Research

GovErning humaN rights through partnErShIpS: investigating the normative and operational interface of international law and multistakeholder governance (GENESIS)

01/01/2024 - 31/12/2028 - ERC Starting Grant 2023

Abstract: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals hail multistakeholder partnerships (MSPs) as key actors in achieving sustainable development. MSPs that bring together states, businesses, philanthropy and civil society are increasingly in the frontlines of providing public goods that are human rights such as food, health, education and water. In these domains, partnerships are spearheading the continued expansion of multistakeholder governance into international law, including human rights law. This expansion has been taking place without critical appraisal with respect to its effectiveness and consequences. GENESIS breaks new ground by exploring the normative and operational implications of this shift, both at the system-level and at the level of specific global partnering initiatives and individual multistakeholder partnerships. GENESIS investigates the interface of international law and multistakeholder governance in the realisation of human rights. It analyses how the paradigms of multilateralism and multistakeholderism diverge or converge as they simultaneously govern the domains of food, health, education and water through human rights law and multistakeholder partnerships, respectively. GENESIS has three main objectives that will generate high research and policy gains. First, GENESIS will uncover and understand how norms that govern human rights through multistakeholder partnerships are made in the post-2015 era in the governance of food (SDG 2), health (SDG 3), education (SDG 4) and water (SDG 6). Second, GENESIS will investigate how multistakeholder partnerships impact the way human rights are operationalised. Third, GENESIS will identify pathways to an effective uptake of human rights legal standards by multistakeholder partnerships. In doing so, GENESIS will derive insights on whether and how international law and multistakeholder governance can generate common ground when governing public goods that are human rights.

Public International Law, Human Rights and Sustainable Development - Principal Investigator

01/10/2021 - 30/09/2026  - BOF UAntwerpen

Abstract: International law has remained within a state-centric paradigm even with the radical shifts in the global arena over the last half century, including the consistent rise of hybrid actors that simultaneously embody a public and a private character or public and private attributes. These hybrid actors are emblematic of the sustainable development and international law nexus. This project seeks to address the influence of hybrid actors on international law.

Human rights accountability implications of mobilizing private actors for public objectives: a study of multi-stakeholder partnerships in education in the post-2015 development era - Principal Investigator / Grantee

01/10/2018 - 30/09/2021 - Resaearch Foundation Flanders (FWO) Postdoctoral Grant

Abstract: The research seeks to explore the human rights accountability implications of mobilizing private actors in the post-2015 development era by inspecting multi-stakeholder partnerships (MSPs) in education. Private actors are increasingly infused into global policy-making and implementation as a proposed panacea to governance gaps through hybrid public-private engagements. In this vein, being formalized and supported under the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals, MSPs have now become ubiquitous in the governance of sustainable development. While MSPs manage substantial financial resources and operate in ways that affect the lives of a great number of people, they lack a clear legal status, mandate and duties under international law, giving rise to accountability challenges. In domains that are both public goods and human rights such as education the involvement of private actors has previously paved the way for the commercialization and corporate capture of agendas, exacerbating accountability challenges. This research seeks to overcome the paucity of critical legal reflection seeking to evaluate and address the human rights accountability challenges posed by the policy-driven mobilization of private actors in MSPs in achieving public objectives such as the delivery of quality education. To this end, the project will employ empirical research methods using quantitative and qualitative analysis as well as key informant interviews.

Resilience through empowerment: overcoming socioeconomic and environmental risk factors for child marriage in Tanzania through a positive engagement with customs & traditions (Re-Empower) - Principal Investigator (Co-Investigators: Wouter Vandenhole, Seraphina Bakta and Sofie Vindevogel)

01/09/2022 - 31/08/2027 - VLIR-UOS

Abstract: Tanzania has one of the world's highest child marriage prevalence rates. Child marriage, which impacts girls and young women disproportionately, is a gendered issue that various frameworks such as international human rights law as well as the Sustainable Development Goals aim to tackle. While legal approaches have focus mostly on prohibition, successful prevention of child marriage requires addressing root causes and principal risk factors and bolstering and building on people's capacities and resources. Existing risk factors for child marriage that mainly include socioeconomic factors such as poverty, lack of educational opportunities for girls and alternatives to build livelihoods are expected to be compounded by environmental risks caused by climate change such as droughts or floods. The Re-Empower project builds on empirical findings of and the human rights-based approach espoused in a previous collaborative project on the health impacts of child marriages in Tanzania and aims to build resilience among girls and young women and their social environs by empowering them by leveraging the positive impact of customs and traditions.

A human rights based approach to health challenges associated with child marriages in Tanzania - Co-Investigator (PI: Wouter Vandenhole)

01/01/2020 - 31/08/2022 - VLIR-UOS

Abstract: This project aims at reducing child marriage rates and its associated health challenges in Tanzania by using a human rights based approach (HRBA) with a 3-tier capacity-building approach. The first tier is capacity-building for the staff of Mzumbe University (MU) Faculty of Law (FOL) to engage in empirical socio-legal research to better understand dynamics in relation to the health challenges associated with child marriages in Tanzania. The empirical findings gathered by FOL, MU will set the ground for the second tier of the project. The findings will be used to design a training programme based on a HRBA to train social workers in the selected Dodoma region and other regions through a mobile application. In the third tier, the mobile application will be developed and used to equip social workers to become translators of international human rights standards by applying a HRBA in their interventions to deal with health challenges associated with child marriages which will contribute to the reduction of child marriages and its associated health challenges.