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Open research questions in Human Rights and Development

48 unresolved questions extracted from the limitations and future-work sections of 3,963 Human Rights and Development papers in our library. Each links back to the study that raised it.

What the literature leaves open

  • The significance and the necessity of the topics presented in this issue are straightforward: it is important to address COVID-19 in its manifold dimensions, that is, the responses to it, its direct consequences, and its secondary ramifications that are still understudied in academic literature.

    Effects of COVID-19 on international organizations, humanitarian action, and human rights · 2025 · DOI

  • The current global human rights order, eminently propagated in international legal instruments and statements, is to a great extent state-centric in character, bestowing obligations on states, whilst largely ignoring the conduct of non-state actors in the form of transnational corporations (TNCs) and trade governance institutions whose record of human rights adherence is scarcely convincing.

    Reconstructing the global human rights order in pursuit of a bindingbusiness human rights treaty in the era of decolonisation · 2022 · DOI

  • While previous studies have assessed the linkages between the implementation of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) lockdown and human rights issues in non-African contexts, how the state containment of COVID-19 pandemic affected human rights in African context has been understudied, particularly in Nigeria.

    From Protection to Repression: State Containment of COVID-19 Pandemic and Human Rights Violations in Nigeria · 2022 · DOI

  • Without their contribution a United Nations (UN) rights concept risked being limited to a western trajectory of the ‘Rights of Man’ that represents a monistic universalism.

    Revisiting the past: human rights education and epistemic justice · 2021 · DOI

  • This article describes the Global South’s norm advocacy at the Council from 2006 through 2017 using thematic resolutions, an understudied but preferred tool of the Global South at the Council.

    The Global South and Norm Advocacy at the United Nations Human Rights Council · 2020 · DOI

  • This contribution fills the gap in the literature by identifying and critiquing the way in which the right to truth in times of transition is both expressly and implicitly vindicated in the decisions of the Human Rights Committee, and the regional jurisprudence of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and European Court of Human Rights (the conclusion also addresses the less voluminous African regional jurisprudence).

    THE ELUSIVE RIGHT TO TRUTH IN TRANSITIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS JURISPRUDENCE · 2017 · DOI

  • In view of the scarce literature available on its fields of study, three major types have been identified: (1) pedagogical discussions on human rights; (2) research on human rights didactics, and (3) curriculum proposals on human rights, which are presented from a perspective of international studies.

    Temas y tendencias internacionales contemporáneas en investigación sobre pedagogía de los derechos humanos · 2016 · DOI

  • Does the attention of human rights organizations limit exports from rights-abusing states? This article examines how naming and shaming by human rights organizations (HROs) conditions the influence of human rights abuse on exports, and argues that human rights abuse alone is insufficient to damage a state’s exports.

    Human Rights, NGO Shaming and the Exports of Abusive States · 2016 · DOI

  • Is this lack of agreement between the global human rights movement and local leaders due to the fact that human rights are perceived differently in the South Pacific region? This article suggests some possible points of difference between the South Pacific region and the dominant vision of human rights as laid out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and related treaties.

    Human Rights and the South Pacific: A New Voice in the Global Dialogue · 2011 · DOI

  • Consequently, I conclude that serious address of the exclusionary character of modern international human rights law is insufficiently critical until it considers how it is that debate on the subject is normally confined within territorialized notions of human being and until it recognizes movement as a universal human norm.

    The Displacement of the Rights of Displaced Persons: An Irreconciliation of Human Rights between Place and Movement · 2008 · DOI

  • 812 social research Domestic civil rights activists in the United States attempted creatively to use these new international agreements in their fight against segre­ gation, with very mixed results.

    Ambiguity and America: South Africa and US Foreign Policy · 2005 · DOI

  • It argues that (1) we can make robust empirical claims about the relationship between certain trade and investment indicators and government repression, but shows that (2) cumulative knowledge across studies nevertheless remains limited by the sensitivity of many indicators to conditioning sets of information.

