Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
|
Your cart is empty |
|||
Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political control & freedoms > Human rights
From the Company of Shadows. Read firsthand accounts of fascinating events inside the CIA. Learn how the CIA conducts operations, recruits agents and protects defectors from assassination. Understand the current global and domestic threat of terrorism from the perspective of a decorated CIA officer. Read an insider's expose' of the CIA's use of secrecy and the executive branch's abuse of the shadowy State Secrets Privilege.
In this book, Mireya Loza sheds new light on the private lives of migrantmen who participated in the Bracero Program (1942-1964), a binationalagreement between the United States and Mexico that allowed hundredsof thousands of Mexican workers to enter this country on temporary workpermits. While this program and the issue of temporary workers has longbeen politicized on both sides of the border, Loza argues that the prevailingromanticized image of braceros as a family-oriented, productive, legal workforcehas obscured the real, diverse experiences of the workers themselves.Focusing on underexplored aspects of workers' lives-such as their transnationalunion-organizing efforts, the sexual economies of both hetero andqueer workers, and the ethno-racial boundaries among Mexican indigenousbraceros-Loza reveals how these men defied perceived political, sexual, andracial norms. Basing her work on an archive of more than 800 oral histories from theUnited States and Mexico, Loza is the first scholar to carefully differentiatebetween the experiences of mestizo guest workers and the many Mixtec,Zapotec, Purhepecha, and Mayan laborers. In doing so, she captures themyriad ways these defiant workers responded to the intense discriminationand exploitation of an unjust system that still persists today.
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.
The idea of security has recently seen a surge of interest from political philosophers. After the atrocities of 11 September 2001 and 7 July 2005, many leading politicians justified encroachments on international legal standards and civil liberties in the name of security and with a view to protecting the rights of the people. Suggestions were made on both sides of the Atlantic to the effect that the extremism of terrorism required the security of the many to be weighed against the liberties of other citizens. In this collection of essays, Jeremy Waldron, Conor Gearty, Tariq Modood, David Novak, Abdelwahab El-Affendi and others debate how to move beyond the false dichotomy whereby fundamental human rights and international standards are conceived as something to be balanced against security. They also examine the claim that this aim might better be advanced by the inclusion in public debate of explicitly religious voices.
Histories of civil rights movements in America generally place little or no emphasis on the activism of Asian Americans. Yet, as this fascinating new study reveals, there is a long and distinctive legacy of civil rights activism among foreign and American-born Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino students, who formed crucial alliances based on their shared religious affiliations and experiences of discrimination. Stephanie Hinnershitz tells the story of the Asian American campus organizations that flourished on the West Coast from the 1900s through the 1960s. Using their faith to point out the hypocrisy of fellow American Protestants who supported segregation and discriminatory practices, the student activists in these groups also performed vital outreach to communities outside the university, from Californian farms to Alaskan canneries. Highlighting the unique multiethnic composition of these groups, Race, Religion, and Civil Rights explores how the students' interethnic activism weathered a variety of challenges, from the outbreak of war between Japan and China to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. Drawing from a variety of archival sources to bring forth the authentic, passionate voices of the students, Race, Religion, and Civil Rights is a testament to the powerful ways they served to shape the social, political, and cultural direction of civil rights movements throughout the West Coast.
A practical guide to what international human rights law means and how that knowledge can be used on behalf of victims, this volume should make a contribution to the empowerment of those it sees as at risk, as well as providing a different view of a world which upholds a common standard of respect for human dignity.;It includes: a detailed commentary on the international covenant on civil and political rights; discussion on the changing priorities in a state in transition from one-party rule to multi-party rule; and extensive appendices including the basic international human rights texts, their signatories and a list of international organizations and NGOs.
Although a rich literature combining international relations and domestic political developments has recently emerged, most works specializing in state-minority relations, nationalism, citizenship, and human rights have not integrated insights from the field of international relations and security affairs into their analysis. This absence is nowhere more visible than in the study of relations between the Israeli state and its Arab/Palestinian minority. This book aims to bring (back) international relations and international security perspectives into the analysis of relations between the Israeli state and its Arab minority. Drawing on international relations theory, it argues that the relationship between the Israeli state and the predominant community, as in many other cases characterized by ethno-national cleavage, was heavily influenced by the state's broader regional geo-strategic security situation. State policies toward Israel's Arab citizens moderated in the rare times of relative geo-strategic security and hardened when Israel's regional position became more precarious.
