The Ideology Of Human Rights, Makau Wa Mutua
Nov 2017
The Ideology Of Human Rights, Makau Wa Mutua
Makau Mutua
This piece argues that although human rights is an ideology although it presents itself as non-ideological, non-partisan, and universal. It contends that the human rights corpus, taken as a whole, as a document of ideals and values, particularly the positive law of human rights, requires the construction of states to reflect the structures and values of governance that derive from Western liberalism, especially the contemporary variations of liberal democracy practiced in Western democracies. Viewed from this perspective, the human rights regime has serious and dramatic implications for questions of cultural diversity, the sovereignty of states, and the universality of human …
Standard Setting In Human Rights: Critique And Prognosis, Makau Mutua
Nov 2017
Standard Setting In Human Rights: Critique And Prognosis, Makau Mutua
Makau Mutua
This article interrogates the processes and politics of standard setting in human rights. It traces the history of the human rights project and critically explores how the norms of the human rights movement have been created. This article looks at how those norms are made, who makes them, and why. It focuses attention on the deficits of the international order, and how that order - which is defined by multiple asymmetries - determines the norms and the purposes they serve. It identifies areas for further norm development and concludes that norm-creating processes must be inclusive and participatory to garner legitimacy …
Human Rights International Ngos: A Critical Evaluation, Makau Mutua
Nov 2017
Human Rights International Ngos: A Critical Evaluation, Makau Mutua
Makau Mutua
Published as Chapter 7 in NGOs and Human Rights: Promise and Performance, Claude E. Welch, Jr., ed.
The Human rights movement can be seen in a variety of guises. It can be seen as a movement for international justice or as a cultural project for “civilizing savage” cultures. In this chapter, I discuss a part of that movement as a crusade for a political project. International nongovernmental human rights organizations (INGOs), the small and elite collection of human rights groups based in the most powerful cultural and political capitals of the West, have arguably been the most influential component of …
African Human Rights Organizations: Questions Of Context And Legitimacy, Makau Mutua
Nov 2017
African Human Rights Organizations: Questions Of Context And Legitimacy, Makau Mutua
Makau Mutua
Published as Chapter 13 in Human Rights, the Rule of Law, and Development in Africa, Paul Tiyambe Zeleza & Philip J. McConnaughay, eds.
The human rights movement is largely the product of the horrors of World War II. The development of its normative content and structure is the direct result of the abominations committed by the Third Reich during that war. Drawing on the Western liberal tradition, the human rights movement arose primarily to control and contain state action against the individual. It is ironic that it was the victors of the war, most of whom held colonies in Africa, …
A Critique Of Rights In Transitional Justice: The African Experience, Makau W. Mutua
Nov 2017
A Critique Of Rights In Transitional Justice: The African Experience, Makau W. Mutua
Makau Mutua
Published in Rethinking Transitions: Equality and Social Justice in Societies Emerging from Conflict, Gaby Oré Aguilar & Felipe Gómez Isa, eds.
This chapter interrogates the concept and application of transitional justice as a medium for the reclamation of post-conflict states in Africa. While it argues that transitional justice is an important – often indispensable – process in reconstructing post-despotic and battered societies, it nevertheless casts a jaundiced eye at traditionalist human rights approaches. It contends that individualist, non-collective, or non-community, approaches to transitional justice have serious limitations. It posits that the Nuremberg model, on which the ICTR and ICTY were …
Rethinking The "Less As More" Thesis: Supranational Litigation Of Economic, Social And Cultural Rights In The Americas, Tara J. Melish
Nov 2017
Rethinking The "Less As More" Thesis: Supranational Litigation Of Economic, Social And Cultural Rights In The Americas, Tara J. Melish
Tara Melish
In their 2005 law review article Less as More: Rethinking Supranational Litigation of Economic and Social Rights in the Americas, James Cavallaro and Emily Schaffer argue for a "rethinking" of strategies to advance economic, social and cultural rights in the Americas. They posit that to achieve higher rates of real-world protection for such rights, social rights advocates should do two things: first, bring less litigation and, second, frame any marginal litigation that is pursued as violations of classic civil and political rights. According to the authors, this recommended course will increase the "legitimacy" of the litigation and lead to higher …
Protecting Economic, Social And Cultural Rights In The Inter-American Human Rights System: A Manual On Presenting Claims, Tara J. Melish
Nov 2017
Protecting Economic, Social And Cultural Rights In The Inter-American Human Rights System: A Manual On Presenting Claims, Tara J. Melish
Tara Melish
This book offers human rights practitioners and scholars a lens into strategies and arguments for the protection of economic, social and cultural rights before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, particularly through the regional system's individual petitions process. It systematically compiles the regional bodies' major statements on social rights from the 1960s through 1999, describes the system's procedures, and offers strategic pathways and arguments for finding social rights protections solidly grounded in each of the regional system's major human rights instruments. It also offers a model petition and provides strategic advice on framing …
Counter-Rejoinder: Justice Vs. Justiciability?: Normative Neutrality And Technical Precision, The Role Of The Lawyer In Supranational Social Rights Litigation, Tara J. Melish
Nov 2017
Counter-Rejoinder: Justice Vs. Justiciability?: Normative Neutrality And Technical Precision, The Role Of The Lawyer In Supranational Social Rights Litigation, Tara J. Melish
Tara Melish
An important debate is currently underway in the inter-American human rights system involving the proper approach litigators, adjudicators, and advocates should take to supranational litigation of economic, social and cultural rights. Centered on questions of jurisdiction and the proper characterization and limits of justiciability, its resolution has tremendous implications for the tools available to on-the-ground advocates, their real-world effectiveness and sustainability in adjudicatory and advocacy contexts alike, and the rationalization of the system's developing jurisprudence over the long-term.
