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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political control & freedoms > Human rights > General
Liberal theories have long insisted that cultural diversity in democratic societies can be accommodated through classical liberal tools, in particular through individual rights, and they have often rejected the claims of cultural minorities for group rights as illiberal. Group Rights as Human Rights argues that such a rejection is misguided. Based on a thorough analysis of the concept of group rights, it proposes to overcome the dominant dichotomy between "individual" human rights and "collective" group rights by recognizing that group rights also serve individual interests. It also challenges the claim that group rights, so understood, conflict with the liberal principle of neutrality; on the contrary, these rights help realize the neutrality ideal as they counter cultural biases that exist in Western states. Group rights deserve to be classified as human rights because they respond to fundamental, and morally important, human interests. Reading the theories of Will Kymlicka and Charles Taylor as complementary rather than opposed, Group Rights as Human Rights sees group rights as anchored both in the value of cultural belonging for the development of individual autonomy and in each person's need for a recognition of her identity. This double foundation has important consequences for the scope of group rights: it highlights their potential not only in dealing with national minorities but also with immigrant groups; and it allows to determine how far such rights should also benefit illiberal groups. Participation, not intervention, should here be the guiding principle if group rights are to realize the liberal promise.
The book focuses on the interactions between international legal regimes related to biodiversity governance. It addresses the systemic challenges by analyzing the legal interactions between international biodiversity law and related international law applicable to economic activities, as well as issues related to the governance of biodiversity based on functional, normative, and geographic dimensions, in order to present a crosscutting, holistic approach. The global COVID-19 pandemic, the imminent revision of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020, and the Aichi Targets have created the momentum to focus on the interactions between the Convention on Biological Diversity and other international environmental regimes. Firstly, it discusses the principles that inspire biodiversity-related conventional law, the soft law that conveys targets for enforcement of the Biodiversity Convention, their structural, regulatory and implementation gaps, the systemic relations arising from national interests, and the role of scientific advisory bodies in biodiversity-related agreements. The second part then addresses interactions in specific conventional frameworks, such as the law of multilateral trade and global public health, and the participation of communities in the management of genetic resources. Lastly, the third part illustrates these issues using four case studies focusing on the challenges for sustainability and marine biodiversity in small islands, the Arctic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea, as a way to strengthen a horizontal and joint approach. The book is primarily intended for academics, researchers, and students interested in international environmental law and policy and in interactions for creating conditions for fair, sustainable, and resilient environmental development. By offering an analysis of instruments and criteria for systemic relations in those areas, it will also appeal to public and private actors at the domestic and international level.
Dispossession describes the condition of those who have lost land, citizenship, property, and a broader belonging to the world. This thought-provoking book seeks to elaborate our understanding of dispossession outside of the conventional logic of possession, a hallmark of capitalism, liberalism, and humanism. Can dispossession simultaneously characterize political responses and opposition to the disenfranchisement associated with unjust dispossession of land, economic and political power, and basic conditions for living? In the context of neoliberal expropriation of labor and livelihood, dispossession opens up a performative condition of being both affected by injustice and prompted to act. From the uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa to the anti-neoliberal gatherings at Puerta del Sol, Syntagma and Zucchotti Park, an alternative political and affective economy of bodies in public is being formed. Bodies on the street are precarious - exposed to police force, they are also standing for, and opposing, their dispossession. These bodies insist upon their collective standing, organize themselves without and against hierarchy, and refuse to become disposable: they demand regard. This book interrogates the agonistic and open-ended corporeality and conviviality of the crowd as it assembles in cities to protest political and economic dispossession through a performative dispossession of the sovereign subject and its propriety.
