Podcast appearances and mentions of kathryn sikkink

Kathryn Sikkink, the Ryan Family Professor of Human Rights Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, talks about the findings of a new database for transitional justice: https://transitionaljusticedata.org/ You may find some of them surprising!

In this bonus episode of the THE podcast, we continue the theme of universities' role in fostering civic engagement with an interview with renowned human rights scholar and award-winning author Kathryn Sikkink. Sikkink is the Ryan Family professor of human rights policy at Harvard Kennedy School, as well as faculty co-chair of the Harvard Votes Challenge, a non-partisan initiative that promotes student voter registration and turnout. Her books include The Hidden Face of Rights: Toward a Politics of Responsibilities (Yale University Press, 2020) and The Justice Cascade: How Human Rights Prosecutions Are Changing World Politics (W. W. Norton & Company, 2011), which won the Robert F. Kennedy Center Book Award. In this discussion, we talk about the origins of Sikkink's interest in human rights, what support students need to navigate the mechanisms of voting, and why showing up on election day is not just a right, it's a responsibility.

Harvard Kennedy School Professor Kathryn Sikkink and former longtime Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth have spent years both studying the transformational effects of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and have worked on the ground to make its vision of a more just, equal world a reality. On December 10th, the world celebrated not only the annual Human Rights Day, but also the 75th anniversary of the UDHR, which some historians and social scientists consider to be the greatest achievement in the history of humankind. It was the first time representatives of the world community declared that every human person on earth was entitled to the same rights as every other, without discrimination, and no matter the circumstances. It was an achievement that was both historically radical—legal slavery in the United States had ended just 80 years earlier—and yet one which made perfect, urgent sense in the post-World-War-II context of a humanity whose collective conscience was still reeling at the horrors and inhumanity of conflict. Appalled by the dehumanization and mass slaughter of human beings in the Holocaust, where 6 million Jews were exterminated by the Nazis along with Poles, Roma, homosexuals and other groups, by Japanese atrocities including 2.7 million people murdered in Northern China alone, by the first use of atomic weapons, and by other acts of mass civilian killing, the world's nations gathered to write a new definition of what it means to be human. The result was the UDHR, which was drafted by a committee led by former U.S. first lady Eleanor Roosevelt. It was radical not just because it was so universal, but also because it was remarkably comprehensive—going far beyond basics like life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to enumerating human rights to privacy, health, adequate housing, freedom from torture and slavery, the right to nationality, to take part in government, to work for equal pay, to have protection against unemployment, to unionize, to a decent standard of living, to rest and leisure, to enjoy culture, art, and science, and finally to a social and international order where the rights in the Declaration could be fully realized. Sikkink and Roth join PolicyCast host Ralph Ranalli to explain how the UDHR has forever changed the way we think about our fellow human beings, and to suggest policies that will keep pushing the global community toward a more just, fair, and compassionate world.Policy Recommendations:Kathryn Sikkink's Policy Recommendations:Make teaching about the global origins and transformative impact of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights a core component of studying civics and human rights.Renew the global campaign for democracy and authoritarianism, because history has shown that democracy and human rights complement and help promote one another.Renew the international community's diplomatic efforts to prevent and stop wars, particularly civil wars and intra-country armed conflicts, which are a major source of human rights violations.Ken Roth's Policy Recommendations:Use the celebrations of the UDHR's 75th anniversary to underscore the idea that the UDHR is not a collection of platitudes but a set of international norms that individual world governments must be held accountable to.Strengthen international protections for human rights nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), which play an important role in investigating, and identifying human rights abuses and holding responsible parties to account in the public sphere.Encourage world governments to adopt foreign policy positions that hold their allies accountable for human rights as well as their adversaries.Kathryn Sikkink is the Ryan Family Professor of Human Rights Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. Sikkink's work centers on international norms and institutions, transnational advocacy networks, the impact of human rights law and policies, transitional justice, and the laws of war. She has written numerous books, including “The Hidden Face of Rights: Toward a Politics of Responsibilies,” “Evidence for Hope: Making Human Rights Work in the 21st Century,” and “The Justice Cascade: How Human Rights Prosecutions are Changing World Politics,” which was awarded the Robert F. Kennedy Center Book Award and the Washington Office on Latin America/Duke University Human Rights Book Award. She holds an MA and a PhD from Columbia University and has been a Fulbright Scholar in Argentina and a Guggenheim fellow. She is a member of the American Philosophical Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Council on Foreign Relations.Kenneth Roth is the former executive director of Human Rights Watch, one of the world's leading international human rights organizations, which operates in more than 90 countries. Roth has been called  “the godfather of the human rights” for his dedication to the cause and for helping change the way rights violations were covered in the international media. He first learned about human rights abuses from his father, whose Jewish family ran a butchery near Frankfurt in Hitler's Germany. Prior to joining Human Rights Watch in 1987, Roth served as a federal prosecutor in New York and for the Iran-Contra investigation in Washington, DC. A graduate of Yale Law School and Brown University, Roth has conducted numerous human rights investigations and missions around the world. He has written extensively on a wide range of human rights abuses, devoting special attention to issues of international justice, counterterrorism, the foreign policies of the major powers, and the work of the United Nations.Ralph Ranalli of the HKS Office of Communications and Public Affairs is the host, producer, and editor of HKS PolicyCast. A former journalist, public television producer, and entrepreneur, he holds an AB in Political Science from UCLA and an MS in Journalism from Columbia University.The co-producer of PolicyCast is Susan Hughes. Design and graphics support is provided by Lydia Rosenberg, Delane Meadows, Laura King, and the OCPA Design Team. Social media promotion and support is provided by Natalie Montaner and the OCPA Digital Team. 

