DIIS seminar: Udviklingsbistand og udbredelse af menneskerettighedsnormer

TID: Torsdag den 23. oktober kl. 15.00-16.45

STED: DIIS, Danish Institute for International Studies, Main auditorium, Gl. Kalkbrænderi Vej 51A, 2100 København Ø.

TILMELDING: Participation is free of charge, but registration is required. Please use the online registrationform no later than Wednesday, 22 October 2014 at 12.00 noon. 

Foreign Aid and the Diffusion of Human Rights Norms

In Denmark and internationally foreign aid is often legitimized by the liberal and democratic values that it seeks to spread. It is expected that financial support and technical assistance help creating good governance, democracy, gender equality, human rights, rule of law, etc.

There are, however, many examples of externally induced institutions that do not take root: Anti-corruption bodies are marginalized, laws concerning women’s rights of inheritance are not implemented, and civil service reforms go astray.

A recent Danish study documented that there is little agreement between human rights support to particular countries and how these countries vote internationally on human rights issues.

Yet, liberal democracy is spreading to more and more countries, public financial management systems have considerably improved around the world, and human rights have been written into more and more constitutions – to take a few examples.

In this seminar, Liam Swiss will discuss the relationship between foreign aid and the ratification of human rights treaties in 135 low and middle income countries in the period 1975-2008. He concludes that there is an important relationship between the two and that foreign aid can be viewed as a transnational process of political globalization.

The seminar will be in English and live streamed on www.diis.dk

Further information