Northwestern University Journal of International Human Rights, Vol. 17, No. 1, 2019Human rights advocacy in foreign countries raises complex ethical, moral, and political questions. Legal scholars have challenged the legitimacy and accountability of international human rights activists that impose foreign agendas on local partners in the Global South. Development economists have raised related concerns about the impact of foreign assistance on government accountability. In this article, I use narrative storytelling techniques to illustrate the fraught strategic judgments and moral choices that permeate human rights advocacy. These narratives are drawn from my international human rights clinic’s twelve-year engagement in justice reform work in Malawi, where my students and I have been instrumental in the release of nearly 300 prisoners from Malawian prisons. Over more than a decade, we have periodically fallen prey to cultural misperceptions and ethical dilemmas that threatened to derail our success. The lessons derived from these experiences underscore the value of a long-term, incremental approach to human rights advocacy that prioritizes deep collaboration over short-term success.
{"title":"Navigating the Moral Minefields of Human Rights Advocacy in the Global South","authors":"Sandra L. Babcock","doi":"10.31228/osf.io/ady6f","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.31228/osf.io/ady6f","url":null,"abstract":"Northwestern University Journal of International Human Rights, Vol. 17, No. 1, 2019Human rights advocacy in foreign countries raises complex ethical, moral, and political questions. Legal scholars have challenged the legitimacy and accountability of international human rights activists that impose foreign agendas on local partners in the Global South. Development economists have raised related concerns about the impact of foreign assistance on government accountability. In this article, I use narrative storytelling techniques to illustrate the fraught strategic judgments and moral choices that permeate human rights advocacy. These narratives are drawn from my international human rights clinic’s twelve-year engagement in justice reform work in Malawi, where my students and I have been instrumental in the release of nearly 300 prisoners from Malawian prisons. Over more than a decade, we have periodically fallen prey to cultural misperceptions and ethical dilemmas that threatened to derail our success. The lessons derived from these experiences underscore the value of a long-term, incremental approach to human rights advocacy that prioritizes deep collaboration over short-term success.","PeriodicalId":250609,"journal":{"name":"Northwestern Journal of Human Rights","volume":"101 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-05-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123334006","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sixteen-year old Uzbek, Sunnat (not his real name), was seized in Afghanistan following the attacks on September 11, 2001. He was transported to the detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba in 2002. Despite being cleared for release, Sunnat waited eight years to find a country that would take him. Sunnat was placed in a cell among other detainees in the general prison population. He spoke neither Arabic nor English, the linguae francae of the prison and the only languages spoken by the detainees in neighboring cells. Consequently, for much of his time in Guantanamo, Sunnat talked to no one. He awoke each morning and cried. Sunnat could, of course, reach out and communicate through eye contact, hand signs and facial expressions. However, Sunnat never had meaningful conversations with his neighbors. Absence of meaningful human contact is a characteristic of isolation and a source of suffering caused by isolation. Sunnat suffered a new and unique form of isolation, known as linguistic isolation or isolation by language barriers.In this article, I use Sunnat's story as a lens through which to see how linguistic isolation is a form of isolation that warrants special attention in the detention context as a human rights violation. Similar to physical isolation, isolation by language barriers may rise to the level of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, or CID. Academic literature on isolation, including literature in the legal, social sciences and international fields, has only cursorily acknowledged the experience of being isolated by language in detention, and has not identified the experience as a distinct type of isolation. Consequently, this essay is original work. In comparing linguistic isolation to forms of physical isolation, this article will also create a framework where linguistic isolation is recognized as a distinct form of isolation similar to solitary confinement, incommunicado detention and administrative segregation. In addition, the article will identify circumstances outside Guantanamo where isolation by language barriers also exists, such as in immigration, asylum and refugee detention centers. The article concludes with suggestions for remedying situations of linguistic isolation. After the article was posted on SSRN this spring under a different title, it was reviewed for its groundbreaking thesis by the New Yorker and the Economist.
