Human Rights and Transitional Justice

About

The Standing Group on Human Rights and Transitional Justice links aspects of human rights, transitional justice, democratisation, political transition, politics of transformation and politics which are relevant for research. We bring together a broad range of topics in the field of political science research that are sub-disciplines, such as development studies, regional studies, political theory, conflict studies, etc. The Standing Group offers a forum to discuss research from different angles and perspectives: empirical and theoretical, analytical and normative, historical and contemporary, local, regional and global.

Aims & Objectives

The Standing Group on Human Rights, Transitional Justice and the Politics of Transformation aims at linking aspects of human rights, transitional justice, democratisation, political transition, politics of transformation and politics which are relevant for research.

We want to bring together a broad range of topics in the field of political science research that have so far been side issues or sub-disciplines in the different areas of political science research, such as development studies, regional studies, political theory, conflicts studies, etc. In doing so the Standing Group offers a forum to discuss political research on human rights, transitional justice and the politics of transformation from different angles and perspectives: empirical and theoretical, analytical and normative, historical and contemporary, local, regional and global.

The Standing Group focuses its cross-cutting research, publications, seminars and networking activities on topics such as human rights norms and standards in international relations; transitional justice and other post-conflict processes; global justice and peace movements; as well as on the politics of transformation. It harnesses the synergies of topics and issues that deal broadly with human rights in political science, including international relations, gender, law and politics. The interaction of duties and responsibilities of states and non-state actors and aspects of social movements and civic organisations, international organisations as well as normative changes in the wide field of human rights, peace and justice are highlighted in a variety of activities and events.

The initiative to set up this Standing Group was taken following the high attendance at the Section on Human Rights and Transitional Justice as well as its Panels during the 2011 ECPR General Conference in Reykjavik, which showed that there is a growing interest in discussing future methodological advances in this field. The Papers and contributions to the Panels critically examined how transitional justice can contribute to the promotion of human rights and transformation processes in post-conflict countries from the angle of international organizations and courts, NGOs, domestic political movements, transition processes, peace building, institution building, gender or democratisation.

Activities

• Workshop at the ECPR Joint Sessions, Mainz 2013
• Section with up to five panels at the ECPR 7th General Conference in Bordeaux, September 2013
• The convenors of the Standing Group will hold the first election of a Standing Group Steering Committee at the 7th ECPR General Conference, from 4-7 September 2013 in Bordeaux
• Joint ECPR Standing Group, ISA, IPSA and APSA Human Rights Section conference ‘Human Rights and Change’, Istanbul, Turkey 16 – 18 June 2014
• Section with up to four panels at the ECPR 8th General Conference in Glasgow, September 2014
• Joint ECPR Standing Group, ISA, IPSA and APSA Human Rights Section conference ‘Human Rights and Justice’, The Hague, Netherlands, 8 – 10 June 2015
• Section with up to four panels at the ECPR 9th General Conference in Montreal, Canada, August 2015
• Joint conference on ‘Human Rights in an Age of Ambiguity’ by the ISA Human Rights Section, APSA Human Rights Section, IPSA Human Rights Research Committee and the ECPR Standing Group on Transitional Justice and Human Rights, New York, 13 – 15 June 2016
• Section with five panels at the ECPR 10th General Conference in Prague, September 2016
• Section with seven panels at the ECPR 11th General Conference in Oslo, September 2017
• Section with six panels at the ECPR General Conference in Hamburg, August 2018
• Section with five panels at the ECPR General Conference in Wroclaw, September 2019
• Webinar with Fabián Salvioli, UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence, co-hosted by the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights
• Section with five panels at the virtual 2020 ECPR General Conference