ROLE OF NON-GOVERNMENTAL
ORGANIZATIONS IN THE PROTECTION AND
PROMOTION OF INTERNATIONAL HUMAN
RIGHTS
INTRODUCTION
• The past sixty years has seen an explosion in the growth of non–governmental organizations
that work for the protection and promotion of human rights.
• Today, these NGOs play a very crucial role in the development of international human rights
law.
• They monitor the actions of governments and pressure them to act according to human rights
principles.
• These institutions cover a wide range. Some try to constrain official conduct or develop
mechanisms to oversee it; some try to define human rights obligations more precisely so that
states can know what is expected of them; Some work towards strengthening the civil society
as a barricade against human rights violations while others seek to eliminate the very cause of
these violations.
• Research on these transnational NGOs consists of “case studies on individual organizations
working for human rights, comparative studies of a select number of organizations, studies of
the work of human rights organizations in specific countries or regions, and the studies of the
political processes surrounding human rights standard setting and enforcement”.
• “Although these NGOs are among the oldest transnational social change
organizations- with the International Organization for the Abolition of Slavery
originating in 1839- most transnational formed within the last few decades”.
According to various studies, most of these NGOs have been involved in four
broad categories of human rights activities:
• Education
• Standard setting
• Monitoring compliance with international standards
• Enforcement
• Tactics used by human rights NGOs commonly focus on protecting individual
victims of abuse by:
• “Exposing abuses and mobilizing shame through public advocacy to end the abuses and
ameliorate conditions”. This is quite commonly used and requires information gathering.
• Communicating with decision makers at the international as well as the national level in various
ways, either to the abuse and victim specifically or generally with regard to the establishment of
human rights norms.
• “Delivering services such as legal aid, training in public advocacy skills, and including broad
educational services so that individuals and groups know their rights and be able to act on them.”
• During the World Conference on Human Rights held in Vienna in 1993, it was
reported that 2721 representatives from 1529 non-governmental organizations in
various fields attended the three-day meetings. While many issues were discussed
at the conference, NGO ideas and priorities rights were well represented on two
central questions, the universality of human rights and the establishment of a High
Commissioner for human. While countries that committed abuses argued in
favour of particularity (such as culture, history, tradition and religion which render
certain human rights invalid to certain countries) “vocal, visible and decisive
support for universality came from NGOs from the same countries.
Representatives of such groups insisted that human rights were rooted in the
cultural, historical, legal and religious traditions of their own societies.
• Human rights NGOs continue to be the source for personnel for UN human
rights monitoring missions. “Amnesty International has set forth human rights
principles to be followed in designing all peacekeeping operations calling for UN
peacekeepers to be more than silent or indifferent witnesses, demanding that
troops be impartial, properly trained, and ready to uphold international law and
adhere to it in their own conduct as well
What is NGO?
• NGO is a non-governmental organization
• NGOs are part of the “civil society”
• “Civil society” is a broader term – includes also churches, religious
associations, trade unions, interest groups, organizations of employers etc.
• NGOs are intermediary between individuals and the government in
transmitting ideas and concepts
• Different types of NGOs:
– International and national
– Main-stream or focused on selected issues
– Grass roots’ organizations
– Different scope of activities
– Activist organizations vs. think tank organizations
– NGOs acting in a public interest vs. NGOs pursuing particular interest (e.g.
lobbying NGOs)
• Some NGOs are concentrated on protection of human rights
• Most NGOs – independent from government (as compared to GONGOs)
NGOS AND THE UNITED NATIONS
• In an historic precedent, Article 71 of the UN Charter created a formal relationship
between the UN and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
• “Resolution 1296 qualifies human rights NGOs by specifying that they ‘should have a
general international concern with this matter, not restricted to the interests of a
particular group of persons, a single nationality or the situation in a single State or
restricted group of States’.”
• “NGOs with consultative status may attend all public meetings of the Human Rights
Council, the human rights committees of the treaty bodies, and working groups. Their
main activities include
• Lobbying on resolutions including suggested wording to be used;
• Convening parallel informal meetings with experts, NGO and government representatives to consider
action on specific countries or themes;
• Submitting reports to special procedures;
• Meeting with Special Rapporteurs on themes and countries.”
• The more NGOs cooperate and intensify the dialogue among themselves, the
stronger NGOs can present their issues orally and in written form vis-a-vis
experts and government representatives.
• There are close to a hundred organizations that work for the protection and
promotion of human rights. They often collaborate while working with larger,
more pressing issues to make a bigger difference.
• Some of the more prominent ones are
• Amnesty International,
• Human Rights Watch,
• Lawyers Committee for Human Rights and
• Human Rights Action Centre.
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
• Founded in 1961 by English labour lawyer, Pete Benson, Amnesty international is one of the foremost NGOs that works for
the protection and promotion of human rights.
• A library was established for information about prisoners of conscience (a term coined by Benson that refers to anyone
imprisoned due to their sexual orientation, race, political or religious views) and a network of local groups called ‘THREES’
groups was started. Each group worked on behalf of three prisoners, one from each of the then three main ideological regions
of the world: communist, capitalist and developing.”
• In January 1962, the first research trip is organized to Ghana, Czechoslovakia and East Germany and Portugal. At the end of
the research trip, 1200 cases of prisoners of conscience were documented in their library. By the mid-1960s it grew so much
that it had to establish an International Secretariat and an International Executive Committee to manage its national
organizations (Sections) and by the end of the decade it was awarded consultative status by the United Nations, UNESCO and
the Council of Europe.
