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Articles 1 - 30 of 62
Full-Text Articles in Law
Carlos Figueroa On State Power And Democracy: Before And During The Presidency Of George W. Bush. By Andrew Kolin. New York, Ny: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. 251pp., Carlos Figueroa
Human Rights & Human Welfare
A review of:
State Power and Democracy: Before and During the Presidency of George W. Bush. By Andrew Kolin. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. 251pp.
The Us On The Palestinian Statehood Bid: Weighing The Costs, Thomas Pegram
The Us On The Palestinian Statehood Bid: Weighing The Costs, Thomas Pegram
Human Rights & Human Welfare
Reflecting on the controversy surrounding the Palestinian bid for statehood, Richard Falk neatly subverts the opening words of the UN Charter, “we the people,” as having always surrendered to “we the governments,” and, in the modern era of American empire, “we the hegemon.”
This may well be true. The UN Security Council (UNSC), in particular, is viewed in Washington as a vehicle for hegemonic ambitions—to be indulged when it serves its purpose and vetoed and sidelined when it does not. Unfolding events at the UNSC, reportedly due to vote on the Palestinian resolution on November 11 but now postponed perhaps …
The Right Side Of The Coin: Focus On The Human Rights Of People, Not The Failure Of States, Brooke Ackerly
The Right Side Of The Coin: Focus On The Human Rights Of People, Not The Failure Of States, Brooke Ackerly
Human Rights & Human Welfare
US policy toward failed states should focus on strengthening civil society and social movements so that people are better able to hold their leaders accountable.
The language of “failed states” disassociates foreign policy from international dialogue about human rights. Instead, “failed states” is a contemporary sound bite that connotes a lack of sovereignty, suggesting that intervention would not violate national sovereignty because in a failed state, there is none. Of course, we could have a similar cynicism about the use of human rights concerns to justify invasion. Certainly, states have tried to choose when to reference international human rights norms …
“Failed States Are Everyone’S Problem”, Devin Joshi
“Failed States Are Everyone’S Problem”, Devin Joshi
Human Rights & Human Welfare
This article raises interesting issues but cannot answer its own puzzles because it fails to define what constitutes a threat or danger to US national security. As an American citizen, the security of the Central African Republic is in my personal interest. The CAR is a country where it has been reported that one out of every sixteen mothers dies during childbirth. That is a serious problem! Who is to say it is not in Americans’ interest to prevent state failure there? If the US government is not interested in Central Africans' security, obviously, there is a disconnect between the …
We Do Indeed Reap What We Sow, Walter Lotze
We Do Indeed Reap What We Sow, Walter Lotze
Human Rights & Human Welfare
When violence first broke out in Tunisia in January 2011, few observers would have predicted that waves of unrest would engulf North Africa and the Arab world. When demonstrations swiftly spread to Algeria, Sudan, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, and Jordan, observers hastened to place bets on which regime would be the next to fall. That Hosni Mubarak would be felled next came perhaps as no surprise; Egypt had for years been on a knife’s edge, liberalizing and modernizing society while closing all space for political and social participation. Most analysts then turned their attention to Sudan, Yemen, and Bahrain, predicting that …
I Will Survive, Robert Funk
I Will Survive, Robert Funk
Human Rights & Human Welfare
Academics do not often quote 70s disco tunes. At least not in print. But if there is one thing that has been striking about the events in Libya in recent weeks—and indeed looking back over decades—it is the sheer ability of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi to survive. He is, perhaps with Fidel Castro, the world’s greatest survivor. He has indeed learned how to carry on.
Donald W. Jackson On Prisoners Of America’S Wars: From The Early Republic To Guantanamo. By Stephanie Carvin. New York: Columbia University Press, 2010. 336pp., Donald W. Jackson
Donald W. Jackson On Prisoners Of America’S Wars: From The Early Republic To Guantanamo. By Stephanie Carvin. New York: Columbia University Press, 2010. 336pp., Donald W. Jackson
Human Rights & Human Welfare
A review of:
Prisoners of America’s Wars: From the Early Republic to Guantanamo. By Stephanie Carvin. New York: Columbia University Press, 2010. 336pp.
