Religion and International Relations Theory: The Case of “New” Historiography of Human Rights

International relations theory (IRT) often ignores or has difficulty accounting for religion. Thus, the choice of “new” historians of human rights to focus on religious actors in the lead-up to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is a noteworthy development. One important finding of this stream of scholarship is the crucial role played by Christian personalists in the cultivation of “human rights” discourse in the 1930s and 1940s. However, new school historiography carries assumptions consistent with IRT liberalism that weaken its analysis of religion in the origins of human rights. Most problematic is its dichotomous framework that pits liberal secularism against reactionary religion, which tends to minimize interpretive possibilities. By contrast, IRT constructivism is attuned to the emergence and socialization of norms as different cultures, religious traditions, and value systems interact. Various actors and social networks create, inter-subjectively, pragmatic consensus from positions of fundamental ideological difference. As such, this paper, following a constructivist impulse, uses the case of new school historiography of human rights to better understand the weakness and the promise of IRT in explaining the role of religion in international relations.

The Challenge of Taliban Ideology for International Politics: Religious Competition, Counterterrorism, and the Search for Legitimacy

This paper examines the Taliban vision of an Islamic polity posing a challenge to neighboring Central and South Asian states as well as more distant ones in Eurasia and the Middle East. As a potential magnet for militants across these regions, Taliban Islam represents an alternative to forms of piety and legal practice in states that have signifi cant Muslim populations and where each government claims some degree of religious legitimation and control over Islamic authority and interpretation. Author claims the Taliban ideology poses a dilemma to regional actors, too, in that it makes all parties who might cooperate with the movement vulnerable to criticism based on human rights discourse. At the same time, the presence of the Islamic State – Khorasan Province (ISKP) has permitted the movement the opportunity to seek to reframe its international standing and its relationship to violence. The Taliban have adapted their critique of ISKP to the claim that they share a counterterrorism mission with other governments, an assertion that allows the movement and its partners to defl ect criticism from various quarters and normalize relations with other states. Author concludes that, seeking international support, the Taliban have adapted their ideological claims to position the movement simultaneously as a competitor to other visions of militant jihadist politics and as a counterterrorist force laying the groundwork for the legitimation of their place in a rapidly evolving global order.

THE SOCIAL REALITY OF THE WOMAN CHARACTER IN THE SHORT STORY “KA-MANAKAH TERBANGNYA SI BURONG SENJA” FROM THE LENS OF TAKLIF

This paper will highlight the creative work ‘Ka-mana Terbangnya Si Burong Senja’ by A. Samad Said which features the issue of moral collapse. The short story of the study is seen as a human rights discourse that can provide awareness to society regarding human rights in the formation of social and cultural dynamics through the display of character and characterization of a fully significant immoral society. The work of A. Samad Said needs to be appreciated in terms of its inner meaning. The Taklif framework will be used to discuss the findings of the study because, in the Islamic view, in principle, the universe belongs to the One True God. By using a text analysis approach, the study will turn inward and bring the reader to be more open-minded in reading the author's message from the lens of Islam, which is back to the creator in the process of personality formation.

Transnational Dimensions of a ‘German Case’: The Expatriation of Wolf Biermann and the Politics of Solidarity in the 1970s

In November 1976, the German Democratic Republic (GDR) announced the expatriation of the dissident singer-songwriter Wolf Biermann, preventing his return from a concert tour in West Germany. This step attracted widespread press coverage and sparked a substantial expression of solidarity by East German intellectuals. This article proposes an alternative perspective on this well-known episode in German history by highlighting its transnational dimensions and its international contexts. Biermann’s work interacted with broader cultural currents of the period, while his political engagement with events in Chile and Spain testified to the importance of transnational solidarity for left-wing mobilizations. Moreover, the article points to two important international factors that are crucial for understanding the events of 1976: the role of Eurocommunism within left-wing debate on the one hand, and the resonance of human rights discourse during the 1970s on the other.

Bērnu tiesību diskurss Apvienotajā Karalistē

The goal of the article is to describe the main characteristics of the children's rights discourse in the United Kingdom. To achieve the said goal, the author provides a description and definition of discourse, institutional discourse, legal discourse, and children’s rights discourse while also applying the characteristics of the said discourses to determine the main characteristics of the children rights discourse in the United Kingdom. Children’s rights discourse in the United Kingdom is an institutional subordination system defined by legislation (primary and secondary acts), and this legislation is the source of special lexis used in the discourse. Participants of the discourse are government institutions, children and family members, nongovernmental organisations, mass media, and the general public. All participants of the children’s rights discourse in the United Kingdom can have an effect on the discourse, which in turn might affect the special-use lexis of the discourse.

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

<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>

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

<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>

The Politics of Exclusion

This chapter focuses on political exile, a mechanism of institutionalized exclusion of immense national and transnational impact across Latin America. It draws attention to the significance of forced territorial displacement as derived from the format of exclusionary citizenship and stresses the transnational implications of its recurrent presence and changing significance since early independent times and through the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Tracing the importance of exile in several respects—including its historical use, its role in the construction of transnational networks of solidarity and advocacy, and its contribution to the human rights discourse—the chapter suggests that the study of Latin American exile offers a unique perspective on processes of redefinition of collective identities and political visions. The study of exile also refocuses traditional readings of national histories on more regional, transnational, or even continental scales of analysis, as it is closely related to understanding the connection between state politics and struggles over citizenship that transcend the borders of individual nation-states.

‘Another Tool in the Kete’: Māori Engaging with the International Human Rights Framework

<p>In this study, I consider how the universal concept of human rights is being engaged with and interpreted by Māori communities in Aotearoa/New Zealand. The rights of indigenous peoples have recently been formally defined within United Nations forums and cemented in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. This research argues that the indigenous rights movement indicates a shift in many of the debates that have dominated the global rights rhetoric to a more evolutionary concept of human rights. It suggests that engaging with these debates has the potential to open up new dialogue within the human rights discourse for alternative ways of considering human rights at the global level. This will impact the way that rights-based approaches to development are implemented, engaged with and utilised at the local level. However, currently little is known about the ways in which indigenous communities are using human rights at the local level. This work focuses on a successful rights-based community development programme as a case study. Through this exploration, I consider the levels of empowerment and the positive impacts that resulted from increased knowledge of human rights in the region. I further present some of the principles inherent in the successful application of a rights-based development project. From a methodological perspective, it provides an exploration into the way that research involving indigenous communities is conducted. As a Pākehā researcher working with Māori communities I had to take extra care to ensure that this research had an ethically sound methodological foundation. Taking a critical perspective, I consider some of the political and social implications of being a non-indigenous researcher working with indigenous communities. This work illustrates that highly ethical, critical methodological approaches are essential to any development work. Overall, the research proposes that Māori concepts of human rights are placed within a distinct cultural framework. Human rights are understood and given meaning through Kaupapa Māori, tikanga and whakapapa. They are also framed within the experiences of a colonial history. This research provides an example of how this universal framework is localised to fit particular historical, local and cultural contexts increasing its potential to be a tool for positive social change. It provides a conceptual, methodological and practical inquiry into rights-based approaches as a way of delivering development.</p>