{"title":"Linguistic Isolation: A New Human Rights Violation Constituting Torture, and Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment","authors":"P. J. Honigsberg","doi":"10.2139/SSRN.2208749","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/SSRN.2208749","url":null,"abstract":"Sixteen-year old Uzbek, Sunnat (not his real name), was seized in Afghanistan following the attacks on September 11, 2001. He was transported to the detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba in 2002. Despite being cleared for release, Sunnat waited eight years to find a country that would take him. Sunnat was placed in a cell among other detainees in the general prison population. He spoke neither Arabic nor English, the linguae francae of the prison and the only languages spoken by the detainees in neighboring cells. Consequently, for much of his time in Guantanamo, Sunnat talked to no one. He awoke each morning and cried. Sunnat could, of course, reach out and communicate through eye contact, hand signs and facial expressions. However, Sunnat never had meaningful conversations with his neighbors. Absence of meaningful human contact is a characteristic of isolation and a source of suffering caused by isolation. Sunnat suffered a new and unique form of isolation, known as linguistic isolation or isolation by language barriers.In this article, I use Sunnat's story as a lens through which to see how linguistic isolation is a form of isolation that warrants special attention in the detention context as a human rights violation. Similar to physical isolation, isolation by language barriers may rise to the level of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, or CID. Academic literature on isolation, including literature in the legal, social sciences and international fields, has only cursorily acknowledged the experience of being isolated by language in detention, and has not identified the experience as a distinct type of isolation. Consequently, this essay is original work. In comparing linguistic isolation to forms of physical isolation, this article will also create a framework where linguistic isolation is recognized as a distinct form of isolation similar to solitary confinement, incommunicado detention and administrative segregation. In addition, the article will identify circumstances outside Guantanamo where isolation by language barriers also exists, such as in immigration, asylum and refugee detention centers. The article concludes with suggestions for remedying situations of linguistic isolation. After the article was posted on SSRN this spring under a different title, it was reviewed for its groundbreaking thesis by the New Yorker and the Economist.","PeriodicalId":250609,"journal":{"name":"Northwestern Journal of Human Rights","volume":"27 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-11-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121368080","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This Article examines the three diverse ways nations in Africa are engaged in legislating homosexuality and same-sex relations. Much of the international community has focused on Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Bill, commonly described as the 'Kill the Gays' bill, which for a time included a provision permitting the death penalty for certain forms of 'aggravated homosexuality.' This focus on the death penalty aspect of the legislation has obscured a discussion of a similarly insidious aspect of the legislation - the criminalization of pro-gay activism and the providing of 'aid or assistance' to LGBT persons. This criminal penalty, the first of its kind in the world, serves as a dangerous model for other countries attempting to legislate against homosexuality. This paper serves to contextualize the Uganda statute, and compare it with 2012 legislation in Malawi, which would decriminalize same-sex activity, and Zimbabwe, where an attempt to enshrine gay rights in the constitution led instead to blowback from antigay activists and resulted in the inclusion of an antigay amendment in the country's new draft constitution. Each of these laws serves as a model for pro-LGBT and antigay activists attempting to legislate sexual orientation and activity in Africa. Ultimately, this Article concludes that each measure will serve as a model for different constituencies: Uganda's for antigay legislators attempting to corral public sentiment against homosexuality into legislative power; Malawi's for pro-LGBT grassroots organizations and sympathetic political leaders; and Zimbabwe's for international LGBT organizations providing strategic advice for ways to move legislation forward on the continent.
{"title":"From 'Kill the Gays' to 'Kill the Gay Rights Movement': The Future of Homosexuality Legislation in Africa","authors":"Adam J. Kretz","doi":"10.2139/SSRN.2210985","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/SSRN.2210985","url":null,"abstract":"This Article examines the three diverse ways nations in Africa are engaged in legislating homosexuality and same-sex relations. Much of the international community has focused on Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Bill, commonly described as the 'Kill the Gays' bill, which for a time included a provision permitting the death penalty for certain forms of 'aggravated homosexuality.' This focus on the death penalty aspect of the legislation has obscured a discussion of a similarly insidious aspect of the legislation - the criminalization of pro-gay activism and the providing of 'aid or assistance' to LGBT persons. This criminal penalty, the first of its kind in the world, serves as a dangerous model for other countries attempting to legislate against homosexuality. This paper serves to contextualize the Uganda statute, and compare it with 2012 legislation in Malawi, which would decriminalize same-sex activity, and Zimbabwe, where an attempt to enshrine gay rights in the constitution led instead to blowback from antigay activists and resulted in the inclusion of an antigay amendment in the country's new draft constitution. Each of these laws serves as a model for pro-LGBT and antigay activists attempting to legislate sexual orientation and activity in Africa. Ultimately, this Article concludes that each measure will serve as a model for different constituencies: Uganda's for antigay legislators attempting to corral public sentiment against homosexuality into legislative power; Malawi's for pro-LGBT grassroots organizations and sympathetic political leaders; and Zimbabwe's for international LGBT organizations providing strategic advice for ways to move legislation forward on the continent.","PeriodicalId":250609,"journal":{"name":"Northwestern Journal of Human Rights","volume":"23 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-02-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133785196","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article is about two different narratives or accounts of torture. Each narrative signifies a certain view about the legality and wisdom of employing torture and coercion in interrogation. Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the use of torture and coercion has become a topic of genuine debate, despite a sizable corpus of domestic and international law prohibiting those very practices. The first narrative of torture is centered on the ticking bomb scenario, the hypothetical that has frequently been deployed in the academic arena to overcome the absolutist nature of the legal prohibition on torture. Since 9/11, the ticking bomb scenario has also appeared in various official government documents and statements that assert the legality of torture and coercive interrogation techniques. It has also been replicated in popular culture, the most notable example being Fox's counterterrorism drama, 24. A second narrative of torture challenges the validity and usefulness of the ticking bomb scenario. Various academic commentators have unpacked the assumptions underlying the scenario. Certain government actors, most notably the Federal Bureau of Investigation and military lawyers, have consistently rejected the logic of the ticking bomb scenario, and opposed the use of torture and coercion in interrogation. This second narrative also has a popular culture representative in the form of Sci-Fi Channel's Battlestar Galactica. Thus, the same battles that have been fought over the treatment of detainees in the "war on terror" in the legal and political arenas by real world actors since 9/11 are also being fought at a discursive level in popular culture.
