Peace and Conflict Studies Commons^™

To Adapt Or Not To Adapt? Accommodating Change In Humanitarian Response (Abstract), Emily K.M. Scott

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

What conditions facilitate or frustrate opportunities for adaptation during on-the-ground responses by non-governmental organizations (NGOs)? I seek to explain variation in the outcomes of adaptations by Doctors Without Borders (MSF)* during three crises: Ebola in West Africa in 2014, middle-income diseases after the Syrian Crisis, and HIV/AIDs and mental health in the late 1990s and early 2000s. This research shows that humanitarian organizations can be uniquely accommodating of uncertainty and change. In these cases political entrepreneurship by those in the field is filtered through an internal structure that deliberately accommodates debate and creative recombination of resources. Actors do not simply …

To Err Is Human Rights: Toward A Pragmatist Activism (Abstract), Geoff Dancy

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Human rights activists have often been criticized by political scientists for being “principled” rather than “pragmatic” actors. Rarely, though, is this criticism accompanied by a discussion of what pragmatism means, or what pragmatic action looks like. In this article, I conceptually trace and define three aspects of pragmatism: philosophical, methodological, and political. I then consider how these aspects of pragmatist thought can be applied in the world of human rights activism.

Among other things, I argue that pragmatic activism should remain flexible about the foundations of human rights ideals, that it should accept and even encourage local bad-mouthing of global …

Anti-Sex Trafficking Hysteria, False Narratives And The Rights Of Sex Workers (Abstract), Lonya M. Humphrey

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

In 2014, a Newsweek exposé of Somaly Mam, one of Cambodia’s most highly prominent anti-sex trafficking activists, detailed how Mam fabricated her own background and experiences as a sex-trafficked Cambodian prostitute forced into sexual slavery. The Somaly Mam affair not only exposed the problematic and often hysterical victim narratives presented by the anti-trafficking communities; it also calls into question the influence those narratives have on increasingly harsh U.S. government legal initiatives directed at combatting global sex trafficking. Growing research suggest the implementation of more punitive anti-trafficking laws that focus on the rehabilitation of sex workers and the abolition of commercial …

Lights, Camera, Policy? Examining Celebrity-Driven Anti-Sex Trafficking Campaigns (Abstract), Samantha Majic

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Celebrities—persons who attract large audiences and are well known in the realm of popular culture (sports, entertainment, and fashion)—are increasingly vocal about sex trafficking. Although they often lack knowledge about or experience with the issue, they commonly testify before Congress, serve as Goodwill Ambassadors for the UN, and act in public service announcements (PSA), to name just some examples. As a result, celebrities arguably play a role in shaping related policy developments, namely by fostering particular discourses about the issue.

To explore celebrities’ engagement with sex trafficking, my paper considers a very prominent case: Demi Moore’s and Ashton Kutcher’s “Real …

Silencing Women’S Agency And Forgetting Sexual Violence: Challenges In Realizing Women Survivors’ Human Rights (Abstract), Katarina Lucas

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Almost twenty years after the signing of the Dayton Peace Accords, which ended the physical violence of the Bosnian War, there remains minimal success in effectively realizing the social and economic human rights of women survivors of wartime sexual violence. Women survivors across ethnic groups continue to have limited or no access to health, social and economic services they are entitled to under international law, essential for their empowerment and agency as rights-holders. Employing a gender lens and findings based on interviews and an in-depth review of secondary resources, this research uses the stalled draft Programme for Victims of Wartime …

Realizing The Right To Sport To Address The Socialization And Trauma Healing Of Children In Refugee Camps (Abstract), Konstantinos Koutsioumpas

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

The forced displacement of human beings around the globe as a result of natural and humane disasters has placed great social, political and economic pressure on the international system like never before. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)(2012), there are approximately 35.8 million people of concern to UNHCR, including refugees, internally displaced people, people affected by major natural disasters, stateless or asylum seekers, and people displaced in urban areas. Almost half of this forcibly displaced population is children (UNHCR, 2014).