This article book-ends a trilogy of pieces appearing in the NYU Journal of International Law and Politics by two sets of authors, …
The Information Regulation Of Business Actors, Kishanthi Parella
Jun 2017
The Information Regulation Of Business Actors, Kishanthi Parella
Kish Parella
A transnational legal order (TLO) is emerging regarding the role of businesses in respecting human rights. This legal order includes multistakeholder initiatives, international organization recommendations and guidelines, NGO certifications, and other voluntary instruments. Many of the norms within this TLO are nonbinding and therefore lack mandatory compliance; what they may possess is persuasive power, particularly when the norms are developed, endorsed, and managed by reputable organizations. It is that reputational, or legitimacy, advantage that matters for encouraging industry associations to comply with the nonbinding norms associated with these organizations. Industry associations and other business actors will gravitate more towards legitimacy …
Global Justice In The Anthropocene, Carmen G. Gonzalez
May 2017
Global Justice In The Anthropocene, Carmen G. Gonzalez
Carmen G. Gonzalez
Scientists believe the world has entered a new geological epoch in which human economic activity is the primary driver of global environmental change. Known as the Anthropocene, this epoch is characterized by human domination and disruption of Earth system processes essential to the planet’s self-regulating capacity. The environmental problems of the Anthropocene are inextricably intertwined with patterns of trade, finance, investment, and production that have created an enormous and growing economic gap between and within affluent and poor countries. These divisions have often paralyzed international law-making, resulting in deadlocks in environmental treaty negotiations and agreements characterized by ambiguity, lack of …
New Uri Journal Explores Sexual Exploitation, G. Wayne Miller, Donna M. Hughes Dr.
Apr 2017
New Uri Journal Explores Sexual Exploitation, G. Wayne Miller, Donna M. Hughes Dr.
Donna M. Hughes
With large global reach already, the journal Dignity is first of its kind in the world. A new journal devoted to the broad examination of sexual exploitation, violence and slavery has been launched by a prominent
University of Rhode Island professor and researcher
Donna M. Hughes. Since its debut last year, the first-of-its-kind online journal Dignity has been a global success, with people from more than 100 countries downloading articles, according to URI.
Uri Professor Launches Online Journal About Sexual Exploitation, Violence, Slavery, Donna M. Hughes Dr.
Apr 2017
Uri Professor Launches Online Journal About Sexual Exploitation, Violence, Slavery, Donna M. Hughes Dr.
Donna M. Hughes
Sexual exploitation and violence are rampant throughout the world, and academics are rightly pushing the issue into the public eye through their research and articles. University of Rhode Island professor Donna M. Hughes is at the forefront of the movement with the launch of an online academic journal, “Dignity,” dedicated to publishing papers about sexual exploitation, violence and slavery. The journal is the first academic journal in the world to address global sexual exploitation and well on its way to success.
