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I Exist, Therefore I Should Vote: Political Human Rights, Voter Suppression And Undermining Democracy In The U.S., Davita S. Glasberg, William T. Armaline, Bandana Purkayastha Jan 2022

I Exist, Therefore I Should Vote: Political Human Rights, Voter Suppression And Undermining Democracy In The U.S., Davita S. Glasberg, William T. Armaline, Bandana Purkayastha

Societies Without Borders

The right to vote is clearly delineated among the rights identified in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the US has long held itself as the beacon of that democracy and enfranchisement. Yet, a long history persists of practices and policies of voter suppression and gerrymandering that targets the rights of Black, brown, and indigenous populations in the US, a history that has in recent years escalated. We use the framework of the Human Rights Enterprise to unpack this history and to explore why efforts of voter suppression are intensifying at this particular moment in history.


Understanding And Promoting The Human Rights Of Autistic People, Keri E. Iyall Smith Phd Jul 2021

Understanding And Promoting The Human Rights Of Autistic People, Keri E. Iyall Smith Phd

Societies Without Borders

Rates of autism diagnosis are on the rise and autistic people are entering the public sphere in new ways, represented in theater, on television, as international experts, and more. Yet, do autistic people experience their full human rights? Experts argue that autistic people suffer discrimination and violations of their human rights, noting that more must be done to ensure the full entitlement of human rights for autistic people (Autism Society ND, Baron-Cohen 2017 and Sarrett 2012). To better understand and promote the human rights of autistic people, this paper applies theories of disability to autism, looking at the biomedical model, …


Political Disaffection And The Struggle Against Impunity, Joannie Jean Phd Jul 2021

Political Disaffection And The Struggle Against Impunity, Joannie Jean Phd

Societies Without Borders

The end of the dictatorship in Chile happened in a climate of almost euphoria for the associations of victims and their families. The return of democracy to Chilean society was met with a hope that they would go back to the agenda for social justice laid out by Salvador Allende. 27 years after, the mobilisations of memory still struggle to be heard and have their claims met. Indeed, the groups are still ever present in the fabric of the society, searching for complete truth and effective justice. This paper seeks to shed light on the historical struggle for justice, truth …


Global Human Rights Organizations And National Patterns: Amnesty International’S Responses To Darfur, Joachim J. Savelsberg Feb 2021

Global Human Rights Organizations And National Patterns: Amnesty International’S Responses To Darfur, Joachim J. Savelsberg

Societies Without Borders

This article provides an analysis of Amnesty International and its efforts to establish a global, human rights-based narrative on the mass violence in Darfur, Sudan, during the first decade of the 21st century. Interviews show how Amnesty’s narrative resembles that of the judicial field. Respondents insist that justice, once achieved, will help reach other goals such as peace. Relative unanimity in representing the violence supports the notion of globalizing forces highlighted by the world polity school, but national conditions also color narratives, in line with recent literature on national contexts of INGO work and a long tradition of neo-Weberian …


Sorting Out Concern: European Attitudes Toward Human Trafficking, Jennifer A. Cheek, Lindsey Peterson Feb 2021

Sorting Out Concern: European Attitudes Toward Human Trafficking, Jennifer A. Cheek, Lindsey Peterson

Societies Without Borders

Human trafficking is a global phenomenon, which is sometimes conflated with other cross-national social problems. While trafficking certainly occurs within countries, much of it occurs across borders. In this paper we examine one of the only available datasets that addresses individual concern about human trafficking: the Eurobarometer 2003. Individual concern about human trafficking matters, especially in democracies, because government policy is in part shaped by citizen preferences. When democratic governments are not responsive to citizens, they risk being voted out in the next election cycle. What we find is that concern for human trafficking varies by gender, age, marital status, …


Comparing Ignorance: Imagined Immigration And The Exclusion Of Migrantsin The U.S. And Western Europe, Daniel Herda Phd Feb 2021

Comparing Ignorance: Imagined Immigration And The Exclusion Of Migrantsin The U.S. And Western Europe, Daniel Herda Phd

