The Role of Parliaments in the Protection and Realisation of the Rule of Law and Human Rights 2016-7

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

Abstract

The main purpose of this phase of the project is for the project team to assist and participate fully in a Panel Discussion on the subject of The Role of Parliaments in the Protection and Realisation of the Rule of Law and Human Rights in the UN Human Rights Council in June, which the PI has been invited to moderate, and to follow up on that high profile discussion with a further event in Geneva in September, with a view to establishing a collaborative research project with key partners to an agreed timetable, culminating in a high-level international conference in 2019/20 at which the text of some "draft principles and guidelines on the role of parliaments in the protection and realisation of the rule of law and human rights" could be agreed with a view to their possible adoption by the UN General Assembly.
 
Description The research funded on this grant has developed previous work by the project demonstrating the emergence of a global consensus about the importance of parliaments as significant institutions for the protection and realisation of the rule of law and human rights. It has also established the extent of international agreement about the need to increase the role of parliaments worldwide in order to achieve more effective implementation of internationally agreed human rights and Rule of Law standards and to bring greater democratic legitimacy to the institutional protections for the Rule of Law and human rights. The award has enabled a global survey to be conducted of relevant international and regional developments in the role of parliaments, which has identified an emerging consensus and established the need for a more coherent narrative of this worldwide development and greater focus on how to increase the role of parliaments. By publishing some draft Principles and Guidelines, which have been enthusiastically taken up and used by a number of international organisations, and in the parliamentary strengthening work of organisations such as the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, the research has also demonstrated the practical utility of such Principles and Guidelines. One of the objectives of the research was to secure high-level buy-in to the desirability of some internationally agreed Principles and Guidelines. With the UN Secretary-General's recent endorsement of the idea in his address to the UN General Assembly, this objective has now been achieved at the highest level. The project's 2017 global survey was updated in 2018, which established that the emerging consensus identified in the first report had continued to develop and was now more firmly established in international and regional practice. This was reflected in the fact that the theme of the UN Forum on Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law, which took place in Geneva in November 2018, was "parliaments and promoters of human rights, democracy and the rule of law".
Exploitation Route The project's findings are already being put to use by the project's partners worldwide, including the Inter-Parliamentary Union, of which all the world's parliaments are members, and the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Their joint Report to the UN Human Rights Council in June 2018 will include some suggested Principles and Guidelines. The Core Group of States which have sponsored the relevant resolutions in the Human Rights Council may then decide to take forward the Principles and Guidelines for consideration and possible endorsement by the UN General Assembly in September 2018.
Sectors Government, Democracy and Justice
URL https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/research-and-subject-groups/parliaments-rule-law-and-human-rights-project
 
Description The project's findings have been used by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights as evidence of the need for a more systematic and worldwide approach to increasing the role of parliaments in relation to the Rule of Law and human rights, and of the need for some internationally agreed Principles and Guidelines on the subject to be drawn up, in close collaboration with parliaments and parliamentarians, and adopted at UN level. The project's findings informed a resolution of the UN Human Rights Council in June 2017 calling for a study of best practices from parliaments around the world with a view to drawing up some principles and guidelines to help strengthen the interaction between the Human Rights Council and national parliaments, to be considered at the Human Rights Council in June 2018. The project's findings have also framed the work of the Inter-Parliamentary Union which is conducting the study to be presented to the Human Rights Council, eg by shaping the questionnaire that has been sent to all of the world's parliaments. The project's draft Principles and Guidelines have been extensively referred to and used by international organisations such as the Commonwealth and the Council of Europe. The UN Secretary-General, in his address to the UN General Assembly in September 2017, expressly endorsed the development of a set of principles and guidelines to assist and guide parliamentarians to engage more proactively with the work of international human rights mechanisms. The project's findings, and its draft Principles and Guidelines, influenced the content of the draft Principles on Parliaments and Human Rights drawn up by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in 2018. The PI was consulted on a draft of the UNOHCHR's Principles and invited to take part in a validation exercise of the draft Principles conducted by the Inter-Parliamentary Union in conjunction with UNOHCHR. The project co-hosted with IPU and UNOHCHR a side-event during the June 2018 UN Human Rights Council about the draft Principles, which were laid before the Council in a Report from UNOHCHR and considered by the Council during its June session. The project's 2018 update to its 2017 survey of global developments in the role of parliaments in the protection of human rights and the rule of law was distributed at both the validation exercise at IPU and the side-event at the Human Rights Council. In November 2018 the project co-hosted with the UNOHCHR, the IPU and Universal Rights Group a further side-event in Geneva during the UN Forum on Democracy, Human Rights and the Rule of Law at which the draft Principles on Parliaments and Human Rights were discussed. The PI also spoke about the draft Principles on a panel at the Forum, and moderated a session which also considered them.
First Year Of Impact 2017
Sector Government, Democracy and Justice
Impact Types Policy & public services
 
