Pub Date : 2022-01-02DOI: 10.1080/18918131.2022.2071401
Bede Sheppard
ABSTRACT International law guarantees all children free primary education. Although pre-primary and secondary education have been recognised to differing degrees as part of the right to education, there is no obligation under international human rights treaties to provide either for free. This omission is inconsistent with children's rights otherwise guaranteed under international law. Including only free primary education under the right to education, but not free pre-primary or free secondary education, may have been a recognition of countries’ limited available resources when the right was incorporated into legal treaties, beginning in 1960. However, after decades of economic growth and increasing evidence of the economic benefits to society of expanding access to education, that position deserves to be revisited. Various options exist to expand the scope of the right under international law to guarantee free pre-primary and free secondary education. A new optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child could provide a way toward finally realising a right to free education for all children.
{"title":"It's Time to Expand the Right to Education","authors":"Bede Sheppard","doi":"10.1080/18918131.2022.2071401","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/18918131.2022.2071401","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT International law guarantees all children free primary education. Although pre-primary and secondary education have been recognised to differing degrees as part of the right to education, there is no obligation under international human rights treaties to provide either for free. This omission is inconsistent with children's rights otherwise guaranteed under international law. Including only free primary education under the right to education, but not free pre-primary or free secondary education, may have been a recognition of countries’ limited available resources when the right was incorporated into legal treaties, beginning in 1960. However, after decades of economic growth and increasing evidence of the economic benefits to society of expanding access to education, that position deserves to be revisited. Various options exist to expand the scope of the right under international law to guarantee free pre-primary and free secondary education. A new optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child could provide a way toward finally realising a right to free education for all children.","PeriodicalId":42311,"journal":{"name":"Nordic Journal of Human Rights","volume":"27 1","pages":"96 - 117"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81200145","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 : 2022-01-02DOI: 10.1080/18918131.2022.2079297
Solomon Dersso
ABSTRACT In this contribution, I approach the question of the future of the African human rights system both by situating the issue within the broader context and by reference to the system's own institutional and political setting. To this end, I deploy the COVID-19 pandemic as a lens to discuss the existential questions facing human rights, drawing out the major issues the pandemic has brought out and the lessons we can take from these about the flaws and gaps in the current human rights system in general. While the issues that threaten human rights worldwide apply to human and peoples’ rights in Africa, there are some contextual peculiarities to the question of the future of human and peoples’ rights on the continent. Zooming in, I address these issues of specific concern for the African human rights system, which affect its current standing and are sure to frame its future trajectory. The first consists of the institutional and structural challenges that continue to bedevil the effective functioning of the human rights institutions making up the regional system. The second concerns the political, socioeconomic, and regional context in which the African human rights system operates and the tension that has emerged in this context between human rights institutions and African Union political bodies, as highlighted in recent trends of political backlash against these institutions. It is accordingly submitted that the future of human rights in Africa depends on how the existential challenges currently facing human rights in general, and the specific issues afflicting human rights in Africa, are resolved or at the very least managed.
{"title":"The Future of Human Rights and the African Human Rights System","authors":"Solomon Dersso","doi":"10.1080/18918131.2022.2079297","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/18918131.2022.2079297","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In this contribution, I approach the question of the future of the African human rights system both by situating the issue within the broader context and by reference to the system's own institutional and political setting. To this end, I deploy the COVID-19 pandemic as a lens to discuss the existential questions facing human rights, drawing out the major issues the pandemic has brought out and the lessons we can take from these about the flaws and gaps in the current human rights system in general. While the issues that threaten human rights worldwide apply to human and peoples’ rights in Africa, there are some contextual peculiarities to the question of the future of human and peoples’ rights on the continent. Zooming in, I address these issues of specific concern for the African human rights system, which affect its current standing and are sure to frame its future trajectory. The first consists of the institutional and structural challenges that continue to bedevil the effective functioning of the human rights institutions making up the regional system. The second concerns the political, socioeconomic, and regional context in which the African human rights system operates and the tension that has emerged in this context between human rights institutions and African Union political bodies, as highlighted in recent trends of political backlash against these institutions. It is accordingly submitted that the future of human rights in Africa depends on how the existential challenges currently facing human rights in general, and the specific issues afflicting human rights in Africa, are resolved or at the very least managed.","PeriodicalId":42311,"journal":{"name":"Nordic Journal of Human Rights","volume":"110 1","pages":"28 - 43"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75324687","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 : 2022-01-02DOI: 10.1080/18918131.2022.2073715
Martin Lolle Christensen, W. H. Byrne
ABSTRACT There are two potential paths in the future relationship between the African and European Human Rights Courts. One path, brimming with optimism, sees a ‘global community of courts’ engaging in judicial dialogue that contributes to global human rights law. A second path has emerged in a Concurring Opinion to ND and NT v. Spain, a judgment legitimizing pushback of migrants at the borders of Europe. Judge Pejchal suggested that the application should have been struck out, as the applicants could have brought their claim to the African Court if they were unsatisfied with the human rights situation in their home country. This remains the sole reference to the African Court in the jurisprudence of the European Court. It takes place in a context of backlash against both courts in politically fraught areas, and in shared territorial experiences of waves of migration from Africa to Europe. This article presents the two paths of these regional courts and their intertwining futures, focusing on the judicial practices that facilitate dialogue. We explore these paths empirically and argue that aspirations of unity and the cynicism of insularity are likely to be prominent and overlapping themes in the future of regional human rights courts.
