scholarly journals In-between Translation, Transformation and Contestation: Studying Human Rights Activism as Politics-as-Ruptures in Violent Social Conflicts

2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Richard Georgi
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Discourse Theory ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Conflicts ◽  
Political Relationships ◽  
Political Function ◽  
Discursive Politics ◽  
Human Rights Norms ◽  
New Research

How can we study the politics of human rights activism in violent social conflicts? International Relations scholarship has long neglected the ambiguous political relationships between human rights activism and violent social conflicts. Addressing this gap requires new research methodologies that place the focus not on the normative or legal dimensions of human rights, but in how their usage constitutes the political. In this article I argue that using post-foundational discourse theory makes visible ‘politics-as-ruptures’ that locate the political function of human rights activism precisely in the resistance to representations of violence in conflict discourses. I analyse this political function by asking how activists translate human rights norms, transform conflict discourses, and thereby contest power relations. As examples, the article presents three types of discursive politics that I studied in Colombia. These examples point out further pathways to pose empirical questions about the roles of human rights activism in transforming social conflicts.

scholarly journals Identity and Discourse in Securitisation Theory

2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 229-248
Author(s):  
Marcos Cardoso dos Santos
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
The Self ◽  
Discourse Theory ◽  
The Political ◽  
Security Strategy ◽  
Political Identities

Abstract This article examines the complementarities among Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory, Bourdieu’s notions of habitus and field, and Huysmans’s conception of discursive security strategy as a mediator of people’s relation to death. The interplay among these theories explains how hegemonic security discourses emerge. The self-referential aspect of the Copenhagen School’s Securitisation Theory (ST) does not contradict the existence of a relation of forces among securitising actors and audiences in given security fields, based on the ownership of social capital. This article rejects the theoretical positions adopted by Bigo, Tsoukala and Balzacq in terms of which ST is regarded as intersubjective. Utilising the discourse theory of Laclau and Mouffe, it is possible to verify how hegemonic security discourses are determined. Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus and field and Huysmans’s premises about security strategy also have implications for ST, mainly for the discussions about whether it has an intersubjective or self-referential aspect. As discourses of danger construct the political identities of states, the study of their influence on foreign policy is relevant to international relations. This article concludes that when the degree of otherness gets closer to the radical Other, extraordinary measures are easily tolerated by the agents involved in the securitisation process.

A Genuine Islamic Conceptualization of Religious Freedom

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Farhood Badri
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Religious Freedom ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Research Perspective ◽  
Islamic Thought ◽  
Comprehensive Picture ◽  
Human Rights Norms

Abstract Departing from a critical norm research perspective, the paper first sketches the need to unveil the Eurocentric and secular bias of International Relations (IR) as a discipline in general and its constructivist norm research program in particular. With regard to human rights norms, and religious freedom in particular, the dominant liberal-secular international human rights law understanding of religious freedom marginalizes religious, and especially, Islamic grounds and understandings of this truly global norm. Indeed, it demonstrates both, the dominant ideational perspective of religious freedom as a Western human right grounded by Western-canonical thinkers, and the limits of accommodating religion and religious voices in IR. In contrast, and against the background of a post-secular IR, the paper seeks to unveil alternative and marginalized bodies of Islamic knowledge for the sake of a more comprehensive picture to be painted by IR. By reconstructing reformist Islamic thought and Islamic ideational perspectives and conceptualizations of religious freedom, the paper seeks to let these voices speak for themselves as truly genuine Islamic contributions to IR. The overall aim is threefold: to theoretically connect critical norm research and post-secular approaches with reformist Islamic thought by conceptualizing ijtihad as religious norm contestation; to unveil the double marginalized character of critical Muslim voices in IR; and finally to paint a broader and more comprehensive picture of Islam and IR by revealing an alternative Islamic genealogy of universal religious freedom.

