Human rights NGOs have to think more strategically

A book by Jeff Handmaker

Tags: Worldwide , Small Producers Agency , Urgency Required

Do NGOs and other civic actors undertake the most effective measures to hold governments accountable to their international obligations to protect human rights, and in particular to protect vulnerable populations? Jeff Handmaker, ISS lecturer and member of the Hivos/ISS Civil Society Building Knowledge Programme team, explores this question in the book ''Advocating for Accountability, civic-state interactions to Protect Refugees in South Africa". The work of human rights organizations is rarely critically evaluated, possibly related to the fact that the issues they deal with are felt to be so important, that the mistakes they often make are mostly tolerated.

Human rights organizations could be more strategic in their analyzing of human rights situations and in their manner of working. This includes the co-operative relations they undertake with governments who show a willingness to move in a progressive direction, helping them to protect, promote and fulfil human rights. However, such collaborations also create tensions, since civic organizations must also protect their critical independence.

NGOs in the Netherlands and elsewhere could learn much from their colleagues in so-called developing countries, where human rights issues, and the struggle to end impunity for violations of these rights, are usually far more complicated.

Based on a lengthier socio-legal study that explored these issues through the lens of refugee rights advocacy in South Africa in the first decade of its post-1994 period of democracy, Jeff Handmaker examines and explains the circumstances under which civic-state interactions can lead to structural change, and what these interactions can teach us about the potential of civic society to realise rights in general. You can download a summary of the book below or order your copy online

On Monday the 22nd of February, from 16:15-17:45, Jeff will facilitate a special development research seminar on this topic at the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague