Politics Of Human Rights Research Articles

Rethinking the Haitian Turn – Beyond the Universality Paradigm and Its Enemies

ABSTRACT Recent assessments of the literature on the Haitian Revolution (1791–1804) offer radically different images, ranging from the identification of a politics of universal human rights to objections against conservative assumptions. The present article instead uncovers an overarching conflict between what is named the universality paradigm and the sceptical responses. However, in the outskirts of the controversy, its participants agree that the Haitian Revolution was the most radical revolution of the period, and that issues of inequality cannot be disregarded. To advance the debate, polarisation must be transgressed and the assumption that universalism and inequality are incompatible must be abandoned.

LGBT rights claiming and political participation in Southeast Asia

In this paper, I read the creation of the ASEAN human rights regime, the development of SOGIESC rights claiming (where this denotes sexual orientation, gender identity & expression, and sex characteristics), and the social conflict associated with homophobia and the backlash to LGBT rights through modes of participation analysis. This framework is used to interpret the different uses of rights and values-denominated language and institutions in the context of advocacy for sexuality and gender diversity rights protection. I first explicate the modes of participation approach and reprise how I have previously used this to analyse SOGIESC rights claiming. I then show its utility for understanding the emergence of the elite level human rights regime in ASEAN, before indicating how it can also be used to analyse non-elite resistance to SOGIESC rights. Both elite and non-elite resistance can be linked to the older anti-rights discourse of “Asian Values”, which I illustrate with refence to three states: Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. Taken together, these examples illustrate the capacity of modes of participation analysis to provide a persuasive account of the often contrasting and competing politics of human rights in the region.

‘I don’t feel like a classic rights defender’: rights subjectivities and disidentification in Russian disability organising

Drawing on in-depth interviews, this article investigates how Russian civil society actors organising around disability understand and use human rights discourses. It asks whether and how these actors mobilise distinctions between social and political human rights. It argues that civil society actors perceive the Russian State as legitimising social action and delegitimising political action. However, these actors also disidentify with this binary division by taking a third position; they identify their apparently social work as forming another kind of politics, different from that dominantly perceived as political. The article thus identifies a non-apparent or infra-political strategy by which political organising evades perception as political through the dominant depoliticisation of social rights. Actors instrumentalise this dominant perception to continue to engage in work which they identify as political, thus repoliticising the social sphere.

Uncertain Solidarities: The Politics of an Impartial Human Rights Stance in Occupied Palestine

Abstract: Protective accompaniment is a non-violent intervention strategy used by international civil society organisations working in the occupied Palestinian territories. This article explores one accompaniment organisation's discourse and practice of human rights based impartiality. Firstly, the universalising rhetoric of human rights is shown to be a strategic device which acts to obscure the specifics of a mission to protect Palestinian subjects. Secondly, examining accompaniment as praxis in the West Bank, a 'non-partisan' stance is shown to result in an embodied and ideological withdrawal from those being accompanied. Despite Palestinian calls for international support which commits to physically and ideologically being 'with the people', it is argued there are significant limits to accompaniment's potential to support the struggle against settler-colonialism.

Interests convergence in global human rights politics

Abstract What explains the convergence and divergence of states’ interests related to global human rights? This study examines the dyadic similarity of the language used in the multilateral dialogue focusing on the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and intergovernmental organizations (IGOs). The joint activities of NGOs influence states, and human rights norms are transmitted through IGOs. Using text analysis methods, the similarity between state recommendations during the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) is systematically quantified. Analyses suggest that a pair of states are more likely to use similar language in UPR recommendations as the number of joint activities of NGOs, shared memberships in IGOs, and shared experience in the UNHRC increases. The effects are robust even after controlling for different types of political relationships between states.

