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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political control & freedoms > Human rights
When a country experiences a civil war, media reports are mainly
brought to the attention of the outside world by those who can only
report on the surface impressions obtained during a short visit or
from the comfort of a studio thousands of miles away. My
experiences, living and working at the grass roots level, during
and after the crisis in Nigeria in the 1960s has a different
perspective. As a young Scotswoman married to a Nigerian from the
breakaway republic of Biafra we lived as refugees with our young
family, forced to leave our home seven times in the 30 months of
the civil war as the war raged around us. Cut off from the outside
world, in a situation the British High Commissioner in Nigeria had
predicted at the onset, would be over in two weeks, we lived a life
full of experiences which gave me a `qualification in survival' no
university could have imparted. Without electricity, gas, petrol or
phones, and often without money, medicine or safe drinking water we
learned to appreciate the basic necessities of life. I was 18 years
old, living in Dunfermline, Scotland when the man I was to marry
asked me for a dance at the Kinema Ballroom. Two years later my
career plan to qualify as a nurse was over and I was married to Len
Ofoegbu, with a baby daughter and we were on our way to a new and
very different life. Our first home was in the capital, Lagos, and
was a big culture shock to Len and I. The newly independent West
African country was already experiencing political and civil
unrest, leading to violence, massacres, coups, and the inability of
the central government to control the situation. Hundreds of
thousands of Easterners who had settled throughout the whole of the
country now `went home' as they had become the targets of
slaughtering mobs. The secession of the Eastern Region, calling
itself Biafra, followed and a David and Goliath bitter conflict
ensued. The word `kwashiorkor' and pictures of starving children
and adults appeared in the Western press for the first time. I was
one of around a dozen, mainly British, foreign wives of Biafrans
who remained with their husband throughout the civil war. I worked
voluntarily with relief agencies in feeding centres, clinics, an
orphanage and, after Biafra surrendered in January 1970, in a
children's hospital in return for food for my growing family. In
May 1970 we moved back to live in Lagos where we went through more
crises as a family. I became an early member of Nigerwives, an
organisation for foreign wives and partners of Nigerians which
became like an extended family as we gave mutual support and strove
to resolve anomalies in Nigerian laws which put unnecessary
restrictions affecting our particular circumstances. By the 1980s I
accepted that my husband and I had grown so far apart that I could
no longer remain with him. My legal reason to remain in Nigeria was
`to accompany him' and he could withdraw his immigration
responsibility for me at any time. I needed a security which he
could not give me and I left him and Nigeria to begin a new life
and career in Britain in 1985. I was advised when I completed the
original manuscript in the 1970s not have it published as Nigeria
was extremely sensitive about any account which was sympathetic to
the Biafran side of the civil war. In 1986 a much shorter version
of Together in Biafra, titled Blow The Fire, telling the story up
to 1970 was printed by Tana Press in Nigeria. I retain the
copyright. It was published under my married name Leslie Jean
Ofoegbu. It has been cited in academic papers. An example is A
Lingering Nightmare: Achebe, Ofoegbu and Adichie on Biafra,
Francoise Ugochukwu 2011.
