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 implication 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
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 successfully 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 express 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 information 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: the applicability of the Orchestration theory on human rights governance; and, its relevance for study of complex indirect and soft governance on the national level, as it was so far applied mainly to international domain.
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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.
The main data sources for the Serbian case study are, firstly, the Ombudsman’s annual reports, public statements, data available on its website, and in particular the project reports. These are combined with the information coming from libraries, either provided through local media, or presented on librarians’ international conferences and published in academic journals. Relevant legal sources and academic literature for both a general overview and the Serbian context have been used extensively as well. The combination of these sources has provided a solid evidentiary basis for valid conclusions.
In this article, the ‘promotion of human rights’ includes those functions which seek to create a society where human rights are more broadly understood and respected. Such functions may include education, training, advising, public outreach and advocacy. ‘Protection’ functions are understood as those that address and seek to prevent actual human rights violations, including monitoring, inquiring, investigating and reporting on human rights violations, including individual complaint handling. 4
This article starts with an overview of the orchestration governance model, as a theoretical niche. It then demonstrates how it can be successfully applied to describe the relationship between the ombudsman and local libraries in Serbia. An overview of comparative practices in libraries’ efforts to promote human rights is presented to picture their already established human rights actorness. Further, it presents a case study of Serbia to introduce a new role of libraries in the protection of human rights. It concludes with a summary of the results and their theoretical and practical implications.
Theoretical framework: NHRIs as orchestrators, local libraries as intermediaries, and citizens as targets
There are different types of governance. 5 For the purpose of this article, the ideal types’ differentiation proposed by Abbot and others (table 1) is adopted. 6
Four types of governance.7
In practice, these types are often mixed and blended into hybrid forms. Thus, they should be regarded as the extreme points of continua, that is, there are degrees of ‘(in)directness’ and ‘hardness’ in governance. 8 Hierarchy is a direct and hard type of governance. Collaboration shares directness with hierarchy, but it is based on soft incentives, while delegation and orchestration are indirect modes of governance, differentiated by the level of hardness. Opposite of two types of direct governance -which are pretty straight-forward- delegation and orchestration stand as more complex modes.
Delegation is most usually analysed through the principal-agent theory (the P-A approach), where one actor (principal) grants another actor (agent) the authority to act on its behalf, while the principal reserves the right to revoke this authority in cases of ineffectiveness or misconduct. The principal thus retains hard control over the agents. 9 While this mode of governance is very common, not all indirect governance can be properly understood as P-A delegations. As pointed out by Abbot and others, governors often lack the authority or power to grant or rescind third parties’ authority (at an acceptable cost), and rely instead on soft inducements to mobilise intermediaries and keep them in line. 10 In order to explore that kind of soft, indirect governance, Abbot and others developed the Orchestrator-Intermediary theory (O-I theory). 11 The general model of orchestration means that one actor (or set of actors), the Orchestrator, works through a second actor (or set of actors), the Intermediary, to govern a third actor (or set of actors), the Target. Following Abbott and others, this refers to the O-I-T model. 12
Delegation and orchestration share a general setup: the governor 13 brings in one or more third parties to govern a target by proxy, under the assumption that they will achieve desired goals more effectively, efficiently or legitimately than the governors themselves. Under both theories, the main benefits of indirect governance are functional: governors enhance their own governance capacity by tapping into the capabilities of third parties. 14
While an orchestrator is not a ‘governor’ in the hierarchical sense, 15 in delegation a principal actually is, as it contractually binds its agent. 16 A principal can revoke delegated powers of the agent, if the agent starts to diverge from the goals that motivated the principal to delegate in the first place. In orchestration, a governor (orchestrator) enlists intermediary actors on a voluntary basis, by providing them with additional and material support, to address target actors in pursuit of shared governance goals. 17
The key challenge for a principal in delegation is to sustain the agent of so-called slacking, meaning its independent action undesired by the principal. 18 While the principal has different instruments to its disposal to minimise this threat, ‘the only way to stop slacking completely is by rescinding the agent’s authority’. 19 Compared to delegation, the intermediary’s capability deficits are the primary limitation of orchestration. In other words, finding the right intermediary is of critical importance to the orchestrator, as their later relation is not regulated by the hard contract law, but by the shared values and goals and the very ability to fulfil those goals. Ideally, orchestrators seek to attract intermediaries with optimal governance capabilities – such as those supplying local information, technical expertise, enforcement capacity, material resources, legitimacy and direct access to targets – which the orchestrators lack. Nevertheless, orchestrators sometimes find a suitable intermediary who shares the same governance goals, but lacks some of desirable capabilities. In that case, the orchestrator seeks to improve the intermediary’s performance through appropriate forms of support. 20
Delegation and orchestration can be used at all levels of governance (international, national, local), as long as there are two-or multi-actor systems. In case of orchestration, this must always involve intermediaries, and should not be confused with other soft modes of governance, which do not need them (like collaboration). Put differently, if there is no intermediary, there is no orchestration. 21 Third parties enlisted as intermediaries can be both internal and external. They are ‘internal’ in the case of government bureaucracies and ‘external’ when they operate at some distance from the governor. 22 For example, states enlist professional associations and private contractors to regulate or provide different types of public services. Similarly, much of their foreign relations are conducted through international organisations. The intermediaries are often non-governmental organisations (NGOs), business organisations, public-private partnerships, transgovernmental networks and other entities.
