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投稿者 : ld-sylff

Particularistic Approaches to the Legal Regulation of Civil Society Organizations in Authoritarian Systems

April 22, 2025
By 32405

Izabella Deák (Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 2025) explores how authoritarian regimes exploit concepts like sovereignty and identity to restrict the activities of civil society organizations, undermining democratic processes and limiting public participation in decision-making.

* * *

In Hungary, a new law aimed at restricting the activities of civil society organizations (CSOs) that receive foreign funding came into effect in 2023. Called the Law on the Protection of National Sovereignty, it establishes the Sovereignty Protection Office, which holds extensive investigative powers. The Office’s main task is to uncover and investigate activities carried out on behalf of other states, foreign bodies, organizations, or natural persons that could potentially violate or endanger Hungary’s sovereignty.

The Office pays special attention to activities aimed at influencing democratic debate and the decision-making processes of persons exercising public authority. It also identifies and investigates organizations that use foreign funding for activities that may influence election outcomes or voter will.

The Office can access data of the investigated organization or individuals, including sensitive personal data, allowing for unlimited data collection. It is important to note that the law does not provide for legal remedies against such procedures, which raises serious concerns from a rule of law perspective. If the Office’s investigation reveals irregularities that require further action (such as misdemeanor, criminal, or administrative procedures), it notifies the competent authorities.

Undermining Democratic Public Life

The law lacks precise definitions of key concepts like sovereignty and advocacy activities, leaving room for arbitrary interpretation and application. This allows the Office to potentially investigate anyone suspected of serving foreign interests or endangering national sovereignty.

A particularly concerning aspect of the legislation is that the Office can investigate activities aimed at influencing democratic debate and public decision-making. This provision could potentially suppress dissenting opinions and discourage citizens from actively participating in public affairs. Freedom of expression and the right to participate in decision-making are closely linked to the freedoms of association and assembly, which form the basis of CSO operations. Restricting these rights also jeopardizes the right of CSOs to raise their voices and represent the communities they serve. Thus, the law is capable of undermining democratic public life and social publicity by stigmatizing and intimidating citizens and CSOs active in public affairs.

The Office is producing reports on an increasing number of CSOs and adding more to its lists with the intention of stigmatizing them.

The representatives of the organizations forming the Civilization coalition, an alliance established in Hungary in 2017 to enable CSOs to jointly stand up against the government’s oppressive efforts.

The outlined restriction on civil society organizations is not an isolated case. The number of laws restricting the establishment, operation, and activities of CSOs that perform social control functions is increasing year by year. The rise in the number of restrictive laws is closely linked to the expansion of authoritarian systems. The reason for this lies in the nature of the social control function. These organizations draw attention to the very irregularities that characterize an authoritarian government: anomalies in the system of checks and balances, state corruption, personal conflicts of interest, and, not least, human rights violations.

CSOs performing social control functions can be classified, on the one hand, as watchdog, advocacy, and human rights organizations. Through their role in monitoring and counterbalancing power, these organizations serve as guarantees of democracy. Their activities can influence public policies, promote the enforcement of rights, and highlight the interests of marginalized or minority groups. Additionally, they strive to create and redistribute economic, social, and political capital for marginalized groups.

On the other hand, there are also CSOs whose services are inseparable from representing the interests of their target groups (such as the poor, the disadvantaged, or the homeless) or whose cultural activities are inherently tied to advocating for the recognition of minorities. In these cases, even if CSOs do not directly engage in advocacy and the protection of rights, they still play a significant role in shaping government policy.

Façade of Pluralism

Traditional autocracies are characterized by the prohibition of the establishment of independent CSOs, networks, and social circles. Systems resembling traditional autocracies today do not have an autonomous civil sphere either, as the state prevents the creation of independent CSOs. One notable feature of modern authoritarian regimes, though, is their avoidance of outright bans. They can appear pluralistic but actually implement only limited and superficial pluralism.

The freedom of civil society is constrained, for example, by heavy restrictions on spaces for public debate where state actions could be questioned.[1] In other words, modern authoritarian systems strive to exclude alternative opinions from public discourse.[2] This approach allows them to create the illusion of democracy while continuing to severely restrict genuine civil activity and independent expression of opinion. Behind the façade of pluralism lies a structure that effectively hinders the formation and operation of an autonomous civil sphere.

Therefore, modern autocratic efforts often lead to the erosion of autonomy, as reflected in measures against CSOs that perform social control functions.[3] A significant portion of such measures attempt to undermine the activities of CSOs through restrictive legislation that grants government actors a greater degree of control and oversight over the civil society sector, thereby violating the freedom of association of CSOs. The restrictions delegitimize the operation of CSOs, reduce their impact in the areas of human rights and advocacy, and threaten sanctions for violating the laws.

The restrictions on CSOs can be wide-ranging. They may relate to registration procedures for establishing CSOs and re-registration procedures. They can affect CSOs’ access to foreign funding, with laws intended to combat money laundering and terrorism being used against CSOs. They can increase the administrative burden on CSOs, hinder their collaboration with foreign CSOs, and limit their freedom of expression. Finally, they can extend to the unlawful dissolution of CSOs.

The protest organized by the Civilization coalition against the “Stop Soros” legislative package. The package targeted Hungarian CSOs that were involved in any form of work with asylum seekers and refugees.

Indicators of Democratic Backsliding

My research examines the aforementioned restriction mechanisms, with a focus on cases where countries reference their unique national culture and traditions to misuse concepts such as sovereignty, nation, or identity. The goal of this research is to explore how these restrictions reflect either a particularistic approach of the respective country or fit into a relatively uniform pattern. I also look at how particularistic approaches can be reconciled with universal legal standards and norms, such as the protection of human rights, the requirements of democracy, and the rule of law. The minimum standards developed by the European Court of Human Rights in its judgments relating to civil society organizations are used as a benchmark.

According to the research hypothesis, in most cases the seemingly particularistic interpretations of the concepts by authoritarian or authoritarian-leaning countries are not in line with universal constitutional principles. Because local approaches should remain within the frameworks defined by universal principles, restrictions on the fundamental rights of CSOs are acceptable only if they are in line with universal principles—that is, if they comply with the freedom of association that applies to everyone.