Towards International Relations beyond the mind

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-105
Author(s):  
Dirk Nabers
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Philosophy Of Science ◽  
Final Section ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Discourse Theory ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Ontology ◽  
Large Segment ◽  
The Mind

The analysis focuses on the centrality of the mind and the mental, and their relationship with the notion of discourse in International Relations theorizing. While many forms of discourse theory are linked with anti-materialist idealism, the article develops an alternative argument, that is, that discourse theory should primarily be situated ‘beyond the mind’. The analysis starts with a discussion of prominent International Relations work on ideas and discourse and argues that that a large segment of International Relations work is insufficiently clear on these crucial notions. I therefore contend subsequently that this state of the art is reflected in how the philosophy of science and the philosophy of the mind have been treated in prominent International Relations work by following a particular version of Cartesian rationalism. It is on this basis that the article proposes to transcend the antinomies between mind and world as well as ideas and materiality by advancing a political ontology that stresses a particular concept of discourse in the final section. On that basis, it will become possible in the conclusion to summarize a path towards International Relations beyond the mind that engages in the study of the political more seriously.

scholarly journals UTILIDADES DE LA ANTROPOLOGÍA JURÍDICA EN EL CAMPO DE LOS DERECHOS HUMANOS: EXPERIENCIAS RECIENTES

2008 ◽  
Vol 3 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Diego Iturralde
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Research Trends ◽  
The Political ◽  
Legal Anthropology ◽  
American Institute ◽  
Social Perspectives ◽  
Derechos Humanos ◽  
Legal Perspective ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
New Research

Este artículo aplica un enfoque de antropología jurídica a la exploración y desarrollo de nuevas prácticas de investigación en el campo de los derechos humanos, a partir de la experiencia acumulada en los últimos años en el Instituto Interamericano de Derechos Humanos. El proceso ha implicado revisar y reorientar las tendencias de investigación en este tema para favorecer, de una parte, un camino de salida al privilegio que han tenido los análisis sobre violación de los derechos e incorporar otros senderos de exploración que atienden las variaciones en su promoción y protección; y, de otra parte, un balance adecuado entre la perspectiva jurídica y las perspectivas políticas y sociales de los fenómenos relativos a los derechos humanos y la democracia. Se muestran encuadres sobre el desarrollo de la antropología jurídica y de los enfoques de investigación en derechos humanos, ejemplos de algunas aplicaciones que han implicado adecuaciones en la definición del objeto, en las aplicaciones metodológicas y en el tipo de resultados, además de una reflexión sobre el punto de encuentro entre estas dos tradiciones. ABSTRACT This article applies a legal anthropology approach to exploration and development of new research practices in the human rights field, based on the experience accumulated in recent years by the Inter-American Institute on Human Rights. The process has included the review and reorientation of research trends in this theme, with the purpose, on one hand, of steering toward departure from the privileged role held by analyses of rights violations, in favor of the incorporation of other paths of exploration that address variations in their promotion and protection. And, on the other hand, to favor an adequate balance between the legal perspective and the political and social perspectives of phenomena related to human rights and democracy. The article presents frameworks on the development of legal anthropology and approaches to human rights research, as well as examples of some applications that have implied adaptations in the definition of the object, in methodological applications, and in types of results, as well as a reflection on the meeting point between these two traditions.

scholarly journals Human rights as settled norms: Mervyn Frost and the limits of Hegelian human rights theory

2000 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 215-231 ◽  
Author(s):  
PETER SUTCH
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Future Development ◽  
International Politics ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
Constitutive Theory ◽  
The Political ◽  
International Ethics ◽  
The Future

This article explores the normative international relations theory of Mervyn Frost. Frost's unorthodox approach to questions of human rights offers a way through the political and philosophical morass that has often threatened to obscure the most pressing issues of our time. Significantly, Frost claims to able to ‘construct’ a background justification for international ethics that can unite the demands for sovereign autonomy with declarations of human rights. In doing so Frost attempts to offer an new understanding of universal ethics and thus of the role of human rights in international politics. Acknowledging the importance of this approach, this article examines two issues that arise from Frost's ‘constitutive theory’ and seeks to offer a signpost for the future development of human rights theory.

