Christopher Harris
Open Democracy -14 November 2013
The next generation of foundations in the Global South
will likely be the vanguard of experimentation and learning. A look across the
current funding landscape for human rights and justice in the Global South
suggests reason for both disappointment and for optimism. For the sake of this
review, I put aside official government aid—there is plenty there to
discuss—and only look at the smaller world of private philanthropic giving.
Most past criticisms of
foundation support for human rights and justice are still relevant. These
critiques—apart from the very real problem of simply not enough money—include concern
over weak funder strategies, timidity, short attention span, evaluation fetish,
poor or no accountability and the absence of centres of research and learning
committed to funding rights and justice.
Most funders who express concern about poverty,
injustice and the abuse of human rights still employ strategies that that can
be described as ‘charity’—funding the provision of services to reduce suffering
or an immediate injustice. Although these are important if you are the victim,
these strategies are silent on the causes
of injustice, and leave them untouched. As a result, charitable approaches
rarely deal with the frequently invisible structural sources of injustice, be
they legal, economic, political or cultural.
To read more...
Sunday, November 17, 2013
Thursday, November 14, 2013
Universal values, foreign money: local human rights organizations in the Global South
James Ron and Archana Pandya
Open Democracy - 13 November 2013
How important is international funding to local human rights groups worldwide? Oddly enough, there has been little published research on the topic. Pressured by angry nationalists and vengeful governments, human rights activists and donors prefer to keep money questions out of the spotlight.
Indeed, we know of only two existing studies. In 2006, a Nigerian scholar published research on 20 of his country’s 100 human rights groups, the vast majority of which were foreign-supported. Two years later, Israeli researchers published a study based on interviews with 16 of the country’s 26 human rights groups, and said that more than 90 percent of their budgets came from Europe and the United States. Neither study, however, shed light on conditions elsewhere in the world.
To rectify this gap, we began by interviewing 128 human rights workers from 60 countries in the Global South and former Communist region. Then we assembled lists of all the local rights groups we could find in Rabat and Casablanca (Morocco), Mumbai (India), and Mexico City and San Cristóbal de las Casas (Mexico). Our team identified 189 groups in total, all of which were non-governmental, domestically headquartered, politically unaffiliated, and legally registered.
To read more....
Open Democracy - 13 November 2013
How important is international funding to local human rights groups worldwide? Oddly enough, there has been little published research on the topic. Pressured by angry nationalists and vengeful governments, human rights activists and donors prefer to keep money questions out of the spotlight.
Indeed, we know of only two existing studies. In 2006, a Nigerian scholar published research on 20 of his country’s 100 human rights groups, the vast majority of which were foreign-supported. Two years later, Israeli researchers published a study based on interviews with 16 of the country’s 26 human rights groups, and said that more than 90 percent of their budgets came from Europe and the United States. Neither study, however, shed light on conditions elsewhere in the world.
To rectify this gap, we began by interviewing 128 human rights workers from 60 countries in the Global South and former Communist region. Then we assembled lists of all the local rights groups we could find in Rabat and Casablanca (Morocco), Mumbai (India), and Mexico City and San Cristóbal de las Casas (Mexico). Our team identified 189 groups in total, all of which were non-governmental, domestically headquartered, politically unaffiliated, and legally registered.
To read more....
Call For Papers: Organizing a panel - ISA Human Rights Joint Conference June 16-19, 2014, Istanbul, Turkey
Proposed Title: Critical Perspectives towards Human Rights
ISA Human Rights Joint Conference 2014, Istanbul, Turkey
http://www.isanet.org/Conferences/HRIstanbul2014.aspx
Dear all,
The International Studies Association-Human Rights is holding a joint conference in collaboration with IPSA, APSA and the Standing Group on Human Rights and Transition and ECPR; this is the third joint international conference on human rights, on the theme of “Human Rights and Change.” It will take place on 16-18 June 2014 at Kadir Has Üniversitesi (http://www.khas.edu.tr/en/) in Istanbul. I am in the process of writing an article on Orientalism and Human Rights, which is part of a larger book project.
If you are interested in participating in forming a panel together on Critical Perspectives towards Human Rights (this is a tentative title, we can change it after further discussion), please let me know off the list. I know this is short notice, and the deadline is the December 1st. For this conference, you need to be a member of the International Studies Association. I welcome submissions related to, but not limited to the following
subjects:
-Critical Perspectives towards Human Rights
-Human Rights Industry and New Missionaries: AI, HRW, USIP, NED, etc.
