Stanford University

Governance

FSI's research on the origins, character and consequences of government institutions spans continents and academic disciplines. The institute’s senior fellows and their colleagues across Stanford examine the principles of public administration and implementation. Their work focuses on how maternal health care is delivered in rural China, how public action can create wealth and eliminate poverty, and why U.S. immigration reform keeps stalling. 

FSI’s work includes comparative studies of how institutions help resolve policy and societal issues. Scholars aim to clearly define and make sense of the rule of law, examining how it is invoked and applied around the world. 

FSI researchers also investigate government services – trying to understand and measure how they work, whom they serve and how good they are. They assess energy services aimed at helping the poorest people around the world and explore public opinion on torture policies. The Children in Crisis project addresses how child health interventions interact with political reform. Specific research on governance, organizations and security capitalizes on FSI's longstanding interests and looks at how governance and organizational issues affect a nation’s ability to address security and international cooperation.

Economic Justice: Philosophical and Legal Perspectives

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The economic impact of the U. S. financial market meltdown of 2008 has been devastating both in the U. S. and worldwide. One consequence of this crisis is the widening gap between rich and poor. With little end in sight to global economic woes, it has never been more urgent to examine and re-examine the values and ideals that animate policy about the market, the workplace, and formal and informal economic institutions at the level of the nation state and internationally. Re-entering existing debates and provoking new ones about economic justice, this volume makes a timely contribution to a normative assessment of our economic values and the institutions that active those norms. Topics covered by this volumes essays range from specific or relatively small-scale problems such as payday lending and prisoners’ access to adequate healthcare; to large-scale such as global poverty, the free market and international aid. Economic Justice will stimulate and provoke philosophers, policy makers and the engaged readers who hope for better outcomes from financial institutions and improvements in the distribution of economic goods."

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978-9400749047

Taking Our Country Back: The Crafting of Networked Politics from Howard Dean to Barack Obama and the 2012 Elections

The Proposition Games: Will Prop 35 help curb human trafficking?

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In a piece for the The Stanford Daily, Nadejda Marques, manager of the Program on Human Rights at the CDDRL, writes about Proposition 35 (the CASE Act), slated for the November 2012 California Ballot. Californians Against Sexual Exploitation (CASE) hopes to raise awareness of human trafficking and deter traffickers with higher penalties and fines. Critics of Proposition 35 argue that stiffer sentencing is not the core of this complex problem. They defend that efforts should be directed to training police and prosecutors, and funding victim-services providers to protect and enable court proceedings.

If you vote in California, chances are that in November, in addition to national, state and local elective races, you will encounter a host of propositions on the ballot.

Among these is Proposition 35, or the Californians Against Sexual Exploitation Act (known as the CASE Act). Proposition 35 hopes to raise awareness of human trafficking and deter traffickers with higher penalties and fines. Human trafficking is a horrific and growing problem nationally and globally. It constitutes a violation of the most basic human rights to which between four and 27 million people (according to the U.S. Department of State’s 2007 Trafficking in Persons Report), are subjected every year. So an effort to increase penalties for offenders should be viewed as a universal good.

But there is not a consensus on Proposition 35, even among organizations and institutions fighting human trafficking in California. Critics of Proposition 35 argue that stiffer sentencing will not address the core of this complex problem. Civil libertarians raise concerns over provisions that require offenders to register with law enforcement officials long after they have served their sentences. Of course, penalties should reflect the severity of any crime. And when penalties are patently incommensurate with the severity of the offense, they signal a lack of commitment by the state and may fail to deter potential violators. However, focus on increased sentencing can often mask the lack of meaningful effort to address a problem. In the case of human trafficking, this may well be what is happening with Proposition 35.

One of our main challenges is the identification of instances of human trafficking. For example, not all prostitution involves human trafficking, and not all human trafficking involves prostitution. Police and prosecutors are not adequately trained to identify cases of human trafficking, nor are they generally able to investigate potential situations of trafficking proactively. Poor identification of trafficking and victims leads to a weak or no case against perpetrators.

