The sorrow of empire: Rituals of legitimation and the performative contradictions of liberalism

2014 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 623-645 ◽  
Author(s):  
TOM BENTLEY
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Textual Analysis ◽  
International System ◽  
International Order ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Historical Responsibility ◽  
State Accountability

AbstractUnexpectedly, several prominent European countries have begun to issue official state apologies to their former colonies. What does this proliferation of official colonial sorrow from such countries as Germany, Belgium, Italy, and Britain reveal about the normative tenets of the contemporary international order? This article analyses colonial apologies as crucial symbolic and ritualistic sites where state elites project liberal credentials and affirm liberal normative tenets in the international system. Specifically, the article demonstrates how these apologies for colonial atrocity appear to reinforce liberal conceptions of human rights, the renunciation of violence, cordial relations with formerly colonised states, and commitments to state accountability and transparency. Yet, textual analysis of several state apologies reveals that these performatives simultaneously contradict each of these liberal tenets. It finds that – even in apology – political elites reflect ambivalence about certain human rights violations; persist in glorifying or sanitising the violent colonial past; recycle paternalistic and hierarchical discourses and policies towards the apology's recipients; and offer contradictory notions of the state's historical responsibility. In exposing these performative contradictions of empirical sorrow, the article seeks to expand the discipline's understandings of, and dilemmas within, a key performative and ritualistic legitimation strategy whereby liberalism reproduces itself in the international system.

Dealing with international crimes in post-war Bosnia: A look through the lens of the affected population

2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 553-564 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas A. Jones ◽  
Stephan Parmentier ◽  
Elmar G.M. Weitekamp
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Population Based ◽  
Political Transition ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
International Crimes ◽  
Local Populations ◽  
The Past ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Post War

Debates about serious human rights violations and international crimes committed in the past appear during times of political transition. New political elites are confronted with fundamental questions of how to seek truth, establish accountability for offenders, provide reparation to victims, promote reconciliation, deal with trauma and build trust. ‘Transitional’ or ‘post-conflict justice’ is most often managed by elites, national and international, while the views and expectations of the local populations are rarely taken into account. Population-based research can yield deep insights into strategies and mechanisms for dealing with the crimes of the past. This paper reports on the major findings of a study in Bosnia and on the factors that may contribute to trust and reconciliation in the country.

France and Italy will compete to sell Egypt arms

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Member State ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
Arms Sales ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Secondary Role ◽  
State Relations

Significance The news comes after Italy's government granted approval on June 11 for the sale of two Fincantieri FREMM frigates to Egypt for an estimated USD1.2bn, potentially as part of a much larger arms deal. Egypt was also Germany’s principal arms customer in the first quarter, with purchases worth EUR290.6mn. Impacts EU institutions will play a secondary role to member-state relations with Egypt. Egypt’s human rights violations will be met only by occasional expressions of concern by European countries. The Turkish intervention in Libya is moving France closer to Egypt. Russia will seek to add to its already expanding arms sales to Egypt.

Subnational State Capacity and the Repression of Protest: Evidence from Mexico

2020 ◽  
pp. 106591292091949
Author(s):  
Heather Sullivan
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Problem Solving ◽  
State Capacity ◽  
The State ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Central State ◽  
Level Data ◽  
State Agents ◽  
Original Event

While protests occurring in nationally democratic contexts rarely represent fundamental threats to the central state, they still need management when and where they occur. Thus, this paper suggests that, especially in federal countries, to explain the repression of protest, we must examine subnational politics. Subnational political elites, often tasked with protest management, can engage protesters and call for police restraint, but their capacity and authority affect their ability to carry out these tasks. The paper tests the theory using original event-level data on Mexican protests and responses and leverages within-country variations in democracy and state capacity. The paper shows that where subnational governments have bureaucratic capacity and where citizen linkages to the state cause them to see state agents as relevant, problem-solving authorities, protest events are less likely to be managed using a repressive response. In addition, the paper highlights a key difference between explanations of overall human rights violations and repressive responses to protest, namely, that electoral competition is not a significant factor reducing the likelihood of repressive responses to protest.