{"title":"Two Paths in the Future Relationship of the European Court of Human Rights and the African Court of Human and Peoples’ Rights","authors":"Martin Lolle Christensen, W. H. Byrne","doi":"10.1080/18918131.2022.2073715","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/18918131.2022.2073715","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT There are two potential paths in the future relationship between the African and European Human Rights Courts. One path, brimming with optimism, sees a ‘global community of courts’ engaging in judicial dialogue that contributes to global human rights law. A second path has emerged in a Concurring Opinion to ND and NT v. Spain, a judgment legitimizing pushback of migrants at the borders of Europe. Judge Pejchal suggested that the application should have been struck out, as the applicants could have brought their claim to the African Court if they were unsatisfied with the human rights situation in their home country. This remains the sole reference to the African Court in the jurisprudence of the European Court. It takes place in a context of backlash against both courts in politically fraught areas, and in shared territorial experiences of waves of migration from Africa to Europe. This article presents the two paths of these regional courts and their intertwining futures, focusing on the judicial practices that facilitate dialogue. We explore these paths empirically and argue that aspirations of unity and the cynicism of insularity are likely to be prominent and overlapping themes in the future of regional human rights courts.","PeriodicalId":42311,"journal":{"name":"Nordic Journal of Human Rights","volume":"1 1","pages":"250 - 260"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85568881","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 : 2022-01-02DOI: 10.1080/18918131.2022.2082042
R. Biholar
ABSTRACT Global inequities persist despite the achievements of the human rights project so far, as Kofi Annan highlighted in 2005. Caribbean calls for reparations for chattel slavery are a manifestation of and a response to global inequities that affect the Global South in particular. However, when endeavouring to find a footing in international law, and specifically in international human rights law, reparations calls have been contested and challenged. This article proposes a reimagining of the international human rights system to offer a legitimate place for reparations for chattel slavery and thus enable an effective challenge to pressing injustices such as racial discrimination and its ramifications. Despite being a region that has been birthed from such profound historical injustices that still affect the full realisation of human rights today, the Caribbean and its human rights challenges and calls for justice have been relegated to and maintained at the periphery of international human rights law. For that reason, this article focuses on reparations for slavery emanating from the Caribbean. Drawing on Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL), it argues that the inability of international legal systems to respond to historical injustices indicates that the colonial imagination, constructed on the compass of exclusion, is still the foundation of international human rights law and of modern, postcolonial societies. The article thus advocates for decolonising international human rights law to accommodate a more inclusive future for human rights.
