scholarly journals Human Rights Half Measures: Avoiding Accountability in Postwar Sri Lanka

2019 ◽  
Vol 72 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate Cronin-Furman
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
The Political ◽  
The West ◽  
Academic Literature ◽  
International Pressure ◽  
Human Rights Council ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Veto Points ◽  
Do So

AbstractWhy do repressive states create human rights institutions that cost them money and political capital but fail to silence international criticism? The academic literature assumes that states engaging in disingenuous human rights behavior are hoping to persuade (or deceive) liberal Western states and international advocates. But if human rights promoters in the West are the target audience for the creation of these half measures institutions, the strategy appears puzzlingly miscalculated. It reveals that the repressive state is sensitive to international opinion, and often results in increased pressure. The author argues that states engaging in human rights half measures are playing to a different, previously overlooked audience: swing states that can act as veto points on multilateral efforts to enforce human rights. The article illustrates these dynamics with a case study of Sri Lanka’s response to international pressure for postwar justice. The author shows that although the creation of a series of weak investigative commissions was prompted by pressure from Western governments and ngos, it was not an attempt to satisfy or hoodwink these actors. Instead, it was part of a coalition-blocking strategy to convince fellow developing states on the UN Human Rights Council to oppose the creation of an international inquiry and to give them the political cover to do so.

scholarly journals Análise crítica da teoria dos direitos humanos na obra de Michel Villey

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (40) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gustavo Rabay Guerra ◽  
Henrique Jerônimo Bezerra Marcos
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
General Theory ◽  
John Locke ◽  
Thomas Hobbes ◽  
Christian Wolff ◽  
Legal Norms ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Given ◽  
Intrinsic Contradiction ◽  
Do So

RESUMOEste artigo tem por objeto a Teoria dos Direitos Humanos em Michel Villey. Seu objetivo é apresentar uma contestação à alegação de Michel Villey de que os direitos humanos não podem ser considerados Direito. Para tanto, realiza uma apresentação da Teoria dos Direitos Humanos em Michel Villey, passando pela criação dos direitos humanos em Thomas Hobbes, a inversão de objetivos dos direitos humanos em John Locke e a expansão dos direitos humanos em Christian Wolff. Em seguida passa a apresentar a crítica de Michel Villey aos direitos humanos e as falhas deste autor ao realizar suas acusações, haja vista a possibilidade de solução das contradições (colisões) entre os direitos humanos, além de que não se pode confundir o critério de validade da norma com sua eficácia. O trabalho conclui pela juridicidade dos direitos humanos ao demonstrar que a suposta contradição não seria razão para retirar esta qualidade.PALAVRAS-CHAVEFilosofia do Direito. Direitos Humanos. Michel Villey. ABSTRACTThe present work deals with the General Theory of Human Rights in Michel Villey. Its purpose is to present a challenge to Michel Villeys’ claim that human rights are not legal norms. To do so, the text presents the General Theory of Human Rights in Michel Villey, including the creation of human rights by Thomas Hobbes, the changing perspective attributed to John Locke and the numerical expansion of human rights attributed to Christian Wolff. The text then presents Michel Villeys’ critics of human rights and the problems with those critics; specifically, that the given conflicts between norms aren’t sufficient to declare that they aren’t legal norms, other than that, the text points that in his critics Michel Villey confuses the concepts of validity of the norm with its effectiveness. The work concludes that human rights are legal norms and its supposed intrinsic contradiction is not sufficient to withdraw this quality.KEYWORDSPhilosophy of Law. Human Rights. Michel Villey.

