Search

Begin New Search Topic Accountability Publication Year within 5 Years

51. The Lebanon Human Rights Report: Punting on Accountability?

Author:
David Schenker
Publication Date:
03-2023
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Abstract:
When the U.S. State Department issued its annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices last week, the document’s assessment of Lebanon’s track record in 2022 stood out for its significant elisions. Although the comprehensive nature of these reports generally makes them a valuable tool for accountability, their diplomatically sensitive content is sometimes colored by an administration’s perceived exigencies regarding a given bilateral relationship. The fact that Lebanon’s report largely avoids some of the country’s more controversial human rights issues therefore seems more than coincidental. Whatever the case, the omissions are a missed opportunity for facilitating just the type of accountability Lebanon needs to pry itself out of its current morass.
Topic:
Human Rights, Armed Forces, Economy, and Accountability
Political Geography:
Middle East and Lebanon

52. The Responsibility of Business to Respect Human Rights

Author:
Özlem Zıngıl
Publication Date:
11-2023
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV)
Abstract:
This brief provides a frame of reference and recommendations on the responsibility of business to respect human rights, based on the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and current examples.
Topic:
Human Rights, United Nations, Business, Accountability, Transparency, and Labor Market
Political Geography:
Turkey and Middle East

53. Perceptions of Public Accountability and its Impacts on Democratic Stability in Nigeria: Observations from Akwa Ibom State

Author:
Lawrence I. Edet and Monday S. Akpakpan
Publication Date:
12-2023
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Political Studies
Institution:
Department of Political Science, University of the Punjab
Abstract:
The manner at which public officials manipulates and won elections in Nigeria deeply depreciates the political value of the electorate and embolden such officials to refuse to be accountable to the masses. Thus, democracy in Nigeria has been profoundly endangered since Nigeria returned to democratic system of government in 1999 as a result of undemocratic practices, chiefly, the aspects that relates to elections and public accountability. At the center of these democratic misdemeanors in Nigeria is inherent lack of transparency and accountability of public leaders. This study therefore investigates perceptions of public accountability and its impacts on democratic stability in Nigeria with observations from Akwa Ibom State. The study articulated four objectives which translated into four research questions and four hypotheses. The Social Contract Theory was adopted for this study. The study also adopted descriptive research design and chi-square statistical technique to analyze the data collected. Research questionnaire was distributed to sample of 200 participants randomly selected from each of the three senatorial districts of Akwa Ibom State, totaling 600, which the researcher only retrieved 570 of it. The findings revealed among others that citizens’ views about the electoral processes influence their perceptions of democratic stability. The study recommended among others that the electoral processes should be very transparent to all citizens to enlist their trust and confidence in the political system.
Topic:
Elections, Democracy, Accountability, Transparency, and Public Officials
Political Geography:
Africa and Nigeria

54. Enhancing political accountability in South Africa

Author:
Pranish Desai and Mxolisi Zondo
Publication Date:
06-2023
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Good Governance Africa (GGA)
Abstract:
Enshrined in the founding provisions of South Africa’s democratic constitution is the commitment to a “multi-party system of democratic government, to ensure accountability, responsiveness and openness”.1 Today, South Africa is entering a new form of multiparty governance through the emergence of coalition governments in municipalities across the country. Following the Constitutional Court’s June 2020 decision to strike down parts of the Electoral Act of 1998, there have also been critical discussions about whether our national and provincial electoral framework of proportional representation fosters the accountability and responsiveness to which our constitution aspires.2 Both the nascent era of widespread coalition governance and the debate over electoral reform occur while the confidence that citizens have in our democracy is depreciating. In order to revive South Africans’ belief in our democratic system, we must renew that system to improve accountability. Many of the policy proposals that Good Governance Africa (GGA) considers in this briefing already exist,3 but we evaluate them in specific relation to how they can deepen political accountability in South Africa. The upshot is that a shift in approach from our institutions, political parties, civil society and citizens themselves is required.
Topic:
Governance, Elections, Accountability, Social Contract, and Coalition
Political Geography:
Africa and South Africa

55. Activating Spaces, Scaling Up Voices: Community-based Monitoring and Planning of Health Services in Maharashtra, India

