International Human Rights and Counter-terrorism in the Post-9/11 World Politics

2017 ◽  
pp. 63-68
Author(s):  
Ipek Demirsu
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
World Politics ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Counter Terrorism ◽  
International Human

The Rhetoric of Maps: International Law as a Discursive Tool in Visual Arguments

2013 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Leuenberger
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Science Studies ◽  
West Bank ◽  
World Politics ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
The West ◽  
International Human

Abstract This article was presented at the workshop on “Borders and Human Rights,” College of Law & Business, Ramat Gan, Israel.Notions of human rights as enshrined in international law have become the “idea of our time”; a “dominant moral narrative by which world politics” is organized; and a powerful “discourse of public persuasion.”Tony Evans, International Human Rights Law as Power/Knowledge, 27 (3) HUM. RTS. Q. 1046 (2005); Meg McLagan, Human Rights, Testimony, and Transnational Publicity, 2 (1) SCHOLAR & FEMINIST ONLINE 1 (2003), available at http://www.barnard.edu/ps/printmmc.htm; Wendy S. Hesford, Human Rights Rhetoric of Recognition, 41 (3) RHETORIC SOC. Q. 282 (2011). With the rise of human rights discourse, we need to ask, how do protagonists make human rights claims? What sort of resources, techniques, and strategies do they use in order to publicize information about human rights abuses and stipulations set out in international law? With the democratization of mapping practices, various individuals, organizations, and governments are increasingly using maps in order to put forth certain social and political claims. This article draws on the sociology of knowledge, science studies, critical cartography, cultural studies, and anthropological studies of law in order to analyze how various international, Palestinian, and Israeli organizations design maps of the West Bank Barrier in accord with assumptions embedded within international law as part of their political and new media activism. Qualitative sociological methods, such as in-depth interviewing, ethnography, and the collection of cartographic material pertaining to the West Bank Barrier, provide the empirical tools to do so. The maps examined here exemplify how universalistic notions of international law and human rights become a powerful rhetorical tool to make various and often incommensurable social and political claims across different maps. At the same time, international human rights law, rather than dictating local mapping practices, becomes inevitably “vernacularized” and combined with local understandings, cultural preferences, and political concerns.

EU security and counter-terrorism policies and human rights

2020 ◽  
pp. 457-477
Author(s):  
Mikaela Heikkilä ◽  
Elina Pirjatanniemi
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Terrorist Attacks ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Judicial Cooperation ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Counter Terrorism ◽  
International Human

Numerous terrorist attacks both within and outside the European Union (EU or the Union) have prompted the Union to increasingly act in the field of counter-terrorism. Since the adoption of the Union’s counter-terrorism strategy in 2005, the Union’s action in relation to counter-terrorism has been based on four connected pillars: to prevent, to protect, to pursue, and to respond. A general trend in the Union’s counter-terrorism action has been a move towards a pre-emptive approach, where the focus lies on countering terrorism threats in advance. The aim of this chapter is to discuss whether the adoption of these pre-emptive measures strengthen the security landscape of the Union. The chapter thus takes a closer look at how the Union strives to detect persons planning or preparing terrorist offences, and to hinder actual attacks from taking place. In particular, attention is paid to the EU’s police and judicial cooperation, general surveillance, the criminalisation of preparatory terrorist offences, and cooperation with third states and international organisations. A central objective is also to assess how the various counter-terrorism measures concur with international human rights law, including the Union’s legal framework on data protection.

Between Boko Haram and the Joint Task Force: Assessing the Dilemma of Counter-Terrorism and Human Rights in Northern Nigeria

2015 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isaac Terwase Sampson
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Task Force ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Boko Haram ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
Counter Terrorism ◽  
Joint Task ◽  
National Human ◽  
Joint Task Force ◽  
International Human

AbstractThis article seeks to examine the paradox of Boko Haram terrorism and Nigeria's counter-terrorism efforts, personified by the Joint Task Force (JTF). While posing the challenge of human rights abuses by the JTF in its counter-Boko Haram operations, the article contends that, whereas the terrorists' activities violate the rights of victims, the JTF's actions have also resulted in significant human rights abuses against innocent civilians. It argues that, despite Nigeria's obligations under the plenitude of international human rights treaties, non-domestication of these treaties by Nigeria has rendered them insignificant. The article therefore recommends alternative approaches to this challenge. Nigeria should domesticate the catalogue of international human rights instruments to which it has acceded, enact rules of engagement for law enforcement operations by security forces, develop a counter-terrorism strategy that is subject to robust engagement with all stakeholders, and strengthen its existing human rights accountability mechanisms, such as the law courts, legislature and National Human Rights Commission.

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