Humanitarian Intervention in International and Islamic Law

2003 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-106
Author(s):  
Ermin Sinanovic

In this paper, I look into the moral foundation of humanitarian intervention in international law and its Islamic counterpart. My objective is to identify the traits shared by both sets of laws, and to see if the same or similar justification can be used across cultures to reach the same goal. In other words, one goal is to assess the claims that the basis upon which humanitarian intervention is justified has a universal appeal. Both international and Islamic law justify humanitarian intervention on moral grounds. International law bases its justification upon the human rights discourse. Islamic law provides enough bases for legitimizing humanitarian intervention, and Qur’anic verses, scholarly opinions, and Islamic principles provide a sound background for it. Paramount in this task is the concept of human dignity (karamah al-insan). We found no disagreement on this fundamental issue between the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and Islamic law. Human dignity, as understood in international human rights and its Islamic counterpart, thus could form the jus cogens of international law, a common human heritage upon which everybody can agree.

2003 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-106
Author(s):  
Ermin Sinanovic

In this paper, I look into the moral foundation of humanitarian intervention in international law and its Islamic counterpart. My objective is to identify the traits shared by both sets of laws, and to see if the same or similar justification can be used across cultures to reach the same goal. In other words, one goal is to assess the claims that the basis upon which humanitarian intervention is justified has a universal appeal. Both international and Islamic law justify humanitarian intervention on moral grounds. International law bases its justification upon the human rights discourse. Islamic law provides enough bases for legitimizing humanitarian intervention, and Qur’anic verses, scholarly opinions, and Islamic principles provide a sound background for it. Paramount in this task is the concept of human dignity (karamah al-insan). We found no disagreement on this fundamental issue between the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and Islamic law. Human dignity, as understood in international human rights and its Islamic counterpart, thus could form the jus cogens of international law, a common human heritage upon which everybody can agree.


2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 383-407 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaheen Sardar Ali

AbstractThis socio-legal narrative investigates the journey from “biological” to “societal” filiation undertaken by Islamic and international law regimes in their endeavors to ensure a child's right to name and identity. Combining a discussion of filiation—a status-assigning process—with adoption and kafāla (fostering) as status-transferring mechanisms, it highlights a nuanced hierarchy relating to these processes within Muslim communities and Muslim state practices. It questions whether evolving conceptions of a child's rights to name and identity represent a paradigm shift from “no status” if born out of wedlock toward “full status” offered through national and international law and Muslim state and community practices. The article challenges the dominant (formal, legal) position within the Islamic legal traditions that nasab (filiation) is obtainable through marriage alone. Highlighting inherent plurality within the Islamic legal traditions, it demonstrates how Muslim state practice and actual practices of Muslim communities on the subject are neither uniform nor necessarily in accordance with stated doctrinal positions of the juristic schools to which they subscribe. Simultaneously, the paper challenges some exaggerated gaps between “Islamic” and “Western” conceptions of children's rights, arguing that child-centric resources in Islamic law tend to be suppressed by a “universalist” Western human-rights discourse. Tracing common threads through discourses within both legal traditions aimed at ensuring children a name and identity, it demonstrates that the rights values in the United Nations Convention on Rights of the Child resonate with preexisting values within the Islamic legal traditions.


Author(s):  
Shannon Dunn

This article explores the question of whether Islamic law and universal human rights are compatible. It begins with an overview of human rights discourse after the Second World War before discussing Islamic human rights declarations and the claims of Muslim apologists regarding human rights, along with challenges to Muslim apologetics in human rights discourse. It then considers the issues of gender and gender equality, feminism, and freedom of religion in relation to human rights. It also examines four basic scholarly orientations to the topic of Islam and human rights since the end of the Second World War: a model that privileges a secular (non-religious) paradigm for rights; a Muslim apologist model, which privileges a purely “Islamic” conception of rights over secular models; a Marxist/postcolonial critique of rights as a western imposition of power; and a Muslim reformist paradigm of rights that highlights points of continuity between western legal and Muslim legal traditions.