Perspectives On Resignation In Protest, Walter J. Kendall Iii
Perspectives On Resignation In Protest, Walter J. Kendall Iii
Human Rights & Human Welfare
A review of:
How Do I Save My Honor? War, Moral Integrity, and Principled Resignation. By William F. Felice. Lanham, Maryland: Rowan & Littlefield Publishers, 2009. 222pp.
American Muslim Minorities: The New Human Rights Struggle, Ashley Moore
American Muslim Minorities: The New Human Rights Struggle, Ashley Moore
Human Rights & Human Welfare
The ramifications of the attacks of September 11, 2001 are felt throughout the United States. However, no minority community is as deeply affected as the American-Muslim minority. Since the attacks on the World Trade Center, Muslims residing in the United States have experienced violations of economic and political liberties, as well as ongoing social discrimination. Media stereotypes and government legislation continually exacerbate these human rights abuses and entrench institutional, social, and economic discrimination deeper in American society. At the heart of this discrimination are clear misunderstandings about Islam and those who practice the faith. In an effort to combat these …
May Roundtable: The Downfall Of Human Rights? Introduction
May Roundtable: The Downfall Of Human Rights? Introduction
Human Rights & Human Welfare
An annotation of:
“The Downfall of Human Rights” by Joshua Kurlantzick. Newsweek. February 19, 2010.
A Positive View Of The Trajectory Of The Human Rights Movement, David Akerson
A Positive View Of The Trajectory Of The Human Rights Movement, David Akerson
Human Rights & Human Welfare
In 1988, during the waning days of apartheid in South Africa, I was a young American lawyer working for South African Lawyers for Human Rights in Pretoria. On one occasion, I accompanied some of my African colleagues to a conference, the purpose of which was to begin visualizing post-apartheid South Africa. While the apartheid regime was still in power, it was clearly in hasty retreat, and it was equally clear that its days were numbered. The African majority would soon be taking over the reigns of power, and they were excited to begin visualizing what freedom and human rights might …
Hope, Despair, And Human Rights, James Pattison
Hope, Despair, And Human Rights, James Pattison
Human Rights & Human Welfare
Joshua Kurlantzick's “The Downfall of Human Rights” in Newsweek makes for a sobering read. The major Western states, he argues, are no longer interested in the promotion of human rights, but are instead focused on rebuilding themselves after the global recession. Kurlantzick notes further that the Obama administration avoids strong criticism of China, Russia, and other human rights violators because of its desire to demarcate itself from the previous administration's moralizing democracy promotion. To add to Kurlantzick's case for the West's lack of concern about human rights, one could cite the recent and blatantly human rights-violating anti-terror laws of several …
Premature Judgment, Todd Landman
Premature Judgment, Todd Landman
Human Rights & Human Welfare
Just as Mark Twain said in 1897, “The report of my death was an exaggeration,” many commentators have prematurely reported the death of human rights. For example, in 1999, in The Theory and Reality of the Protection of International Human Rights , J. Shand Watson sees human rights as a “mere fiction” in light of a century of state-sponsored killing. One year later, Costas Douzinas, through an appeal to history, philosophy, and psychoanalysis proclaimed the “end of human rights.” It is thus no surprise that the article by Joshua Kurlantzick is yet another attempt to warn us that human rights …
Human Rights Pragmatism Under Obama, Sonia Cardenas
Human Rights Pragmatism Under Obama, Sonia Cardenas
Human Rights & Human Welfare
Bypassing realists and idealists, President Obama has staked out a boldly pragmatic approach to human rights. Critics depict the policy shift as “the downfall of human rights” and a set of “empty promises.” The problem is not with Obama’s embrace of pragmatism, or his rejection of ideology, to advance human rights. The problem is in the emphasis: human rights pragmatism should not privilege external inducements over vital on-the-ground domestic realities.
