Pub Date : 2024-01-30DOI: 10.1353/hrq.2024.a918539
Cóman Kenny, Travis Farr
The destruction of a group by a process of forced conversion or assimilation, wherein the identity of a protected group, be it national, ethnic, racial, or religious, is eradicated and replaced with another identity is not covered by the prevailing definition of the mens rea of the crime of genocide, which requires that a perpetrator intend the physical or biological destruction of a protected group. This article argues that genocide has been inaccurately applied by international courts, based on an incorrect interpretation of the Genocide Convention that has dominated international law for twenty years, and discusses what non-physical/biological destruction of a group looks like in practice. The article proposes that events in Ukraine give the International Criminal Court, which has yet to definitively interpret the crime of genocide, an opportunity to correct this legal error and thereby ensure that genocide offers better protection to groups from destruction.
{"title":"The International Criminal Court's Opportunity to Correct the Erroneous Interpretation of the Mens Rea for Genocide","authors":"Cóman Kenny, Travis Farr","doi":"10.1353/hrq.2024.a918539","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/hrq.2024.a918539","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The destruction of a group by a process of forced conversion or assimilation, wherein the identity of a protected group, be it national, ethnic, racial, or religious, is eradicated and replaced with another identity is not covered by the prevailing definition of the <i>mens rea</i> of the crime of genocide, which requires that a perpetrator intend the physical or biological destruction of a protected group. This article argues that genocide has been inaccurately applied by international courts, based on an incorrect interpretation of the Genocide Convention that has dominated international law for twenty years, and discusses what non-physical/biological destruction of a group looks like in practice. The article proposes that events in Ukraine give the International Criminal Court, which has yet to definitively interpret the crime of genocide, an opportunity to correct this legal error and thereby ensure that genocide offers better protection to groups from destruction. </p></p>","PeriodicalId":47589,"journal":{"name":"Human Rights Quarterly","volume":"47 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139578029","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-01-30DOI: 10.1353/hrq.2024.a918540
Shauna N. Gillooly, Daniel Solomon, Kelebogile Zvobgo
What accounts for the creation, design, and outputs of quasi-judicial institutions in autocracies? Prior research demonstrates that autocrats co-opt electoral, legislative, and judicial institutions to curtail opponents’ power and curry international patrons’ favor. However, scholarship on co-optation neglects quasi-judicial mechanisms, such as truth commissions, that can be useful for arranging a political narrative that bolsters a leader’s image while undermining his rivals. In this article, we formalize the concept of autocratic truth commissions—which account for one-third of truth commissions globally—and develop and test a novel theory of their origins, inputs, and outputs. We theorize that autocrats establish self-investigating commissions in response to threats to their symbolic authority and install rival-investigating commissions in response to threats to both symbolic authority and regime survival. We further argue that these two commission types take on different institutional forms and produce different outputs. Self-investigating commissions are afforded narrow mandates and produce reports that obscure basic facts. Meanwhile, rival-investigating commissions are granted wide mandates and culminate in accurate reports of rivals’ responsibility for abuses. We evaluate these expectations through comparative case studies of two autocratic truth commissions in Uganda, and find support.