The Admissibility of Confessions and Real Evidence Obtained in Violation of Human Rights in Criminal Trials in European Countries: Analysing the Jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 335-355
Author(s):  
Jamil Ddamulira Mujuzi
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Fair Trial ◽  
The State ◽  
European Countries ◽  
European Convention ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
Criminal Trials ◽  
European Court ◽  
Domestic Courts ◽  
The Right

The right to a fair trial is guaranteed under Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights. In an effort to protect this right, the European Court of Human Rights has, inter alia, set criteria to determine whether or not the admission of a confession in domestic courts violated the right to a fair trial. This jurisprudence also shows that the Court has established two broad guidelines that govern the admissibility of confessions obtained through human rights violations. The first guideline is that confessions obtained in violation of absolute rights and in particular in violation of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights must be excluded, because their admission will always render the trial unfair. The second guideline is that a confession obtained in violation of a non-absolute right may be admitted without violating the right to a fair trial if the State had a compelling reason or reasons to restrict the right in question. The Court has also dealt with the issue of the admissibility of real evidence obtained through human rights violations. The purpose of this article is to highlight the Court’s jurisprudence.

Human Rights Violations by un Peacekeepers

2014 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 130-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Md. Kamal Uddin
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International System ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Peacekeeping Operations ◽  
Primary Responsibility ◽  
Protection Of Human Rights ◽  
Rights Issue ◽  
Human Rights Violation

Peacekeeping Operation (pko) is significantly a worthwhile strategy for preservation and restoration of international peace and security. Promotion and protection of human rights in peacekeeping operations is a phenomenon and cannot be the only responsibility of the United Nations. However, as the most important actor of the international system, it has the primary responsibility to promote and protect human rights in peacekeeping operations because human rights issue has become very significant in the sense that unfortunately, in most cases, peacekeepers are involved in gross human rights violation in the course of operation that damage overall reputation of un. Hence, application and enforcement of international human rights law in peacekeeping operations are essential in order to shelter the civilian form attacks, torture, and other forms of human rights violations. This paper examines the un’s efforts to address human rights in pkos, and also targets to find out the actual scenario of human rights in pkos and proposes some policies.

scholarly journals Les droits de la personne et la politique étrangère canadienne : le cas de l’Indonésie

2005 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim Richard Nossal
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International System ◽  
Political Prisoners ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
Policy Action ◽  
General Observation ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Canadian Foreign Policy ◽  
The Government

Margaret Doxey has argued that there exists a "rhetoric gap" between the lofty pronouncements of Canadian governments on the question of human rights violations by other governments in the international System and the actions of the Canadian government. This paper argues that specific external constraints will hamper any attempt by governments in Ottawa to transform the rhetoric of official statements into direct policy action. This paper examines Indonesian-Canadian relations during the 1970s as a case study, and concludes that economic, strategic and diplomatic imperatives and interests proved more compelling than concerns over the treatment of political prisoners by the government of General Suharto, or concerns over the Indonesian invasion of Timor. The specific case study suggests a more general observation about human rights and Canadian foreign policy : that where trade-offs must be made, economic and diplomatic interests will tend to prevail over concerns about human rights violations.

scholarly journals Fundamental Human Rights Violations in European Union: An Overview

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dr. Muhammad Arif Khan, Dr. Rizwana Jabeen, Safia A. Khan
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Nobel Prize ◽  
European Society ◽  
Muslim Women ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
European Continent ◽  
Human Rights Violation

This research piece is written on “Globalization and Fundamental Human Rights Violations in Europe”. It deals with very important issue of Human rights, violation being carried out in different kinds of its nature such as forcefully deport of immigrants from different European countries as like Italy, Greece. Moreover, a burning issue prevailing in most of the European countries in the recent times is the issue of wearing Hijab which means covering of Muslim women face with veil which is in most of the cases intolerable in European society. The significance of this topic stems from the fact that European continent was given Nobel Prize for peace in 2012 and keeping an eye that ward, Europe was supposed to be ideal continent for its inhabitants, but unfortunately for the last several years incidents of human rights violations are being noticed by  

Transitional Justice and Protracted Accountability in Re-democratised Uruguay, 1985–2011

2011 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 693-724 ◽  
Author(s):  
LUIS RONIGER
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Truth Commission ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Truth Telling ◽  
Political Forces ◽  
Electoral Democracy ◽  
Normative Expectations ◽  
The Government

