Interview with Emilie M. Hafner-Burton: 'Avoiding Using Power Would Be Devastating for Human Rights'

Abstract

Many human rights activists and scholars fear state power – and justifiably so. Often with the powers of a Leviathan, States are responsible for massive human rights abuses at national level and also abroad. Yet, others, like Emilie M. Hafner-Burton, author of the 2013 Princeton University Press-published book Making Human Rights a Reality, argue that “States are at the center of the human rights problem and so they have an important role to play in the solutions.” In sum, human rights activists, scholars, and policy-makers ought to make the best use of state power, including promoting human rights abroad.

Hafner-Burton, in a thought-provoking interview with Conectas’ director, Lucia Nader, strongly defends what she calls a ‘steward’ role for States at international level. While being cautious in not defining stewardship as an “entitlement or privilege” of only certain Western countries, Hafner-Burton, herself critical of US foreign policy including Obama’s, assigns an important role to Southern countries as well as human rights organizations from the South in promoting human rights abroad. As she argues in this interview, “human rights promotion will gain more traction if more governments get into the business of responsibly promoting human rights in their region, launching more power for human rights from beyond North America or Europe.”

Her interest in issues of state power and international law is not new. As seen in this interview with Conectas, Hafner-Burton cares deeply about finding ways to narrow the gap between international human rights norms on paper and their reality on the ground. Two decades ago, Hafner-Burton moved to Geneva, Switzerland and started working for an international nongovernmental organization dedicated to promoting human rights and disarmament. From that moment on, she had the opportunity to take an inside look at how the United Nations functions, experiencing first hand the difficulties of human rights advocacy. Ever since, she has been working to craft more effective solutions to the persistence of human rights abuses globally.

Emilie Hafner-Burton’s academic experience reflects this concern. She is a professor at the UC San Diego’s School of International Relations and Pacific Studies and is the Director of the School’s new Laboratory on International Law and Regulation. Looking across a wide array of issues, including human rights and security, the Laboratory explores when (and why) international laws in fact operate. Additionally, Hafner-Burton’s academic background extends to other renowned universities, such as Princeton, Oxford, and Stanford.

In the following interview, Hafner-Burton reflects upon the legitimacy of international human rights system, the role of States and international human rights organizations in it, as well as presents a critical view of the US foreign policy in human rights. With a realistic yet encouraging tone, Hafner-Burton makes clear that “in an ideal world States would stay out of each other’s business. We don’t live in that world.” And, as much as the United States’ human rights record has been constantly criticized whenever the US promotes human rights abroad, Hafner-Burton warns that Southern countries, such as Brazil, India, and South Africa, need to mind their human rights record at home too if they want to promote human rights abroad responsibly.

Keywords: Interview, Emilie M. Hafner-Burton, human rights, state responsibility, foreign policy, USA, global south