Societies Without Borders

There exists a well-documented tendency among citizens to perceive immigrant populations as much larger than indicated by official statistics. This misperception has been linked to desires to halt the flow off immigration or restrict immigrants’ rights, raising concern about the consequences of pervasive faulty information. However, ignorance extends beyond questions of population size. There are also many qualitative misperceptions upon which individuals base their opinions about foreigners. In particular, citizens are likely to hold incorrect perceptions about the legal status of the typical immigrant (i.e. documented vs undocumented). The current study takes a unique approach by simultaneously examining both quantitative …


Rainbows For Rights: The Role Of Lgbt Activism In Gay Rights Promotion, Victor Asal, Amanda Murdie 8495795, Udi Sommer Feb 2021

Rainbows For Rights: The Role Of Lgbt Activism In Gay Rights Promotion, Victor Asal, Amanda Murdie 8495795, Udi Sommer

Societies Without Borders

Are advocacy efforts successful in improving the de jure rights of sexual minorities? In this paper, we argue that the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights NGO movement has been a powerful force in the struggle against sexual discrimination. However, the work of LGBT organizations is much harder in areas of the world where pre-existing public attitudes are not supportive of the rights in question. By focusing on the issue of sexual minority rights, we are able to see how underlying public attitude divergence on a human rights issue can influence advocacy success. We test the implications of our …


A Difficult Time, Brian Gran Phd Jul 2020

A Difficult Time, Brian Gran Phd

Societies Without Borders

No abstract provided.


The Detention-To-Deportation Pipeline And Local Policies Of Resistance: A Case Study Of Santa Clara County, California, Matt Bakker Phd Jul 2020

The Detention-To-Deportation Pipeline And Local Policies Of Resistance: A Case Study Of Santa Clara County, California, Matt Bakker Phd

Societies Without Borders

Deportation has reached record levels in the United States over the last decade. A major reason for this is that the federal government began using integrated databases and biometric surveillance technologies to identify deportable migrants whenever they come into contact with law enforcement officials. Implementing this enforcement technology in all jurisdictions across the country, the federal government undermined local inclusionary policies and brought state and local police into the work of federal immigration enforcement. This article examines efforts in one locality – Santa Clara County, California – to limit cooperation with this federal deportation machine. Drawing on documentary evidence and …


Zero Tolerance And The Impossibilities Of Discipline--Findings From The Field, Anne Scheer Phd Oct 2019

Zero Tolerance And The Impossibilities Of Discipline--Findings From The Field, Anne Scheer Phd

Societies Without Borders

At School James, a high-poverty, high-minority inner-city elementary school in the Midwestern United States, a highly detailed system of rules and punishments is supposed to control students. The official rationale underlying this system of zero-tolerance discipline is to create environments conducive to learning. In practice, however, the meticulous system of rules, rewards, and punishments fails to achieve the desired levels of control and the realities at the school are dominated by disorder. My research sought to explain this failure and explore the consequences it has for this already marginalized student population. The present article outlines how the design of the …


The Political Economy Of Resource Conflicts And Forced Migration: Why Afghanistan, Colombia And Sudan Are The World's Longest Forced Migration, Tarique Niazi Phd, Jeremy Hein Phd Dec 2017

The Political Economy Of Resource Conflicts And Forced Migration: Why Afghanistan, Colombia And Sudan Are The World's Longest Forced Migration, Tarique Niazi Phd, Jeremy Hein Phd

Societies Without Borders

Afghanistan, Colombia, and Sudan are the world’s three longest producers of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs). Why? To answer this question, we evaluate the conventional and dominant geopolitical model of forced migration, as well as alternative models that focus on resource-based conflicts and political economy. We demonstrate that in each of the three cases, natural resources are at the heart of the conflicts that precede the involuntary movement of people both across international borders (refugees) and within national borders (IDPs). But the presence of resources by itself does not cause conflicts or forced migration. In Afghanistan, Colombia and Sudan, …


Rainbows For Rights: The Role Of Lgbt Activism In Gay Rights Promotion, Victor Asal Phd, Amanda Murdie Phd, Udi Sommer Phd Dec 2017

