Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - CONRICONF (Contentious Rights: A Comparative Study of International Human Rights Norms and their Effects on Domestic Social Conflict)

Teaser

Over the last 60 years, a broad set of international norms gained importance as instruments to regulate a globalising world. Enshrined in human rights conventions, these norms contribute to strengthen a platform for social mobilization and voice. The introduction of human...

Summary

Over the last 60 years, a broad set of international norms gained importance as instruments to regulate a globalising world. Enshrined in human rights conventions, these norms contribute to strengthen a platform for social mobilization and voice. The introduction of human rights standards at the domestic level, however, has also been responsible for the generation of new tensions on the interpretation and application of these norms. Yet, this type of conflict and polarization among social and political actors remain widely unexplored. This project examines how ‘human rights act in practice’ in the post-ratification phase using a multidisciplinary perspective and an empirical comparative approach. More precisely, it contributes to the discussion on the process of domestic ‘translation’ of international norms by providing a unique understating of the conditions that explain the reaction/adaptation/appropriation of social and political actors to international norms. Through a comparative approach, the project explores the implementation of international human rights norms in two countries (Bolivia and the Philippines). These cases are then situated within the broader theoretical discussion and analysed through comparative lenses. The focus is on two conventions related to the rights of vulnerable workers - ILO 182 Convention on the Worst Forms of Child Labour (1999) and ILO 189 Convention concerning Decent Work for Domestic Workers (2013).

The project contributes to increase European competitiveness and produce long-term synergies on key strategic issues for European politics such as the implementation of a human rights agenda. In particular, it is producing relevant results that are contributing to strengthen the input and the impact of EU-based research on academic debates about human rights and domestic politics, which has been for long time dominated by scholars based in the USA. Given the ambitions of the EU to position itself as a new international actor, which mainly relies in its ‘soft power’ and in its effort to promote peace and new international standards in compliance with international human rights law, the fostering of a debate around the effects of human rights in practice at the domestic level is paramount. This is even more compelling in the moment of political change and identity crisis that the continent is facing.

Work performed

Throughout the outgoing phase, Dr Fontana has been integrated in the intellectual life of the The first phase of the fellowship was mainly focused on training. Dr Fontana engaged in activities organized by the Government Department, the Harvard Kennedy School and the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies. Dr Fontana took full advantage of the unique library resources offered by Harvard to compile an extensive literature review on international human rights treaties and domestic politics, with a focus on labour rights for vulnerable workers. She also established early contacts with relevant stakeholders interested in the project.
Fieldwork at the first field site (Bolivia) was conducted in the Spring 2016 with the aim of collecting empirical data on domestic politics around the ratification of international norms on child labour (ILO Conventions 182 and 138). The fieldwork was completed with success and the empirical data gathered were the core of two journal articles published in 2017. Preliminary project results related to the Bolivia case study were also disseminated through international conferences, seminars, policy briefings and blog posts.
In the fall of 2017, Dr Fontana started the preparation of her fieldwork to the second field site: Manila, Philippines. Fieldwork was successfully conducted in the Spring 2018 and empirical data were collected on the ratification of international norms on domestic workers rights (ILO Convention 189). Dr Fontana is now in the process of elaborating these data and producing a first working paper.

Final results

Dr Fontana pursued a fruitful collaboration with the project’s scientific mentor, Prof. Jean Grugel, with whom she co-authored a paper comparing child labour politics in Bolivia and Argentina. The conclusions of this work (published in Human Rights Quarterly, 2017) illustrate how child labour is a good example of those norms where domestic translation has been particularly contested. Even in contexts characterized by similar macro-political processes and with a shared concern for children’s rights, models of compliance can lead to very different policy outcomes that diverge significantly from international conventions and guidelines. In this sense both Bolivia and Argentina are stories of extremes. Both countries take the norm seriously as well as their commitment to a rights-based agenda. In addition, both countries move beyond a responsive model of compliance. In Bolivia, domestic interpretations of human rights have prevailed over attachment to ILO conventions (“deviant compliance”), while in Argentina national policies exceed ILO recommendations (“over-compliance”). Ultimately, the evidence speaks to the need for a more nuanced understanding of what compliance means and the recognition of domestic inputs in its formulation.

The project’s second case study focuses on domestic workers’ rights and the implementation of the ILO Convention 189 in the Philippines. It is only in the last 15 years that the fight for equal treatment of domestic workers has been embraced by the international labour movement through the International Labour Organization 189 Convention Concerning Decent Work for Domestic Workers. The Philippines case study focuses on the impact that the international discussion on domestic workers rights had in the Philippines, the second country to ratify the 189 Convention and the only one in Asia. Preliminary results suggest that the discussion around the ratification of the Convention 189 triggered a process of legal reforms and cultural destigmatization of domestic workers. However, despite these advances, domestic workers in the Philippines still face significant challenges. The process of policy implementation of the new law has been very limited and most domestic workers still remain unaware of their rights. Finally, the effort of organizing domestic workers has been patchy and relatively limited, mainly because of tensions among social organizations and the longstanding reluctance of trade unions to take up the task.

This research is contributing to on-going debates on the impact of international human rights laws on domestic contexts. It is providing empirically grounded evidence on how these norms are contributing to reshape the relationships between different social actors and the state and potential elements of contention around their implementation. In policy terms, these results are relevant to identify areas that would require special attention in the implementation phase, particularly around the importance of including all relevant social actors early on in the discussion on ratification and implementation to avoid future tensions. It also highlights how the involvement of different types of social actors (e.g. NGOs, labor unions..) and the kind of leadership role they are prepared to take up will determine the outcomes of the pathways towards implementation. This is particularly true in the case of labor related human rights norms.

Website & more info

More info: https://www.ncl.ac.uk/gps/staff/profile/lorenzafontana.html.