This book addresses key challenges and conflicts arising in extractive industries (mining, oil drilling) concerning the human rights of workers, their families, local communities and other stakeholders. Further, it analyses various instruments that have sought to mitigate human rights violations by defining transparency-related obligations and participation rights. These include the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), disclosure requirements, and free, prior and informed consent (FPIC). The book critically assesses these instruments, demonstrating that, in some cases, they produce unwanted effects. Furthermore, it highlights the importance of resistance to extractive industry projects as a response to human rights violations, and discusses how transparency, participation and resistance are interconnected.
Republicanism, liberalism, and the rule of law have a long and tangled common history in the development of Western institutions. All three claim to secure "liberty" for citizens or subjects of the state, without always agreeing about what this should mean in practice. Mortimer Sellers' The Sacred Fire of Liberty places the concept of "liberty" into the context of its political origins, and explains the structures and vocabulary of liberty that still dominate contemporary legal and political debate. Contrary to the common opposition of liberal and republican traditions as rival conceptions of political legitimacy, Sellers demonstrates the close links between the two, their common roots in developing Western conceptions of liberty, and their eventual divergence over structures of government following the French revolution.
Reforms in Myanmar (formerly Burma) have eased restrictions on citizens' political activities. Yet for most Burmese, Ardeth Maung Thawnghmung shows, eking out a living from day to day leaves little time for civic engagement. Citizens have coped with extreme hardship through great resourcefulness. But by making bad situations more tolerable in the short term, these coping strategies may hinder the emergence of the democratic values needed to sustain the country's transition to a more open political environment. Thawnghmung conducted in-depth interviews and surveys of 372 individuals from all walks of life and across geographical locations in Myanmar between 2008 and 2015. To frame her analysis, she provides context from countries with comparable political and economic situations. Her findings will be welcomed by political scientists and policy analysts, as well by journalists and humanitarian activists looking for substantive, reliable information about everyday life in a country that remains largely in the shadows.
This book examines violence against women in Africa and criminal justice from the perspective of African scholars, practitioners and experts. As a global and long-standing issue, violence against women is gaining public visibility across the African continent with some states announcing a national crisis warranting immediate redress. At the global level, the elimination of all forms of violence against all women and girls forms a key part of United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 5: Gender Equality. Split across two volumes, these books present a comprehensive analysis of the latest research and theories, principles and practices of criminal justice systems, criminal justice accountability mechanisms, and the key challenges women face in their quest for justice on the African continent. This volume (II) focusses on sexual violence and vulnerable women's access to justice in Africa. Volume I focusses on legislation and its impact, the limitations of criminal justice responses, and the cultural and social norms regarding access to justice. Together, they adopt a comparative approach that highlight gaps and good practices to provide a rich source of authoritative information for promoting an intra-African dialogue and cross-fertilization of ideas across the different criminal justice traditions in Africa. Both volumes seek to advance discussions on eliminating violence against women in Africa and speak to those interested in criminal justice, violence, gender studies and African legal studies.
John Stuart Mill's On Liberty is widely regarded as one of the most influential and stirring pieces of political philosophy ever written. Ever relevant in our increasingly surveillance dominated culture, the essay argues strongly in favour of the moral rights of individuality, including rights of privacy and of freedom of expression. The Routledge Guidebook to Mill's On Liberty introduces the major themes in Mill's great book and aids the reader in understanding this key work, covering: the context of Mill's work and the background to his writing each separate part of the text in relation to its goals, meanings and impact the reception the book received when first seen by the world the relevance of Mill's work to modern philosophy. With further reading included for each chapter, this text is essential reading for all students of philosophy and political theory, and all those wishing to get to grips with this classic work of political philosophy.