When a country experiences a civil war, media reports are mainly
brought to the attention of the outside world by those who can only
report on the surface impressions obtained during a short visit or
from the comfort of a studio thousands of miles away. My
experiences, living and working at the grass roots level, during
and after the crisis in Nigeria in the 1960s has a different
perspective. As a young Scotswoman married to a Nigerian from the
breakaway republic of Biafra we lived as refugees with our young
family, forced to leave our home seven times in the 30 months of
the civil war as the war raged around us. Cut off from the outside
world, in a situation the British High Commissioner in Nigeria had
predicted at the onset, would be over in two weeks, we lived a life
full of experiences which gave me a `qualification in survival' no
university could have imparted. Without electricity, gas, petrol or
phones, and often without money, medicine or safe drinking water we
learned to appreciate the basic necessities of life. I was 18 years
old, living in Dunfermline, Scotland when the man I was to marry
asked me for a dance at the Kinema Ballroom. Two years later my
career plan to qualify as a nurse was over and I was married to Len
Ofoegbu, with a baby daughter and we were on our way to a new and
very different life. Our first home was in the capital, Lagos, and
was a big culture shock to Len and I. The newly independent West
African country was already experiencing political and civil
unrest, leading to violence, massacres, coups, and the inability of
the central government to control the situation. Hundreds of
thousands of Easterners who had settled throughout the whole of the
country now `went home' as they had become the targets of
slaughtering mobs. The secession of the Eastern Region, calling
itself Biafra, followed and a David and Goliath bitter conflict
ensued. The word `kwashiorkor' and pictures of starving children
and adults appeared in the Western press for the first time. I was
one of around a dozen, mainly British, foreign wives of Biafrans
who remained with their husband throughout the civil war. I worked
voluntarily with relief agencies in feeding centres, clinics, an
orphanage and, after Biafra surrendered in January 1970, in a
children's hospital in return for food for my growing family. In
May 1970 we moved back to live in Lagos where we went through more
crises as a family. I became an early member of Nigerwives, an
organisation for foreign wives and partners of Nigerians which
became like an extended family as we gave mutual support and strove
to resolve anomalies in Nigerian laws which put unnecessary
restrictions affecting our particular circumstances. By the 1980s I
accepted that my husband and I had grown so far apart that I could
no longer remain with him. My legal reason to remain in Nigeria was
`to accompany him' and he could withdraw his immigration
responsibility for me at any time. I needed a security which he
could not give me and I left him and Nigeria to begin a new life
and career in Britain in 1985. I was advised when I completed the
original manuscript in the 1970s not have it published as Nigeria
was extremely sensitive about any account which was sympathetic to
the Biafran side of the civil war. In 1986 a much shorter version
of Together in Biafra, titled Blow The Fire, telling the story up
to 1970 was printed by Tana Press in Nigeria. I retain the
copyright. It was published under my married name Leslie Jean
Ofoegbu. It has been cited in academic papers. An example is A
Lingering Nightmare: Achebe, Ofoegbu and Adichie on Biafra,
Francoise Ugochukwu 2011.
How can we interpret and respond to the rise of populist regimes
that infringe on human rights? This incisive book analyses
illiberal, repressive, and patriarchal logics of rule, identifying
critical catalysts in the meteoric growth of populist agendas.
Contributors scrutinise the records of authoritarian and
nationalist leaders in Brazil, Hungary, India, Mexico, the
Philippines, Poland, Turkey and the United States. This topical
book treats populism as a multi-faceted, performative phenomenon
that claims to improve social rights while suppressing civil
liberties and substitutes the promise of cultural citizenship for
the loss of self-determination in a turbulent era of globalization.
The chapters bring attention to understudied dimensions of populism
including gender dynamics, bureaucratic politics, and the
co-construction of foreign policy. Going beyond normative appeals
to human rights, this innovative book urges advocates to contest
populism at the national, social, and ideological levels in novel
ways. Interweaving historical, political, comparative, statistical
and discursive analysis, this interdisciplinary book will be vital
to students and scholars of human rights, comparative politics,
democracy, sociology and international studies. It will also prove
invaluable to policymakers looking to address future populist
regimes.
This forward-thinking book illustrates the complexities of the
morality of human rights. Emphasising the role of human rights as
the only true global political morality to arise since the Second
World War, chapters explore its role as applied to often
controversial issues, such as capital punishment, the exclusion of
same-sex couples from civil marriage and criminal abortion bans.
Clarifying and cross-examining the morality of human rights,
Michael J. Perry discusses their connection to moral equality and
moral freedom, as well as exploring the significance of
anti-poverty human rights. This illuminating book concludes with an
explanation as to why the morality of human rights is acutely
relevant to challenges faced by humanity in the modern era. In
particular, the challenges of growing economic inequality and
climate change are emphasised as having profound relevance to the
morality of human rights. Interrogating the Morality of Human
Rights will be of great benefit to both undergraduate and graduate
students who are contemplating the idea of human rights and their
morality within their studies. Professors and academics with cause
to study and research human rights would also find it to be of
interest, particularly those in the field of legal scholarship.