If these restrictions are specifically used to weaken the social control function, they violate the equality of CSOs before the law, since the CSOs performing social control functions will be unable to participate in the political public sphere to the same extent as other CSOs, and the freedom of association of their staff and members will be disproportionately impacted.

This, in turn, violates the principle of nondiscrimination, meaning it is contrary to universal constitutional principles. Laws and state authorities must treat CSOs equally in terms of rules regarding their establishment, operation, and activities. The differential treatment of various CSOs is considered discriminatory if it lacks objective and reasonable justification, as when such treatment does not pursue a legitimate aim or when there is no reasonable proportionality between the means employed and the objectives set.

Conversely, differentiation is permissible if it does not result in inequalities; in other words, if a particularistic approach is used, it must not be unjustifiably exclusionary. If the hypothesis is confirmed, discriminatory laws adopted by states that restrict the social control function can be viewed as an indicator of autocratization.

This research builds upon a previous empirical study that examined and categorized laws in effect between September 2022 and February 2023 in terms of specific restrictions on CSOs. My current research has two main objectives: to review the original data to determine which restrictions remained in force in 2023 and to expand the focus of research to include unlawful cases of CSO dissolution, where dissolution occurs by invoking vague concepts. The research is conducted using the comparative constitutional law method, with the following sources being analyzed to identify restrictive legislation: reports from the CIVICUS Monitor, Freedom House’s Freedom in the World, ICNL’s Civic Freedom Monitor, and USAID’s CSO Sustainability Index Explorer, as well as annual reports from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. The restrictions identified in these sources are verified against the relevant laws of the countries involved.

The chosen method aims to capture authoritarian tendencies by comparing the democracy index scores generated during monitoring procedures of various international organizations and research institutes. Therefore, I compare the identified restrictions with the democracy index classification of the countries applying these restrictions.

Specifically, I am creating a database containing the following information: which countries have laws that include restrictions causing the dysfunctionality of CSOs, what type of restriction involves the use of vague concepts, and into which category the countries in question are classified by the three democracy indices used as reference points (V-Dem’s Global Regimes of the World, Bertelsmann Stiftung’s Transformation Index, and the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index). The indices’ reports published in 2024 contain the countries’ classifications for 2023, so the research period is also limited to the year 2023.

The goal of my research is to demonstrate that a characteristic feature of modern authoritarian systems is their exploitation of concepts such as sovereignty, nation, and identity for their own purposes. These regimes seek to restrict and ultimately eliminate the social control function as comprehensively as possible. Within such frameworks, the equality and freedom of CSOs performing social control functions become unattainable, despite the façade of democratic processes that contemporary authoritarian regimes often maintain.

[1] Andrew Arato and Jean L. Cohen, Populism and Civil Society: The Challenge to Constitutional (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022), 129.

[2] Guillermo O’Donnell, Phillipe C. Schmitter, and Laurence Whitehead, Transitions from Authoritarian Rule (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986), 48.

[3] Gábor Attila Tóth, “Constitutional Markers of Authoritarianism,” Hague Journal on the Rule of Law 11, no. 1 (2019): 37–61.

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投稿者 : ld-sylff

Life after School for Rural Youth in India

April 22, 2025
By 19633

Higher education is a distant dream for many students in rural India owing to limited resources and cultural barriers. In May 2024, Khinvraj Jangid (Jawaharlal Nehru University, 2009–11) hosted an SLI workshop in his hometown of Jodhpur to share insights on the paths local students can take to pursue their aspirations.

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Education remains an elusive privilege for millions residing in rural India, where access to quality schooling is constrained by systemic inequities. Successfully completing basic education often hinges on fortuitous circumstances, which in turn influence prospects for higher education, gainful employment, and economic self-reliance.

With approximately 65% of India’s population living in rural areas and 47% reliant on agriculture for subsistence, the youth in these regions grapple with formidable socioeconomic challenges. Their aspirations frequently confront structural limitations, beginning with underfunded village schools administered by government bodies struggling to allocate adequate resources.

Indian governments have historically faced the herculean task of addressing fundamental needs, such as livelihood generation, housing, water and sanitation, transportation, electricity, and healthcare. Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the government has made significant strides, such as by constructing over 100 million toilets in rural areas since 2014 and providing more than 100 million cooking gas cylinders to rural households to alleviate health risks from wood-burning stoves.

While laudable, these initiatives underscore the stark developmental gaps that define rural India.

“What Will Education Achieve?”

In this context, rural childhoods are often bereft of libraries, books, arts and crafts, stationery, or literature. Yet, despite these deficiencies, the intellectual curiosity and aspirations of rural youth remain resilient, frequently outstripping the limited resources available in their schools.

The absence of meaningful infrastructural and pedagogical support often results in a stifled potential that remains unfulfilled unless external interventions—mentors, scholarships, or access to facilities—become available.

As someone born and raised in a rural village in Rajasthan, I was fortunate to encounter inspirational educators and to access a library outside my village, which enabled me to transcend the constraints of my immediate environment. Such experiences highlight the transformative power of even modest interventions, which can help break the cycles of poverty and stagnation that characterize rural life.

For most rural youth, though, the transition from school to life beyond often represents uncharted terrain. Many adults in these communities do not pursue education beyond high school due to the prohibitive costs and geographical inaccessibility of colleges. Even those who manage to attend often return disillusioned when their academic qualifications fail to translate into employment opportunities, reinforcing the pervasive skepticism encapsulated in the phrase, padhne se hoga kya (what will education achieve?).

This sentiment, prevalent when I was a student three decades ago, remains deeply entrenched today. The disconnect between higher education and employment is exemplified by the alarming case in 2018, when tens of thousands of overqualified individuals—holding PhDs and master’s and bachelor’s degrees—applied for peon positions in Uttar Pradesh, a role requiring only a fifth-grade education. These cases reflect not only the dearth of quality job opportunities but also the systemic inefficiencies in linking education with skill development and labor market needs.

While some individuals achieve success through self-motivation, perseverance, and familial financial support, they are often regarded as anomalies, unattainable exemplars for the majority lacking comparable resources or mentorship.

