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25 results

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  • International organisations and human rights: What direct authority needs for its legitimation
  • Monika Heupel, Gisela Hirschmann, Michael Zürn
  • Journal: Review of International Studies / Volume 44 / Issue 2 / April 2018
  • Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 October 2017, pp. 343-366
  • Print publication: April 2018
  • View abstract

    Human rights violations by international organisations (IOs) are a possible side effect of their growing authority. Recent examples are the cases of sexual exploitation by UN peacekeepers and violations caused by IMF austerity measures. In response, IOs increasingly develop safeguards to protect human rights from being violated through their policies to regain legitimacy. We argue that this development can be accounted for by a mechanism we call ‘authority-legitimation mechanism’. We test this theoretical expectation against ten case studies on UN and EU sanctions policies, UN and NATO peacekeeping and World Bank and IMF lending. Next, we demonstrate inductively that the authority-legitimation mechanism can evolve through different pathways, depending on which actors get engaged. We label these pathways legislative institution-building if parliaments in member states put pressure on their governments to campaign for human rights safeguards in IOs, judicial institution-building if courts demand human rights safeguards, like-minded institution-building if civil society organisations, middle powers and IO bodies with little formal power push for human rights safeguards, or anticipatory institution-building if IOs adopt such safeguards from other IOs without having violated human rights themselves. Finally, we argue that which of these pathways are activated and how effective they are depends on specific conditions.

Protecting the Individual from International Authority
  • Protecting the Individual from International Authority
  • Human Rights in International Organizations
  • Edited by Monika Heupel, Michael Zürn
  • Published online: 28 April 2017
  • Print publication: 27 April 2017
  • View description
    International organizations (IOs) develop institutional provisions to make sure that their policies do not violate human rights. Accordingly, whilst IOs have a greater scope of action and ability to promote collective goods than ever before, they also have a greater capacity to do harm. Based on ten case studies on UN and EU sanctions policy, UN and NATO peacekeeping, and World Bank and IMF lending, this book examines human rights violations which can arise from the actions of IOs rather than those of states. It further explains how powerful IOs have introduced human rights protection provisions and analyzes the features of these provisions, including differences in their design and quality. This book provides evidence of a novel legitimation strategy authoritative IOs draw on that has, as yet, never been systematically studied before.

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