Often, those brought to court are not prosecuted under the existing trafficking laws, but under some other crime or some minor offence. Many times, cases of human trafficking are dismissed because of lack of evidence (which is based almost exclusively on the testimony of the victims). In addition, some judges and prosecutors seem to fail to understand the phenomenon of human trafficking and the psychological effects it causes on victims. Prosecutors rely too often on the testimony of victims, which, given their extreme vulnerability, is difficult, at best, to obtain. Authorities also fail to enable post-trafficking assistance, long-term protection and support. Worse still, some authorities direct prosecutorial efforts at the victims-trafficked persons. Efforts to reorient the work of authorities are more likely to produce the kind of changes needed than stronger penalties.

By initiative of the Program on Human Rights (PHR) and its Student Advisory Board, on Oct. 17, the Stanford Police will offer training for its law enforcement agents on a victims-based approach to human trafficking. The training will include the Human Trafficking Task Forces from the San Francisco and San Jose Police Departments. On Oct. 23, PHR is organizing a discussion panel on Proposition 35 bringing together prosecutors, police officers, service providers and activists to help move the debate toward the needs of victims. Disputes and debates about tangential issues should not be a distraction, nor should they divert the efforts of those who fight human trafficking. We risk undermining the progress and achievements of anti-trafficking legislation and policy while traffickers continue to pursue their criminal trade, very often with impunity.

Nadejda Marques is the manager of the Program on Human Rights at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) at Stanford University. She coordinates the program’s research and activities on human trafficking that focus on policy recommendations to address the multiple dimensions of human trafficking.

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Writing Under Seige

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The Program on Human Rights at CDDRL and the Center for South Asia  are honored to host Basharat Peer, Sugi Ganeshananthan, Tsering Wangmo and Pireeni Sundaralingam for the panel debat on Writing Under Seige. This event is part of the PHR Collaboratory project.

SIEPR Lucas Conference Center

Basharat Peer Open Society Fellow Speaker
Sugi Ganeshananthan Professor of Creative Writing, Michigan University Speaker
Tsering Wangmo Writer Speaker
Pireeni Sundaralingam Writer Speaker
Conferences

Caste and the Meaning of Freedom

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The Program on Human Rights at CDDRL and the Center for South Asia  are honored to host Anand Patwardhan, Gopal Guru and Aishwary Kumar for this special film panel discussion as part of the PHR Collaboratory project.

Building 50, Room 51A - Main Quad, Stanford University

Anand Patwardhan Filmmaker Speaker
Gopal Guru Professor of Social and Political Theory, Centre for Political Studies Speaker Jawaharlal Nehru University
Aishwary Kumar Assistant Professor of Modern South Asian History and Modern Intellectual History Speaker Stanford University
Conferences

Film Screening and Discussion Jai Bhim Comrade

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The Program on Human Rights at CDDRL and the Center for South Asia  are honored to host Filmmaker Anand Patwardhan for this special film screening and discussion as part of the Collaboratory project.

Anand Patwardhan's new film "Jai Bhim Comrade" took 14 years to complete. Beginning with an incident at Ramabai Colony in Mumbai where 10 Dalits were shot dead by the police in 1997, the film goes on to explore the music of protest of those who were treated as "untouchables" by a caste hierarchy that has ruled the Indian sub-continent for thousands of years.

Annenberg Auditorium

Anand Patwardhan Filmmaker Speaker
Conferences

Turkey and the Arab Spring: Between Ethics and Self-Interest

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Turkey redefined its geographical security environment over the last decade by deepening its engagement with neighboring regions, especially with the Middle East. The Arab spring, however, challenged not only the authoritarian regimes in the region but also Turkish foreign policy strategy. This strategy was based on cooperation with the existing regimes and did not prioritize the democracy promotion dimension of the issue. The upheavals in the Arab world, therefore, created a dilemma between ethics and self-interest in Turkish foreign policy. Amid the flux of geopolitical shifts in one of the world’s most unstable regions, Turkish foreign policy-making elites are attempting to reformulate their strategies to overcome this inherent dilemma. The central argument of the present paper is that Turkey could make a bigger and more constructive impact in the region by trying to take a more detached stand and through controlled activism. Thus, Turkey could take action through the formation of coalitions and in close alignments with the United States and Europe rather than basing its policies on a self-attributed unilateral pro-activism.