'Listen To What You Say': Rwanda’S Postgenocide Language Policies, Lynne Tirrell
Feb 2017
'Listen To What You Say': Rwanda’S Postgenocide Language Policies, Lynne Tirrell
Lynne Tirrell
Freedom of expression is considered a basic human right, and yet most countries have restrictions on speech they deem harmful. Following the genocide of the Tutsi, Rwanda passed a constitution (2003) and laws against hate speech and other forms of divisionist language (2008, 2013). Understanding how language shaped “recognition harms” that both constitute and fuel genocide also helps account for political decisions to limit “divisionist” discourse. When we speak, we make expressive commitments, which are commitments to the viability and value of ways of speaking. This article explores reasons a society would decide to say, “We don’t talk that way …
International Environmental Law, Environmental Justice, And The Global South, Carmen G. Gonzalez, Sumudu Atapattu
Dec 2016
International Environmental Law, Environmental Justice, And The Global South, Carmen G. Gonzalez, Sumudu Atapattu
Carmen G. Gonzalez
On October 28, 2016, the Journal of Transnational Law & Contemporary Problems (“TLCP”) hosted a symposium to honor the late Professor Burns Weston, to celebrate the publication of International Environmental Law and the Global South (Cambridge University Press, 2015), and to use the book as the foundation for further scholarly inquiry. The symposium featured an inspiring and enlightening series of panels and keynote addresses on a variety of topics including environmental justice and indigenous peoples, energy poverty and its disparate impact on women, violence against women in resource extractive industries, and North-South fisheries disputes.
The thesis of International Environmental Law …
International Environmental Law, Environmental Justice, And The Global South, Carmen G. Gonzalez, Sumudu Atapattu
Dec 2016
International Environmental Law, Environmental Justice, And The Global South, Carmen G. Gonzalez, Sumudu Atapattu
Carmen G. Gonzalez
On October 28, 2016, the Journal of Transnational Law & Contemporary Problems (“TLCP”) hosted a symposium to honor the late Professor Burns Weston, to celebrate the publication of International Environmental Law and the Global South (Cambridge University Press, 2015), and to use the book as the foundation for further scholarly inquiry. The symposium featured an inspiring and enlightening series of panels and keynote addresses on a variety of topics including environmental justice and indigenous peoples, energy poverty and its disparate impact on women, violence against women in resource extractive industries, and North-South fisheries disputes.
The thesis of International Environmental Law …
Environmental Racism, American Exceptionalism, And Cold War Human Rights, Carmen G. Gonzalez
Dec 2016
Environmental Racism, American Exceptionalism, And Cold War Human Rights, Carmen G. Gonzalez
Carmen G. Gonzalez
Environmental justice scholars and activists coined the terms “environmental racism” to describe the disproportionate concentration of environmental hazards in neighborhoods populated by racial and ethnic minorities. Having exhausted domestic legal remedies (or having concluded that these remedies are unavailable), communities of color in the United States are increasingly turning to international human rights law and institutions to challenge environmental racism.
However, the United States has ratified only a handful of human rights treaties, and has limited the domestic application of these treaties through reservations and declarations that preclude judicial enforcement in the absence of implementing legislation. Indeed, …
Environmental Racism, American Exceptionalism, And Cold War Human Rights, Carmen G. Gonzalez
Dec 2016
Environmental Racism, American Exceptionalism, And Cold War Human Rights, Carmen G. Gonzalez
Carmen G. Gonzalez
Environmental justice scholars and activists coined the terms “environmental racism” to describe the disproportionate concentration of environmental hazards in neighborhoods populated by racial and ethnic minorities. Having exhausted domestic legal remedies (or having concluded that these remedies are unavailable), communities of color in the United States are increasingly turning to international human rights law and institutions to challenge environmental racism.
However, the United States has ratified only a handful of human rights treaties, and has limited the domestic application of these treaties through reservations and declarations that preclude judicial enforcement in the absence of implementing legislation. Indeed, …
Environmental Racism, American Exceptionalism, And Cold War Human Rights, Carmen G. Gonzalez
Dec 2016
Environmental Racism, American Exceptionalism, And Cold War Human Rights, Carmen G. Gonzalez
Carmen G. Gonzalez
Environmental justice scholars and activists coined the terms “environmental racism” to describe the disproportionate concentration of environmental hazards in neighborhoods populated by racial and ethnic minorities. Having exhausted domestic legal remedies (or having concluded that these remedies are unavailable), communities of color in the United States are increasingly turning to international human rights law and institutions to challenge environmental racism.
However, the United States has ratified only a handful of human rights treaties, and has limited the domestic application of these treaties through reservations and declarations that preclude judicial enforcement in the absence of implementing legislation. Indeed, …
Environmental Racism, American Exceptionalism, And Cold War Human Rights, Carmen G. Gonzalez
Dec 2016
Environmental Racism, American Exceptionalism, And Cold War Human Rights, Carmen G. Gonzalez
Carmen G. Gonzalez
Environmental justice scholars and activists coined the terms “environmental racism” to describe the disproportionate concentration of environmental hazards in neighborhoods populated by racial and ethnic minorities. Having exhausted domestic legal remedies (or having concluded that these remedies are unavailable), communities of color in the United States are increasingly turning to international human rights law and institutions to challenge environmental racism.
