Policy Procedures: Institutionalizing Human Rights in Everyday Life

• In Event: 1567 - Section on Sociology of Law Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 3: Organizations and Institutions

Abstract

This paper draws on interviews with more than 60 activists, officials, and scholars in Egypt, Poland, and Thailand on human rights in the realm of sexual expression and liberty. Rather than focusing on policies or outcomes, as is typical in the literature, the argument and data here focus on procedures, which offer operational routines for the day-to-day implementation of human rights in everyday life. Procedures get institutionalized in world society and diffuse broadly across nation-states, helping to convey human rights beyond ceremonial state declarations into substantive daily practice. I focus in particular on three clusters of procedures: those that enable awareness, elevate access, and enhance agency.

Author

• David John Frank, University of California, Irvine