Ziya Öniş is Professor of International Relations and the Director of the Center for Research on Globalization and Democratic Governance (GLODEM) at Koç University in Istanbul, Turkey. He received his BSc. and MSc. in Economics from London School of Economics, and his Ph.D. in Development Economics from University of Manchester.  He also taught at Boğaziçi University (Istanbul), Işık University (Istanbul), and University of Manchester. He has written extensively on various aspects of Turkish political economy. His most recent research focuses on the political economy of globalization, crises and post-crises transformations, Turkey’s Europeanization and democratization experience and the analysis of new directions in Turkish foreign policy. Among his most recent publications are  “Beyond the Global Economic Crisis: Structural Continuities as Impediments to a Sustainable Recovery” (All Azimuth, 2012), “Power, Interests and Coalitions: The Political Economy of Mass Privatization in Turkey” (Third World Quarterly, 2011), “Europe and the Impasse of Center-Left Politics in Turkey: Lessons from the Greek Experience” (Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies, 2010), Turkey and the Global Economy: Neo-liberal Restructuring and Integration in the Post-Crisis Era (2009), and Turkish Politics in a Changing World: Global Dynamics and Domestic Transformations (2007)

The event is organized as part of the Annual Koç Lecture Series, a three-year project organized under the framework of the Mediterranean Studies Forum’s Turkish Studies Initiative and in collaboration with Stanford Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies, and the Sohaib & Sara Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies. It is also co-sponsored by the CDDRL Program on Arab Reform and Democracy.

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Richard and Rhoda Goldman Conference Room

Ziya Öniş Professor of International Relations and the Director of the Center for Research on Globalization and Democratic Governance (GLODEM) Speaker Koç University in Istanbul, Turkey
Panel Discussions

What Islam Whose Islam: Creating a Public International Voice of Muslim Women Demanding Equality and Justice in Islam

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Abstract:

Zainah Anwar will speak on the necessity and possibility of reform in the way Islam is understood and used as a source of law and public policy in Muslim contexts. From Sisters in Islam in Malaysia and its ground-breaking work at the national level to Musawah, the global movement for equality and justice, Muslim women activists today are at the forefront in challenging the use of Islam to justify continued discrimination against women and violations of fundamental liberties. They are producing new feminist knowledge, combining Islamic principles, human rights, constitutional guarantees of equality and non-discrimination, and women's lived realities to break the constructed binary between Islam and human rights, and the disconnect between law and reality. They are publicly challenging traditional religious authorities with alternative understandings of Islam in ways that take into consideration changing times and context. Anwar will share the experience of Sisters in Islam and the global movement it initiated, their work and challenges, and the resulting public contestations and  hope for change. 

About the Speaker: 

Zainah Anwar is currently a visiting Social Entrepreneur in Residence at Stanford for fall 2012 through CDDRL’s Program on Social Entrepreneurship. Anwar is a founding member of Sisters in Islam (SIS) and currently the director of Musawah based in Malaysia, the global movement for equality and justice in the Muslim family. She is at the forefront of the women’s movement pushing for an end to the use of Islam to justify discrimination against women. The pioneering work of SIS in understanding Islam from a rights perspective and creating an alternative public voice of Muslim women demanding equality and justice led it to initiate Musawah in 2009. This knowledge-building movement brings together activists and scholars to create new feminist knowledge in Islam to break the binary between Islam and human rights and the disconnect between law and reality.  

Anwar also writes a monthly newspaper column on politics, religion and women’s rights, called Sharing the Nation. She is a former member of the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia. Her book, Islamic Revivalism in Malaysia: Dakwah Among the Students, has become a standard reference in the study of Islam in Malaysia.