Kathryn Sikkink, the Ryan Family Professor of Human Rights Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, discusses the 50th anniversary of the Sept. 11 coup in Chile and why the coup still matters.

The ICC has dubbed Vladimir Putin personally responsible for the abductions of children from Ukraine. While the world focuses on Putin's prospects, Deep Dish dives into the underlying issue: accountability, justice, and protection of the most vulnerable victims of war. Experts Nathaniel Raymond and Kathryn Sikkink unpack the tragic reality of child abductions during times of conflict, how the indictments might affect these Ukrainian children, and whether this could truly deter child abductions in future war crimes.  Reading List: Russia's Systematic Program for the Re-Education and Adoption of Ukrainian Children, Humanitarian Research Lab, Yale School of Public Health, February 14, 2023 Evidence for Hope: Making Human Rights Work in the 21st Century, Kathryn Sikkink, Princeton University Press, March 5, 2019 The Justice Cascade: How Human Rights Prosecutions are Changing World Politics, Kathryn Sikkink, W. W. Norton & Company, September 26, 2011

In this episode of “Occupied Thoughts,” FMEP Non-resident Fellow Peter Beinart is joined by Ken Roth (formerly Human Rights Watch) and Harvard professor Kathryn Sikkink to discuss the recent controversy over Harvard's decision to cancel its offer of a fellowship to Ken Roth, based on accusations of anti-Israel bias by both Human Rights Watch and by Ken.

Host Jon Olson and Dr. Kathryn Sikkink from Harvard's Kennedy School discuss human rights, refugees and asylum seekers.

Host Jon Olson and Dr. Kathryn Sikkink from Harvard's Kennedy School discuss human rights, refugees and asylum seekers.

International outrage over Russia's war on Ukraine could be a watershed moment for the advance of international justice and accountability, say Harvard Kennedy School Professor Kathryn Sikkink and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Assistant Professor Patrick Vinck. With the eyes of the world focused on atrocities in places like Bucha and Mariupol, Sikkink and Vinck say it is time for countries to invest both their geopolitical and financial capital in the International Criminal Court or the ICC. Established 20 years ago in The Hague, Netherlands, the ICC was the world's first permanent international criminal court tasked with pursuing prosecutions for war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and illegal aggression—charges the ICC is now pursuing against Russia.  Sikkink and Vinck say while there have been legitimate past criticisms of the ICC for being ineffective and for focusing too much on certain regions such as Africa, critics are missing the bigger picture—the remarkable story of how much traction the push for international humanitarian justice has gained since the end of World War II. And even if Russian President Vladimir Putin never sees the inside of a courtroom, they say, research shows that the act of identifying war crimes and pursuing prosecutions itself can lower the rate at which those crimes occur. Sikkink has been researching the nexus of human rights and international justice since she first witnessed the Trial of the Juntas in Argentina as a PhD student in the mid-1980s. Vinck is the Research Director of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative and a pioneer in the field of data collection from conflict and crisis zones. 