p class="MsoNormal" With an Introduction by George Soros and an Afterword by Aryeh Neier p class="MsoNormal" p style="line-height: 14pt" class="MsoNormal"George Soros is one of the world's leading philanthropists. Over the past thirty years, he has provided more than 8 billion to his worldwide network of foundations: the Open Society Foundations, which have applied the concept of the open society, the cornerstone of Soros's thinking on democracy, freedom, and human rights, in the United States and abroad. This book, written by former New York Times journalist Chuck Sudetic, marks the first exploration of George Soros's innovative philanthropic strategies and unmatched commitment to building open societies in places where dictatorship and violent repression have been the rule for too long. p style="line-height: 14pt" class="MsoNormal"Soros is widely lauded for his brilliant financial and economic insights and investment strategies. But his philosophy-driven philanthropy and its impact are unprecedented for a private individual, and have produced remarkable results. Soros's visionary efforts include: helping to topple communism in eastern Europe and the Soviet Union and attempting to foster civil society in China initiating and nurturing global and local organizations fighting to overcome the driver of war, repression, and corruption in oil- and blood-diamond states helping Sarajevo's people endure three years of siege during the Bosnian War fighting resistant strains of TB in Russia's jails and Lesotho's mountains before the disease can devastate the world's great cities undertaking the first attempt in history to help Europe's most downtrodden people lift themselves from poverty and segregation supporting democratic resistance in Burma and building communities in Haiti's roughest slums applying new methods for fighting poverty and drug addiction and reforming dysfunctional justice systems in Baltimore, New Orleans, and other U.S. cities. p style="margin: 0.1pt 0in line-height: 14pt" class="MsoNormal" The Philanthropy of George Soros reveals the thought and practice behind a lesser-known dimension of this remarkable man's life, his goals for society, and his underlying vision for the future.
A timely analysis of the new antisemitism, by the historian who defeated Holocaust denier David Irving in court. What is antisemitism? Does it come from the right or the left? Is anti-Zionism the same as antisemitism? Are there different kinds of antisemites? And what can be done to combat this extremely damaging racist ideology? Antisemitism has been on the rise worldwide for the last ten years. From violent white-nationalist protests in Charlottesville, USA, to attacks on synagogues across Europe and the US, and from the targeting of Jewish students at American universities to the antisemitism row raging in the British Labour Party, does this resurgence of anti-Jewish rhetoric and violence mark a return to the brutality of the 1930s? In this penetrating and provocative analysis, Deborah Lipstadt connects distinct currents in contemporary culture, such as the resurgence of racist right-wing nationalisms, left-liberal tolerance of hostility to Jews, the plight of the Palestinians, and the rise of Islamic extremism, to explore how contradictory forces have found common scapegoats. Lucid and convincing, Antisemitism will calm the fearful, rouse the complacent, and demand a response from readers.
This book argues that human rights cannot go global without going local. This important lesson from the winding debates on universalism and particularism raises intricate questions: what are human rights after all, given the dissent surrounding their foundations, content, and scope? What are legitimate deviances from classical human rights (law) and where should we draw "red lines"? Making a case for balancing conceptual openness and distinctness, this book addresses the key human rights issues of our time and opens up novel spaces for deliberation. It engages philosophical reasoning with law, politics, and religion and demonstrates that a meaningful relativist account of human rights is not only possible, but a sorely needed antidote to dogmatism and polarization.
This book explores the human rights consequences of the new mercenarism, as channeled through so-called private military and security companies (PMSCs), and offers an overview of the evolution and status quo of both non-legal (soft law and self-regulation) and legal initiatives seeking to limit them. It addresses various topics, including the impact of the presence of non-state actors on human security using the cases of Afghanistan and Syria; research on PMSCs' impact on human rights in specific cases; the insufficiency and ineffectiveness of existing direct and indirect legal prohibitions on the use of mercenaries; various aspects of international human rights law and international humanitarian law related to the conduct of PMSCs; soft-law and self-regulation mechanisms; and the international minimum standard in general international law regarding the privatization, export, import, and contracting of PMSCs.
Mediterranean states have developed various cooperation mechanisms in order to cope with the issues that arise from migration. This book critically analyses how institutional actors act and interact on the international scene in the control and management of migration in the Mediterranean. It highlights how, even though the involvement of 'universal' international organisations guarantees a certain balance in setting the goals of cooperation mechanisms and buttresses a certain coherence of the actions, the protection of migrants' fundamental rights is still an objective as opposed to a reality, and security imperatives and trends still prevail in the aftermath of the 2011 Arab Spring.