Genocide Myopia: How Reframing Mass Atrocity Could Backfire, Sonia Cardenas
Genocide Myopia: How Reframing Mass Atrocity Could Backfire, Sonia Cardenas
Human Rights & Human Welfare
The United States has long viewed genocide and mass atrocity as tragic, moral problems divorced from national interests. This may be changing under the Obama administration, with genocide and mass atrocity being reframed as problems to be solved pragmatically. Michael Abramowitz and Lawrence Woocher celebrate this “unprecedented breakthrough” in Foreign Policy, urging President Obama to follow up with specific measures: strategic military planning, interagency coordination, firm leadership, and concrete action on Darfur. Despite the promise of overcoming inaction and focusing on prevention, the new vision of genocide and mass atrocity Abramowitz and Woocher depict remains myopic. It is narrowly focused …
A Break From The Old Routine...., Todd Landman
A Break From The Old Routine...., Todd Landman
Human Rights & Human Welfare
Abramowitz and Woocher highlight a potentially significant shift in policy discourse in international relations with respect to humanitarianism and the prevention of genocide. For many years, the United States has suffered from the twin problems of the human rights “double standard” and “Catch-22.” On the one hand, particular countries have been seen as vital by the United States for intervention on humanitarian grounds even though many believed other geostrategic interests are at stake (e.g. Kosovo in 1999) and others have not (e.g. Rwanda in 1994). On the other hand, US intervention on humanitarian grounds can be criticized as heavy-handed or …
Do Drones Have A Silver Lining?, David Akerson
Do Drones Have A Silver Lining?, David Akerson
Human Rights & Human Welfare
Michael Abramowitz and Lawrence Woocher’s article, “How Genocide Became a National Security Threat,” flags an important milestone in American foreign policy, namely that mass atrocities might now be appropriately viewed as the national security threats that they are. The problem with translating this policy development into action is the next and not insignificant challenge. Aerial drones may be key to overcoming it.
On Genocide And The National Interest, James Pattison
On Genocide And The National Interest, James Pattison
Human Rights & Human Welfare
In the second presidential debate, Barack Obama said, in response to a question about the crisis in Darfur, that “when genocide is happening, when ethnic cleansing is happening somewhere around the world and we stand idly by, that diminishes us. And so I do believe that we have to consider it as part of our interests, our national interests, in intervening where possible.” In a similar vein, Michael Abramowitz and Lawrence Woocher highlight how genocide is increasingly being seen as a security threat by the White House.
April Roundtable: Genocide And Us National Interests Introduction
April Roundtable: Genocide And Us National Interests Introduction
Human Rights & Human Welfare
An annotation of:
“How Genocide Became a National Security Threat” by Michael Abramowitz & Lawrence Woocher. Foreign Policy. February 26, 2010.
The Object Of Torture Is Torture: Extraordinary Renditions To Jordan And Human Rights In The War On Terror, Kat Mitchell
The Object Of Torture Is Torture: Extraordinary Renditions To Jordan And Human Rights In The War On Terror, Kat Mitchell
Human Rights & Human Welfare
Hassan Saleh bin Attash, a Yemeni national, was just seventeen at the time of his September 2002 arrest in Pakistan. The young man spent four days in a Karachi prison before being taken to a United States-run prison in Kabul, where he was held and allegedly tortured through the middle of September. He was then rendered to Jordan.
Hope Over Experience?, Cath Collins
Hope Over Experience?, Cath Collins
Human Rights & Human Welfare
Writing about US human rights policy from the outside is always a disconcerting experience. All bets are off, and all assumptions are turned on their head. Assumptions from the South looking North are that, rhetoric aside, US interests rarely if ever feature human rights protection and promotion in first place. What’s more, they have very frequently featured the opposite: dirty tricks, torture and rendition were sadly familiar to students of Latin American history long before Guantanamo. The Clinton years went some way towards reining in the more blatant contradictions of the 1980s, but they also set in train the easy …
Change We Can Believe In?, Katherine Hite
Change We Can Believe In?, Katherine Hite
Human Rights & Human Welfare
We were warned to temper our high hopes for a bold new Obama era of human rights. After all, President Obama would have “a lot on his plate”: a serious economic crisis, high unemployment, over forty million people without health insurance, “two wars,” global volatility. But it’s very hard not to be dismayed by some of the continuities from the Bush to the Obama administration, as well as by some Janus-faced policy decisions with damning human rights implications. When it comes to US-Latin America relations, such decisions include: professing support for progressive immigration reform while expanding regressive anti-immigration measures; claiming …
From Inspiring Hope To Taking Action: Obama And Human Rights, Stephen James
From Inspiring Hope To Taking Action: Obama And Human Rights, Stephen James
Human Rights & Human Welfare
While President George H. Bush spoke of a new world order, and his “misunderestimated” son mangled the English language at countless press conferences, with Barack Obama the USA now has a talented orator as a president. There is a new word order. But does the new and skillful rhetoric match the reality when it comes to human rights?
