Decline and Fall

Idi Amin ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 276-309
Author(s):  
Mark Leopold

This chapter studies Idi Amin's downfall. It begins by detailing how the death of Anglican Archbishop Janani Luwum led to wide international condemnation and galvanised the many competing opposition groups among the exiles. Between February 28 and March 3, 1978, a closed session of the UN Commission on Human Rights finally agreed to launch a formal investigation of human rights abuses in Uganda. By the end of 1978, the Tanzanian army, with a considerably smaller number of Ugandan refugee fighters, had massed in force near the border. In January of 1979, they crossed into Uganda. The key factor in the Tanzanians' victory was the overall weakness of the Ugandan troops. The chapter then explains how Amin's regime had destroyed much of the social solidarity and national feeling which had just about held the country together in the face of ethnic rivalries under the first Obote administration. This became evident in the chaos that followed the Tanzanian invasion, and especially under Milton Obote's second regime. Finally, the chapter describes Amin's retirement and analyses how he survived in power for so long.

ULUMUNA ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-124
Author(s):  
Zaenuddin Mansyur

In order to answer a variety of issues faced by human being in the current era, such as human rights abuses, social disintegration, and terrorism, the renewal of Islamic law in the level of theoretical and practical aspects is very urgent. This paper aims to examine one of the Islamic legal reform efforts, namely to build a more technical understanding of the concept of maṣlaḥah contained in the maqāṣīd sharī‘ah, called the al-kulliyat al-khamsah. Therefore, the concept of maṣlaḥah in ḥifẓ al-dīn is technically defined as al-ḥurriyah al-i‘tiqād (freedom of religion and schools); in ḥifẓ al-nafs as al-karamat al-insān (human being breeding); in ḥifẓ al-nasl as ḥifẓ al-usrah (wholeness and harmony of the family); in ḥifẓ al-māl as al-taḍammun al-insān (social solidarity ), and in ḥifẓ al-‘aql as al-ḥuqūq as al-tarbiyāt (increasing human resources quality).


Author(s):  
Stephen Damilola Odebiyi ◽  
Olugbenga Elegbe

This chapter investigates media reportage of human right abuses and sexual violence against internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Nigeria. Using the social responsibility theory, it analyses how the media frames, prominence, slant and whether the Nigeria media employed investigative reports in its reportage of human rights abuses against IDPs. The chapter through a quantitative content analysis of 157 editions of two purposely selected newspapers (the Vanguard NG and the Daily Trust), found that the media failed to contextualise the stories in relation to its causes, solutions and in identifying perpetrators for justice to be served, similarly, the media took sides with victims of the violations. It also failed to accord the required prominence and necessary investigative touch to such stories. It is recommended that there should be frequent trainings for journalists so as to safeguard professionalism in the industry.


2013 ◽  
Vol 12 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 69-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yamuna Sangarasivam

AbstractFollowing the release of thousands of diplomatic cables which revealed the human rights abuses and networks of corruption that sustain the US-sponsored global war on terror, the US Justice Department has invoked the 1917 Espionage Act to indict both Bradley Manning, the US soldier who released the classified documents to WikiLeaks, and Julian Assange, the editor and publisher of WikiLeaks. While censorship serves as an economic signal, as Assange asserts, how does the torture and prosecution of Pvt. Bradley Manning serve as a cultural signal which reveals the ­lessons of a patriotism that promotes a dystopic democracy? This article examines the spatio-temporal predicament of secrecy, surveillance, and censorship in the face of cyber rebellion.


Author(s):  
Irina Ichim

This chapter explores developments in the protection of human-rights in Kenya post-2002 by examining three interconnected issues: changes in the social and political landscape and how these created or constrained opportunities for activism; changes in the relationship between the state and the human-rights sector, but also within the human-rights sector; and evolving patterns of (non-)state repression of activism. The chapter shows that, against the background of a complex historical experience, and with the help of Kenya’s 2010 Constitution and a reformed judiciary, the human-rights sector in Kenya has grown into a staunch and able defender of civic space in the face of recent government assaults. However, government propaganda and the sector’s institutionalization simultaneously coalesce to disconnect the sector from the public. Coupled with divisions between professional and grassroots defenders, this disconnect risks limiting the sector’s ability to build on the momentum presented by recent achievements.


Subject The impact of repression in Xinjiang on China's relations with Muslim-majority countries. Significance The silence of Muslim-majority countries in the face of human rights abuses in Xinjiang contrasts with their international activism on behalf of Palestine, Kashmir and the Rohingya minority in Myanmar. Impacts Governments in the more repressive Muslim-majority countries, especially in the Middle East, will censor discussion of the Xinjiang issue. Where public pressure forces the governments of Muslim-majority countries to act, responses are unlikely to go beyond rhetoric. Beijing would not hesitate to use limited economic sanctions to punish Muslim-majority countries that criticise its internal policies.