Thematically, as argued by Abbott and others, the intermediary availability is more extensive in issue areas such as human rights and environment than in international security and finance. 23 In human rights, there are numerous potential intermediaries, for example NGOs, with highly correlated goals and complementary capabilities such as local access and technical expertise. 24 Despite the fact that the Orchestration theory has been formulated just few years ago, it has already attracted scholars to apply it to human rights governance. Tallberg used it to show that the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) provides funding, information and training to NGOs to enable them to assist individuals in filing complaints against state human rights violations. 25 Pegram has already successfully applied it to NHRIs, in the context of their intermediary role between international human rights mechanisms, that is, the United Nations (OHCHR), and the states. 26 Expanding these efforts, the Orchestration theory is here applied not in an international setting, but to test its soundness in multi-actor human rights governance on the national level. In this research, we probe a hypothesis that NHRIs may act as orchestrators on the national level, by enlisting other actors to achieve the common goal of realisation of human rights. As already mentioned, modes of governance can be also linked in chains, for example where an intermediary in one orchestration enlists (sub)intermediaries of its own, thereby becoming an orchestrator in another chain. In the context of this research, NHRIs which are intermediaries between the UN and the states, enlist local libraries to help them in fulfilling their mandate; the protection and promotion of human rights. While in the first case, the targets are the states, in the second, the citizens are targets, as they form a grass root case of orchestration.
The O-I-T model is based on four assumptions that derive from the very logic of orchestration: orchestration assumption, goal-seeking, complementary capabilities, and correlated goals.
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It is argued that case study presented here meets all of these: Ombudsman (NHRI), acting as orchestrator, has searched for a suitable intermediary to increase its visibility and accessibility to citizens (targets) on local level and found it in local public libraries, which sought a way to increase their presence and relevance in their respective local communities; the libraries’ mission to enable free access to information and promote diversity has coincided with the Ombudsman’s goal to become closer to citizens on local level; librarians’ experience in working with people, their positive reputation in the community, as well as knowledge of local community’s social dynamics and characteristics of the other local actors, made them the well-equipped to significantly increase efficiency and effectiveness of the Ombudsman’s efforts to become closer to citizens in smaller communities; and, as to be presented, the Ombudsman’s and libraries’ goals in this endeavour were aligned perfectly; no conflicts during the implementation of the project or after have been developed.
Before proceeding to a more thorough elaboration on why this is a case of orchestration, it seems appropriate to firstly explain why this is not some other type of governance. It is immediately obvious that the relation between NHRIs and local public libraries is not a hard type of governance, as NHRIs and libraries are not in any kind of subordinated order, necessary for both hierarchy and delegation. Their relationship in this context does not present a case of collaboration, because the goal of their interaction is not bilateral, it is not primarily aimed at increasing the level of their cooperation as such, but to enable distant access to a human rights remedy, that is the Ombudsman, via local libraries. Certainly, one of the results of this endeavour is a better collaboration between the Ombudsman and libraries, but that is more the by-product of their relation than the goal per se. Both actors found this interaction to be instrumental for achieving their own founding objectives: a NHRI is more accessible to citizens whose rights it is mandated to protect and promote; and libraries increase their overall visibility and status in local communities and explore new roles in the digital age that call for innovation and new ways of doing business. 28
Before moving on to demonstrate an innovative libraries’ role in human rights protection in the Serbian case study, an overview of their existing role in the promotion of human rights is provided.