{"title":"Reparations for Chattel Slavery: A Call From the ‘Periphery’ to Decolonise International (Human Rights) Law","authors":"R. Biholar","doi":"10.1080/18918131.2022.2082042","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/18918131.2022.2082042","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Global inequities persist despite the achievements of the human rights project so far, as Kofi Annan highlighted in 2005. Caribbean calls for reparations for chattel slavery are a manifestation of and a response to global inequities that affect the Global South in particular. However, when endeavouring to find a footing in international law, and specifically in international human rights law, reparations calls have been contested and challenged. This article proposes a reimagining of the international human rights system to offer a legitimate place for reparations for chattel slavery and thus enable an effective challenge to pressing injustices such as racial discrimination and its ramifications. Despite being a region that has been birthed from such profound historical injustices that still affect the full realisation of human rights today, the Caribbean and its human rights challenges and calls for justice have been relegated to and maintained at the periphery of international human rights law. For that reason, this article focuses on reparations for slavery emanating from the Caribbean. Drawing on Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL), it argues that the inability of international legal systems to respond to historical injustices indicates that the colonial imagination, constructed on the compass of exclusion, is still the foundation of international human rights law and of modern, postcolonial societies. The article thus advocates for decolonising international human rights law to accommodate a more inclusive future for human rights.","PeriodicalId":42311,"journal":{"name":"Nordic Journal of Human Rights","volume":"43 1","pages":"64 - 95"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86738537","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 : 2022-01-02DOI: 10.1080/18918131.2022.2079223
Kirtika Kattel
ABSTRACT The international human rights system faces criticisms regarding a range of issues, including ambiguity in its standards, weakness in its enforcement mechanisms and the resultant lack of impact on the ground, and the notion of universality being incompatible with cultural particularities. This article analyses some of these scholarly criticisms and argues that they should be seen as a wake-up call. It discusses and explores feasible ways of reimagining the existing human rights frameworks. Reimagining here does not mean reformulating existing frameworks; it means revisiting the assumptions on which the current system is based. The article does not agree that the idea and ideals of human rights are on their last legs, as some critics seem to suggest. It argues, instead, that the language of human rights is still highly relevant, as seen in its increasing use by both intellectuals and practitioners, including human rights defenders and civil society organisations. The focus of discourse should, therefore, shift from criticism to lesson-learning and exploring new ways to make human rights relevant to all. The article largely builds on secondary resources, and the criticisms discussed are limited to scholarly criticisms.
{"title":"Are Human Rights Enough? Exploring Ways to Reimagining Human Rights Law","authors":"Kirtika Kattel","doi":"10.1080/18918131.2022.2079223","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/18918131.2022.2079223","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The international human rights system faces criticisms regarding a range of issues, including ambiguity in its standards, weakness in its enforcement mechanisms and the resultant lack of impact on the ground, and the notion of universality being incompatible with cultural particularities. This article analyses some of these scholarly criticisms and argues that they should be seen as a wake-up call. It discusses and explores feasible ways of reimagining the existing human rights frameworks. Reimagining here does not mean reformulating existing frameworks; it means revisiting the assumptions on which the current system is based. The article does not agree that the idea and ideals of human rights are on their last legs, as some critics seem to suggest. It argues, instead, that the language of human rights is still highly relevant, as seen in its increasing use by both intellectuals and practitioners, including human rights defenders and civil society organisations. The focus of discourse should, therefore, shift from criticism to lesson-learning and exploring new ways to make human rights relevant to all. The article largely builds on secondary resources, and the criticisms discussed are limited to scholarly criticisms.","PeriodicalId":42311,"journal":{"name":"Nordic Journal of Human Rights","volume":"16 1","pages":"13 - 27"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84343719","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 : 2022-01-02DOI: 10.1080/18918131.2022.2069919
José-Miguel Bello y Villarino, Ramona Vijeyarasa
ABSTRACT This article looks at the risks and advantages of early regulation of artificial intelligence (AI) from an international human rights (IHR) angle. By exploring arguments from scholarly and policy papers from various jurisdictions on possible approaches to regulating AI, the authors identify a current trend among states to wait rather than proactively regulate. The authors challenge the idea that there is a reasonable or legitimate case to ‘wait and see’. The article presents three examples of AI systems, using a women's rights lens, in order to outline the IHR implications of AI that states will have to grapple with in the years to come as AI usage grows. This article illustrates that the absence of adequate regulation in the AI domain may itself be a violation of IHR norms, reflecting a state of play where governments have relinquished their obligations to protect, fulfil, and remedy. However, given the limited likelihood that regulatory actions will occur in the short term, in the interim, the IHR monitoring framework should require states to systematically assess and report on their readiness to deal with the human rights risks of AI systems, in order to limit such risks and identify the longer-term needs of regulation.