The book addresses authoritarian legacies of politically motivated justice and its unwritten practices that have re-emerged in the recent trials related to both political and ordinary criminal charges against prominent opposition leaders in many former Soviet republics. Taking into account that in any country all trials are more or less related to politics, the author differentiates between trials on political issues (political trials that are not necessarily arbitrary) and politicized partisan trials (arbitrary trials against political opponents). The monograph, thus, adopts a broad definition of a political trial, which includes all trials that are related to politicians and political matters such as elections, regime change, activities of parties and other political organizations. The focus lies on a separate group of partisan trials that are politicized (i.e. politically motivated) and which are used by governments to restrain political opposition and dissent. Primarily aimed at legal practitioners such as human rights lawyers, prosecutors, and judges, as well as postgraduates, researchers, teaching assistants and university law professors, readers can gain from the book information that is useful in assessing the interdisciplinary phenomenon of politically motivated criminal justice in transitional and authoritarian post-Soviet republics. Additionally, the volume is indispensable to readers that are interested in Eastern European Studies, Transitional Justice, Law and Society, Slavic Studies, and Theory and History of State and Law. Artem Galushko is a post-doctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity in Germany.
In The Politics of Inequality, David Pettinicchio has gathered an interdisciplinary team of leading experts to make a valuable contribution to the existing inequalities literature through a political sociology lens. Broad social, political and economic forces associated with neoliberalism and globalization, climate change, migration and immigration, health, global financial crises, and crime and punishment, among others, have manifested themselves in a variety of different ways, in turn influencing the politics of inequality across local, national and international contexts. This volume explores a wide range of topics showcasing the multidimensional nature of the politics of inequality. Some of these topics include inequalities within democratic movements, youth political engagement, environmental justice, the impacts of neoliberal capitalism on reproductive autonomy, the politics of educational inequalities, the effects of different forms of collective action on perceptions of inequality, public health and care work, the intersection of race and LGBTQ status in political representation, and much more.
This open access book analyses the interplay of sustainable development and human rights from different perspectives including fight against poverty, health, gender equality, working conditions, climate change and the role of private actors. Each aspect is addressed from a more human rights-focused angle and a development-policy angle. This allows comparisons between the different approaches but also seeks to close gaps which would remain if only one perspective would be at the center of the discussions. Specifically, the book shows the strong connections between human rights and the objectives of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the United Nations in 2015. Already the preamble of this document explicitly states that "the 17 Sustainable Development Goals ... seek to realise the human rights of all". Moreover, several goals and targets of the 2030 Agenda correspond to already existing individual human rights obligations. The contributions of this volume therefore also address how the implementation of human rights and SDGs can reinforce each other, but also point to critical shortcomings of the different approaches.
Relations between societal values and legal doctrine are inevitably complex given the time lag between law and social reality, and the sociological space between legal communities involved in the development and application of the law and non-legal communities affected by it. It falls on open-ended concepts, such as proportionality, human rights, dignity, freedom, and truth, and on legal frameworks for balancing competing rights and interests, such as self-defense, command or corporate responsibility, and restrictions on freedom of expression, to negotiate chronic tensions between law and society and to bridge existing gaps. The present volume contains chapters by leading experts - former judges on constitutional courts and international courts, and some of the world's leading criminal law, public law, and international law scholars - offering their points of view and professional analysis of legal notions and doctrines that serve as hubs for the interpretation, application, and contestation of core values, which in turn constitute building blocks of the rule of law. The shared perspective on the interplay between values and legal rules in public law, criminal law, and international law is likely to render the publication a valuable resource for both theoreticians and practitioners, law students, and seasoned legal experts working in diverse legal fields.