{"title":"Two Narratives of Torture","authors":"J. Ip","doi":"10.2139/SSRN.1292585","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/SSRN.1292585","url":null,"abstract":"This article is about two different narratives or accounts of torture. Each narrative signifies a certain view about the legality and wisdom of employing torture and coercion in interrogation. Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the use of torture and coercion has become a topic of genuine debate, despite a sizable corpus of domestic and international law prohibiting those very practices. The first narrative of torture is centered on the ticking bomb scenario, the hypothetical that has frequently been deployed in the academic arena to overcome the absolutist nature of the legal prohibition on torture. Since 9/11, the ticking bomb scenario has also appeared in various official government documents and statements that assert the legality of torture and coercive interrogation techniques. It has also been replicated in popular culture, the most notable example being Fox's counterterrorism drama, 24. A second narrative of torture challenges the validity and usefulness of the ticking bomb scenario. Various academic commentators have unpacked the assumptions underlying the scenario. Certain government actors, most notably the Federal Bureau of Investigation and military lawyers, have consistently rejected the logic of the ticking bomb scenario, and opposed the use of torture and coercion in interrogation. This second narrative also has a popular culture representative in the form of Sci-Fi Channel's Battlestar Galactica. Thus, the same battles that have been fought over the treatment of detainees in the \"war on terror\" in the legal and political arenas by real world actors since 9/11 are also being fought at a discursive level in popular culture.","PeriodicalId":250609,"journal":{"name":"Northwestern Journal of Human Rights","volume":"29 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-04-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132032419","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article examines the many factors that have created and continue to perpetuate the ongoing health crisis in developing countries. In so doing, the article will reveal that the focus on patent regulation is largely misguided and that the targeting of pharmaceutical companies and TRIPS has led to an unfortunate divergence from the actual critical issues that affect the delivery of much-needed care and medicines to the developing world. The article then argues that the critical issues lie not in constructing appropriate TRIPS provisions, but more so in providing financial resources to build, maintain and stabilize proper healthcare systems in those developing countries afflicted with public health crises. This article does not fully absolve pharmaceutical companies from blame nor does it claim that TRIPS strikes the appropriate balance between creators and users in every situation, but much has already been written on these two issues. Instead, this article focuses on and examines possible solutions or initiatives that may be adopted to alleviate the current public health problems and assesses their practicability in light of the particular situations and circumstances affecting the developing world.
