Critical Evaluation of Research Resources
Aim: Learn to choose research resources critically
Overview
When doing research for either scientific or practical purposes, one needs to choose resources carefully and efficiently. This project work will help you develop the skill of evaluating published material from your research perspective. Below you will find information on four books relevant to the topic of ‘Human Rights in International Relations’: description/synopsis, table of contents, information about the author, short reviews, and the tasks to do to achieve the aim.
STAGE 1
Task 1. Class
Form two teams. Decide which two books each team will be responsible for and discuss the way/approach to evaluating a source.
What will influence your decision most?
- details of the publication (when and where it was published)
- information about the author
- the scope of coverage
- the author’s focus
- expert opinion (reviews)
Decide whether you divide the two books between the team members or each member works on both books.
Task 2. Individual
Read the information about the book assigned to you and decide whether the whole book or its separate chapters/articles/essay) may be of use if you were to take part in a panel discussion or write a paper on an issue of human rights in international relations. See what position this source may help to support: that of
1) a firm believer in the right of nations to interfere in other states’ affairs to prevent/stop human rights’ abuses; 2) an opponent of this view – advocate of nation state’s sovereignty; 3) a critic of human-rights politics as a tool to serve self-interests of a state.
If in doubt, look at the prompting questions below:
- What information do you expect to find in the book(s)?
- What stance do you expect the author(s) to take on the issue?
- Which ideas would be of interest/value to you were you to do the tasks/assignments above?
- Would you expect the book to give a balanced or biased view on the issue?
- In which part of the book (s) would you look for specific factual information?
- Which chapters/essays/articles you would choose for detailed reading?
Task 3.Pool your findings as a team/class
When presenting your conclusion substantiate your claim with reasons and evidence.
Book info
David P. Forsythe, Human Rights in International Relations, 3rd edition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 285 p.
Description
- This third edition of David P. Forsythe’s successful textbook provides an authoritative overview of the place of human rights in an age of upheaval in international politics. Human rights standards are examined at the global, regional and national levels, with separate chapters on transnational corporations and advocacy groups. The third edition has been completely updated to include the latest developments on terrorism and counter-terrorism, pro-democracy protests in the Middle East, disputed elections in developing countries, criminal courts and truth commissions, and applications of the laws of war. New sections have been added on subjects such as women’s rights and new case studies have been added in each chapter which show how specific rights fare in contemporary political contexts. Containing chapter-by-chapter guides to further reading and discussion questions, this book will be of interest to all students of human rights and their teachers.
- Understanding of human rights in relation to contextual factors which assist or block the implementation of rights protection
- Thematic exploration of the meaning of realism and liberalism in regard to human rights
- Often human rights are discussed without attention to social science theories, but this book offers a linkage between information presented in this book and other social science subject
Table of Contents
Preface
Part I. The Foundations:
1. Introduction: human rights in international relations
2. Establishing human rights standards
Part II. Implementing Human Rights Standards:
3. Global application of human rights norms
4. Transitional justice: criminal courts and alternatives
5. Regional application of human rights norms
6. Human rights and foreign policy in comparative perspective
7. Non-governmental organizations and human rights
8. Transnational corporations and human rights
Part III. Conclusion:
9. The politics of liberalism in a realist world.
Index
Information about the author
David Forsythe is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. He has been a visiting professor at universities in Geneva and Utrecht and in 2008 he held the Fulbright Distinguished Research Chair of Human Rights and International Studies at the Danish Institute of International Studies, Copenhagen. He has also been on staff for the United Nations University in Tokyo and has been a consultant to both the UN Office of the High Commissioner of Refugees and the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.
Reviews
‘The idea of human rights is so powerful that those who would violate it in the privacy of their torture chambers are compelled to swear fealty to it in global public discourse. David Forsythe draws our attention to the tension between personal rights and the workings of the interstate system in a world in which the human rights norm, including international humanitarian law, is ever more firmly established yet actual protections have come under growing stress in practice. The resilience of the norm has contributed to changes in the nature of state sovereignty. In this third edition of a well-regarded and well-established textbook, Forsythe continues his mission to clarify and update via an impressive, illuminating and engaging analysis of one of the most powerful political impulses of the contemporary era.’ Ramesh Thakur, Australian National University‘The third edition of David Forsythe’s Human Rights in International Relations maintains his reputation for excellence. I have found the first two editions to be essential teaching texts, very popular with my students, without which I could not cover the entire range of topics necessary in a comprehensive political science course on human rights. This edition brings students right up to date, with analysis of such events as the Arab spring and the Obama administration’s actions with regard to Guantanamo Bay.’ Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann, Wilfrid Laurier University
II.
John Shattuck, Freedom on Fire: Human Rights Wars and America’s Response (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2003). 400 pages
Description
As the chief human rights official of the Clinton Administration, John Shattuck faced far-flung challenges. Disasters were exploding simultaneously—genocide in Rwanda and Bosnia, murder and atrocities in Haiti, repression in China, brutal ethnic wars, and failed states in other parts of the world. But America was mired in conflicting priorities and was reluctant to act. What were Shattuck and his allies to do?
