Local public libraries as human rights intermediaries
| Published date | 01 June 2018 |
| Author | Luka Glušac |
| Date | 01 June 2018 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0924051918772968 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
Local public libraries as human
rights intermediaries
Luka Glus
ˇac
University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia
Abstract
Traditionally, the literature has recognised the role of public libraries in the promotion of human
rights, through their efforts in making information accessible to anyone, irrespective of their
personal circumstances. At the same time, scholars have largely overlooked their potential in the
protection of human rights. This article shows that libraries can make an important contribution to
the protection function, by using the example of cooperation between the National Ombudsman
of Serbia and 15 local public libraries in smaller municipalities. The research is framed within the
Orchestration theory, recently developed by Abbott and others. We demonstrate that the
relationship between the Ombudsman and local libraries can successfully be analysed with O-I-T
framework, where the Ombudsman (Orchestrator) enlists local libraries (Intermediary) to
become more accessible to citizens (Target), providing them with an easier way to communicate
their human rights concerns and lodge a complaint with this key human rights remedy mechanism,
by using the video communication software installed in local libraries. The results of this research
could serve to inspire similar studies exploring the application of the Orchestration theory on the
complex multi-actor human rights dynamics from a global perspective to national and local
environments. While this research was inspired by the Serbian experience, its key policy impli-
cation is that innovative cooperation between a national human rights institution (NHRI) and local
libraries is perfectly applicable to other states as well. The design of the project implemented in
Serbia can be copied successfully worldwide, as it is not based on complicated infrastructural or
institutional changes, but on creative and cost-effective idea.
Keywords
Public libraries, librarianship, human rights intermediaries, national human rights institutions,
NHRI, orchestration theory, human rights governance, Serbia, ombudsman
Corresponding author:
Luka Glus
ˇac, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, 11000, Serbia.
Email: lukaglusac@gmail.com
Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights
2018, Vol. 36(2) 133–151
ªThe Author(s) 2018
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DOI: 10.1177/0924051918772968
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Introduction
Major international and national human rights instruments are usually negotiated and adopted
under the spotlights of the world’s capitals, but their practical implementation has to reach even
the smallest communities around the globe; otherwise these rights are everything but universal.
Eleanor Roosevelt, who chaired the Universal Declaration of Human Rights committee,
famously said that ‘universal human rights begin in small places, close to home; so close and
so small that they cannot be seen on any map of the world’.
1
This research deals exactly with
those small places, which are invisible on the map of the world. This article presents a case of
symbiotic endeavour of national and local actors in the promotion and protection of human
rights, opposite to increasing developments where human rights become arenas of contestation
between local and national authorities.
The research has three aims. The first aim is to illustrate that local public libraries traditionally
have had an active role in the promotion of human rights. The second aim is to demonstrate that
they can also have a role in the protection of human rights. The third goal is derived from the first
two, as it seeks to show that new libraries’ role in the protection of human rights can be success-
fully framed in the Orchestration theory, as recently developed by Abbott and others to explain
indirect and soft governance.
2
This is done by using the experiences of the Serbian Ombudsman’s
cooperation with 15 local public libraries outside the capital. We reveal how libraries have assisted
citizens in their local communities to contact the Ombudsman through the video-call software
installed in libraries. By providing citizens with the possibility to expr ess their human rights
concerns and even lodge complaints with the key national human rights protection mechanism
(Ombudsman), libraries have expanded the range of their services from solely access to informa-
tion to broader access to human rights remedies, that is, from only the promotion of human rights to
also their protection. To that end, this article seeks to contribute to a better understanding of the
evolving role of public libraries in an ever-increasing digital world. It is argued that by embracing
their new role in the protection of human rights, libraries become firmly nested within the local
community, making them more visible and ultimately more frequently visited, which contributes
to their overall place in the local social dynamics.
Theoretically, this article seeks to show:
1. the applicability of the Orchestration theory on human rights governance; and,
2. its relevance for study of complex indirect and soft governance on the national level, as it
was so far applied mainly to international domain.
3
To use the language of the Orchestration theory, this research argues that the established
relationship between the Ombudsman and local libraries in Serbia can be analysed through the
Orchestration framework, where a national human rights institution (NHRI), in this case the
Ombudsman, acts as the Orchestrator enlisting 15 local public libraries as Intermediaries to help
it receive complaints on human rights violations from citizens (Targets) outside the capital
(Belgrade) and other major cities, through the video-call software installed in the libraries.
1. Eleanor Roosevelt, ‘The Great Question’ (27 March 1958) speech delivered at the United Nations.
2. Kenneth W Abbott, Philipp Genschel, Duncan Snidal and Bernhard Zangl (eds), International Organizations as
Orchestrators (CUP 2015).
3. See the case studies in Abbott (n 2).
134 Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights 36(2)
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