The role of libraries in the promotion of human rights
Traditionally, libraries have not been part of regular human rights protection infrastructure. Nevertheless, they have always had a role in the promotion of human rights, even if their activities were not labelled as such. This role in the promotion of human rights comes out from their very core mission, which can be defined as to ‘ensure access to information for all for personal development, education, cultural enrichment, leisure, economic activity and informed participation in and enhancement of democracy’. 29 Indeed, the very birth of the public library was connected with the general development of democracy and with the emphasis of the rights of an individual, where access to information is the strong ethical cornerstone of the public library. 30 The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) endorses the principles of freedom of access to information and freedom of expression embodied in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as is core value. 31 Put differently, all public libraries share the mission of providing free access to information. 32 To that end, they contribute to the realisation of fundamental human rights; freedom of information, as subsumed by freedom of expression. 33 Having said that, it should be noted that ensuring an equal access to both physical and digital library material and information to all users, irrespective of their background (e.g. sexual orientation, ethnicity) is an on-going effort, which still is to be fully achieved worldwide.
The importance of public libraries’ role in the promotion of human rights has been recognised in the international community as well, as early as 1949, when UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) adopted the Public Library Manifesto, calling the public library ‘the local gateway to knowledge’. 34 Its amended version of 1994 underlines that public libraries and human rights are inextricably bound. 35 Accepting that, librarians have been devoted to enabling access to information to all, especially to vulnerable groups, such as children, persons with disabilities, LGBTI+ persons and immigrants.
Libraries have recognised and embraced their role in the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, most notably Article 12 (Freedom of expression), Article 17 (Access to information) and Article 31 (Right to participate fully in cultural life). 36 IFLA established Libraries for Children and Young Adults Section and published specific guidelines for work with the children, 37 while individual libraries across the world have organised a great variety of programs and activities for children, with the goal to: familiarise them with reading and information literacy; encourage their own creativity and productions (personal, artistic, scientific); offer not only resources and guidance, but a welcoming safe place for children to do school work; support education and gender equality; make libraries a comfortable place to meet and develop social links, and so on. 38
Since the entrance into force of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2006, libraries have recognised their role in its implementation, particularly Article 9 (Accessibility), Article 21 (Freedom of expression and access to information) and Article 30 (Participation in cultural life). Theresia Degener, chairperson of the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) encouraged libraries across the world to support the national implementation of the CRPD by providing equal and inclusive access to library services and holdings, as well as to cooperate with stakeholders at both the national and the international level, including disability advocacy organisations, NHRIs 39 and CRPD monitoring bodies at home or at the UN. 40 French libraries have been very active in enabling easier access to persons with disabilities. For instance, the public library of Toulouse offers a huge range of information and material in accessible formats and technologies appropriate to different kinds of disabilities, such as Braille books, documents in French sign language, audio descriptive films, and an accessible website and newsletter. It also provides a free phone service in French sign language for deaf people. 41
In recent years, 42 there is a growing understanding among librarians that they have to support LGBTI+ community, despite considerable resistance by, inter alia, conservative members of local communities, occasional regressive legislative initiatives or even self-censorship. IFLA has recognised the need to accelerate its efforts to this end by creating a LGBTI+ Users Special Interest Group. 43 IFLA’s activities were followed by the American Library Association (ALA), which developed a series of professional tools for serving LGBTI+ library users. 44 ALA’s activities have served as a response to the attempts to supress accessibility of LGBTI+ information in public libraries in some parts of the USA, for example Alabama 45 and Oklahoma. 46 In their topical study, Montague and McKeever provided for a set of national case studies on the practice of facilitating access and services for LGBTI+ users, namely Canada, Democratic Republic of Congo, England, India, Japan, Sweden, and USA. 47 Additional evidence from South Africa suggests there is a need for re-examination of book selection processes, collection development and information services for LGBT people, if librarians are to fulfil their social mission and stand on behalf of this marginalised group. 48 A more positive account is observed in Brazil, where joint efforts from the government, NGOs and public libraries resulted in an increased publishers’ interest to expand their products to fulfil library’s collections and meet needs of LGBTI+ users in the field of education, culture, health, human rights and social inclusion, while general library users are educated on LGBTI+ rights. 49