December Roundtable: Introduction
December Roundtable: Introduction
Human Rights & Human Welfare
An annotation of:
Obama's speech to the United Nations General Assembly (September, 2009).
and
Does Obama believe in human rights? By Bret Stephens. The Wall Street Journal. October 19, 2009.
The Statesman's Dilemma: Peace Or Justice? Or Neither?, Henry Krisch
The Statesman's Dilemma: Peace Or Justice? Or Neither?, Henry Krisch
Human Rights & Human Welfare
Just as I sat down to comment on President Obama and human rights, I glanced today's (November 19, 2009) The New York Times and found several opinion essays-careful in fact, thoughtful in tone, reasonable in argument-critical of Obama's approach during his recent visit to China toward Chinese human rights violations (mainly concerning Tibet but including also imprisoned lawyers, internet censorship, and persecution of Falun Gong.) The essayists considered various tactics for exerting American pressure on China regarding human rights. Common to all of them was a tone of rueful admiration for the political and diplomatic skill with which China fended …
A Human Rights-Oriented Approach To Military Operations, Federico Sperotto
A Human Rights-Oriented Approach To Military Operations, Federico Sperotto
Human Rights & Human Welfare
Counterinsurgency is the dominant aspect of US operations in Afghanistan, and since ISAF—the NATO-led security and assistance force—has assumed growing security responsibility throughout the country, it is also a mission for the Europeans.1 The frame in which military operations are conducted is irregular warfare, a form of conflict which differs from conventional operations in two main aspects. First, it is warfare among and within the people. Second, it is warfare in which insurgents avoid a direct military confrontation, using instead unconventional methods and terrorist tactics.
© Federico Sperotto. All rights reserved.
This paper may be freely circulated in electronic or …
Violence In The House, Katherine Hite
Violence In The House, Katherine Hite
Human Rights & Human Welfare
There was something particularly haunting in reading this Kristof and WuDunn piece during the week’s major US headlines: a girl in California had been imprisoned for eighteen years in the home of a man who kidnapped and raped her, fathered her children, and employed her in his small enterprise—a business card design and printing agency. Business clients interviewed for the story appeared completely taken aback. Clients had always found the now twenty-nine-year-old Jaycee Dugard “professional, polite, and responsive” as well as “creative and talented in her work.” Others expressed similar shock, recounting that Ms. Dugard “was always smiling.” Ms. Dugard’s …
Looking Forward, Backward, Or Just Away?, Chandra Lekha Sriram
Looking Forward, Backward, Or Just Away?, Chandra Lekha Sriram
Human Rights & Human Welfare
The declassification and leaking of the so-called “torture memos” only supplements much which was already publicly well-known, but has offered a fresh opportunity to frankly debate American values, in particular its commitment to the rule of law, its own constitution, and international human rights and humanitarian law obligations to which it has committed itself, and which the Supreme Court has confirmed are part of domestic law. It is a shame, therefore, that the debate has been so stunted, diverted by the red herring of Dick Cheney’s rantings, and the apparent willingness of a segment of the population to accept, first, …
Let Us Not Become The Evil We Deplore, Rebecca Otis
Let Us Not Become The Evil We Deplore, Rebecca Otis
Human Rights & Human Welfare
On 14 September 2001, Representative Barbara Lee (CA-D) voted against the House bill that granted President Bush the authority to use force in response to the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. As the sole person to vote against the bill (by a margin of 420-1), Lee was roundly vilified as a “traitor,” a “coward, and even a “communist.” Later that day, as the only voice of dissent on the House floor, Lee delivered a speech to justify her position. Famously, she said to the elected representatives of our country, “As we act, let us not become …
Response To Mark Danner’S “The Red Cross’ Torture Report: What It Means”, Charli Carpenter
Response To Mark Danner’S “The Red Cross’ Torture Report: What It Means”, Charli Carpenter
Human Rights & Human Welfare
Danner’s NY Review of Books treatise on torture calls our attention to many significant issues, but in his key argument he is critically wrong.