This is the story of their struggle inside the U.S. government over how to respond. Shattuck tells what was tried and what was learned as he and other human rights hawks worked to change the Clinton Administration’s human rights policy from disengagement to saving lives and bringing war criminals to justice. He records his frustrations and disappointments, as well as the successes achieved in moving human rights to the center of U.S. foreign policy.
Shattuck was at the heart of the action. He was the first official to interview the survivors of Srebrenica. He confronted Milosevic in Belgrade. He was a key player in bringing the leaders of genocide in Bosnia and Rwanda to justice. He pushed from the inside for an American response to the crisis of the Haitian boat people. He pressed for the release of political prisoners in China. His book is both an insider’s account and a detailed prescription for preventing such wars in the future.
Shattuck criticizes the Bush Administration’s approach, which he says undermines human rights at home and around the world. He argues that human rights wars are breeding grounds for terrorism. Freedom on Fire describes the shifting challenges of global leadership in a world of explosive hatreds and deepening inequalities.
Table of Contents
Introduction
- Rwanda: The Genocide That Might Have Been Prevented
- Rwanda: The Struggle for Justice
- Haiti: A Tale of Two Presidents
- Bosnia: The Pariah Problem
- Bosnia: Facing Reality
- Bosnia and Kosovo: Breaking the Cycle
- The China Syndrome
- China: Collision Course
- Strategies for Peace
Chronology
State Department Organizational Chart
Notes
Acknowledgments
Index
Information about the author
John Shattuck served as Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor from 1993 to 1998, and as U.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republic from 1998 to 2000. Currently, he is Chief Executive Officer of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation in Boston.
Reviews
“This principled and sobering account by an insider of U.S. experience in addressing human rights violations in the difficult contexts of Rwanda, Haiti, the Balkans and China should be compulsory reading for policy makers and commentators in the aftermath of a war on Iraq, which the U.S. administration has argued was justified on human rights grounds.”—Mary Robinson, former U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights
“John Shattuck’s outstanding volume on human rights is a gift to the nation and must reading for every American who cares about our ideals and security in today’s changing world. Shattuck vividly describes key achievements and setbacks for U.S. human rights policy in the past decade. He draws timely lessons for the future, and makes painfully clear that when violations of human rights are not addressed effectively, terrorism thrives.”—Senator Edward M. Kennedy
“In that complicated decade after the end of the Cold War and before 9-11, when most Americans wanted to disengage from the world, John Shattuck stood tall for a foreign policy that would advance our national security interests by promoting our values and the cause of human rights overseas. As a close colleague, I can attest to the significance of his achievement, which he recounts vividly in this invaluable look at how policy is forged in the crucible of Washington’s cut-throat politics.”—Ambassador Richard Holbrooke
III.
Kirsten Sellers, The Rise and Rise of Human Rights (Phoenix Hill: Sutton Publishing, 2002), 242 pages
This text argues that global politics today is dominated by a single idea: human rights. It investigates the evolution of this ideal, and reveals a political history played out by presidents and foreign ministers, diplomats and prosecutors, journalists and advocates. Using previously unpublished archival material, this book traces the story of international human rights from World War II to the conflicts in Kosovo and Afghanistan. The book exposes the self-interest and cold-war rivalry that characterized negotiations over the UN’s Universal Declaration and the human-rights covenants. Using new material from the United States, Britain and France, the author argues that the human-rights crusade has been designed primarily to enhance the West’s self-image and to court domestic public opinion. As a consequence, it has aided its powerful Western advocates rather than its supposed beneficiaries in the broken and war-torn nations of the world.
Table of Contents
Introduction
One. Declaration of Intent
Two. Nuremberg Revisited
Three. Trouble at Tokyo
Four. Cold Fronts
Five. Colonial Concerns
Six. Carter’s Crusade
Seven. Cold War II
Eight. With God on Their Side
Nine. Trials and Tribulations
Conclusion
Bibliography
Information about the author
Kirsten Sellars, a London-based journalist specialising in international affairs, has written for many publications including the Guardian, Times, Los Angeles Times, Australian, New Statesman, Spectator, Esquire and Vogue. Currently, she is Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law, Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Reviews
It is the eradication of evil and cruelty in society that was the engine room of the human rights revolution, no better chronicled than in The Rise and Rise of Human Rights’ — John Cooper QC, The Times (London)
‘This book is essentially a polemic, although a well-researched one, on the gap between appearance and reality with respect for the campaign for human rights’ — Stephen A. Garrett, International Affairs (London)
‘Kirsten Sellars’ Rise and Rise of Human Rights… challenges triumphalist multilateralist narratives about the abatement of traditional conceptions of sovereignty even as it highlights the way human rights ideas have come to the fore – and exerted influence – at moments when other ideals were exhausted or in abeyance’ — Elizabeth Borgwardt, Harvard Law School Legal History Colloquium
In a chapter wryly titled ‘With God on their side’, Sellars develops her argument by looking at the influence of an American movement against the persecution of Christians, which in 1995 focused on China. Within three years the movement had run out of steam, not because Chinese Christians had been afforded more rights, but because domestic American politics had swung in favour of backing China’s admission to the World Trade Organisation.’ – Jon Holbrrok http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/8423#.Vli9PF4xHTQ
IV
Human Rights Diplomacy: Contemporary Perspectives (2011)
by Michael OFlaherty, Zdzislaw Kedzia, Amrei Müller and George Ulrich (Editors)
Information about the authors/editors
Michael O’Flaherty is Chief Commissioner of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission and holds the Chair in Applied Human Rights at the University of Nottingham. He serves as Vice-chairperson of the United Nations Human Rights Committee. Previously he held a number of senior positions with the United Nations, both at headquarters and in the field.