Rainbows For Rights: The Role Of Lgbt Activism In Gay Rights Promotion, Victor Asal Phd, Amanda Murdie Phd, Udi Sommer Phd

Societies Without Borders

Are advocacy efforts successful in improving the de jure rights of sexual minorities? In this paper, we argue that the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights NGO movement has been a powerful force in the struggle against sexual discrimination. However, the work of LGBT organizations is much harder in areas of the world where pre-existing public attitudes are not supportive of the rights in question. By focusing on the issue of sexual minority rights, we are able to see how underlying public attitude divergence on a human rights issue can influence advocacy success. We test the implications of our …


Democracy, Education, And Free Speech: The Importance Of #Feesmustfall For Transnational Activism, Lindsey Peterson Ph.D, Kentse Radebe, Somya Mohanty Ph.D Nov 2016

Democracy, Education, And Free Speech: The Importance Of #Feesmustfall For Transnational Activism, Lindsey Peterson Ph.D, Kentse Radebe, Somya Mohanty Ph.D

Societies Without Borders

South African students across numerous university campuses joined together in the second half of 2015 to protest the rising cost of higher education. In addition to on-campus protesting, activists utilized Twitter to mobilize and communicate with each other, and, as the protests drew national attention, the hashtag #FeesMustFall began trending on Twitter. Then, what began as a localized movement against tuition increases became a global issue when a court interdict was granted by a South African court against the use of the #FeesMustFall hashtag. This paper traces that global spread of the #FeesMustFall hashtag on Twitter as a response to …


‘These People Have No Clue About Us, The Land, Or How We Live!’: Second Generation Human Rights Along The Texas–Mexico Border, Jennifer G. Correa Ph.D, Tola Olu Pearce Ph.D Nov 2016

‘These People Have No Clue About Us, The Land, Or How We Live!’: Second Generation Human Rights Along The Texas–Mexico Border, Jennifer G. Correa Ph.D, Tola Olu Pearce Ph.D

Societies Without Borders

In this study, we wish to turn attention to how the international human rights framework, developed under the auspices of the United Nations in 1948, is being used by different communities, in particular, the Texas-Mexico border. We emphasize that while the articles contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights have, at times, served as a protective platform upon which activists have been able to build, these articles cannot responsibly be imposed without attending to and incorporating the voices of those on the ground. Using both qualitative and ethnographic methods, our objective is to amplify specific voices by analyzing how …


Review Of “Rape In The Fields. The Hidden Story Of Rape On The Job In America”, Suchitra Samanta May 2015

Review Of “Rape In The Fields. The Hidden Story Of Rape On The Job In America”, Suchitra Samanta

Societies Without Borders

No abstract provided.


Review Of Torture: A Sociology Of Violence And Human Rights, Jared Del Rosso May 2015

Review Of Torture: A Sociology Of Violence And Human Rights, Jared Del Rosso

Societies Without Borders

No abstract provided.


Review Of Torture: A Sociology Of Violence And Human Rights By Lisa Hajjar, Jared Del Rosso Jan 2014

Review Of Torture: A Sociology Of Violence And Human Rights By Lisa Hajjar, Jared Del Rosso

Societies Without Borders

No abstract provided.


The Rise Of Human Rights Education: Opportunities, Challenges, And Future Possibilities, Lindsey N. Kingston Jan 2014

The Rise Of Human Rights Education: Opportunities, Challenges, And Future Possibilities, Lindsey N. Kingston

Societies Without Borders

Human rights education (HRE) has gained increasing support as a tool for promoting social responsibility and global respect for international human rights standards. Many schools and universities include HRE in their curricula in an attempt to foster a sense of global citizenship among students, yet educators still grapple with how to most effectively include human rights in undergraduate programs. In an attempt to provide resources and to promote effective HRE, this article examines the rise of human rights education and analyzes its potential for positive change. In particular, high impact learning practices (such as community partnerships and short-term study abroad …


Rules Vs. Rights? Social Control, Dignity, And The Right To Housing In The Shelter System, Barret Katuna, Davita Silfen-Glasberg Jan 2014

Rules Vs. Rights? Social Control, Dignity, And The Right To Housing In The Shelter System, Barret Katuna, Davita Silfen-Glasberg

Societies Without Borders

Sometimes the mechanisms that are in place to protect human rights lead to human rights violations. Drawing on data from ten months of fieldwork at a homeless shelter’s women’s program in a New England city. The authors trace the compromise of human dignity that accompanies one shelter’s effort to help clients fulfill their human right to housing.