Children, in particular, who are exposed to these catastrophic situations, experience adverse consequences on their physiological, …

Indignation, Or, Reconsidering The Place Of Dignity In Human Rights Theory And Practice (Abstract), Michael Goodhart

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Human rights scholars have recently seized on the concept of human dignity as a possible ground or justification for human rights. For various reasons, this is a mistake: it gets the role of dignity in human rights theory wrong, and it distorts our understanding of human rights politics. In this paper I develop the concept of indignation, arguing that it accounts for the place of dignity in human rights theory more accurately than do foundational approaches and that it provides useful insight into the actual dynamics of human rights movements. Specifically, I argue that human dignity is likely to …

On Solid Ground: Evaluating The Effects Of Foundational Arguments On Human Rights Attitudes (Abstract), Stephen Arves, Joe Braun

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

What makes some human rights campaigns denouncing prisoner abuse and torture more effective than others? Specifically, what convinces individuals to support, accept, and take action on behalf of calls to stop prisoner abuse and torture? Some normative theoretical literature has argued that justifications for human rights matter, with multiple traditions offering their own versions of rights foundationalism Other theoretical literature, however, has argued that foundations used to legitimate human rights are unimportant. Despite these theoretical arguments, there is a dearth of empirical investigation into the actual appeal of different foundational arguments. This is surprising, because foundational arguments by their nature …

Teaching Human Rights Inside And Outside The Classroom: Education Without Borders (Abstract), Shayna Plaut, Lisa Brock, Carol J. Gray, William Simmons, Alice Kim

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

University courses addressing various human rights issues have grown exponentially at the undergraduate and graduate levels over the past 20 years. Most of these courses focus on specific issues and many programs require fieldwork and/or internships. In addition, the use of the international human rights language is increasingly integrated into professional training programs that are often labeled “social” issues; for example, labor, immigration or domestic violence. What is lacking, despite the resonance and inclusion of human rights issues in these and other areas, is the development of comprehensive human rights methods and ethics courses.

This roundtable seeks to bring together …

Linking History To Practice: Mapping The History Of Nigeria As A Tool To Combat Human Trafficking Today (Abstract), Robin P. Chapdelaine

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

The international community that concerned itself with the welfare of children, protecting childhood and eventually with the wellbeing of the African child found itself with an overwhelming project in during the colonial era. The League of Nations Advisory Committees on the Traffic of Women and Children and the Protection and Welfare of Children and Young People recognized Nigerian children to be a protected group as a local expression of an international movement that targeted women and children during the 1920s and 1930s. As a result of the increased international attention and pressure, colonial officials began to investigate specific practices involving …

A 'Revolution Of Values' In Immigrant Rights Advocacy (Abstract), Jamie Longazel

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

We have moved from the era of civil rights to the era of human rights,” Martin Luther King Jr. told Southern Christian Leadership Conference members in 1967 as they prepared to launch the Poor People’s Campaign, “an era where we are called upon to raise certain questions about the whole society.” King called for a “revolution of values” and a recognition of the interconnectedness “of racism, economic exploitation, and militarism.” The goal of the campaign was economic security for all so that poor people can maintain dignity and “control their own destiny.”

This paper lays out advocacy strategies applicable …

Crafting The Humanitarian Narrative: Development Organizations And Cause-Marketing Campaigns (Abstract), Alexandra Cosima Budabin

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Development organizations have begun to follow corporations in launching CSR initiatives such as cause-marketing campaigns. Private aid for causes is increasingly tied to branded products and celebrities, an alliance described as Brand Aid (Richey & Ponte 2011). However, scholars have found that the promotional aspects of these corporate partnerships were more important than the actual materials benefits (Hawkins 2012). The puzzle remains: if brand aid humanitarian fundraising through cause-marketing is not for the funds, then what purpose does it serve?

Using the brand aid conceptual model (Richey and Ponte 2013) and the lens of CSR, this paper will explore cause-marketing …

Roundtable: Does All Human-Rights Funding Use A Human Rights-Based Approach?, Matthew Hart, Jason Franklin, Diana Samarasan, Mona Chun, Katy Love

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

In this session, presenters and attendees will discuss different dimensions of the question, "Does All Human-Rights Funding Use a Human Rights-based Approach?"

In the U.S., grant strategies and decisions have historically been made by individuals and funders behind closed doors, with little transparency and accountability. Grant seekers, not to mention the public at large, have rarely had insight into how those decisions are made or any influence on the process. What criteria are they using? To whom are they accountable? And how do they make their decisions about what and who they are going to fund?