Persistent Sense of Inferiority

The transition from rural to urban spaces involves not only academic challenges but also cultural and social adaptation. Rural students must navigate the complexities of competition, meritocracy, and the academic rigor demanded by city-based institutions, while simultaneously contending with the cultural dissonance of urban life.

This adjustment encompasses language barriers, behavioral norms, and societal expectations, all of which can profoundly influence a student’s academic trajectory. The inadequacies of village schools in preparing students for such transitions are particularly pronounced with regard to the English language, which dominates as the medium of instruction in reputable institutions.

For rural students, English is often a foreign tongue, absent from their households, neighborhoods, and schools, resulting in acute underconfidence and a persistent sense of inferiority. The lack of early exposure to English not only hampers their academic performance but also perpetuates a sense of social exclusion, as they struggle to communicate effectively in environments dominated by urban and cosmopolitan peers.

While acquiring proficiency in English is feasible, the interim period is fraught with challenges, as rural students find themselves at a disadvantage compared to their urban peers, who possess linguistic fluency and cultural capital.

Need for Institutional Support Mechanisms

This disparity frequently engenders a sense of alienation among rural students in urban educational settings, spaces they perceive as gateways to a brighter future. Coping with this alienation often entails enduring loneliness as they strive to form connections with peers whose backgrounds and experiences differ markedly from their own.

The psychological toll of this transition is compounded by the constant pressure to adapt quickly, a task made more difficult by the absence of institutional support mechanisms that could facilitate smoother integration. For instance, mentorship programs, bridge courses, or targeted language training could significantly alleviate these challenges, but such interventions remain sporadic and underfunded.

It was to provide such intervention that I organized the workshop “Life after School for the Rural Youth of Jodhpur” as a Sylff Leadership Initiative in May 2024. The workshop aimed at providing information, inspiration, and assistance to enable the rural youth of Jodhpur, India, to move on to higher education.

Specifically, the agenda included (a) addressing the aspirations and fears of the village youth about higher education, (b) identifying essential skills (such as reading, writing, and speaking), (c) highlighting the critical role of the English language in higher education, and (d) cultivating emotional intelligence and self-awareness with the help of life coaches.

The author discusses higher education opportunities with participants of the May 2024 workshop in Jodhpur, India.

Forty high school students participated, a majority of them girls. The results of this workshop were extraordinary and rewarding for them. It was the first of its kind for their parents as well, who joined the orientation and concluding sessions and committed to supporting the education of their daughters and sons upon learning, through the workshop, that there are plenty of accessible opportunities—something that they knew little about before.

Participating in workshops, summer schools, and short seminars before completion of one’s schooling can be life-changing experiences. All the students were grateful for such an experience and for the many takeaways, including new insights into how to pursue a subject, what is crucial in language skills, how to work on personality development, and interpersonal skills.

Surmounting Structural Inequalities

Despite the challenges they face, many rural students demonstrate remarkable resilience and adaptability. Their journeys often exemplify the interplay of determination, resourcefulness, and external support. The process of overcoming these barriers demands resilience and determination, driven by the aspiration to attain personal growth and socioeconomic stability. For rural youth, education represents both a pathway to opportunity and a stark reflection of the structural inequalities they must surmount to succeed in a rapidly evolving India.

However, for education to truly serve as a vehicle for empowerment, systemic reforms are imperative. These include enhanced investment in rural schools, targeted mentorship programs, and robust policies that bridge the gap between education and employment. Only then can the potential of rural youth be fully realized, transforming not only their lives but also the socioeconomic landscape of India.

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投稿者 : ld-sylff

Sylff@Tokyo: UC San Diego Fellow Committed to Advancing Economic Betterment for All

April 17, 2025

The Sylff Association secretariat was delighted to welcome Justin Lesniak (University of California, San Diego, 2017–19) to the Tokyo Foundation’s office on April 9 during the final leg of his two-month trip to several Asian countries.

He had just completed a four-year tenure as a research analyst at the International Monetary Fund, where he supported the Fund’s engagement with Honduras and El Salvador and ensured the data integrity of country statistics for the World Economic Outlook database.

It was during his childhood in Los Angeles that Lesniak first developed an interest in international development. “We started learning about US history in fifth grade and were taught about how great the US was,” he recalls. “But I wondered why other countries, including smaller ones, can’t be great like the US? This question stuck with me, and I wanted to understand how the economy works and how politics could be made better to help people. It’s all connected.”

Spending six months in Chile as an exchange student during his undergraduate years deepened his interest in Latin America. “The country is like a poster child for free-market economics,” he explains. “After Pinochet seized power in a military coup in 1973, the country implemented free-market policies with the help of US economists from the University of Chicago.

“They privatized everything, and growth took off,” he added, “but this created inequality and other political problems. The dictatorship also persecuted its political opponents, leading to mass disappearances. But what’s fascinating is that in the end, Pinochet stepped down as president in 1990 after losing a democratic election. Usually, this never happens in a dictatorship.”

Lesniak worked as a consultant for the World Bank in the Office of the Chief Economist for Latin America and the Caribbean before earning a master of international affairs in 2019 at UC San Diego’s School of Global Policy and Strategy. And although he had hoped to work for the US government following his time at the IMF, those prospects are now diminished due to recent cuts to federal personnel under the current US administration.

“I had an interview with USAID just two days before the decision to shut down operations there,” he says. “Now, I’m glad things didn’t work out because it would’ve been like ‘you’re hired’ one minute and ‘you’re fired’ the next. After the presidential election in November, I thought this might be a good time to travel, since the job market might not be that good in DC, and that turned out to be correct.

“So, I’m really happy to be here,” he said in looking back on his first visit to Asia that also took him to Taiwan, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand. “I’ve been visiting friends, and it’s been really eye-opening because there are so many differences from one country to the next. But I’m still thinking about what comes next. I might go back to international development or maybe do more fieldwork and something on the ground.”

As he contemplates his career options, will he consider returning to academia? “Probably not. I’ve debated doing a PhD in economics, but I guess I’m more interested in ‘real work’ with tangible impact, rather than just working with theoretical models.”

At the moment, he is thinking of exploring how climate change may alter seasonal trading patterns and affect what can be produced where. “After all,” he smiles, “I’d like to keep drinking coffee!”

