Human Rights Education (HRE) and transnational activism

Human Rights Quarterly

Volumn 29, Issue 4, 2007, Pages 973-993

  Mihr, Anja ^a   Schmitz, Hans Peter ^b  

^a The European Inter University Center for Human Rights and Democratization (EIUC)   (Italy)

^b SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EDUCATION; HUMAN RIGHTS; POLITICAL VIOLENCE; STRATEGIC APPROACH; THEORETICAL STUDY;

EID: 36348962377     PISSN: 02750392     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/hrq.2007.0046     Document Type: Review

References (82)

1. Major human rights treaties such as the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, adopted 10 Dec. 1984, G.A. Res. 39/46, U.N. GAOR, 39th Sess., Supp. No. 51, U.N. Doc. A/39/51 (1985) (entered into force 26 June 1987), reprinted in 23 I.L.M. 1027 (1984), substantive changes noted in 24 I.L.M. 535 (1985);
2. Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted 20 Nov. 1989, G.A. Res. 44/25, U.N. GAOR, 44th Sess., Supp. No. 49, U.N. Doc. A/44/49 (1989) (entered into force 2 Sept. 1990), reprinted in 28 I.L.M. 1448 (1989) emerged under the strong influence of transnational NGO networks, see ANN MARIE CLARK, DIPLOMACY OF CONSCIENCE: AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL AND CHANGING HUMAN RIGHTS NORMS (2001);
3. NIGEL S. RODLEY, THE TREATMENT OF PRISONERS UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW (1987);
4. J. HERMAN BURGERS & HANS DANELIUS, THE UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION AGAINST TORTURE: A HANDBOOK ON THE CONVENTION AGAINST TORTURE AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENI (1988);
5. Cynthia Price Cohen, The Role of NGOs in the Drafting of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, 12 HUM. RTS. Q. (1990).
6. James Ron reports for the period of 1982 to 1994 a 300 percent increase in the Soviet/Russian press, a 500 percent increase for Reuters, a 600 percent increase for the BBC, and a 1,000 percent increase for the Chinese news agency Xinhua. James Ron, Varying Methods of State Violence, 51 INT'L ORG. 275, 280 (1997).
7. JULIE A. MERTUS, BAIT AND SWITCH: HUMAN RIGHTS AND U.S. FOREIGN POLICY 148 (2004).
8. Elizabeth Donnelly, Proclaiming Jubilee: The Debt and Structural Adjustment Network, in RESTRUCTURING WORLD POLITICS: TRANSNATIONAL SOCIAL MOVEMENTS, NETWORKS, AND NORMS 155 (Khagram, Sanjeev, et al. eds., 2002);
9. Richard Price, Reversing the Gun Sights: Transnational Civil Society Targets Land Mines, 52 INT'L ORG. 613 (1998).
10. PETER UVIN, HUMAN RIGHTS AND DEVELOPMENT (2004).
11. Emilie Hafner-Burton & Kiyoteru Tsutsui, Human Rights in a Globalizing World: The Paradox of Empty Promises, 110 AM. J. SOCIOLOGY 1373 (2005);
12. Oona Hathaway, Do Human Rights Treaties make a Difference? 111 YALE L. J. 1935 (2002);
13. for a dissenting and more optimistic view on states' treaty compliance, see TODD LANDMAN, PROTECTING HUMAN RIGHTS: A COMPARATIVE STUDY (2005);
14. James H. Lebovic & Erik Voeten, The Politics of Shame: The Condemnation of Country Human Rights Practices in the UNCHR, 50 INT'L STUD. Q. 861 (2006).
15. Eric Neumayer, Do International Human Rights Treaties Improve Respect for Human Rights? 49 J. CONFLICT RES. 925, 927 (2005).
16. MARGARET E. KECK & KATHRYN SIKKINK, ACTIVISTS BEYOND BORDERS: ADVOCACY NETWORKS IN INTERNATIONAL POLITICS (1998);
17. THOMAS RISSE, STEPHEN ROPP, & KATHRYN SIKKINK, THE POWER OF HUMAN RIGHTS: INTERNATIONAL NORMS AND DOMESTIC CHANGE (1999).
18. HANS PETER SCHMITZ, TRANSNATIONAL MOBILIZATION AND DOMESTIC REGIME CHANGE: AFRICA IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE (2006);
19. CLIFFORD BOB, THE MARKETING OF REBELLION: INSURGENTS, MEDIA, AND INTERNATIONAL ACTIVISM (2005);
20. SHAREEN HERTEL, UNEXPECTED POWER: CONFLICT AND CHANGE AMONG TRANSNATIONAL ACTIVISM (2006);
21. ROBERT M. PRESS, PEACEFUL RESISTANCE: ADVANCING HUMAN RIGHTS AND DEMOCRATIC FREEDOMS (2006).
22. Bronwyn Leebaw, The Politics of Impartial Activism: Humanitarianism and Human Rights, 5 PERSPECTVIES ON POLITICS 223 (2007).
23. STEPHEN HOPGOOD, KEEPERS OF THE FLAME: UNDERSTANDING AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL 3 (2006);
24. see also STEPHEN HART, CULTURAL DILEMMAS OF PROGRESSIVE POLITICS: STYLES OF ENGAGEMENT AMONG GRASSROOTS ACTIVISTS (2001).
