scholarly journals “A Fundamental Human Right”? Mixed-Race Marriage and the Meaning of Rights in the Postwar British Commonwealth

2021 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
pp. 655-684
Author(s):  
Jon Piccini ◽  
Duncan Money
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
British Empire ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Marriage And Family ◽  
Interracial Marriages ◽  
Local Contexts ◽  
History Of ◽  
Commonwealth Of Nations ◽  
British Commonwealth

AbstractThis article explores the removal or exclusion in the late 1940s of people in interracial marriages from two corners of the newly formed Commonwealth of Nations, Australia and Britain's southern African colonies. The stories of Ruth and Sereste Khama, exiled from colonial Botswana, and those of Chinese refugees threatened with deportation and separation from their white Australian wives, reveal how legal rearticulations in the immediate postwar era created new, if quixotic, points of opposition for ordinary people to make their voices heard. As the British Empire became the Commonwealth, codifying the freedoms of the imperial subject, and ideas of universal human rights “irrespective of race, color, or creed” slowly emerged, and claims of rights long denied seemed to take on a renewed meaning. The sanctity of marriage and family, which played central metaphorical and practical roles for both the British Empire and the United Nations, was a primary motor of contention in both cases, and was mobilized in both metaphorical and practical ways to press for change. Striking similarities between our chosen case studies reveal how ideals of imperial domesticity and loyalty, and the universalism of the new global “family of man,” were simultaneously invoked to undermine discourses of racial purity. Our analysis makes a significant contribution to studies of gender and empire, as well as the history of human rights, an ideal which in the late 1940s was being vernacularized alongside existing forms of claim-making and political organization in local contexts across the world.

Newfoundland Reverts to the Status of a Colony

1934 ◽  
Vol 28 (5) ◽  
pp. 895-900 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert A. MacKay
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
British Empire ◽  
West Indian ◽  
Responsible Government ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
Commonwealth Of Nations ◽  
British Commonwealth ◽  
British Commonwealth Of Nations

Newfoundland, which proudly boasts that she is “Britain's oldest colony,” which has enjoyed responsible government since 1855, and which has been ranked by the Statute of Westminister as one of the Dominions of the British Commonwealth of Nations, voluntarily reverted to the status of a crown colony governed by a commission responsible to Whitehall. The event is without precedent in the history of the Empire. While certain West Indian colonies which have enjoyed representative assemblies have voluntarily given up their elected legislatures, no colony which had attained responsible government has ever before renounced it. The incident is sufficiently unique to be of interest alike to students of the history of the British Empire and of political science in general.

Is the British Commonwealth Withering Away?

1950 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 545-555 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. C. Wheare
Keyword(s):  
British Empire ◽  
Abraham Lincoln ◽  
Autonomous Communities ◽  
History Of ◽  
Commonwealth Of Nations ◽  
British Commonwealth ◽  
British Commonwealth Of Nations

At a great crisis in the history of the American Commonwealth, Abraham Lincoln in a speech delivered in June, 1858, used these words: “If we could first know where we are and whither we are tending, we could better judge what to do and how to do it.” The British Commonwealth has reached a crisis in its affairs, but the nature of the crisis escapes the diagnosis of most students and many are inclined, therefore, to echo the words which Lincoln used nearly a hundred years ago. It seems worth while, accordingly, to set down as simply as possible some of the changes that have occurred in the structure and composition of the Commonwealth in recent years, in the hope that, on this basis, some judgment may be hazarded about “where we are and whither we are tending.”When the War ended in 1945 the British Commonwealth could still be described in the terms adopted almost twenty years before, at the Imperial Conference of 1926, as a group of “autonomous communities within the British Empire, equal in status, in no way subordinate one to another in any aspect of their domestic or external affairs, though united by a common allegiance to the Crown and freely associated as members of the British Commonwealth of Nations.”

scholarly journals The Rethinking of Great Britain’s Role: From the World Empire to the Nation State

2019 ◽  
pp. 129-145
Author(s):  
O. Zernetska
Keyword(s):  
Great Britain ◽  
British Empire ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Global State ◽  
The Third ◽  
The World ◽  
Commonwealth Of Nations ◽  
British Commonwealth ◽  
British Commonwealth Of Nations ◽  
Different Parts

In the article, it is stated that Great Britain had been the biggest empire in the world in the course of many centuries. Due to synchronic and diachronic approaches it was detected time simultaneousness of the British Empire’s development in the different parts of the world. Different forms of its ruling (colonies, dominions, other territories under her auspice) manifested this phenomenon.The British Empire went through evolution from the First British Empire which was developed on the count mostly of the trade of slaves and slavery as a whole to the Second British Empire when itcolonized one of the biggest states of the world India and some other countries of the East; to the Third British Empire where it colonized countries practically on all the continents of the world. TheForth British Empire signifies the stage of its decomposition and almost total down fall in the second half of the 20th century. It is shown how the national liberation moments starting in India and endingin Africa undermined the British Empire’s power, which couldn’t control the territories, no more. The foundation of the independent nation state of Great Britain free of colonies did not lead to lossof the imperial spirit of its establishment, which is manifested in its practical deeds – Organization of the British Commonwealth of Nations, which later on was called the Commonwealth, Brexit and so on.The conclusions are drawn that Great Britain makes certain efforts to become a global state again.

