Commissioners and staff from the National Human Rights Commission in Indonesia discuss at a recent meeting its role in protecting the rights of the nation’s citizens. This commission is one of many worldwide that have had an impact on decreasing violations and abuses of human rights, according to a new study by Stanford education Francisco Ramirez.
A new study presents data showing that human rights abuses ultimately decline in countries that establish oversight commissions. Are government-sponsored human rights commissions and treaties mere window dressing, or do they lead to real reductions of violations and abuses? The question is particularly relevant given studies showing that levels of repression and abuse seem to increase in countries that ratify human rights treaties. New research coming out of the Stanford Graduate School of Education and the University of Utah finds that whether national human rights institutions (NHRIs) are created with sincere intentions or not, they do lead to decreases in a country's human rights violations. The effect is felt only for the more blatant and obvious physical incidents, such as torture, unjust murder and arbitrary imprisonment, and not for civil and political rights, such as the right to vote and freedom of speech, assembly and religion. The reduction in such "physical integrity" abuses is seen only about five years after NHRIs are established. Before then, a seeming spike in violations does appear. Sociologist Francisco Ramirez , a co-author of the study and a professor of education at Stanford, explained that this is the result of an increase in the reporting of such abuses rather than an increase in abuse itself.
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