25. Martin Shapiro, Administrative Law Unbounded: Reflections on Government and Governance, 8 IND. J. GLOBAL LEGAL STUD. 369, 376 (2001).
26. MERTUS, supra note 3,at 151.
27. DAVID KENNEDY, THE DARK SIDES OF VIRTUE: REASSESSING INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIANISM (2004).
28. Nancy Flowers, How to Define Human Rights Education? A Complex Answer to a Simple Question, in INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES IN HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION 112 (Viola B. Georgi & Michael Seberich eds., 2004).
29. HOPGOOD, supra note 11, at 220-21.
30. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, United Nations Decade for Human Rights Education (1995-2004), available at http:// www.unhchr.ch/html/menu6/1/edudec.htm.
31. The Council of Europe and the European Union have supported since the 1990s a program titled Education for Democratic Citizenship (EDC), which aims to teach respect for national constitutions and laws. Although it is also sometimes referred to as HRE, it give governments the right to interpret what to consider as important human rights norms for a peaceful society COUNCIL OF EUROPE, EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRATIC CITIZENSHIP ACTIVITIES 2001-2004: ALL-EUROPEAN STUDY ON EDC POLICIES (2004).
32. For a succinct typology of legalistic, political, and cultural approaches to HRE, see Felice I. Yeban, Reclaiming and Reaffirming HRE: Reflections from the Human Rights Educator, 1 THE PODIUM (2002), available at www.tolerance-net.org/downloads /podium06.pdf.
33. Mara Loveman, High-Risk Collective Action: Defending Human Rights in Chile Uruguay, and Argentina, 104 AM. J. SOCIOLOGY 477 (1998);
34. Jost Stellmacher Gert Sommer, & Elmar Brahler, The Cognitive Representation of Human Rights: Knowledge, Importance, and Commitment, 11 PEACE & CONFLICT: J. PEACE PSY. 3 (2005).
35. Peter Krahulec, Was geht mich das an? - Sozialpsychologische Konzepte des Hilfeverhaltens im Lichte eines sozialpädagogischen Interesses an Einmischung und Zivilcourage, in MENSCHENRECHTE UND FRIEDEN: AKTUELLE BEITRÄGE UND DEBATTEN (Gert Sommer, Jost Stellmacher & Ulrich Wagner eds., 1999).
36. Anja Mihr, Human Rights Education, Methods, Institutions, Culture and Evaluation, Discussion Papers Series, Magdeburg: Institut fuer Politikwissenschaft at the University of Magdeburg (2004).
37. NANCY FLOWERS, THE HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION HANDBOOK: EFFECTIVE PRACTICES FOR LEARNING, ACTION AND CHANGE (2000);
38. BETTY A. REARDON, EDUCATION FOR HUMAN DIGNITY, LEARNING ABOUT RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES (1995).
39. KECK & SIKKINK, supra note 8.
40. SUSAN BURGERMAN, MORAL VICTORIES: HOW ACTIVISTS PROVOKE MULTILATERAL ACTION (2001);
41. Thomas Risse, "Let's Argue!": Communicative Action in World Politics, 54 INT'L ORG. 1 (2000).
42. Martha Finnemore & Kathryn Sikkink, International Norm Dynamics and Political Change, 52 INT'L ORG. 887 (1998);
43. JOHN SHATTUCK, FREEDOM ON FIRE: HUMAN RIGHTS WARS AND AMERICA'S RESPONSE (2003).
44. Jack Snyder & Leslie Vinjamuri, Trials and Errors: Principle and Pragmatism in Strategies of International Justice, 28 INT'L SEC. 5, 11 (2003).
45. Richard Rorty, Human Rights, Rationality, and Sentimentality, in ON HUMAN RIGHTS, THE OXFORD AMNESTY LECTURES 111, 115-16 (Stephen Shute & Susan Hurley eds., 1993).
46. CHRISTIAN LAHUSEN, THE RHETORIC OF MORAL PROTEST: PUBLIC CAMPAIGNS, CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENT, AND POLITICAL MOBILIZATION (1996).
47. Steven Mufson, How a Tragedy Became a Cause: Why we Read about Darfur and not Burundi, WASH. POST, 15 Aug. 2004.
48. SUSAN D. MOELLER, COMPASSION FATIGUE: HOW THE MEDIA SELL DISEASE, FAMINF, WAR AND DEATH (1999).
49. PIERS ROBINSON, THE CNN EFFECT: THE MYTH OF NEWS, FOREIGN POLICY AND INTERVENTION (2002).
50. JOHN BERGER, ABOUT LOOKING 42 (1980).
51. STANLEY COHEN, STATES OF DENIAL: KNOWING ABOUT ATROCITIES AND SUFFERING 279 (2001).
52. Mark Mazower, The Strange Triumph of Human Rights, 1933-1950, 47 HIST. J. 379 (2004).
53. MARY ANN GLENDON, A WORLD MADE NEW: ELEANOR ROOSEVELT AND THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS (2001);