{"title":"Co-Opting Truth: Explaining Quasi-Judicial Institutions in Authoritarian Regimes","authors":"Shauna N. Gillooly, Daniel Solomon, Kelebogile Zvobgo","doi":"10.1353/hrq.2024.a918540","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/hrq.2024.a918540","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>What accounts for the creation, design, and outputs of quasi-judicial institutions in autocracies? Prior research demonstrates that autocrats co-opt electoral, legislative, and judicial institutions to curtail opponents’ power and curry international patrons’ favor. However, scholarship on co-optation neglects quasi-judicial mechanisms, such as truth commissions, that can be useful for arranging a political narrative that bolsters a leader’s image while undermining his rivals. In this article, we formalize the concept of autocratic truth commissions—which account for one-third of truth commissions globally—and develop and test a novel theory of their origins, inputs, and outputs. We theorize that autocrats establish self-investigating commissions in response to threats to their symbolic authority and install rival-investigating commissions in response to threats to both symbolic authority and regime survival. We further argue that these two commission types take on different institutional forms and produce different outputs. Self-investigating commissions are afforded narrow mandates and produce reports that obscure basic facts. Meanwhile, rival-investigating commissions are granted wide mandates and culminate in accurate reports of rivals’ responsibility for abuses. We evaluate these expectations through comparative case studies of two autocratic truth commissions in Uganda, and find support.</p></p>","PeriodicalId":47589,"journal":{"name":"Human Rights Quarterly","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139577883","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-01-30DOI: 10.1353/hrq.2024.a918546
Marjorie Agosin
<span><span>In lieu of</span> an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:</span> <p> <span>Reviewed by:</span> <ul> <li><!-- html_title --> <em>Dictators and the Disappeared: Democracy Lost and Restored</em> ed. by Russ Davidson and Leslie Blaugrund Kim <!-- /html_title --></li> <li> Marjorie Agosin (bio) </li> </ul> Russ Davidson & Leslie Blaugrund Kim eds., <em>Dictators and the Disappeared: Democracy Lost and Restored</em> (Museum of New Mexico Press 2023), ISBN 9780890136751, 240 pages. <p>Sometimes, one encounters a book that is both extraordinary in its physical beauty and in its poignant content. I have been fortunate to receive such a gift and be given the opportunity to review it for <em>Human Rights Quarterly</em>. Carefully edited by Russ Davidson and Leslie Blaugrund Kim, <em>Dictators and the Disappeared: Democracy Lost and Restored</em> is a pictorial essay collection that serves as a companion to an accompanying art exhibition curated by New Mexico’s Albuquerque Museum.</p> <p>The book’s release corresponds with a historic anniversary—July 2023 marks fifty years since the 1973 Chilean coup d’état in which General Augusto Pinochet deposed the freely-elected President Salvador Allende. The subsequent seventeen-year-long regime of Pinochet turned Chile, once an exemplary democratic nation, into a brutal dictatorship ruled by fear and censorship. <em>Dictators and the Disappeared</em> addresses the military junta of Chile as well as that of other countries in the Southern Cone such as Argentina and Uruguay.</p> <p>The introductory essay by Andrew Connors, director of the Albuquerque Museum, is a profound gateway into the collection. Connors poses vital questions about the nature of authoritarian regimes and offers reflections on dictators contemporary to those in Latin America, particularly Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin. Connors’ piece explores the nature of evil and the willingness of civil society to engage in obedience towards totalitarian regimes.</p> <p>The writings of Alicia Partnoy, a poet and human rights activist, are compelling in a myriad of ways. Partnoy was herself a survivor of the Argentine military dictatorship, kidnapped and imprisoned for years until her exile in 1979. Reading Partnoy’s piece, one can hear her voice as she intimately describes her time as a <em>desaparecida</em>—hidden from the world, blindfolded, and identified only by a number. Partnoy’s lyrical essay describes not only the brutality of political oppression but also presents paths towards potential recovery. She discusses the importance of community-building as a form of restoring justice and how activism can be a collective expression of nations.</p> <p>The second essay in this collection, penned by Nancy Morris, shares Partnoy’s persistence as it characterizes activism as a way of being in the world. Morris describes the social spaces that emerged in Chile to subvert and resist Pinochet’s rule and provide environments for free and cr
