Obstacles and opportunities: recent Kurdish struggles for political representation and participation in Turkey

2011 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Günay Göksu Özdoğan ◽  
Büşra Ersanlı
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Local Elections ◽  
Attitudes And Practices

AbstractHaving gone through different phases of political action and facing various forms of suppression by the state, the Kurdish movement from 1990's persisted in establishing legal parties despite recurrent bans by the Constitutional Court. In the 2007 national elections DTP (after its ban the BDP) running as independent candidates formed a group in the Parliament which was followed by an extensive regional representation in eastern and southeastern Turkey in local elections of 2009. At the three levels of political activity (parliament, local government, civil society) the extent of women's presence exceeds well over the general percentage in Turkey while various civil society organizations at both the national and regional levels lend support for extension of minority/human rights. Although the new legal and political reforms as of early 2000's in line with Turkey's bid for accession to the EU have opened up a new venue for legitimization of Kurdish identity and recognition of various cultural, civil and cultural rights, strictness of the electoral law impedes fair representation and certain discriminatory attitudes and practices still persist in the civil and military bureaucracy, mass media and political parties in contention. Whether Kurdish participation in Turkey's politics will fare in 'normal' terms in the future is largely dependent on Turkey's democratization process in which the Kurdish politicians' claims to function as a non-regional Turkey party constitute an important but only one of the impacting factors, e.g., rehabilitation of the PKK, decentralization and empowerment of local government, extension of human rights, and a non-exclusionary definition of Turkish identity.

scholarly journals Religious Diversity and Blasphemy Law: Understanding Growing Religious Conflict and Intolerance in Post-Suharto Indonesia

2017 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-126
Author(s):  
Noorhaidi Hasan
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Religious Freedom ◽  
Religious Diversity ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Religious Conflict ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Proper Management ◽  
Religious Activism ◽  
The Law

This paper will look at how the explosion of militant religious activism and violence against minorities in post-Suharto Indonesia is embedded in the state’s failure to apply a proper management of religious diversity and civic pluralism. In the bottom of this issue lies controvertial Law No. 1 of 1965 on the prevention of the abuse or insulting of a religion,  known as the Blasphemy Law. Debates have abounded on the extent to which the Law has transgressed the principles of religious freedom guaranteed by the Indonesian Constitution. This paper will thus also examine petitions filed by human rights activists and civil society organizations to demand judicial reviews of the Law before the Constitutional Court[Artikel ini akan menjelaskan bagaimana militansi aktifis agama dan kekerasan terhadap minoritas pasca Soeharto yang muncul akibat kegagalan Negara dalam mengelola keragaman agama dan pluralitas masyarakat. Dasar dari persoalan ini berpangkal pada kontroversi UU No. 1 Tahun 1965 tentang Pencegahan Penyalahgunaan dan/atau Penodaan Agama atau yang dikenal dengan UU Pencemaran Agama. Perdebatan yang panjang telah mengarah pada pelanggaran prinsip hukum mengenai jaminan kebebasan agama oleh konstitusi. Artikel ini juga akan membahas petisi yang diajukan oleh aktifis HAM dan ornop untuk mengajukan judicial reviews ke Mahkamah Konstitusi.] 

A National Treasure? The Role of Civil Society in Promoting and Enforcing Human Rights in the United Kingdom

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harriet Samuels
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Negative Attitude ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Economic Rights ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Social And Economic Rights

Abstract The article investigates the negative attitude towards civil society over the last decade in the United Kingdom and the repercussions for human rights. It considers this in the context of the United Kingdom government’s implementation of the policy of austerity. It reflects on the various policy and legal changes, and the impact on the campaigning and advocacy work of civil society organizations, particularly those that work on social and economic rights.

scholarly journals Silencing Their Critics: How Government Restrictions Against Civil Society Affect International ‘Naming and Shaming’

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannah Smidt ◽  
Dominic Perera ◽  
Neil J. Mitchell ◽  
Kristin M. Bakke
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
The Other ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
The One ◽  
Naming And Shaming ◽  
Flow Of Information ◽  
Cross National

Abstract International ‘naming and shaming’ campaigns rely on domestic civil society organizations (CSOs) for information on local human rights conditions. To stop this flow of information, some governments restrict CSOs, for example by limiting their access to funding. Do such restrictions reduce international naming and shaming campaigns that rely on information from domestic CSOs? This article argues that on the one hand, restrictions may reduce CSOs’ ability and motives to monitor local abuses. On the other hand, these organizations may mobilize against restrictions and find new ways of delivering information on human rights violations to international publics. Using a cross-national dataset and in-depth evidence from Egypt, the study finds that low numbers of restrictions trigger shaming by international non-governmental organizations. Yet once governments impose multiple types of restrictions, it becomes harder for CSOs to adapt, resulting in fewer international shaming campaigns.