Replacing traditional hierarchical models …

Human Rights: East Vs. West (Abstract), John H. Davis

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Current events make it clear that human rights continue to be a pressing issue in most parts of the world. This is both a sign of work that remains to be done as various actors strive to realize the values espoused in international human rights documents and an indicator of the degree to which human rights has become an increasingly universalized discourse as more and more people in the world organize, mobilize, and engage their societies and governments seeking greater protection of their human rights. In this paper I utilize ethnographic research on the human rights of minorities in Japan …

An Experimental Examination Of The Efficacy Of Human Rights Campaigns: Gender Differences And Stereotypes (Abstract), Michele Leiby, Angie Bos, Matthew Krain

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

International Human Rights Organizations [IHROs] attempt to shape individuals’ values and mobilize them to act. Based on previous research, we know that IHROs may strategically manipulate gender images and stereotypes in order to increase consensus and action on human rights issues. The discourse of “women and children” as protected categories rests on the assumption that women do not participate in the public sphere, and as a result are apolitical and innocent, whereas men, especially draft-age men, are seen as political agents and potential combatants, and therefore automatically do not qualify for protection as civilians. While many scholars have rightly criticized …

The Migrant Rights Gap: How Non-State Actors Meet The Unrecognized Economic And Social Rights Of Undocumented Immigrants (Abstract), Barbara Frey, Melissa Pardo

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

This paper explains how non-state actors, including churches and non-profit organizations, work informally to protect the economic and social rights of undocumented Mexican immigrants. Under international law, economic and social rights should apply equally to non-citizens unless distinctions in their protection are necessary and proportionate to a legitimate State objective. There is no legitimate State objective to deny food, shelter or health care to non-citizens. Despite this, Federal and State governments in the United States take no express responsibility to respect, protect or fulfill the economic and social rights of undocumented migrants. The authors designate this lacuna in state protection …

Human Rights In Russian-Occupied Crimea (Abstract), Jaroslaw Bilocerkowycz

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Russia’s use of hybrid warfare to occupy and annex Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in 2014 drew intense international coverage. This effort to change borders in Europe by force was broadly condemned by the international community as an illegal violation of international law and Ukrainian law. In response, various economic sanctions were leveled against Russia and Crimean leaders and companies. Since Crimea has been occupied by Russia and de facto annexed into the Russian Federation, there has been only modest international coverage of internal developments within Crimea.

What is the human rights situation for the Crimean population since Russian occupation of the …

From Acceptable Loss To Unacceptable Harm: How Norm Entrepreneurs Co-Opted The Human Rights Discourse (Abstract), Danielle K. Scherer, Taylor Benjamin-Britton

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Contemporary human rights campaigns have created a shift in the discourse by reframing and co-opting the language surrounding high politics issues such as arms control and human security. The atrocities of the twentieth century led to increased interest in minimizing the costs of war, converging in an international norm privileging the protection of human life. While the dominant discourse in IHL has been geared towards rights of the human, a new approach framing human rights as duties of the state has gained traction resulting in victories for various human rights campaigns. This shift has placed the onus on states to …

Democratizing Human Rights From Below: Blacklisted Workers At The European Court Of Human Rights (Abstract), Filiz Kahraman

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Labor activists around the world are increasingly attempting to use human rights frameworks to draw attention to serious labor rights violations. While some scholars are enthusiastic about the prospects that this new alliance between human rights advocates and labor activists will renew a focus on labor issues, others are skeptical about turning away from the traditional vehicles—such as social citizenship, the welfare state, trade unions, and collective bargaining, which are in decline in many parts of the world— toward individual rights-claiming before the courts. Yet, we lack a comparative study that carefully examines the effects of these rulings on the …

Promoting Immigrant And Human Rights At The Local Level: A Case Study Of The Welcome Dayton Initiative (Abstract), Theo J. Majka, Jamie Longazel

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Hazelton, Pennsylvania and Dayton, Ohio represent contrasting examples of community reactions to increases in immigrants. Both cities have experienced de-manufacturing in recent decades. In reaction to an influx of Latinos, Hazelton enacted the 2006 Illegal Immigration Relief Act (IIRA) which placed severe restrictions on the rights of undocumenteds. In contrast, the Dayton City Commission passed the Welcome Dayton: Immigrant-Friendly City initiative in 2011 with the goal of facilitating the integration of immigrant residents.

Hazelton’s developers used tax incentives to establish warehouses, distribution centers, and a meatpacking plant, resulting in a significant demographic change.

However, in adopting a neoliberal approach, the …