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投稿者 : ld-sylff

Event Held in Tokyo for Japanese Translation of Sofia Fellow’s Book

April 14, 2025

Historian Evgeniy Kandilarov (Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski,” 2003), who is currently a visiting professor at Sophia University in Tokyo, was a featured speaker at a March 19 event celebrating the Japanese translation of his book detailing over a century of Japan-Bulgarian exchange and friendship.

The book, originally published in Bulgarian in 2019 as Bulgaria and Japan: Politics, Diplomacy, Personalities, and Events, was co-authored by Kandilarov and career diplomat Vera Vutova-Stefanova. It details the very long and surprisingly rich history of bilateral ties, which officially began in 1909, just one year after Bulgaria’s independence from the Ottoman Empire. The relationship continued to evolve even during the Cold War.

The cover of the Japanese translation of Kandilarov’s book.

“EXPO ’70 in Osaka was a major factor in strengthening the postwar relationship, despite differences in the two countries’ political systems,” Kandilarov noted. “Prime Minister Todor Zhivkov became the first East Bloc leader to visit the Expo site and meet with Japanese Prime Minister Eisaku Sato. Bulgarians saw Japan as a technologically and economically advanced country, and many Expo visitors were highly impressed with the large-scale Bulgarian pavilion,” an exhibition that some argue contributed to the popularization of Bulgarian yogurt in Japan.

“By the mid-1970s, major Japanese trading houses and manufacturers like Mitsubishi Corp., Mitsui & Co., and Fujitsu had set up offices in Bulgaria,” he added. “The decade of deepening friendship culminated in an October 1979 visit to Bulgaria by then Crown Prince [now Emperor Emeritus] Akihito.”

Despite the geographical distance and apparent differences between the two countries, some writers in Japan have described Bulgarians as the “Japanese of the Balkans.” This affinity may stem from a feeling that both people are not only hardworking but also excellent soldiers and fearless fighters.

The book-launch event took place at the Diplomatic Archives Exhibition Room of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. It was organized by the Bulgarian Embassy in Tokyo with the support of the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Japan-Bulgaria Society.

Evgeniy Kandilarov makes a presentation as Bulgarian Ambassador Arabadjieva, right, and Diplomatic Archives Director Yamamoto look on.

Other noted speakers included Bulgarian Ambassador to Japan Marieta Arabadjieva, Diplomatic Archives Director Hideaki Yamamoto, Bulgarian history expert Junko Sugahara who translated the book into Japanese, and Director General Akiko Igaya of the Japan-Bulgaria Society.

In recognition of his academic achievements and his role in fostering deeper understanding between Japan and Bulgaria, Kandilarov was awarded a Japanese Foreign Minister’s Commendation during a ceremony at Sofia University in April 2023. He had previously received a Certificate of Honor from the Japanese Ambassador in September 2015 for his contributions to introducing Japan in Bulgaria as a researcher, lecturer, and author.

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投稿者 : ld-sylff

Sylff@Tokyo: First Visitors to Our New Office

April 14, 2025

The Sylff Association secretariat was pleased to welcome Chris Bush and Jan Tristan Gaspi from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, on March 26, 2025, as the very first visitors to our new office in Toranomon, Tokyo.

Bush is the executive director of the Institute for Business Innovation at Berkeley-Haas, and Gaspi is IBI’s associate director for finance and operations.

Berkeley-Haas implements a highly successful Sylff program, having disbursed some $200,000 in tuition support to six PhD students in AY2023–24, five of whom completed their dissertations. Sylff continues to be the most prestigious and generous fellowships available to graduate students at the Haas School of Business.

Jan Tristan Gaspi, right, and Chris Bush of UC Berkeley with members of the Sylff Association secretariat.

In addition to visiting the Tokyo Foundation, Bush and Gaspi met with many partners of UC Berkeley’s SkyDeck accelerator program while in Japan, including the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), major businesses, and universities.

Beyond SkyDeck, Berkeley-Haas also runs an Entrepreneurship Program that, for example, collaborates with Tohoku University to train top startups from the Sendai region in Lean Launch methodology. Haas has also hosted leading Japanese companies at the Berkeley Innovation Forum to explore building their innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystems.

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投稿者 : ld-sylff

Applications for SRG and SLI in Fiscal 2025 to Open in May

April 4, 2025

The Sylff Association secretariat will begin accepting applications for Sylff Research Grant (SRG) and Sylff Leadership Initiatives (SLI) for fiscal 2025 (April 2025 to March 2026) in May 2025.

As previously announced in February, several changes have been made to the two support programs this year. For those interested in applying, please carefully read through the Call for Application for each program and prepare your applications in time for the preliminary application period, which will begin on May 15, 2025.

The Calls for Application for the two programs are linked below.

SRG: https://www.sylff.org/support_programs/srg/

SLI: https://www.sylff.org/support_programs/sli/

We look forward to launching our support programs for fiscal 2025 and to receiving applications for insightful research and innovative social initiatives.

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投稿者 : ld-sylff

A New Start for the Tokyo Foundation

April 1, 2025

The Tokyo Foundation for Policy Research, which serves as the Sylff Association secretariat, is pleased to announce that Executive Director for Policy Research Mieko Nakabayashi has been named our new President. We have also relocated to a new office and have shortened our official name to the “Tokyo Foundation.”

Former President Izumi Kadono will remain at the Foundation in the capacity of an Advisor. The changes, as detailed below, came into effect on April 1, 2025.

The Tokyo Foundation was established in 1997 as an independent, not-for-profit think tank to examine critical issues confronting society; undertake rigorous, evidence-based policy research; and offer a range of policy options in pioneering paths to a brighter future. It also cultivates broadminded, socially engaged future leaders, both in Japan and overseas, in helping build a better society for all.

The new name is actually the one we used before 2018. We have decided to reembrace our roots in an attempt to clarify our mission, elucidate our vision, and reinforce our core values.

We hope that these changes will lead to fuller engagement with all our stakeholders in the Sylff community.