AbstractThis article analyses the protracted process by which democratised Uruguay has come to terms with its legacy of human rights violations. Central to this process has been the nature of Uruguayan transitional policies and their more recent partial unravelling. Due to the negotiated transition to electoral democracy, civilian political elites approached the transitional dilemma of balancing normative expectations and political contingency by promulgating legal immunity, for years avoiding initiatives to pursue trials or launch an official truth commission, unlike neighbouring Argentina. A constellation of national and transnational factors (including recurrent initiatives by social and political forces) eventually opened up new institutional ground for belated truth-telling and accountability for some historical wrongs – and yet, attempts to challenge the blanket legal impunity failed twice through popular consultation and in a recent parliamentary vote. Each time, the government officially projected a narrative that sacralised national consensus and reconciliation, now enshrined in two sovereign popular votes, and the adoption of a forward-looking democratic perspective.

Contentions over World Culture: The Rise of Legal Restrictions on Foreign Funding to NGOs, 1994–2015

Social Forces ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 99 (1) ◽  
pp. 281-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Bromley ◽  
Evan Schofer ◽  
Wesley Longhofer
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
International System ◽  
International Order ◽  
Event History ◽  
Prior Work ◽  
World Culture ◽  
Prior Literature ◽  
Legal Restrictions

Abstract The last two decades have witnessed an unprecedented rise in government restrictions on foreign funding to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Often in the name of defending the nation from outside influences, over 60 countries have implemented laws limiting foreign funding to NGOs. We use event history analyses to evaluate domestic and global explanations for the adoption of these policies over the period 1994–2015. Prior work has argued that funding restrictions result from real or perceived threats to political regimes, especially in countries with competitive elections. We add to this story by situating it in a larger global and cultural context: new funding laws are part of a growing backlash against the liberal international order, which has long sponsored international and domestic NGOs devoted to issues such as human rights and the environment. In an era of increasing resistance toward globally linked civil society groups—the primary carriers of liberal world society—NGO funding restrictions are now diffusing widely across the international system. We argue that restriction policies will be most common among countries that are linked to illiberal or anti-Western organizations and discourses in the international community. Moreover, adoption will accelerate as more countries do it, representing a growing “wave” or backlash against the liberal international order. Findings support the prior literature as well as our new arguments regarding illiberal international organizations and global backlash.

scholarly journals The Ambivalent Conjunction of Modernity and Human Rights

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 29-36
Author(s):  
W. J. Situma
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
State Capitalism ◽  
Norms And Values ◽  
Abundant Evidence ◽  
Ultimate Moment

Modernity is a stage in societies’ development that is the corollary of enlightenment. It has variously been conceived to be the ultimate moment in the unfolding of human history in the sense that norms and values, and practices and institutions are nearly or at their most perfect. However, the conceived prelude to or realization of utopia does not accord with reality in many specific modern societies, even those that are generally considered to be the forerunners of modernity. In Africa, the onset of modernity and its extension into the diverse realms of human beings’ lives has entailed norms and values, and practices and institutions that are the genesis of dystopia. This article examines the ambivalent nexus of modernity and human rights in Africa from the onset of the modernization project to date. Using critical theory, the article argues that although modernity is credited with the birth of human rights, in Africa its primary actors, namely capital, the markets, and the state, are either ambivalent to and/or causal to widespread and deep human rights violations. The human rights violations are systemically and systematically cast as incidental and spurious rather than the hallmarks of modernity. Judicial, political, and educational institutions act and reiterate their capacities to address the incidental/spurious human rights violations, despite abundant evidence that, as part of modernity, these institutions are ambivalent to human rights and, therefore, can only mask the reality and perpetuate human rights violations. This general stance is the consequence of the pervasive logic of capital. This article explains how this pervasive phenomenon in its various forms, such as state capitalism and global capitalism, coupled with neopatrimonialism, has impacted the institution and practice of human rights in Africa. The analysis concludes that though modernity is credited with the birth of human rights regimes, its historicity has been causal of significant violations of human rights. The violations unleashed by capital are exacerbated by political elites who, in their processes of policy-making and budgetary deliberation, and implementation, marginally conceive nation-extensive notions of common good. Consequently, violation of human rights is rampant.

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