Call for Compendium Entries

The Human Rights Section of the International Studies Association (HR-ISA) encourages all of its members and other interested scholars to consider contributing review essays to the ISA Compendium Project. 

The ISA Compendium project is a significant, peer-reviewed project, involving publication of review essays on subject matter covered by the ISA. 

The Human Rights Section’s contributions to the ISA Compendium project will seek to offer a thoroughly grounded review of historical and current literature, practice, and issues in the field of human rights.  These range from, and are not limited to, topics such as international and regional monitoring and enforcement mechanisms to women’s rights to international criminal tribunals. A full list of HR-ISA can be found below.

Per the compendium guidelines, each entry must include: 

(1) major intellectual and social dimensions of the topic

(2) a comprehensive review of classical and older literatures

(3) changes over time in the topic, and its current treatment

(4) sufficient bibliographic material and links to important sources

Entries might also include:

(5) an assessment of future directions in research, theory, and methodology

(6) a critical consideration of important elements that remain unconsidered.

Each entry will be peer reviewed by at least 2 scholars.  Entries are to be produced, under the terms of the contract with the Compendium editors, within six months.  Further terms and conditions can be found on the ISA Compendium web site: http://www.isanet.org/compendium/. If you might be interested in writing an entry, please contact the Human Rights Section Compendium editors: Kurt Mills (k {dot} mills [at] socsci {dot} gla {dot} ac {dot} uk) and Chandra Sriram (c {dot} sriram [at] uel {dot} ac {dot} uk). Please provide a short description of your expertise and your CV.

ISA-Human Rights Compendium Project

Proposed Topics

HR-ISA Compendium Advisory Board:*

Sonia Cardenas

Jack Donnelly

Rhoda Howard-Hassmann

Todd Landman

Kurt Mills

Chandra Lekha Sriram

I.  CONCEPTS AND DEBATES

1.  What Are Human Rights and Are They Universal? 

A broad overview of the history of human rights and key philosophical and foundational debates, including the definition and sources of human rights, issues of hierarchy, and the universal-relativism debate.  How have the debates changed over time?  What are the key areas of consensus and disagreement?     Is the absence of foundations as a problem for empirical research in human rights? Who holds the rights and who has obligations to ensure rights? How are religion and human rights connected in a global context, and what are the implications of this for today’s so-called culture wars and the study of human rights?  Human rights discussion as state centric.

2.  History of Human Rights

How has the practice of human rights evolved?

3.  Sources of Human Rights Violations

Why do human rights violations occur? Surveying the literature on the range of reasons that rights are violated, by states and non-state actors.  Consideration of future directions for research.

4.  Methods and Measurement:  The Quantitative-Qualitative Gap 

What methods are used to study human rights? Do different methods of research across disciplines bring different advantages to the study of human rights? Is there a gap between quantitative and qualitative approaches?  Key debates over measuring human rights, including economic-social rights. Is there room for improvement? Ethics of human rights research.

II. ACTORS, POWER, AND HUMAN RIGHTS CHANGE

5.  The State of the State 

What has been the role of the state vis-à-vis human rights?  Discussion of protection and abuse, historically and theoretically; changing conceptions of sovereignty; example of NHRIs. Variation in states capacity to respect, protect, and fulfill their international human rights obligations, regime types, institutional arrangements, accountability, corruption.

6.  The Role of Transnational Human Rights Networks 

A summary of the literature on transnational networks, focusing on human rights advocates and defenders: functions and mechanisms of influence, types of case studies, contributions and limitations for explaining human rights change. Role of domestic social movements/NGOs and their relationship with transnational networks.

7.  Women’s Rights as Human Rights

A review of the literature on women’s rights as human rights: evolution and future directions.

8.  LGBT Rights: From Queers to Humans

The movement from gay liberation to framing gay rights as human rights. Advances in Europe and elsewhere. A survey and analysis of changes in state legislation and practice, and regional practice, including both progressive and regressive developments.