Towards An Integrated Structure and Agency Construction of Political Rights in the Philippines

Political rights in the Philippines continue to be a persistent societal challenge despite ongoing efforts across various sectors to address issues related to their protection. Human rights studies traditionally consider political rights inherent, yet disputes over their interpretation persist, suggesting that consensus depends on aligning definitions with universal human nature. This paper contends that political rights are socially constructed through historical processes involving diverse social structures and agents. Therefore, integrating structural and agential perspectives is crucial for establishing a common societal understanding of these rights. Drawing on social constructionism theories by Benjamin Gregg (2011), Peter Berger (1966), and Anthony Giddens' structuration theory (1984), this study explores how individuals' interactions within society and culture shape the conception of political human rights. An exploratory-sequential mixed-method approach was employed, combining qualitative documentary analysis and interviews to investigate how social structures and agents construct political rights. Quantitative data triangulation further enhanced the study's comprehensiveness and depth. Key findings underscore ongoing efforts to address political rights in the Philippines, highlighting the social nature of their understanding and the necessity for collaborative efforts among government and multiple sectors.

Cultural dynamics of digital space: Democracy, civic engagement and youth participation in virtual spheres

Globally, the digital culture of the youth has been playing a decisive role in the promotion of networking democracy, civic engagement and political participation in online spheres, and similar dynamics are being witnessed in the politics of East and SouthAsia. The present study has been conducted in two countries (Indonesia & Pakistan) focusing on youth networked engagement (civic and social) and political participation in virtual affairs. Indonesia and Pakistan possess distinct culture, religious, and historical identities the youth culture show surprising commonalities which reflect the universal nature of youthful aspirations, goals and desires. To help young people embrace social media as a multi-faceted channel, the current article demonstrates exploratory information and aims at delineating the usage of social media in escalating participation in political arenas, protecting (and acquiring) political human rights, and revitalizing the importance of their local and digital networks. The researcher (s) employed a cross-sectional study design and carried out a survey to collect the data from the citizens of Indonesia and Pakistan. The data was gathered through a standardized questionnaire. As a sampling frame was established, the researchers approached the general public for filling out the questionnaire through both offline and online sources. The results depict that social media is a platform for political communication, political expression, and facilitating digital democracy. The findings show that culture of social media politics was strongly correlated with political efficacy, social media and democracy. Hence, it concludes that a significant youth culture in these countries have tremendous chances to strengthen inter-cultural relations, and encourage to participate in civic, political and democratic platforms.

Absolutization of human rights as a threat to the statehood and the welfare of society. Part ІІІ. Human rights in the international and national acts, and the main rationalistic aspects of their realization

The article is devoted to the investigation of the essence and peculiarities of the exposition of the human rights in the international and national acts, and also to the main rationalistic aspects of their realization.The authors say that the modern international system of human rights protection is inefficient. It was emphasized that the responsibility of the state for the violation of human rights before the international organs undermines the authority of the state as the most important guarantor of human rights.The authors pay attention to that fact that the very concept «the violation of human rights» is explicitly politicized and does not take into account the criminality (which constitutes the main domestic threat to a person), and, thus, does not reflects the real situation of the protection of human interests in the state. The real aims of the creation of the concept of human rights were found. It was emphasized that «the protection of human rights and democracy» sometimes acts as a pretext and «justification» of violent overthrow of power, foreign aggression and mass termination of people.The authors say that, in fact, the human rights (and especially the «positive» one) cannot exist without the state. It was found that the absolutization of the natural human rights and underestimation of the role of the state, in fact, returns people to the state of natural savagery and medieval barbarism. The authors emphasize on the collision between the constitutional rules about the recognition of a human as «the main social value» and about the duty of the citizens to defend the Motherland. Also, the authors say that the right of a people to self-determination, as well as the recognition of the nations, who fight for the independence, as the subjects of the international law, in fact, means that the international law justifies the war and the mass termination of people.It was emphasized that, in reality, there are no absolute human rights, so it is senseless to absolutize them. The authors say that the absolutization of the human rights is harmful, especially in the case of the absolutization of the political human rights in general, and such rights as the «natural right of the rebellion» and the «popular sovereignty» in particular. Also, the authors say that the ideas of the popular sovereignty contradict the reality and the historical regularities of the appearance and functioning of the state and law. It was emphasized that human rights are not and should not be an end in themselves, for the sake of which the state power should be weakened, because, in fact, exactly the strong and effective state is the main guarantor of peace, order, security, well-being, civilization and the real provision of the most important human rights (taking into account an adequate understanding their essence, scope and content). The main aspects of the proper provision of the realization by the state of the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of a human and of a citizen were determined, etc.