{"title":"Resolving the Public Health Crisis in the Developing World: Problems and Barriers of Access to Essential Medicines","authors":"B. Mercurio","doi":"10.2139/SSRN.980175","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/SSRN.980175","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines the many factors that have created and continue to perpetuate the ongoing health crisis in developing countries. In so doing, the article will reveal that the focus on patent regulation is largely misguided and that the targeting of pharmaceutical companies and TRIPS has led to an unfortunate divergence from the actual critical issues that affect the delivery of much-needed care and medicines to the developing world. The article then argues that the critical issues lie not in constructing appropriate TRIPS provisions, but more so in providing financial resources to build, maintain and stabilize proper healthcare systems in those developing countries afflicted with public health crises. This article does not fully absolve pharmaceutical companies from blame nor does it claim that TRIPS strikes the appropriate balance between creators and users in every situation, but much has already been written on these two issues. Instead, this article focuses on and examines possible solutions or initiatives that may be adopted to alleviate the current public health problems and assesses their practicability in light of the particular situations and circumstances affecting the developing world.","PeriodicalId":250609,"journal":{"name":"Northwestern Journal of Human Rights","volume":"5 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2007-04-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130217917","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 1900-01-01DOI: 10.1355/9789814620628-064
G. Clarke
{"title":"The Evolving ASEAN Human Rights System: The ASEAN Human Rights Declaration of 2012","authors":"G. Clarke","doi":"10.1355/9789814620628-064","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1355/9789814620628-064","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":250609,"journal":{"name":"Northwestern Journal of Human Rights","volume":"17 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124439485","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
More than ten years have passed since the United States Supreme Court last addressed school desegregation. In its abbreviated tenure in the decades following Brown v. Board of Education, school desegregation was successful in many respects. Longstanding policies of state-sponsored educational apartheid eventually ended. A great many school buildings became more diverse. Countless students of color gained access to improved academic opportunities and better life outcomes. A consensus formed around the positive impacts that desegregation could have on both students of color and white students. When courts retreated from upholding desegregation policies, many communities developed their own voluntary plans, some of which even continue today. Yet by any measure, the original goals of Brown remain unfulfilled. Desegregation has nearly disappeared from the lexicon of educational reform, and America’s schools are becoming dramatically more segregated. While the courts are certainly to blame, the design and implementation of desegregation itself contributed to its own downfall. Desegregation has almost exclusively focused on balancing the number of students of different races in public schools, and nothing more. School district plans for addressing segregation often passed constitutional muster by merely moving students of color into previously all-white schools. As a result, schools became desegregated but were never fully integrated. Integration, as compared to desegregation, naturally requires the removal of the structures of segregation, but it also seeks to address more than just diversity in terms of numbers. Actual integration requires going beyond demographics, to include reforming the classroom and curriculum, and diversifying the teaching ranks. It breaks through school district boundaries to forge metropolitan-wide solutions. It requires changes beyond education, connecting housing and education policy. And because of the most recent Supreme Court decision, it requires using other metrics, in addition to race, to promote broad diversity in the public schools. After providing a brief overview of desegregation’s main achievements and its largest setbacks, this article examines successful desegregation programs from around the country and describes what has made these efforts worthwhile and legally sound. It then makes policy recommendations as to how to strengthen desegregation, such as avoiding the legal pitfalls of recent Supreme Court cases through geographic basedsolutions, increasing diversity of our teaching ranks, and linking housing and education policy.
{"title":"School Desegregation 2.0: What is Required to Finally Integrate America's Public Schools","authors":"J. Hilbert","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3031618","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3031618","url":null,"abstract":"More than ten years have passed since the United States Supreme Court last addressed school desegregation. In its abbreviated tenure in the decades following Brown v. Board of Education, school desegregation was successful in many respects. Longstanding policies of state-sponsored educational apartheid eventually ended. A great many school buildings became more diverse. Countless students of color gained access to improved academic opportunities and better life outcomes. A consensus formed around the positive impacts that desegregation could have on both students of color and white students. When courts retreated from upholding desegregation policies, many communities developed their own voluntary plans, some of which even continue today. Yet by any measure, the original goals of Brown remain unfulfilled. Desegregation has nearly disappeared from the lexicon of educational reform, and America’s schools are becoming dramatically more segregated. While the courts are certainly to blame, the design and implementation of desegregation itself contributed to its own downfall. Desegregation has almost exclusively focused on balancing the number of students of different races in public schools, and nothing more. School district plans for addressing segregation often passed constitutional muster by merely moving students of color into previously all-white schools. As a result, schools became desegregated but were never fully integrated. Integration, as compared to desegregation, naturally requires the removal of the structures of segregation, but it also seeks to address more than just diversity in terms of numbers. Actual integration requires going beyond demographics, to include reforming the classroom and curriculum, and diversifying the teaching ranks. It breaks through school district boundaries to forge metropolitan-wide solutions. It requires changes beyond education, connecting housing and education policy. And because of the most recent Supreme Court decision, it requires using other metrics, in addition to race, to promote broad diversity in the public schools. After providing a brief overview of desegregation’s main achievements and its largest setbacks, this article examines successful desegregation programs from around the country and describes what has made these efforts worthwhile and legally sound. It then makes policy recommendations as to how to strengthen desegregation, such as avoiding the legal pitfalls of recent Supreme Court cases through geographic basedsolutions, increasing diversity of our teaching ranks, and linking housing and education policy.","PeriodicalId":250609,"journal":{"name":"Northwestern Journal of Human Rights","volume":"90 6 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116557109","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 1900-01-01DOI: 10.1017/CBO9781316090930.054
J. Baker
{"title":"Collected Papers on English Legal History: Human Rights and the Rule of Law in Renaissance England","authors":"J. Baker","doi":"10.1017/CBO9781316090930.054","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781316090930.054","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":250609,"journal":{"name":"Northwestern Journal of Human Rights","volume":"22 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129350548","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
京公网安备 11010802042870号
京ICP备2023020795号-1
扫码关注我们
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：