Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Mandela's Dark Years: A Political Theory Of Dreaming, Sharon Sliwinski

Sharon Sliwinski

Linking Climate, Human Rights, And Development, Naomi Roht-Arriaza, Lyuba Zarsky

Naomi Roht-Arriaza

Monterey Institute Professor Lyuba Zarsky and Hastings Professor Naomi Roht-Arriaza speak about an investment-led approach to climate resilient development paths.

Using Torture Against Women, Juliet Schiller

Juliet A Schiller

According to Juan E. Mendez, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, more than half the countries that formulate the United Nations use torture. Torture is considered to be one of the most serious violations of international laws. It is classified as a crime against humanity and as a war crime. Women are at greater risk for organized violence compared to men. According to Amnesty International, women are frequently singled out for torture in armed conflicts because of their role as educators and symbols of the community. This essay presents research into the practice of torture against women in the form of …

Epidemiology Of Mental Health In Conflict-Affected Populations., M Hicks

Madelyn Hsiao-Rei Hicks

No abstract provided.

Police-Building And The Responsibility To Protect: Civil Society, Gender And Human Rights Culture In Oceania, Charles Hawksley, Nichole Georgeou

Nichole Georgeou

Forthcoming: This book examines how the United Nations and states provide assistance for the police services of developing states to help them meet their human rights obligations to their citizens, under the responsibility to protect (R2P) provisions. It examines police-capacity building ("police-building") by international donors in Timor-Leste, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea (PNG). All three states have been described as "fragile states" and "states of concern", and all have witnessed significant social tensions and violence in the past decades. The authors argue that globally police-building forms part of an attempt to make states "safe" so that they can adhere …

Rtop's Second Pillar: The Responsibility To Assist In Theory And Practice In Solomon Islands, Charles Hawksley, Nichole Georgeou

Nichole Georgeou

This paper explores the implementation of a regional capacity-building program in Solomon Islands, a state that experienced significant violence and political tension between 1998 and 2003. The July 2003 intervention of the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) is a useful and relevant case study for understanding the operationalization of Pillar II of RtoP, which the authors have termed the “Responsibility to Assist” (RtoA). While RAMSI has not consciously adopted RtoP language in its operations, the rationale for the intervention included humanitarian as well as wider regional security concerns. The mission’s emphasis on developing the state’s capacities in policing …

The Normative Context Of Human Rights Criticism: Treaty Ratification And Un Mechanisms, Ann Marie Clark

Ann Marie Clark

extract from first paragraph: "How do human rights norms condition states' responses to international criticism? .... This chapter applies a form of dynamic time series analysis... along with a short case study of UN action on Indonesia, to consider the effects of the discursive engagement represented by treaty commitment and whether human rights treaty compliance varies when a state received additional international attention."

With Reckless Abandon: Haneef And Ul-Haque In Australia's 'War On Terror', Mark Rix

Mark Rix

This brief paper considers the political and social implications of the manner in which Australia has prosecuted the so-called ‘war on terror’. It does this by investigating relevant aspects of Australia’s anti-terrorism legislation and the performance of Australian security and law enforcement agencies, namely, the Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) and the Australian Federal Police (AFP). Focusing on the Haneef and Ul-Haque cases, the paper will consider how the political climate created by the former Federal Government’s legislative approach to the war on terror has influenced the performance of these organisations. By focusing on these two cases, the paper …

Human Rights In Camera, Sharon Sliwinski

Sharon Sliwinski

Global Comparison Of Warring Groups In 2002-2007: Fatalities From Targeting Civilians Vs. Fighting Battles., M Hicks, U Lee, R Sundberg, M Spagat

Madelyn Hsiao-Rei Hicks

BACKGROUND:

Warring groups that compete to dominate a civilian population confront contending behavioral options: target civilians or battle the enemy. We aimed to describe degrees to which combatant groups concentrated lethal behavior into intentionally targeting civilians as opposed to engaging in battle with opponents in contemporary armed conflict.

METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS:

We identified all 226 formally organized state and non-state groups (i.e. actors) that engaged in lethal armed conflict during 2002-2007: 43 state and 183 non-state. We summed civilians killed by an actor's intentional targeting with civilians and combatants killed in battles in which the actor was involved for total fatalities …

Global Sustainable Values – Video Interviews To Selected Global Leaders, Marco Tavanti

Marco Tavanti

Dr. Tavanti's interviews to selected global leaders exemplifying teaching values on sustainability, human rights, international development, social responsibility and public service

The Dirty War Index: A Public Health And Human Rights Tool For Examining And Monitoring Armed Conflict Outcomes., M Hicks, M Spagat

Madelyn Hsiao-Rei Hicks

War, a major public health problem, is a situation where the interests of public health, human rights, and humanitarian law intersect.

The DWI is a data-driven public health tool that identifies rates of particularly undesirable or prohibited, i.e., “dirty,” outcomes inflicted on populations during war (e.g., civilian death, child injury, or torture).

A DWI is calculated as: (Number of “dirty,” i.e., undesirable or prohibited cases/Total number of cases) × 100.

DWIs are designed for direct, easy translation of war's public health outcomes into the human rights, policy, and interdisciplinary work needed to address war's practice.

DWIs support monitoring, deterrence, and …

Sovereignty, Democracy, And Global Civil Society, Elisabeth Friedman, Kathryn Hochstetler, Ann Marie Clark

Ann Marie Clark

Sovereignty, Democracy, and Global Civil Society explores the growing power of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) by analyzing a microcosm of contemporary global state-society relations at UN World Conferences. The intense interactions between states and NGOs at conferences on the environment, human rights, women's issues, and other topics confirm the emergence of a new transnational democratic sphere of activity. Employing both regional and global case studies, the book charts noticeable growth in the ability of NGOs to build networks among themselves and effect change within UN processes. Using a multidimensional understanding of state sovereignty, the authors find that states use sovereignty to …

Diplomacy Of Conscience: Amnesty International And Changing Human Rights Norms, Ann Marie Clark

Ann Marie Clark

Diplomacy of Conscience traces Amnesty International's efforts to strengthen both popular human rights awareness and international law against torture, disappearances, and political killings. Drawing on primary interviews and archival research, Ann Marie Clark posits that Amnesty International's strenuously cultivated objectivity gave the group political independence and allowed it to be critical of all governments violating human rights. Its capacity to investigate abuses and interpret them according to international standards helped it foster consistency and coherence in new human rights law. Generalizing from this study, Clark builds a theory of the autonomous role of nongovernmental actors in the emergence of international …