Finally, librarians across the world have been actively engaged in promotion of multiculturalism and multilingualism. IFLA has been on the forefront of this endeavour, even creating its own special section for library services aimed at ‘multicultural populations’, defined as ethnic, linguistic and cultural minorities. In this context, the goal is to provide equal access to both physical and digital library material and information in the user’s own language and relative to the user’s own culture. In some countries, such as Denmark, ‘libraries are firmly anchored when it comes to servicing the country’s ethnic minorities’. 50 The Danish approach is to foster integration, rather than assimilation of immigrants. For example, in libraries in Aarhus, Copenhagen and Odense, several types of workshops, clubs, events, informal language tuition, help with essay-writing, job corner, help with job applications, and so on, have been introduced, together with other initiatives which might contribute to better integration and building of bridges between ethnic minorities. 51 Information from some other countries of the European Union testify that there is still much to be done, as their national libraries make little reference in their ‘mission statements’ with regard to cultural diversity or multiculturalism, but prevailingly refer to their own national cultural heritage. Vaagan observed that, for instance, the Spanish National Library makes little reference to the Basque population, while the German National Library completely ignores the question of Turkish immigrants. 52 According to this author, the situation is no different in France. 53 This rather gloomy picture was, perhaps, one of the reasons why the European Union decided to support the ‘Libraries for All’ project, with the aim to make local migrant populations an integral part of local public libraries. A central focus has been the introduction of Advisory Boards for Multiculturalism (ABMs), which should consist of the librarians and specifically qualified members of the local immigrant communities. 54 Similar problems of insufficient number and quality of librarian services provided to Spanish-speaking minority have been also observed in the USA. 55
This condensed overview shows that libraries have recognised their role in the promotion of human rights. At the same time, wider problems in realisation of human rights on the national level, including in terms of legislation and practices, affect libraries’ manoeuvring space, as evident from the cases of LGTBI+ rights and multicultural librarianship.
Building on their role in the promotion of human rights, the next part demonstrates how libraries could participate in the protection of human rights by using the case study of Serbia.
An emerging role of libraries in the protection of human rights: Case study of Serbia
Public libraries have a long tradition in Serbia. The National Library of Serbia was founded in 1832, and it is the oldest cultural institution established on the Serbian soil. The oldest national library and the first public and scientific library of Serbs is the Matica Srpska Library, founded in 1826, in Pest (now Hungary) and moved to Novi Sad (Vojvodina, Serbia) in 1864. Today, these two libraries are national institutions mandated to realise the general interest in the library and information service in Serbia. 56
Under the Law on the Library and Information Service, all local self-government units have the obligation to establish a public library as an institution and to secure all conditions that are necessary for the operation thereof (including the financial means). 57 At the moment, there are more than 600 public libraries and branches in total of 174 local self-government units. According to the Law, libraries are established in order to provide the conditions for the realisation of the rights of the people to freedom of expression, while the general interest within the library and information service means that the people have free access to information, knowledge, ideas, information materials and resources that are contained in the library and the right to realise all their individual and intellectual freedoms in which libraries and information centres can assist them through their services. 58 Similarly, the formal mission of the Serbian Library Association (SLA), the oldest and the largest library association in Serbia, 59 is to ‘advocate for a free and equal access to knowledge and information for all citizens’. 60
Serbia has a well-developed human rights institutional infrastructure. 61 The Protector of Citizens (Ombudsman) was established in 2005 by the Law on the Ombudsman; it has become a constitutionally ranked institution with the adoption of the new Constitution of Serbia in 2006. 62 This is a general parliamentary Ombudsman, established as an independent body mandated to protect the rights of citizens and control the work of all administrative authorities which have been delegated public authority. 63 The Ombudsman is explicitly mandated to protect and promote human rights. 64
