Showing papers in "Journal of Human Rights in 2006"
TL;DR: Rights talk dominates contemporary moral discourse and is also having a growing impact on the development of legal principle and doctrine as mentioned in this paper. But it is not only having a strong influence on legal principles and doctrine, but also on legal practice.
Abstract: Rights talk dominates contemporary moral discourse. It is also having a growing impact on the development of legal principle and doctrine. One of the best known general arguments in support of rights-based moral theories is the one given by John Rawls, who claims that only rights-based theories take seriously the distinction between human beings; only they can be counted on to protect certain rights and interests that are so paramount that they are beyond the demands of net happiness (Rawls 1971). Charges and assertions of this nature have been extremely influential. After the Second World War, there was an immense increase in rights talk, both in the sheer volume of that talk and in the number of supposed rights being claimed. Rights doctrine has progressed a long way since its original modest aim of providing “a legitimization of … claims against tyrannical or exploiting regimes” (Benn 1978: 61). As Tom Campbell points out: The human rights movement is based on the need for a counter-ideology to combat the abuses and misuses of political authority by those who invoke, as a justification for their activities, the need to subordinate the particular interests of individuals to the general good (Campbell 1996: 13).
86 citations
TL;DR: The relationship between political restructuring and the restriction of civil and social protections to noncitizens has been explored in this article, where the authors draw attention to the relationship between statelessness and political restructuring.
Abstract: Recent studies on statelessness have drawn attention to the relationship between political restructuring and the restriction of civil and social protections to noncitizens (Weissbrodt 2003; Frelick...
48 citations
TL;DR: A collection of essays on the conditio inhumana of the surviving victims of the Nazi genocide was published under the title Beyond Guilt and Atonement as discussed by the authors, which was published in 1966.
Abstract: In 1966, a collection of essays on the conditio inhumana of the surviving victims of the Nazi genocide was published under the title Beyond Guilt and Atonement. 1 The author, Jean Amery, was born i...
35 citations
TL;DR: Societies in transition from mass atrocities must confront the inherently difficult challenge of "dealing with the past" by defining the most appropriate approach to transitional justice as discussed by the authors, and the debat...
Abstract: Societies in transition from mass atrocities must confront the inherently difficult challenge of “dealing with the past” by defining the most appropriate approach to transitional justice. The debat...
27 citations
TL;DR: The cycle of hatred at work at every level of violence as discussed by the authors is a factor in intergroup violence and it stokes bias crimes, and it is the root cause of many types of bias crimes.
Abstract: We see the cycle of hatred at work at every level of violence. It is a factor in intergroup violence. It stokes bias crimes. Perpetrators of domestic violence and sexual abuse were often victims th...
25 citations
TL;DR: Forgiveness advocates take this notion too far, describing a hyperindividualized notion of personal harm that does not address harms that befall a person because they are a member of a stigmatized group or befall the group to which the harmed person belongs.
Abstract: The forgiveness advocacy movement in the field of psychology focuses on relief from one kind of trauma: an individual’s psychological wounds that can arise after a victimization. But there is another kind of injury that victims suffer, wounds not merely based on personal harm but based on an injustice done to them as representatives of a group. In the first kind of trauma, when a person is a victim of interpersonal violence, the wounding is often private and can change a person’s psychological well-being for life. Such harm is described in the literature through lists of symptoms representing continued suffering: depression, anxiety, reliving of the experience, vigilance, the inability to connect to other human beings one once felt warmly toward, and other psychological or emotional sequelae. Wounds that stem from injustice to groups can be experienced in this personal psychological way too, through intrapsychic and private reactions to trauma such as nightmares, obsessive thoughts, and depression. But these injuries also have a more public dimension. When a victim is a victim of an attack based on membership to some group and not just a random personal attack, a victim can feel his or her right to live in this world has been challenged and his or her very identity is unacceptable. The wounded can and perhaps should respond not just personally but on behalf of one’s group, especially given that group members who were not themselves harmed can feel the pain and experience the trauma in solidarity with the wounded. In wars, for example, thinking of Jews in Nazi Germany, the Tutsis in Rwanda, and Muslims in Bosnia, the harm done to a person and his or her family often represents another group’s hatred aimed at them as representatives of their ethnic group. In the United States, African Americans, gay Americans, and women in America have been subjected to harms that felt personal in the moment but were perhaps not so personal and instead based on prejudice against them because of group membership. Although it may be, as John Donne said, “forgiveness to the injured doth belong,” forgiveness advocates take this notion too far, describing a hyperindividualized notion of personal harm that does not address harms that befall a person because they are a member of a stigmatized group or that befall the group to which the harmed person belongs. This article explores the idea of forgiveness as it pertains
22 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present an armory of measures to preserve, maintain, and restore law and order and to protect the lives and property of its citizens in times of crisis.
Abstract: Every sovereign state and its subdivisions has at its disposal an armory of measures to preserve, maintain, and restore law and order and to protect the lives and property of its citizens in times ...