54. JOHANNES MORSINK, THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS: ORIGINS, DRAFTING, AND INTENT (1999).
55. PETER WILLETTS, PRESSURE GROUPS IN THE GLOBAL SYSTEM: THE TRANSNATIONAL RELATIONS OF ISSUE-ORIENTED NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS (1982).
56. Jack Donnelly, International Human Rights: A Regime Analysis, 40 INT'L ORG. 599 (1986)
57. WILLIAM KOREY, NGOs AND THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS 81 (1998).
58. Id. at 82.
59. Peter Willetts, From "Consultative Arrangements" to "Partnership": The Changing Status of NGOs in Diplomacy at the UN, 6 GLOBAL GOVERNANCE 191 (2000).
60. KOREY, supra note 39, at 139.
61. KECK & SIKKINK, supra note 8.
62. HART, supra note 11, at 137.
63. Id at 142. Conservative Amnesty International members have for a long time rejected this trajectory as "mandate creep." It is feared that the organization will lose its distinctiveness and base for activism. For a comprehensive review of this internal struggle between the "keepers of the flame" and reformers, see HOPGOOD, supra note 11.
64. Human Rights Watch was created in 1978 as Helsinki Watch in order to monitor the 1975 Helsinki Accords promoting cooperation and security between East and West. On the role of the Helsinki Accords in empowering domestic human rights activism in communist nations, see DANIEL C. THOMAS, THE HELSINKI EFFECT: INTERNATIONAL NORMS, HUMAN RIGHTS, AND THE DEMISE OF COMMUNISM (2001).
65. BOB, supra note 9.
66. Alexander Cooley & James Ron, The NGO Scramble: Organizational insecurity and the Political Economy of Transnational Action, 27 INT'L SEC. 5 (2002).
67. Finnemore & Sikkink, supra 26.
68. JAMES J. MARTIN, THE MAN WHO INVENTED "GENOCIDE": THE PUBLIC CAREER AND CONSEQUENCES OF RAPHAEL LEMKIN (1984).
69. UNESCO, MALTA RECOMMENDATIONS ON HUMAN RIGHTS TEACHING INFORMATION AND DOCUMENTATION (1987).
70. Today, PDHRE calls itself "Movement for HRE" and Koenig received the United Nations Human Rights Prize in 2003 for her lifelong engagement in this field.
71. Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, U.N. GAOR, World Conf. on Hum. Rts., 48th Sess., 22d plen. mtg., part 1, ¶ 78-82, U.N. Doc. A/ CONF.157/24 (1993), reprinted in 32 I.L.M. 1661 (1993).
72. Resolution on the UN-Decade for Human Rights Education, G. A. Res. 1994/ 184, U.N. Doc. A/RES/49/184,(23 Dec. 1994).
73. Note by the UN Secretary General on "Human rights questions, including alternative approaches for improving the effective enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms"; U.N. Doc. A/51/506/Add.1 (12 Dec. 1996).
74. Note by the UN Secretary General on the "mid-term global evaluation of the progress made towards the achievement of the objectives of the United Nations Decade for Human Rights Education (1995-2004); U.N. Doc. A/55/360 (7 Sept. 2000).
75. United Nations General Assembly proclaims World Programme for Human Rights Education, Press Release GA/10317 (10 Dec. 2004).
76. Jackie Smith, et al., Globalizing Human Rights: The Work of Transnational Human Rights NGOs in the 1990s, 20 HUM. RTS. Q. (1998).
77. Price, supra note 4;
78. MARLIES GLASIUS, THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT: A GLOBAL CIVIL SOCIETY ACHIEVEMENT (2006).
79. Richard Pierre Claude, Global Human Rights Education: The Challenges for Nongovernmental Organizations, in HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY (George J. Andreopoulos & Richard Pierre Claude eds., 1997);
80. Anja Mihr, Menschenrechtsbildung und Menschenrechtsverständnis im Vergleich: Deutschland, USA, Grogßbritannien (Human Rights Education and Human Rights Understanding in Comparison: Germany, the United States, and Great Britain), in NEUE DEUTSCHE AUSSENPOLITIK: BEITRÄGE ZUR WISSENSCHAFTLICHEN GRUNDLEGUNG UND UNTERRICHTSPRAXIS (NEW GERMAN FOREIGN POLICY: CONTRIBUTIONS TO SCHOLARLY RESEARCH AND TEACHING) (Wichard Woyke ed., 2003);
81. Albrecht Schnabel & Shale Horowitz, NGOs' Critical Role in Advancing Human Rights in Transition Societies, 4 THE PODIUM (2002).
82. ANN MARIE CLARK, DIPLOMACY OF CONSCIENCE. AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL AND CHANGING HUMAN RIGHTS NORMS (2001).