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Transnational Dimensions Of Race In America, Hope Lewis Dec 2008

Transnational Dimensions Of Race In America, Hope Lewis

Hope Lewis

Race, a key concept in international human rights law from the beginning, should still be high on today's global priority list. However, to remain a useful concept in our increasingly complex world, race must be defined and explored as a transnational and multidimensional social construct. I reflect here on the complex nature of "Blackness." I suggest that international human rights law should engage intra-racial diversity among Blacks along cultural, gender, political, economic, and ethnic lines. Because "Blackness" itself is a product of popular social consciousness, I draw here on popular accounts of U.S Black migration and stories about the Presidential …


Transnational Dimensions Of Racial Identity : Reflecting On Race, The Global Economy, And The Human Rights Movement At 60, Hope Lewis Dec 2008

Transnational Dimensions Of Racial Identity : Reflecting On Race, The Global Economy, And The Human Rights Movement At 60, Hope Lewis

Hope Lewis

The last six decades have witnessed the end of formal colonialism, the adoption of the Race Convention, the rise of domestic civil rights movements and the partial implementation of affirmative action measures in North America and Europe, the end of formal apartheid in South Africa, a World Conference Against Racism and Xenophobia, and the election of the first African -American president of the United States of America. These positive developments seem to signal the potential for a new, non-racist, global perspective. "Another World is Possible," as the saying goes.

Nevertheless, and during the same period, mass killing, genocide, and ethnic …


Race, Class, And Katrina : Human Rights And (Un)Natural Disaster, Hope Lewis Dec 2008

Race, Class, And Katrina : Human Rights And (Un)Natural Disaster, Hope Lewis

Hope Lewis

This essay reflects on the international human rights implications of Hurricane Katrina. For those of us in the human rights movement, it seemed natural to see Katrina and its aftermath as both a massive international humanitarian disaster and a human rights crisis. This was not just the awful result of a huge storm having hit a densely populated area and thereby necessitating the marshalling of public and private humanitarian aid. It also revealed government inaction and affirmatively abusive actions before, during, and after the storm hit that implicate international human rights standards.

We know that Katrina was not the last …


Female Genital Mutilation And Female Genital Cutting, Hope Lewis Dec 2008

Female Genital Mutilation And Female Genital Cutting, Hope Lewis

Hope Lewis

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) or Female Genital Cutting (FGC) refers to a range of harmful traditional practices performed on infants, girls, and women in certain ethnic groups. This article, published in The Encyclopedia of Human Rights (David Forsythe, et al, ed., Oxford University Press, 2009) discusses the practices in the context of international human rights law. FGM-FGC, violates a number of international human rights standards, including the right to bodily integrity, the right to life, the right to the highest attainable standard of health, the rights of children, and the rights of women and girls to equality and non-discrimination. Nevertheless, …