Shintō Shrines and Secularism in Modern Japan, 1890–1945

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 128-156
Author(s):  
Karli Shimizu
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Political System ◽  
The Political ◽  
Nation State ◽  
The West ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
Secular Institution ◽  
The Government ◽  
Academic Discourses

From the late eighteenth century to WWII, shrine Shintō came to be seen as a secular institution by the government, academics, and activists in Japan (Isomae 2014; Josephson 2012, Maxey 2014). However, research thus far has largely focused on the political and academic discourses surrounding the development of this idea. This article contributes to this discussion by examining how a prominent modern Shintō shrine, Kashihara Jingū founded in 1890, was conceived of and treated as secular. It also explores how Kashihara Jingū communicated an alternate sense of space and time in line with a new Japanese secularity. This Shintō-based secularity, which located shrines as public, historical, and modern, was formulated in antagonism to the West and had an influence that extended across the Japanese sphere. The shrine also serves as a case study of how the modern political system of secularism functioned in a non-western nation-state.

scholarly journals Quo Vadis Pembaharuan Hukum Pertanahan Nasional: Urgensi Pembentukan Peradilan Khusus Pertanahan dalam Penyelesaian Konflik Agraria yang Berkeadilan

Lentera Hukum ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 191
Author(s):  
Muhammad Busyrol Fuad
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Land Tenure ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Space ◽  
Land Law ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Quo Vadis ◽  
Plantation Company ◽  
The Military ◽  
Settlement Areas

The rise of national agraria conflicts that occurred seem to have been in the point is quite worrisome. Because he has a slice of various forms of human rights dimensionless violations. Various discourses in the effort to resolve the conflict continue. The discourse on the creation of a special court of land seems to have begun to gain a lot of attention. The reason, he is present in the situation of national agraria conflict that never ends, besides the passage of this discourse is full of momentum, which coincides with the draft Land Law Bill which is now entered the political space of legislation in parliament. A special court of land will certainly be a topic of discussion is quite fierce considering the issue will reach the settlement areas of national agraria cases that include land tenure by the plantation company (onderneming), PT. Perkebunan Nasional (PTPN), to the control of land by the military. This paper would like to discuss that the establishment of a special land court in the draft national land law is a necessity in solving a just national agrarian conflict. Keyword: Agraria Conflict, Violations of Human Rights, Special Court of Land

scholarly journals In the Margins of One Health: Interspecies Solidarity, Care, and Inequality

2022 ◽  
pp. 52-70
Author(s):  
Laura Murray
Keyword(s):  
Queer Theory ◽  
One Health ◽  
Philosophical Tradition ◽  
The Political ◽  
Not Given ◽  
The West ◽  
Contemporary Debate ◽  
Political Failure ◽  
Do So

This article is an attempt to frontally pose a question queer theory gravitates around, yet never effectively spells out: what is a togetherness of those who have nothing in common but their desire to undo group ties? First, I consider the take-up of Lacan’s ethical experiment in Seminar VII, the Ethics of Psychoanalysis by queer theorists. I contend that queer theory has not given Lacan’s interpretation of Antigone its full import, which demands its placement in the philosophical tradition of the West brought to its highest fruition in Kant. I further contend, however, that to do so does not quite offer a solution to the queer problem, for, as contemporary debate on the political import of Antigone shows, the purity of her desire does not immediately translate into a sustainable politics. Lacan himself was faced with the problem of translating his ethics into a politics after his "excommunication" from the psychoanalytic establishment, and came to falter before it. Nevertheless, Lacan’s efforts allow us to pose the undoubtedly queer question of how to group together those whose only attribute is to undo group ties. Responding to the unanswerable demands of a theory and a practice that allows us to answer that question, I propose the figure of the smoker’s communism, as elaborated upon by Mladen Dolar, as a preliminary queer suggestion as to how we might go about mitigating the gap between Lacan’s ethical brilliance and his admitted political failure..

The Creation of Sustainable Orientalism in Cinema

2021 ◽  
pp. 574-590
Author(s):  
Can Diker ◽  
Esma Koç
Keyword(s):  
Western World ◽  
The Political ◽  
Film Festivals ◽  
The West ◽  
Hollywood Films ◽  
World Cinema ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Masses ◽  
The Relationship

The myth of modern culture's superiority to other cultures is instilled as a norm to the masses through the media. The myth of the cultural superiority of the West not only formed with the economic possibilities of the West but was also supported by the non-Western world by self-orientalism, thus becoming sustainable. While themes such as modernity, development, and technological superiority are watched within the scope of Hollywood films, several platforms have been created for non-US countries to watch alternative films. Although films known as European and World Cinema have the chance to show themselves at film festivals rather than film theatres, non-Western directors face a cultural challenge in these festivals due to the sociocultural structure of Western-based film festivals. In this study, by examining how non-Western directors are directed towards self-orientalism indirectly through festivals and funds, the relationship between the creation of sustainable orientalism in cinema and the political economy of the film industry will be revealed.

