Human Rights Law Commons^™

Rebecca Root On Banning Landmines: Disarmament, Citizen Diplomacy, And Human Security. Edited By Jody Williams, Stephen D. Goose And Mary Wareham. (Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2008). 348pp., Rebecca Root

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Banning Landmines: Disarmament, Citizen Diplomacy, and Human Security. Edited by Jody Williams, Stephen D. Goose and Mary Wareham. (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2008). 348pp.

Corruption And Crime In The East: Organized Crime And Human Trafficking In Russia And Ukraine, Danielle Mossbarger

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Russian culture and life are uniquely fascinating. Rarely has such magnificence, potential, and wonder been so dramatically juxtaposed to such tremendous terror, poverty, and struggle. The state has an almost mystical aura about it, simultaneously intriguing and repellant. Sharing more in Russia’s failures than in its successes, Ukraine is deeply bound to its former communist overlord in history and in modernity. As the world’s leading exporters of women, these two former Soviet strongholds have perfected the merge between organized crime and human trafficking, severely hindering national efforts to fully emerge from the shadows of the Soviet era. As the modus …

Uyghurs Under The Chinese State: Religious Policy And Practice In China, Katie Corradini

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is notorious for committing human rights violations. These violations include infanticide, human trafficking, violent enforcement of the one-child policy, and religious persecution. The international community commonly overlooks religious persecution of the Uyghurs, who are targeted and often oppressed by the Chinese government. China is arguably the center of the political and economic international system but, as the Uyghur diaspora expands to developed countries, including the United States, the rest of the world must understand the issues at the forefront of the conflict.

Chinese Women And Economic Human Rights, Lisa Fry

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Women’s human rights in China have an intriguing history and a challenging present. In ancient China, Confucianism espoused the virtues of silent women who stayed at home. During the Maoist period, on the other hand, gender equality was prioritized by the state, and women were equally appointed to leadership positions and agricultural collectives with men. After Mao’s death, the country transitioned to a social market economic system that resulted in a loss of state support for gender equity. Today, the rights of women in China are not clearly defined, protected, or promoted. China’s patriarchal traditions have reasserted themselves, obstructing women’s …

Why China Supports Burma’S Dictators, Dustin Stokes

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Burma, also known as Myanmar, is governed by a repressive dictatorship that is guilty of numerous human rights abuses. Political prisoners, oppressed women and ethnic minorities, and child soldiers are examples of human rights violations in Burma. Burma’s government benefits from its relationship with China, whose support for the dictatorship is motivated by its own economic and strategic interests. The United States and its Western allies must alter their existing Burma policy, which has been part of the problem, in order to help end the suffering of the Burmese people.

Transforming Children Of War Into Agents Of Change, Brooke Breazeale

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Since the turn of the century, Sub-Saharan Africa has experienced the fastest growing rate of child soldiers. Consider the following statistics:

• An estimated 60 percent of child soldiers in Africa are fourteen years old and under (Singer 2006: 29);
• In Uganda the average age of personnel in armed forces is 12.9 (Singer 2006: 29);
• Since 1990, two million children have been killed in armed conflict, the equivalent of five hundred per day for ten years (Singer 2005).

Political Oppression In Sub-Saharan Africa, Alayna Hamilton

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Relative to social and economic rights, there is little discourse on the issue of political rights in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This fact is attributable to the pressing problems of lack of access to food and healthcare that plague millions of people in the region. However, without the observance of political (and civil) rights, economic development, wealth redistribution, and basic social order may be compromised. Contrary to arguments that insist that economic growth and social stability often require the limitation of political rights, political rights are a necessary requisite for promoting civilian support of governmental policies. Without political rights, equitable policies …

Considering The International Monetary Fund And World Bank: Lending Effectiveness In Sub-Saharan Africa, Daniela A. Wohlwend

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Sub-Saharan Africa is a place of unequivocal beauty, diversity and history; it is also the most impoverished and neglected area on the planet. With an objective look at what has gone wrong in the past five decades of International Monetary Fund and World Bank lending, along with strategic assessment and planning, sub-Saharan Africa does not have to remain the home to unimpeded, rampant poverty.

