Agenda for Strengthening Human Rights Institutions

Abstract

This chapter reflects on ways and means to strengthen international human rights institutions, courts, and tribunals in light of current challenges and future opportunities. It argues that despite their shortcomings and even though they represent not the only possible way to realize human right, international human rights institutions, courts, and tribunals still matter as pragmatic, formalized, and legalized channels for human rights politics. They perform a variety of functions within the formalized setting of international organizations which could not be undertaken outside: debate, agenda-setting, creating standards, interpreting norms, monitoring compliance, diffusing, sharing and understanding human rights, and fostering social change. They allow states and other actors to share perceptions of problems, identify goals, devise, and adapt the means for achieving them. In order to be successful, they need to be designed as legitimate institutions, embedded in a coherent multilateralism and respond to criticism that their success is limited and they are prone to bureaucratic pitfalls. We must tackle the current implementation crisis and the increasingly hostile attitude of many states towards human rights institutions. Given that international human rights institutions rely on persuasion rather than coercion, their recommendations and judgments need to be followed up more robustly and they must be better linked with civil society and actors on the state level. Measuring their impact remains a challenge. Ultimately, they need to be defended as the best available means to foster incremental progress in human rights.