Author:
Abhay Shukla, Shweta Marathe, Deepali Yakkundi, Trupti Malti, and Jonathan Fox
Publication Date:
06-2023
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Accountability Research Center (ARC), American University
Abstract:
From 2007, the Indian government’s National Health Mission (NHM) supported civil society networks to carry out large-scale participatory monitoring to improve health service access and quality under the Community-based Monitoring and Planning (CBMP) program. In the state of Maharashtra, this social accountability initiative endured more than a decade and a half, despite constraints and unpredictable government funding. The CBMP program in Maharashtra supported state-wide civil society networks to enable active citizen participation in health oversight committees. It was rooted in a broad network of diverse community-based organizations and civil society organizations that work with socially excluded communities, led by Support for Advocacy and Training to Health Initiatives (SATHI). The CBMP network combined many social accountability tools into a multilevel strategy, using community assessments of health services and local meetings with clinic staff to inform problem-solving efforts at local, district, and state levels of the health system. This government-funded civil society initiative worked with local officials to convene public dialogues and to activate previously dormant official oversight bodies, animated by a parallel network of autonomous monitoring committees. This Working Paper presents SATHI’s analysis of the CBMP program’s strategy and institutional dynamics, and documents its lasting effects on two participatory oversight institutions: Village Health, Sanitation, and Nutrition Committees (VHSNCs)—part of local government, and Rogi Kalyan Samitis (Patient Welfare Committees)—part of the health system. Field research, carried out shortly before the pandemic, compared the activation of these hybrid oversight bodies in areas with and without a legacy of intensive CBMP action. Key findings include: Official participatory spaces for citizen engagement with the health system were much more active in districts where CBMP networks had intensively promoted grassroots capacity for voice. Frontline health system responsiveness to issues that could be addressed locally—identified as ‘CBMP-sensitive’—was very high. But the health system’s degree of responsiveness to problem-solving efforts decreased at higher levels. The period of intensive CBMP effort to build grassroots awareness and capacity was limited to six years. Nevertheless, that effort had lasting effects on the levels of activity of local hybrid health oversight bodies. The pandemic revealed additional evidence of the medium-term survival and institutional impact of CBMP-enabled social networks.
Topic:
Civil Society, Health, Governance, Accountability, Community, Monitoring, Planning, Monitoring, and and Evaluation (PME)
Political Geography:
South Asia and India

56. A Way Forward for Justice and Accountability in Ethiopia

Author:
Stephen Rapp, Andrea Gittleman, and Danica Damplo
Publication Date:
11-2023
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Abstract:
This paper proposes a way forward for those who support justice and accountability for mass atrocities in Ethiopia. These options are posed in a rapidly changing policy environment: in the past year Ethiopia was invited to join the BRICS group of nations; countries are seeking to normalize relations with the Ethiopian government after the conflict in Tigray; and brutal conflicts in Sudan and elsewhere have focused international attention away from the situation in Ethiopia. The proposals below list available options which should be seriously considered by policymakers who want to properly address crimes of the past and develop strategies that mitigate ongoing mass atrocity risks to civilians in Ethiopia.
Topic:
Accountability, Justice, Atrocities, Crimes Against Humanity, and Armed Conflict
Political Geography:
Africa and Ethiopia

57. A Bank of Actions: Making Good on Losses and Damages

Author:
Arunabha Ghosh
Publication Date:
05-2023
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Cairo Review of Global Affairs
Institution:
School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, American University in Cairo
Abstract:
Egypt assumed the presidency of the Conference of the Parties (COP) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) during a devastating year of heat waves, droughts, lost crops, and extreme floods. These events made it impossible to ignore climate-related damages to lives and livelihoods. They also made clear that the long-held assumptions that the rich would escape the impact and the poor would need to adapt to it no longer held true. The undeniable truth is that the climate crisis is impacting vulnerable communities across the world. The agreement on a loss and damage finance facility was the most consequential outcome from the twenty-seventh round of negotiations (COP27) held in Sharm El-Sheikh. But the goal of keeping temperature rise to levels that could minimize loss and damage continues to slip away. Egypt, which will hold the COP presidency until November 2023, has an opportunity to orient COP away from conversation and commitments and toward action and accountability. To do so, it will need to implement a suite of reforms based on protecting vulnerable populations, ensuring party compliance, increasing transparency, and democratizing the energy transition.
Topic:
Climate Change, Accountability, Conference of the Parties (COP), and Energy Transition
Political Geography:
India, Egypt, and Island States

