CDDRL is now accepting applications to our interschool Senior Honors program from eligible juniors focusing on democracy, economic development, and rule of law subjects in any university department. Qualified applicants will demonstrate sufficient depth and breadth of democracy, economic and social development, rule of law, and human rights or justice course work. They should hold a grade point average (GPA) of at least 3.5 at the time they apply and must maintain this GPA throughout the program. Admitted students must be able to attend the CDDRL Honors College in Washington, DC tentatively scheduled for September 11-17. Applications are due in the CDDRL office by February 25 at 5:00 pm and students will be notified of admission to the program by March 11. For additional eligibility and program requirements, please reference the link below.

On January 18, the Honorable Bob Rae, Liberal Member of Parliament for Toronto Centre and the foreign affairs critic for the Liberal Party of Canada was the featured speaker at a special CDDRL seminar. Rae addressed the Stanford community on the topic of his latest book Exporting Democracy, published in November 2010 by McClelland & Stewart. CDDRL Deputy Director, Kathryn Stoner, welcomed Rae to Stanford and Ben Rowswell, Visiting Scholar and Canadian "diplomat in residence," introduced the distinguished Rae stressing the timeliness of this topic.

This occasion marked the debut of Rae's book to a US audience and drew a sizable crowd interested in learning more about the MP's views on the role of Western powers in statebuilding and democracy promotion efforts abroad. Based on his personal experience engaging in diplomatic missions in Iraq, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, and across the Middle East, Rae was confronted with the limits of power and democratic ideals in foreign lands.

 His discussion focused on the theoretical and practical analysis of the role of democracy in statebuilding that is the foundation of his argument in Exporting Democracy. Drawing  on the writing of 18th century philosophers, Thomas Paine and Edmund Burke, Rae examined the tensions between natural law and justice versus customs and tradition that continue to dominate the debate in modern day statecraft.

 Rae's experience observing democracy promotion abroad allowed him to recognize the importance of upholding democratic values, while also respecting the idea that democracy cannot be viewed as the "gold standard" for all. "From a Western perspective the debate suffers from the notion that the idea of democracy has emerged as perfectly natural and an automatic assumption of our daily lives. In reality it has generally been accompanied by periods of great conflict and can take hundreds of years to bear fruit as evidenced by the American and Canadian experience."

Rae emphasized that the best way Western countries can promote democracy is by helping other countries develop their own solutions to their own problems. 

Rae's sensitivity to the consequences of Western interventions, his belief in the principles of human rights, and his testimony to the importance of humility and pragmatism in our efforts of statebuilding abroad, offered the Stanford community a new perspective on the effectiveness of the global democracy movement. 

On January 18, Professor Karen Alter of Northwestern University presented her research on international legal institutions and their role in the global struggle for human rights at the third installment of the Sanela Diana Jenkins Speaker Series. Alter, a professor of Political Science and Law, focused her lecture on the evolution of the transnational and human rights judicial orders.

To address the first subject, Alter offered a historical analysis of international courts since the establishment of the paradigmatic European Court of Justice in 1952. Alter argued that progressive lawyers and judges in Western Europe created a European legal revolution that then spread internationally and spurred the proliferation of international legal courts. She also suggested that contemporary international courts have benefitted from the "roadmap" provided by both the ECJ and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) while adjusting this European model to develop their own, more locally nuanced jurisprudence.

Alter also highlighted the importance of international courts focused on human rights issues. While she admitted that certain courts, like the African Court of Human and Peoples Rights (ACHPR), have failed to satisfactorily address issues of human rights in their jurisdictions, she maintained that these courts can still serve as a powerful check for governments that violate the human rights of their people and the domestic judicial systems that legitimize these abuses. She argued that these courts can act as "tipping point political actors" who give hope to human rights activists and legal scholars. She concluded on an optimistic note, saying "[These] activists can change the world.

On January 11, Kathryn Sikkink was the featured speaker at the Sanela Diana Jenkins International Human Rights Speaker Series hosted by the Program on Human Rights at the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law.

Next week, the Sanela Diana Jenkins Human Rights Speaker Series on Human Trafficking will welcome Karen Alter, a Professor in the Political Science Department and Law School of Northwestern University on Tuesday, January 18.  The Series is held in the Landau Economics Building, Room 140, from 5:30-6:45 PM and is open to the public.

Professor Kathryn Sikkink introduced her forthcoming book The Justice Cascade: How Human Rights Prosecutions are Changing World Politics, during the second session of the Sanela Diana Jenkins International Human Rights Speaker Series. Sikkink, a Professor of Political Science and an affiliate of the Law School at the University of Minnesota, presented what she called a “dramatic and puzzling change” in the global struggle for human rights – the striking and sudden emergence of individual criminal accountability for state officials who violate these rights.  She observed that the recent and dramatic cascade of legal proceedings against individual human rights violators marked a growing global consciousness around human rights. 

Professor Sikkink then focused on the challenge of establishing what effect, if any, the explosion in prosecutions has had. Pointing to data which suggested that states with human rights trial experiences had a lower level of repression, Sikkink theorized that prosecutions may help to establish and diffuse societal human rights norms that influence behavior both within a country and a region.  She proposed that these legal efforts are part of a broader “emerging decentralized, interactive system of global accountability” that refuses to remain idle in the face of human rights violations.