9.  Conflicts over Group Rights/Self-Determination

A survey of the key debates surrounding group rights, comparing vulnerable groups and their international status (e.g., indigenous peoples and other minorities). Issues surrounding implementing group rights such as self-determination and autonomy.

10.  Economic Rights

A discussion of the status of economic rights. Are they of the same quality as civil/political rights? What particular challenges are faced in ensuring them? Is there a right to development?

III. HUMAN RIGHTS IN A GLOBALIZING WORLD

11.  Effectiveness of International and Regional Mechanisms

A comparative assessment of the key international and regional human rights regimes, including analysis of the UNHCHR and the new Human Rights Council as well as the European, Inter-American, and African systems. Discussion of the absence of an Asian system, as well as a discussion of the Arab League and/or a general discussion of human rights in the Middle East.

The role/status of international human rights norms. Theoretical issues involved in examining the role of norms (e.g. rationalism/constructivism debate).

12.  Globalization and Human Rights

What are the purported effects of globalization on human rights conditions, both negative and positive (e.g., corporate responsibility, IFI’s, labor rights, violence against women, environmental degradation, technology, etc.)? The impact of structural adjustment programs (SAPs), the WTO and labor rights, project finance and the extraction of natural resources, manufacturing and export platforms, the garment industry, as well as foreign aid and human rights.

13.  Responding to Refugee and Humanitarian Crises

What mechanisms exist to respond to refugee and humanitarian crises?  How are international responses to such crises explained in the literature?  What are the principal critiques leveled against providers of humanitarian assistance? To what extent have the human rights, refugee and humanitarian regimes merged conceptually?  Lessons and implications.

14.  From Humanitarian Intervention to the Responsibility to Protect: Responding to Genocide

The causes and international responses to genocide and other mass gross violations of human rights. The evolution of the humanitarian intervention/responsibility to protect discourse. The human rights double standard: what determines great power intervention in some cases and its absence in others? Does peacekeeping work?  Cases including Rwanda, Bosnia, Cambodia, and Darfur.

15.  Science, Health, and Human Rights

How do science and health intersect with human rights?  What areas have received most attention?  Future directions for research.

IV. RETROSPECTIVE JUSTICE

16.  Domestic Application of Human Rights Norms and Universal Jurisdiction

The evolving role of domestic courts in protecting human rights and prosecuting human rights violators, or imposing civil accountability, including against ex-heads of state such as Augusto Pinochet. The role of national trials and national human rights institutions.

17.  Reassessing Truth Commissions

What do we know about the conditions under which truth commissions are formed and their influence varies?  Cross-regional comparisons, including the South African case, Sierra Leone, Peru, East Timor.  Do they actual fulfill their promises of justice, reconciliation and healing?

18.  International Tribunals:  Promises and Challenges

The importance of the ICC for human rights and the key challenges it faces, including US opposition (as embodied in the Article 98 agreements) as well as strong objections from other states such as China and India.  Examination of prospects for the ICC in the context of the ad hoc war crimes tribunals and Nuremberg. How has the ICC (and other international criminal tribunals) affected the international normative environment? Do international tribunals ensure justice? Do they act as a deterrent?

V.  CONTESTATION AND TRANSFORMATION

19. Human Rights and War

Have the Geneva Conventions and other international norms constrained the conduct of war? How has the conduct of state and non-state actors changed with the evolving nature of war? What are the particular human rights  issues raised by the war on terror?

20. Foreign Policy through a Human Rights Lens

A comparative examination of the role of human rights in states’ foreign policies, as well as the impact of states’ foreign policies (whether explicitly intended or not) on the protection of human rights.  The examination will focus on leading democratic countries, emerging democracies, and other countries with a significant impact, such as China.

21.  Human Rights Education

To what extent can human rights education/socialization be a tool for improving human rights conditions?  What does human rights education entail, as evident in concrete cases around the world?  How can human rights education complement existing international human rights mechanisms and policies? Teaching human rights (i.e. thinking about how we do what we do as college/university teachers).

*Note: The Advisory Board listed here was tasked with developing the list of chapters/topics to be covered. The section Executive Committee will oversee the further stages of the project.