Oxford University Press Accountability in Global Governance: Pluralist Accountability in Global Governance

How can international organizations (IOs) like the United Nations (UN) and their implementing partners be held accountable if their actions and policies violate fundamental human rights? This book provides a new conceptual framework to study pluralist accountability, whereby third parties hold IOs and their implementing partners accountable for human rights violations. Based on a rich study of UN-mandated operations in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Kosovo, the EU Troika's austerity policy, and Global Public-Private Health Partnerships in India, this book analyzes how competition and human rights vulnerability shape the evolution of pluralist accountability in response to diverse human rights violations, such as human trafficking, the violation of the rights of detainees, economic rights, and the right to consent in clinical trials. While highlighting the importance of alternative accountability mechanisms for legitimacy of IOs, this book also argues that pluralist accountability should not be regarded as a panacea for IOs' legitimacy problems, as it is often less legalized and might cause multiple accountability disorder. Review How can international organizations (IOs) be made to respect human rights? IOs are the bedrock of global human rights, but sometimes even protectors violate. In this wonderful study, Hirschmann argues that external third parties such as courts, NGOs, regional organizations are often more effective in holding IOs to account than states or IOs themselves, a development she coins pluralist accountability. Case studies of peace operations from Afghanistan to Kosovo, the EU Troika's economic adjustment policies, and WHO-led vaccination and vaccine development reveal the conditions under which pluralist accountability can hold an IO's feet to the fire. Essential reading for anyone concerned about global governance. ― Liesbet Hooghe, W.R. Kenan Distinguished Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Robert Schuman Fellow, European University Institute When international organizations cause suffering who pays the costs? This book looks directly at this crucial question through legal, political, and normative lenses.Hirschmann deftly weaves a conceptual framework for IO accountability out of striking catalog of global governance failures. Everyone who hopes that international institutions will smooth a path to a more sustainable future needs to contend with her analysis of how to proceed when IOs make things worse instead of better. This is a crucial book for scholars, practitioners, and activists of global governance. ― Ian Hurd, Professor of Political Science, Northwestern University Anyone seeking accountability in global governance often confronts a paradox: those with the greatest leverage to hold international organizations to account may have the least interest in doing so. In this impressive new book, Gisela Hirschmann develops the concept of 'pluralist accountability', analysing the complex and sometimes messy way in which diverse actors try ― and sometimes succeed ― in holding international actors to their own human rights standards. ― Simon Chesterman, Dean, Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore, and Editor of The Oxford Handbook of United Nations Treaties About the Author Gisela Hirschmann is Assistant Professor of International Relations at the Institute of Political Science, Leiden University. She has published in numerous scholarly journals including Review of International Studies. Her research interests focus on international organisations, institutional change, human rights and peace operations, including, most recently, the effects of arts-based peacebuilding.