Human Rights Violations, Moral Emotions, and Moral Disengagement: How States use Moral Disengagement to Justify their Human Rights Abuses

Abstract: States often use strategic messaging in order to defend their human rights violations. Such messaging often relies on promoting exclusionary ideologies or referencing national security doctrines in order to justify a breach of human rights. Less understood, however, are the specific mechanisms that makes such justifications so effective, especially when they aim to excuse unthinkable human rights atrocities. This is important to understand in order to prevent states from relying on these strategies and to hold them accountable when they violate human rights. To address this, the article demonstrates the role that emotion plays in the politics of human rights. Specifically, the article argues that states employ emotionally manipulative/deceptive strategies in attempts to either defend or obscure their human rights abuses. It builds on recent research in both the political and psychological sciences that evidence the role that emotion plays in issues of morality, rights, and justice. Research in this area refers to ‘moral emotions’ which are implicated in informing and communicating moral judgements, as well as motivating moral behaviour. This article argues that states effectively work to manipulate, or ‘disengage’, those emotional processes involved in moral judgements in attempts to reconstrue their human rights abuses as morally acceptable. In doing so, it advances our understanding as to how human rights violations persist, while also contributing to the literature on human rights theory and the role that emotion plays in the politics of human rights.

Refugee Chronicles: excerpt from the diary with an introduction

The following text is an excerpt from The Refugee Chronicles, a fictional diary written by Evgeny Shtorn, poet and activist, from his experience of seeking asylum. Shtorn had to flee Russia due to the government’s hostile policies toward both queer sexualities and political dissent right after he was interviewed by the Russian secret police FSB in 2018. The run for life and liberty brought him to the utmost end of Western Europe, Ireland. Shtorn’s experience of claiming asylum made him question clear cut boundaries between the West and the East along the lines of guarantees and protections of human rights. He also noted how queer sexuality plays a specific role in the asylum application process as a protected and even desired ground for granting refugee status. His experience of a lengthy stay in the dormitory for asylum seekers converted into a book-length, semi-fictional chronicle was published by an independent press, Poryadok Slov, in St. Petersburg, Russia. The book is full of queries, ambiguities, and doubts that surround the issues of queerness, migration, and the politics of human rights. The following chapter is introduced with a short pre-word by a scholar of sexuality studies Alexander Kondakov who offers a brief contextualization and conceptualization of The Refugee Chronicles.

Участь громадськості як ключовий принцип відкритості судової влади: генезисні та глобалізаційні аспекти

