National Human Rights Action Planning by Azadeh Chalabi (review)

As discussed so very well in this timely and original book by Azadeh Chalabi, the rapid development of human rights law and norms has been "spectacular" since the middle of the last century. The founding of the United Nations both brought about and was premised on a paradigm of human rights. This was a new framework deigned to advance a global governance that not only melded the fractures caused by the world wars, but advanced a cooperative multilateralism that worked toward a humanity rooted in the dignity and prosperity of all peoples. Human rights instrument followed human rights instrument in an effort to advance these ideas. Lackluster translation of these lofty ideals into practical realities, however, meant that the generalized set of rights founded by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, and even those that founded civil, political and socioeconomic rights in the 1960s, were slowly followed by instruments dedicated to addressing gaps in specific areas of rights. Even these, such as the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, while contributing to vast improvements in tackling discriminations specifically affecting women and children, continue to lack a robust implementation required to achieve the vision originally set out by the human rights ideals of the United Nations system.¹

The dissonance between the ideals of the instruments and their implementation, and indeed between what different states might consider to constitute full implementation on their part, is an ongoing concern. States—who are ultimately responsible for fulfilling the rights enshrined in these instruments—scholars, and the policy makers tasked with translating rights into real change, have advanced both practical ideas and the debate for implementation since the inception of the human rights field. Approaches taken to translate and implement global legal obligations into and through myriad domestic legal, political and sociocultural systems, have faced a range of challenges, many of which this book sets out to discuss very clearly. For example, the task facing the human rights committees overseeing the implementation of these instruments and the ways in which they tackle state responsibilities are discussed in the book, as are the challenges faced by states in fulfilling their obligations, whether political, economic or cultural.

While the human rights system and its attempts to advance compliance with human rights laws and norms provide important context for the book, it is state engagement with action planning that is the specific subject of the book, and for very good reason. The idea of state-level action planning as a response to global commitments has proliferated across the UN system, now populates myriad fields and sub-fields of human rights, from climate change to women, peace, and security (WPS). The author argues that the idea of action planning for human rights compliance originated in the early instruments of the 1960s, which she identifies as specifically enshrined in a provision of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR),² as well as in the requirements of positive measures across the human rights instruments. She further evidences how over time through the constructive dialogues, various human rights committees have requested states to develop action plans in response to gaps in implementation of their human rights obligations. On the basis of these legal and normative advancements, the author even argues that there is a legal obligation for states to adopt action plans. Despite these developments within the human rights system and the proliferation of both the idea of action planning and action plans themselves across the human rights field, this book is the first to specifically examine the evolution of action plans, filling a curious and critical gap in human rights scholarship.

In her examination of human rights action planning, Azadeh Chalabi takes as a premise that action plans are a tool critical to furthering implementation of human rights obligations, and that member states are required to adopt them as part of their ratification of global human rights laws. In doing...