2009 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
J. M. Vorster

This article examines the possible role of a Christian deonto- logical ethics in the contemporary human rights debate. It concludes that a Christian deontological ethics in the Reformed tradition can be positively engaged in the human rights debate when Biblical theological topics are transposed into moral directives applicable to the current human rights concerns, such as religious extremism, femicide, ideologies of intolerance and ecocide. As an example of the applicability of a Christian deon- tological ethics from a reformed perspective, the following Bibli- cal topics are investigated: human dignity on the basis of the “imago dei”, creation and creational integrity, the kingdom of God and forgiveness. Furthermore, the article proposes that other concepts can be added to this list such as the Biblical idea of life, eschatology, covenant and holiness.


2018 ◽  
Vol 75 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 94-106
Author(s):  
Gaetano Pentassuglia

The identity of groups of an ethno-cultural variety has long fallen within the remit of internati­onal human rights law. In this context, discussions have been largely concerned with the legal status of groups and/or the nature of the legal right(s) in question. While acknowledging the importance of these dimensions, in this article I seek to provide an alternative account by dis­cussing the continuities and discontinuities in articulating the very concept of group identity. I first examine the potential, limitations and eventual hybridity of human rights practice across the spectrum of minority/indigenous identities. Then, I critique a range of instabilities in human rights discourse relating to the idea of group identities, their personal scope and the role of international law. I argue that such instabilities do not merely mirror the ambivalent outlook of the relationship between human rights and group identities; they raise the broader question of whether there is a relatively more coherent way to capture the legitimacy of group claims. I conclude by pointing to the outer limits of identity claims, the understated interplay of sove­reignty and inter-group diversity, and the need to unpack the reasons why certain groups merit protection in the way they do.


2012 ◽  
Vol 45 (01) ◽  
pp. 101-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fait A. Muedini

AbstractThis article discusses my approach to teaching a course on Islam and human rights. I begin by examining the attention Islam has received in the media and classroom. Then, I discuss how I structure lectures on Islam and human rights, the various readings associated with the lectures, as well as common themes discussed in class that include but are not limited to Islamic law, women's rights, and minority rights. From there, I discuss a range of different approaches to the Islam and human rights discourse. I then describe how I test the students' knowledge of the material.


2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-252 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hadas Tagari

AbstractThis article analyses the structures and substances of personal systems of family law based on religious affiliation within their social, political and historical contexts, and explores the varied ways in which they implicate the human rights of those governed by these systems, and the way international law and jurisprudence of human rights respond to these challenges. This analysis suggests that looking at the specific manifestations of personal family law systems in concrete contexts illuminates significant human rights implications which have not received sufficient attention in mainstream human rights discourse, for various legal, cultural and political reasons. The contexts which this article will draw on are personal family law systems in Israel, India, Lebanon and Morocco, which comprise a varied sample of family law structures and legal, cultural, social and political contexts.


Al-Ahkam ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 201
Author(s):  
Muhammad Hafiz

Muslim countries often stuck in a dilemmatic situation between be exclusively with retaining the Islamic principles of human rights through Islamic law or follow the principles of human rights which is regulated internationally through Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The existence of Independent Permanent Commission of Human Rights (IPHRC) as one of the core institutions of organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC) intended to be a mediator for the occurrence of constructive dialogue between human rights discourse on one side with Islamic law on the other side. This is the way to reduce dichotomous view that impact on gaps and conflict. The equivalent dialogue continuously between two entities, Islamic law and human rights must always be attempts to open opportunities in more widely shared understanding and in turn will facilitate the achievement of progress and the protection of human rights in Muslim countries. This dialogue also important to remove the negative stigma against Islamic law that is often accused of violating human rights. and also to open space of interpretation to Islamic law that relevance with contemporary life.


2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 198
Author(s):  
Abu Dzarrin Al-Hamidy

<p>This article deals with the issue of homosexuality from the perspective of human rights international law and Islamic law, particularly in the view of Mashood Baderin. The result of understanding towards human rights international law as well as towards Islamic law as the blessings for the universe places human beings in the most respected position. However, there emerge the phenomenon of non-mainstream sexual orientation, such as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT). In the perspective of Mashood Baderin, who portrays human rights international law and Islamic law on the principles of equality and justice, these LGBTs have their rights, as they are also human beings that should be respected due to their human dignity. It is inhumane to discriminate and condemn them. They should receive proportional treatment from the state so that their civil rights are guaranteed. However, with regard to their sexual orientation Islamic law prohibits the same sex marriage or other forbidden sexual relations</p>


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