What is it about?

This symposium brings together a set of contributions that examine the relationship between democratic backsliding and human rights protection. Rather than treating backsliding as a uniform process or human rights as a single outcome, the articles explore how different dimensions of democratic erosion intersect with distinct rights, actors, and institutional settings. Together, the contributions analyze how shrinking democratic space reshapes human rights practices, monitoring, and contestation at domestic and international levels.

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Why is it important?

Democratic backsliding has become a defining feature of contemporary politics, yet its implications for human rights remain unevenly understood. This symposium addresses that gap by showing that democratic erosion does not affect all rights or accountability mechanisms in the same way. By foregrounding variation, backlash, and adaptation, the collection advances debates about the resilience and vulnerability of human rights under conditions of democratic decline and highlights challenges facing international institutions, civil society, and rights holders.

Perspectives

This short essay introduces the fruitage of what has been an immensely gratifying collaboration with three brilliant women scholar: Prof. Audrey Comstock- my co-editor for this symposium, Prof. Sarah Dreier and Prof. Anwar Mhanje. This symposium is motivated by a shared concern that research on democratic backsliding and human rights often proceeds in parallel rather than in dialogue. The contributions assembled here seek to bridge that divide by bringing human rights outcomes into analyses of democratic erosion and by situating rights politics within broader transformations of democratic governance. Collectively, the symposium invites a more integrated and nuanced conversation about how democracy and human rights evolve together, and sometimes apart, in the contemporary political landscape.

Professor Sara Beth Kahn-Nisser
Open University of Israel

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This page is a summary of: Introduction to Symposium: Human Rights and Democratic Backsliding, Journal of Human Rights, January 2025, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/14754835.2024.2446849.
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