Fact-finding is at the heart of human rights advocacy, and is often at the center of international controversies about alleged government abuses. In recent years, human rights fact-finding has greatly proliferated and become more sophisticated and complex, while also being subjected to stronger scrutiny from governments. Nevertheless, despite the prominence of fact-finding, it remains strikingly under-studied and under-theorized. Too little has been done to bring forth the assumptions, methodologies, and techniques of this rapidly developing field, or to open human rights fact-finding to critical and constructive scrutiny. The Transformation of Human Rights Fact-Finding offers a multidisciplinary approach to the study of fact-finding with rigorous and critical analysis of the field of practice, while providing a range of accounts of what actually happens. It deepens the study and practice of human rights investigations, and fosters fact-finding as a discretely studied topic, while mapping crucial transformations in the field. The contributions to this book are the result of a major international conference organized by New York University Law School's Center for Human Rights and Global Justice. Engaging the expertise and experience of the editors and contributing authors, it offers a broad approach encompassing contemporary issues and analysis across the human rights spectrum in law, international relations, and critical theory. This book addresses the major areas of human rights fact-finding such as victim and witness issues; fact-finding for advocacy, enforcement, and litigation; the role of interdisciplinary expertise and methodologies; crowd sourcing, social media, and big data; and international guidelines for fact-finding.

This book covers the developing field of open source research and discusses how to use social media, satellite imagery, big data analytics, and user-generated content to strengthen human rights research and investigations. The topics are presented in an accessible format through extensive use of images and data visualization (éditeur).

In Defense of Politicization of Human Rights: The UN Special Procedures constitutes the first comprehensive study of the United Nations Special Procedures, covering their history, methods of work, institutional status, relationship with other politically driven organs, and processes affecting their development. Special Procedures have existed since 1967, nearly as long as United Nations Treaty Bodies, but have received only fragmented analysis, normally focused on a few thematic mandates, until the creation of the Human Rights Council in 2006. In seeking to debunk commonly held views about the role of politics in human rights at international level, In Defense of Politicization of Human Rights constitutes the first comprehensive study of the United Nations Special Procedures as a system covering their history, methods of work, institutional status, relationship with other politically driven organs, and processes affecting their development. The perspective chosen to analyze the human rights mechanisms most vulnerable to political decisions determining their creation, renewal and operationalization, casts a new light on the extent to which these remain the cornerstone of global accountability in protecting the inherent dignity and worth of individuals as well as groups. International human rights mechanisms' efficiency is normally linked to the work of independent experts keen to push the boundaries of accountability against recalcitrant States determined to defend their sovereignty. As a corollary, progress in this field is associated to the creation and maintenance of political free spaces. Another common presumption is a belief in a differentiated 'North' versus 'South' approach to the promotion and protection of human rights, that find common ground within the prevalent human rights discourses repeated by governmental and non-governmental actors. Through the lenses of the United Nations Special Procedures, In Defense of Politicization of Human Rights challenges these and other presumptions informing doctrinal studies, policies and strategies to advance international human rights. Because of the Special Procedures' growing salience and impact in the world of international human rights, this book is likely to become required reading for any student or practitioner of international human rights.

Provides a roadmap for understanding the relationship between technology and human rights law and practice. This title is also available as Open Access.

This timely and pertinent collection looks at the variety of questions involved in the operation of Commissions of Inquiry (CoIs). Traditionally existing as pure fact-finding bodies, in recent times the function of CoIs has arguably shifted and broadened so as to provide a form of legal adjudication. This shift in their application merits scrutiny and this edited collection of essays addresses institutional and procedural aspects of CoIs, as well as issues in regards to the application and interpretation of the substantative law applied to them. Essay topics include the relationship of CoIs with, and impact upon, traditional forms of adjudication, the influences of international law upon the work of CoIs, through to issues of procedural fairness. Drawing upon the expertise of scholars working within in the field, it offers an insightful and critical analysis of CoIs.

This book provides the first systematic assessment from a human rights law perspective of the landmark contributions of the renowned legal anthropologist, Sally Engle Merry. What impact does over-simplification have on human rights debates? The understandable tendency to present them as a single, universal, and immutable concept ignores their complexity and by extension only serves to weaken them. Merry and her colleagues transformed human rights thinking by highlighting the process of 'vernacularization', which sees rights discourse as being unavoidably dependent upon translation and interpretation. She also warned of the pitfalls of excessive reliance upon statistical and other indicators, through the process of quantification. Here the leading voices in the field assess the significance of these contributions.

NGOs, Knowledge Production and Global Humanist Advocacy is an empirically and theoretically rich account of how international non-governmental organisations produce knowledge of and formulate understandings about the world around them. The author applies critical and sociological perspectives to analyse the social and political limits of knowledge generated in support of global advocacy efforts aimed at enhancing human rights and preventing violent conflicts. It is found that, despite their transnational networks and claims to humanist universality, the proximity of global advocates to Western power structures and elite social spaces delimits their worldviews and curtails the potential for radical departures from mainstream political thinking. This book will be of interest to scholars and students of international relations, human rights, the sociology of knowledge, peace and conflict studies, and critical security studies.

In The Roles and Functions of Atrocity-Related United Nations Commissions of Inquiry in the International Legal Order, Catherine Harwood explores how United Nations inquiries navigate considerations of principle and pragmatism to discern their identity in the international legal order.

Captures significant transformations in the theory and practice of economic and social rights in constitutional and human rights law.

This timely Handbook contains a wide-ranging overview of the diverse research methods used within international law. Providing an insightful examination of how international legal knowledge is analysed and adopted, this Handbook offers the reader a deeper understanding on the role and place of research methods in international legal theory, reasoning and practice.