Assessing Variation in Civil Society Organizations

2007 ◽  
Vol 41 (9) ◽  
pp. 1240-1265 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin L. Read
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Real Life ◽  
The United States ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
High Expectations ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Grassroots Groups ◽  
Collective Action Problems ◽  
Power Comparisons

Theories of civil society set high expectations for grassroots associations, claiming that they school citizens in democracy and constrain powerful institutions. But when do real-life organizations actually live up to this billing? Homeowner organizations in the United States and elsewhere have sparked debate among political scientists, criticized by some as nonparticipatory and harmful to the overall polity and defended by others as benign manifestations of local self-governance. With this as a backdrop, China's emerging homeowner groups are used as a testing ground for exploring variation in three criteria of performance: self-organization, participation, and the exercising of power. Comparisons are drawn cross-nationally, among 23 cases in four Chinese cities and over time within neighborhoods. The article puts forward several factors affecting the properties of grassroots groups, highlighting the role of conflict, the political—legal environment, and collective action problems in shaping the way they engage their members and take political action.

scholarly journals Women Mayors in Portugal: A Case Study in Political Representation and Citizenship

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (68) ◽  
pp. 27-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Antónia de Figueiredo Pires de Almeida
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Local Politics ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Local Elections ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
National Elections ◽  
Representation Of Women ◽  
Positive Effects

Abstract Introduction The article presents a historical analysis of the participation of women in Portuguese politics and reveals the positive effects of the introduction of the parity law in 2006. In the 2015 national elections, for the first time one third of the elected the Members of the Portuguese Parliament were women. However, in municipalities there is still a long way to go to reach this level of female political representation. Does the political system limit women’s access only to elected positions? Thus, important questions remain: why are women still a minority in local politics? What obstacles do they encounter? And what can be done to improve the situation? Materials and Methods For this investigation, data were collected on the electronic pages of municipalities and political parties, as well as in the press, to monitor the evolution of the presence of women in Portuguese local government, initially as members of the administrative commissions appointed to manage municipal councils from 1974 to the first elections that took place on December 12, 1976 and then as elected representatives from 1976 to the latest 2017 local elections, comparing this level with central government. Results The study of this group reveals higher educational levels and more specialized jobs among women than among men, particularly in teaching and management. There is also discussion of partisan membership and it is revealed that left-wing parties invest more in women for local government than do right-wing parties. Discussion Although four decades have passed since the democratic regime was established, the representation of women in politics is still incipient. We present some examples of policy actions that can encourage the presence of women in local government and increase their role as active citizens.

The Protective Shields

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kinda Mohamadieh
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Crowding Out ◽  
Arab Region ◽  
Arab Uprisings ◽  
Policy Debates ◽  
Human Rights Movement ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Challenges

This chapter examines the various roles undertaken by civil society organizations (CSOs), or nongovernmental organizations, in the Arab region and their implications for collaboration between CSOs and the United Nations, with particular emphasis on how CSOs figure in policy debates and the human rights movement. CSOs in the Arab region, mainly those working on policy and legislative issues, have been engaged with UN-led processes and conferences since the 1992 Earth Summit, and including the 1995 Summit on Social Development and the 2000 Millennium Summit. However, as some UN agencies, driven by a quest for funding, have moved into programmatic interventions, tensions have sometimes emerged between CSOs and UN agencies when some UN agencies have ended up potentially competing with CSOs for funding or crowding out the space available for CSOs. This chapter first traces the history of CSO-UN interactions in the Arab region before discussing the new challenges and possibilities raised during the period of the Arab uprisings.

Body Abjectification as a Tool to Represent Poverty in Black Africa

2020 ◽  
pp. 67-86
Author(s):  
Floribert Patrick C. Endong
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Social Problems ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
African Continent ◽  
Semiotic Analysis ◽  
Age Stereotypes ◽  
African People ◽  
Black Africa

Many human rights activists and West-based INGOs have entrenched the questionable culture of using pathetic and socially pornographic images to boost their advertising, mobilization and fundraising campaigns aimed at tackling social problems in Africa. The images deployed by these advocacy entities most often function as double edged swords: they do not only capture the wisdom and rhetoric marketed by the campaign organizers but sometimes subtly act as negative symbols or metaphors of the African continent. Many of these visuals as used in posters and ad copies subliminally abjectify Africans, thereby reinforcing the myriad of decades-old myths and stereotypes of the continent and its people – notably abject poverty, famine, illiteracy, and backwardness, among others. This chapter illustrates the above-mentioned thesis through a semiotic analysis of posters and image-based ads recently deployed by some West-based civil society organizations during the Nigeria-born #BringBackOurGirl movement. The chapter specifically illustrates how the visuals and anchorages used in the #BringBackOurGirl posters hyperbolically abjectify and denigrate African people, associating them with old-age stereotypes.

Post-Earthquake Relief and Reconstruction Efforts: The Emergence of Civil Society in China?

2009 ◽  
Vol 198 ◽  
pp. 330-347 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica C. Teets
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Capacity Building ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Local Officials ◽  
Governing Institutions ◽  
Relief Efforts ◽  
Further Development ◽  
Chinese Civil Society

AbstractMany analysts contend that participation in the Sichuan earthquake relief efforts strengthened Chinese civil society. I examine these claims based on interviews with civil society organizations, academics and local officials in Sichuan, and argue that participation in relief efforts has strengthened civil society through increased capacity, publicity and interaction with local government. Conversely, relief efforts also reveal weaknesses in civil society and their governing institutions which inhibit further development, such as the trust and capacity deficit of these organizations. Participation in relief efforts served as a learning process whereby government, society and civil society groups learned how to work together effectively. However, in order to consolidate these gains and further strengthen civil society, there must be greater institutionalization of these groups' roles, increased capacity building, and greater trust between society, groups and the local state.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document