Description Adoption by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and UN Secretary General
Geographic Reach Multiple continents/international 
Policy Influence Type Citation in systematic reviews
Impact The impact has been the enhancement of the role of parliaments in their oversight of Governments on matters relating to the rule of law and human rights. The impact has been both on particular national parliaments, which have changed their practices and procedures in order to enhance their effectiveness after assessing their capacity against the draft principles and guidelines generated by the research project; and at the more systemic level on the approach of the UN to encouraging parliaments to enhance their role. Evidence of this impact can be found in the statement of Gianni Magazzeni, Chief of the Americas, Europe and Central Asia Branch, Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, in May 2016, that "I am really convinced that the Oxford University Project on Parliaments, the Rule of Law and Human Rights is of great value to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in its ongoing work on enhancing the oversight function of Parliaments with respect to human rights policies and actions of Governments as well as in ensuring international principles on Parliaments and Human Rights are considered and eventually agreed up by the international community"; and in the statement of the UN Secretary General's Report on Interaction between the United Nations, national parliaments and the Inter-Parliamentary Union, in June 2016 that "The continuing discussion between the United Nations and IPU concerning the development of principles to assist parliaments to fulfil their role in the protection and realization of human rights should be accelerated. Once adopted, the principles should form a solid basis to guide joint United Nations-IPU support to parliaments in the area of human rights."
 
Description Parliaments, Rule of Law and Human Rights 
Organisation United Nations (UN)
Department Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Country Switzerland 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution Our project helped UNOHCHR with the preparation of the Concept Paper in preparation for the expert Panel Discussion which took place in the UN Human Rights Council in June 2016; the PI participated in the Panel Discussion as an accredited expert; and the project organised and co-hosted with UNOHCHR and other partners a follow-up side event during the Human Rights Council in March 2017.
Collaborator Contribution UNOHCHR organised and hosted the Panel Discussion in the Human Rights Council in June 2016; provided the room and facilities for the follow-up side event which it co-hosted in March 2017; publicised the side event through its networks; and helped to distribute the project's publication "Global developments in the role of parliaments in the protection and promotion of human rights and the rule of law: An emerging consensus" during proceedings of the UN Human Rights Council.
Impact Participation in Expert Panel Discussion on "The contribution of parliaments to the work of the Human Rights Council and its universal periodic review" in June 2016 Side-event on "Increasing parliamentary engagement with human rights and the rule of law" in March 2017
Start Year 2016
 
Description Side-event on increasing parliamentary engagement (Geneva) 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact A side-event to follow up on the Panel Discussion in the UN Human Rights Council in June 2016 on the contribution of parliaments to the work of the Council and its universal periodic review, to maintain the public profile of the issue, to draw attention to important developments worldwide, to situate in the context of wider developments such as the Sustainable Development Goals, to launch a research report by the project's researcher on global developments, and to discuss practical ways of achieving more parliamentary engagement in future.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
 
Description UN Human Rights Council Panel Discussion (Geneva) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact A panel of experts, including the PI, made presentations to the UN Human Rights Council taking stock of the contribution of parliaments to the work of the Council and its universal periodic review and identifying ways to further enhance that contribution, and took questions from ambassadors representing the Member States of the Council. The Panel Discussion was broadcast on the UN TV channel and can be accessed there.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016