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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Human Rights Regime In West Africa: The Case Of Ecowas And The Journey To Nigeria's Fourth Republic, Fatima Mercy Aigbomian Dec 2023

Human Rights Regime In West Africa: The Case Of Ecowas And The Journey To Nigeria's Fourth Republic, Fatima Mercy Aigbomian

Department of Political Science: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

As regional economic communities within Africa expanded into courts to resolve economic disputes and these courts further metamorphosed into human rights courts, scholars of international human rights law have theorized about the reason for the “proliferation” of human rights mechanisms in Africa. This article examines why regional economic communities have courts whose jurisdiction have been expanded to hear human rights claims. I focus on the role of domestic politics and the strategic leadership of dominant member states of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Contrary to approaches that emphasize human rights courts are a well-orchestrated showmanship utilized as …


Strategic Litigation And The Evolution Of Regional Human Rights Norms: Cases From Germany And The Netherlands, Cole Kovarik Apr 2021

Strategic Litigation And The Evolution Of Regional Human Rights Norms: Cases From Germany And The Netherlands, Cole Kovarik

Honors Theses

This study seeks to fill gaps in our understanding of how private actors participate in international human rights politics by examining civil society involvement in European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) cases against long-standing democracies. Descriptive analysis of an exhaustive data set of instances of civil society organization (CSO) participation in ECtHR cases against Germany and The Netherlands is complemented by a comparative case study analysis of networks of organizations that mobilized around German and Dutch cases concerning Articles 8 (right to privacy) and 10 (freedom of expression). The data suggest that civil society organizations not only appear before the …


Backlash To The European Court Of Human Rights: The Case Of Russia, Cole Kovarik, Courtney Hillebrecht Apr 2020

Backlash To The European Court Of Human Rights: The Case Of Russia, Cole Kovarik, Courtney Hillebrecht

UCARE Research Products

Since the end of World War II, the international community has forged human rights accountability systems that have since become increasingly important. The good work done by these international tribunals has come under threat more and more by a process of backlash called tribunal capture, or “the politics of states and individual political leaders seeking to undermine the tribunals by working within the judicialized and legalized landscape of international human rights law” (Hillebrecht). The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) is no exception; since its foundation, it has been largely utilized. However, lack of compliance with its rulings remains to …


Emerging From The Shadows: Civil War, Human Rights, And Peacebuilding Among Peasants And Indigenous Peoples In Colombia And Peru In The Late 20th And Early 21st Centuries, Charles A. Flowerday Jun 2014

Emerging From The Shadows: Civil War, Human Rights, And Peacebuilding Among Peasants And Indigenous Peoples In Colombia And Peru In The Late 20th And Early 21st Centuries, Charles A. Flowerday

Anthropology Department: Theses

Peacebuilding in Colombia and Peru following their late-20th and early 21st century civil wars is a challenging proposition. In this study, it becomes necessary as indigenous peoples and peasants resist domination by extractive industries and governments in their thrall. Whether they protest nonviolently or rebel in arms, they are targeted for human-rights violations, especially murder, disappearance and displacement. The armed actors, state, insurgency, paramilitaries or drug traffickers, destroy civic institutions (local or regional government) and the civil (nonprofit) sector and replace them with their own authoritarian versions. Therefore, peacebuilding has emphasized rebuilding civic institutions, civil society and local …


Regional Regimes For The Defense Of Democracy And Coups D'Etat, Jacob P. Wobig Apr 2013

Regional Regimes For The Defense Of Democracy And Coups D'Etat, Jacob P. Wobig

Department of Political Science: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Does international law work, and if so, how? In the last twenty years eight regional intergovernmental organizations have adopted treaties requiring all participants to be democracies and specifying sanctions to be leveled against members that cease to be democracies. In this work I examine to what extent these agreements are helping protect the governments of their members from coups. I find that, between 1991 and 2008, states subject to these treaties were less likely to experience attempted coups d’etat, and were less likely to be overthrown when coups were attempted, but that the evidence varies widely in particular cases. Case …


Personal And Political Reconciliation In Post-Genocide Rwanda, Ari Kohen, Michael Zanchelli, Levi Drake Mar 2011

Personal And Political Reconciliation In Post-Genocide Rwanda, Ari Kohen, Michael Zanchelli, Levi Drake

Department of Political Science: Faculty Publications

The majority of scholarly research on Rwanda currently focuses on determining the causes of and participation in the genocide. In this paper, we explore a variety of questions that have come to the forefront in post-genocide Rwanda. In particular, we are concerned with the prospects for peace and justice in the aftermath of the gross abuses of human rights that occurred and, to that end, we consider the potential uses and limits of restorative justice initiatives in the process of healing and reconciliation in Rwanda. We argue that restorative justice initiatives have moved the country closer toward reconciliation than retributive …