Deliberative Capacity Building through International Organizations: The Case of the Universal Periodic Review of Human Rights

Abstract

Theories of deliberation, developed largely in the context of domestic politics, are becoming increasingly relevant for international politics. The recently established Universal Periodic Review (UPR) operating under the auspices of the UN’s Human Rights Council is an excellent illustration. Our analysis of responses to its reports and recommendations suggests that the deliberative processes surrounding the UPR do indeed evoke co-operative responses even from countries with poor human rights records. Its highly inclusive, deliberative, repeated-play and peer-to-peer nature can serve as a model for how international organizations more generally can enhance deliberative capacity across the international system.

Deliberative Civic Culture: Assessing the Prevalence of Deliberative Conversational Norms

“…While it is far beyond the aim of this article to research this relationship, we propose that a self-reinforcing mechanism would include civic values’ impact on the design of institutions as well as the impact of (experience from) institutions on civic values. Paralleling theories on trust and social capital, the degree to which deliberative values permeate political behaviour might be understood as a form of deliberative capital which, together with other elements (Milewicz and Goodin, 2016), also defines a community’s deliberative capacity (Dryzek, 2009; Pedrini, 2014).…”

Ritual Deliberation

“…44 Ibid. 45 Milewicz andGoodin 2018, table 1. 46 Charlesworth andLarking 2014, p. 10;Goffman [1967Goffman [ ] 2005 Charlesworth and Larking 2014, p. 19.…”

A horizontal pathway to impact? An assessment of the Universal Periodic Review at 10

“…On the positive side, Milewicz and Goodin (2018) study the UPR as a case with potential for deliberative capacity building through international organizations. Although they recognize that the UPR interactive dialogue is not very dialogical, they find that "the requirement that states present themselves for questioning induces a great deal of high-quality deliberation in the run-up to (and the backwash of) the open session" (Milewicz and Goodin 2018, p. 516).…”