NGOs and human rights

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NGOs and human rights

• James W. Nickel

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The idea of civil society

• Civil society is mainly defined by contrast to
  state institutions on one side, and the family on
  the other. It is comprised by organizations whose
  membership is voluntary and that act to achieve
  civic purposes.
• Examples include schools and universities,
  charities, churches and religious organizations,
  clubs, community organizations, consumer groups,
  environmental organizations, ethnic
  organizations, foundations and granting agencies,
  human rights advocacy groups, the media,
  political organizations, professional
  associations, trade unions, and womens groups.
• One role of civil society organizations is to
  counterbalance the power of the state, to stand
  ready to criticize and oppose states when they
  engage in human rights abuses.
• As this makes clear, human rights NGOs at the
  national and international levels are part of
  civil society.
  
• Some theorists have introduced the idea of
  international civil society.
  

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Examples of human rights NGOs

• Anti-Slavery International, perhaps the oldest
  human rights NGO
  
• American Arab Anti Discrimination Committee
• The Ford Foundation
• The Judicial System Monitoring Program in East
  Timor
  
• The Think Centre in Singapore
• See Derechos Human Rights for a huge
  international list of HR NGOs.

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Religions organizations and human rights

• Religious organizations often play a role in
  promoting human rights and in helping address
  human rights crises
  
• For example, the Roman Catholic church played a
  large role in opposing political repression
  involving torture and disappearances in Brazil
  and Argentina in the 1960s and 70s. They later
  documented Brazilian human rights abuses in Nunca
  Mais (1985).
• The American Friends Service Committee is another
  religious organization active in the area of
  human rights.

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Are there politically conservative human rights
NGOs?

• Freedom House
• The Conservative Party Human Rights Organization,
  United Kingdom
  
• American conservatives often prefer to talk of
  freedom or democracy rather than human rights

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HR NGOs as employers of experts and area
specialists

• One useful role that HR NGOs play is in employing
  experts and area specialists in roles that
  combine research and advocacy
  
• This role is also performed by universities
• For example, think of the team of people that
  work to put together Human Rights Watchs section
  on the United States or on LGBT rights

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Human Rights NGOs and the Internet

• The internet is extremely useful to HR NGOs as a
  cheap way of diffusing information. The most
  common acronym is ICT for Information and
  Communications Technology.
• The organizations web site has become its most
  important publicity tool. Online publication
  allows for much more information to be made
  widely available.
• Electronic communicationallows concerned
  observers to bypass the traditional filters of
  the news media or international NGOs and receive
  daily reports of developments surrounding an
  issue of concern rather than waiting for sporadic
  coverage by the popular media. Conceivably, this
  can provide a forum for individual actors to have
  greater global impact.
• Electronic communications have reduced
  significantly the amount of time it takes to
  mount a campaign to address a pressing human
  rights issue and the cost of doing so. For
  example, when six Cambodians were arrested for
  disseminating pamphlets critical of the Phnom
  Penn government, a trusted expatriate human
  rights worker sent out an alert via E-mail. One
  informal copy was passed to the relevant desk
  officer in the State Department, and another went
  to the worker's home office, which called the
  State Department expressing concern. Two others
  were sent to Amnesty International and Human
  Rights Watch, both of which made public
  statements on the issue. From the concern of one
  individual, a seeming international campaign had
  instantaneously developed. Jamie F. Metzl,
  Information Technology and Human Rights, Human
  Rights Quarterly 18.4 (1996) 705-746

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NGOs and human rights awards and prizes

• Human Rights Watch gives Human Rights Defender
  awards
  
• Amnesty International gives Media Awards
• The RFK Memorial gives human rights awards,
  calling its recipients laureates.

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Protecting the leaders of human rights NGOs

• Like other human rights activists, the leaders of
  human rights NGOs are sometimes targets of
  attacks and repression by governments.
  
• Some organizations have worked on protecting the
  human rights of those who promote human rights
  
• Human Rights First has a special project in this
  area called Human rights defenders
  
• Some countries, including Russia, have passed
  legislation to limit the activities of NGOs.

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Human rights NGOs in the UN

• Areas where HR NGOs participate
• Drafting of HR treaties. See Claire Breen, The
  Role of NGOs in the Formulation of and Compliance
  with the Optional Protocol to the Convention on
  the Rights of the Child on Involvement of
  Children in Armed Conflict,Human Rights
  Quarterly 25.2 (2003) 453-481
• Testifying before UN committees such as the Human
  Rights Council
  
• Providing information for human rights complaints
  to committees and treaty bodies
  
• Working with the treaty bodies within the
  reporting process
  

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Human Rights NGOs and the Human Rights Council

• The issue in which NGOs have probably become
  most involved in at the United Nations is that of
  human rights. The Commission on Human Rights
  (replaced in 2006 by a Human Rights Council) was
  the ECOSOC subsidiary organ to which NGOs had
  gained the best facilities for access. Thanks to
  the lobbying of NGOs and of CONGO in particular
  these facilities are being maintained at the
  Human Rights Council.
• The number of NGOs in consultative status is
  growing steadily, thus leading to a consequential
  increase in NGO participation in the
  Commission/Council. NGOs therefore need to
  self-organize themselves in order not to present
  repetitive statements to the plenary. During the
  61st session of the Commission (2005), 261 NGOs
  participated, represented by a total of 1946
  individuals.
• The NGOs principal interventions at the
  Commission/Council take the following forms
  
• NGOs may present written statements (351 in 2005)
  and/or oral ones (473), the latter being limited
  to six for each NGO for the whole duration of the
  session and to a speaking time of three minutes.
  