African Aid And Success: Four Keys, Susan Paganelli

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Aid to Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has occasional success stories, but they are intermingled amongst tales of waste and failure. The stark reality is that more of the population of SSA is chronically undernourished in the present decade than it was in 1992 and 50 percent of the population is still considered to be living in extreme poverty. These problems persist in spite of the $650 billion given in aid to Africa by the world’s concerned countries since 1960 (Sunderberg and Gelp 2006). It is clear that money and good intent are not sufficient to alleviate the suffering in Africa.

Human Rights Abuses Along The Dominican-Haitian Border, Calla Cloud

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A 122 mile-long border separates the Dominican Republic and Haiti on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. Of the two countries, Haiti’s human rights abuses are much more somber than the emerging developments of the Dominican Republic. Haiti’s stagnant economic situation has contributed to perennial political instability and lack of infrastructure, having a particularly confounding affect on the rights and labor conditions of Haitian citizens. There are a myriad of reasons why Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Two of the most prominent include its violent political history and the gradual deterioration of its economy. In the context …

Indigenous Rights In Latin America: The Gap Between Doctrine And Reality, Dan Ruge

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Indigenous people are prevalent across Latin America, with numbers reaching upwards of 70 percent of the general population in certain countries. Given their strong ancestral ties to the land and cultural practices, these groups have remained hidden and isolated from mainstream populations and the forces of globalization. For many groups, the limited interactions between indigenous people and the outside world have sadly been harmful to the survival of these communities. The discovery and exploitation of oil and other natural resources have led to the destruction of property, culture, and lives of indigenous groups. The uprooting and extinction in some cases …

Moving Beyond Divisive Discourse: Latin American Women In Politics, Ursula Miniszewski

Human Rights & Human Welfare

On June 25, 1993 the United Nations General Assembly held the World Conference on Human Rights, which adopted the Declaration and Programme of Action that states, “The human rights of women and of the girl-child are an inalienable, integral and indivisible part of universal human rights. The full and equal participation of women in political, civil, economic, social and cultural life, at the national, regional and international levels, and the eradication of all forms of discrimination on grounds of sex are priority objectives of the international community.” On September 18, 2008 The New York Times quoted Senator Cecilia López Montaño …

Beyond Collapse: Reclaiming Rationality And Scientific Method From The Global Disorder, Mcmurtry

Societies Without Borders

This analysis explains why the currently instituted value-sets of “rationality” and “scientific method” select for unforeseen consequences of economic, social and ecological system collapse. Laying bare the era's unifying paradigm of “rational choice” across theory (e.g., game theory, contractarianism, prisoner's dilemma) and practice (global business, geostrategic analysis, armed war and mass-media sport), the analysis exposes the systematic disconnection of rationality and its lead vector of scientific method from the needs and capacities of life-systems. Only if rational and scientific standards are grounded in life-enabling purpose and means consistent with it, the argument shows, can they be made coherent with life …

Domestic Violence And Women's Rights In Nigeria, Bazza

Societies Without Borders

Studies have shown that globally domestic violence accounts for nearly one quarter of all recorded crimes. Women have been subjected to various forms of violence ranging from rape, battering, trafficking and even murder. Although the degree differs from society to society, the occurrence has profound and destructive consequences including psychological, physical, emotional and social disorders. The fact that domestic violence prevails across all strata of the Nigerian society is no longer debatable. Despite the spirited efforts made by the world bodies such as the United Nations (e.g. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights) …

From Rights To Justice: Women Of Color Changing The Face Of Us Reproductive Rights Organizing, Luna

