Constructing Rights? Human Rights Education and the State

ABSTRACT. What role have states played in promoting human rights education? While nongovernmental organizations have been at the forefront of human rights education, scholars have neglected the increased activism of states, especially national human rights commis-sions. This article addresses this gap by sketching the relationship between states and human rights education, examining cross-regional trends and presenting a case study of South Africa’s Human Rights Commission. The article concludes by considering the critical gap between state promotion and implementation of human rights education, as well as the limits of state involvement in constructing a culture of human rights

Local institutions, actors, and natural resource governance in Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park and surrounds, South Africa

Publisher versionCrafting local institutions to allow more effective decision-making in the management of and access to natural resources in and beyond parks has long been considered key to collaborative governance. South Africa, in particular, has vigorously pursued collaborative governance as a desired approach to managing natural resources as evident in the new arrangements for previously restricted parks. However, though the discourse of collaborative governance has occupied conservation thinking and practice globally, few studies have looked at the interplay between local institutions, actors and collaborative governance involving indigenous hunter–gatherer communities in Southern Africa. In response, we assess the local actors and institutions that were put in place to facilitate collaborative governance of natural resources in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park and its surrounds in South Africa. Our findings show that though collaborative governance has a practical appeal, it is hampered by lack of participation in decision-making, information dissemination, transparency, trust and accountability, power relations, divergent interests and unequal access to natural resources. The findings also draw our attention to issues of heterogeneity, even within indigenous communities assumed to be homogenous by local conservation authorities as reflected in land settlement agreements in co-managed parks. We argue that collaborative governance arrangements need to reflect and be understood within the broader background of complex local realities