-State actors and the Human Rights Industry
-Local actors (NGOs and think-tanks) and the Human Rights Industry
-Political Economy and Human Rights
-Democracy Promotion and Human Rights
-Regional (Middle East, Africa, Latin America and Asia) Implications of Human Rights Policies
Please check the following books and articles before you submit a proposal:
Bricmont, Jean. 2006. Humanitarian Imperialism: Using Human Rights to Sell War. Montly Review Press. http://monthlyreview.org/press/books/pb1471/
Judith Blau and Mark Frezzo, 2011. Sociology and Human Rights: A Bill of Rights for the Twenty-First Century http://www.sagepub.com/books/Book235439
End human rights imperialism now http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/dec/31/human-rights-imperialism-james-hoge
Amnesty International and the Human Rights Industry http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/11/08/amnesty-international-and-the-human-rights-industry/
Human Rights as Myth and Ceremony? Reevaluating the Effectiveness of Human Rights Treaties, 1981–2007 Author(s): Wade M. Cole Source: American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 117, No. 4 (January 2012), pp. 1131-1171.
Imperialism, Human Rights, and Protectionism http://www.zcommunications.org/imperialism-human-rights-and-protectionism-by-robin-hahnel.html
Imperialist feminism redux. Saadia Toor. Dialect Anthropol. October 2012.
Globalization, the world system, and "democracy promotion" in U.S. foreign policy WILLIAM I. ROBINSON.Theory and Society 25:615-665, 1996.
Email me the following information by Monday, November 25, be sure you are a member of ISA: http://www.isanet.org/Membership.aspx
-abstract, 300 words
-title of your paper
-your short bio, 100-150 words, including your institutional affiliation, email, etc.
Any questions or suggestions are welcome.
Please also check the website for updates: http://sociologyofhumanrights.org/
Best to all,
--
Tugrul Keskin
Assistant Professor of International and Middle Eastern Studies
Affiliated Faculty of Black Studies
Sociology and Center for Turkish Studies
Middle East Studies Coordinator (INTL)
Portland State University
ISA Human Rights Joint Conference 2014, Istanbul, Turkey
http://www.isanet.org/Conferences/HRIstanbul2014.aspx
Dear all,
The International Studies Association-Human Rights is holding a joint conference in collaboration with IPSA, APSA and the Standing Group on Human Rights and Transition and ECPR; this is the third joint international conference on human rights, on the theme of “Human Rights and Change.” It will take place on 16-18 June 2014 at Kadir Has Üniversitesi (http://www.khas.edu.tr/en/) in Istanbul. I am in the process of writing an article on Orientalism and Human Rights, which is part of a larger book project.
If you are interested in participating in forming a panel together on Critical Perspectives towards Human Rights (this is a tentative title, we can change it after further discussion), please let me know off the list. I know this is short notice, and the deadline is the December 1st. For this conference, you need to be a member of the International Studies Association. I welcome submissions related to, but not limited to the following
subjects:
-Critical Perspectives towards Human Rights
-Human Rights Industry and New Missionaries: AI, HRW, USIP, NED, etc.
-State actors and the Human Rights Industry
-Local actors (NGOs and think-tanks) and the Human Rights Industry
-Political Economy and Human Rights
-Democracy Promotion and Human Rights
-Regional (Middle East, Africa, Latin America and Asia) Implications of Human Rights Policies
Please check the following books and articles before you submit a proposal:
Bricmont, Jean. 2006. Humanitarian Imperialism: Using Human Rights to Sell War. Montly Review Press. http://monthlyreview.org/press/books/pb1471/
Judith Blau and Mark Frezzo, 2011. Sociology and Human Rights: A Bill of Rights for the Twenty-First Century http://www.sagepub.com/books/Book235439
End human rights imperialism now http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/dec/31/human-rights-imperialism-james-hoge
Amnesty International and the Human Rights Industry http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/11/08/amnesty-international-and-the-human-rights-industry/
Human Rights as Myth and Ceremony? Reevaluating the Effectiveness of Human Rights Treaties, 1981–2007 Author(s): Wade M. Cole Source: American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 117, No. 4 (January 2012), pp. 1131-1171.
Imperialism, Human Rights, and Protectionism http://www.zcommunications.org/imperialism-human-rights-and-protectionism-by-robin-hahnel.html
Imperialist feminism redux. Saadia Toor. Dialect Anthropol. October 2012.