Societies Without Borders

The history of government racism is part of the explanation of the limited contemporary use of human rights in the US. This history poses a challenge to mainstream organizations' ability to organize using human rights, yet some contemporary organizations embrace these concepts that are in full use within international settings. This article focuses on the emergent reproductive justice movement, a women of color-based social movement which complicates the narrow focus on protection of legislation such as Roe v. Wade by integrating human rights analysis of domestic social problems. In doing so, this paper expands understanding of uses of human rights …

Book Review Of Contract And Domination & The Darker Nations: A People's History Of The Third World, Hiers

Societies Without Borders

The article reviews the books "Contract and Domination," by Carol Pateman and Charles Mills and "The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World," by Vijay Prashad.

The Limits Of International Humanitarian Law, Melissa Eli

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The goal of international humanitarian law is to humanize war in an effort to minimize human suffering and the long-term negative consequences of war. However, despite the adoption by most countries of the Geneva Conventions and other relevant agreements, crimes of war occur in every conflict around the world on a regular basis. Additionally, as the form of warfare changes, so does the implementation and consequences of various war crimes. Genocide, systematic rape, and the use of child soldiers are three of the most significant war crimes facing sub-Saharan Africa today. Each has consequences so severe that specific international laws …

Societies Without Borders: Human Rights & The Social Sciences, Welcome To Farshad Araghi - A Longer Title - More Issues Per Volume, Blau, Farshad Araghi

Societies Without Borders

The article introduces Professor Farshad Araghi as co-editor and offers information on the contents of the journal. Araghi is the chair of the Department of Sociology at Florida Atlantic University and writes about global sociology, social theory, sociology of agriculture and human displacement and world-historical analysis. He received numerous awards including the Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award. The journal is a multidisciplinary incorporating the universality and borderlessness of human rights as a main theme.

Exorcising The Specter Of Development: Human Rights In The 21st Century, Frezzo, Farshad Araghi

Societies Without Borders

With the commodification of rights as private privileges under neoliberal capitalism, movements in the Global South have begun to reinterpret the human rights canon. Cosmopolitan notions of human rights have spread from the Global South only to face parochial resistance from postmodern intellectuals and neoliberal power structures in the Global North. In advancing a vision of “cosmopolitanism from below” as an antidote to neoliberalism, these alliances have articulated their demands in terms of economic and social rights. In the process, they have ruptured the connection - crucial to US hegemony from the late 1940s through the early 1970s - between …

'Doing Religion' Overseas: The Characteristics And Functions Of Ghanaian Immigrant Churches In Toronto, Canada, Mensah

Societies Without Borders

While the importance of immigrants' transnational economic activities is readily acknowledged, the cultural factors that facilitate their initiation and sustenance of memberships in multiple locations have been overlooked. It is this lacuna that the present study addresses, using Ghanaian immigrant churches in Toronto as a case study. The paper examines how Ghanaian immigrant churches were founded; how they are organized; and the kinds of social services they provide. While the churches facilitate the settlement of Ghanaian immigrants, through the provision of social services, they seem to, inadvertently, undermine their eventual integration into the broader Canadian society.

Discouragement Amongst Ageing Workers In Malta Within An Eu Context, Brown, Michael Briguglio

Societies Without Borders

This paper investigates perceptions of unemployed ageing workers in Malta, in relation to disadvantages in the labour market and to discouragement with regard to chances of finding stable employment. The principal results are that educational level and number of breadwinners in one's household significantly affect perceptions; and that there are cases manifesting the 'discouraged worker effect', even though they are still registering to find employment. This challenges traditional views arguing that this effect is present only among individuals who already gave up the job search completely. This paper concludes that the struggle for productive employment requires mass representation of trade …

Decent Society Index: A Research Note, Judith, Jenniffer Santos, Chelsea Sessoms

Societies Without Borders

People everywhere are discovering that their own views about a decent society are widely shared around the world. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights already made this clear in 1948 by referring to “a common understanding” of rights and freedoms and a “recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family.” A challenge for social scientists is to develop dimensions for an index that measures variation in the extent to which societies are decent. Such an index would be useful in research for comparative and analytical purposes, and it could …

Book Review Of A Brief History Of Neoliberalism, Keskin

Societies Without Borders

The article reviews the book "A Brief History of Neoliberalism," by David Harvey.