{"title":"Dictators and the Disappeared: Democracy Lost and Restored ed. by Russ Davidson and Leslie Blaugrund Kim (review)","authors":"Marjorie Agosin","doi":"10.1353/hrq.2024.a918546","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/hrq.2024.a918546","url":null,"abstract":"<span><span>In lieu of</span> an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:</span>\u0000<p> <span>Reviewed by:</span> <ul> <li><!-- html_title --> <em>Dictators and the Disappeared: Democracy Lost and Restored</em> ed. by Russ Davidson and Leslie Blaugrund Kim <!-- /html_title --></li> <li> Marjorie Agosin (bio) </li> </ul> Russ Davidson & Leslie Blaugrund Kim eds., <em>Dictators and the Disappeared: Democracy Lost and Restored</em> (Museum of New Mexico Press 2023), ISBN 9780890136751, 240 pages. <p>Sometimes, one encounters a book that is both extraordinary in its physical beauty and in its poignant content. I have been fortunate to receive such a gift and be given the opportunity to review it for <em>Human Rights Quarterly</em>. Carefully edited by Russ Davidson and Leslie Blaugrund Kim, <em>Dictators and the Disappeared: Democracy Lost and Restored</em> is a pictorial essay collection that serves as a companion to an accompanying art exhibition curated by New Mexico’s Albuquerque Museum.</p> <p>The book’s release corresponds with a historic anniversary—July 2023 marks fifty years since the 1973 Chilean coup d’état in which General Augusto Pinochet deposed the freely-elected President Salvador Allende. The subsequent seventeen-year-long regime of Pinochet turned Chile, once an exemplary democratic nation, into a brutal dictatorship ruled by fear and censorship. <em>Dictators and the Disappeared</em> addresses the military junta of Chile as well as that of other countries in the Southern Cone such as Argentina and Uruguay.</p> <p>The introductory essay by Andrew Connors, director of the Albuquerque Museum, is a profound gateway into the collection. Connors poses vital questions about the nature of authoritarian regimes and offers reflections on dictators contemporary to those in Latin America, particularly Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin. Connors’ piece explores the nature of evil and the willingness of civil society to engage in obedience towards totalitarian regimes.</p> <p>The writings of Alicia Partnoy, a poet and human rights activist, are compelling in a myriad of ways. Partnoy was herself a survivor of the Argentine military dictatorship, kidnapped and imprisoned for years until her exile in 1979. Reading Partnoy’s piece, one can hear her voice as she intimately describes her time as a <em>desaparecida</em>—hidden from the world, blindfolded, and identified only by a number. Partnoy’s lyrical essay describes not only the brutality of political oppression but also presents paths towards potential recovery. She discusses the importance of community-building as a form of restoring justice and how activism can be a collective expression of nations.</p> <p>The second essay in this collection, penned by Nancy Morris, shares Partnoy’s persistence as it characterizes activism as a way of being in the world. Morris describes the social spaces that emerged in Chile to subvert and resist Pinochet’s rule and provide environments for free and cr","PeriodicalId":47589,"journal":{"name":"Human Rights Quarterly","volume":"11 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139590624","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-01-30DOI: 10.1353/hrq.2024.a918542
Alicia Dibbets
Daily decisions taken by public service professionals such as social workers may directly impact their client’s rights, especially if they are working in a law and policy context that is questionable in human rights terms. This article takes a novel approach by exploring what human rights roles are attributed to public service professionals by United Nations (UN) Treaty Bodies and UN Special Rapporteurs. The analysis reveals that the narrow conceptualization of human rights roles offered by (interpretations of) international human rights law may in fact diminish the potential of public service professionals to make a real contribution to human rights realization.
{"title":"Public Service Professionals as Human Rights Actors: Positioning the Social Worker","authors":"Alicia Dibbets","doi":"10.1353/hrq.2024.a918542","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/hrq.2024.a918542","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Daily decisions taken by public service professionals such as social workers may directly impact their client’s rights, especially if they are working in a law and policy context that is questionable in human rights terms. This article takes a novel approach by exploring what human rights roles are attributed to public service professionals by United Nations (UN) Treaty Bodies and UN Special Rapporteurs. The analysis reveals that the narrow conceptualization of human rights roles offered by (interpretations of) international human rights law may in fact diminish the potential of public service professionals to make a real contribution to human rights realization.</p></p>","PeriodicalId":47589,"journal":{"name":"Human Rights Quarterly","volume":"45 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139578034","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-11-01DOI: 10.1353/hrq.2023.a910493
Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann
