Weak institutions, rights claims and pathways to compliance: the transformative role of the Peruvian Human Rights Ombudsman
Abstract
This paper examines the contribution of the Peruvian human rights ombudsman toward upholding an important component of an inclusive democratic political regime – a stable and enforceable rights framework. The paper argues that the ombudsman may play a significant role in advancing social transformation through the articulation and facilitation of rights claims in an institutional terrain informed by the politically contested nature of formal rules. The analysis goes beyond formal legal channels of redress to consider innovative social accountability levers of influence, including nonjudicial remedies, policy and legislative initiatives, media advocacy, and conflict mediation. The paper suggests the ombudsman is well placed to advance rights claims through legal, institutional and social pathways, with particular focus on the question of compliance – understood as a matter of both enforcement and management.
Citation
CRISE Working Paper No. 78. Oxford, UK: Centre for Research on Inequality, Human Security and Ethnicity (CRISE). 35 pp.
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