Business and human rights (BHR) is a rapidly developing field at
the intersection of business, law, and public policy. Teaching
Business and Human Rights is a practical guide and resource for the
growing community of BHR teachers, students, and practitioners –
from advocates and policymakers to business managers and investors.
Chapter authors explain common BHR topics, suggest teaching
approaches that work in the classroom, and identify helpful
teaching resources. Chapters cover the building blocks of a BHR
curriculum: foundational topics including corporate responsibility,
human rights, and human rights due diligence; tools, such as
legislation and litigation, to provide remedy and hold companies
accountable for their human rights impacts; and the specific rights
affected by businesses in different industries. Teaching BHR
effectively has the potential to improve the protection of human
rights as more individuals in the private sector, government and
civil society work to advance the corporate responsibility to
respect human rights. Professors and students, practitioners in the
private sector, government and civil society, and scholars of BHR
will find this thorough and comprehensive resource indispensable.
This innovative book provides an overview and critical assessment
of the current avenues and remedies available to victims seeking
recourse from private military and security companies (PMSCs) for
human rights violations. Kuzi Charamba explores the challenges of
regulating PMSCs and the significant jurisprudential and practical
difficulties that victims face in attaining recourse from PMSCs,
whether through state or non-state, judicial or non-judicial
mechanisms. In response to these problems, Charamba proposes the
introduction of a new victim-focused grievance structure, based on
international arbitration. He argues that this will provide for a
more robust, inclusive, and participatory governance system to
support the effective operation of a globally administered and
locally accessible remedial mechanism. Taking a forward-thinking
approach, the book also analyses law making and regulation by
non-state actors in a globalized world and offers policy and
legislative proposals for the reform of the national security
sector. Hired Guns and Human Rights will be a valuable resource for
students, scholars, and practitioners of international legal
theory, international human rights law, global governance, business
and human rights, and international dispute resolution. Its focus
on both state and non-state responses to human rights grievances
against corporations around the world will also benefit
policy-makers and international NGOs.
This cutting-edge book explores the diverse and contested meanings
of ''citizenship'' in the 21st century, as representative democracy
faces a mounting crisis in the wake of the Digital Age. Luigi
Ceccarini enriches and updates the common notion of citizenship,
answering the question of how it is possible to fully live as a
citizen in a post-modern political community. Employing an
international, multidisciplinary framework, Ceccarini brings
together the findings of continental political philosophy and
history, and contemporary western political science and
communication studies to advance our understanding of political
motivation and participation in the present day. As new
participatory and monitoring dynamics of online citizenship
redefine the very form of public space, this timely book addresses
the values, creativity and aspirations through which social actors
engage with a networked society, making use of technological
innovations and new forms of communication to participate in
post-representative politics. A provocative call to action in an
era defined by distrust, disillusionment and digitization, this
book is crucial reading for scholars and researchers of political
science, sociology and communication studies, particularly those
seeking a thoroughly modern understanding of digital citizenship.
It will also benefit advanced political science students in need of
a historical overview of the concept of citizenship and how it has
developed under the auspices of the Internet.
This timely book explores the extent to which national security has
affected the intersection between human rights and the exercise of
state power. It examines how liberal democracies, long viewed as
the proponents and protectors of human rights, have transformed
their use of human rights on the global stage, externalizing their
own internal agendas. Contextualizing human rights goals,
structures and challenges in the immediate post-UDHR era, key
chapters analyse the role that national security has played in
driving competition between individual rights and rhetoric-laden,
democracy-reinforcing approaches to collective rights of security.
Internationally diverse authors offer evocative insights into the
ways in which law is used to manipulate both intra and interstate
relationships, and demonstrate the constant tensions raised by a
human rights system that is fundamentally state-centric though
defined by individuals' needs and demands. Acknowledging the
challenges in contemporary human rights practice, policy and
discourse as features of transitional eras in human rights, this
forward-thinking book identifies opportunities to correct past
inadequacies and promote a stronger system for the future. This is
a hard-hitting and much needed study for students and scholars of
human rights, security law, constitutional law and international
relations more widely. Its practical dimensions will also greatly
benefit practitioners in the field.
