Human Rights Quarterly
Volume 37, Number 4, November 2015
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/human_rights_quarterly/toc/hrq.37.4.html

.
The Diffusion of Disability Rights in Europe
pp. 831-853
Lisa Vanhala
Abstract
This article examines the spread of disability rights across European countries. Existing theoretical explanations of rights diffusion are unable to account for the pattern of adoption of disability equality norms across Europe over the last twenty years. The article argues top-down explanations need to be complemented by agent-centered approaches to convincingly account for the case of disability rights in Europe. Engagement with social movement theory that takes domestic activists and the meanings they attribute to rights seriously offers a better understanding of how and why we might see the rise of rights in one case and their rejection in another.

.

The UN Special Rapporteur on Trafficking: A Turbulent Decade in Review
pp. 913-940
Anne T. Gallagher, Joy Ngozi Ezeilo
Abstract
In 2004, largely in response to external developments, the predecessor to the United Nations Human Rights Council appointed a Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons with an explicit mandate to address the human rights aspects of trafficking. This article critically assesses the first decade of that mandate—identifying important achievements but also acknowledging substantial challenges in securing effective responses to trafficking that both protect and advance human rights. In looking ahead it considers the broader lessons that this experience may hold for the emergent global movement against human exploitation—and the place of human rights in the dynamic but often chaotic and schismatic environment that has emerged around trafficking over the past decade.

.

Rights Monitoring and Assessment using Quantitative Indicators of Law and Policy: International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
pp. 1071-1100
Jody Heymann, Kristen McNeill, Amy Raub
Abstract
This article proposes an approach to assessing country action on economic and social rights based on transparent, comparable measures of law and policy. Using a new data set on rights, laws, and policies in 193 UN member states, this article applies a sample set of indicators to ICESCR rights to demonstrate the utility of this approach. For each indicator, we examine whether the 163 UN member states that are states parties to the ICESCR have enacted relevant laws and policies; we then compare their performance with that of countries that have not ratified the ICESCR and examine differences before and after ICESCR ratification within countries.