22 citations
TL;DR: Resentment is an attitude with few advocates as mentioned in this paper and when openly displayed, it is likely to meet with irritation. To show resentment is regarded as reflecting negatively on the agent's character.
Abstract: Resentment is an attitude with few advocates. When openly displayed, resentment is likely to meet with irritation. To show resentment is regarded as reflecting negatively on the agent's character. ...
20 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a new kind of discourse with its own unique features was born during the hearings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of South Africa, and the authors focused on this particular kind of...
Abstract: During the hearings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of South Africa, a new kind of discourse with its own unique features was born. This article focuses on this particular kind of ...
18 citations
TL;DR: The authors made a comparison between the murdered Jews of Europe and slaughtered cattle, and the Jews died like cattle, therefore cattle die like Jews, they said. But that is a lie.
Abstract: You took over for your own purposes the familiar comparison between the murdered Jews of Europe and slaughtered cattle. The Jews died like cattle, therefore cattle die like Jews, you say. That is a...
16 citations
TL;DR: In the last two decades, Kant's theory of peace has played a crucial role in the fall of realism from its position as a leading theoretical option in debates regarding international relations as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: In the last two decades, Kant’s theory of peace has played a crucial role in the fall of realism from its position as a leading theoretical option in debates regarding international relations. At the end of the Second World War, any idealistic project of international reform, according to which a universal view of justice is to be “exported” to all national players, was perceived as dangerously similar to the experience of Nazi Germany. Realism, with its aversion to any “morally” inspired crusades to reform the world, appeared to most observers as the most cautious option. It was argued that this option was at least preferable to the just experienced consequences of the imposition of some universal “visions” of the good on the international arena. Thanks to the work of Michael Doyle (1983), however, the situation has significantly changed: The ongoing struggle between the realist and the idealist position (a perennial debate, the beginning of which dates back at least to Thucydides) has gone through what an excited football commentator could call “a raging comeback” of the idealist school. In a series of masterpiece articles from the 1980s, Doyle (1983, 1986, 1993, 1995, 2005) noticed that Kant’s idea that “republics” (roughly, liberal democracies) are more prone to peace than dictatorships had received a striking confirmation by the last two hundred years of history. Doyle’s innovation to Kant was that democracies do not fight each other, thereby constituting a “separated peace.” Doyle was very careful to interpret this historical statistic specifically as a refutation of the realist paradigm. Indeed, for him, the striking fact of a two century-long peace among liberal states can neither be explained in terms of balance of power (the realist’s favorite explanation of peace) nor through a Marxist account. On this point see also Gleditsch and Hegre (1997), Gowa (1995, 1999), Thompson (1996), Weart (1998), Habermas (1997). The realist school, obviously, has not passively watched this erosion of its leading role in international relations and launched a series of counterstrikes turning mainly on the attempt to account for the “liberal peace” in terms of prudence with refined intellectual resources. This article does not intend to assess
TL;DR: Some of the most serious human rights violations today are not committed by states but by nonstate armed groups as mentioned in this paper, and the international community barely paid attention to such violation a generation ago.
Abstract: Some of the most serious human rights violations today are not committed by states but by nonstate armed groups. A generation ago the international community barely paid attention to such violation...
TL;DR: The authors argue that intervention should only take place under the most extreme or severe of human rights, and often assume that it should take place in the most "extreme" or "severe" circumstances.
Abstract: Virtually all serious works that deal with the subject of humanitarian intervention argue, and sometimes assume, that it should only take place under the most “extreme” or “severe” of human rights ...
TL;DR: A new ideal has triumphed on the world stage: human rights as mentioned in this paper, which unites left and right, the pulpit and the state, the minister and the rebel, the developing world and the liberals of the West.
Abstract: A new ideal has triumphed on the world stage: human rights. It unites left and right, the pulpit and the state, the minister and the rebel, the developing world and the liberals of the West. After ...
