Human Rights Missions: A study of the fact-finding practice of non-governmental organizations. By Hans Thoolen and Berth Verstappen. Dordrecht, Boston, Lancaster: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1986. Pp. viii, 184. Dfl.95; $44; £31.50.

1988 ◽  
Vol 82 (4) ◽  
pp. 873-876
Author(s):  
Diane F. Orentlicher
Author(s):  
Bielefeldt Heiner, Prof ◽  
Ghanea Nazila, Dr ◽  
Wiener Michael, Dr

Freedom of religion or belief has long depended on advocates and human rights defenders to ensure its normative development and its protection. Human rights defenders serve as an essential counterpart to States in advancing freedom of religion or belief by operating within charities, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) or international non-governmental organizations (INGOs), faith-based organizations, interfaith organizations, or community associations. Though the 1981 Declaration and the 1998 Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms are silent on their contributions, their role has been welcomed by numerous freedom of religion or belief mechanisms and mandate-holders. Yet, their contributions are hampered by reprisals against human rights defenders and intimidation against mandate-holders, in sharp contrast with the Standard Terms of Reference for Fact-Finding Missions. Ombudspersons, faith-based organizations, INGOs, and NGOs have an important role to play regarding freedom of religion or belief and need to ensure non-discrimination in their activities.


Comma ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2020 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 139-150
Author(s):  
Romain Ledauphin ◽  
Claudia Josi ◽  
Rahel Siegrist

Records and archives containing information relating to grave violations of human rights and international humanitarian law represent a fundamental source for, and can become trustworthy documentary evidence within, Dealing with the Past (DWP) processes including truth commissions, criminal tribunals, reparation programs, vetting processes and outreach projects. Those intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) and international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) working in the fields of human rights and peace and security are themselves important observers and actors in DWP processes and hence their records and archives are highly relevant to DWP initiatives. Such organizations should therefore be transparent and be able to facilitate DWP processes by granting access to their records. Given the International Council on Archives’ definition of “access” as relating to “… the availability of records for consultation as a result both of legal authorization and the existence of finding aids”, and the experience of swisspeace in advising DWP initiatives on collecting evidence and improving records management capacity, swisspeace together with the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs developed a roadmap which centres on the development of an “archives accessibility maturity model”. This tool will not only improve hands-on access in practice, but will ultimately improve knowledge about the multi-layered complexity of archives’ accessibility, strengthening the capacity of IGOs, INGOs and DWP initiatives to design and implement their access regulations, and thereby improving DWP initiatives’ ability to make successful access requests.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheshadri Chatterjee ◽  
Sreenivasulu N.S. ◽  
Zahid Hussain

Purpose The applications of artificial intelligence (AI) in different sectors have become agendas for discussions in the highest circle of experts. The applications of AI can help society and can harm society even by jeopardizing human rights. The purpose of this study is to examine the evolution of AI and its impacts on human rights from social and legal perspectives. Design/methodology/approach With the help of studies of literature and different other AI and human rights-related reports, this study has taken an attempt to provide a comprehensive and executable framework to address these challenges contemplated to occur due to the increase in usage of different AI applications in the context of human rights. Findings This study finds out how different AI applications could help society and harm society. It also highlighted different legal issues and associated complexity arising due to the advancement of AI technology. Finally, the study also provided few recommendations to the governments, private enterprises and non-governmental organizations on the usage of different AI applications in their organizations. Research limitations/implications This study mostly deals with the legal, social and business-related issues arising due to the advancement of AI technology. The study does not penetrate the technological aspects and algorithms used in AI applications. Policymakers, government agencies and private entities, as well as practitioners could take the help of the recommendations provided in this study to formulate appropriate regulations to control the usage of AI technology and its applications. Originality/value This study provides a comprehensive view of the emergence of AI technology and its implication on human rights. There are only a few studies that examine AI and related human rights issues from social, legal and business perspectives. Thus, this study is claimed to be a unique study. Also, this study provides valuable inputs to the government agencies, policymakers and practitioners about the need to formulate a comprehensive regulation to control the usage of AI technology which is also another unique contribution of this study.


1993 ◽  
Vol 33 (293) ◽  
pp. 94-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise Doswald-Beck ◽  
Sylvain Vité

International humanitarian law is increasingly perceived as part of human rights law applicable in armed conflict. This trend can be traced back to the United Nations Human Rights Conference held in Tehran in 1968 which not only encouraged the development of humanitarian law itself, but also marked the beginning of a growing use by the United Nations of humanitarian law during its examination of the human rights situation in certain countries or during its thematic studies. The greater awareness of the relevance of humanitarian law to the protection of people in armed conflict, coupled with the increasing use of human rights law in international affairs, means that both these areas of law now have a much greater international profile and are regularly being used together in the work of both international and non-governmental organizations.


Author(s):  
Hannah Smidt ◽  
Dominic Perera ◽  
Neil J. Mitchell ◽  
Kristin M. Bakke

Abstract International ‘naming and shaming’ campaigns rely on domestic civil society organizations (CSOs) for information on local human rights conditions. To stop this flow of information, some governments restrict CSOs, for example by limiting their access to funding. Do such restrictions reduce international naming and shaming campaigns that rely on information from domestic CSOs? This article argues that on the one hand, restrictions may reduce CSOs’ ability and motives to monitor local abuses. On the other hand, these organizations may mobilize against restrictions and find new ways of delivering information on human rights violations to international publics. Using a cross-national dataset and in-depth evidence from Egypt, the study finds that low numbers of restrictions trigger shaming by international non-governmental organizations. Yet once governments impose multiple types of restrictions, it becomes harder for CSOs to adapt, resulting in fewer international shaming campaigns.


2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcela Ruiz ◽  
Oriana Bernasconi

This study analyzes socio-discursive categories used to define and classify the political violence exerted in Chilean human rights reports (1974–1978) to understand the emergence of the repertoire of repression and the construction of victimhood as a social recognition and communicative process in Latin America during the 1970s. These reports are addressed as a professional discursive genre produced by non-governmental organizations whose purpose is to denounce the violation of human rights in the context of political controversies as well as in the Chilean totalitarian context. The discursive genre is characterized by objectivity, the credibility of the information, the event-based approach, the use of statistics to establish the type and magnitude of the violation of human rights. The corpus analyzed consists of 44 reports belonging to human rights archives. The statistical section and comments were coded according to narrative categories (participants, action, cause, time and space). The results show the predominance of the legal perspective to classify the violation of human rights, the emergence of the category of enforced disappearance, the relationship with the socio-political context and the categories elaborated to identify patterns of violation of human rights.


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