Annotation. The article analyzes the historical-legal and recent globalization trends in the development of the principle of public participation as a factor of judicial openness. It was established that open governance guarantees transparency, accountability and openness of government, while simultaneously increasing opportunities for citizen participation. It has been proven that it is in demand in the exercise of judicial power. The genesis aspects of the formation of the judiciary were characterized by the fact that the parties to the process depended on the favor of the rulers for the right to participate in the courts: not all individuals were authorized to file lawsuits, testify, serve as a professional or public assessor, even the right to be a plaintiff. The author singled out historical aspects of the development of the openness of the judiciary: overcoming the selectivity of the participation of individuals in the process; development of the accessibility of the judicial process for all without discrimination on various grounds; spreading the openness of judicial information as a means of achieving the legal educational function of the government and a way of preventing crime; the direct connection between the development of the principle of openness and the development of political human rights. The existence of two concepts of the understanding of open justice is motivated: a quick and public trial, based on the norms of law, which are highlighted in the Bill of Rights of the United States of 1791, and the fairness and accessibility of the court, which is highlighted in the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of 1950. The global trends of changes in public participation in the judiciary under the influence of the development of the information environment are indicated. The latter provides wider opportunities for access to the court. The openness of the court is not only the main demand of people for judicial work, but also a channel for demonstrating judicial justice. The following problems of the modern stage of legal support of the principle of court openness have been identified: the complexity of guaranteeing (a combination of legal and technical mechanisms) the information availability of the judiciary; providing the latest opportunities for judicial information analysis by overcoming the classic selective approach by using the data systematization method.

Концепция политических прав человека по праву средневековых городов Италии XI–XIV вв.

In the article, a study was carried out on the key stages of the legal consolidation of political human rights in the medieval law of Italian cities. The first stage was characterized by a political confrontation between territorial feuds and the merchant-patrician elite of the city, the second — by the intervention of the supreme suzerain of Italian lands in urban affairs, the third by a conflict between various bourgeois elements of the medieval society of Italy. As a result, the author concludes that the first two stages had common features in almost all cities of medieval Italy, the third — led in each individual city to different political consequences.

Actually existing intersectionality: The place-based and embodied politics of animal and human rights activism

Critiques of intersectionality as an additive and simplistic model of understanding identity politics has led to calls for renewed concepts that better grasp the complexity and potential of shared struggle. In this article, we contend that the experiences of activists attempting to practice an intersectional human and animal rights politics are a crucial yet overlooked resource in the development of such conceptual imaginaries and ethical practice. Drawing on an historical case study conducted with activists involved in the 1990s anarchist collective ‘One Struggle’ in Israel/Palestine, we argue that an ethic of shared human and animal rights struggle cannot be separated from place-based and embodied politics. We show that activists cultivating intersectional politics in practice must negotiate affective forces of discomfort, alienation and exhaustion that wear down and constrain the potential for intersectional coalitions and joint struggles. These affects are generated through state disincentives, violence the cultural politics of nationalism and incommensurable differences. In this context, intersectional politics are a precarious achievement, dependent on the capacities of activists to continue to compromise and negotiate affectively charged encounters in everyday settings. To better capture the precarious, contingent and provisional nature of animal and human rights activism, we therefore propose the concept of ‘actually existing intersectionality’, illustrating how intersectionality is retheorised via emplaced, embodied activist practices. In so doing we make visible the work through which intersectional politics coheres through negotiation by actors in particular places and times.

Han Fei and conceptions of universal and Chinese human rights

ABSTRACT Han Fei (around 280 to 233 B.C.) advocates a strong and orderly state based on the absolute authority of the state and the law. Han Fei is usually not associated with human rights. His philosophy is difficult to reconcile with civil and political human rights, even if some of his political concepts support the realization of certain human rights. However, Han Fei’s ideas help us to gain a better understanding of the People’s Republic of China’s official human rights narrative. The PRC emphasizes collective social and economic human rights, views the authority of the Communist Party as a prerequisite for the realization of human rights, and advocates rule by law, i.e. using the law as a tool of governance. This largely conforms to Han Fei‘s views on the role of the authority of the state and the law, and the relationship between the government and its citizens.