Encina Ground Floor Conference Room

Zainah Anwar Visiting Social Entrepreneur Speaker CDDRL
Seminars

Karen Del Biondo

Encina Hall
616 Serra Street
Stanford, CA 94305-6055

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Fulbright and BAEF postdoctoral fellow 2012-2013
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Karen Del Biondo is a 2012-2013 postdoctoral scholar at CDDRL. Her research is funded with a Fulbright-Schuman award and a postdoctoral grant from the Belgian-American Educational Foundation (BAEF). She holds an MA in Political Science (International Relations) from Ghent University and an MA in European Studies from the Université Libre de Bruxelles. In 2007-2008 she obtained a Bernheim fellowship for an internship in European affairs at the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Permanent Representation to the EU. 

Karen Del Biondo obtained her PhD at the Centre for EU Studies, Ghent University in September 2012 with a dissertation entitled ‘Norms, self-interest and effectiveness: Explaining double standards in EU reactions to violations of democratic principles in sub-Saharan Africa’. Her PhD research was funded by the Flemish Fund for Scientific Research (FWO). Apart from her PhD research, she has been involved in the research project ‘The Substance of EU Democracy Promotion’ (Ghent University/University of Mannheim/Centre of European Policy Studies) and has published on the securitisation of EU development policies. In January 2011 she conducted field research in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Her postdoctoral research will focus on the comparison between EU and US democracy assistance in sub-Saharan Africa.

Karen Del Biondo’s recent publications include: ‘Security and Development in EU External Relations: Converging, but in which direction?’ (with Stefan Oltsch and Jan Orbie), in S. Biscop & R. Whitman (eds.) Handbook of European Union Security, Routledge (2012); ‘Democracy Promotion Meets Development Cooperation: The EU as a Promoter of Democratic Governance in Sub-Saharan Africa’, European Foreign Affairs Review, Vol. 16, N°5, 2011, 659-672; and ‘EU Aid Conditionality in ACP Countries. Explaining Inconsistency in EU Sanctions Practice’, Journal of Contemporary European Research, Vol. 7, N°3, 2011, 380-395.

Using law to promote social change, three social entrepreneurs join CDDRL community this fall

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In September, CDDRL's Program on Social Entrepreneurship (PSE) welcomed its second class of Social Entrepreneurs in Residence at Stanford (SEERS) who hail from Malaysia, South Africa and the San Francisco Bay Area. Using the law as a vehicle for social change, this group is collaboratively working to advance the rights of women, minority groups and refugees around the world.

The three SEERS will spend the fall quarter in residence at Stanford connecting to the academic community through a course taught at the Stanford Law School - Law, Social Entrepreneurship and Social Change - by PSE Faculty Director Deborah L. Rhode.

An international figure recognized for her work to help change domestic laws in Malaysia, Zainah Anwar helped launch two ground-breaking civil society organizations working to promote women's rights in Islam. Anwar founded Sisters in Islam in Malaysia and its pioneering work led to the creation of Musawah, a global movement of equality and justice in the Muslim family. 

A social justice activist in South Africa, Mazibuko Jara works to support sustainable rural development for communities residing in the Eastern Cape province. Founder of the Ntinga Ntaba ka Ndoda organization, Jara protects the practice of customary law and the interests of rural African women. As a spokesperson for the Democratic Left Front, Jara also works to bring together anti-corporate social justice movements in South Africa challenging the government and powerful interest groups.   

A lawyer in the San Francisco Bay Area, Emily Arnold-Fernández works to defend refugee rights and transform the lives of refugee communities in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Founder of the organization Asylum Access, Fernández empowers refugees to build a new life in their new homes by providing legal aid, community legal empowerment, policy advocacy and strategic litigation.

The three SEERS will spend the quarter engaging the student population at Stanford, pursuing their own research agenda and taking some time to reflect on their work and next steps. CDDRL will be hosting a public event with the SEERS on Nov. 14 at 5 pm in the Bechtel conference room at Encina Hall to introduce them more formally to the Stanford community.

 

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