research regarding the influence of national identity salience on attitudes towards international institutions and the impact of nationalism on foreign policy preferences, in a case study of America, I explore the role of chauvinistic nationalism to understand its impact on attitudes towards international jurisdiction of punishment for alleged human rights violations by members of the American military. Using binomial regression of survey responses from the 2014 Cooperative Congressional Election Study, I find that respondents with higher levels of chauvinistic nationalist sentiment also have higher levels of opposition to the jurisdiction of international legal institutions to prosecute members of a nation’s military. This study is the first of its kind to offer a systematic and multivariate explanation for public opinion towards the jurisdiction of international human rights institutions over a nation’s armed forces using national survey data.     

Rethinking Human Rights in York as a Human Rights City

Human rights is in crisis in the UK. It lacks significant political backing and public support. This ‘insider account’ of York becoming a human rights city suggests that there is a need to rethink approaches to human rights. The article looks at the strategies adopted in the city; the annual city‐based indicator report which provides the key reference point for all local activities; and the declaration of York as a ‘human rights city’ in 2017 alongside its subsequent impact. The discussion is linked to two debates within human rights: how to define and build a culture of human rights, and what it means for human rights to be truly relevant at a local level. The new approach advocated can be summarised as participatory, locally informed, and related to everyday concerns.     

辅助政府 渐进发展——中国非政府人权组织成长路径分析

从人权的本意及国外众多国家的经验来看,非政府人权组织是促进人权事业发展和实施人权保护的重要而不可缺失的第三支力量.目前中国本土和境外的非政府人权组织在扶贫、环保和慈善赈灾领域中发挥着越来越重要的作用.与国家的政治改革进程、经济水平以及社会管理方式发展相适应,逐渐向公民权利和政治权利领域扩展是非政府人权组织今后的发展方向.     

Indigenous Rights, Global Governance, and State Sovereignty

This article discusses indigenous rights within the context of global governance. I begin by defining the terms ??global governance?? and ??indigenous peoples?? and summarizing the rights that are most important to indigenous peoples. The bulk of this article studies the global governance of indigenous rights in three areas. The first example is the creation of the 2007 UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. A second example involves violations of indigenous rights brought before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. A third case looks at a relatively new international regime created by indigenous peoples themselves??the Inuit Circumpolar Council. I conclude by using theories of sovereignty to assess the relative successes and failures of indigenous efforts to secure their rights.     

Towards a New Politics: Citizenship and Rights in Contemporary Argentina

The emergence of a human rights movement represented a cultural turning point in many Latin American societies. The movement's struggle acted as a catalyst for political learning, triggering a profound renovation of the region's democratic traditions. The most impressive development has been the emergence of a rights-oriented discourse that reunites two elements that populist forms of self-understanding had kept separate: democracy and the rule of law. Cultural innovation gave birth to a new form of politicization that greatly differs from the movementist and corporatist practices of past populist movements, for the former is guided by a liberal concern: establishing clear institutional boundaries between state and civil society. Through the analysis of a series of citizens' initiatives and movements, the paper analyzes this new form of politicization and its contribution to the authorization and effectivization of rights as institutions.     

Civil Rights and Political Human Rights: Contesting Human Rights Failures within the Minimally Democratic State

Allen Buchanan argues that democracy ought to be added to the list of basic human rights, but he limits the conception of democracy to a minimum of electoral representation within the nation state, effectively collapsing human rights into civil rights. This, however, leaves him unable to address the problem of human rights failures occurring within established states that meet his standard of minimal democratic representation. In order to address this problem, I appeal to James Bohman's conception of the political human rights of all members of humanity, as opposed to the civil rights of the citizens of particular states. I argue that while this provides the basis on which to address the problem of human rights failures within minimally democratic states, Bohman's conception also entails the potential for deep tensions to arise between the different claims of civil and human rights.     

Human Rights in the Public Sector

This article examines how universal human rights have been given practical effect in the UK through the Human Rights Act. It focusses on the role of human rights in public services and using the duty placed on public officials as a lever to bring about positive change.