Strengthening the international human rights system: Rights, regulation and ritualism

Project leader(s)
Funding agency
The research project ‘Strengthening the International Human Rights System: Rights, Regulation and Ritualism’ is funded by an ARC Laureate Fellowship and awarded to Hilary Charlesworth. The project will run until 2015. The aim of Laureate Fellowships is to support research excellence and to develop a new generation of researchers, thus building Australia’s international competitive research capacity. Further information about ARC Laureate Fellowships is available on the ARC website.
This project focuses on a problem endemic to the international human rights system: why are international human rights standards widely accepted in theory but so hard to implement in practice?
Although the international community has created a complex and sophisticated system of human rights standards, these principles are regularly sidelined or ignored by countries that have accepted them. The project draws on regulatory scholarship to analyse how states respond to human rights principles, focusing particularly on the notion of ritualism. The concept of regulatory ritualism means formal participation in a system of regulation while losing sight of its substantive goals. The project documents techniques of ritualism employed in the international human rights system and explores their relationship to the weaknesses and failures of the system. It identifies ways of resisting forms of human rights ritualism that undermine human rights commitments. The major intellectual aims of the project are to:
- identify and analyse the ways that regulatory ritualism operates in the international human rights system through a series of case studies; and
- develop new theoretical models to improve the implementation of international human rights principles.
The project’s strategic aims are to:
- support and train a new generation of international human rights scholars;
- build Australian capacity in analysis of international human rights practices; and
- create new research linkages with international human rights organisations, particularly the United Nations.
Regarding Rights blog
Regarding Rights provides a forum for voices from activism and academia to comment on important issues in human rights.
Human rights reading group
The Human Rights Reading Group is for PhD students and scholars interested in discussing ideas and issues in human rights law, theory and practice. The group meets once a month to talk about a different text – whether journal article, book chapter, film or novel – that touches on human rights.
Visiting PhD Scholar program
The Laureate Fellowship supports a scholarship program allowing talented Australian and international PhD scholars who are working in the field of human rights to visit the CIGJ for periods of between six to eight weeks.
Working papers

Regarding Rights blog - Fleur Adcock
25 September 2015Calls for an international mechanism to monitor implementation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples are growing louder.

AAL Symposium Victoria: nurturing and protecting independent advisers and organs of government
14 September 2015Hilary Charlesworth to present at AAL symposium on nurturing and protecting independant advisers and organs of government.

Regarding Rights blog - Kate Henne
11 September 2015Authorities have not yet abandoned deeply held gendered beliefs about what kind of women should be eligible to participate in elite sport

Regarding Rights blog - Mareike Riedel
28 August 2015Neutral on the surface and designed to be “one law for all,” planning regulations in fact often disadvantage minority religions.

New working paper series - rituals of human rights workshop
27 August 2015This new working paper series is part of the ‘Strengthening the International Human Rights System: Rights, Regulation and Ritualism’ research project funded by the ARC’s Laureate Fellowship scheme.
Pages

Dr Benjamin Authers
Benjamin Authers was educated in law and literary studies at the University of Adelaide, Dalhousie University (Canada) and the University of Guelph (Canada). From 2011-2015 he was a postdoctoral...

Professor John Braithwaite
John Braithwaite is a Professor and Founder of RegNet (the Regulatory Institutions Network), now School of Regulation and Global Governance (RegNet) at the Australian National University.
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Professor Hilary Charlesworth
Hilary Charlesworth was educated at the University of Melbourne and Harvard Law School. She is Professor and Director of the Centre for International Governance and Justice in the School of...

Ms Nara Ganbat
Dr Nara Ganbat is an alumnus of RegNet and currently a social justice consultant based in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. She works with international development agencies, and international and domestic...

Dr Emma Larking
Emma has a law/arts degree from Monash University and a PhD in philosophy from the University of Melbourne. Before commencing her PhD she was a practising solicitor and subsequently Associate in...

Sally Engle Merry
Professor Sally Engle Merry is Professor of Anthropology, Law and Society at New York University. Her work explores the role of law in urban life in the US, in the...

Dr Jacqueline Parry
Before joining RegNet, Jacqueline worked mainly in the fields of forced migration and human rights. Between 2007 and 2014 she completed assignments with the United Nations High Commissioner for...

Law, justice & human rights
RegNet is one of world’s leading centres for socio-legal research. This cluster aims to lead the development of transformative ideas in the fields of criminology and restorative justice; human rights and international law; legal pluralism; peacebuilding; the regulatory dimensions of international and domestic law; and rule of law.
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Chimni, B.S Working paper 2015
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Kelly, Tobias Working paper 2015
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Loiselle, Marie-Eve Working paper 2015
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Oberleitner, Gerd Working paper 2015
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Suzack, Cheryl Working paper 2015
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Authers, Benjamin, Charlesworth, Hilary , Dembour, Marie-Benedicte, Larking, Emma Working paper 2015
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Banham, Cynthia Working paper 2015
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Burke, Roland Working paper 2015
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Celermajer, Danielle Working paper 2015
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Chalmers, Shane Working paper 2015
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Mulders, Jacinta Working paper 2015
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Mulders, Jacinta Working paper 2015
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Mulders, Jacinta Working paper 2015
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Mulders, Jacinta Working paper 2015
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Charlesworth, Hilary, Larking, Emma Book chapter 2015
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Authers, Benjamin, Baird, Natalie, Billaud, Julie, Bulto, Takele, Charlesworth, Hilary, Chauville, Roland, Collister, Heather, Cowan, Jane K, Joseph, Sarah, Kälin, Walter , Larking, Emma, Lynch, Phil, Schokman, Ben , De La Vega, Constance, Yamasaki, Cassandra, Wahyuningrum, Yuyun Book 2015
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Charlesworth, Hilary Journal article 2014
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Charlesworth, Hilary Journal article 2014
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Authers, Benjamin Book chapter 2014
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Bulto, Takele Soboka Book 2013
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Charlesworth, Hilary, Jolly, Margaret Journal article 2013
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Charlesworth, Hilary, & Chinkin, Christine Book chapter 2013
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Charlesworth, Hilary Book chapter 2013
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Authers, Benjamin, Charlesworth, Hilary Book chapter 2013
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Charlesworth, Hilary Newsletter 2012
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Charlesworth, Hilary , Durbach, Andrea Journal article 2012
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Bulto, Takele Journal article 2011
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Charlesworth, Hilary Book chapter 2011
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Charlesworth, Hilary Journal article 2011
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Bulto, Takele Journal article 2011
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Bulto, Takele Journal article 2011
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Bulto, Takele Journal article 2011
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Bulto, Takele Journal article 2011
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Authers, Benjamin Journal article 2010
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Young, Katharine Journal article 2010
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Charlesworth, Hilary (ed), Coicaud, Jean-Marc (ed) Book 2010