What makes a spokesperson? Delegation and symbolic power in Crimea

This article argues that spokespersons who claim to speak on behalf of a social group cannot escape the structural problem of delegation whereby speaking in someone’s name entails speaking instead of someone. This form of delegated and authorised silencing through the promise of empowerment imposes symbolic violence on a group which recognises the spokesperson as a valid representative, without recognising its own potential disenfranchisement. I build on Pierre Bourdieu’s sociological writings on language and symbolic power to theorise the trajectories of authorisation of spokespersons. In doing so, I critically engage with theories in International Relations which rely on a separation between speaker and audience to analyse the legitimation of political speech. Instead, I reformulate the speaker/audience relation through the concept of symbolic power and introduce the category of the spoken-for. When spokespersons struggle over symbolic power, they seek to impose social classificatory categories on social groups and spaces. I illustrate these dynamics in the context of human rights politics in Crimea, showing how various spokespersons are engaged in a symbolic struggle over ‘authenticity’ of their speech and the ‘universal’ of human rights. I conclude by suggesting new lines of inquiry to analyse creative strategies to mitigate the spokesperson problem.

COVID-19-Related Cases before the European Court of Human Rights: A Multiperspective Approach

This study overviews how the COVID-19 pandemic is framed in five cases before the European Court of Human Rights (the ECtHR). By reconstructing the heteroglossic system of genres at the ECtHR, the study contributes to the limited literature on the Court’s discursive practices and genres. The analysis looks into the framing of the COVID-19 pandemic as a human rights violation and identifies preferred interpretation schemata across the participation framework of the cases considered using critical discourse analysis and framing. The findings identify a scaffolding of dialogical frames, where most applicants advanced politicized frame systems built on the core denial of the existence or seriousness of COVID-19, framing the governments’ actions or omissions as civil and political human rights violations. The Governments built on the general healthcare crisis framing, and counterframed societal limitations as agency stemming from a “health and safety first” frame. The Court refuted most of the politicized framing choices and accepted most healthcare-related frames, operating under the “exceptional and unforeseen circumstances” frame.

Промови Володимира Старосольського як публіцистичний жанр

This article examines the publicistic legacy of Volodymyr Starosolsky (1878–1942), the Ukrainian public and political figure, scholar, and human rights defender of the first half of the 20th century. The main focus is on his political human rights popularization speeches from the time of his formation as a politician and lawyer (1899–1939). The publicistic characteristics of Volodymyr Starosolsky’s speeches and their genre features are analyzed. Starosolsky’s oratorical and publicistic styles are identified (evidential argumentation, language attributes, content, polemic, and suggestiveness of the discourse). The main sociocommunicative dominants of V. Starosolsky’s publications have been established, particularly nation-building, Ukrainian-centricity, social justice, and legal justice. The relationship between the main functions of Volodymyr Starosolsky’s speeches—the formation of public opinion and his development as a famous politician and lawyer – is determined. Keywords: Volodymyr Starosolskyi, publicistic, speech, politician, lawyer.

Exploration of Kompas Editorial Frames on Human Rights Issues during 2014-2021

Editorials occupy a vital position in the media because they present official media opinions to the public on specific issues, including human rights issues. Therefore, this study focuses on how Kompas daily frames editorials on human rights issues in January and December 2014–2021. The research method is qualitative with Urs Dahinden framing analysis techniques. This technique divides the typology of frames into five things: conflict, economy, progress, moral, and episodic. Dahinden's framing approach is interesting because it differentiates between issues and frames. January and December 2014-2021 were selected because this research does not focus on specific issues. January is a critical moment to reflect on human rights issues over the past year and the next. In addition, December is the month of commemoration of International Human Rights Day. The study results conclude that Kompas uses two different frames in its editorial related to human rights issues. In civil and political human rights, Kompas consistently uses a moral frame. Meanwhile, Kompas uses episodic, economic, and moral frames on economic, social, and cultural issues.

