Human rights-based approaches (RBA) have become an important factor in international development policy, endorsed and adopted by leading non-governmental organizations working in development (development NGOs), bilateral development agencies, and UN agencies such as UNICEF, UNDP, and WHO. This...

Human rights-based approaches (RBA) have become an important factor in international development policy, endorsed and adopted by leading non-governmental organizations working in development (development NGOs), bilateral development agencies, and UN agencies such as UNICEF, UNDP, and WHO. This...

Studies of African development convey both the triumphs and struggles in achieving the viability of local, small economic actors within a heightened era of global integration. Theoretical studies examining the role of social capital in economic development suggest that understanding the broader...

Who do NGOs represent, and to whom should they be accountable? In this brief essay, I argue that most NGOs represent only themselves, if the term is defined according to its ordinary meaning in democratic politics. But that fact should not prevent NGOs from involvement in international security...

Rights are usually viewed as defensive concepts representing mankind’s highest aspirations to protect and uplift the vulnerable. Since the Enlightenment, however, political combatants have also used rights belligerently -- to batter despised communities, demolish existing institutions, and...

Free expression and privacy are key aspects of Internet governance. Both, however, vary tremendously across countries and are contested internationally. Regarding free expression, since the advent of the Internet, governments around the world have sought to control speech using political,...

In social justice advocacy in the United States today, activists often use international human rights rhetoric, methods, standards, and institutions. What are the scope, purposes, and effects of this strategy? Is this something new? If so, how and when did this trend begin? This paper discusses...

All too frequently, governments kill social movement leaders in an attempt to halt challenges to state power. Sometimes, such repression yields its intended effect; other times, it produces a powerful backlash, strengthening mass commitment and bolstering protest. In this article, we propose...

How do a few Third World conflicts become international causes célèbres, while most remain isolated and unknown? Why, for instance, has there been so much recent attention to the Darfur crisis but so little to ongoing conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, despite vastly more casualties...

In recent years, aggrieved groups around the world have portrayed their problems as human rights issues. While the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is expansive, for most of its history civil and political rights have garnered the bulk of resources. Yet today groups such as the...