However, the United States has ratified only a handful of human rights treaties, and has limited the domestic application of these treaties through reservations and declarations that preclude judicial enforcement in the absence of implementing legislation. Indeed, …
Environmental Racism, American Exceptionalism, And Cold War Human Rights, Carmen G. Gonzalez
Dec 2016
Environmental Racism, American Exceptionalism, And Cold War Human Rights, Carmen G. Gonzalez
Carmen G. Gonzalez
Environmental justice scholars and activists coined the terms “environmental racism” to describe the disproportionate concentration of environmental hazards in neighborhoods populated by racial and ethnic minorities. Having exhausted domestic legal remedies (or having concluded that these remedies are unavailable), communities of color in the United States are increasingly turning to international human rights law and institutions to challenge environmental racism.
However, the United States has ratified only a handful of human rights treaties, and has limited the domestic application of these treaties through reservations and declarations that preclude judicial enforcement in the absence of implementing legislation. Indeed, …
Environmental Racism, American Exceptionalism, And Cold War Human Rights, Carmen G. Gonzalez
Dec 2016
Environmental Racism, American Exceptionalism, And Cold War Human Rights, Carmen G. Gonzalez
Carmen G. Gonzalez
Environmental justice scholars and activists coined the terms “environmental racism” to describe the disproportionate concentration of environmental hazards in neighborhoods populated by racial and ethnic minorities. Having exhausted domestic legal remedies (or having concluded that these remedies are unavailable), communities of color in the United States are increasingly turning to international human rights law and institutions to challenge environmental racism.
However, the United States has ratified only a handful of human rights treaties, and has limited the domestic application of these treaties through reservations and declarations that preclude judicial enforcement in the absence of implementing legislation. Indeed, …
International Environmental Law, Environmental Justice, And The Global South, Carmen G. Gonzalez, Sumudu Atapattu
Dec 2016
International Environmental Law, Environmental Justice, And The Global South, Carmen G. Gonzalez, Sumudu Atapattu
Carmen G. Gonzalez
On October 28, 2016, the Journal of Transnational Law & Contemporary Problems (“TLCP”) hosted a symposium to honor the late Professor Burns Weston, to celebrate the publication of International Environmental Law and the Global South (Cambridge University Press, 2015), and to use the book as the foundation for further scholarly inquiry. The symposium featured an inspiring and enlightening series of panels and keynote addresses on a variety of topics including environmental justice and indigenous peoples, energy poverty and its disparate impact on women, violence against women in resource extractive industries, and North-South fisheries disputes.
The thesis of International Environmental Law …
Environmental Racism, American Exceptionalism, And Cold War Human Rights, Carmen G. Gonzalez
Dec 2016
Environmental Racism, American Exceptionalism, And Cold War Human Rights, Carmen G. Gonzalez
Carmen G. Gonzalez
Environmental justice scholars and activists coined the terms “environmental racism” to describe the disproportionate concentration of environmental hazards in neighborhoods populated by racial and ethnic minorities. Having exhausted domestic legal remedies (or having concluded that these remedies are unavailable), communities of color in the United States are increasingly turning to international human rights law and institutions to challenge environmental racism.
However, the United States has ratified only a handful of human rights treaties, and has limited the domestic application of these treaties through reservations and declarations that preclude judicial enforcement in the absence of implementing legislation. Indeed, …
Environmental Racism, American Exceptionalism, And Cold War Human Rights, Carmen G. Gonzalez
Dec 2016
Environmental Racism, American Exceptionalism, And Cold War Human Rights, Carmen G. Gonzalez
Carmen G. Gonzalez
Environmental justice scholars and activists coined the terms “environmental racism” to describe the disproportionate concentration of environmental hazards in neighborhoods populated by racial and ethnic minorities. Having exhausted domestic legal remedies (or having concluded that these remedies are unavailable), communities of color in the United States are increasingly turning to international human rights law and institutions to challenge environmental racism.