Britain, Commonwealth and the End of Empire

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Holland
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Great Britain ◽  
British Empire ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Due Process ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
History Of ◽  
British Commonwealth

This chapter examines the history of Great Britain, the British Commonwealth, and the end of the British Empire in the twentieth century, suggesting that the twentieth century ended in Britain as it began, with the constitutional structure of the United Kingdom a contested and vital subject of public discourse. It concludes that the transitions that characterised the Empire-Commonwealth over the twentieth century were ultimately constrained within the due process of British constitutionalism.

scholarly journals Chemical Castration: Limiting an Absolute Human Right

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 201
Author(s):  
Louisa Elsie Heathcote
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Sex Offenders ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Government Regulation ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Chemical Castration ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Law ◽  
Human Rights Violation

In 2016, the Indonesian government enacted Government Regulation in Lieu of Law Number 1 of the year 2016, adapted into Law number 17 of the year 2016. This regulation introduces chemical castration as a criminal sanction for child sex offenders, spurring human rights concerns. This article aims to assess whether chemical castration constitutes cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment from the perspective of Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and whether such a human rights violation can be justified. This article employs the normative research method, studying principles of law, systems of law, the synchronization of the law, the history of the law and policies, and laws in comparison to one another. The article bases its findings on laws, books, journals, judgments, and other documents.This article finds that firstly, chemical castration constitutes cruel, degrading, or inhuman treatment and secondly, that such a violation can be justified according to the limitations of human rights. The significance of this article is the basis for the increased limitation of human rights to advance the cause of child protection.

scholarly journals Human Rights: Illusion or Reality; Theological (Shiite) Perspective (Part 2)

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 26-37
Author(s):  
Ali Jamkarani
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Human Right ◽  
The World ◽  
Logical Reason ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
Great Sphere ◽  
The Right ◽  
Human Rights History ◽  
Different Parts

The discussion is based around these issues, history of Human Rights, timeline for Human Rights history, question asked in this regard and enemy and friend of ‘human rights’. Describing the problems and its resolve from logical reasoning perspective; intellectual argumentation based on logical reason of, what is universal human right, democracy and illegal wars in the world by super powers as example America? Attempt to describe the inner construction of a human being-perfection-. Introduction to the concept of infallibility in different parts in the article, purify yourself and being purified. What is it, is it possible for a creation named human to be not fallible, is the idea or practicing it impossible or there is a great sphere of being able to practicing it and reaching the status if one finds guidance for the right way with peace and human rights prevailed in the world. Majority of the thought in the text, based on hadith-tradition- from the Prophet of Islam Peace upon Him and His family Ahl al-Bait Peace upon Them.

scholarly journals Scandinavian Legal Realism and the Challenge of Recognizing Emergency Medical Service as a Legal Norm

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-146
Author(s):  
Jenna Uusitalo
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Emergency Medical Service ◽  
Medical Service ◽  
Right To Health ◽  
Legal Norm ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Legal Realism ◽  
Emergency Medical ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Right

Emergency medical service (EMS) forms a sub-category of the internationally recognized right to health. However, despite the codification of the right to health in various human rights conventions which have been implemented in national legislation, EMS still seems to be regarded as an economic expense or a political decision rather than a legal norm or a human right. This paper evaluates the causes for such a misunderstanding, primarily through Scandinavian Legal Realism which emphasizes the social contextualization of law. Supplementary scholarly views, as well as a history of human rights, are also applied to support the main arguments. Essentially, the paper claims that the challenge of recognizing EMS as a legal norm is associated with the relatively abstract and impersonalized nature of emergency care.

scholarly journals Human Rights: Illusion or Reality; Theological (Shiite) Perspective

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-21
Author(s):  
Ali Jamkarani
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Human Right ◽  
The World ◽  
Logical Reason ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
Great Sphere ◽  
The Right ◽  
Human Rights History ◽  
Different Parts

The discussion is based around these issues, history of Human Rights, timeline for Human Rights history, question asked in this regard and enemy and friend of ‘human rights’. Describing the problems and its resolve from logical reasoning perspective; intellectual argumentation based on logical reason of, what is universal human right, democracy and illegal wars in the world by super powers as example America? Attempt to describe the inner construction of a human being-perfection-. Introduction to the concept of infallibility in different parts in the article, purify yourself and being purified. What is it, is it possible for a creation named human to be not fallible, is the idea or practicing it impossible or there is a great sphere of being able to practicing it and reaching the status if one finds guidance for the right way with peace and human rights prevailed in the world. Majority of the thought in the text, based on hadith-tradition- from the Prophet of Islam Peace upon Him and His family Ahl al-Bait Peace upon Them.Bangladesh Journal of Bioethics 2015 Vol.6 (1):15-21.

The British Commonwealth of Nations

1953 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 997-1015 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Duncan Hall
Keyword(s):  
British Empire ◽  
Long Range ◽  
American Revolution ◽  
International Organization ◽  
Common Concern ◽  
Historical Continuity ◽  
The Family ◽  
Commonwealth Of Nations ◽  
British Commonwealth ◽  
British Commonwealth Of Nations

The British Commonwealth of Nations is the oldest international organization of states in existence. Its uniqueness lies in its unbroken historical continuity, the loyalty of its members to each other, their solidarity on vital matters of common concern, the fluidity of their machinery for dealing with such matters, and their abhorrence of constitutional contracts within the family of the Commonwealth. These are its features so far as we can see them yet in the perspective of history. This article will discuss some of these features and advance an hypothesis for research on the nature of Commonwealth.Continuity, with change but without revolution, has been the British political formula for the Commonwealth. The evolution of the Commonwealth was one of the long-range consequences of the American Revolution. In a broad historical sense the Commonwealth is the lesson that Britain drew from that revolution. There have been other examples in history, such as Rome and Spain, of the expansion overseas of a people and of its concepts, language, traditions, and institutions. But only in the case of the Commonwealth has historical continuity been maintained without catastrophic change or revolution. It is true that revolution severed the main branch of the first British Empire. The cause of that revolution was the still unresolved deadlock between executive and legislature which had caused the revolt under Cromwell in the preceding century.

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