Prof. Susan Randolph (IDEAS) has been awarded the 2009-2010 Human Rights Fellowship at the UConn Human Rights Institute. The Human Rights Institute Fellowship is competitively awarded to one faculty member each year. Application for the fellowship is open to all tenure track faculty in all disciplines at Storrs and regional University of Connecticut campuses. The fellowship was announced in 2006 and provides one semester course release time for research projects on human rights. Professor Randolph is the 4th winner of the fellowship.
In response to an increasing demand for rigorous monitoring of States’ accountability in meeting their human rights obligations, a growing literature has emerged on measuring human rights fulfillment. However, the monitoring and promotion of human rights have emphasized political and civil rights; comparatively little attention has been focused on economic and social rights. Data are increasing used in human rights assessment and advocacy, but, especially with regard to economic social rights, ad hoc approaches dominate. Along with her collaborators, Sakiko Fukuda-Parr and Terra Lawson-Remer, Prof. Randolph has developed two alternative rigorous methodologies for monitoring State accountability in meeting economic and social rights obligations. The Human Rights fellowship will be used to write a book that fully documents the index and compares the alternative methodologies, investigates ways of integrating the principle of non-discrimination, and explores the policy implications of the index. The project ultimately seeks (a) a broad understanding of the sorts of policies and private initiatives that effectively foster the fulfillment of economic and social rights, (b) an understanding of the synergy between political, civil and economic and social rights, and (c) an understanding of the trade-offs and synergies between economic policies fostering income growth and economic efficiency versus those fostering economic and social rights provisions. To facilitate the realization of these broader goals, the fellowship will be used to apply for external grants to establish an Economic and Social Rights Accountability Program.