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| | | | Human Rights Monitoring Tools | | |
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OHCHR Rule of Law Tools for Post Conflict States
The UN OHCHR is publishing a set of guidelines designed to help UN field missions and transitional administrations effectively advise countries emerging from conflict on the development of transitional justice mechanisms. The OHCHR Rule of Law Tools for Post Conflict States are the result of two years of consultations with UN departments and agencies, civil society and national experts. They aim to ensure sustainable, long-term institutional capacity within United Nations field presences and transitional administrations to respond to the demand for policy guidance on transitional justice issues, in line with international human rights standards and best practices. Based primarily on lessons learned in places like Kosovo, Sierra Leone and Timor Leste, the five policy Tools address the challenges involved in different aspects of transitional justice in post-conflict countries, including assessing whether and how the justice system of the country contributed to the conflict; the prosecution of perpetrators of crimes such as genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes; the establishment of truth commissions, and the vetting and monitoring of legal systems established after the end of hostilities. |
Familiar Tools, Emerging Issues: Adapting Traditional Human Rights Monitoring to Emerging Issues
By Jennifer Prestholdt, The Advocates for Human Rights. The Advocates for Human Rights uses traditional human rights monitoring methods to document human rights abuses, but in this notebook we will learn how the group has also made a practice of adapting this methodology to emerging human rights issues. The Advocates has identified and developed practical and sustainable strategies for adapting human rights monitoring methods to address domestic violence (in Eastern Europe and the U.S.), child survival (in Mexico, Uganda and the U.S.) and transitional justice (in Peru). |
International Monitoring Bodies: Powerful Tools for Leveraging Local Change
By Paul Mageean, Committee on the Administration of Justice, Northern Ireland, published by New Tactics in Human Rights, a project of the Center for Victims of Torture. In this notebook, we discover how the Committee on the Administration of Justice succeeded in raising the issue of human rights abuses in Northern Ireland at the international level and, by doing so, brought about significant improvements in human rights conditions. This was accomplished through CAJ’s utilisation of the Committee Against Torture—one of the mechanisms available through the United Nations for monitoring governments that have signed international conventions. In order to use these international mechanisms effectively, a number of supporting tactics were necessary, including writing submissions to the Committee, lobbying in Geneva and monitoring the implementation and impact that the reports and recommendations of Committee Against Torture have had on Northern Ireland in terms of actually improving the human rights situation on the ground. International mechanisms can be a powerful and effective tool for human rights organisations to leverage for change, especially when they have encountered significant obstacles and opposition at the local and national level. |
Using Government Budgets as a Monitoring Tool: The Children’s Budget Unit in South Africa
By Lerato Kgamphe, Idasa/Children’s Budget Unit, South Africa, published by New Tactics in Human Rights, a project of the Center for Victims of Torture. In this notebook, we learn about following the money. Budgets are used everywhere—from local agencies, to non-governmental organizations, to governments and international bodies. They provide a concrete tool for evaluating how programs and policies actually fulfill their financial and legal obligations. In South Africa, Idasa’s Children's Budget Unit (CBU) has used budget analyses to monitor the government’s legal obligations, commitments, and progress in advancing child-specific socioeconomic rights and programs. The CBU monitors and evaluates these programs by looking at the government’s budget allocations, spending of funds, and program expenditures and implementation. The power of this tactic lies in its ability to reveal, in black and white, the extent of a government’s efforts towards its human rights obligations and commitments. |
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