Human Rights Advocacy Evaluation in the Global South: A Critical Review of the Literature

Advocacy evaluation has emerged in the past 20 years as a specialized area of evaluation practice. We offer a review of existing peer-reviewed literature and draw attention to the scarcity of scholarly work on human rights advocacy evaluation in the Global South. The lack of published material in this area is concerning, given the urgent need for human rights advocacy in the Global South and the difficulties of conducting advocacy in contexts in which fundamental human rights are often poorly protected. Based on the review of the literature and our professional experiences in human rights advocacy evaluation in the Global South, we identify themes in the literature that are especially salient in the Global South and warrant more attention. We also offer critical reflections on content areas not addressed in the existing literature and conclude with suggestions as to how activists, evaluators, and other stakeholders can contribute to the development of a field of practice that is responsive to the global challenge of advocacy evaluation.

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The past and future of human rights

Reframing Human Rights in a Turbulent Era ◽

10.1093/oso/9780198299578.003.0006 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 183-224

Author(s):

Gráinne de Búrca

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Social Support ◽

Human Rights ◽

Social Movements ◽

The Past ◽

Human Rights Movement ◽

The Future ◽

Human Rights Advocacy ◽

Advocacy Campaigns

This chapter reflects on the lessons to be derived from the advocacy campaigns in Pakistan, Argentina, and Ireland discussed in earlier chapters. Insights drawn from those campaigns are used to refine the experimentalist account of human rights advanced in Chapter 2, particularly as regards the importance of social movements and of building broad social support for human rights campaigns. The remainder of the chapter describes five major challenges of the current era—illiberalism, climate change, digitalization, pandemics, and inequality—and considers the difficulties they pose for the experimentalist account of human rights advocacy. It argues that the experimentalist practice of human rights advocacy is reasonably resilient and adaptive, and that internal contestation from within the human rights movement as well as external critiques have already helped to catalyze reform and to push activists and advocates to think more innovatively about the changes needed to strengthen the ability of the movement to engage with these major challenges in the future. It concludes that in a turbulent era, rather than abandon human rights, we should redouble our efforts to bolster, renew, and reinvigorate a movement that has galvanized constituencies and communities around the globe to mobilize for a better world.

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Paradigm for a New Millennium

10.5406/illinois/9780252036774.003.0007 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Emile G. McAnany

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

Social Change ◽

Social Entrepreneurship ◽

Advocacy Group ◽

The Past ◽

The Social ◽

Communication Work ◽

Human Rights Advocacy ◽

Communication For Development ◽

Definition Of

This chapter describes a fourth paradigm that has arisen in the social change and development arena over the past two decades: social entrepreneurship (SE). It begins with an overview of disagreements over the definition of SE, along with the origins of the concept. It then considers what is new about the SE paradigm and how it might be incorporated into the field of communication for development (c4d). It also evaluates four projects that highlight innovations to serve people and the kinds of social entrepreneurship that they have incorporated: Indonesia's Radio 68H; Grameen Foundation's village phone initiative in Uganda; the Barefoot College of Tilonia in Rajastan, India; Witness, a human rights advocacy group founded by musician Peter Gabriel. Drawing on the case of SE, the chapter concludes by asking how paradigms in communication work.

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Rewriting the Past: The Global South in Human Rights History

Global Policy ◽

10.1111/1758-5899.12727 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 10 (3) ◽

pp. 445-448

Author(s):

Charlotte Steinorth

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

Global South ◽

The Past ◽

Human Rights History

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Navigating the Moral Minefields of Human Rights Advocacy in the Global South

10.31228/osf.io/ady6f ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Sandra L. Babcock

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

Global South ◽

Foreign Assistance ◽

Government Accountability ◽

International Human Rights ◽

Foreign Countries ◽

Human Rights Advocacy ◽

International Human ◽

Moral Choices ◽

The Impact

Northwestern University Journal of International Human Rights, Vol. 17, No. 1, 2019Human rights advocacy in foreign countries raises complex ethical, moral, and political questions. Legal scholars have challenged the legitimacy and accountability of international human rights activists that impose foreign agendas on local partners in the Global South. Development economists have raised related concerns about the impact of foreign assistance on government accountability. In this article, I use narrative storytelling techniques to illustrate the fraught strategic judgments and moral choices that permeate human rights advocacy. These narratives are drawn from my international human rights clinic’s twelve-year engagement in justice reform work in Malawi, where my students and I have been instrumental in the release of nearly 300 prisoners from Malawian prisons. Over more than a decade, we have periodically fallen prey to cultural misperceptions and ethical dilemmas that threatened to derail our success. The lessons derived from these experiences underscore the value of a long-term, incremental approach to human rights advocacy that prioritizes deep collaboration over short-term success.