Kathryn Sikkink, the Ryan Family Professor of Human Rights Policy at Harvard Kennedy School, discusses how Latin America has been a protagonist in the development of human rights law, not just a victim of global politics. And as war wages in the Ukraine, she gives us her thoughts on how international law has virtually put an end to what she calls “aggressive interstate wars” in Latin America.

In her latest book, The Hidden Face of Rights: Toward a Politics of Responsibilities (Yale University Press), Kathryn Sikkink puts forward a framework of rights and responsibilities; moving beyond the language of rights that has come to dominate scholarship and activism, she makes the case that human rights cannot be truly implemented unless we also recognise that there are corresponding obligations to implement those rights. Recognising that talk of responsibility, obligation and duty are often unpopular - because people do not like to be told what they ‘should' do - Sikkink advocates that we rethink how we conceive of responsibility – it should not be limited to backward-looking blame attribution, but should be expanded to become one of forward-looking responsibility; instead of just asking who is to blame, responsibility should be expanded to ‘what together can we do?' In making this argument, she focuses on five key areas – climate change, voting, digital privacy, freedom of speech, and sexual assault - to demonstrate how responsibility is engaged. She provides many examples of grass-roots initiatives where people can choose to adopt the rights and responsibilities model for collective action. There are fewer more pertinent concerns for our times. Sikkink's book will make you rethink your own responsibilities, and as a citizen of the world, ‘what together we can do'. Kathryn Sikkink is the Ryan Family Professor of Human Rights Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Jane Richards is a doctoral candidate in Human Rights Law at the University of Hong Kong. Her research interests include disability, equality, criminal law and civil disobedience. You can find her on twitter @JaneRichardsHK where she avidly follows the Hong Kong's protests and its politics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In her latest book, The Hidden Face of Rights: Toward a Politics of Responsibilities (Yale University Press), Kathryn Sikkink puts forward a framework of rights and responsibilities; moving beyond the language of rights that has come to dominate scholarship and activism, she makes the case that human rights cannot be truly implemented unless we also recognise that there are corresponding obligations to implement those rights. Recognising that talk of responsibility, obligation and duty are often unpopular - because people do not like to be told what they ‘should' do - Sikkink advocates that we rethink how we conceive of responsibility – it should not be limited to backward-looking blame attribution, but should be expanded to become one of forward-looking responsibility; instead of just asking who is to blame, responsibility should be expanded to ‘what together can we do?' In making this argument, she focuses on five key areas – climate change, voting, digital privacy, freedom of speech, and sexual assault - to demonstrate how responsibility is engaged. She provides many examples of grass-roots initiatives where people can choose to adopt the rights and responsibilities model for collective action. There are fewer more pertinent concerns for our times. Sikkink's book will make you rethink your own responsibilities, and as a citizen of the world, ‘what together we can do'. Kathryn Sikkink is the Ryan Family Professor of Human Rights Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Jane Richards is a doctoral candidate in Human Rights Law at the University of Hong Kong. Her research interests include disability, equality, criminal law and civil disobedience. You can find her on twitter @JaneRichardsHK where she avidly follows the Hong Kong's protests and its politics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/public-policy