Zdzislaw Kędzia holds the Chair of Constitutional Law, Faculty of Law and Administration, Adam Mickiewicz University of Poznań, and is a Vice-Chairperson of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. He previously worked for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Polish diplomatic service. His teaching and publications focus on international human rights law and constitutional law.
Amrei Müller is a research assistant at the University of Zürich, School of Law. She recently obtained a PhD degree from the University of Nottingham. She was project officer for the project on Human Rights Diplomacy at the Human Rights Law Centre and has previously worked for the German Institute for Human Rights.
George Ulrich is Rector of the Riga Graduate School of Law. He previously served as Secretary General of the European Inter-University Centre for Human Rights and Democratisation and as a Senior Researcher at the Danish Centre for Human Rights. His publications cover the philosophy of human rights, international medical ethics and professional ethics.
Description
This collection of essays explores the notion, tools and challenges of human rights diplomacy, which is understood as the utilisation of diplomatic negotiation and persuasion for the specific purpose of promoting and protecting human rights. Theoretical reflections are combined with first-hand accounts from a range of policy-makers involved in human rights diplomacy at the bilateral, regional and multilateral (UN) level. Contributors include inter-governmentally appointed office-holders, human rights ambassadors, members of UN human rights treaty bodies and representatives of inter-governmental organisations, national human rights organisations and non-governmental organisations. Their analysis shows that skilful and principled diplomacy can become a crucial part of a holistic approach to human rights protection, complementing other means such as legal remedies, public advocacy, political pressure and technical assistance. This book builds on discussions at a high-level workshop on the topic, organised by the University of Nottingham Human Rights Law Centre, the European Inter-University Centre for Human Rights and Democratisation and the Adam Mickiewicz University of Poznan.
Contents
- Introduction. Human Rights Diplomacy: Contemporary Perspectives
- Framework for the Analysis of Human Rights Diplomacy
- A Short Reflection on Human Rights Diplomacy
- The Role of Human Rights Ambassadors in Human Rights Diplomacy- Perspectives From Spain
- Human Rights Diplomacy of Small States
- The European Union as a Human Rights Actor
- Human Rights Diplomacy and the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights
- Human Rights Diplomacy From a UN Perspective: A Complement to Advocacy
- The United Nation Human Rights Treaty Bodies as Diplomatic Actors
- Human Rights Diplomacy of the UN Secretary-General
- Human Rights Diplomacy of the United Nations Security Council
- Conference Diplomacy and Human Rights
- Human Rights Diplomacy: The NGO Role
- National Human Rights Institutions as Diplomacy Actors
- The Relevance of the Multi-Stakeholder Approach and Multi-Track Diplomacy for Human Rights
From the Foreword (instead of a review)
One should not preach what one does not practice, it is said. For human rights diplomacy, this is more than a simple dictum. It is the core of the credibility of any effort to advance human rights. Thus, human rights diplomacy is as much a process of self-reflection and self-correction as it is about encouraging and urging other for improvements. Connecting the two, using the platform of universal human rights norms is a challenge for all countries.
The authors of each of the articles in this collection are highly accomplished thinkers and practitioners of human rights. They offer valuable and much needed insight, analysis and lessons learnt at a pivotal time for both human rights and diplomacy.
Kyung-wha Kang
Deputy UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
STAGE 2
L2 (aspiring to A&B)
Task 1
Choose an article in the Reader and evaluate its potential as a research resource following the approach worked out in Stage 1. Prepare a short report on your findings.
Task 2 L2+ (aspiring to A)
Write a critical review of the chosen article.
| Reminder: A review is both a summary and an evaluation of another writer’s text (article, chapter or book) |
The three main stages of writing a review:
- Summarising the article focusing on the important points, claims and information;
- Critical reflections on the article’s merits and demerits;
- Writing a review of the article.
When writing your critique make use of the following questions:
- What is the author’s aim?
- To what extent has this aim been achieved?
- What claims are made?
- Are the arguments consistent?
- What kinds of evidence does the text rely on?
- What conclusions are drawn?
- Are these conclusions justified?
- Is the text well-written (style, text structure)?
Support your critique with evidence from the article
Structure of a review
- Introduction (10% of the whole length)
- Introduce the title of the article or book, the year it was published and the name of the author (the bibliographic details). Outline the central theme(s) of the article.
- Main Body (80% of the whole length):
- Summary
- Critique (positive and negative)
- Conclusion (10% of the whole length)
- Brief sum-up and a statement on its overall usefulness.