Reviewed by: Time for Reparations: A Global Perspective eds. by Jacqueline Bhabha, Margareta Matache & Caroline Elkins Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann (bio) Jacqueline Bhabha, Margareta Matache & Caroline Elkins, eds., Time for Reparations: A Global Perspective (University of Pennsylvania Press 2021), ISBN 9780812253306, 396 pages. This collection of essays addresses reparations writ very large. Depending on the chapter, reparations appear to include trials, acknowledgement of suffering, apologies, the right to memory and memorials, the right to know the truth, financial and material compensation, the right to proper documentation, and citizenship rights. The volume is divided into four sections entitled "Addressing the Legacy of Slavery," "Reparations: Precedents and Lessons Learned," "Outstanding Issues," and "Ways Forward." Readers might prefer, however, to read about particular issues regardless of the sections the essays are in; for example, to read the two chapters on the Roma together, although one is in the third section and one is in the fourth. In the first section on slavery, Mireille Fanon Mendes France's essay on "French Justice and the Claims for Reparations by Slave Descendants in Guadeloupe" is very difficult to follow. It appears to be taken from a larger work about the right of descendants of enslaved people in the French Overseas Territories to ownership of land, and reads like a legal brief presented to a French court. There is insufficient explanation of context and of the particularities of French law for readers from the English-speaking world. In addition, Mendes France cites extraordinarily high infant mortality rates of 8.3 percent (Guadeloupe/Martinique), 16.1 percent (Guyane/Mayotte), and 3.6 percent for the rest of the country of France. As infant mortality rates are measured as numbers of deaths per thousand children under the age of one, this would mean that 83 children per thousand in Guadeloupe/ Martinique, 161 children per thousand in Guyane/Mayotte, and 36 children per thousand in the rest of France die each year. Mendes France exaggerates these figures by a factor of ten. They should read .83 percent, 1.61 percent, and .36 percent respectively.1 The most unusual chapter on enslavement is Tiya Miles' description of claims by African descendants of freed slaves to citizenship in the Cherokee community in the United States (US). The Cherokee held about 4,000 Black slaves in 1860, not freeing them until after the US civil war.2 Among these slave-holding Cherokees were the grandfather and father of the famous early twentieth-century comedian, Will Rogers.3 But despite much intermarriage, [End Page 722] some contemporary Cherokee authorities wish to deny tribal membership to the enslaved African-Americans' descendants. Here, reparation appears to be the right to citizenship, and the debate concerns whether citizenship should be confined to those who are "Cherokee by blood." This debate has relevance to discussions among oth
{"title":"Time for Reparations: A Global Perspective eds. by Jacqueline Bhabha, Margareta Matache & Caroline Elkins (review)","authors":"Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann","doi":"10.1353/hrq.2023.a910493","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/hrq.2023.a910493","url":null,"abstract":"Reviewed by: Time for Reparations: A Global Perspective eds. by Jacqueline Bhabha, Margareta Matache & Caroline Elkins Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann (bio) Jacqueline Bhabha, Margareta Matache & Caroline Elkins, eds., Time for Reparations: A Global Perspective (University of Pennsylvania Press 2021), ISBN 9780812253306, 396 pages. This collection of essays addresses reparations writ very large. Depending on the chapter, reparations appear to include trials, acknowledgement of suffering, apologies, the right to memory and memorials, the right to know the truth, financial and material compensation, the right to proper documentation, and citizenship rights. The volume is divided into four sections entitled \"Addressing the Legacy of Slavery,\" \"Reparations: Precedents and Lessons Learned,\" \"Outstanding Issues,\" and \"Ways Forward.\" Readers might prefer, however, to read about particular issues regardless of the sections the essays are in; for example, to read the two chapters on the Roma together, although one is in the third section and one is in the fourth. In the first section on slavery, Mireille Fanon Mendes France's essay on \"French Justice and the Claims for Reparations by Slave Descendants in Guadeloupe\" is very difficult to follow. It appears to be taken from a larger work about the right of descendants of enslaved people in the French Overseas Territories to ownership of land, and reads like a legal brief presented to a French court. There is insufficient explanation of context and of the particularities of French law for readers from the English-speaking world. In addition, Mendes France cites extraordinarily high infant mortality rates of 8.3 percent (Guadeloupe/Martinique), 16.1 percent (Guyane/Mayotte), and 3.6 percent for the rest of the country of France. As infant mortality rates are measured as numbers of deaths per thousand children under the age of one, this would mean that 83 children per thousand in Guadeloupe/ Martinique, 161 children per thousand in Guyane/Mayotte, and 36 children per thousand in the rest of France die each year. Mendes France exaggerates these figures by a factor of ten. They should read .83 percent, 1.61 percent, and .36 percent respectively.1 The most unusual chapter on enslavement is Tiya Miles' description of claims by African descendants of freed slaves to citizenship in the Cherokee community in the United States (US). The Cherokee held about 4,000 Black slaves in 1860, not freeing them until after the US civil war.2 Among these slave-holding Cherokees were the grandfather and father of the famous early twentieth-century comedian, Will Rogers.3 But despite much intermarriage, [End Page 722] some contemporary Cherokee authorities wish to deny tribal membership to the enslaved African-Americans' descendants. Here, reparation appears to be the right to citizenship, and the debate concerns whether citizenship should be confined to those who are \"Cherokee by blood.\" This debate has relevance to discussions among oth","PeriodicalId":47589,"journal":{"name":"Human Rights Quarterly","volume":"83 1-2","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135161805","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-11-01DOI: 10.1353/hrq.2023.a910501