Globalization, the world system, and "democracy promotion" in U.S. foreign policy WILLIAM I. ROBINSON.Theory and Society 25:615-665, 1996.
Email me the following information by Monday, November 25, be sure you are a member of ISA: http://www.isanet.org/Membership.aspx
-abstract, 300 words
-title of your paper
-your short bio, 100-150 words, including your institutional affiliation, email, etc.
Any questions or suggestions are welcome.
Please also check the website for updates: http://sociologyofhumanrights.org/
Best to all,
--
Tugrul Keskin
Assistant Professor of International and Middle Eastern Studies
Affiliated Faculty of Black Studies
Sociology and Center for Turkish Studies
Middle East Studies Coordinator (INTL)
Portland State University
Sociology of Human Rights and International Studies Course Readings
Sociology of Human Rights:
International Studies,
Neo-Orientalism and Human Rights
INTL 407
Required Books:
This course will use sections from the following books and
articles:
1.
Donnelly, Jack. 2012. International Human Rights. Westview Press.
2.
Bricmont, Jean.
2006. Humanitarian Imperialism:
Using Human Rights to Sell War. Montly Review Press. http://monthlyreview.org/press/books/pb1471/
3. Judith Blau and Mark Frezzo, 2011. Sociology and Human Rights: A Bill of Rights for the Twenty-First Century http://www.sagepub.com/books/Book235439
4.
RESOURCE BOOK: Hayden, Patrick. 1999. Philosophy of Human Rights: Readings in
Context. Paragon House. http://www.paragonhouse.com/Philosophy-of-Human-Rights-Readings-in-Context.html
Other Readings will be posted on the D2L and you will find
them under the course documents.
Recommended
Additional Readings:
1.
Ishay, Micheline (2008). The History of Human Rights: From Ancient
Times to the Globalization Era. University of California Press. http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520256415
2.
Ishay, Micheline (ed) 2008 The Human Rights Reader 2nd ed. Routledge Press.
3.
Ignatieff, Michael (2003). Human Rights as Politics and Idolatry. Princeton University Press. http://press.princeton.edu/titles/7119.html
4.
Goodale, Mark (2008). Human Rights: An Anthropological Reader. Wiley-Blackwell. http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1405183357.html
5.
Beitz, Charles R. (2009). The Idea of Human Rights. Oxford University Press.
6. Moyn,
Samuel (2012). The Last Utopia: Human Rights
in History. Harvard University Press. http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674048720
7. Griffin,
James (2008). On Human Rights. Oxford
University Press.
8.
Mayer, A.E. (1995) Islam and Human Rights:
Traditions and Politics. 2 ed, Boulder: Westview.
9. Goodhart,
Michael (2009). Human Rights: Politics
and Practice. Oxford University Press.
10. Freeman,
Michael A. (2011). Human Rights: An
Interdisciplinary Approach. Polity Press.
11. Goodhart,
Michael (2011). Human Rights in the 21st
Century Continuity and Change since 9/11. Palgrave.
12. Hunt, Lynn (2008). Inventing Human Rights: A History. W.
W. Norton & Company, New York.
13. Lauren,
Paul Gordon. (2011). The Evolution of
International Human Rights Visions Seen. University of Pennsylvania Press. http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/13971.html
14. Perry,
Michael J. (2000). The Idea of Human
Rights Four Inquiries. Oxford UniversityPress. http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/Law/PublicInternationalLaw/InternationalHumanRights/?view=usa&ci=9780195138283
15. Donnelly,
Jack (2003). Universal Human Right in
Theory and Practice Cornell Press. http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/?GCOI=80140100015050
16. Turner,
Brian (2006). Vulnerability and Human
Rights. Penn State University Press. http://www.psupress.org/books/titles/0-271-02923-4.html
17. Wallerstein,
Immanuel (2006). European Universalism:
The Rhetoric of Power. The New Press. http://thenewpress.com/index.php?option=com_title&task=view_title&metaproductid=1365
18. Steiner,
Henry J. Philip Alston and Ryan Goodman (2007). International Human Rights in
Context Law, Politics, Morals. Oxford University Press. http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/he/subject/PoliticalScience/PoliticalTheory/HumanRights/?view=usa&ci=9780199279425
19. Somers,
Margaret (2008). Genealogies of
Citizenship.
20. Mann,
Michael (2004). The Dark Side of
Democracy. Cambridge University Press.
