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The Future of the Human Rights Movement

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 June 2014

Beth A. Simmons
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Extract

The modern human rights movement is at a critical juncture in its history. It has been nearly seventy years since the creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and some of the oldest and most active human rights organizations have been operating around the world for about forty years. More than twenty years have passed since the end of the cold war, and the time when people spoke in triumphal terms of the global success of Western values is now a fading memory. International human rights are ensconced as firmly as ever in international law and institutions, but what about the future of the “human rights movement”?

Type
Roundtable: The Future of Human Rights
Information
Ethics & International Affairs , Volume 28 , Issue 2 , Summer 2014 , pp. 183 - 196
Copyright
Copyright © Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs 2014 

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References

NOTES

1 Clark, Ann Marie and Sikkink, Kathryn, “Information Effects and Human Rights Data: Is the Good News about Increased Human Rights Information Bad News for Human Rights Measures?” Human Rights Quarterly 35, no. 3 (2013), pp. 539–68CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 Ron, James and Crow, David, “Who Trusts Local Human Rights Organizations? Evidence from Three World Regions,” in Human Rights Quarterly (forthcoming, February 2015)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at jamesron.com/documents/RonCrowHRQJan62014.pdf.

3 Interestingly, references to human rights overcame references to civil rights in English-language books in about 1978, though I will spare the reader another “ngram” graph.

4 Moyn, Samuel, The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University, 2010), p. 1Google Scholar.

5 Ibid., p. 7.

6 Neier, Aryeh, The International Human Rights Movement: A History (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2012)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 Most existing studies on nongovernmental human rights organizations code these from the Yearbook of International Organizations, a publication of the Union of International Associations. But activists on the ground have found repeatedly that this source does not map closely the most important local organizations in specific countries or regions.

8 Murdie, Amanda, “The Ties that Bind: A Network Analysis of Human Rights International Nongovernmental Organizations,” British Journal of Political Science 44, no. 1 (2014), pp. 1–27CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

9 Ibid., p. 16.

10 Kennedy, David, “International Human Rights Movement: Part of the Problem?” Harvard Human Rights Journal 15 (2002), p. 103Google Scholar.

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12 Risse, Thomas, Ropp, Steve C., and Sikkink, Kathryn, eds., The Power of Human Rights: International Norms and Domestic Change (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Risse, Ropp, and Sikkink, eds., The Persistent Power of Human Rights: From Commitment to Compliance (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013)Google Scholar.

13 Simmons, Beth A., Mobilizing for Human Rights: International Law in Domestic Politics (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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16 Ibid.; Hyeran Jo and Beth A. Simmons, “Can the International Criminal Court Deter Atrocity? An Analysis of Violence against Civilians in Civil Wars” (manuscript, 2014).

17 Obviously some central figures of the human rights movement disagree, and do interpret the Arab spring primarily as a human rights movement. See Neier, The International Human Rights Movement, p. 318.

18 “First things first – get me a job/Then let's talk about my hijab,” from Master Mimz, “Back Down Mubarak” (song/video), hiphopandpolitics.com/2011/02/04/back-down-mubarak-by-master-mimz/.

19 A look at the financial statements of the major global organizations shows that like most other organizations they took a big income hit in 2002–2004 and again in 2009, but Human Rights Watch (HRW) appears to have bounced back to better than pre-crisis income levels, thanks especially to a $100 million pledge from George Soros in 2011. HRW financial statements are available at: www.hrw.org/financials. For a broad range of HROs, see Charity Navigator at www.charitynavigator.org/.

20 See the “Human Rights Grants Scheme” page on the website of the Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, aid.dfat.gov.au/business/other_opps/pages/humanrights_scheme.aspx.

21 See www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/08d8f86c-8770-11e3-9c5c-00144feab7de.html#axzz2tJ3aWHRl.

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24 Wong, Wendy H., Internal Affairs: How the Structure of NGOs Transforms Human Rights (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2012)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

25 Volha Charnysh, Paulette Lloyd, and Beth A. Simmons, “Frames and Consensus Formation in International Relations: The Case of Trafficking in Persons,” European Journal of International Relations (forthcoming).

26 See, for example, Open Society Initiative, Global Human Rights Litigation, October 2013, www.refworld.org/pdfid/52fb35414.pdf.

27 See, for example, a4id.org/sites/default/files/user/Strategic%20Litigation%20Short%20Guide%20(2).pdf.

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29 Merry, Sally Engle, Human Rights and Gender Violence: Translating International Law into Local Justice (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006)Google Scholar.

30 Ron and Crow, “Who Trusts Local Human Rights Organizations?”

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32 Suárez, David and Bromley, Patricia, “Professionalizing a Global Social Movement: Universities and Human Rights,” American Journal of Education 118, no. 3 (2012), pp. 253–80CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

33 Goodman, Ryan and Pegram, Thomas, Human Rights, State Compliance, and Social Change: Assessing National Human Rights Institutions (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

34 Yang, Guobin, The Power of the Internet in China: Citizen Activism Online (New York: Columbia University Press, 2009)Google Scholar.