• By the mid-1960s it grew so much that it had to establish an International Secretariat and an International Executive
Committee to manage its national organizations (Sections) and by the end of the decade it was awarded consultative status by
the United Nations, UNESCO and the Council of Europe.
• During the 1970s, it “widened its purview to incorporate “fair trial” and opposition to detention without trial and especially to
the torture of prisoners”.
• Throughout the 1980s, it continued its campaign on behalf of prisoners of conscience and against torture but also began to
campaign against political killings, extra judicial killings and military, security and police transfers.
• At the start of the twenty first century, Amnesty International is recognized as the
world’s largest independent human rights organization with over two million
members and even more supporters worldwide.
• It had a new focus now, the challenges arising from globalization, widening the
scope of its work to include, social, economic and cultural rights.
• Today, Amnesty International is the most recognized human rights organization
with over three million members and supports over the world and is believed by
many to have set standards for the human rights movement as a whole. They
campaign to:
• Defend freedom of expression;
• Protect women’s rights;
• Abolish the death penalty;
• Demand justice for crimes against humanity;
• Demand corporate accountability where companies have abused people’s rights.
• “Amnesty International’s fact finding mission to Argentina was “one of the most
significant human rights missions ever undertaken by a nongovernmental
organization”. It energized those involved, turning supporters of the regime into
critics.
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
• Human Rights Watch is a non-profit, non-governmental human rights
organization that mainly focuses on research and advocacy in the field.
• It began in 1978, with the creation of Helinski Watch, a private NGO that
monitors the former Soviet Union’s compliance with the Helinski Accords.
• During the 1980s the “Watch Committees” consisted of Middle East
Watch (1989), Asia Watch (1985), and Africa Watch (1988). It was only in
1989 that the organization adopted the all-inclusive name “Human Rights
Watch”
• Human Rights Watch has supported and critiqued the international
tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, pursued prosecutions of
violent leaders like Augusto Pinochet and Hissene Habre.
• It also played a prominent role in the drafting of the Rome
Statute, which led to the creation of the International Criminal
Court. It also focused on the rights of women, children, migrant
workers and refugees.
• The Human Rights Watch brought a human rights perspective
to issues such as trafficking, domestic violence, rape as a war
crime and recruitment of child soldiers.
• It also managed to investigate human rights abuses in closed
societies like North Korea and Saudi Arabia. It also tried to
bring to attention previously ignored topics such as the rights
of homosexuals.
• In 1997, the Human Rights Watch was awarded the Nobel
Peace Prize as a founding member of the International
Campaign to Ban Landmines.
CRITICISM OF NGOS
• Some Scholars are skeptical as to whether human rights NGOs can play a
constructive role in advocacy for resources to fulfill rights either from
governments in wealthy nations or from the developing world. The reason
is because these organizations have very little chance of significantly
influencing resource allocation decisions in most countries. According to
Ken Roth, “ Simply adding our voice to that of many others demanding a
particular allocation of scarce resources- is not a terribly effective role for
international human rights groups.”
• Human Rights Watch has also been criticized for being influenced by
United States government policy (especially while reporting on Latin
America) as well as for ignoring certain major human rights issues such
anti-Semitism in Europe. It has also been criticized by other NGOs and
the media for being biased towards Israel in the Arab-Israeli conflict.
CHALLENGES AHEAD FOR NGOS
• “New challenges face human rights NGOs in their advocacy at and through the
United Nations even as the mandates set forth by the world organization shift.
Despite the growth in the mechanisms and procedures and the expansion of human
rights into peacekeeping and other UN operations, the tasks before them become
more complex and require greater skills. No situation has brought this home more
clearly than the experience at Rwanda where political, humanitarian and human rights
priorities of the UN and many non-governmental organizations on the scene often
seemed to be at odds.”
• Many governments are against the legitimation of the engagement of human rights
NGOs in UN programs, irrespective of whether they are peacekeeping, humanitarian,
development or the programs of the Centre for Human Rights. This tends to make
them oppose fact-finding mechanisms or field missions. These governments often
criticize these NGOs for being politically motivated and sometimes brand them as
“terrorists”.
WOMEN’S RIGHTS IN THE MIDDLE
EAST AND HUMAN RIGHTS NGOS
• “Many scholars and research studies have demonstrated that women’s rights are critical
economic development, active civil society and good governance.”
• According to the UN Arab Human Development Reports, “nowhere in the Arab do
women enjoy equality with men. They remain severely marginalized in Arab political
systems”. Even after the unprecedented protests against human rights violations
committed by dictatorial government that shook the Middle East in 2011 (the Arab
Spring), there has been no significant improvement in the lives of the women there.
• While most international human rights NGOs focus on issues related to criminal
detention, armed conflict and counter terrorism, some NGOs do campaign for women’s
rights in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region.
• While a lot of NGOs do campaign against violence against women, they fail to address
the other issues women face. Even today, most countries around the world follow a
patriarchal system where women are seen as inferior or unequal. Women’s
empowerment groups remain local with little effect on the society.
CONCLUSION
• “International human rights NGOs can advance them by designing and advocating
systems that meet human rights standards, pressing for the resources to put them into
place and monitoring states compliance with their treaty obligations.”
• “They have had a decisive role in transforming the phrase “human rights” from a mere
Charter provision to a critical element of foreign policy discussions in and out of
governmental or intergovernmental circles.”
• They have grown in size and number and they now act as the greatest source of
independent information that triggers special mechanisms and engenders action by
United Nations special rapporteurs.
• There is little doubt that NGOs have influenced the human rights practices of
governments and popular perceptions of human rights. Today, NGOs are increasingly
involved in providing services, such as holding training programs for upholding the rule of
law and providing humanitarian assistance in disaster areas