{"title":"Human Rights Quarterly Volume 45 Index","authors":"","doi":"10.1353/hrq.2023.a910501","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/hrq.2023.a910501","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47589,"journal":{"name":"Human Rights Quarterly","volume":"87 7-8","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135161780","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-11-01DOI: 10.1353/hrq.2023.a910490
Cosette D. Creamer, Zuzanna Godzimirska
ABSTRACT: This article interrogates institutional sources of trust distinct to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). Drawing from interviews with ECtHR officials and legal elites, the article identifies practices related to access, procedure, and performance that are central to direct stakeholders' evaluations of judicial trustworthiness. Elite trust is necessary for the continued operation of judicial bodies, and these stakeholders act as intermediaries with the potential to shape public perceptions. The article's findings have important implications for ECtHR's continued relevance, especially given the mounting resistance to it in recent years.
{"title":"Trust, Legal Elites, and the European Court of Human Rights","authors":"Cosette D. Creamer, Zuzanna Godzimirska","doi":"10.1353/hrq.2023.a910490","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/hrq.2023.a910490","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT: This article interrogates institutional sources of trust distinct to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). Drawing from interviews with ECtHR officials and legal elites, the article identifies practices related to access, procedure, and performance that are central to direct stakeholders' evaluations of judicial trustworthiness. Elite trust is necessary for the continued operation of judicial bodies, and these stakeholders act as intermediaries with the potential to shape public perceptions. The article's findings have important implications for ECtHR's continued relevance, especially given the mounting resistance to it in recent years.","PeriodicalId":47589,"journal":{"name":"Human Rights Quarterly","volume":"87 5-6","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135161781","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-11-01DOI: 10.1353/hrq.2023.a910495
Mark Gibney
Reviewed by: Human Rights for Pragmatists: Social Power in Modern Times by Jack Snyder Mark Gibney (bio) Jack Snyder, Human Rights for Pragmatists: Social Power in Modern Times (Princeton University Press 2022), ISBN 9780691231549, 328 pages. One of the oddest things about Human Rights for Pragmatists: Social Power in Modern Times is how unpragmatic the book happens to be. Published in the middle of the worldwide Covid epidemic, with the ever-frightening specter of climate change staring all of mankind in the face, there is simply no mention of either of these two things. Instead, Jack Snyder criticizes the confrontational work of civil society organizations, while setting forth a program for improving human rights that relies on a combination of self interest and social movements based on coalition building, with the goal of achieving some form of political power, or as Snyder repeatedly states: rights follow power. This is all fine and good and Snyder's call for factoring in practical political solutions should certainly not fall on deaf ears. Yet, there are a number of aspects of his program that are in need of closer scrutiny. One is that he seems to equate non-governmental organizations with the likes of Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, which have certainly based much of their work on "naming and shaming" governments that [End Page 731] violate human rights standards. Yet, the truth is that there are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of civil society organizations operating in the world whose work does not revolve around "naming and shaming." Some of these are indigenous organizations, while others are more international in scope. One would hope that these organizations would heed Snyder's call and recognize their shared interests and values and seek to work together with one another—but it is also quite likely that they already are doing some of this, although what they are seeking to achieve is oftentimes much more localized, and certainly much less grandiose than what Snyder has his sights on. Another aspect of Snyder's work that needs closer scrutiny is his notion of what "outsiders" can bring to this enterprise. One thing that Snyder seems to ignore completely is the role that "outsiders" can play in perpetuating human rights violations in other states. No doubt the prime example of this is climate change, where those states that produce the lowest levels of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have had to bear the brunt of dealing with increased temperatures, flooding and, perhaps just as importantly, a world that does not want to acknowledge the enormous harm that it is already causing. In other words, you can do all the domestic coalition building that you want, but these efforts will amount to little in a world that is being set on fire—and primarily being set on fire by outside actors. Putting the issue of responsibility aside, Snyder is also decidedly unambitious in terms of the role "outside" states can play in terms o