The Ombudsman has been accredited as a NHRI in the highest, A status, since 2010. 65 This status was reaffirmed in 2015 (until 2020). The accreditation is conducted by the Subcommittee on Accreditation of the Global Alliance of NHRIs (GANHRI), whose accreditation system is recognised and facilitated by the UN (OHCHR). The accreditation is based on compliance with the Paris Principles, adopted in 1993 by the UN General Assembly Resolution 48/134, that stipulate the conditions that NHRIs have to meet. NHRIs occupy a specific position in the state’s politico-legal system, independent from three traditional branches. 66 They act as oversight and corrective authorities, established by the Constitution or special (organic) law. Serbian Ombudsman has all the usual competences of a general parliamentary Ombudsman and a well-grounded NHRI. 67 It should be noted that not all Ombudsmen 68 are automatically considered NHRIs, but only those with an explicit human rights mandate. In other words, so-called classical administrative Ombudsmen or the first-generation Ombudsmen, such as the Swedish, Danish or Irish Ombudsmen, do not reach the threshold for NHRI status. They do not have a mandate to protect and promote human rights, but rather they are mandated to fight maladministration and to control the legality of the work of administrative authorities. With the introduction of so-called human rights ombudsmen and hybrid ombudsmen in the Iberian Peninsula in late 1970s and in Central and East Europe a decade or so later, Ombudsmen have been inaugurated as human rights mechanisms. In Central and East Europe, all Ombudsmen, including Serbian, have an explicit mandate to protect and promote human rights, allowing them to fulfil the Paris Principles.
The Serbian Ombudsman is well-established institution. The European Commission has continuously acknowledged the Serbian Ombudsman’s key role in protection and promotion of human rights and its essential role in ensuring that the executive is accountable. 69 The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights 70 and the OHCHR 71 also recognise it as well-respected and credible.
Besides on the national, Serbia has Ombuds structures on the provincial and the local levels. The Provincial Ombudsman of Vojvodina was established in 2002, while the possibility of establishing an Ombudsman on the level of local self-government has been envisaged by the Law on Local Self-Government, adopted in 2002. According to the Law, a local self-government unit may elect the Ombudsman mandated to control the respect of the rights of citizens, establish violations resulting from acts, actions or failure to act by administrative authorities and public services, if they are violations of legislation adopted by the local self-government unit. National and local ombudsmen are not in any kind of subordinated relation. Local ombudsmen have so far been established in 19 local self-governments (out of 174). This testifies to the fact that the very notion of local ombudsmen is neither sufficiently spread nor rooted. Existing research revealed that the system of local ombudsmen should be significantly improved to be able to respond to the needs of citizens on the local level. 72
As the Serbian National Ombudsman is a young and new institution in the Serbian politico-legal system, it was necessary to familiarise the citizens with its mandate and competences, particularly out of Belgrade, because the statistics showed that in the first few years of operation, the majority of complaints were coming from the Belgrade region. In order to foster inter-ethnical relations in Serbia, the Ombudsman established three local offices 73 in South Serbia’s municipalities where Albanians form the majority. As it was not cost-efficient to set up local offices all around Serbia, being a unitary state, some other ways of making the institution more visible and accessible to citizens in inner-Serbia had to be employed. After a thorough examination of potential ways to achieve this goal, the Ombudsman decided to explore a possibility of using a proxy. Libraries came as a perfect solution, as Serbia has a long tradition of having public libraries even in the smallest municipalities. Additionally, libraries are cultural, non-partisan, and open to all citizens, usually found in good locations and open for cooperation. Furthermore, in their efforts to fulfil their core mission to enable access to information to all citizens, 74 local libraries across the country have already been conducting different activities with the goal to increase their accessibility and attractiveness to vulnerable groups living in their communities.
There has been a nation-wide recognition of the importance of attracting children to libraries and the specifics of working with children and youth, in both public and school libraries. This has resulted in a development of a number of services and specialised programs for them. 75 Serbia as a multi-national country has created a solid legal framework enabling national minorities to enjoy their rights to self-government in culture, education, information and official use of language and script, including through the establishment of national councils of national minorities. 76 According to the Law on National Councils of National Minorities (the Law), 77 national councils may establish specialised libraries to preserve their cultural and language identities. Hungarian, and Slovak minorities, respectively, have formed such libraries. 78 It should be noted that these libraries are aimed at the members of these minorities, and are thus not multicultural per se. Nevertheless, an important number of texts in their languages can be found in general public libraries, 79 for instance in Subotica. 80 Good examples of, indeed, multicultural libraries are local public libraries in Dimitrovgrad 81 and Bosilegrad, 82 two towns in Eastern Serbia with an important Bulgarian minority.