A human rights lawyer travels to hot zones around the globe, before and after the September 11 attacks, to document abuses committed by warlords, terrorist groups, and government counterterrorism forces. Whether reporting on al Qaeda safe houses, the mechanics of the Pentagon's smartest bombs, his interviews with politicians and ordinary civilians, or his own brush with death outside Kabul, John Sifton wants to help us understand violence-what it is, and how we think and speak about it. For the human rights community, the global war on terror brought unprecedented challenges. Of special concern were the secret detention centers operated by the CIA as it expanded into a paramilitary force, and the harsh treatment of prisoners throughout Iraq and Afghanistan. In drafting legal memoranda that made domestic prosecution for these crimes impossible, Sifton argues, the United States possessed not only the detainees but the law itself. Sifton recounts his efforts to locate secret prisons and reflects on the historical development of sanctioned military or police violence-from hand-to-hand combat to the use of drones-and the likelihood that technology will soon enable completely automated killing. Sifton is equally concerned to examine what people have meant by nonviolent social change, and he asks whether pure nonviolence is ever possible. To invoke rights is to invoke the force to uphold them, he reminds us. Ultimately, advocates for human rights can only shame the world into better behavior, and their work may involve advocating the very violence they deplore.
That Indonesia's ongoing occupation of West Papua continues to be largely ignored by world governments is one of the great moral and political failures of our time. West Papuans have struggled for more than fifty years to find a way through the long night of Indonesian colonization. However, united in their pursuit of merdeka (freedom) in its many forms, what holds West Papuans together is greater than what divides them. Today, the Morning Star glimmers on the horizon, the supreme symbol of merdeka and a cherished sign of hope for the imminent arrival of peace and justice to West Papua. Morning Star Rising: The Politics of Decolonization in West Papua is an ethnographically framed account of the long, bitter fight for freedom that challenges the dominant international narrative that West Papuans' quest for political independence is fractured and futile. Camellia Webb-Gannon's extensive interviews with the decolonization movements' original architects and its more recent champions shed light on complex diasporic and inter-generational politics as well as social and cultural resurgence. In foregrounding West Papuans' perspectives, the author shows that it is the body politic's unflagging determination and hope, rather than military might or influential allies, that form the movement's most unifying and powerful force for independence. This book examines the many intertwining strands of decolonization in Melanesia. Differences in cultural performance and political diversity throughout the region are generating new, fruitful trajectories. Simultaneously, Black and Indigenous solidarity and a shared Melanesian identity have forged a transnational grassroots power-base from which the movement is gaining momentum. Relevant beyond its West Papua focus, this book is essential reading for those interested in Pacific studies, Native and Indigenous studies, development studies, activism, and decolonization.
The main theme of this volume of the Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law is the 70th anniversary of the Geneva Conventions. The evolution of these crucial treaties and international humanitarian law more generally comes back in six chapters addressing topics such as sieges, compliance, indiscriminate attacks and non-state armed groups. The second part of the book contains a chapter on the acquittal on appeal of Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo by the International Criminal Court on the basis of command responsibility for war crimes, as well as an extensive Year in Review describing the most important events and legal developments in the area of international humanitarian law that took place in 2019. The Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law is the world's only annual publication devoted to the study of the laws governing armed conflict. It provides a truly international forum for high-quality, peer-reviewed academic articles focusing on this crucial branch of international law. Distinguished by contemporary relevance, the Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law bridges the gap between theory and practice and serves as a useful reference tool for scholars, practitioners, military personnel, civil servants, diplomats, human rights workers and students.
This book offers fresh insights to enhance and diversify our understanding of the modern history of the state and societies in today's Jordan, while also providing examples of why and how scholars can challenge the static and discursively government-minded approaches to minorities and minoritisation - especially the traditional emphasis on demographic balances. Despite its small size and initial appearance of homogeneity, Jordan provides an excellent case of a dynamic, relational, historically contingent and fluid approach to ethnic, political and religious minorities in the context of the imposition of a modern state system on complex and varied traditional societies. The editors and contributors present dynamic and relational perspectives on the status of and historical processes involved in the creation and absorption of minority groups within Jordan.
This book explores the role of gender in the recognition of an individual's legal capacity. It discusses the meaning of the right to legal capacity and its two core elements - legal personhood and legal agency. It then analyses historical and modern denials of personhood and agency experienced by women, disabled women, and gender minorities - for example, prohibitions from voting, limitations on contracting, loss of personhood upon marriage, and gender binary requirements leading to an inability to exercise legal capacity, among others. Using critical feminist, disability, and queer theory, this book also offers insights into the construction of legal personhood and its role as a predictor of power and privilege. The book identifies patterns of oppression through legal capacity denial in various jurisdictions and discusses situations in which modern law continues to enforce these denials. In addition, the book presents solutions: it identifies practices to learn from in various jurisdictions around the world - including both civil law and common law jurisdictions. It also uses case studies to illustrate the ways in which existing laws, policies and practices could be reformed. As such, the book offers both a novel contribution to the field of legal capacity law and a tool for creating change and helping to realise the right to legal capacity for all.