Providing an intellectual biography of the challenging concept of
genocide from inception to present day, this topical Handbook takes
an interdisciplinary approach to shed new light on the events,
processes, and legacies in the field. Reaching beyond the
traditional study of canonical genocides and related pathologies of
behaviour, this Handbook strives to spell out the multiple
dimensions of genocide studies as an academic realm. In doing so,
it incorporates a vast range of methods and disciplines, including
historiography, archival research, listening to testimony,
philosophical inquiry, film studies, and art criticism.
Contributors address a broad array of episodes, including genocides
of indigenous populations in the Americas and Africa, the Armenian
genocide, the Holocaust, twentieth century genocides in Indonesia,
Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, and twenty-first century genocides in
Iraq, Myanmar, and China. By developing a cross-disciplinary
framework, this Handbook showcases the diversity that comprises the
field and creates a rich understanding of the origin, effects, and
legacy of genocide. With a wide variety of perspectives, this
Handbook will prove an invigorating read for students and scholars
of international and human rights, public policy, and political
geography and geopolitics, particularly those interested in
genocide studies and the UN Genocide Convention.
Elgar Research Agendas outline the future of research in a given
area. Leading scholars are given the space to explore their subject
in provocative ways, and map out the potential directions of
travel. They are relevant but also visionary. This Research Agenda
explores the academic field of intelligence studies and how it is
developing into an increasingly international and diverse area of
study. As more governments release records, and as new generations
of scholars engage with the topic from a range of perspectives, the
book considers how the field is becoming richer, wider, and more
global in scope. Featuring contributions by a diverse range of
leading intelligence scholars, it surveys a variety of core areas
in, and approaches to, the study of intelligence - including
technological perspectives, gender, deception, and the 'deep state'
- highlighting how intelligence will become a greater feature of
government and security in the future. Taking an interdisciplinary
approach, the book explores not only the established elements of
intelligence studies, but analyses the cutting edge of intelligence
research and proposes an agenda for the continued development of
the field. Offering concise and accessible discussions of
developing topics in intelligence studies, this Research Agenda
will be a useful guide for scholars and students of public policy,
international relations and security. It will also be of interest
to professionals engaged in research into security and intelligence
matters.
Combining the knowledge and experience of leading international
researchers, practitioners and policy consultants, Knowledge for
Peace discusses how we identify, claim and contest the knowledge we
have in relation to designing and analysing peacebuilding and
transitional justice programmes. Exploring how knowledge in the
field is produced, and by whom, the book examines the
research-policy-practice nexus, both empirically and conceptually,
as an important part of the politics of knowledge production. This
unique book centres around two core themes: that processes of
producing knowledge are imbued with knowledge politics, and that
research-policy-practice interaction characterises the politics of
knowledge and transitional justice. Investigating the realities of,
and suggested improvements for, knowledge production and policy
making processes as well as research partnerships, this book
demonstrates that knowledge is contingent, subjective and shaped by
relationships of power, affecting what is even imagined to be
possible in research, policy and practice. Providing empirical
insights into previously under-researched case studies, this
thought-provoking book will be an illuminating read for scholars
and students of transitional justice, peacebuilding, politics and
sociology.
Building a thorough and comprehensive understanding of the limits
of transitional justice theory, this innovative book proposes a new
concept of the transitional justice citizen. Throughout the book,
Briony Jones addresses contemporary criticism of transitional
justice theory and practice in order to improve our understanding
of the agency of people at times of transition. Drawing on three
diverse case studies from across the globe, chapters demonstrate
how the transitional justice citizen is defined by transitional
justice discourse, policy and practice, and through acts of
claiming justice such as protests and political violence. Combining
in-depth theorization with empirical insights, this perceptive book
positions the concept of citizenship within the context of
long-term historical political struggle and the contemporary
importance of justice. Investigating the current debates and key
research gaps in the field of transitional justice, this book will
be vital reading for students and scholars of transitional justice,
including those focusing on peacebuilding, citizenship,
democratization, and political geography. It will also be
beneficial for transitional justice practitioners who wish to
reflect on their practice and compare their work with other case
studies.
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