scholarly journals From Unicorns to Mules: Phillip Pettit, Hannah Arendt, and the Liberal Human Rights Regime

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Sebastiaan Bierema
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Hannah Arendt ◽  
Direct Action ◽  
Current Approach ◽  
Power Politics ◽  
Principal Characteristics ◽  
Autonomous Action ◽  
Human Rights Regime ◽  
Rights Discourse ◽  
Liberal Approach

<p>The research presented here is an effort to interpret the discrepancy between the theoretical inalienability of human rights and the ease with which they are alienated in practice; a paradox Hannah Arendt regarded as the most conspicuous and cruel contradiction of human rights discourse. Proponents of the contemporary human rights regime have recognised that two principal characteristics of liberal human rights politics—namely, the double appellation of the Rights of Man and Citizen and an insistence on sovereignty and power-politics—directly contribute to this paradox. Nonetheless, they deem the current approach to combating rights violations to be ‘the best we can hope for’. After discussing this pragmatic liberal approach, this paper continues by analysing the alternative approaches championed by two republican traditions which criticise liberal human rights—Pettit’s neo-republicanism and Arendt’s participatory republicanism. The former of these proposes an institutional commitment to the rights of the citizen, whereas the latter deems the direct action of political subjects to be the most effective form of guaranteeing written rights in practice. Finally, in agreement with Arendt’s thought, this paper argues that while liberal power-politics and neo-republican institutionalism have their place in human rights politics, rights are at their most secure as expressions of autonomous action.</p>

scholarly journals From Unicorns to Mules: Phillip Pettit, Hannah Arendt, and the Liberal Human Rights Regime

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Sebastiaan Bierema
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Hannah Arendt ◽  
Direct Action ◽  
Current Approach ◽  
Power Politics ◽  
Principal Characteristics ◽  
Autonomous Action ◽  
Human Rights Regime ◽  
Rights Discourse ◽  
Liberal Approach

<p>The research presented here is an effort to interpret the discrepancy between the theoretical inalienability of human rights and the ease with which they are alienated in practice; a paradox Hannah Arendt regarded as the most conspicuous and cruel contradiction of human rights discourse. Proponents of the contemporary human rights regime have recognised that two principal characteristics of liberal human rights politics—namely, the double appellation of the Rights of Man and Citizen and an insistence on sovereignty and power-politics—directly contribute to this paradox. Nonetheless, they deem the current approach to combating rights violations to be ‘the best we can hope for’. After discussing this pragmatic liberal approach, this paper continues by analysing the alternative approaches championed by two republican traditions which criticise liberal human rights—Pettit’s neo-republicanism and Arendt’s participatory republicanism. The former of these proposes an institutional commitment to the rights of the citizen, whereas the latter deems the direct action of political subjects to be the most effective form of guaranteeing written rights in practice. Finally, in agreement with Arendt’s thought, this paper argues that while liberal power-politics and neo-republican institutionalism have their place in human rights politics, rights are at their most secure as expressions of autonomous action.</p>

scholarly journals Omar Khadr, Hannah Arendt, and the Racialization of Rights’ Discourse

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 147-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentina Capurri
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Hannah Arendt ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Effective Protection ◽  
Subsequent Work ◽  
Root Cause ◽  
Guantanamo Bay ◽  
Rights Discourse

In this paper, I focus on the story of Omar Khadr, a Canadian minor who was held captive in Guantanamo Bay for a decade, to demonstrate that, at times, neither citizenship nor human rights offer any protection to those who, like Khadr, are citizens of a country and are certainly human beings, yet have been deprived of the rights associated with those statuses. By drawing on Hannah Arendt’s argument in The Origins of Totalitarianism, as well as some of her subsequent work, I critically assess the debate regarding whether the rights conferred upon citizens are the only true barriers against abuse, or whether human rights have become a more effective protection. I suggest that this debate is sterile as it fails to recognize that the issue is not which set of rights offers a better guarantee of protection, but how the discourse around citizenship and human rights remains racialized, to the point where certain individuals are considered neither citizens nor humans, and therefore are potentially subject to abuse. Focusing on Canada’s treatment of Khadr, I argue that racialization is the root cause of his denial of rights. My analysis aims to contribute to existing literature by refocusing the “rights debate” to demonstrate that any discussion around abstract rights fails to address the experiences of those racialized subjects whose rights have been denied.