21. Falk,
Richard (2009). Achieving Human Rights. Routledge.
22. Beitz,
Charles. “What Human Rights Mean.” Daedalus 132 (2003): 36-46.
23. Waltz,
Susan. “Reclaiming and Rebuilding the History of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights,” Third World Quarterly 23 (No. 3 2002): 437-448.
24. Carol
Anderson, Eyes Off the Prize: The United Nations and the African American
Struggle for Human Rights, 1944-1955 (2003), pp. 271-276.
25. Clark, Ann
Marie. Diplomacy of Conscience: Amnesty International and Changing Human Rights
Norms Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2001: 3-20; 130.
26. Keck,
Margaret E. and Sikkink, Kathryn. Activists Beyond Borders. Ithaca, NY: Cornell
University Press, 1998: 1-29.
- Hafner-Burton and Tsutsui (2005) “Human Rights in a Globalizing World: The
Paradox of Empty Promises” In American Journal of Sociology Vol. 110
(5): 1373-1411.
28.
Reus-Smit, Christian. Human Rights and the
Social Construction of Sovereignty. Review of International Studies (2001),
27, 519–538.
29. Bulaç, Ali 2000 "The Medina
Document" In Liberal Islam: A Sourcebook
Kurzman ed. Oxford University Press.
30. Brysk, Alison. “From Above and Below: Social
Movements, the International System, and Human Rights in Argentina.”
Comparative Political Studies 26 (October 1993): 259-285.
31. Etzioni, Amitai. The Normativity of Human
Rights Is Self-Evident. Human Rights Quarterly 32
(2010) 187–197.
32. Sen,
Amartya "More than 100 Million Women are Missing. http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1990/dec/20/more-than-100-million-women-are-missing/?pagination=false
33. Farmer,
Paul 2005 "On Suffering and Structural Violence: Social and Economic
Rights in a Global Era" In Pathologies
of Power (pgs. 29-50).
34. Hernandez-Truyol,
B.E. and Jane Larson (2002) “Both Work and Violence: Prostitution and Human
Rights” In Moral Imperialism (pp.
183-211).
35. Cortyndon,
Anna ed. (2007) “Trading Away our Rights: Women Working in
36. Global
Supply Chains, OXFAM International.
37. Economist (2010) “Gendercide” The
Worldwide war on baby girls” Print Edition. March 4. http://www.economist.com/node/15636231
38. "The
Sex Market" NY Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1993/04/09/world/the-sex-market-scourge-on-the-world-s-children.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm
39. "Women's
Rights: Why Not?" NY Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/18/opinion/women-s-rights-why-not.html
40. "US
Blocks Money for Family Clinics Promoted by UN" NY Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/23/world/us-blocks-money-for-family-clinics-promoted-by-un.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm
41. Cortelyou,
Kenny 2009 “Disaster
in the Amazon: Dodging Boomerang Suits in
Transnational Human Rights Litigation” In California Law Review 857.
42. Mertus,
Julie. “The Lingua Franca of Diplomacy: Human Rights and the Post-Cold War
Presidencies,” excerpt from Bait and Switch: Human Rights and US Foreign Policy
(Routledge, 2004): 39-74.
43. Sikkink,
Kathryn. "The Power of Principled Ideas: Human Rights Policies in the
United States and Western Europe." In Ideas and Foreign Policy: Beliefs,
Institutions, and Political Change, edited by Judith Goldstein and Robert O.
Keohane. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1993.
44. Okuizumi,
Kaora. "Implementing the ODA Charter: Prospects for Linking Japanese
Economic Assistance and Human Rights." NYU Journal of International Law
and Politics 27 (Winter 1995): 367-408
45. Japan
Foreign Ministry, “Arc of Freedom and Prosperity: Japan's Expanding Diplomatic Horizons"
http://www.mofa.go.jp/announce/fm/aso/speech0611.html (also see program for MOFA symposium, 2007, http://www.mofa.go.jp/policyillar/symposium0702.html)
46. “China
Issues Human Rights Record of the US” March 2007.
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
ISA Human Rights Joint Conference 2014, Istanbul, Turkey
ISA Human Rights Joint Conference 2014, Istanbul, Turkey
http://www.isanet.org/Conferences/HRIstanbul2014.aspx
ISA HR Joint Conference Submissions are Open!
Submissions are open for the 2014 joint Human Rights conference in Istanbul.
We're now accepting paper and panel proposals. This year's conference theme is Human Rights and Change. Check out the Call for more information. We hope to see you there!