However, the United States has ratified only a handful of human rights treaties, and has limited the domestic application of these treaties through reservations and declarations that preclude judicial enforcement in the absence of implementing legislation. Indeed, …
Environmental Racism, American Exceptionalism, And Cold War Human Rights, Carmen G. Gonzalez
Dec 2016
Environmental Racism, American Exceptionalism, And Cold War Human Rights, Carmen G. Gonzalez
Carmen G. Gonzalez
Environmental justice scholars and activists coined the terms “environmental racism” to describe the disproportionate concentration of environmental hazards in neighborhoods populated by racial and ethnic minorities. Having exhausted domestic legal remedies (or having concluded that these remedies are unavailable), communities of color in the United States are increasingly turning to international human rights law and institutions to challenge environmental racism.
However, the United States has ratified only a handful of human rights treaties, and has limited the domestic application of these treaties through reservations and declarations that preclude judicial enforcement in the absence of implementing legislation. Indeed, …
International Environmental Law, Environmental Justice, And The Global South, Carmen G. Gonzalez, Sumudu Atapattu
Dec 2016
International Environmental Law, Environmental Justice, And The Global South, Carmen G. Gonzalez, Sumudu Atapattu
Carmen G. Gonzalez
On October 28, 2016, the Journal of Transnational Law & Contemporary Problems (“TLCP”) hosted a symposium to honor the late Professor Burns Weston, to celebrate the publication of International Environmental Law and the Global South (Cambridge University Press, 2015), and to use the book as the foundation for further scholarly inquiry. The symposium featured an inspiring and enlightening series of panels and keynote addresses on a variety of topics including environmental justice and indigenous peoples, energy poverty and its disparate impact on women, violence against women in resource extractive industries, and North-South fisheries disputes.
The thesis of International Environmental Law …
Environmental Racism, American Exceptionalism, And Cold War Human Rights, Carmen G. Gonzalez
Dec 2016
Environmental Racism, American Exceptionalism, And Cold War Human Rights, Carmen G. Gonzalez
Carmen G. Gonzalez
Environmental justice scholars and activists coined the terms “environmental racism” to describe the disproportionate concentration of environmental hazards in neighborhoods populated by racial and ethnic minorities. Having exhausted domestic legal remedies (or having concluded that these remedies are unavailable), communities of color in the United States are increasingly turning to international human rights law and institutions to challenge environmental racism.
However, the United States has ratified only a handful of human rights treaties, and has limited the domestic application of these treaties through reservations and declarations that preclude judicial enforcement in the absence of implementing legislation. Indeed, …
Environmental Racism, American Exceptionalism, And Cold War Human Rights, Carmen G. Gonzalez
Dec 2016
Environmental Racism, American Exceptionalism, And Cold War Human Rights, Carmen G. Gonzalez
Carmen G. Gonzalez
Environmental justice scholars and activists coined the terms “environmental racism” to describe the disproportionate concentration of environmental hazards in neighborhoods populated by racial and ethnic minorities. Having exhausted domestic legal remedies (or having concluded that these remedies are unavailable), communities of color in the United States are increasingly turning to international human rights law and institutions to challenge environmental racism.
However, the United States has ratified only a handful of human rights treaties, and has limited the domestic application of these treaties through reservations and declarations that preclude judicial enforcement in the absence of implementing legislation. Indeed, …
Environmental Racism, American Exceptionalism, And Cold War Human Rights, Carmen G. Gonzalez
Dec 2016
Environmental Racism, American Exceptionalism, And Cold War Human Rights, Carmen G. Gonzalez
Carmen G. Gonzalez
Environmental justice scholars and activists coined the terms “environmental racism” to describe the disproportionate concentration of environmental hazards in neighborhoods populated by racial and ethnic minorities. Having exhausted domestic legal remedies (or having concluded that these remedies are unavailable), communities of color in the United States are increasingly turning to international human rights law and institutions to challenge environmental racism.
However, the United States has ratified only a handful of human rights treaties, and has limited the domestic application of these treaties through reservations and declarations that preclude judicial enforcement in the absence of implementing legislation. Indeed, …
International Environmental Law, Environmental Justice, And The Global South, Carmen G. Gonzalez, Sumudu Atapattu
Dec 2016
International Environmental Law, Environmental Justice, And The Global South, Carmen G. Gonzalez, Sumudu Atapattu
Carmen G. Gonzalez
On October 28, 2016, the Journal of Transnational Law & Contemporary Problems (“TLCP”) hosted a symposium to honor the late Professor Burns Weston, to celebrate the publication of International Environmental Law and the Global South (Cambridge University Press, 2015), and to use the book as the foundation for further scholarly inquiry. The symposium featured an inspiring and enlightening series of panels and keynote addresses on a variety of topics including environmental justice and indigenous peoples, energy poverty and its disparate impact on women, violence against women in resource extractive industries, and North-South fisheries disputes.
The thesis of International Environmental Law …