• NGOs may lobby national delegations to present or
  co-sponsor a given resolution. The real impact of
  this lobbying activity depends on the
  preparedness of member states to act as
  intermediaries. Some of them are known for being
  more NGO-friendly than others.
• NGOs may organize parallel events that generally
  take place during lunch breaks. Such events
  reached a record number of 153 in 2005.
  
• The Conference of Non-Governmental Organizations
  in Consultative Relationship with the United
  Nations

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NGOs and the US Report to the Human Rights
Committee

• On July 17 and 18, 2006, the United States
  presented its report to the ICCPRs Human Rights
  Committee. Concerned about torture and
  Guantanamo, Many NGOs presented information tk
  the Committee.
• Civil societyput on a full court press. 
  Numerous NGOslarge and small, well-known and
  lesser knownsubmitted hundreds of pages of
  reports detailing the U.S.s alleged violations
  of the Covenant.  (The NGO submissions are
  available here.)  Many turned out in Geneva to
  attend the packed sessions.  Last Friday, the
  American Civil Liberties Union sponsored a
  pre-hearing presentation featuring testimony of
  alleged victims.  NGO representatives met over
  the weekend to strategize over how they would
  respond to the governments testimony.  On
  Sunday, the U.S. delegation met with NGO
  representatives to hear and discuss their
  concerns.
• http//www.unwatch.org/site/apps/nl/content2.asp?c
  bdKKISNqEmGb1317481ct2779975
  
• See the ACLUs account

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The ACLU Report (Executive Summary)

• C. Freedom From Torture and Cruel, Inhuman or
  Degrading Treatment or Punishment (Article 7)
  
• Evidence from a range of sources, including over
  100,000 government documents produced to the ACLU
  through Freedom of Information Act ("FOIA")
  litigation, show a systemic pattern of torture
  and abuse of detainees in U.S. custody in Iraq,
  Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. This abuse
  was the direct result of policies promulgated
  from high - level civilian and military leaders
  and the failure of these leaders to prevent
  torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading
  treatment by subordinates.
• Despite the widespread and systemic nature of the
  torture and abuse, including over 120 reported
  deaths in custody, the United States has refused
  to authorize any independent investigation into
  the abuses and the government continues to assert
  that the abuse was simply the actions of a few
  rogue soldiers. The U.S. government has taken
  very limited measures to hold perpetrators
  accountable and to provide redress to victims of
  torture and abuse. Also in violation of the
  Covenant, the U.S. continues to engage in
  unlawful renditions in which the CIA kidnaps
  individuals and transfers them to countries known
  for their routine use of torture. Other detainees
  have been "disappeared" to secret detention
  facilities overseas.

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Amnesty InternationalUNITED STATES OF
AMERICASummary of concerns for consideration by
the Human Rights Committee in relation to US
counter-terrorism measures since 11 September
2001September 2005

• In Advance of the 85th session of the Human
  Rights Committee, Amnesty International submits
  the following briefing outlining the
  organizations principal concerns regarding the
  counter-terrorism measures taken by the USA
  following the attacks of 11 September 2001 as
  they relate to the state partys obligations
  under the International Covenant on Civil and
  Political Rights (ICCPR).
• This document focuses mainly on measures taken
  in the context of US security operations abroad,
  including the treatment of detainees in US
  custody in Afghanistan, Iraq, Guantánamo Bay in
  Cuba, and other locations, although it cites some
  additional concerns relating to domestic law or
  practice. The organizations concerns
  highlighted in this briefing relate to, among
  other things, prolonged detention without trial
  or access to the courts in circumstances
  amounting to arbitrary detention incommunicado
  detentions and disappearances the
  authorization of interrogation techniques
  prohibited under international law as cruel,
  inhuman or degrading treatment cruel conditions
  of confinement a pattern of torture and
  ill-treatment deaths in custody and unlawful
  killings proceedings which do not meet standards
  for fair trials and discriminatory treatment.
• Additional background information and more
  details on the organizations concerns can be
  found in the various Amnesty International
  documents referred to in the following sections.

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Controversies about human rights NGOs

• HR NGOs are often unpopular with the governments
  they criticize
  
• Writers who sympathize with those governments
  have sometimes criticized big Western HR NGOs for
  being unelected and unaccountable.
  
• For example, NGO Monitor is an organization whose
  objective is to end to the practice used by
  certain self-declared 'humanitarian NGOs' of
  exploiting the label 'universal human rights
  values' to promote politically and ideologically
  motivated anti-Israel agendas.

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NGO Monitors Criticisms of HR NGOs

• NGOs vary widely, not only in nature and
  quality, but also in their apparent motivations.
  Their power to do good is matched by their power
  to misrepresent. Unlike democratically elected
  governments or publicly traded companies, no
  systematic framework exists for holding NGOs to
  rigorous standards of accountability for the
  statements and reports they produce. In some
  situations, established NGOs that claim to pursue
  universal humanitarian goals enjoy a halo effect
  that grants immunity from detailed scrutiny or
  criticism. In other cases, the assumption that
  their motives are pure, and politically, as well
  as ideologically neutral, inhibits critical
  review.
• The vast resources at the disposal of these
  self-proclaimed humanitarian NGOs allows for
  large staffs who produce an immense volume of
  reports, press releases and media interviews,
  turning them into primary sources for
  journalists, researchers, and government policy
  makers. The amplifying effect of these public
  pronouncements has often framed the terms of
  public discourse and strongly influences the
  crafting of policy. NGOs are in a dominant
  position to offer the supply to meet the demand
  for quick and focused information on what Prof.
  Irwin Cotler has called the new secular religion
  of human rights.
• http//www.ngo-monitor.org/articles.php?typeabout
  
  
• See also Leonard Fein, Monitoring the Monitor

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For further reading

• William Korey, NGOs and the Universal Declaration
  of Human Rights
  
• Claude E. Welch Jr., NGOs and Human Rights
  Promise and Performance