    Right or Robust? The Sensitive Nature of Repression to Globalization · 2005 · DOI

  • The revised (2004) edition goes some way to clarifying this in the way the standards are framed, yet the link between the standards and the charter remains unclear.

    Locating Responsibility: The Sphere Humanitarian Charter and Its Rationale · 2004 · DOI

  • The political history of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is not well known and obscurity has fostered a number of assumptions that require inspection.

    Reclaiming and rebuilding the history of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights · 2002 · DOI

  • Statistical problems in the measurement and analysis of human rights violations include: lack of agreement on the definition, great difficulties in collecting basic data, lack of knowledge of the subject among statisticians, lack of knowledge of statistics among other human rights practitioners, and the need for appropriate methodology.

    Violations of Human Rights—How Many? · 1990 · DOI

  • The ILO is little known in the United States, with no strong lobbying behind it for the ironic reason that American labor standards are already more advanced than those which the ILO seeks to promote for the world as a whole.

    Human Rights and Wrongs: The United States and the I.L.O.--A Modern Morality Play · 1978

  • Thus, for example, at the two conferences on the law of the sea, no agreement could be reached about the breadth of the territorial waters, not because of different cultural traditions of Asian-African interests of the maritime countries, but due to the conflicting Powers and the weak and underdeveloped States, not only of Asia and Africa, but of Latin America and Europe as well.

    Attitude of the Asian-African States Toward Certain Problems of International Law · 1966 · DOI

  • The conditions necessary for &dquo; enforcement measures &dquo; under Article 42 of the Charter may not have existed in the Congo situation because there was no finding of &dquo; aggression &dquo; and no agreements had been made by the Security Council under Article 43, but the Congo action can be construed as &dquo; provisional measures &dquo; under Article 40 to &dquo; prevent aggravation &dquo; of a situation threatening international peace.

    Legal Aspects of the Congo Situation · 1962 · DOI

  • These studies collectively affirm that legislative and policy interventions, while necessary, are insufficient without parallel investments in judicial capacity and oversight mechanisms.

    Systematic Review of Criminal Justice Reforms and Pre-Trial Detention Reduction in Uganda: An Analysis of the 2021–2026 Strategic Agenda · 2026 · DOI

  • Few studies have explored how human rights non-governmental organisations and Canadian governments navigate the contradictory character of Canadian diplomacy in extractive countries.

    Mapping Canadian security aid with transnational human rights NGOs in Colombia (2003–2023) · 2025 · DOI

  • However, the effectiveness of divergent models of social protection for preventing child labour is undertheorized by academic scholars, and the specific links between child labour and social protection policy generally are underexplored.

    Exploring the Role of Social Protection Interventions in Preventing Child Labour: Reinforcing the Case for a Human Rights-Based Model of Intervention · 2023 · DOI

  • Currently, surveillance-related chilling effects are not well understood, meaning that insufficient weight is given to their potentially society-wide impacts.

    The Chilling Effects of Surveillance and Human Rights: Insights from Qualitative Research in Uganda and Zimbabwe · 2023 · DOI

  • The models of constitutional incorporation show mixed results, with positive effects from human rights and INGOs but negative effects from science and intergovernmental agreements.

    Animals in world society: Constitutional and legislative incorporation, 1972–2020 · 2022 · DOI

  • This has entailed an emphasis on broadly communitarian responsibilities and obligations (including but not limited to the family and kin) alongside individual claims.

    The vernacularisation of global rights discourses and social protection in regional African arena · 2020 · DOI

  • This case demonstrates that, particularly in weak states where capacities are lacking, multi-level activities are relevant for transporting global norms to the societal local rights-holders.

    Children’s Rights Implementation as a Multi-Level Governance Process · 2017 · DOI

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48 open questions have been extracted from the limitations and future-work passages of 3,963 Human Rights and Development papers in our library. Each one below links back to the study that raised it, so you can read the original claim in context.

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