Call for Papers: ISA HR Istanbul 2014
ISA-Human Rights, along with the HR sections of IPSA, APSA and the Standing Group on Human Rights and Transition, ECPR, invites paper and panel proposals on any subject related to human rights, for our joint conference in Istanbul. Particularly welcome are submissions related to our 2014 conference theme, Human Rights and Change.
Please submit your proposals through the ISA submission system. Proposal submissions will open July 15, 2013. The proposal submission deadline is December 1, 2013.
To read more...
http://www.isanet.org/Conferences/HRIstanbul2014.aspx
ISA HR Joint Conference Submissions are Open!
Submissions are open for the 2014 joint Human Rights conference in Istanbul.
We're now accepting paper and panel proposals. This year's conference theme is Human Rights and Change. Check out the Call for more information. We hope to see you there!
Call for Papers: ISA HR Istanbul 2014
ISA-Human Rights, along with the HR sections of IPSA, APSA and the Standing Group on Human Rights and Transition, ECPR, invites paper and panel proposals on any subject related to human rights, for our joint conference in Istanbul. Particularly welcome are submissions related to our 2014 conference theme, Human Rights and Change.
Please submit your proposals through the ISA submission system. Proposal submissions will open July 15, 2013. The proposal submission deadline is December 1, 2013.
To read more...
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
POLL-Egypt is worst Arab state for women, Comoros best
Thomson Reuters Foundation - Tue, 12 Nov 2013
Visit poll2013.trust.org for full coverage of our expert poll on women’s rights in the Arab world
Discriminatory laws and a spike in trafficking also contributed to Egypt’s place at the bottom of a ranking of 22 Arab states, the Thomson Reuters Foundation survey found.
Despite hopes that women would be one of the prime beneficiaries of the Arab Spring, they have instead been some of the biggest losers, as the revolts have brought conflict, instability, displacement and a rise in Islamist groups in many parts of the region, experts said.
To read more...
Visit poll2013.trust.org for full coverage of our expert poll on women’s rights in the Arab world
- Egypt worst for women's rights in poll of 22 Arab states
- Iraq more dangerous for women than under Saddam Hussein
- Small steps in Saudi Arabia but women still second class
- Syria's war and discriminatory laws curtail women's rights
- Comoros first for giving women political and economic rights
Discriminatory laws and a spike in trafficking also contributed to Egypt’s place at the bottom of a ranking of 22 Arab states, the Thomson Reuters Foundation survey found.
Despite hopes that women would be one of the prime beneficiaries of the Arab Spring, they have instead been some of the biggest losers, as the revolts have brought conflict, instability, displacement and a rise in Islamist groups in many parts of the region, experts said.
To read more...
Friday, November 1, 2013
A New Book: Theorising Democide: Why and How Democracies Fail
Theorising Democide:
Why and How Democracies Fail
By Mark Chou
Palgrave, April 2013
The common assumption is that the path to democratisation is, once
begun, near impossible to reverse. Particularly where democratic
transition has been properly consolidated conventional wisdom and
empirical evidence both suggest that no democracy should follow the
example of Classical Athens or Germany's Weimar Republic and return to
despotism. Starting from the premise that democracies are often deeply
implicated in their own downfall, Theorising Democide
challenges this conventional view by showing how democratic collapse is
symptomatic of the inherent logic of democracy. Democide, in some
cases, can thus be understood as a kind of ideological suicide with the
tenets and devices of democracy being somehow intrinsic to its own
collapse. In other words democide denotes the capacity that democracy
has to come undone, to risk its own safety, to take its own life while
doing what it was intended to do.
To read more....
Why and How Democracies Fail
By Mark Chou
Palgrave, April 2013
The common assumption is that the path to democratisation is, once
begun, near impossible to reverse. Particularly where democratic
transition has been properly consolidated conventional wisdom and
empirical evidence both suggest that no democracy should follow the
example of Classical Athens or Germany's Weimar Republic and return to
despotism. Starting from the premise that democracies are often deeply
implicated in their own downfall, Theorising Democide
challenges this conventional view by showing how democratic collapse is
symptomatic of the inherent logic of democracy. Democide, in some
cases, can thus be understood as a kind of ideological suicide with the
tenets and devices of democracy being somehow intrinsic to its own
collapse. In other words democide denotes the capacity that democracy
has to come undone, to risk its own safety, to take its own life while
doing what it was intended to do.To read more....
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