Dealing With Human Rights in International Organizations

Over time human rights have gained prominence in international organizations. At the same time, dealing with them has proved difficult and contentious. The present article focuses on the way in which the United Nations have addressed human rights issues, especially through the Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) and its successor the Human Rights Council (UNHRC). Drawing on data on resolutions debated and (largely) adopted in these two bodies in the last 17 years, I offer a comparison of the voting record in these two periods. By analyzing in detail in a comparative fashion the votes in these two bodies, the article shows that despite the high hopes, the UNHRC faces some of the same challenges as its predecessor. More specifcally, I find that the conflict lines have largely remained the same in these two bodies, and the degree of polarization has slightly increased in the new UNHRC.     

Complying with Human Rights

ABSTRACT

The empirical assessment of how signatories of human rights conventions comply with their obligations has, so far, yielded conflicting results, especially regarding the compliance mechanisms that are the most promising to ensure improving human rights records. We argue that this is due to the fact that differences in compliance systems have been neglected and that different compliance mechanisms have been assessed in isolation, without considering possible interactions. To analyze this argument, we propose a novel way to assess the effect of these mechanisms by relying on a Markov-transition model. Our results show that human rights violations are time dependent and that the effect of independent variables is conditional on previous human rights violations as well as on the strength of human rights compliance systems.     

Characteristics of male patients admitted to an adolescent secure forensic psychiatric hospital

This paper examines the characteristics of a group of 64 young men, who were consecutively admitted to Bluebird House, an NHS mixed gender, adolescent forensic, medium secure hospital. The characteristics examined focus on the young men’s clinical presentations, as informed by the Millon Adolescent Clinical Inventory, and their ICD10 (WHO 1992) diagnoses. The paper also examines the males’ route into, and out of, Bluebird House, as well as their risk profiles, especially with regards to others, as informed by Structured Assessment of Violence Risk in Youth findings and staff recorded incidents. Correlational analysis is performed to try and understand this population, with statistically significant findings highlighted. The discussion considers the trajectory for some of these young men into adult personality disorders, their presentation and prognosis compared to their female counterparts, and how their presentation contrasts with adult male forensic populations.     

Disharmony at the Grassroots Level: Possible Alienation Caused by Town-Level Direct Elections in China

This article examines the next stage in the movement towards self-government in rural China: that is, the direct election of town-level executives. Theoretically, as the article asserts, with the mechanisms and statutes currently in place, direct elections at the town level could generate a two-pronged disaffection. First, there may be alienation between the executives directly elected at the town level and those already directly elected at the village level, namely a “vertical organizational alienation.” Second, there may be alienation between the directly elected “town executives” and the town legislature (People’s Congress), namely a “horizontal governmental alienation.” After describing the possible points of confrontation, the article concludes by proposing how such discord can be prevented from arising and suggests that until the potential problems attendant on these elections have been successfully tackled direct elections at the town level should not be extended into other regions.     

“Success” in policy piloting: Process,programs, and politics

Research has demonstrated that pilots contain multiple shifting purposes, not all of which relate to simple policy testing or refinement. Judging the success of policy pilots is therefore complex, requiring more than a simple judgment against declared goals. Marsh and McConnell provide a framework against which policy success can be judged, distinguishing program success from process and political success. We adapt Boven's modification of this framework and apply it to policy pilots, arguing that pilot process, outcomes and longer-term effects can all be judged in both program and political terms. We test this new framework in a pilot program in the English National Health Service, the Vanguard program, showing how consideration of these different aspects of success sheds light on the program and its aftermath. We consider the implications of the framework for the comprehensive and multifaceted evaluation of policy pilots.     

Monitoring and evaluating advocacy: lessons from Oxfam GB's Climate Change campaign

This article examines Oxfam GB's learning from its attempts to improve monitoring and evaluation (M&E) processes within a global advocacy campaign. It outlines the Climate Change campaign team's practical experience of piloting different approaches to M&E, and the lessons emerging from the process. The experience suggests that while some ‘traditional’ elements of M&E are helpful in advocacy work, a greater focus on light, real-time monitoring systems is necessary. The findings highlight the organisational as well as methodological challenges of integrating M&E into advocacy campaigns: without a culture that rewards reflection and learning, improvements in staff capacities or data-collection systems will not be sustained. Indeed, the process of improving M&E practice mirrors that of an advocacy campaign itself, requiring analysis of power relations, opportunities, and constraints; monitoring of progress; and adapting plans on the basis of on-going learning. Finally, the article suggests possible ways forward, based on experience.