Culture Re-introduced: Contestation of Human Rights in Contemporary Russia

2012 ◽  
Vol 37 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 173-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Petr Preclik
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
Council Of Europe ◽  
Human Rights Regime ◽  
Research Designs ◽  
Universal Human Rights ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
Rights Discourse ◽  
Human Rights Discourse ◽  
National Identity Formation

AbstractThis article explores the current human-rights discourse in the Russian Federation through its relationship with the Council of Europe, the strongest human-rights regime that Russia has signed up for. Against the background of current international-relations theories, the article argues that human-rights scholarship should re-introduce the concept of culture into its research designs in order to be able to explain the interaction between cultural groupings and globally dominant discourses, such as human rights. The article further argues that human rights ought to be conceptualized as symbolic technologies and studied as discursive variables that enter the cycle of national-identity formation. To that end, I use the contestation thesis proposed by Andrei Tsygankov. The article concludes that Russia is currently actively securing itself against the dominant and universal human-rights discourse, which is perceived as hindering independent societal development in Russia. This state of securization is illustrated in the current debates within PACE on topics connected with human rights and Russia.

scholarly journals Human Rights: Setting the Stage for Protecting Refugee Women

Refuge ◽  
1998 ◽  
pp. 31-36
Author(s):  
Maryanna Schmuki
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Construction ◽  
Women Refugees ◽  
Refugee Women ◽  
Human Rights Regime ◽  
The Social ◽  
Women’S Human Rights ◽  
Rights Discourse ◽  
Women's Human Rights ◽  
Human Rights Discourse

This paper explores the social construction of women refugees from the perspective of the human rights regime with an eye to revealing whether the voices of refugee women are reflected. To this end the paper examines the development of women refugees as a category within human rights discourse and how this category has been bolstered by the concept of women's human rights within the last decade.

scholarly journals Rights from the Other Side of the Line

2014 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 5-26
Author(s):  
Owen Brown
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Hannah Arendt ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
The Other ◽  
Giorgio Agamben ◽  
Western Tradition ◽  
Rights Discourse ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Human Rights Discourse

This paper discusses the theorising of human rights from a postcolonial perspective, a process that entails placing the dominant human rights discourse in its social and historical context, in order to highlight the ways in which human rights are discursively constructed and become naturalised. The definition of human rights is problematised through an examination of both the more traditional European viewpoints as voiced by such theorists as Hannah Arendt and Giorgio Agamben, and from the postcolonial perspectives of such writers as Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Vivienne Jabri as well as Siba N. Grovogui.  While readjusting the conception of human rights to one that expands beyond the borders of Western tradition and legalism to a recognition of how human rights are embedded in culture, it is hoped that such an analysis will broaden our understanding of the various definitions of human rights.

Human rights and corporate social responsibility

2010 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Stohl ◽  
Cynthia Stohl
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Corporate Social Responsibility ◽  
Social Responsibility ◽  
Multinational Corporations ◽  
Time Frame ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Three Generations ◽  
Human Rights Regime ◽  
Rights Discourse ◽  
Corporate Social

PurposeThe paper seeks to explore how globalization processes have shaped the nature, scope, and time frame of considerations of social responsibility and the development of a corporate social responsibility (CSR) regime. The paper identifies three generations of human rights' values embedded within the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and aims to argue that they inspire and influence contemporary discussions about, and practices of CSR.Design/methodology/approachEmploying the emergence of the human rights regime as a paradigmatic case comparison, the interrelationships of states, non‐governmental organizations (NGOs), and corporations in the development of new conceptions and expectations of, and organizations for CSR were explored.FindingsThe paper finds strong parallels between the growth of the global human rights regime and the burgeoning international attention paid to issues of CSR and sustainability. Four critical stages are identified: the formal articulation of norms, the increasing role of NGOs, changing power dynamics between state, NGOs, and multinational corporations, and the reconfiguration of network density and diversity.Practical implicationsThe paper suggests that attention to the communicative processes associated with the development of the international human rights regime provides important insights for the future development of a global CSR regime.Originality/valueThrough the introduction of the three generations of human rights discourse, communicative actions and pathways from which a global corporate social responsibility regime may emerge were articulated.

