The Politics of Exclusion

2021 ◽  
pp. 75-100
Author(s):  
Luis Roniger

This chapter focuses on political exile, a mechanism of institutionalized exclusion of immense national and transnational impact across Latin America. It draws attention to the significance of forced territorial displacement as derived from the format of exclusionary citizenship and stresses the transnational implications of its recurrent presence and changing significance since early independent times and through the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Tracing the importance of exile in several respects—including its historical use, its role in the construction of transnational networks of solidarity and advocacy, and its contribution to the human rights discourse—the chapter suggests that the study of Latin American exile offers a unique perspective on processes of redefinition of collective identities and political visions. The study of exile also refocuses traditional readings of national histories on more regional, transnational, or even continental scales of analysis, as it is closely related to understanding the connection between state politics and struggles over citizenship that transcend the borders of individual nation-states.

Author(s):  
Stephen Dove

Latin America is a region where traditional dissenting institutions and denominations have a relatively small footprint, and yet the ideas of dissenting Protestantism play an important, and expanding, role on the religious landscape. Since the beginning of the nineteenth century, Latin America has transitioned from a region with a de jure Catholic monopoly to one marked by religious pluralism and the disestablishment of religion. In the late-twentieth and early-twenty-first centuries, this transition has been especially marked by the rapid growth of Pentecostalism. This chapter analyses the role of dissenting Protestantism during these two centuries of transition and demonstrates how ideas and missionaries from historical dissenting churches combined with local influences to create a unique version of dissent among Latin American Protestants and Pentecostals.


2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
David S. Law

Abstract Human rights discourse has been likened to a global lingua franca, and in more ways than one, the analogy seems apt. Human rights discourse is a language that is used by all yet belongs uniquely to no particular place. It crosses not only the borders between nation-states, but also the divide between national law and international law: it appears in national constitutions and international treaties alike. But is it possible to conceive of human rights as a global language or lingua franca not just in a figurative or metaphorical sense, but in a literal or linguistic sense as a legal dialect defined by distinctive patterns of word choice and usage? Does there exist a global language of human rights that transcends not only national borders, but also the divide between domestic and international law? Empirical analysis suggests that the answer is yes, but this global language comes in at least two variants or dialects. New techniques for performing automated content analysis enable us to analyze the bulk of all national constitutions over the last two centuries, together with the world’s leading regional and international human rights instruments, for patterns of linguistic similarity and to evaluate how much language, if any, they share in common. Specifically, we employ a technique known as topic modeling that disassembles texts into recurring verbal patterns. The results highlight the existence of two species or dialects of rights talk—the universalist dialect and the positive-rights dialect—both of which are global in reach and rising in popularity. The universalist dialect is generic in content and draws heavily on the type of language found in international and regional human rights instruments. It appears in particularly large doses in the constitutions of transitional states, developing states, and states that have been heavily exposed to the influence of the international community. The positive-rights dialect, by contrast, is characterized by its substantive emphasis on positive rights of a social or economic variety, and by its prevalence in lengthier constitutions and constitutions from outside the common law world, especially those of the Spanish-speaking world. Both dialects of rights talk are truly transnational, in the sense that they appear simultaneously in national, regional, and international legal instruments and transcend the distinction between domestic and international law. Their existence attests to the blurring of the boundary between constitutional law and international law.


2021 ◽  
pp. 45-74
Author(s):  
Luis Roniger

This chapter discusses how separate nation-states crystallized, turning Latin America into a multistate region subject to persistent transnational trends. The story of Latin America as a multistate region is one of contested territorial boundaries and a tension-ridden consolidation of separate collective identities out of a tapestry of transnational interaction. The chapter traces how states were constructed and narrated national formation; how transnational visions continued to reverberate; how transnational events such as wars were framed as national; and how transnational social movements promoted interstate connections, sometimes trying to recreate the lost unity of earlier times and the transnational visions of some of the founding fathers of independence. The textual discussion addresses cases of the Southern Andean and Río de la Plata expanses, namely Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, Uruguay, and Brazil, as well as Central America, including primarily El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. The chapter also embeds references to the Latin American countries.


2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (5) ◽  
pp. 90-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chloë Delcour ◽  
Lesley Hustinx

In an effort to understand the paradox between the expansion of inclusion projects for the Roma and their persisting exclusion, this article explores human rights practice in order to grasp the complexity of meanings of inclusion negotiated in this practice. In this way, we scrutinize whether there are limiting factors within the inclusionary discourse itself. Specifically, we analyze the discourse in transnational judicial, political and civil society actors’ reports on violations of human rights against Roma. A strong shared tendency to frame the violations in terms of discrimination can be discerned in the reports, demonstrating a dominant concept in the human rights discourse for Roma. However, a framing analysis of the underlying assumptions of this concept shows that not all three actors offer the same solutions for obtaining non-discrimination, which can partly explain the limited impact of the ostensibly strong and inclusive anti-discrimination discourse. In contrast, the actors do share a negative attribution of responsibility to the nation states, but the effectiveness of this shared discursive claim can be questioned. This article illustrates how inclusion discourses are actually quite complex to grasp and so it substantiates the need for greater critical understanding of such discourses in further research.


Author(s):  
Mziwandile Sobantu ◽  
Nqobile Zulu ◽  
Ntandoyenkosi Maphosa

This paper reflects on human rights in the post-apartheid South Africa housing context from a social development lens. The Constitution guarantees access to adequate housing as a basic human right, a prerequisite for the optimum development of individuals, families and communities. Without the other related socio-economic rights, the provision of access to housing is limited in its service delivery. We argue that housing rights are inseparable from the broader human rights discourse and social development endeavours underway in the country. While government has made much progress through the Reconstruction and Development Programme, the reality of informal settlements and backyard shacks continues to undermine the human rights prospects of the urban poor. Forced evictions undermine some poor citizens’ human rights leading courts to play an active role in enforcing housing and human rights through establishing a jurisprudence that invariably advances a social development agenda. The authors argue that the post-1994 government needs to galvanise the citizenship of the urban poor through development-oriented housing delivery.


2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 137
Author(s):  
Mariane Morato Stival ◽  
Marcos André Ribeiro ◽  
Daniel Gonçalves Mendes da Costa

This article intends to analyze in the context of the complexity of the process of internationalization of human rights, the definitions and tensions between cultural universalism and relativism, the essence of human rights discourse, its basic norms and an analysis of the normative dialogues in case decisions involving violations of human rights in international tribunals such as the European Court of Human Rights, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and national courts. The well-established dialogue between courts can bring convergences closer together and remove differences of opinion on human rights protection. A new dynamic can occur through a complementarity of one court with respect to the other, even with the different characteristics between the legal orders.


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