The political economy of human rights organizations’ codes of ethics
| Pages | 61-74 |
| Published date | 12 March 2018 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JICES-04-2017-0021 |
| Date | 12 March 2018 |
| Author | Saif AlZahir,Han Donker,John Nofsinger |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information & communications technology |
The political economy of human
rights organizations’
codes of ethics
Saif AlZahir
Department of Computer Science, University of Victoria, Victoria,
British Columbia, Canada
Han Donker
College of Business and Public Policy/Accounting and Finance Dept,
University of Alaska Anchorage, Anchorage, Alaska, United States, and
John Nofsinger
University of Alaska Anchorage, Anchorage, Alaska, United States
Abstract
Purpose –This paper scrutinizes the impact of socioeconomic, political, legal and religious factorson the
internal ethical values of human rights organizations (HROs) worldwide. The authors aim to examine the
Code of Ethicsfor 279 HROs in 67 countries and the social and legal settingsin which they operate.
Design/methodology/approach –Using the framework of protect, respect and remedy, the authors
look for keywords that represent the human rights lexiconin these three areas. In the protection of human
rights, the authorsselect the terms: peace, transparency, freedom and security. For the respectof humans, the
authors use the terms: dignity,equality, respect and rights. Sources of remedies come from justice and ethics.
The analysis seeks to determine what political economy settings drive the ethical value choices of the
organizations.Those choices are proxied by those keywordsthey mention in their Code of Ethics.
Findings –The analysis show thatthe scope of ethical values mentioned are higher whenthe HRO is in a
country with more domesticviolence, lower income inequality, French civil or Islamic legal origin and higher
trust in politicians. In regardto the determinants of the ten keywords individually, the authors conclude that
the status of the socioeconomic,political, religious and legalsettings impact with local HROs mention each of
the keywords:peace, justice, transparency, dignity,equality, ethics, respect, freedom,security and rights.
Research limitations/implications –The analysis is based on HROsthat have a webpage in English
and list the employeeCode of Conduct.
Originality/value –This study is the first to examine the Code of Ethics for HROs. The authors
demonstratethat country-specific characteristicshelp to drive their internal ethical values.
Keywords Political economy, Human rights, Values, Codes of Ethics, Human rights organizations,
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
The role of advocating and protecting human rightshas expanded from state governments
to other groups (Rodio and Schmitz, 2010), such as international governance organizations
(like the United Nations), business (Weissbrodt, 2005;O’Brien and Dhanarajan, 2016) and
political parties (Woods,2015). Indeed, the past half century has seen a rise in humanitarian
service organizations such as Doctors Without Borders for health care, International
Federation of Red Cross for disaster response and Action Against Hunger to end world
hunger. In general, the human rights activities of non-government organizations (NGOs)
Human rights
organizations’
codes of ethics
61
Received7 April 2017
Revised26 May 2017
Accepted28 June 2017
Journalof Information,
Communicationand Ethics in
Society
Vol.16 No. 1, 2018
pp. 61-74
© Emerald Publishing Limited
1477-996X
DOI 10.1108/JICES-04-2017-0021
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/1477-996X.htm
To continue reading
Request your trial