The senior lecturer in political science and international relations says she set up the Database of UN Human Rights Agreements to enable a range of users to better understand international human rights law.
Jana’s database is useful to anyone with an internet connection and an interest in international human rights law. Secondary school students can use it to track New Zealand and other countries’ participation in all human rights treaties since the UN’s inception. Non-governmental organisations and analysts can link it to quantitative data on compliance to assess whether these agreements are actually making the world safer for human rights.
“There are between 50 and 70 human rights treaties that exist under the UN alone. Often, the countries that ratify these agreements are already achieving well in the area the agreement focuses on, whereas those with human rights problems refrain from participating. The countries that have child labour problems, for example, are the ones that really need targeted help—yet they are often the least likely to join.”
Jana’s research on the effectiveness of human rights treaties was recently summarised in the Washington Post’s Monkey Cage, a blog that applies political science research to current political issues. Her article, ‘International agreements to prohibit child labour don’t always work. Here’s why’, focuses on research that was also published in the British Journal of Political Science.
To view the Database of UN Human Rights Agreements, go to www.humanrightstreaties.org