LIST OF PANELS

The proposed panel seeks to achieve three key objectives:

· Identify topical areas where the design and implementation of different policy approaches can advance equal rights and opportunities for minority and other marginalized populations;

· Highlight topical areas where existing policy approaches are currently hindering the equal rights of minority and other marginalized populations directly or indirectly; and

· Explore different methodological approaches to systematically learning about the approaches that countries or other polities take to strengthening equal rights and opportunities for minority and other marginalized populations.

There has long been international agreement on the importance of extending equal rights and opportunities to groups that have been historically marginalized. Seventy years ago, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights guaranteed equal rights regardless of “race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.” More recently, United Nations member countries unanimously committed through the Sustainable Development Goals to “leave no one behind,” while more targeted international treaties like the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities have underscored the need to address barriers to equal rights faced by specific groups in detail. At the same time, marginalized groups such as migrants, refugees, and LGBTQ populations continue to face legal and practical constraints around the world.

To better understand how rights for minority and other marginalized groups can be advanced or constrained, it is critical to analyze how policy approaches at different levels function: In what settings do countries or other polities guarantee equal rights or prohibit discrimination on the basis of disability, migration status, sexual orientation and gender identity, or other grounds? To what extent do common legal or policy provisions include or exclude minority and other marginalized groups, thus enhancing or endangering their rights? How can these provisions be leveraged to advance equal rights and opportunities for these groups in practice?

This panel will be chaired by researchers from the WORLD Policy Analysis Center (WORLD) at the University of California Los Angeles. WORLD is committed to strengthening equal rights and opportunities worldwide by (1) identifying the most effective policy approaches for improving individual wellbeing and enabling countries to thrive, with a focus on the worst-off; (2) improving the quantity and quality of globally comparative data on laws and policies that work to support equal rights and opportunities, especially for marginalized populations; and (3) working in partnership to advance evidence-based improvements in countries worldwide. The panel will focus primarily on methodological and empirical approaches to understanding which marginalized groups have their rights alternatively enhanced or constrained by laws or policies worldwide, what approaches – national or otherwise – are being implemented in relevant policy domains, and to what extent these policies can advance equality for the world’s most historically marginalized groups.

Despite a renewed focus, through international instruments such as the Sustainable Development Goals, on equal rights and reaching those that are furthest behind, inequalities in public policy domains such as healthcare, education or work persist worldwide for many minority groups and other marginalized populations. International and regional organizations, national governments, and subnational units regularly design and implement different policies and programs that can close – or sometimes widen – this gap. There is, however, a need for more systematic analyses of what these approaches are and how they work to protect and enhance the rights and opportunities of marginalized groups such as refugees, persons with disabilities, LGBTQ populations, and others.

This panel invites submissions to explore how different approaches, from constitutional provisions to legal and policy change to on-the-ground programs, can best support the rights and protections of minority populations that have been historically marginalized. It specially welcomes papers with a methodological or empirical focus that can help improve our understanding of what types of protections are available and routinely implemented to protect these groups in different policy domains; how these protections are put into practice; and/or what the effects of these protections are for particular groups in specific policy domains.

While retaining a focus on the marginalized populations that are most touched by inequality, the panel aims to include submissions from a wide range of disciplines and policy domains, and encourages research on any vulnerable group worldwide.