scholarly journals "The Realities of their World": Engaging Pre-service School Librarians with International Literature

Author(s):  
Kasey L. Garrison ◽  
Danielle E. Forest ◽  
Sue Kimmel

As the idea of global citizenship grows stronger in a world with blurring borders, issues of social justice and international human rights should be available in the school library collection and alive in the curriculum. This paper reports findings on a study exploring the perceptions of preservice educators in using international literature to teach youth about international human rights. The 2013 Batchelder Honor title Son of a Gun (de Graaf, 2012), translated from the Dutch into English, tells the story of a young brother and sister forced to become child soldiers during the Liberian civil war of the 1990s. Study participants enrolled in a masters level course in the United States read the title and the United Nations’ Declaration of the Rights of the Child (1959) and then participated in group literature circles to apply the DRC to Son of a Gun and discuss teaching international human rights to youth.

2015 ◽  
Vol 84 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-88
Author(s):  
Ntina Tzouvala

The revelation of a series of child abuse incidents committed by Catholic priests and other members of religious orders has given rise to the question of establishing the responsibility of the Holy See for these acts under international human rights law. This article focuses on the report issued in 2014 by the Committee on the Rights of the Child, the monitoring body of the Convention of the Rights of the Child (crc). It is argued that in order to fulfil this task we need to take three steps: first, to establish the relationship between the Vatican City state and the Hole See, a distinct and peculiar international legal subject. To do so, a historical account of the Holy See and its position within the fabric of international law is considered necessary. Secondly, this article argues that the crc was ratified by the Holy See both in its capacity as the government of the Vatican City and as a non-territorial legal subject. Hence, the application of the crc is not confined within the limited territory of the Vatican City, but ‘follows’ the authority of the Holy See irrespective of state borders. Thirdly, it is argued that the vertical, hierarchical structure of the Holy See is homologous to that of the modern state and, therefore, attribution rules can be applied by analogy in this case. The final conclusion is that it is possible to hold the Holy See responsible under the crc for acts of child abuse that occurred under its authority around the globe.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 425-456
Author(s):  
Margot E Salomon

Abstract This article questions the use of international human rights law in realising social transformation. It studies the new United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas, drawing on the commodity-form theory of law. Through this lens, foregrounding the relationship between capitalism and law and their shared constituent form, the contradiction in what is at times a radical normative project in international human rights law is revealed. With the unintended consequences of human rights lawyering made visible, this work turns to the means through which the advocate can launch a potentially transformative ‘legal’ strategy. An exploration of two seminal modes of reconciliation follows: reconciling the use of international human rights law with a commitment to social transformation and reconciling the post-capitalist politics of progressive lawyers with their use of the law.


2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 215-238
Author(s):  
Matthew Dale Kim

AbstractPast studies suggest that domestic public support for compliance with international human rights law can constrain governments to comply with human rights law. But the question remains: Why does the public care about compliance? Using a series of survey experiments in South Korea and the United States, this study finds that constituents are concerned about compliance in one issue area—such as human rights—because they believe it will affect the country's reputation in other domains of international law. Cross-national survey experiments demonstrate that past noncompliance negatively affects the South Korean public's second-order beliefs about the likelihood of future compliance across different issue areas. However, past noncompliance has a limited impact on the US public's first-order beliefs across different domains.


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