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Full-Text Articles in International Relations
Human Rights Law And Military Aid Delivery: A Case Study Of The Leahy Law, Winifred Tate
Human Rights Law And Military Aid Delivery: A Case Study Of The Leahy Law, Winifred Tate
Faculty Scholarship
Explicitly prohibiting US military counternarcotics assistance to foreign military units facing credible allegations of abuses, Leahy Law creation and implementation illuminates the epistemological challenges of knowledge production about violence in the policy process. First passed in 1997, the law emerged from strategic alliances between elite NGO advocates, grassroots activists and critically located Congressional aides in response to the perceived inability of Congress to act on human rights information. I explore the resulting transformation of aid delivery: rather than suspend aid when no “clean” units could be found, US officials convinced their Colombian allies to create new units consisting of vetted …
U.S. Human Rights Activism And Plan Colombia, Winifred L. Tate
U.S. Human Rights Activism And Plan Colombia, Winifred L. Tate
Faculty Scholarship
Non-governmental organizations claim to play a central role in defining U.S. foreign policy, particularly in the field of human rights. Here, I will examine the role of human rights and humanitarian groups in the debates over U.S. foreign policy towards Colombia, focusing on the design and subsequent additional appropriations for Plan Colombia, a multi-billion dollar aid package beginning in 2000. I argue that NGOs were able to build on the legacy of prior human rights activism focusing on Latin America, but failed to achieve significant grassroots mobilization around this issue. I examine the structural issues limiting such mobilization, as well …