New name: The Tokyo Foundation (a public-interest incorporated foundation)
New address: The Sasakawa Peace Foundation Bldg. 5F, 1-15-16 Toranomon, Minato-ku, Tokyo 105-0001 Japan
New president: Mieko Nakabayashi
Phone: +81-3-5797-8402 (unchanged)
URL: https://www.tokyofoundation.org (unchanged)
Access (nearest stations)

Toranomon Station (Ginza Line): 1-min. walk from Exit 2b, 4, or 12
Toranomon Hills Station (Hibiya Line): 4-min. walk from Exit B1 or A2
Kasumigaseki Station (Chiyoda, Hibiya, and Marunouchi Lines): 5-min. walk from Exit A12
JR Shinbashi Station: 10-min. walk from Hibiya exit

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投稿者 : ld-sylff

Legal Foundations and Challenges of Inspections in International Law

March 19, 2025
By 31421

Inspections are playing a growing role in international law as a compliance tool, but they remain underexplored in legal scholarship. Swati Malik (Geneva Graduate Institute, 2020, 2021) used an SRG award to further her comparative analysis of how inspections operate across three international legal regimes.

* * *

My doctoral research at the Geneva Graduate Institute examines the legal basis, authority, and implications of inspections in international law. Inspections, though increasingly relied upon, remain a somewhat underexplored mechanism for ensuring accountability across various global legal regimes. They aim to secure state compliance with international treaties and agreements, particularly in fields like disarmament, environmental governance, and human rights protection.

What motivated me to pursue this research is the growing role inspections play in international law and the relative scarcity of detailed legal scholarship on the subject. While inspections are a powerful tool for verifying whether states adhere to international norms, their legal foundations and operational practices are often taken for granted.

My research seeks to fill this gap by analyzing how inspections operate legally and practically across three international legal regimes—those governed by the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW), and the United Nations Convention Against Torture (UNCAT) and its Optional Protocol (OPCAT).

Conducting Fieldwork in The Hague

The use of inspections as a compliance tool has expanded across different international law regimes, though their methods and frameworks differ significantly based on the context. For instance, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) conducts stringent inspections to verify that state parties to the CWC are fulfilling their obligations to dismantle and destroy chemical weapons.

In contrast, ICRW inspections—mandated by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) but led by the states parties themselves—--focus on ensuring adherence to quotas and regulations designed to balance the conservation of whale species with cultural and economic practices.

Finally, the inspections carried out by the United Nations Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT) under OPCAT are vital for ensuring that states comply with human rights standards in relation to the prohibition of torture and inhumane treatment.

In 2023, I was awarded a Sylff Research Grant, which allowed me to conduct international fieldwork in The Hague, Netherlands. This phase of my research focused on the OPCW’s work and the resources available at the Peace Palace Library, which hosts one of the world's largest collections of international law materials. This opportunity was essential to my comparative analysis of inspections in international law, particularly in understanding how inspections are governed and implemented within the chemical weapons’ disarmament regime.

International Court of Justice, 2024.

Doctrinal and Qualitative Research

My SRG research methodology combined doctrinal analysis with qualitative methods. Doctrinally, I examined the legal framework that underpins inspections in the CWC. This involved analyzing the treaty itself, OPCW reports, and secondary sources related to these inspections. My archival research at the Peace Palace Library also enabled me to access key legal precedents and historical materials that illuminated how the practice of inspections undertaken by the OPCW has evolved over the years.

In addition to doctrinal research, I employed qualitative analysis to better understand the operational challenges of inspections. Due to the confidential nature of OPCW inspections, my research relied heavily on publicly accessible reports and archival materials. These were complemented by informal discussions with legal experts in the field, which allowed me to incorporate both theoretical and practical perspectives into my analysis.

Peace Palace Library Collection, 2024.

Legal Framework and Authority of OPCW Inspections

The inspections conducted by the OPCW are governed by the CWC, a treaty that establishes one of the most comprehensive verification mechanisms in international law. The CWC mandates a tiered inspection regime comprising routine inspections, challenge inspections, and investigations of alleged use, each with distinct protocols designed to balance the imperatives of disarmament verification with the sovereignty of state parties.

While routine inspections assess compliance with declarations regarding chemical facilities, the treaty also provides for challenge inspections, an extraordinary tool theoretically enabling state parties to request intrusive verification of suspected violations. Despite the robust legal framework available to tackle them, no challenge inspection has ever been invoked, underscoring the political and procedural complexities inherent in this mechanism.

My research highlights the nuanced nature of these inspections. Routine inspections, though standardized, vary significantly depending on the type of facility inspected, such as chemical weapon production sites, destruction facilities, or storage locations. Each category is subject to tailored protocols that address the specific risks associated with the chemicals involved.

By contrast, inspections in conflict zones, such as those conducted in Syria, deviate from the routine model. These inspections have required the adaptation of the CWC’s general provisions to circumstances involving active hostilities, access restrictions, and contested political narratives. The legal challenges in these cases illustrate the flexibility and limitations of the OPCW’s mandate, particularly in environments where state consent is precarious or absent.

A critical element of the OPCW’s inspection regime is the treatment of inspection reports. These reports are classified as strictly confidential. This confidentiality is intended to protect sensitive information while ensuring the integrity of the verification process. However, it also raises questions about transparency and accountability, as the specific findings often remain inaccessible to the broader international community.

My archival research demonstrated that the confidentiality of these reports does not preclude their strategic use in shaping state behaviour. States found to be in noncompliance may face significant political and reputational consequences, even in the absence of public disclosure. This dynamic underscores the dual role of OPCW inspections—as a mechanism for technical verification and as an instrument for reinforcing international norms and obligations contained in the CWC.

Challenges in Conducting Inspections

Inspections conducted under the CWC face a range of operational and political challenges; these challenges often arise from the intersection of legal obligations and the geopolitical realities of the states involved. A significant challenge lies in the logistical aspects of inspections, particularly in conflict or high-risk zones.

For example, inspections in Syria have highlighted the difficulties in securing safe and timely access to facilities. Inspectors must navigate not only the physical risks associated with active conflict but also restricted access imposed by states citing security concerns or administrative delays. Such restrictions can affect the thoroughness of inspections and raise questions about the comprehensiveness of their findings.