In this pathbreaking study, Pamela Steiner deconstructs the psychological obstacles that have prevented peaceful settlements to longstanding issues. The book re-examines more than 100 years of destructive ethno-religious relations among Armenians, Turks, and Azerbaijanis through the novel lens of collective trauma. The author argues that a focus on embedded, transgenerational collective trauma is essential to achieving more trusting, productive, and stable relationships in this and similar contexts. The book takes a deep dive into history - analysing the traumatic events, examining and positing how they motivated the actions of key players (both victims and perpetrators), and revealing how profoundly these traumas continue to manifest today among the three peoples, stymying healing and inhibiting achievement of a basis for positive change. The author then proposes a bold new approach to "conflict resolution" as a complement to other perspectives, such as power-based analyses and international human rights. Addressing the psychological core of the conflict, the author argues that a focus on embedded collective trauma is essential in this and similar arenas.
This monograph offers a longitudinal analysis of the developments in the European fundamental rights arena during the last decade. Decisions of critical importance on the future of the EU need to be taken by the EU institutions and the Member States' governments. The 'existential' crisis affecting Europe is essentially a crisis of values revealing a lack of shared vision. Based on this premise, this monograph contributes to the debate on how to overcome the current impasse. By situating the analysis of the EU in the context of a wider Europe, which includes the ECHR (and its interpretation by the ECtHR), this work challenges the idea that the project of European integration should be abandoned. Instead it proposes a re-orientation of this process, conceptualised as a dynamic interaction of different actors, sources and laws on fundamental rights within the wider Europe. Following an evaluation of the current fundamental rights' regimes, the monograph proposes a model of effective governance of fundamental rights in Europe based on the doctrines of dialogical constitutionalism and agency. This original and innovative contribution is enriched by findings from British Academy funded research on the European architecture of fundamental rights post-Lisbon Treaty.
International courts and other actors are increasingly taking into account pre-existing social structures and inequalities when addressing and redressing human rights violations, in particular discrimination against specific groups. To date, however, academic legal research has paid little attention to this gentle turn in international human rights law and practice to address structural discrimination. In order to address this gap, this study analyses whether and to what extent international and regional human rights frameworks foresee positive obligations for State parties to address structural discrimination, and, more precisely, gender hierarchies and stereotypes as root causes of gender-based violence. In order to answer this question, the book analyses whether or not international human rights law requires pursuing a root-cause-sensitive and transformative approach to structural discrimination against women in general and to the prevention, protection and reparation of violence against women in particular; to what extent international courts and (quasi)judicial bodies address State responsibility for the systemic occurrence of violence against women and its underlying root causes; whether or not international courts and monitoring bodies have suitable tools for addressing structural discrimination within the society of a contracting party; and the limits to a transformative approach.
This book considers the European Union as a project with a major antidiscrimination goal, which is important to remember at a time of increasing resentment against particularly exposed groups, especially migrants, refugees, members of ethnic or religious minorities and LGBTI persons. While equality and non-discrimination have long been core principles of the international community as a whole, as is made obvious by the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, they have shaped European integration in a particular way. The concepts of diversity, pluralism and equality have always been inherent in that process, the EU being virtually founded on the values of equality and non-discrimination. The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU contains the most modern and extensive catalogue of prohibited grounds of discrimination, supplementing the catalogue enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights. EU law has given new impulses to antidiscrimination law both within Europe and beyond. The contributions to this book focus on how effective and credible the EU has been in combatting discrimination inside and outside Europe. The authors present different (mostly legal) aspects of that topic and examine them from various intra- and extra-European angles.