Book Review Of Transnational Civil Society: An Introduction And Contested Citizenship: Immigration And Cultural Diversity In Europe, Ghoshal

Societies Without Borders

The article reviews two books about civil society and citizenship, including "Transnational Civil Society: An Introduction," edited by Srilatha Batliwala and L. David Brown and "Contested Citizenship: Immigration and Cultural Diversity in Europe," by Ruud Koopmans, Paul Statham, Marco Giungi and Florence Passy.

Note From The Editors, Blau, Farshad Araghi

Societies Without Borders

The article offers information on the journal "Societies Without Borders: Human Rights and the Social Sciences" and the categories that editors will consider in accepting manuscripts for the journal.

Under A Global Mask: Family Narratives And Local Memory In A Global Social Movement In Japan, Nomiya

Societies Without Borders

The present paper examines motivational aspects of the global peace movement, using as a case the World Peace Now movement in Japan. This campaign, which has extensive international networks and synchronized actions with global “waves of protest”, is part of a global anti-war protest movement. Using data collected from interviews and a protest survey to gauge participation motives and attributed meanings to the participation, the paper argues that the campaign, despite its global outlook, is localized and historically idiosyncratic. Indifferent to the global, participants' motives are drawn from personal experiences and family narratives, and localized collective memory of the past. …

Immigrants' Rights In The Public Sphere: Hannah Arendt's Concepts Reconsidered, San Martín

Societies Without Borders

Based on Arendt's concepts of public and private spheres, immigration issues can be approached from an emphasis on how the most fundamental of all human rights, which is being denied to immigrants, is the most basic constituent of the human condition: the ability to interact in the public realm through action and speech. The granting of this right would enable immigrants to become unique human beings, with the capacity for transformation. As they are presently deprived of these and other rights, they are confined to the most primitive sphere, that is, the one of pure survival. Therefore, a differentiation must …

Arguments For And Against Social Rights, Garrido Gómez

Societies Without Borders

I investigate the semantic and practical complexity of social rights, together with the obligations which correspond to the public authorities in terms of putting them into practice. I also discuss the role of meaningful economic equality in the discourse of social rights, explaining the points at which the two concepts interact, and the ways that formal equality can be improved. Finally, I reach the conclusion that there are two distinct meanings of the concept of discrimination, one which is equivalent to any violation of the general principal of equality, and another stricter one, which is the infringement of equality when …

Windows On The Ninth World Social Forum In Belém, Velitchkova, Jackie Smith, Austin Choi-Fitzpatrick

Societies Without Borders

This essay provides three windows on the Ninth World Social Forum in Belém, Brazil. We show the multiple ways in which the World Social Forum's plurality and reflexivity challenge traditional dichotomies to build the foundation for a new politics. We argue that the social forum process has developed mechanisms for remaining an open space while simultaneously creating opportunities for unified collective action. We show that the Forum produces complex analyses and comes up with strategies that correspond to these analyses. We provide some evidence for how the social forum process is trying to overcome organizational challenges related to resource distribution …

Global Movement Coalitions: The Global South And The World Trade Organization In Cancun, Esparza

Societies Without Borders

A group of developing countries within the World Trade Organization, called the G22, formed in 2003 to bring attention to important economic concerns of the Global South. This coalition building at the global level is instructive to the literature on social movement coalition building and strategies in a transnational context. This article examines coalition building among nation-states within the context of the WTO. Drawing upon existing trading blocs, the G22 are able to leverage attention away from the WTO consensus. The declining significance of the global institution is a result of the breaking of this consensus.