Political interference and influence represent another pervasive obstacle. While the CWC provides legal backing for challenge inspections, the political cost of invoking such a measure has deterred states from exercising this option. The absence of challenge inspections to date underscores the diplomatic sensitivities surrounding their implementation.

The COVID-19 pandemic further exposed vulnerabilities in the OPCW’s verification processes by necessitating a significant shift in inspection methodologies. With travel restrictions and health risks limiting in-person activities, the OPCW transitioned many aspects of its routine inspections to online platforms. Remote verification measures, such as virtual inspections and the submission of digital documentation, were adopted as solutions to maintain compliance monitoring. While these measures allowed the OPCW to continue its work during unprecedented circumstances, they also highlighted the limitations of online methodologies in tasks requiring physical oversight, such as sample collection and on-site verification of equipment. This shift underscored the importance of balancing technological adaptability with the rigorous standards expected in international verification regimes.

In my research, I also noted the importance of the OPCW’s procedural flexibility to address challenges systematically. Its frameworks, while robust, rely heavily on the preparedness and expertise of inspection teams to navigate unforeseen circumstances, such as sudden shifts in geopolitical dynamics or emergency situations. This adaptability is a hallmark of the OPCW’s operational effectiveness as it ensures that inspections remain credible even under challenging conditions.

Routine inspections are the backbone of the OPCW’s mission to uphold the CWC’s principles. While logistical, technical, and operational challenges are inherent to the process, they underscore the resilience and adaptability of the verification regime. My research highlighted the need for continued refinement of protocols and greater investment in tools and strategies that enhance the OPCW’s ability to conduct inspections under varying circumstances, ensuring their long-term effectiveness.

Societal Contributions and Impact

The findings from my research contribute to a deeper understanding of how inspections function as mechanisms for accountability and compliance in international law. By examining inspections across different legal regimes, my work highlights their importance in maintaining global security, promoting environmental conservation, and safeguarding human rights.

In the case of the OPCW, inspections have played a crucial role in eliminating the global stockpile of declared chemical weapons, thus contributing to international peace and security. The inspections conducted under the ICRW, on the other hand, help preserve endangered whale species by ensuring that states comply with conservation quotas while recognizing cultural and economic needs. Meanwhile, the SPT inspections help prevent and address torture and inhumane treatment by holding states accountable to their human rights obligations in this realm.

The societal contributions of inspections go beyond their immediate legal context. They promote transparency, foster cooperation between states, and provide mechanisms for peacefully resolving disputes. In doing so, inspections contribute to a more stable and predictable international order, where states are held accountable and international norms are upheld.

Universality and Diversity of the Human Condition

Inspections, as a legal mechanism, reflect both the universality and diversity of the human condition. On one level, inspections are grounded in universal principles of accountability, transparency, and rule of law. They represent the collective interest of the international community in ensuring that states adhere to their legal obligations, whether in the areas of disarmament, environmental governance, or human rights.

At the same time, inspections must be adapted to the specific legal, political, and cultural contexts in which they are conducted. Inspections within the disarmament regime differ significantly from those in human rights or environmental governance reflecting the diversity of the international legal landscape. This flexibility is a testament to the adaptability of inspections as a legal tool and underscores the need for a nuanced understanding of how inspections function across different contexts.

Conclusion and Future Research

The SRG award has been invaluable in advancing my research on inspections in international law. The fieldwork conducted in The Hague allowed me to access critical resources and better understand the OPCW’s role in enforcing compliance with the CWC. This phase of my research provided a solid foundation for the next stage of my project, which will focus on inspections under the IWC regime.

Moving forward, I plan to complete my fieldwork at the IWC Secretariat in the United Kingdom. By studying the Secretariat’s inspection reports and interacting with experts, I aim to finalize my comparative analysis of inspections across the three legal regimes. This analysis, I hope, will provide a comprehensive understanding of the legal basis, authority, and implications of inspections in international law and also hopefully contribute to both academic discourse and practical policymaking in international law.

The main sources of my SRG research were the OPCW Archives in The Hague and a variety of academic materials related to OPCW inspections found at the Peace Palace Library, also in The Hague.

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投稿者 : ld-sylff

In Search of Women Photographers in Twentieth-Century India

March 7, 2025
By 31414

Exploring the largely hidden history of early women photographers in India, Sreerupa Bhattacharya (Jadavpur University, 2018) follows traces of their work to uncover the contributions they made in shaping the art and practice of photography on the subcontinent.

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In an 1898 issue of Amrita Bazar Patrika, one of the leading daily newspapers in colonial Bengal, appeared an advertisement for a well-known photo studio, emphasizing the availability of “female artists” to photograph women. A lady behind the lens meant that elite women could have their photographs taken without inviting anxieties about being seen unveiled by men in public. It is, however, not known if these “artists” were necessarily only photographers or also those involved in tinting and retouching photographs.

Notwithstanding, it is significant that photography emerged as a source of employment for European as well as native women at the turn of the twentieth century. When the first all-women’s studio in India was established in 1892 to exclusively serve a female clientele, it recruited “native female assistants” who were led by an Englishwoman. These examples attest to women’s prolific presence in a range of photographic works at a time when they were yet to become key players in the many other technology-led industries in colonial India.

My doctoral research examines women’s photographic practices in early- to mid-twentieth-century India and their rediscovery in contemporary times, with a focus on questions of labor, materiality, and representation. Recent curatorial and scholarly interests in twentieth-century Indian women behind the lens have largely focused on family and domestic photography. My project seeks to build on this scholarship by moving away from the biographical approach and mapping individual practices onto the larger discourse of photography. The purpose is not only to recover little-known lives and their contributions but also to expose marginalized objects, sites, and networks through them in order to potentially reconfigure the photo history in the subcontinent and expand our understanding of photography in turn.

Footnotes in Photo History

Women, until recently, have been footnotes in the grand narrative of the history of photography in India that has mainly dramatized the conflict between the colonizer and the colonized, emphasized the peculiarly Indian character of photography, and celebrated its pioneering male figures. The “native female assistant” remained nameless, for instance, in the several monographs on the work of Lala Deen Dayal, the eminent photographer who established the photo studio in which these women worked.