In her latest book, The Hidden Face of Rights: Toward a Politics of Responsibilities (Yale University Press), Kathryn Sikkink puts forward a framework of rights and responsibilities; moving beyond the language of rights that has come to dominate scholarship and activism, she makes the case that human rights cannot be truly implemented unless we also recognise that there are corresponding obligations to implement those rights. Recognising that talk of responsibility, obligation and duty are often unpopular - because people do not like to be told what they ‘should’ do - Sikkink advocates that we rethink how we conceive of responsibility – it should not be limited to backward-looking blame attribution, but should be expanded to become one of forward-looking responsibility; instead of just asking who is to blame, responsibility should be expanded to ‘what together can we do?’ In making this argument, she focuses on five key areas – climate change, voting, digital privacy, freedom of speech, and sexual assault - to demonstrate how responsibility is engaged. She provides many examples of grass-roots initiatives where people can choose to adopt the rights and responsibilities model for collective action. There are fewer more pertinent concerns for our times. Sikkink’s book will make you rethink your own responsibilities, and as a citizen of the world, ‘what together we can do’. Kathryn Sikkink is the Ryan Family Professor of Human Rights Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Jane Richards is a doctoral candidate in Human Rights Law at the University of Hong Kong. Her research interests include disability, equality, criminal law and civil disobedience. You can find her on twitter @JaneRichardsHK where she avidly follows the Hong Kong’s protests and its politics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In her latest book, The Hidden Face of Rights: Toward a Politics of Responsibilities (Yale University Press), Kathryn Sikkink puts forward a framework of rights and responsibilities; moving beyond the language of rights that has come to dominate scholarship and activism, she makes the case that human rights cannot be truly implemented unless we also recognise that there are corresponding obligations to implement those rights. Recognising that talk of responsibility, obligation and duty are often unpopular - because people do not like to be told what they ‘should’ do - Sikkink advocates that we rethink how we conceive of responsibility – it should not be limited to backward-looking blame attribution, but should be expanded to become one of forward-looking responsibility; instead of just asking who is to blame, responsibility should be expanded to ‘what together can we do?’ In making this argument, she focuses on five key areas – climate change, voting, digital privacy, freedom of speech, and sexual assault - to demonstrate how responsibility is engaged. She provides many examples of grass-roots initiatives where people can choose to adopt the rights and responsibilities model for collective action. There are fewer more pertinent concerns for our times. Sikkink’s book will make you rethink your own responsibilities, and as a citizen of the world, ‘what together we can do’. Kathryn Sikkink is the Ryan Family Professor of Human Rights Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Jane Richards is a doctoral candidate in Human Rights Law at the University of Hong Kong. Her research interests include disability, equality, criminal law and civil disobedience. You can find her on twitter @JaneRichardsHK where she avidly follows the Hong Kong’s protests and its politics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In her latest book, The Hidden Face of Rights: Toward a Politics of Responsibilities (Yale University Press), Kathryn Sikkink puts forward a framework of rights and responsibilities; moving beyond the language of rights that has come to dominate scholarship and activism, she makes the case that human rights cannot be truly implemented unless we also recognise that there are corresponding obligations to implement those rights. Recognising that talk of responsibility, obligation and duty are often unpopular - because people do not like to be told what they ‘should’ do - Sikkink advocates that we rethink how we conceive of responsibility – it should not be limited to backward-looking blame attribution, but should be expanded to become one of forward-looking responsibility; instead of just asking who is to blame, responsibility should be expanded to ‘what together can we do?’ In making this argument, she focuses on five key areas – climate change, voting, digital privacy, freedom of speech, and sexual assault - to demonstrate how responsibility is engaged. She provides many examples of grass-roots initiatives where people can choose to adopt the rights and responsibilities model for collective action. There are fewer more pertinent concerns for our times. Sikkink’s book will make you rethink your own responsibilities, and as a citizen of the world, ‘what together we can do’. Kathryn Sikkink is the Ryan Family Professor of Human Rights Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Jane Richards is a doctoral candidate in Human Rights Law at the University of Hong Kong. Her research interests include disability, equality, criminal law and civil disobedience. You can find her on twitter @JaneRichardsHK where she avidly follows the Hong Kong’s protests and its politics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Professor Kathryn Sikkink (at the Harvard Kennedy School) argues that human rights laws, institutions, and movements are both legitimate and effective. We discuss whether human rights are western imperialism; whether rights movements help improve conditions for the masses; and what we still don't know about norm dynamics, but desperately need to find out! You can buy the book here: https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691170626/evidence-for-hope Professor Sikkink is the Ryan Family Professor of Human Rights Policy, at the Harvard Kennedy School: https://carrcenter.hks.harvard.edu/people/kathryn-sikkink

In this podcast, Dr. Leslie Vinjamuri (Director of the Centre on Conflict, Rights and Justice at SOAS) talks to Prof. Kathryn Sikkink (Harvard Kennedy School of Government) about her book "The Evidence of Hope: Making Human Rights Work in the 21st Century", the forgotten Latin American origins of human rights and the erasure of agency of the global south, and the unknown drafters of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Host Aroop Mukharji interviews Harvard professor and political scientist Dr. Kathryn Sikkink about human rights, her new book "Evidence for Hope: Making Human Rights Work in the 21st Century" (Princeton University Press 2017), and shortbread.

