CfP: „Human Rights and Transitional Justice in Post-conflict Societies“

Call for panel proposals: For the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) 2011 conference in Reykjavik, Section No. 53 with the Title: „Human Rights and Transitional Justice in post-conflict societies and periods of democratization“, panel proposals can be submitted on the conference webpage. The organisers encourage panel chairs to submit proposals which describe HR, TJ and Democratization processes with a focus on - comparative and empirical studies - political processes and spill over effects on political debates - civil society processes and multilevel responses Panel proposals can cover a range of regions, societies and countries including European Transitional Justice, Human Rights and Democratization processes over the past decades. Please remember to submit your panel proposals by 1st September 2010. Section Description Human rights in post-conflict societies and democratization processes play a vital role in setting up transitional justice mechanism, establishing the rule of law and monitoring democratic procedures and processes in transition periods. Governments, IGOs and NGOs have over the past decades incorporated and implemented international human rights standards and mechanism in societies in transition. Tribunals, Truth and Reconciliation Committees, constitutional commissions, parliamentarian human rights committees and many other mechanism and instruments are part of any domestic democratic transition process and international monitoring process. It is striking to note that IGOs and NGOs belong to the strongest and most vocal promoters and contributors to establish and monitor human rights standards and international human rights law. Governments are the main actors who have to decide, implement and govern those standards. But their influence and role has diminished over the past decades. IGOs, like UN and EU agencies as well as international NGOs and development agencies have taken large parts of the responsibility and implementation tasks. Governments - in transition - implement human rights standards urged to them by the international community. The establishment of the rule of law in countries in transition in Eastern and Central Europe as well as in Latin America and Africa are such examples. This section will deal with institutional mechanism and instruments - both on the domestic and the international level - to enable, promote and enforce human rights standards. Further, it will explore the impact and consequences of human rights enforcements and transitional justice mechanism on democratic procedures and democratization processes on national levels. Comparative or single country case studies, analysis of the role of the international human rights regime, theory and policy debates are highly encouraged. Section Organisers: Anja Mihr, University Utrecht Karen Schlueter, Babes-Bolyai-University Cluj-Napoca Kathrin Braun, University Hannover