Political Battles On Women’S Bodies: Post-Election Conflicts And Violence Against Women In Internally Displaced Persons Camps In Kenya, Roseanne Njeri Njiru Jan 2014

Political Battles On Women’S Bodies: Post-Election Conflicts And Violence Against Women In Internally Displaced Persons Camps In Kenya, Roseanne Njeri Njiru

Societies Without Borders

The Kenya 2007 December presidential election results were violently challenged. For months, political protests accompanied by violent attacks and violent reaction by government security forces, led to “ethnic cleansing” particularly in the Rift Valley region resulting in deaths of more than 1,500 people and internal displacement of about 450,000 others. Women and young girls experienced various forms of gender violence during and after the conflicts in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps. Using in-depth interviews with women living in a camp, NGOs and government agencies, this article focuses on the continuing bodily violence that internally displaced women face in their everyday …


Transwomen, The Prison-Industrial Complex, And Human Rights: Neoliberalism And Trans-Resistance, Emmi Bevensee Jan 2014

Transwomen, The Prison-Industrial Complex, And Human Rights: Neoliberalism And Trans-Resistance, Emmi Bevensee

Societies Without Borders

This article introduces complexity into understandings around the relationships between human rights, being transgender, and interacting with the prison-industrial complex. It looks at struggles and interventions against neoliberal mainstream agendas that do not address the underlying causes of state violence against transpeople, especially trans women of color. This essay employs in-depth research and analysis primarily employing the lens and tools of intersectional subalternity, personal experience, and extensive community activism around these complex issues to show that human rights struggles that do not challenge neoliberal politics generally fail to meet the needs of trans people facing massive structural violence with the …


Pride In Istanbul, Susan C. Pearce Jan 2014

Pride In Istanbul, Susan C. Pearce

Societies Without Borders

In June of 2013, Istanbul, Turkey held its annual Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Pride parade. This year’s parade was performed in a particular historical context: in the midst of an anti-government uprising that had begun in Istanbul and spread throughout Turkey. This context loaned a particular flavor to the Pride parade, and there was a reciprocity between the recent protest movement and LGBT activism. These field notes describe the June 2013 parade and its relationship to the socio-political context, drawing from these observations some preliminary conclusions regarding human rights and gender as Turkey interacts with transnational human rights regimes such …


Mexicans In New York City, Luis F. Nuno Jan 2013

Mexicans In New York City, Luis F. Nuno

Societies Without Borders

New York City witnessed a substantial growth of Mexican immigration in the postCold War Era. This paper reviews the research literature on these changes across the urban landscape in light of the sociology of human rights in the contemporary era criminalizing migration. The number of births to Mexican mothers in New York City’s hospitals between 1985-2006 documents a near ten times growth in the number of Mexican American babies born in New York City for the twenty-year period between 1985-2005. Additionally, ethnographic data examine the lived experiences of Mexican immigrants in New York City during this era. The research offers …


Grappling With Structure, Social Construction, And Morality: Towards A Human Rights Approach To Social Problems Instruction, Eric Bonds Jan 2013

Grappling With Structure, Social Construction, And Morality: Towards A Human Rights Approach To Social Problems Instruction, Eric Bonds

Societies Without Borders

This essay proposes a human rights approach to social problems instruction, whereby social problems are defined as conditions in which a group’s human rights are violated due to their position in a social structure. The approach advocated here draws upon the strengths of the values-structure and social constructionist heritages in the teaching of social problems, while also correcting for some of their individual weaknesses and limitations. The essay closes by outlining what such a class might look like and includes a list of possible teaching resources and a sample class syllabus.