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Provision of Remedies for Violation of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: A Comparative Study of the United Nations, Inter-American and African Human Rights Systems

African Journal of International and Comparative Law ◽

10.3366/ajicl.2020.0314 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 28 (2) ◽

pp. 298-318

Author(s):

Roman Girma Teshome

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

United Nations ◽

Comparative Study ◽

Economic Rights ◽

Regional Monitoring ◽

Cultural Rights ◽

The Past ◽

The United Nations ◽

To Receive

The effectiveness of human rights adjudicative procedures partly, if not most importantly, hinges upon the adequacy of the remedies they grant and the implementation of those remedies. This assertion also holds water with regard to the international and regional monitoring bodies established to receive individual complaints related to economic, social and cultural rights (hereinafter ‘ESC rights’ or ‘socio-economic rights’). Remedies can serve two major functions: they are meant, first, to rectify the pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage sustained by the particular victim, and second, to resolve systematic problems existing in the state machinery in order to ensure the non-repetition of the act. Hence, the role of remedies is not confined to correcting the past but also shaping the future by providing reforming measures a state has to undertake. The adequacy of remedies awarded by international and regional human rights bodies is also assessed based on these two benchmarks. The present article examines these issues in relation to individual complaint procedures that deal with the violation of ESC rights, with particular reference to the case laws of the three jurisdictions selected for this work, i.e. the United Nations, Inter-American and African Human Rights Systems.

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Les héritages chrétiens: quel avenir?

Moreana ◽

10.3366/more.2009.46.1.14 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 46 (Number 176) (1) ◽

pp. 175-190

Author(s):

Bernard Bourdin

Keyword(s):

European Union ◽

Human Rights ◽

Middle Ages ◽

Critical Analysis ◽

Religious Affiliation ◽

The European Union ◽

Modern Times ◽

The Past ◽

Religious Significance ◽

Politics And Religion

The legacy from Christianity unquestionably lies at the root of Europe, even if not exclusively. It has taken many aspects from the Middle Ages to modern times. If the Christian heritage is diversely understood and accepted within the European Union, the reason is essentially due to its political and religious significance. However, its impact in politics and religion has often been far from negative, if we will consider what secular societies have derived from Christianity: human rights, for example, and a religious affiliation which has been part and parcel of national identity. The Christian legacy has to be acknowledged through a critical analysis which does not deny the truth of the past but should support a European project built around common values.

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Interview with Omar Shakir

Journal of Palestine Studies ◽

10.1525/jps.2020.49.4.127 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 49 (4) ◽

pp. 127-137

Author(s):

Noura Erakat

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

Supreme Court ◽

Committee Member ◽

Editorial Committee ◽

Rutgers University ◽

Human Rights Advocacy ◽

University Professor ◽

The Government ◽

Israeli Supreme Court

In late November 2019, the Israeli Supreme Court upheld the Ministry of Interior's order to deport Human Rights Watch (HRW) director for Israel and Palestine, Omar Shakir. The court based its decision on a 2017 amendment to Israel's 1952 Entry into Israel Law enabling the government to refuse entry to foreigners who allegedly advocate for the boycott of Israel. The same law was invoked to deny entry to U.S. congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar in the summer of 2019. The campaign against Shakir began almost immediately after he was hired by HRW in 2016, and the court's decision marked the culmination of a multi-year battle against the deportation order. In this interview, JPS Editorial Committee member, Rutgers University professor, and author Noura Erakat discusses the details of his case with Shakir in an exchange that also examines the implications of the case for human rights advocacy, in general, and for Palestinians, in particular. The interview was edited for length and clarity.

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