Cultural Relativism and Human Rights: Reconsidering the Africanist Discourse

2001 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bonny Ibhawoh
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Cultural Relativism ◽  
Human Rights Regime ◽  
Cultural Legitimacy ◽  
Universal Human Rights ◽  
African Context ◽  
The Cross ◽  
Rights Discourse ◽  
Human Rights Discourse

Discussions about cultural relativism and the cross-cultural legitimacy of human rights have been central to contemporary human rights discourse. Much of this discussion has focussed on non-Western societies where scholars have advanced, from a variety of standpoints, arguments for and against the cultural relativism of human rights. Arguments for ‘Asian Values’ and lately, ‘African values’ in the construction of human rights have defined this debate. This paper reviews some of the major arguments and trends in the Africanist discourse on the cultural relativism of human rights. It argues the need to go beyond the polarities that have characterised the debate. It argues that while an Afrocentric conception of human rights is a valid worldview, it need not become the basis for the abrogation of the emerging Universal human rights regime. Rather, it should provide the philosophical foundation for the legitimisation of Universal human rights in the African context and inform the cross-fertilisation of ideas between Africa and the rest of the world.

scholarly journals Globalisation, Human Rights and Islam: Competing Narratives and Discursive Practices in The Muslim World

ICR Journal ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 343-361
Author(s):  
Asif Mohiuddin
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Muslim World ◽  
Discursive Practices ◽  
Multicultural Society ◽  
International Norm ◽  
Human Rights Regime ◽  
Human Rights Abuse ◽  
Protection Of Human Rights ◽  
Rights Discourse ◽  
Human Rights Discourse

Globalisation the growing interpenetration of ideas, states, and markets across borders has not only fostered the very blurring of distances but also growing avenues of appeal for citizens suppressed by their own states. There is no doubt that, in contemporary times, international norms and institutions for the protection of human rights are more developed than at any previous point in history. However, assaults on basic human rights continue, and the emergence of a global human rights regime may also be engendering new sources of human rights abuse. This paper examines how these developments have transformed the complex and mutable relationship between human rights and Islam and how this relationship is readjusting in response to the changing global situation. Focusing on the dramatic expansion of human rights discourse in the Muslim world, the paper argues that, for critics of Islam, the position on the incompatibility of Islam and human rights, which assumes two settled entities in an unstable relationship, is becoming hard to sustain as is the position on the Western origin of human rights. The main implication of this study is that human rights principles can be a binding international norm in a globalised world and that many normative conventions can play a pioneering role in promoting these rights and contribute to the emergence of a multicultural society.

Punishment and Politicization in the International Human Rights Regime

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
ROCHELLE TERMAN ◽  
JOSHUA BYUN
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Periodic Review ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Power Politics ◽  
Human Rights Regime ◽  
Novel Theory ◽  
International Human ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Sensitive Issues ◽  
The Relationship

Conventional wisdom treats politicization in the international human rights regime as invariant: for any given violation, states condemn adversaries while coddling friends. However, we find that politicization patterns vary markedly across human rights issues. Some norms are more politicized than others, and states are more likely to punish geopolitical partners on certain violations. We offer a novel theory of politicized enforcement wherein states punish human rights violations discriminatively based on their perceived “sensitivity” for the target state. Using data from the UN Universal Periodic Review, an elaborate human rights mechanism, we show that states tend to criticize their adversaries on sensitive issues that undermine the target regime’s power and legitimacy while addressing safer topics with friends. By uncovering a strategic logic of human rights enforcement, this research contributes new theoretical insights on the relationship between norms and power politics in global governance.

Risk, Desire and Adaptation: The Paradox of Queer Solidarity and the Political Possibility of Death Under Neoliberalism and Homonationalism

Somatechnics ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-200
Author(s):  
Natalie Kouri-Towe
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Political Activism ◽  
State Violence ◽  
The Political ◽  
Sexual Rights ◽  
Political Strategy ◽  
Rights Discourse ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Strategy I

In 2015, Queers Against Israeli Apartheid Toronto (QuAIA Toronto) announced that it was retiring. This article examines the challenges of queer solidarity through a reflection on the dynamics between desire, attachment and adaptation in political activism. Tracing the origins and sites of contestation over QuAIA Toronto's participation in the Toronto Pride parade, I ask: what does it mean for a group to fashion its own end? Throughout, I interrogate how gestures of solidarity risk reinforcing the very systems that activists desire to resist. I begin by situating contemporary queer activism in the ideological and temporal frameworks of neoliberalism and homonationalism. Next, I turn to the attempts to ban QuAIA Toronto and the term ‘Israeli apartheid’ from the Pride parade to examine the relationship between nationalism and sexual citizenship. Lastly, I examine how the terms of sexual rights discourse require visible sexual subjects to make individual rights claims, and weighing this risk against political strategy, I highlight how queer solidarities are caught in a paradox symptomatic of our times: neoliberalism has commodified human rights discourses and instrumentalised sexualities to serve the interests of hegemonic power and obfuscate state violence. Thinking through the strategies that worked and failed in QuAIA Toronto's seven years of organising, I frame the paper though a proposal to consider political death as a productive possibility for social movement survival in the 21stcentury.

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