58. How to hold the Islamic Republic of Iran accountable in European courts

Author:
Gissou Nia, Celeste Kmiotek, Lisandra Novo, and Alyssa T. Yamamoto
Publication Date:
12-2023
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Atlantic Council
Abstract:
The past year has witnessed increased and sustained calls to secure accountability for the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI)’s atrocity crimes and gross human rights violations, particularly in response to the protests triggered by Mahsa Jina Amini’s death at the hands of the IRI’s morality police in September 2022. Accountability efforts have primarily focused on securing justice for victims and survivors of extrajudicial killings, mass arbitrary detention, torture, and other grave abuses committed by the IRI in response to peaceful protests. However, these efforts have also sought to hold IRI authorities to account for unpunished crimes during prior decades, including the IRI’s brutal crackdowns on protestors in November 2019 and the 1988 summary executions of thousands of Iranian political prisoners. Because the judicial system in Iran is neither independent nor impartial—and is, in fact, responsible for unjust imprisonments and complicit in serious abuses in Iranian prisons—there are no viable domestic routes for accountability. However, there are paths available through national judicial systems in other states. This report from the Atlantic Council’s Strategic Litigation Project explores accountability options that European states in particular can pursue, with the help of civil society. Throughout Europe, states have adopted universal jurisdiction provisions, which allow them to prosecute acts that constitute core international crimes—genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity—even if the crime was committed in a different state by and against foreign nationals. Sweden used these provisions to convict former IRI official Hamid Noury for murder and war crimes committed during the 1988 prison massacres, but so far no other IRI official has been tried under universal jurisdiction provisions for crimes committed in Iran, despite newfound opportunities to pursue these cases. For decades, IRI officials have traveled throughout Europe, often owning assets and even reportedly receiving healthcare in different countries. At the same time, many victims and survivors of the IRI’s brutality have sought refuge in Europe—making the presence of IRI officials with no accountability all the more egregious, yet providing an opportunity for these victims and survivors to support investigations with eyewitness accounts and further information. The countries included in this report—Belgium, England and Wales, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Switzerland—are just seven jurisdictions out of 148 United Nations member states worldwide that have laws allowing for the investigation and prosecution of some or all core international crimes, even when those crimes are committed beyond their own borders. These seven jurisdictions were selected as a focus of this report due to several factors including: the strength of their universal jurisdiction frameworks and frequency of use; their robust caselaw and policies for prosecuting atrocity crimes committed extraterritorially; the size of Iranian expatriate communities in these countries, especially those fleeing persecution and violence; and the possibility of travel by IRI officials to these jurisdictions. This report details what each country’s universal jurisdiction provisions entail, how proceedings are initiated, and what victims’ rights are protected. It also gives an overview of each state’s relevant jurisprudence to date, analyzing the legal, practical, and political viability of future cases involving IRI violations, including in light of the country’s diplomatic relationship with Iran. Finally, it provides regional and country-specific recommendations to facilitate more cases against IRI perpetrators and to strengthen universal jurisdiction frameworks more broadly.
Topic:
Human Rights, International Law, Accountability, and Norms
Political Geography:
Europe, Iran, and Middle East

59. Managing Africa's resources equitably demands accountable states

Author:
Peter Albrecht, Marie Ladekjær Gravesen, Frank Agyei, Kwesi Aning, and Richard Asante
Publication Date:
11-2023
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS)
Abstract:
Africa’s vast natural resources present both opportunities and challenges. Securing their sustainable extraction depends on African states’ ability and willingness to enforce equitable legislation and policies. This does not take away the huge — and historical — responsibility of external actors from Asia, Europe and North America. In 2019, Ghana banned rosewood extraction following years of over-logging that had decimated these slow-growing trees. Nevertheless, illegal harvesting and export of rosewood have continued since the ban. Research shows that the Ghanaian state has been unable or unwilling to deal with the violations because some of its representatives profit from these illegal activities.
Topic:
Agriculture, Climate Change, Development, Water, Food, Governance, Accountability, Land Rights, Equity, and Resource Management
Political Geography:
Africa

60. The Justice Gap and the Budget Black Hole: Promoting Justice through Budget-Based Work

Author:
Gustavo Maurino
Publication Date:
12-2023
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Center on International Cooperation (CIC)
Abstract:
The field of justice lags behind other sectors in linking fiscal and budget policies to the achievement of people-centered objectives because people assume the challenge to be primarily legal, and assessments are not often informed by fiscal costs, resources, and impact. This policy brief looks at how access to justice for all will remain elusive unless justice experts begin to evaluate and address the fiscal dimensions of the justice gap. In most countries, data on public and private investment in justice services is limited. Many countries do not have information on the levels of investment nor on the effectiveness of investment. Others assess only investment in traditional, formal justice institutions, which tackle just a small proportion of people’s justice problems. In the human rights and other fields, recognition has also grown in recent years that budgets are not just technical matters, but determinants of whose needs are prioritized and attended to. Budgets reflect political choices and priorities and lie at the center of democratic governance and accountability. This has led to a democratization of budgetary processes, with people increasingly participating in the process— demanding greater transparency and accountability from those responsible for budget design and execution. Further, this brief looks at how results-based budgeting models and performance-oriented budgets have been the most important developments in connecting budgets to substantive social justice agendas. Justice experts can learn from successful budgeting models implemented in other areas, including human rights budgeting, gender budgeting, equality and well-being budgeting, and green budgeting. Opening up justice budgeting and ensuring that it responds more effectively to people’s needs will require a comprehensive assessment of the social costs of unmet justice needs; the cost of services currently deployed; the potential costs of alternative interventions; and the impact of investment on the justice outcomes people need and want. Finally, this brief examines the importance of considering not only the institutional but the functional role of justice budgets in affecting social outcomes. This will require expanding the traditional conception of what constitutes justice services beyond formal courts and lawyers; basing investment decisions on evidence of what works to meet people’s justice needs; rebalancing investment to assist hitherto neglected communities and population groups; and considering the role of other sectors and of non-state actors in promoting or denying justice.
Topic:
Budget, Accountability, Investment, and Justice
Political Geography:
Global Focus