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11. Human Rights Education in Peace-building: A Look at Where the Practice Has Come from, and Where It Needs to Head

Author:
Tracey Holland
Publication Date:
12-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Human Rights Human Welfare (University of Denver)
Abstract:
The world's peace-building and development organizations increasingly are incorporating human-rights frameworks into the myriad of activities now under their purview. Slower to develop, however, are the capacity-building programs designed to impart knowledge about human rights to citizens and communities. Field-workers throughout the world indicate that the lack of such guidance-giving education hinders them when it comes to monitoring activities, helping to rebuild public institutions, setting up and organizing electoral politics, building an unfettered media, protecting human security, setting up transitional justice mechanisms, and the myriad of other peace-building activities and democratization challenges they face in post-conflict situations. This paper not only explores this emerging field of the study and practice of human-rights education within the cross-national peace-building sphere by sharing the perspectives of educators around the world, but also considers a host of ideas that should help to advance the human-rights agendas of present and future post-conflict planners.
Topic:
Security, Development, Human Rights, Human Welfare, International Law, Peace Studies, and Peacekeeping

12. Customary Law and Human Rights in Botswana

Author:
Rekha A. Kumar
Publication Date:
08-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Human Rights Human Welfare (University of Denver)
Abstract:
The right of indigenous people to have customary law accommodated within the communities they live is an integral part of Botswana legal system. How far traditional cultures protect the well-being of their people would illuminate the foundation of human dignity on which human rights protection stands in a country. The revelations may not be affirmative always, however. In Botswana the Constitution places a prominent status on custom in a range of contexts. The core of personal law is very much the domain of customary law. It is of particular significance for women's rights. In its application it reinforces the social order by determining the obligations of men, women and children, their entitlement to resources, property ownership, marriage and divorce. It formulates such matters as the status of widows, child custody and inheritance. In the absence of a guarantee that equality between men and women takes precedence over custom, traditional practices that discriminate against women may be lawful in some circumstances. There are a number of regional and international human rights instruments ratified by Botswana. The Government has assumed an obligation to ensure that at all its levels of administration basic rights of the people will be respected and protected. How far these legally bind Botswana in its domestic application of customary law is a legitimate question not clearly settled so far.
Topic:
Human Rights, Human Welfare, and Law
Political Geography:
Africa

13. Darfur: In Search of Peace

Author:
George Shepherd and Peter Van Arsdale
Publication Date:
01-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Human Rights Human Welfare (University of Denver)
Abstract:
Darfur is located in the Western part of Sudan and borders Libya to the north, and Chad and CentralAfrican Republic to the West. It had an estimated population of seven million (prior to refugee and IDPdisplacements), representing more than 70 tribes, and is potentially rich in natural resources includingoil, copper, and uranium, as well as reservoirs of subsurface "Pleistocene water."
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Civil War, Human Rights, Human Welfare, Humanitarian Aid, Poverty, and War
Political Geography:
Africa and Libya

14. Repression and Punishment in North Korea: Survey Evidence of Prison Camp Experiences

Author:
Stephan Haggard
Publication Date:
10-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Human Rights Human Welfare (University of Denver)
Abstract:
The penal system has played a central role in the North Korean government's response to the country's profound economic and social changes. Two refugee surveys—one conducted in China, one in South Korea—document its changing role. The regime disproportionately targets politically suspect groups, particularly those involved in market-oriented economic activities. Levels of violence and deprivation do not appear to differ substantially between the infamous political prison camps, penitentiaries for felons, and labor camps used to incarcerate individuals for misdemeanors, including economic crimes. Substantial numbers of those incarcerated report experiencing deprivation with respect to food as well as public executions and other forms of violence. This repression appears to work; despite substantial cynicism about the North Korean system, refugees do not report signs of collective action aimed at confronting the regime.
Topic:
Corruption, Human Rights, and Human Welfare
Political Geography:
China, South Korea, and North Korea

15. A Human Rights-Oriented Approach to Military Operations

Author:
Federico Sperotto
Publication Date:
10-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Human Rights Human Welfare (University of Denver)
Abstract:
Counterinsurgency is the dominant aspect of US operations in Afghanistan, and since ISAF—the NATO-led security and assistance force—has assumed growing security responsibility throughout the country, it is also a mission for the Europeans. The frame in which military operations are conducted is irregular warfare, a form of conflict which differs from conventional operations in two main aspects. First, it is warfare among and within the people. Second, it is warfare in which insurgents avoid a direct military confrontation, using instead unconventional methods and terrorist tactics.
Topic:
Human Rights, Human Welfare, War, and Counterinsurgency
Political Geography:
Afghanistan and Asia