{"title":"International Human Rights, Artificial Intelligence, and the Challenge for the Pondering State: Time to Regulate?","authors":"José-Miguel Bello y Villarino, Ramona Vijeyarasa","doi":"10.1080/18918131.2022.2069919","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/18918131.2022.2069919","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article looks at the risks and advantages of early regulation of artificial intelligence (AI) from an international human rights (IHR) angle. By exploring arguments from scholarly and policy papers from various jurisdictions on possible approaches to regulating AI, the authors identify a current trend among states to wait rather than proactively regulate. The authors challenge the idea that there is a reasonable or legitimate case to ‘wait and see’. The article presents three examples of AI systems, using a women's rights lens, in order to outline the IHR implications of AI that states will have to grapple with in the years to come as AI usage grows. This article illustrates that the absence of adequate regulation in the AI domain may itself be a violation of IHR norms, reflecting a state of play where governments have relinquished their obligations to protect, fulfil, and remedy. However, given the limited likelihood that regulatory actions will occur in the short term, in the interim, the IHR monitoring framework should require states to systematically assess and report on their readiness to deal with the human rights risks of AI systems, in order to limit such risks and identify the longer-term needs of regulation.","PeriodicalId":42311,"journal":{"name":"Nordic Journal of Human Rights","volume":"10 1","pages":"194 - 215"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85156352","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 : 2022-01-02DOI: 10.1080/18918131.2022.2072075
Annika Bergman Rosamond, Daria Davitti
ABSTRACT In this article we examine the future of human rights by looking at how ‘authoritarianism’, in its multifaceted forms and manifestations, intersects with existing discourses on climate change, environmental protection, populism and ‘gender deviance’. By adopting an intersectional lens, we interrogate the emergence of the right to a healthy environment and reflect on whether it will help against the double challenge faced by human rights: of climate breakdown and rising authoritarianism. We study the link between authoritarianism and populism, focusing on far-right populism and the creeping authoritarian features that we can associate with far-right groups, both movements and parties. We also consider how certain understandings of nature and the environment are put forward by authoritarian regimes. This leads us to consider so-called ‘ecologism’ and the ways in which far-right movements draw upon green thought on the natural environment to further a gendered agenda based on conceptions of nature as a ‘national treasure’. These conceptions, as we demonstrate, go hand in hand with policies that promote national identity and directly undermine the rights of migrants, ethnic minorities, women and LGBT+ groups.
{"title":"Gender, Climate Breakdown and Resistance: The Future of Human Rights in the Shadow of Authoritarianism","authors":"Annika Bergman Rosamond, Daria Davitti","doi":"10.1080/18918131.2022.2072075","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/18918131.2022.2072075","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In this article we examine the future of human rights by looking at how ‘authoritarianism’, in its multifaceted forms and manifestations, intersects with existing discourses on climate change, environmental protection, populism and ‘gender deviance’. By adopting an intersectional lens, we interrogate the emergence of the right to a healthy environment and reflect on whether it will help against the double challenge faced by human rights: of climate breakdown and rising authoritarianism. We study the link between authoritarianism and populism, focusing on far-right populism and the creeping authoritarian features that we can associate with far-right groups, both movements and parties. We also consider how certain understandings of nature and the environment are put forward by authoritarian regimes. This leads us to consider so-called ‘ecologism’ and the ways in which far-right movements draw upon green thought on the natural environment to further a gendered agenda based on conceptions of nature as a ‘national treasure’. These conceptions, as we demonstrate, go hand in hand with policies that promote national identity and directly undermine the rights of migrants, ethnic minorities, women and LGBT+ groups.","PeriodicalId":42311,"journal":{"name":"Nordic Journal of Human Rights","volume":"214 1","pages":"133 - 152"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79526937","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 : 2022-01-02DOI: 10.1080/18918131.2022.2045054
L. Viikari
ABSTRACT This article examines the status of rural local communities within the international framework of human rights. The adoption in 2018 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP) has made the theme particularly topical. The UNDROP is an instrument designed to advance the recognition of human rights with specific relevance for rural communities and to develop locality as a factor contributing to stakeholdership in the international human rights system. Rural local communities consist of both indigenous and non-indigenous people, the legal status of whom can be quite different from each other. A practical example used for demonstrating this is the international legal regime governing whaling. With respect to attempts to revise the whaling regime to be more inclusive while benefiting both indigenous and non-indigenous populations involved in small-scale hunting of whales, the UNDROP has interesting potential.