Political Limits of International Human Rights

2019 ◽  
pp. 137-146
Author(s):  
Başak Çalı
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Relations ◽  
The Political ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
The West ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
International Human ◽  
Western Hegemony

This chapter addresses the political limits of international human rights, but disagrees with the realist international relations and the Western hegemony approaches as to how we may locate and problematize such limits. A key objection that the chapter makes to realists and the Western hegemony approach is their static conception of human rights. Contrary to the view that human rights is a gift of Western powers to the rest, the chapter proposes to conceive contemporary human rights as a multiple authored transnational practice that challenges power not only in the rest but also in the West. Yet, human rights, conceived in this dynamic and transformative way, are not free from political limits. Limits to contemporary human rights can best be located in two places: the majoritarian objection to human rights domestically and the global resistance to regulate corporate powers for human rights abuses.

Inequality and the Constitution

2020 ◽  
pp. 235-249
Author(s):  
Roberto Gargarella
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Social Change ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
Social Conflicts ◽  
International Level ◽  
Legal Traditions ◽  
The Social ◽  
Judicial Remedies

In Latin America, legal scholars interested in social change seem to be obsessed with rights. Consequently, they tend to devote most of their intellectual energies to imagining new rights to be included in the new Constitutions; to finding new arguments for the judicial enforcement of social rights; and to suggesting new and alternative judicial remedies and responses, directed at implementing those social and human rights, both at the national and international level. Preoccupied with the inclusion of new rights into the Constitution, they forget about the importance of changing the rest of the constitutional document accordingly, so as to facilitate the political enforcement of those new rights. This chapter examines three different responses to the social conflicts generated by situations of profound political and economic inequalities in the region, and tries to draw some lessons from those different legal traditions, in order to improve our understanding about equality, social rights, and the Constitution.

What Helps Protect Human Rights: Human Rights Theory and Evidence

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Anderson ◽  
Amanda Murdie
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Executive Branch ◽  
International Treaties ◽  
State Behavior ◽  
International Norm ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
Human Rights Norms ◽  
International Socialization ◽  
Influence Behavior

Empirical international relations (IR) theory developed three generalized statements regarding why human rights abuses occur. First, human rights abuses are a way for an unrestrained state, especially the executive branch and its agents, to try to control individuals and hold on to power. Second, respect for human rights is an international norm, and international socialization and pressure about this norm can, in certain situations, affect behavior. Third, the codification of human rights norms into international treaties may influence behavior but, similar to our understanding of the effect of other treaties on state behavior, states only bind themselves weakly, and certain conditions are necessary for treaties to affect human rights.

scholarly journals The Political Contexts of Religious Exchanges: A Study on Chinese Protestants’ International Relations

2013 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 149-179 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tobias Brandner
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
The Political ◽  
The West ◽  
Political Relationships ◽  
Protestant Christians ◽  
State Relations ◽  
Inter State

This article surveys the complex ecumenical, missionary and international church relations of Chinese Protestant Christians. It argues that the inter-church relations to other parts of Asia are overshadowed by relations to Christians in the West, thus reflecting a political preoccupation with relationships to the West. This is evidenced by an analysis of worldwide and Asian ecumenism as well as bilateral church and missionary relationships. The dominance of contacts with the West not only contradicts the idea of a multipolar world and increased South-South contacts, it also stands in contrast to the reality of growing and increasingly important Christianity in Asia. Methodologically, this paper analyses different kinds of international relations (multilateral and bilateral, inter-church and missionary) and develops a typology of different inter-church and inter-state relations to assess international church relations in Asia today. The typology shows how China's international church relations support its political relationships with its neighbours and beyond.

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