16. The International Security Presence in Kosovo and the Protection of Human Rights

Author:
Federico Sperotto
Publication Date:
06-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Human Rights Human Welfare (University of Denver)
Abstract:
On March 11th, 2000, two children who were playing in the neighborhoods of Mitrovica, Kosovo, got hurt by an “unexploded ordnance”. One of them died in the explosion, the other was severely injured. An inquire clarified that the ordnance was a “bomblet”, a part of a cluster bomb dropped during the 1999 NATO air campaign against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
Topic:
Security, Human Rights, Human Welfare, International Cooperation, and International Law
Political Geography:
Kosovo, Yugoslavia, and Balkans

17. Can Historical Institutionalism Resolve the Limits of the 'Many Hands' Dilemma?: Institutional Accountability through the EU's and the IMF's Codes of Conduct

Author:
Sarah Bania-Dobyns
Publication Date:
08-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Human Rights Human Welfare (University of Denver)
Abstract:
This paper argues that because institutions are different from individuals, we need different ethics in order to address the unique ethical risks associated with them. In particular, institutions run into unique ethical problems when no one individual is clearly responsible for an institutional outcome, what many scholars have called the “many hands” dilemma. The traditional approach to resolving such dilemmas has nevertheless been to attribute responsibility to individuals, either as persons or as agents. Since the traditional approach sets limits on the kinds of institutional ethical dilemmas that can be resolved, I turn to historical institutionalism (HI) in order to focus instead on the level of the institution as a step towards the case for holding international institutions accountable as institutions. HI can draw attention away from the detailed actions of individuals inside an institution, instead focusing attention on the evolutionary nature of the institution, making it difficult to change institutional practices. Based on this claim, in the second part I discuss two examples of institutions' accountability structures and guidelines, the EU Code of Good Administrative Behaviour and the IMF Code of Conduct for Staff. By considering three different factors (location of the Code within the governance structure of the institution, relations with a public according to the Codes and language in the Codes), my objective is to show how these Codes illustrate the limitations of the traditional approach to the “many hands” dilemma. I close with a discussion of how this argument makes space for further research on institutional accountability.
Topic:
Human Rights, Human Welfare, and International Organization

18. A Holistic Approach for Promoting the Rule of Law

Author:
Josef Bucher
Publication Date:
09-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Human Rights Human Welfare (University of Denver)
Abstract:
The world has become smaller as a result of globalization tendencies, making the establishment of a global order more important than ever. Nations have become closer. Hence, the intensive relations between countries must be increasingly protected by legal security. In order to stabilise this global order, also intra-state relations must be subjected to the protection of the law. The rule of law has thus become a central element of successful globalisation on two different levels.
Topic:
International Relations, Civil Society, Globalization, Human Rights, Human Welfare, and International Law
Political Geography:
Asia

19. Violations of Human Rights during Military Operations in Chechnya

Author:
Federico Sperotto
Publication Date:
02-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Human Rights Human Welfare (University of Denver)
Abstract:
The case-law of the European Court of Human Rights concerning violations of human rights law during armed conflict has been extended after the first decisions on cases arose from violations, committed during the war in Chechnya between 1999 and 2000. In the words of the Court, at that time the situation called for exceptional measures, in order to regain control over the Republic and suppress an illegal armed insurgency. The Court has been ready to admit those measures, including the deployment of army units equipped with heavy combat weapons, military aviation and artillery, were necessary to counter the aggressiveness of the separatists, but in such a way as to avoid or minimize, to the greatest extent possible, damage to civilians. This brief paper focuses on the means and methods employed. It aims firstly at illustrating the core of the Court's decisions, in order to identify the key aspects of the protection granted by the system of the European Convention in situations requiring the use of military force. Then it clarifies the approach of the Court to the law of armed conflict.
Topic:
Human Rights and Human Welfare
Political Geography:
Russia, Europe, Asia, and Chechnya

20. Human Rights Education: The Third Leg of Post-Conflict/Transitional Justice

Author:
David E. Guinn
Publication Date:
03-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Human Rights Human Welfare (University of Denver)
Abstract:
Emerging out of the same foment of war and violence that led to the recognition of international human rights, post-conflict or transitional justice represents one of the most important political developments in efforts to advance human civilization to arise during the course of the twentieth century. As more and more countries undergo the trauma of civil war or revolutions against repressive regimes, they and the international community must confront the problems of transforming these situations of violent conflict into healthy, functional democratic states. The guiding principle behind post-conflict or transitional justice is that complying with the demands of justice is a necessary prerequisite to peace and stability.
Topic:
Civil Society, Human Rights, Human Welfare, and Peace Studies