TL;DR: The concept of human rights ultimately rests on the premise that there are some things that should be done for human beings and other things that ought not to be done to human beings in light of the fact that they are human as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The concept of human rights ultimately rests on the premise that there are some things that ought to be done for human beings and other things that ought not to be done to human beings in light of the fact that they are human. According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, these rights stem from the “recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family” (Ishay 1997: 407). Some would argue that this notion has its roots in the natural law and natural rights tradition that is an important strand of Western political thought,1 and others would point out that Eastern philosophy neither ignores nor is fundamentally opposed to the concept of rights.2 Alternately, many people would claim that human rights have their origin in the Jewish and Christian traditions, whereas others would argue that nearly every major religion has its version of the Golden Rule.3 It may well be from the insistence that we treat others as we wish to be treated ourselves that we can deduce the rights we have today, but there is also a long-standing debate about whether rights can be found in traditional religious texts at all. In examining the Bible, for example, we might conclude instead that people have duties to one another—and to God—but no rights, per se.4 To put a finer point on it, there are injunctions against killing and stealing in the Old Testament, but these do not necessarily correspond to rights to life and property; likewise, the New Testament encourages men to treat one another as they themselves want to be treated but does not provide a mechanism for anyone to claim injury in the event that they do not. In other words, these ancient religious texts do not seem to speak in the language of rights to which we have become accustomed. At the same time, strands of every major world religion seem to be quite supportive of the notion of inherent dignity, which underlies our contemporary understanding of human rights. To say that religious texts are inclusive of human rights is very different from saying, as Michael Perry does, that a religious world view provides the only intelligible grounding for those rights. Indeed, the most provocative question is not whether the concept exists in each of the world’s religions but whether it can exist independently of religion. As Perry (1998: 13) asks,
TL;DR: The role of fear in the political transition process, a subject seldom dealt with in the academic literature, and examines the way that the concept of fear, like the suffering of victims of political violence, is politicized and depoliticized as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: As tension mounts during the build-up to the Orange marching season, which occurs each summer in Northern Ireland, the streets of many cities and towns are festooned with flags. The proliferation of Union Jacks, Irish Tricolours, Ulster flags and paramilitary banners adorning the streets symbolize loyalty and serve as sectarian markers of territory. In July 2002, however, something unusual happened: republicans started hoisting the Palestinian flag alongside their Irish Tricolours while, in neighbouring loyalist areas, the Israeli flag flut- tered alongside the Union Jack and paramilitary banners. This paper suggests some reasons for this by focusing upon the concept of ‘fear’ in the context of the peace processes in Northern Ireland and South Africa. It begins by offering some thoughts on the phenomenon of Israeli flags flying in Belfast before moving on to consider briefly how the psychological and sociological literature generally treat the concept of fear (and risk). This leads to the argument that fear and the use of fear are unrecognized variables in popular discourses surrounding politi- cal negotiations and processes such as truth commissions. The paper analyzes the role of fear in the political transition process, a subject seldom dealt with in the academic literature, and examines the way that the concept of fearŒlike the suffering of victims of political violenceŒis politicized and depoliticized. The paper then concludes by trying to apply some of the ideas that it presents to the South Africa and Northern Ireland contexts and, particularly, to approaches to political risk-taking.
TL;DR: Awar et al. as mentioned in this paper argue that every human rights conflict involves a war of images: one side launches an assault of accusations and the other side fires back in self-defense.
Abstract: Virtually every human rights conflict involves a war of images One side launches an assault of accusations The other side fires back in self-defense Not surprisingly, observers sitting on the si
TL;DR: In this article, the authors compare two human rights organizations, Physicians for Human Rights USA (PHR USA) and its Israeli counterpart, and find that their activities are similar in many ways.
Abstract: If one were to compare two human rights organizations, Physicians for Human Rights USA (PHR USA) and its Israeli counterpart, one would expect to find that their activities were similar. Surely the...
TL;DR: For decades American Jews have engaged in formal public contacts with Israeli officials through their nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) as discussed by the authors, and these quasi-diplomatic summits usually feature the diaspo...
Abstract: For decades American Jews have engaged in formal public contacts with Israeli officials through their nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). These quasi-diplomatic summits usually feature the diaspo...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors take rights declared to exist by international law and propose general reasons why they should be recognized by the international community, using a set of principles from philosophy.
Abstract: Philosophical theories of human rights are often concerned with justification. They take rights declared to exist by international law and propose general reasons why they should be recognized by s...
TL;DR: The research on human rights has stressed that human rights crises are one of the crucial situations that challenge domestic scenarios, bringing to the fore inconsistencies in the interface between human rights and domestic scenarios.
Abstract: The research on human rights has stressed that human rights crises are one of the crucial situations that challenge domestic scenarios, bringing to the fore inconsistencies in the interface between...
TL;DR: Roms are universally cited as Europe's most disadvantaged, disenfranchised, and reviled minority group and only in the past decade has any serious humanitarian attention been devoted to them.
Abstract: Roms are universally cited as Europe's most disadvantaged, disenfranchised, and reviled minority group — but only in the past decade has any serious humanitarian attention been devoted to them. Since the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe, the West's stereotypical Roms no longer play music or steal babies. Now they are impoverished, illiterate, and attacked by nearly everyone with white skin, including skinheads, policemen, and assorted xenophobes. Accordingly, Western human rights agencies are clamoring to come to their aid.
TL;DR: Widening the scope of human rights to specifically address the needs and interests of women is a relatively new tradition in the long-standing philosophical treatment of women's human rights.
Abstract: Widening the scope of human rights to specifically address the needs and interests of women is a relatively new tradition in the long-standing philosophical treatment of human rights. Feminists hav...
TL;DR: The Journal of Human Rights is committed to publishing the highest quality scholarship in all areas of human rights and now includes essays of a more literary character as well as discussed by the authors, with a focus on contemporary German culture and history.
Abstract: * Editor's note: This essay by John Rodden is the third of three reflective essays to be published in the Journal of Human Rights on contemporary German culture and history. The Journal of Human Rights is committed to publishing the highest quality scholarship in all areas of human rights and now includes essays of a more literary character as well. Prospective authors are encouraged to submit such essays directly to the Editor.