In his 2008 book The Coming of Photography in India delineating the sociocultural, political, and philosophical implications of the arrival of the camera under the Raj, art historian Christopher Pinney mentions a set of calotypes and photograms by an unknown female photographer. Made in the 1840s, they are significant as the earliest extant photographs of India. Yet, she receives no more than a passing reference. Perhaps no more than that is possible since institutional archives bear only traces of such women’s presence.

Rather than bemoan such absences, my project explores them as speculative nodes to flesh out the figure of the woman behind the lens. One of the imperatives of the project, thus, is to delineate the discursive forces, historically and in the contemporary, that have constituted the figure of the woman photographer in India.

New Insights from Revisiting the Archives

Many of the photography journals, pamphlets, and illustrated magazines published in twentieth-century India are currently housed in institutions across the United States and Europe. Perhaps the most capacious among these is the British Library in London, where Desmond Ray, the deputy keeper of the India Office Library and Records, consolidated in the 1970s and 1980s both images and documents related to photography in India.

The Sylff Research Grant allowed me to explore the British Library collection in great detail during my two-month-long stay in the UK. The other archives and institutions I visited included the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Cambridge South Asia Centre, Birkbeck College, the University of London, and the Courtauld Institute of Art. In each of them, I found librarians, archivists, and professors who provided extraordinary insights into my project, greatly enhancing my understanding of the nebulous photographic landscape in India and in other parts of the world in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

The Photography and the Book Room of the Photography Centre, Victoria and Albert Museum, September 2024. Photo by the author.

Parsing through different kinds of documents—letters, periodicals, photographs, and news reports—led me to glean names of individuals, organizations, and activities that suggest a scattered but persistent presence of women photographers. They reveal new constituencies of photo practitioners that expand the contours of received histories.

Departing from the recent focus on amateur practices centered on the family, home, and travels, my archival research revealed a discursive emphasis on photography as an occupation for women throughout the twentieth century. Photography emerged as one of the few technology-led activities that could easily make the transition from pastime to profession.

Women photographers thus marked their presence in photo studios, at political rallies, in exhibitions, and behind editorial desks. With cameras in hand, they not only made aesthetic interventions but also exposed the fault lines in the discourse of photography. While much of contemporary scholarship revolves around individual practices, revisiting the archives enabled me to reorient the focus to a matrix of material relations that reveal the history of photography in India as gendered work.

From the series Centralia, 2010–2020, by Poulomi Basu, on display at the Photography Centre, Victoria and Albert Museum, October 2024. Photo by the author.

A Global Phenomenon

Besides conducting archival research, I was fortunate to be able to participate in workshops organized by scholars, artists, and critics at the forefront of global photography studies today. A joint initiative by the Victoria and Albert Museum and Birkbeck College for doctoral students called “Researching on, and with, Photographs” proved invaluable in exploring the wide range of contemporary scholarly work on the political and aesthetic purchase of historical photography. A talk on British photographer Jo Spence’s collection was insightful in thinking about feminist articulations of art and activism. It also raised questions about how to preserve and display such works, meant for public engagement, within formal institutional structures.

The sessions held at the V&A Photography Centre also offered glimpses into the early processes in the development of photography, the formation of the institution’s photography collection, and its current decolonial efforts. It gave me the opportunity to discuss the museum’s recently developed women in photography collection, which contains a wide range of photographs made in the British colonies in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

The workshop and the ongoing projects at the museum foregrounded the renewed interest in the study of women behind the lens. Just in the past five years, there have been major conferences and exhibitions on twentieth-century women photographers in North America, Europe, and Asia. My project gains greater resonance amidst such efforts at rediscovering and reevaluating twentieth-century women’s photography around the world.

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投稿者 : ld-sylff

Populism’s Mitigated Potency in Japan and Implications for Mature Democracies

February 25, 2025
By 31407

Despite Japan’s economic struggles, populism has made limited electoral impact. Jiajia Zhou (Columbia University, 2017) explores how the local organizational strength of incumbent parties mitigates the effectiveness of populist rhetoric and, in doing so, may facilitate the pursuit of electorally challenging policies.

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Populism is an endogenous offshoot of representative democracy. It is a rhetoric that appeals to shared grievances among the electorate, blames representative elites, and in this process “[takes] advantage of democracy’s endogenous discontent with the domineering attitude of the few over the many” (Urbinati 2019, 119).

What is surprising about populism today is not its presence but its potency—that the basic claims of extreme majoritarianism capture the hearts of enough voters to make waves in electoral outcomes. Some scholars have opted to view populism as a strategy employed by political actors to mobilize “large numbers of mostly unorganized followers” (Weyland 2001, 14). This aligns with the origin of populism as a concept coined to differentiate electoral politics dominated by charismatic leaders in Latin America from class-based mobilization in European democracies (Roberts 2015, 144).

However, this definition magnifies the present condition while overlooking a key question, that is, why has the anti-elite claim come to amass so much electoral influence in democracies where elections used to be anchored in various loci of organized support? Part of the answer lies in the weakening geographical strength of political parties in mature democracies.

Resisting Populism at the Local Level

Japan serves as a case study to test this theory. Japan, in particular, is a democracy where populism has the potential to succeed. Since the 1990s, Japan’s economy has observed at best tepid growth. More recently, South Korea, whose economy developed later than Japan, has achieved a higher nominal GDP per capita. Not only has Japan’s economic status been shaken, but its weakening yen has also spurred an unfamiliar and trying experience of inflation for its electorate.

Although Japan lacks the presence of an immigrant population large enough to fuel nativist sentiments, democracies with similar ethnic compositions, such as Hungary, show that this alone does not preclude the influence of populism; economic ills can suffice to trigger populist support. Why, then, has populism had a relatively limited impact on elections in Japan?

One factor may be that local, organized support retains its electoral clout. My SRG research identified two sources of evidence for this. First, I revisited an episode of populism in national politics in 2005, when then Prime Minister Jun’ichiro Koizumi from the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) dissolved the lower house of the National Diet and called for an electoral referendum to overturn the upper house’s rejection of his postal privatization bill. The landslide victory demonstrated the potential for populism in Japan, as Koizumi’s anti-elite framing of opposition within his own party—as “forces of resistance” (teiko seiryoku) pursuing “vested interests” (kitokuken)—succeeded in reversing trends in falling voter turnout and secured a two-thirds majority for the LDP and coalition partner Komeito.