Health rights are a common but controversial legal phenomenon. Every country is signatory to a treaty that incorporates health rights, yet existing health rights do not fit easily into the traditional "claim right" model, and questions remain over how to theoretically incorporate health rights into domestic systems. The Pluralist Right to Health Care addresses this incongruity between theory and practice with an account of the right to health care that is both philosophically and practically sound. Utilizing a pluralist framework, Michael Da Silva argues that the right to health care is best understood as a set of claims to related ends: the goods necessary for a dignified existence, procedural fairness in determining what other goods to provide and in the provision of goods, and a functioning health care system. Through philosophical reasoning, analysis of relevant international human rights law, and a close study of the Canadian case, The Pluralist Right to Health Care provides crucial insight into the potential of law and policy to improve health care systems in Canada and beyond.
The book rethinks the means of harmonization of prima facie norm conflicts in light of the multitude of international agreements across regimes. The methodology deployed in this book, which is referred to as complementation or complementary application, represents a novel approach by focusing on commonly shared objectives and a unifying ordre public transnational across fields of public international law that allow for a harmonization beyond traditional treaty interpretation. Fields of public international law, mainly the laws of armed conflict, international environmental law, and human rights law, apply simultaneously to questions regarding the environment and war. Such a coexistence challenges the unity of the international legal order, and it also challenges the means of harmonization across fields of public international law. However, eventually, the co-existence of several fields of public international law can result in a refinement of international law and enhanced legal protection. Diversification can also contribute to clarification or normative intensification in areas of parallel application of various fields and multilayered legal protection, demonstrating a counter-option to fragmentation.
This volume is a new chapter in the future history of law. Its general perspective could not be more original and its critical ethical edge on the state of international law could not be timelier. It explores a compassionate philosophical approach to the genuine substance of law, criminal procedure, international criminal law and international criminal justice. It divides law into three interrelated disciplines, i.e. legality, morality and love. The norm love is derived from human reason for man's advancement and the securing of natural law. It is more than a mere mandatory norm. Its goal is to generate a normative and positive, powerful result, therefore avoiding any impurity that may exist in the application of other norms because of political or juridical pressures - a one-eyed justice. The norm love also renders justice with the principles of legal accountability, transparency and the high moral, authentic values of humanity. The notion of justice cannot be trusted in the absence of the norm love. The volume indicates the conditions of its efficiency by proving the reasons for its existence in the context of fairness, objectivity and concern for all individuals and entities. The concept of the norm love should be the core academic corpus for lecturing law in all faculties of law. It is simply the enlightenment of the 21st century. A lawyer with requisite knowledge and skill is not a lawyer if he cannot understand that the law does not need a lawyer with ethical competence in its provisions for income purposes but one with knowledge of its essence for the advanced morality of justice and the sheer essence of love for justice.
In the bestselling tradition of The Notorious RBG comes a lively, informative, and illustrated tribute to one of the most exceptional women in American history-Harriet Tubman-a heroine whose fearlessness and activism still resonates today. Harriet Tubman is best known as one of the most famous conductors on the Underground Railroad. As a leading abolitionist, her bravery and selflessness has inspired generations in the continuing struggle for civil rights. Now, National Book Award nominee Erica Armstrong Dunbar presents a fresh take on this American icon blending traditional biography, illustrations, photos, and engaging sidebars that illuminate the life of Tubman as never before. Not only did Tubman help liberate hundreds of slaves, she was the first woman to lead an armed expedition during the Civil War, worked as a spy for the Union Army, was a fierce suffragist, and was an advocate for the aged. She Came to Slay reveals the many complexities and varied accomplishments of one of our nation's true heroes and offers an accessible and modern interpretation of Tubman's life that is both informative and engaging. Filled with rare outtakes of commentary, an expansive timeline of Tubman's life, photos (both new and those in public domain), commissioned illustrations, and sections including "Harriet By the Numbers" (number of times she went back down south, approximately how many people she rescued, the bounty on her head) and "Harriet's Homies" (those who supported her over the years), She Came to Slay is a stunning and powerful mix of pop culture and scholarship and proves that Harriet Tubman is well deserving of her permanent place in our nation's history. |
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