Negotiating Uncertainty In The Right To Asylee Status, Erin Rider Jan 2013

Negotiating Uncertainty In The Right To Asylee Status, Erin Rider

Societies Without Borders

The asylum system regards asylum seekers as actors with privilege and resources, and expects them to present sound cases documenting their rights to asylee status. However, the asylum system fails to consider the lack of autonomy of asylum seekers, as they must manage trauma, lack of resources, new host societies, and the asylum process. Based on interviews (n=14) with asylum seekers, general findings reveal that inherent barriers within the asylum system position asylum seekers into a context of insecurity that undermines their agency and ability to achieve asylee status. The examination of asylum seekers interacting with the United States asylum …


“I Now Pronounce You Polimigra”: Narrative Resistance To Police-Ice Interoperability, Meghan E. Conley Jan 2013

“I Now Pronounce You Polimigra”: Narrative Resistance To Police-Ice Interoperability, Meghan E. Conley

Societies Without Borders

Police-ICE interoperability, known colloquially by immigrant rights actors as PoliMigra, is the cooperation of state and local law enforcement with federal immigration authorities to enforce federal immigration law. Hailed by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and state and local authorities as a “common sense” approach to immigration enforcement, such collaboration is asserted to aid authorities in identifying and apprehending potential or proven threats to the nation. In contrast, immigrant rights actors argue that the blurring of lines between local police and federal immigration agents ultimately produces vulnerability for communities, both immigrant and native-born. In …


Food: A Human Rights Issue Ignored In Sociology, Kathryn Strother Ratcliff, Trisha Tiamzon Jan 2013

Food: A Human Rights Issue Ignored In Sociology, Kathryn Strother Ratcliff, Trisha Tiamzon

Societies Without Borders

Mainstream sociology, including the sociology of health, has been remiss by ignoring food as an important human right both in the United States and globally. This article documents the neglect of food as a topic of sociological inquiry and argues for the centrality of a sociological lens in understanding food as a human right. Sociological ideas are important in understanding forces which have encouraged the globalization of food production and distribution, decreased the equality of access to nutritious food, and threatened core human rights. Sociologists as teachers and researchers need to become academic activists on this important human rights topic.


Narratives Of Mass Violence: The Role Of Memory And Memorialization In Addressing Human Rights Violations In Post-Conflict Rwanda And Uganda, Carla De Yeaza, Nicole Fox Jan 2013

Narratives Of Mass Violence: The Role Of Memory And Memorialization In Addressing Human Rights Violations In Post-Conflict Rwanda And Uganda, Carla De Yeaza, Nicole Fox

Societies Without Borders

This paper explores the question of what do Rwandans and Ugandans working on memorialization initiatives deem important when discussing the role of individual and collective memory in the aftermath of mass violence and human rights violations. Social scientists and human rights scholars have asserted the importance of memory in both reconciliation and healing after mass violence. However, it is difficult to determine the most appropriate way to facilitate reconciliation between groups who previously raped, stole from or killed one another, as there is no “one-size-fits-all” approach. While policies cannot remedy the murder of one’s family, scholars, activists and practitioners argue …


Challenges In Localizing Global Human Rights, Ranita Ray, Badana Purkayastha Jan 2012

Challenges In Localizing Global Human Rights, Ranita Ray, Badana Purkayastha

Societies Without Borders

Drawing from ethnographic and historical data combined with document analysis, this article addresses two issues related to the mechanisms involved in localizing global human rights ideas: 1) the disharmony that may results when global ideas are concretized in the form of domestic laws and come in conflict with the ever shifting local rights consciousness and 2) the role of habitus in determining how human rights advocates respond to changing local rights consciousness. By examining the ways in which violence against women is addressed by a human rights commission in an Indian state, the disjuncture between local appropriations of global human …


Universal Moral Grammar: An Ontological Grounding For Human Rights, Vincent Walsh Jan 2012

Universal Moral Grammar: An Ontological Grounding For Human Rights, Vincent Walsh

Societies Without Borders

In this article I connect the principles of the UN Declaration of Human Rights to the issue of global social justice, and ask the question: is there a genetically endowed Universal Moral Grammar common to all human beings comparable to the Universal Grammar for language acquisition demonstrated so convincingly by Noam Chomsky and others?