Prime Minister Koizumi announcing his party’s election platform calling for the privatization of postal services. ©Junko Kimura / Getty Images

Notably, though, the contests were especially challenging in divided districts where LDP candidates, mostly new blood, were assigned to compete against ex-LDP incumbent candidates who had opposed the postal bill and been stripped of their party’s endorsement.

Even though 51 LDP lower house members resisted Koizumi’s postal bill, only 37 members voted against it, and they were either expelled or ordered to leave the party. The 14 others who abstained or were absent from the vote retained their party affiliation (Shukan Asahi 2005; Asano 2006). Among the 37 who lost their LDP affiliation, 34 ran in the election, and exactly half were reelected.

Analyzing voting patterns across municipalities, I found a negative relationship between the LDP’s organizational strength and its vote gains. Specifically, in areas where the LDP was organizationally stronger, countermobilization by politicians in those districts drew significant votes away from the party. Even though Koizumi’s market-oriented postal privatization policy aimed to benefit urban voters by promoting productive investment, postal opposition candidate Seiko Noda, for example, successfully drew votes away from the LDP, winning reelection in Gifu’s first district covering the prefectural capital of Gifu City.

In another case, Ryozo Ishibashi, an LDP prefectural assembly member in the city of Hiroshima, entered the lower house race to oppose postal privatization and split LDP votes, drawing support away from the party in his district.

By contrast, in districts where the LDP was organizationally weaker and local conservative politicians had for several years been distancing themselves from the LDP, the decisions by these local mobilizers to support postal reform led to large increases in vote share, such as in Shizuoka’s seventh district.

Populism’s Impact on the 2024 Election

Second, I examined populism’s potency in the most recent lower house elections in October 2024 through an online survey experiment involving respondents from all 47 prefectures in Japan. In the survey, respondents were presented with a description referencing recent episodes of the political funds scandal, followed by hypothetical campaign excerpts from a non-LDP conservative candidate.

Respondents were randomly assigned one of two possible campaign messages. The first adopted a populist frame linking current economic woes to the collusive and corrupt LDP politicians who served vested interests over the interests of the people. The second similarly emphasized current economic woes but stressed party turnover and a change of government to strengthen policies as the solution. After reading the message, respondents were asked to indicate their support for the hypothetical candidate.

The experiment yielded evidence for the strong role played by local party representation, that is, the incumbent party’s organizational reach in local areas and role in politically fulfilling local needs.

First, the experiment found higher candidate support when respondents were exposed to populist messaging. This trend was stronger among respondents reporting weaker trust in political institutions, a pattern similar to that of populist support in European countries. However, unlike in Europe, populist support was not particularly strong among respondents residing in areas facing demographic decline or among those reporting economic insecurity in rural areas.

Instead, populist support was stronger among respondents reporting stronger feelings of representation at the municipal level and whose municipal representatives were non-LDP politicians. It was also stronger in prefectures with lower ratios of LDP party membership for each single-member electoral district.

Additional questions examining respondents’ attitudes revealed higher levels of nativist sentiments—where respondents perceive foreigners as a threat to local culture—in municipalities with higher ratios of foreign to local residents. This relationship is distinct from the inflow of tourists, which does not fuel nativist sentiments.

Importance of Local Organizations in Resisting Populist Rhetoric

These results suggest that the lack of populist support in Japan is not the result of unique resistance against the phenomenon but the geographical strength of its incumbent party organization. The idea that political party organization matters is not new to political science research (e.g. Katz and Mair 2018). But the results here reveal how, and in what ways, the incumbent party organization matters against the populist challenge.

My research also shows that the penetration of political party organizations in local electoral districts facilitates countermobilization and increases voter-level resistance against empty populist rhetoric that is devoid of policy relevance. This finding complements studies in other democracies that have identified the important effects of local mobilization but have emphasized the mobilizational effects of populist forces, such as in Sweden (Loxbo 2024).

The local electoral arena remains a salient theater for competition between incumbent and challenger parties. Ideological competition among central parties using party platforms and ideology is not a democratic ill. However, vulnerability to populism grows when attention at the center eviscerates the party of its local organization and overlooks the local arena.

This is not to imply that Japan presents a model of healthy democracy. Rather, it shows that populism, as an anti-elite appeal to majoritarianism, arises from not only commonly cited economic factors but also weak incumbent political party organization.

More broadly, there has been increased scholarly attention to the role of social media, warranted by increased reliance on information received through these platforms. Yet, even if social media has become the primary battleground for the electoral offensive, local areas remain critical flanks where electoral organization and representation matter. Strengthening these local organizational structures is essential if mainstream parties in countries like Japan wish to pursue electorally challenging policies, such as expanding immigration inflows.

References

Asano, Masahiko. 2006. Shimin shakai ni okeru seido kaikaku: Senkyo seido to kohosha rikuruto. Keio University Press.

Katz, Richard S., and Peter Mair. 2018. Democracy and the Cartelization of Political Parties. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780199586011.001.0001.

Loxbo, Karl. 2024. “How the Radical Right Reshapes Public Opinion: The Sweden Democrats’ Local Mobilisation, 2002–2020.” West European Politics 0 (0): 1–28. https://doi.org/10.1080/01402382.2024.2396775.

Roberts, Kenneth M. 2015. “Populism, Political Mobilizations, and Crises of Political Representation.” In The Promise and Perils of Populism: Global Perspectives, edited by Carlos de la Torre, 140–58. University Press of Kentucky.

Shukan Asahi. 2005. “Jiminto zohan 51 giin, kaisan de konaru: Koizumi dokatsu hatsugen no daigosan.” August 5.

Urbinati, Nadia. 2019. “Political Theory of Populism.” Annual Review of Political Science 22 (1): 111–27. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-polisci-050317-070753.

Weyland, Kurt. 2001. “Clarifying a Contested Concept: Populism in the Study of Latin American Politics.” Comparative Politics 34 (1): 1–22. https://doi.org/10.2307/422412.