Growing Organically

2020 ◽  
pp. 69-96
Author(s):  
Elvira Domínguez-Redondo
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
The Political ◽  
Human Rights Council ◽  
High Commissioner ◽  
Single Category ◽  
Unplanned Development

Exceptional features that characterize the Special Procedures are illustrated in their progressive and unplanned development as a “system” of human rights mechanisms. This evolution is explained by a combination of political and expert-led decisions adopted by the Human Rights Council, mandate holders, and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. The successive approval of cross-cutting mandates aimed at all Special Procedures has contributed to coherence in the competences assigned to them, yet has also opened the door to indirect and an unaccounted multiplication of tasks. Over the years, Special Procedures mandate holders have developed practices that have abetted their progressive configuration as belonging to a “system” of human rights mechanisms. This process has evolved through individual and collective initiatives. While mandate holders have made significant efforts to harmonize methods of work, they have simultaneously insisted on maintaining their autonomy. The political consideration of Special Procedures as a single category has been reflected in the support received by the UN Secretariat, through the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, a key determinant in their perception as a coherent group of mechanisms.

Biopolitics of Seriality

Serial Forms ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 251-286
Author(s):  
Clare Pettitt
Keyword(s):  
Elizabeth Gaskell ◽  
Frederick Douglass ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Way Of Thinking ◽  
Historical Moment

Chapter 7, ‘Biopolitics of Seriality’ considers the political possibilities that were released or inaugurated in the 1840s by this structure of seriality. It takes the whole run of Howitt’s Journal as its ‘serial’ case study and uses this liberal journal to think about how seriality was becoming increasingly important to the creation and maintenance of what we might now call biopolitics. Through its serial repetition of exemplary narratives of injustice around gender, race, class and age, Howitt’s Journal unconsciously reveals the profound connection between these constructs. Tracking the representation of children, slaves and the Irish across the run of the journal, partly through its use of work by Elizabeth Gaskell and Frederick Douglass, this chapter suggests that we need to develop a more complex way of thinking about the developing relationship between kinship, citizenship, and biopolitics at this critical historical moment.

The Need to Reform the Political Role of the African Union in Promoting Democracy and Human Rights in Domestic States: Making States More Accountable and Less Able to Avoid Scrutiny at the United Nations and at the African Union, Using Swaziland to Spotlight the Issues

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy Sarkin
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
The Political ◽  
African Union ◽  
Periodic Review ◽  
Political Role ◽  
Universal Periodic Review ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Do So

This article examines how effective the African Union (AU) has been in pushing states to be more democratic in nature and to respect, protect, fulfil and promote the human rights of their inhabitants. It reviews the political role of the AU in this regard using the situation in Swaziland to do so. The article also examines Swaziland at the United Nations’ Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process as a comparative tool.

Sacred Space and the Mediating Roles of Architecture

2012 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Barrie
Keyword(s):  
Built Environment ◽  
Sacred Space ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Sacred Places ◽  
Traditional Role ◽  
Sacred Place ◽  
Sacred Architecture ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Do So

The creation, roles, and experience of meaningful places in contemporary urban environments can be effectively informed through understandings of pertinent aspects of sacred architecture. To do so, this paper will discuss the mediating roles traditionally performed by sacred architecture and, in particular, its traditional role as an in-between place believed by its creators to establish connections to the understandings they sought or the gods they worshipped. Enduring themes of sacred places will be presented in the context of their communicative capacity and ritual uses, as a means to offer interpretations appropriate to today. The case study of the recently completed Oakland (CA) Cathedral will serve to illustrate contemporary positions and iterations. The conclusion suggests that the sacred place was (and still is), an intermediate zone created in the belief that it had the ability to engage, elucidate and transform, and that a re-introduction and repositioning of the mediating roles performed by the built environment can inform the creation of engaging and meaningful places today.

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