What is PROM about?
Peer reviews among states are increasingly widely used as an instrument of global governance: Think about the many peer reviews of the OECD, the United Nations’ Universal Periodic Review, or about the variety of peer reviewing schemes in the European Union, such as its new rule of law peer review.
Yet, while there are many peer reviews, the results of some of them are taken more seriously by participants than others. How can this be explained?
The Peer Review Observatory Maastricht (PROM) looks at the functioning and the authority of peer reviews in various international organizations and policy fields. It conducts academic research and policy advice to interested audiences.
PROM started off with a comparative research project that ran from 2013 to 2019. It explored why some peer reviews among states acquire authority, while other peer reviewing schemes do not. We looked at six peer reviewing schemes are organized in different organizational contexts (OECD; United Nations family, WTO, Council of Europe) and in different policy areas (the fight against corruption; human rights; economic and trade policies). Read an abstract of the project here…
The project was hosted by the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences of Maastricht University and received funding by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek — NWO) under its prestigious Innovational Research Incentive Scheme (VIDI).
Latest activity
Valentina Carraro and Hortense Jongen advise UN FACTI panel
At the request of High-Level Panel on International Financial Accountability, Transparency and Integrity for Achieving the 2030 Agenda Financing for Sustainable Development (FACTI), Valentina Carraro, Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Groningen,...
Hortense Jongen starts at VU Amsterdam
After concluding a postdoctoral position at the University of Gothenburg, Dr Hortense Jongen has assumed a position as Assistant Professor of International Relations at the VU Amsterdam. Her contact details can be retrieved here.
International Studies Quarterly publishes article on Human Rights Compliance
The prestigious Journal International Studies Quarterly has published the article “Promoting Compliance with Human Rights” by Valentina Carraro open access. In this article Carraro compares the Performance of the United Nations’ Universal Periodic Review and Treaty...
Hortense Jongen receives UM Dissertation Award
Each year, Maastricht University awards a prize for the best dissertation defended. This year,Hortense Jongen was chosen among five other nominees and awarded with the UM Dissertation Award 2018. We are very proud that Hortense received this prestigious UM prize, also...
New publication in ‘European Journal of International Relations’
The European Journal of International Relations accepted the article ‘Electing the Experts: Expertis and independence in the UN Human Rights treaty bodies’ by Valentina Carraro. The paper studies the formal and informal processes leading to the appointment of expert...
Open access article published in ‘Cooperation and Conflict’
Cooperation and Conflict now includes open to our article ‘Fears of peers? Explaining peer and public shaming in global governance‘. The paper contributes to the academic literature by looking more deeply at what is truly striking about peer reviews among states: Why...