{"title":"Rural Local Communities as Holders of Human Rights: From Aboriginal Subsistence Whaling to Small-Scale Local Community Whaling?","authors":"L. Viikari","doi":"10.1080/18918131.2022.2045054","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/18918131.2022.2045054","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article examines the status of rural local communities within the international framework of human rights. The adoption in 2018 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP) has made the theme particularly topical. The UNDROP is an instrument designed to advance the recognition of human rights with specific relevance for rural communities and to develop locality as a factor contributing to stakeholdership in the international human rights system. Rural local communities consist of both indigenous and non-indigenous people, the legal status of whom can be quite different from each other. A practical example used for demonstrating this is the international legal regime governing whaling. With respect to attempts to revise the whaling regime to be more inclusive while benefiting both indigenous and non-indigenous populations involved in small-scale hunting of whales, the UNDROP has interesting potential.","PeriodicalId":42311,"journal":{"name":"Nordic Journal of Human Rights","volume":"29 1","pages":"175 - 193"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78953155","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 : 2022-01-02DOI: 10.1080/18918131.2022.2042989
Riccardo Vecellio Segate
{"title":"Navigating Lawyering in the Age of Neuroscience: Why Lawyers Can No Longer Do Without Emotions (Nor Could They Ever)","authors":"Riccardo Vecellio Segate","doi":"10.1080/18918131.2022.2042989","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/18918131.2022.2042989","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42311,"journal":{"name":"Nordic Journal of Human Rights","volume":"20 1","pages":"268 - 283"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75252873","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 : 2021-10-02DOI: 10.1080/18918131.2021.2015148
Carola Lingaas
ABSTRACT Everyone has multiple intersecting identities and belongs to several groups. In cases of genocide, how do courts deal with intersecting identities? Are they relevant for the identification of the victims? This paper argues that social identity theory may assist in the legal interpretation of the ‘religious group’ of the law of genocide where individuals are targeted for their – perceived or real –membership of a competing religious group. According to the theory, personal (religious) identity is based on membership in significant social categories that lead to ‘us versus them’ dichotomies, favouring the in-group over the out-group. Identity competition plays a central role in the inception and escalation of intergroup conflicts, including those that occur along religious fault lines. Genocide is a type of intergroup conflict but is not usually framed as such by international criminal lawyers. This paper discusses social identity theory, intergroup conflict, religion, and the case law on genocide. In exploring the relevance of social identity theory for the law of genocide, it argues that the current jurisprudential approach of blending group membership criteria, based on the ‘four corners’ approach, is flawed. The cases of Rwanda, the Former Yugoslavia, Cambodia, India, and Myanmar exemplify the relevance of the theory.
{"title":"Religious Group Identities in Genocide: Social Identity Theory as a Tool for Disentangling Law and Religion","authors":"Carola Lingaas","doi":"10.1080/18918131.2021.2015148","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/18918131.2021.2015148","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Everyone has multiple intersecting identities and belongs to several groups. In cases of genocide, how do courts deal with intersecting identities? Are they relevant for the identification of the victims? This paper argues that social identity theory may assist in the legal interpretation of the ‘religious group’ of the law of genocide where individuals are targeted for their – perceived or real –membership of a competing religious group. According to the theory, personal (religious) identity is based on membership in significant social categories that lead to ‘us versus them’ dichotomies, favouring the in-group over the out-group. Identity competition plays a central role in the inception and escalation of intergroup conflicts, including those that occur along religious fault lines. Genocide is a type of intergroup conflict but is not usually framed as such by international criminal lawyers. This paper discusses social identity theory, intergroup conflict, religion, and the case law on genocide. In exploring the relevance of social identity theory for the law of genocide, it argues that the current jurisprudential approach of blending group membership criteria, based on the ‘four corners’ approach, is flawed. The cases of Rwanda, the Former Yugoslavia, Cambodia, India, and Myanmar exemplify the relevance of the theory.","PeriodicalId":42311,"journal":{"name":"Nordic Journal of Human Rights","volume":"56 1","pages":"440 - 457"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86272587","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}
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