Poland's Solidarity Movement and the Global Politics of Human Rights

In the Fall 2013 issue of the Journal of Cold War Studies, Robert Brier published an article “Broadening the Cultural History of the Cold War: The Emergence of the Polish Workers’ Defense Committee and the Rise of Human Rights,” which examined the emergence of a dissident movement in Communist-era Poland. Following a student uprising in Poland in March 1968 and the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia in August of that year, distinctive forms of opposition began to challenge the Communist monopoly of power in Poland. Inspired by Soviet dissenters, most notably Andrei Sakharov and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Polish opposition activists also later appealed to the human rights agenda of the Helsinki Accords of 1975, which the Polish authorities had recognized by signing but failed to enact in practice.Poland's key opposition movements in the 1970s were the Workers’ Defense Committee (KOR) and the Movement to Defend Human and Civil Rights (ROPCiO). Their aspirations were encouraged by the arrival of the Polish Pope, John Paul II, in 1979, though Brier contends that the pope's visit “may not have been as heroic as some accounts suggest” (p. 34). These were significant impulses for the creation of Solidarity, whose “Twenty-One Demands” articulated the agenda of human rights. Solidarity was temporarily accepted by the Communist authorities in the Gdańsk Agreement of August 1980, but after sixteen months of legality Solidarity was banned by martial law, and the human rights agenda was brutally suppressed.The world watched the Solidarity underground in the decade that followed. But, as Brier explains, international responses were often determined by domestic agendas. To West German Chancellor Willy Brandt—himself a former refugee from Nazi Germany—foreign policy was governed by lengthy time-horizons during which détente gradually unfolded through the evolution of intergovernmental relations. His Ostpolitik hence saw dissidents as promoting an unreasonable, or simply ignorant, view of history. Even so, Western officials began to extend their visits by meeting opposition figures and stopping at sites of popular remembrance, notably the tomb of Father Jerzy Popiełuszko, a Polish priest murdered by secret police officers in 1984.The French left engaged in fierce debate from 1974—triggered by Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago—about the respective merits of Communism and Marxism. Brier argues that “the once dominant framework of the French Left—Marxism—collapsed completely” (p. 108), and in its place human rights became the principal concern. As the abstractions of “totalitarianism” were replaced by specific concerns for human rights, political prisoners and dissidents in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe became central figures. Left-wing intellectuals demanded that Communist rulers heed human rights and other universal norms they had endorsed at Helsinki. Rather than acknowledging Communist autocracy, they had to accept Solidarity's democratic principle that citizens should have a direct influence on public affairs. This was also the priority at home.U.S. debates on foreign policy were also driven by domesticity. In the 1970s, Democrats like Senator Henry Jackson began to use the language of human rights to reinforce the ideological differences between East and West and thereby “reclaim American virtue” (p. 128). But under Ronald Reagan's Republican presidency the target was extended from anti-Communist rhetoric to measures against any social system antagonistic toward the creativity of individual human beings. As Reagan dismantled some welfare policies and reduced the influence of trade unions, union leaders in the United States argued that Solidarity represented a human right that was under threat at home: freedom of association.Brier concludes that Solidarity became a “vessel” for the ideas and wishes of its supporters abroad. Its leaders, including “iconic figures” such as Lech Wałęsa, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983, were harshly suppressed by the Communist regime and were lauded abroad as prisoners of conscience. Poland became a “canvas unto which West Europeans and Americans could project their own struggles” (p. 145). Brier does recognize their assistance in helping to keep Polish activists out of prison, providing funds to sustain their activity and nudging the Polish government toward the 1989 roundtable talks with the opposition. These were significant steps toward the end of Communism in Eastern Europe and of the Cold War, but Brier suggests their main impulse was domesticity rather than internationalism.His book is a contribution to the promising Cambridge University Press series “Human Rights in History,” which one hopes will explore these issues further. Not least are the dramatic changes of the post-1989 era, as political leaders in Poland and Hungary have moved to recentralize state power and limit, or indeed extinguish, the role of human rights-based opposition.

Robert Brier, Poland’s Solidarity Movement and the Global Politics of Human Rights. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 2021

Article Robert Brier, Poland’s Solidarity Movement and the Global Politics of Human Rights. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 2021 was published on August 1, 2022 in the journal Historische Zeitschrift (volume 315, issue 1).