As per services for persons with disabilities, the National Library of Serbia, as a parent library, has a modern Centre for Blind and Visually Impaired persons 83 and organises a specialised educational program for librarians in services for people with disabilities. 84 The Public Library in Užice has also developed special services for blind and visually impaired persons, acquired necessary technical equipment and trained its staff to assist this category of users. 85 Similar efforts were made in, for instance, Smederevo, 86 Novi Pazar, 87 Požarevac, 88 and Čačak, 89 while the City Library of Belgrade has also enabled the users with disabilities to order books to be delivered at their home addresses. 90 While there is an increasing number of local libraries physically accessible to persons with disabilities, 91 a lot more efforts should be made in order to enable an easy access to all local libraries. When it is up to the information on specialised services for LGTBI+ persons in local libraries in Serbia, they are notably missing.
These libraries’ activities inspired the Ombudsman, who was looking for a suitable partner on the local level, to enhance its visibility and accessibility. Libraries proved to be a perfect ‘affine’ third party
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as they were already conducting human rights activities and were seeking to increase their presence and relevance in their respective local communities. In that way, the first two theoretical assumptions for an orchestration were met, that is: the Ombudsman, acting as an Orchestrator found a suitable intermediary – local libraries; and, their goals matched perfectly.
Thus, in the period 2010-2015, the Ombudsman, teamed up with the Serbian Library Association (SLA), local libraries and local self-government authorities, to implement a project funded by the Royal Norwegian Government titled ‘Promoting Human and Minority Rights through Increased Ombudsman’s Outreach to Citizens’ in 15 selected municipalities in Serbia. The SLA and local libraries have served as main partners of the project.
The first goal of the project was to provide easier and more accessible contact for citizens with the Ombudsman, through the usage of modern communication technologies and institutional proxies, meaning, local public libraries. By using the video software installed in local libraries, citizens were able to establish contact with the Ombudsman in Belgrade, discuss their concerns and lodge a complaint, with the help of a trained librarian. The second goal was to increase the knowledge of citizens about their rights, with a special focus on the rights of national minorities, persons living with disabilities, gender equality issues and the right to good governance, both at the local and national level.
With a significant assistance of the SLA, the 15 libraries were chosen. 93 Three criteria were particularly important: a well-spread geographic coverage of selected libraries; the percentage of complaints from the chosen municipalities were smaller in comparison to others; and, the availability of access to libraries for people with disabilities. Following the election of participating local libraries, the project envisaged training for librarians who would be directly involved in the implementation of activities in order to get familiar with the mandate of the Ombudsman and the specific tasks within the project. In the orchestration terms, local libraries lacked some of needed capabilities for the orchestration, so the Ombudsman provided them with the technical support to improve their performance, 94 which resulted in the fulfilment of the third orchestration assumption – complementary capabilities. 95
When the project started, participating librarians were on duty twice a week for two hours at a pre-agreed time for citizens who wanted to contact the legal officers from the Ombudsman office via video link. In practice, a citizen comes to a library, where a librarian explains her/him how to establish a video call to connect with the legal advisor in the Ombudsman office in Belgrade. In order to provide privacy and confidentiality, all citizens’ communication with the Ombudsman staff took place in a separate room. That way, citizens could be assured that their human rights concerns or reports on misconduct of either local or national authorities would be heard only by the Ombudsman staff. In cases where citizens would lodge a complaint against local authorities and was feeling afraid of possible pressures or reprisals, which could be the case in small communities where everyone knows each other, the Ombudsman has had a legal possibility not to disclose name of the complainant to the authority under investigation. 96
In order to inform the citizens from the 15 towns about the mandate of the Ombudsman and the initiative launched in their local communities, a series of promotional activities were organised, with notable contribution of the participating local libraries and NGOs. The libraries distributed hundreds promotional leaflets and put up promotional posters at prominent places in the relevant local institutions and organisations (schools, health centres, the police, youth offices, NGOs, and so on). 97 Leaflets were designed to be informative and understandable to the average citizen and contain basic information about the Ombudsman and the reasons for addressing it, including the relevant legislation and a model of a complaint. Moreover, 12 television stations and 2 radio stations in 15 towns aired a ticker about the possibility to talk to the legal officers of the Ombudsman via video link from their local library. Finally, round tables were held in each selected municipality, with the general goal to initiate dialogue between the relevant stakeholders at the local level on the public perception of human rights. The topics were not identical in all places because care was taken that the conversations concerned a hot human rights topic for a particular municipality. The participants at round tables included local public officials, representatives of local civil society organisations, media and local experts. 98 Libraries took an active participation in the organisation of the round tables and cooperation with local NGOs. In the beginning of the project, all library directors supported the Ombudsman’s initiative of establishing better cooperation between local libraries and NGOs. 99
