Human rights globalization: How local and global actions institutionalize human rights

Abstract

We introduce this special issue with an elaboration of the concept of human rights globalization as a dynamic process that involves local and global action by civil society and other actors to strengthen governments’ accountability to global human rights norms and standards. This process challenges economic globalization that prioritizes international trade and financialization over human rights. Recent decades have seen growing movements of activists appealing to global human rights norms as they mobilize popular pressure on local and national authorities. We provide a brief overview of contributions to this special issue, which describe these movements and their impacts on the long-term strengthening of global human rights governance.

Notes

1 This means, for instance, that debates over whether China or some other world power will overtake U.S. hegemony are irrelevant, since a change in the hegemonic regime does not necessarily change the capitalist world-system that shapes this competition for dominance.

2 We often describe “the alternative” in the singular, but in doing so we refer to the animating values and logic, not to specific interpretations of rights, institutional arrangements, etc. Those vary locally as communities shape communities that meet their needs.

3 In 2013, the Human Rights Council created the Advisory Group on Local Government (https://www.ohchr.org/en/hr-bodies/hrc/advisory-committee/local-government-and-hr) which has been engaged in ongoing research and reporting on the needs and strategies for improving local government engagement with global human rights work, issuing annual reports on this work (A/HRC/38/22 (2018); A/HRC/42/22 (2019); and A/HRC/51/10 (2022)). In addition, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights began participating in the annual World Human Rights Cities Forum in Gwangju, Korea in 2019 (See website: Cities, Local and Regional Governments and Human Rights Partnerships, At: https://www.ohchr.org/en/about-us/what-we-do/partnership/local-governments).

4 For instance, in addition to country-level reports based on their investigations, the annual thematic reports each Special Rapporteur produces for the Human Rights Council address emergent and growing problems faced by all the world’s governments, such as Leilani Farha’s 2017 report on the financialization of housing (At: https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/861179) and the 2023 report by the newly established Special Rapporteur on Climate Change addressing the rights of climate migrants (At: https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/ahrc5334-providing-legal-options-protect-human-rights-persons-displaced).

5 For instance, the European Network on Debt and Development hosted a webinar on human rights dimensions of privatization policies featuring UN rapporteurs entitled, “Enough is enough: Privatisation & public services, a conversation with current and former UN Special Rapporteurs” (October 2020).

6 For instance, advocates have long used shadow reporting processes and global level lobbying to urge the U.S. government to establish a national human rights institution. And as Davis’s contribution to this volume shows, they are also working to target the U.S. government directly through a national campaign that includes local governments.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jackie Smith

Jackie Smith is Professor of Sociology at the University of Pittsburgh and member of the Coordinating Committee of the Pittsburgh Human Rights City Alliance and the Steering Committee of the Human Rights Cities Alliance. She is author or editor of numerous works on transnational advocacy including Social Movements in the World-System (with Dawn Wiest), Social Movements for Global Democracy, and Social Movements, Globalization and Peacebuilding (co-edited with Ernesto Verdeja).

Michael Goodhart

Michael Goodhart is Professor of Political Science and of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. He is author or editor of numerous books and articles on the theory and the politics of human rights, including Human Rights: Theory and Practice (4th ed., Oxford, 2022). Goodhart is a member of the coordinating committee of the Pittsburgh Human Rights City Alliance and of the steering committee of the North American Human Rights Cities Alliance.