Human Rights, State Compliance, and Social Change: Assessing National Human Rights Institutions

by Edited by Ryan Goodman , Thomas Pegram

• ISBN13: 9780521761758
• ISBN10: 0521761751
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-11-14
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) human rights commissions and ombudsmen have gained recognition as a possible missing link in the transmission and implementation of international human rights norms at the domestic level. They are also increasingly accepted as important participants in global and regional forums where international norms are produced. By collecting innovative work from experts spanning international law, political science, sociology and human rights practice, this book critically examines the significance of this relatively new class of organizations. It focuses, in particular, on the prospects of these institutions to effectuate state compliance and social change. Consideration is given to the role of NHRIs in delegitimizing though sometimes legitimizing governments' poor human rights records and in mobilizing though sometimes demobilizing civil society actors. The volume underscores the broader implications of such cross-cutting research for scholarship and practice in the fields of human rights and global affairs in general.

Author Biography

Ryan Goodman is the Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Professor of Law and chair of the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at New York University School of Law, and professor of politics and sociology at New York University. He was previously the Rita E. Hauser Professor of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law and director of the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School. His publications include International Human Rights in Context (with Henry Steiner and Philip Alston), Socializing States: Promoting Human Rights through International Law (with Derek Jinks), and Understanding Social Action, Promoting Human Rights (with Derek Jinks and Andrew Woods). Thomas Pegram is Assistant Professor of Political Science (International Relations) in the Department of Political Science, Trinity College Dublin. Previously, he was a Research Fellow at New York University School of Law with a focus on the interdisciplinary study of national human rights institutions (NHRIs) and international law, including human rights and humanitarian law. He was the NHRI Fellow of Harvard Law School's Human Rights Program from 2008 to 2009. His recent publications have appeared in Human Rights Quarterly, Oxford Development Studies, and the Cambridge Journal of Latin American Studies.

Table of Contents

List of Contributors	p. vii
Preface	p. xi
Introduction: National Human Rights Institutions, State Conformity, and Social Change	p. 1
Nhris in Theory and Reality
National Human Rights Institutions and State Compliance	p. 29
The Shifting Boundaries of NHRI Definition in the International System	p. 52
Evaluating NHRIs: Considering Structure, Mandate, and Impact	p. 74
NHRI Performance: Global, Regional, and National Domains
National Human Rights Institutions and the International Human Rights System	p. 93
National Human Rights Institutions in Anglophone Africa: Legalism, Popular Agency, and the "Voices of Suffering"	p. 124
National Human Rights Institutions in the Asia Pacific Region: Change Agents under Conditions of Uncertainty	p. 150
National Human Rights Institutions in Central and Eastern Europe: The Ombudsman as Agent of International Law	p. 181
National Human Rights Institutions in Latin America: Politics and Institutionalization	p. 210
NHRIS and Compliance: Beyond Enforcement
The Societalization of Horizontal Accountability: Rights Advocacy and the Defensor del Pueblo de la Nación in Argentina	p. 243
Through Pressure or Persuasion?: Explaining Compliance with the Resolutions of the Bolivian Defensor del Pueblo	p. 270
Final Reflections
Tainted Origins and Uncertain Outcomes: Evaluating NHRIs	p. 297
National Human Rights Institutions, Opportunities, and Activism	p. 324
Annex 1: Principles Relating to the Status of National Institutions (The Paris Principles)	p. 335
Index	p. 339
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