To track the project effects, all participating librarians were submitting monthly work reports to the Ombudsman. During the project implementation, the number of contacts with citizens and formal complaints lodged with the Ombudsman has increased more than 40%. 100 In 2011, there were 4905 contacts and 2334 complaints annually from various parts of Serbia other than Belgrade, while in 2013 there were 7834 contacts and 5179 complaints; and in 2014, 7920 contacts and 5142 complaints, respectively. 101 The possibility of contacting the Ombudsman staff via video link from local libraries was used by 2028 citizens 102 in the course of 30 months of the duration of the project. While these numbers nominally do not seem to be big, having in mind that the project deliberately selected smaller municipalities with just over 30.000 inhabitants, all stakeholders were very satisfied with what was achieved. 103 In addition, a total of 3096 citizens visited the libraries or telephoned in order to get informed about the project. 104
In comparison to other types of contact (via telephone, mail, e-mail, in person), the share of contacts established via video link in all contacts established from the 15 elected municipalities was approximately 46%, which indicates that the citizens have embraced this online mechanism as a good way to communicate with the Ombudsman. 105 Out of the complaints filed through this new mechanism, around 80% fell outside of the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction. 106 While at first sight this data seems negative, it is actually positive in long-term, because during the complaint-handling procedure these citizens were informed in detail why their complaint was rejected and to whom they could refer it to, that is, who was the competent authority in each particular case. Looking from a broader human rights perspective, citizens whose complaints were rejected were at the same time educated on their rights, and competences of the Ombudsman and other human rights protection mechanisms.
To that end, the two expected goals of the project have been achieved in full, 107 that is, the Ombudsman has become more accessible to the citizens living in smaller municipalities in inner Serbia; and citizens have increased their knowledge on their rights. In other words, the project contributed to both main methods of work of the Ombudsman, meaning, individual complaint handling through video link, and systemic promotional function, which was achieved through round tables, leaflets, media appearances, and so on.
The project remains sustainable in all of its main activities, because libraries have remain committed to continue to act as an intermediary between the Ombudsman and citizens, and all technical equipment purchased for the project’s needs stayed in their possession (for example, computers). Libraries have established firmer connections with local administrations, which can also have a long-term effect, in terms of bigger funding and joint activities. In addition, in order to assist libraries to make the plan and better define the ideas for the promotion of human rights in their communities after the end of the project, the Ombudsman organised trainings for librarians about the elements of the project cycle and skills of writing project proposals. 108 The trainings made them better equipped to apply for additional funds to finance new programmes on the local level. Based on the cooperation they have established with local NGOs during the promotional activities of the project, they would be able to prepare joint projects and positively change the local human rights dynamics. Furthermore, on the initiative of one participating librarian, the Ombudsman organised a special training for librarians on how to deal with problematic complainants (citizens), which contributed to their better communicational skills and greater knowledge on conflict management. 109 To that end, librarians’ capabilities as an intermediary have been further enhanced by the orchestrator. At the same time, these improved intermediary’s capabilities, have not unwittingly undermined the intermediary’s willingness to be orchestrated, which can happen in those situations. 110
During the entire project, the Ombudsman’s and libraries’ goals were perfectly aligned, that is, no conflicts during the implementation of the project or after have been developed, thereby successfully reaching the threshold for the fourth orchestration assumption – the correlated goals. Cooperation of local libraries with the Ombudsman on this initiative contributed to their greater visibility, through a whole range of promotional activities in which they took participation, including wider media presence. 111 The topics for promotional activities, including round tables, were tailor made for every individual municipality, depending on its characteristics (for instance, ethnic composition, local human rights problems, the level of economic development), and brought together a wide range of local actors. In that sense, libraries have become much more recognised as centres of not only cultural but also, more extensively, of social life in their local communities, while their support to the exercise of the rights of citizens was positively valued in their local communities.