This book addresses emerging questions concerning who should bear responsibility for shouldering risk, as well as the viability of existing and experimental governance mechanisms in connection with new technologies. Scholars from 14 jurisdictions unite their efforts in this edited collection to provide a comparative analysis of how various legal systems are tackling the challenges produced by the legal aspects of genetic testing in insurance and employment. They cover the diverse set of norms that surround this issue, and share insights into relevant international, regional and national incursions into the field. By doing so, the authors offer a basis for comparative reflection, including on whether transnational standard setting might be useful or necessary for the legal aspects of genetic testing as they relate to the insurance and employment contexts. The respective texts cover a broad range of topics, including the prevalence of genetic testing in the contexts of insurance and employment, and policy factors that might affect this prevalence, such as the design of national health or social insurance systems, of private insurance schemes or the availability of low-cost direct-to-consumer genetic testing. Further, the field of genetics is gaining in importance at the international and regional levels. Relevant concepts - mainly genetic tests and genetic data/information - have been internationally defined, and these definitions have influenced definitions adopted nationally. International law also recognizes a "special status" for human genetic data. The authors therefore also consider these definitions and the recognition of the special status of human genetic data within regional and national legal orders. They investigate the range of norms that specifically address the use of genetic testing in employment and insurance, encompassing international sources - including human rights norms - that may be binding or non-binding, as well national statutory, regulatory and soft-law mechanisms. Accordingly, some of the texts examine general frameworks relevant to genetic testing in each country, including those that stem from general anti-discrimination rules and norms protecting rights to autonomy, self-determination, confidentiality and privacy. In closing, the authors provide an overview of the efficiency of their respective legal regimes' approaches - specific and generalist - to genetic testing or disclosure of genetic information in the employment or insurance contexts, including the effect of lack of legal guidance. In this regard, some of the authors highlight the need for transnational action in the field and make recommendation for future legal developments.
The book analyses the difficulties the International Criminal Court faces with the definition of those persons who are eligible for participating in the proceedings. Establishing justice for victims is one of the most important aims of the court. It therefore created a unique system of victim participation. Since its first trial the court struggles to live up to the expectancies its statute has generated. The book offers a new approach of how to define victimhood by looking at the different international crimes. It seeks to offer guidance for the right to participate in the different stages of the proceedings by looking at the practice in national jurisdictions. Lastly the book offers insights into the functioning of the reparation regime at the ICC by virtue of the Trust Fund for Victim and its different mandates. The critical analysis of the ICC-practice with regard to definition, participation and reparation aims at promoting a realistic approach, which will avoid the disappointing of expectations and thus help to enhance the acceptance of the ICC.
This book, which updates and expands the third edition published by Springer in 2015, explains, compares and evaluates the social and legal functions of adoption within a range of selected jurisdictions and on an international basis. From the standpoint of the development of adoption in England & Wales, and the changes currently taking place there, it considers the process as it has evolved in other countries. It also identifies themes of commonality and difference in the experience of adoption in a common law context, comparing and contrasting this with the experience under civil law and in Islamic countries and with that of indigenous people. This book includes new chapters examining adoption in Russia, Korea and Romania. Further, it uses the international conventions and the associated ECtHR case law to benchmark developments in national law, policy and practice and to facilitate a cross-cultural comparative analysis.
This book argues that European citizenship is transnational, a status that has emerged incrementally during the European integration process. Transnational Citizenship in the European Union follows an institutionalist approach and traces the development of citizenship discourse from the founding treaties of the EU to the most recent effort of constitution-making and the Lisbon Treaty. This helps demonstrate that such discourse has followed a path based on the foundational principles of free movement and non-discrimination rather than revolutionary ideas of a postnational citizenship beyond the nation-state. This in-depth analysis of citizenship in the EU takes into account the institutional configuration of membership, rights, identity, and participation. It also brings in the domestic level of the debate through the examination of national positions on reform proposals and the interplay between EU and member states conceptions of citizenship. Lastly, by investigating citizenship practices, the book helps foster understanding of how the EU works as a political system, and the relationship between European institutions and the recipients of their integrative politics , i.e., the citizens.
When women won the vote in the United States in 1920 they were still routinely barred from serving as jurors, but some began vigorous campaigns for a place in the jury box. This book tells the story of how women mobilized in fifteen states to change jury laws so that women could gain this additional right of citizenship. Some campaigns quickly succeeded; others took substantially longer. The book reveals that when women strategically adapted their tactics to the broader political environment, they were able to speed up the pace of jury reform, while less strategic movements took longer. A comparison of the more strategic women's jury movements with those that were less strategic shows that the former built coalitions with other women's groups, took advantage of political opportunities, had past experience in seeking legal reforms and confronted tensions and even conflict within their ranks in ways that bolstered their action. |
You may like...
The Misery Merchants - Life And Death In…
Ruth Hopkins
Paperback
(1)
Suffragists in Washington, DC - The 1913…
Rebecca Boggs Roberts
Paperback
Bamboozled - In Search Of Joy In A World…
Melinda Ferguson
Paperback
International Brigade Against Apartheid…
Ronnie Kasrils, Muff Andersson, …
Paperback
|