The Role of Parliaments in the Protection and Realisation of the Rule of Law and Human Rights

Lead Research Organisation: University of Oxford
Department Name: Law Faculty

Abstract

The main aim of the proposed one-day conference is to bring together relevant experts, including policy-makers, legislators and academics, to focus entirely on a working draft of the principles and guidelines and to hold a series of focused discussions on key aspects of them. The intention is to initiate an international process with a view to the eventual adoption by the international community (potentially via the UN and/or the IPU) of an agreed set of principles and guidelines. The conference will provide an environment to discuss the draft document and to subject its content to constructive criticism and scrutiny by delegates. It will also ensure that stakeholders with a diverse range of perspectives are involved in discussion of whether and, if so, how a set of internationally agreed principles can be adopted in practice. One important question is how to devise some useful standards and guidelines which will be of use in all countries, but which can take root and grow organically in very different cultures and political systems, and the contribution of cross-cultural and historical perspectives will therefore be crucial.

Publications

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Description In the course of preparing a background paper for the conference (which was the first attempt to put together a comprehensive survey of global and regional activity on this subject) we have found that there is an increasing international consensus about the importance of increasing the role of parliaments in the protection and realisation of the rule of law and human rights, and a large and growing number of initiatives aimed at enhancing that role. The research funded by this grant has helped to develop a more consistent and theoretically justified narrative which gives great coherence to these disparate developments worldwide.

The role of parliaments has historically been neglected by international human rights law, which addresses itself at states and the individuals, and our research is one of the first sustained attempts to examine this issue at the international level.

The project's website is developing into a hub of global activity on this theme, and the go-to resource for people working in this area. It not only provides a comprehensive source of information on the project, including all conference materials, but is a unique source of other relevant international resources.
Exploitation Route International bodies with a global reach, such as the UN, the IPU and the Commonwealth, are already making use of the project's outputs and may decide to take them forward in a process leading to the adoption of some internationally agreed principles and guidelines to strengthen the role of parliaments in the protection and realisation of the rule of law and human rights.

Other international organisations working in the area of democracy promotion and parliamentary strengthening may also use our research findings in their work with national parliaments. Graham Ramshaw, Research and Evaluation Director at the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, for example, has said: "The project has delivered timely and relevant expertise to our parliamentary strengthening programme, providing in-depth analysis and synthesis of our commissioned country case studies on the role of parliaments in protecting and promoting human rights. In particular, the project facilitated an excellent session with the Human Right Committtee of the Georgian Parliament where key findings of the study were shared with MPs and staff. This presentation will form the basis of our engagement with other committees in other countries as we further expand our activities."

Regional bodies such as the Council of Europe and the EU may use the project's work to devise more specific principles and guidelines for parliaments in their particular regions.

National parliaments interested in increasing their role in the protection and realisation of the rule of law and human rights may use our research findings as the basis for reforms. National human rights institutions (NHRIs) are also likely to use our research to inform the way in which they seek to give practical effect to the Belgrade Principles on the Relationship between parliaments and NHRIs.
Sectors Government, Democracy and Justice
URL https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/research-and-subject-groups/parliaments-rule-law-and-human-rights-project
 
Description At the one-day conference in September 2015, 89 people attended including participants from the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Inter-Parliamentary Union ("IPU"), the Commonwealth Secretariat, the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, a number of Parliaments around the world including in the Asia Pacific, Africa and Europe, inter-governmental organisations, non-governmental organisations and academia. Delegates agreed about the importance of strengthening parliament's role in relation to the rule of law and human rights, and on the desirability of a set of principles and guidelines. The discussions at the conference were extended into a second day, in a collaboration with the Commonwealth Secretariat, with some parliamentarians from a number of Commonwealth countries, focusing specifically on practical ways of enhancing the role of parliament in those particular countries. The outcomes of the conference have also informed subsequent regional seminars of Commonwealth parliamentarians on the subject of parliaments' role in relation to human rights. To maximise the impact of the London conference, two blog posts about it were published on the UK's most widely read human rights blog: first, a speech by a conference panellist and, second, a summary of conference proceedings. The first blog post received more than 1114 views in its first month after publication. The second blog post received 873 views in its first month after publication. The report of the conference proceedings was used in discussions in September between the PI, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the IPU and representatives of the Core Group of States who sponsored a resolution which was adopted by the UN Human Rights Council on 29 September on the contribution of parliaments to the work of the Human Rights Council and its Universal Periodic Review. The resolution provides for a Panel Discussion of the subject at the June 2016 Human Rights Council, to take stock of the contribution of parliaments and "to identify ways to enhance further that contribution." The need to explore the scope for internationally agreed principles and guidelines, which it was the purpose of the conference to promote, has since been endorsed at the highest level in key institutions with a significant role in relation to human rights and the rule of law. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, for example, during his visit to the Westminster Parliament on 12 October 2015, welcomed the recent London conference on the role of parliaments, and also pointed out the importance of considering, as part of the June Panel Discussion in the Human Rights Council, draft international principles on the role of parliaments in relation to human rights, similar to those principles already adopted by the UN General Assembly on the autonomy and effectiveness of national human rights institutions (the Paris Principles) or on the independence of the judiciary. On 2 March 2016, the Commonwealth Secretary General, HE Kamalesh Sharma, also endorsed the idea in his remarks to the High Level Segment of the UN Human Rights Council in which he said: "We believe there is merit in considering the potential of a set of international principles or standards, such as the Paris Principles, for parliaments." The research team has continued to engage with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the IPU in preparation for the Panel Discussion in the Human Rights Council in June 2016. The PI and project researcher are now preparing a background paper for the OHCHR, to inform the forthcoming Panel Discussion, building on the report of the conference by drawing together the many different developments taking place worldwide to enhance the role of parliaments in relation to the rule of law and human rights, and to demonstrate the need for an overarching, global narrative to give some coherence to these disparate developments. The project's research findings have also been used in a collaboration with the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, which aims to strengthen parliamentary capacity in protecting the rule of law and human rights in six countries: Georgia, Macedonia, Serbia, Uganda, Ukraine and Tunisia. This study was conducted using a set of questions based on a set of good practices (the draft set of principles and guidelines) previously identified by the project, and developed tailored recommendations to strengthen parliamentary protection of the rule of law and human rights in each of the six countries. The recommendations are in the process of being presented to the parliaments, and discussed with a view to implementing them. The PI has also used the research outcomes to inform his contributions to the capacity-building work of the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Project Support Division working with national parliaments in countries such as Georgia.
First Year Of Impact 2015
Sector Government, Democracy and Justice
Impact Types Policy & public services