Although not originally planned, the project resulted in two very practical contributions to the rights of persons with disabilities. First, already during the selection of the participating libraries, following the visits to them, the project team decided to fund from the project budget the installation of movable ramps for persons with disabilities in two libraries, while minor or more extensive refurbishment was performed on access paths to additional two libraries. Second, during the project, the extent of the problem of accessibility of public spaces and institutions for persons with disabilities was fully apprehended. That led the Ombudsman to team up with the NGO ‘Accessibility Audit Association’ to develop an online searchable database (map) on the accessibility of public facilities and social services which are under the responsibility of local governments. 112 This interactive map contains geo-locations of the objects and is adapted for use by visually impaired people. 113
Finally, media appearances and reports related to the project contributed to awareness-raising and education of the citizens on their rights and the mechanisms for their protection. Increased visibility of the Ombudsman in Serbia and various promotional activities within the project have contributed to the spreading of a culture of human rights in the society. Surveys designed to measure public perception of the rights of vulnerable groups in Serbia and knowledge of the Ombudsman’s mandate and perception of its work have been conducted before, during and after the project. 114 Surveys have showed considerable increase of the visibility, knowledge of the citizens about the Ombudsman and trust in the institution after the project. 115
Conclusion
The aim of this research was threefold. The first was to show that local public libraries are already important actors in the promotion of human rights. The second was to demonstrate that besides promotional, public local libraries could, in fact, play an effective role in the protection of human rights, as well. The third was theoretical, aiming to prove that through that new role in the protection of human rights, libraries actually serve as an intermediary between the Ombudsman (Orchestrator) and citizens (Targets).
The historical and thematical overview of libraries’ human rights activism revealed that they have put considerable effort to serve as inclusive beacons of equitable access to resources and services for all their constituents, irrespective of their personal or other characteristics. By using the experiences of the Serbian Ombudsman and its cooperation with 15 local public libraries, we have presented how libraries have assisted citizens in their local communities to contact the Ombudsman through the video-call software installed in libraries. In this way, libraries have helped their patrons to lodge complaints with the key national human rights protection mechanism, expanding the range of their services from access to information to access to remedy; and from promotion to the protection of human rights.
Cooperation of local libraries with the Ombudsman contributed to their greater visibility, and their support to the exercise of the rights of citizens was positively valued in their local communities. In the course of the project, with the assistance of the Ombudsman, local libraries have connected much firmly with local administrations and NGOs, which is a long-term benefit to all.
The project was a complete success for the Ombudsman too. The number of complaints from the targeted municipalities increased considerably, as well as the overall recognisability of the institution on the local level, as confirmed by the public surveys.
The theoretical ideas developed in this article shed a new light on the application of the Orchestration theory, in both national and human rights contexts. Our analysis showed that the relationship between NHRIs and local public libraries successfully reaches the O-I-T threshold, as all four assumptions for the orchestration have been met. The results of our research could serve to inspire similar studies exploring the application of the Orchestration theory to the complex multi-actor human rights dynamics from global via national to local environments.
While this research was inspired by the Serbian experience, its key policy implication is perfectly applicable to other states as well. The initiative implemented in Serbia can be copied worldwide, that is, it can serve as a sort of a guideline to other states on how different mandates of public sector actors can be used to create a synergetic human rights infrastructure in a very cost-effective way. The Serbian initiative presents an excellent example of a fruitful and mutual beneficial joint venture of local and national authorities. That is particularly relevant given the fact that human rights often become arenas of contestation between local and national actors.
Footnotes
Declaration of conflicting interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.