1994 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 343-365 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theresia Degener ◽  
Aart Hendriks

AbstractIn this article a comparison is made between various disability theories and their impact on European disability and health legislation. The official disability theories focus on the individual with disabilities. Legislation that emanates from these medically inspired theories has been shown to be inaccurate and inadequate in finding appropriate solutions for disability issues. Alternative theories have developed in response. These theories emphasize the importance of the interrelationship between individuals and their environment. In parallel, new disability legislation and programmes have evolved that acknowledge the social and human rights aspects of disability issues. Up until now health lawyers have played a minor role in the disability debate. They are strongly invited to join the many ongoing discussions. It is felt that their input is particularly needed with respect to a number of issues presently at the forefront of medicine, ethics and law.


Author(s):  
Bohdan Gulyamov

The concept of human rights and the dignity of the individual, contained in the new social doctrine of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, proposes to recognize modern theories of human rights and their implementation in today's democracy as self-evident truths. These truths are quite legitimate in religious discourse, because the personal dignity of man as capable of mystical communion with God is absolute. The Orthodox Church presupposes that the dignity and freedom of the individual, his vocation and perfection are much higher than all the many values and norms offered by modern secular moral and legal consciousness, relevant international acts and constitutional norms. In the field of social doctrine, this leads to the requirement of absolute recognition of classical human rights and freedoms. No conclusions are drawn about the need to accept today's expanded interpretation of human rights, because the absolute dignity of the individual is not protected for the sake of approving ideas and practices that show signs of totalitarian coercion.


Author(s):  
Stephen Damilola Odebiyi ◽  
Olugbenga Elegbe

This chapter investigates media reportage of human right abuses and sexual violence against internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Nigeria. Using the social responsibility theory, it analyses how the media frames, prominence, slant and whether the Nigeria media employed investigative reports in its reportage of human rights abuses against IDPs. The chapter through a quantitative content analysis of 157 editions of two purposely selected newspapers (the Vanguard NG and the Daily Trust), found that the media failed to contextualise the stories in relation to its causes, solutions and in identifying perpetrators for justice to be served, similarly, the media took sides with victims of the violations. It also failed to accord the required prominence and necessary investigative touch to such stories. It is recommended that there should be frequent trainings for journalists so as to safeguard professionalism in the industry.


2000 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 170-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Minkenberg

FIFTY-FIVE YEARS AFTER THE FALL OF FASCISM AND THE END OF THE Second World War, right-wing radical movements and parties are part of the political normalcy in many Western democracies. In the face of the twentieth-century experiences of fascism and state socialism, and their failures, this stubborn persistence seems at the same time anachronistic and frightening. While there is no shortage of explanations and interpretations of this phenomenon in an evergrowing body of literature, most studies focus on national trends and derive their criteria from country-specific histories and discourses. Serious comparative scholarship on the radical right is still in its infancy.This article is a plea for more comparative research on rightwing radicalism at the turn of the century. It begins by highlighting the three central dimensions of the problem. First, one must state that contemporary right-wing radicalism is an international phenomenon. Thus, more than before, comparative studies are needed both to analyse the international quality and to specify the nation-specific characteristics of the radical right in each country. Secondly, it must be borne in mind that contemporary right-wing radicalism is a modern phenomenon. It has undergone a phase of renewal, as a result of social and cultural modernization shifts in post-war Europe. Thus it is only vaguely connected with previous versions. Terms like ‘fascism’ or ‘neo-fascism’ which suggest a historical continuity from Munich to Mölln and Magdeburg in Germany, or from Vichy to Vitrolles in France, become increasingly obsolete. The third factor to bear in mind is that contemporary right-wing radicalism is a complex phenomenon. The ongoing specialization and compartmentalization in the social sciences, such as discourse analysis, party and electoral research, and youth sociology – to name but a few of the approaches applied to the radical right – fail to do justice to the complexity of the subject. Clearly, the many faces of right-wing radicalism require clear analytical distinctions, but ultimately they need to be approached in a truly interdisciplinary way.


Author(s):  
Chris Briggs

Exploring the role of credit is vital to understanding any economy. In the past two decades historians of many European regions have become increasingly aware that medieval credit, far from being the preserve of merchants, bankers, or monarchs, was actually of basic importance to the ordinary villagers who made up most of the population. This study is devoted to credit in rural England in the middle ages. Focusing in particular on seven well-documented villages, it examines in detail some of the many thousands of village credit transactions of this period, identifies the people who performed them, and explores the social relationships brought about by involvement in credit. The evidence comes primarily from inter-peasant debt litigation recorded in the proceedings of manor courts, which were the private legal jurisdictions of landlords. A comparative study that discusses the English evidence alongside findings from other parts of medieval and early modern Europe, the book argues that the prevailing view of medieval English credit as a marker of poverty and crisis is inadequate. In fact, the credit networks of the English countryside were surprisingly resilient in the face of the fourteenth-century crises associated with plague, famine, and economic depression.


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