Rua
Marqus de So Vicente, 225, Tel
(Law Dep.): +55 21 3114
1647/1649/1650 Managing
Committee: Joo
Ricardo Dornelles, Carolina Campos Mello, Mrcia
Nina Benardes, Florian Fabian Hoffmann
Edifcio da Amizade - Ala Frings, 6 andar
Gvea - Rio de Janeiro, RJ
CEP 22451-900
Research
Dynamic on Law, Governance and Sustainable Development
Universit
de Montral
Facults
Universitaires Saint Louis (Bruxelles)
Ncleo
de Direitos Humanos do Departamento de Direito da PUC-Rio
Laboratoire
dAnthropologie Juridique de Paris, Universit Paris 1 Panthon / Sorbonne
General Coordinators:
Christoph Eberhard & Franois Ost
Project
Coordenators Ncleo de Direitos Humanos (NDH):
Marcia
Nina Bernardes, Liszt Vieira, Florian Hoffmann
Introduction to
the NDH
The NDH was launched by the Law Department of the PUC-Rio in August 2002 as part of an effort to focus and accentuate its manifold work in human rights. The NDH is to function as an umbrella for all human rights related activities in the Department, bringing together the various lines of research by faculty members, and structure the teaching of human rights so as to render law students more sensible to the distinct topic of human rights, and encourage both theoretical reflection, as well as practical engagement. The objective is to form a center point for academic research and an interface with human rights advocacy and activism in Rio de Janeiro and Brazil, and, thus, contribute to the mainstreaming of a human rights perspective into the wider academy and beyond.
The
NDH currently incorporates six thematic Working Groups, notably on Womens
Rights, Social Rights (in the domestic context), Access to Justice, HR Mooting
(with special emphasis on the Inter-American System), Public Security, and
Development and Human Rights - the Research Dynamic is embedded within this
last Working Group (see below). Each WG is coordinated by one or more
professors, and consists of either up to twenty undergraduate students, or up
to five specially selected stagiaires. Activities range from reading,
discussion, to the organization of workshops, and joint projects with human
rights NGOs.
Last
year, the NDH has, inter alia, played a key
role, jointly with several local NGOs, in drafting a civil society report on extrajudicial killings, as well as in planning and
conducting the Rio de Janeiro leg of the UN Commission on Human Rights (CHR)
Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions Asma Jahangir's official mission to Brazil. It has also hosted
two parallel workshops on human rights defenders and public security on the
occasion of the Rio visit of an Amnesty International delegation headed by its
Secretary-General, Ms. Irene Khan; it also organized one of the few conferences
held on Vienna+10, commemorating and reflecting on the state of human rights
ten years on from the Declaration of Vienna. Other distinguished recent
visitors have included Prof. Nicholas Bamforth of the University of Oxford (on
human rights and sexual orientation), and Grard Fellous, Secretary-General of
the French governments Commission Nationale Consultative des Droits de
LHomme.
The NDHs Working Group on
Development and Human Rights (WGDH)
The
WGDH was created in the context of the UN CHR Independent Expert on the Right
to Development Arjun Senguptas mission to Brazil in July of 2003; on that
occasion, the NDH, jointly with the Brazil-wide ESC-rights NGO FASE, organised and moderated
a civil society meeting with the Independent Expert. We have since been in the
process of elaborating a long-term research project on
Trade and
Development, Human Rights, and Global Governance: the Brazilian context,
Southern perspectives, and new international articulations,
within
which we are pursuing the present Research Dynamic. In its still preliminary
current version, it is to consist of three distinct thematic Issue Areas within
the general heading, notably Trade, International Cooperation, and Public
Policies, preceded by an introductory reflection on the core concepts of the
project, human rights, (sustainable) development, and (global) governance. The
first of the Issue Areas will deal with the nexus of the international trade
regime and specifically the WTO scheme- with development and human rights, a
theme of particular concern here at the moment. In this context, both the
Dispute Settlement Panels jurisprudence with Brazil being a prolific user
thereof-, and the political logic of the various rounds (including Doha) will
be examined from a human rights and development perspective. The second Issue
Area will look at the UN's development agenda -ranging from the idea of a
Development Compact, and up to the current deliberations within the Millennium
Project-, as well as at the different Southern articulations with the
international development debate, be is through ad-hoc G++ alliances, the IBSA
(India-Brazil-South Africa) coalition, or new proactive engagement in existing
multilateral mechanisms. Finally, the third Issue Area will study the rights
based approach to development and its implementation (or not) in some of the
Brazilian governments public policies - most notably the notorious FomeZero project, which has been
treated as a potential international model.
The
project will be coordinated by three professors of the Department, Mrcia Nina
Bernardes, who is currently completing her JSD at New York University, Dr.
Liszt Vieira, who is, among others, a former Environmental Secretary of the
State of Rio de Janeiro, and the current director of Rios Botanical Gardens,
and Dr. Florian F. Hoffmann, who has recently completed his PhD in Law at the
European University Institute in Florence (Italy). They will be assisted by up
to five undergraduate stagiairs, who will be an integral part of weekly preparatory
seminars during which different aspects within each Issue Area will be
discussed on the basis of the state-of-the-art literature. The objective of
these is to prepare and organize a Workshop on each Issue Area, with the one
Trade ideally taking place during the second semester of 2004. Both the
Workshops as well as the preparatory sessions will be interdisciplinary, and
include specialists from other areas, most notably sociology, political
science, and international relations. Finally, the Project is also to be part
of the virtual network of institutions part of this Research Dynamic,
proactively exchanging information on methods and substantive issues, and
making the other components virtual partners in the Project. In this context,
each preparatory session, as well as the Workshop and other collateral work
might be consolidated into Compte Rendus which could be posted on the
Dynamics website.
At
this stage, we have set out the general lines of the Project, and have
elaborated an introductory note on the nexus between trade, development, and
human rights, which is also posted. We would, in any case, be most grateful
for any feedback from the Dynamics collaborators.