1. HUMR5190 - N. Butenschøn 20071 Human Rights: The Promise of Inter-Disciplinarity Introduction to HUMR5190-07: Research Methodology

2. HUMR5190 - N. Butenschøn 20072 Introduction Human Rights Studies: The lack of systematic interdisciplinary. A discussion of existing works: A fragmented field of academic studies. From multidisciplinary to interdisciplinary: Is a synthesis possible? The logic of interdisciplinary. Ex: The NCHR project “Accommodating Difference”. Common research questions and hypotheses, but different methods. Compare with political science.

3. HUMR5190 - N. Butenschøn 20073 Human rights as an object of inquiry The logic of a human rights-based interdisciplinary study Conditions ’Human rights’ Outcomes Treaties, institutions, policies Living conditions

4. HUMR5190 - N. Butenschøn 20074 Conditions Conceptions (cultural and philosophical world views) Commitment (ideologies and priorities) Capacity (economy, institutions and competence)

5. HUMR5190 - N. Butenschøn 20075 What is ’Human Rights’ as an object of inquiry? For a start: Endogenous and exogenous perspectives. The endogenous approach takes the existing legal human rights standards as the given framework and premise for the enquiry. The question is how these standards should be understood, and under which conditions they could be made operational, applicable and justiciable (respect, protect, fulfil). This is normally taken to represent what human rights is in an ontological sense, with an ascribed a priori universal moral validity. This frame of reference has been (and still is) looked upon with scepticism from many corners of the academic world, including by many lawyers.

6. HUMR5190 - N. Butenschøn 20076 Exogenous perspectives An exogenous approach could see the standards not as a fixed normative system, but as conditioned by the historic, cultural, and political contexts under which they were formed and under which they exist today. This opens for a more critical appraisal of ‘human rights’ as a social and cultural phenomenon in today’s world.

7. HUMR5190 - N. Butenschøn 20077 What is ’Human Rights’ as an object of inquiry? What is it that human rights refer to in the empirical world? Let me briefly indicate a few things that human rights could be studied as: –(a) Codified human rights standards; –(b) A normative-philosophical system; –(c) A set or network of treaty-based political regimes; –(d) Rights being violated; –(e) A “language”.

8. HUMR5190 - N. Butenschøn 20078 What is ’Human Rights’ as an object of inquiry? (a) The existing international human rights standards (UDHR, the covenants, and subsequent treaties and mechanisms). From this follows that human rights are the obligations that a state has to respect, protect, and fulfil the rights that every individual under the state’s jurisdiction is entitled to under the international human rights treaties. This approach invites mostly legal studies whereby for example aspects of a national legal system is compared with international human rights standards on the basis of existing jurisprudence from international courts and treaty bodies.

9. HUMR5190 - N. Butenschøn 20079 What is ’Human Rights’ as an object of inquiry? (b) A normative-philosophical system as can be deduced from the formative documents of the international human rights system, based on certain conceptions about the moral status of the individual in society, and on the distribution of rights and obligations between rulers and the ruled. (Philosophy/political science).

10. HUMR5190 - N. Butenschøn 200710 What is ’Human Rights’ as an object of inquiry? (c) A set or network of treaty-based political regimes with certain rules of the game for procedures, negotiations, and sanctions – the outcome of which must be understood within the larger context of international politics. (Political science).

11. HUMR5190 - N. Butenschøn 200711 What is ’Human Rights’ as an object of inquiry? (d) Human rights are rights being violated. Since human rights can never be fully protected, we observe human rights only when they are being violated. Human rights work in practice is basically documenting human rights violations; It is difficult to define exactly what a right to adequate food is as a universal standard, but we know what hunger is. (Developing social science indicators for human rights violations).

12. HUMR5190 - N. Butenschøn 200712 What is ’Human Rights’ as an object of inquiry? (e) A “language” in its own right that is hierarchical constituted and elaborated on the basis of UDHR and subsequent conventions and treaties. It is a unique language or discourse because of its alleged universal applicability – it is the lingua franca for the protection of human rights anywhere in the world. At the same time it is a language with dialects (different interpretations and uses). It is understood and used mostly by people in the affluent centres of the world – where it also has its cultural and political-legal origins, whereas the vast majority of the world population in the peripheries do not understand or feel alienated from the language and do not use it effectively to protect their own rights. (Anthropological and socio-linguistic studies).

13. HUMR5190 - N. Butenschøn 200713 Outcomes New or reformed international human rights treaties and institutions; Government policies, including incorporation of human rights standards in national legal systems, and other practices. In short, human rights-related behaviour by IGOs, states, non-state actors and individuals (cfr. Risse et. al.).