In Episode 4 of Series 2, Dixon Osburn from the Center for Justice and Accountability in San Fancisco talks about how human rights organisations pursue justice, and the sort of academic evidence used in efforts to prosecute the perpetrators of human rights abuses and crimes. 0.00-7.10 Explanation of the center's mission and how the rule of law can be brought to bear in and on behalf of countries least able to hold perpetrators of the worst human rights abuses and crimes to account Dixon gives an example of a successful civil action brought in the US against former Pinochet officer, Pedro Pablo Barrientos who was accused of the torture and murder of a famous folk singer and had been living for 30 years in Florida Dixon explains how the legalities of the case worked and its wider significance and a discussion follows about the sort of justice and accountability the centre is trying to achieve on behalf of the victim's family and the knock on impacts of the successful civil action in respect of a possible extradition to Chile. 7.10-11.00 Discussion about ways in which a ‘creative' approach can be taken to bringing human rights abusers to book. Todd mentions work by a colleague on the Ciudad Juárez murders in Mexico and how they showed that the US Alien Tort Act could be used to prosecute Dixon explains how in the case he cited earlier, the Torture Victim Protection Act was used to prosecute Barrientos and more recent efforts to prosecute the Syrian regime for war crimes under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Actincluding how the case has been put together with the help and support of France and how and where the case is being heard 11.00-17.30 Discussion around the importance of academic evidence and expertise in pursuing cases and explanation of how it is used and applied by the center. Dixon mentions a Guatemala genocide case where forensic anthropologists were used to examine the remains of murder victims Todd references the work of Patrick Ball and an earlier podcast episode where Patrick outlines some statistical work around the same events. Dixon agrees this type of evidence is critical to the work of the center Dixon mentions another recent case representing 45 Cambodian Americans for atrocities carried out by the Khmer Rouge. The work has involved a partnership with Stanford University looking at the impact off mass trauma on mental health Can academics do more/better to provide evidence that can help in the pursuit of justice? Dixon talks about the links between democracy and human rights and ongoing conversations with academics like Latin American expert, Kathryn Sikkink at Harvard University. Todd mentions Kathryn's book, The Justice Cascade: how human rights prosecutions are changing world politics. 17.30-end Todd references Stephen Hopgood's book, The End Times of Human Rightscriticising the Human Rights movement Dixon talks about what he believes has been achieved and about the ability of the Human Rights movement to make positive incremental change over time

Kathryn Sikkink and César Rodríguez-Garavito examine the new global trend of holding political leaders criminally accountable for past human rights violations through domestic and international prosecutions. Speakers: James Goldston, César Rodríguez-Garavito, Kathryn Sikkink. (Recorded: Nov 13, 2013)

Kathryn Sikkink, recipient of the 2011 Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA)-Duke University Human Rights Book Award, reads from and discusses her award-winning book, The Justice Cascade: How Human Rights Prosecutions are Changing World Politics. Sikkink is a Regents Professor and the McKnight Presidential Chair in Political Science at the University of Minnesota. She has a Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University.

A talk by Prof. Kathryn Sikkink from the Department of Political Science at the University of Minnesota, about her new book, "The Justice Cascade: How Human Rights Prosecutions Are Changing World Politics." This lecture was co-sponsored by the UCLA Intern

A talk by Prof. Kathryn Sikkink from the Department of Political Science at the University of Minnesota, about her new book, "The Justice Cascade: How Human Rights Prosecutions Are Changing World Politics." This lecture was co-sponsored by the UCLA Intern

Author and political science professor Kathryn Sikkink argues that in the last three decades, leaders in Latin America, Europe and Africa have been held accountable for their human rights violations, a shift that is having profound consequences on global politics. Sikkink is presented by the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice at the University of San Diego. Series: "Peace exChange -- Kroc School of Peace Studies, University of San Diego" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 23247]

Author and political science professor Kathryn Sikkink argues that in the last three decades, leaders in Latin America, Europe and Africa have been held accountable for their human rights violations, a shift that is having profound consequences on global politics. Sikkink is presented by the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice at the University of San Diego. Series: "Peace exChange -- Kroc School of Peace Studies, University of San Diego" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 23247]