Human Rights
Research at the Department related to the topic of human rights.
Encouraging State Respect for Human Rights: A Series of Randomised Experiments
Project leader: Kristine Eck
Project Period: 2017 - 2019
This project examines how international norms and sanctions impact on state respect for human rights. Through a series of field experiments and surveys, we study both actual state agents and citizens in order to determine if there is divergence between those who have the power to violate rights and rights-holders themselves. We also explore several different types of norms.
Policing and Political Violence
Project leader: Kristine Eck
This project is currently researching police misconduct oversight institutions, which facilitate civilian reporting and state investigation of misconduct by police officers and other state security agents. Conceptually, this project will develop a theoretical framework which contains a wide array of different facets of oversight institution design. Empirically, the project will study all OECD democracies by collecting new, systematic data on police oversight institutions and misconduct complaint rates. Understanding how these oversight institutions are designed and whether they work can provide us with important leverage on understanding the foundations of democratic governance and state respect for the civil rights of its citizens.
Read more about the project "Policing and Political Violence"
The civilian dimension of peacekeeping operations and human rights promotion
Project leader: Sabine Otto
United Nations (UN) peacekeeping operations have become one of the most prominent responses to civil wars around the world. The role of civilian personnel and their activities have proliferated during the last two decades and become increasingly central, whereby the promotion of human rights is one of the core function of UN peacekeeping operations. Our knowledge, however, about the impact of civilian staff and activities on protecting human rights standards is inconclusive and the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. We explore whether and how the civilian components of UN peacekeeping operations improve human rights standards.