{"title":"Human Rights for Pragmatists: Social Power in Modern Times by Jack Snyder (review)","authors":"Mark Gibney","doi":"10.1353/hrq.2023.a910495","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/hrq.2023.a910495","url":null,"abstract":"Reviewed by: Human Rights for Pragmatists: Social Power in Modern Times by Jack Snyder Mark Gibney (bio) Jack Snyder, Human Rights for Pragmatists: Social Power in Modern Times (Princeton University Press 2022), ISBN 9780691231549, 328 pages. One of the oddest things about Human Rights for Pragmatists: Social Power in Modern Times is how unpragmatic the book happens to be. Published in the middle of the worldwide Covid epidemic, with the ever-frightening specter of climate change staring all of mankind in the face, there is simply no mention of either of these two things. Instead, Jack Snyder criticizes the confrontational work of civil society organizations, while setting forth a program for improving human rights that relies on a combination of self interest and social movements based on coalition building, with the goal of achieving some form of political power, or as Snyder repeatedly states: rights follow power. This is all fine and good and Snyder's call for factoring in practical political solutions should certainly not fall on deaf ears. Yet, there are a number of aspects of his program that are in need of closer scrutiny. One is that he seems to equate non-governmental organizations with the likes of Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, which have certainly based much of their work on \"naming and shaming\" governments that [End Page 731] violate human rights standards. Yet, the truth is that there are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of civil society organizations operating in the world whose work does not revolve around \"naming and shaming.\" Some of these are indigenous organizations, while others are more international in scope. One would hope that these organizations would heed Snyder's call and recognize their shared interests and values and seek to work together with one another—but it is also quite likely that they already are doing some of this, although what they are seeking to achieve is oftentimes much more localized, and certainly much less grandiose than what Snyder has his sights on. Another aspect of Snyder's work that needs closer scrutiny is his notion of what \"outsiders\" can bring to this enterprise. One thing that Snyder seems to ignore completely is the role that \"outsiders\" can play in perpetuating human rights violations in other states. No doubt the prime example of this is climate change, where those states that produce the lowest levels of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have had to bear the brunt of dealing with increased temperatures, flooding and, perhaps just as importantly, a world that does not want to acknowledge the enormous harm that it is already causing. In other words, you can do all the domestic coalition building that you want, but these efforts will amount to little in a world that is being set on fire—and primarily being set on fire by outside actors. Putting the issue of responsibility aside, Snyder is also decidedly unambitious in terms of the role \"outside\" states can play in terms o","PeriodicalId":47589,"journal":{"name":"Human Rights Quarterly","volume":"86 9-10","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135161785","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-11-01DOI: 10.1353/hrq.2023.a910488
Eva Brems
ABSTRACT: The article examines the merit of UN treaty bodies' accumulated case law as a resource for domestic adjudicators, i.e., courts and quasi-judicial bodies (such as national human rights institutions) addressing human rights complaints at the national level. It has the objective of assessing the extent to which treaty bodies are "talking to" an audience beyond the parties in the case. Starting from a view that sees impact on national adjudicators as the key issue for treaty bodies' rulings on individual complaints, the article assesses to what extent the way that treaty bodies are exercising this role fits in this view. The study's focus is on two UN treaty bodies with a broadly similar output in quantitative terms, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CmERD) and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CmEDAW).
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Pub Date : 2023-11-01DOI: 10.1353/hrq.2023.a910499
Richard Ashby Wilson
Reviewed by: Regardless of Frontiers: Global Freedom of Expression in a Troubled World eds. by Lee C. Bollinger & Agnès Callamard Richard Ashby Wilson (bio) Lee C. Bollinger & Agnès Callamard eds., Regardless of Frontiers: Global Freedom of Expression in a Troubled World (Columbia University Press 2021), ISBN 9780231196994, 440 pages. In this timely and outstanding volume, Lee Bollinger and Agnès Callamard assemble an all-star cast of scholars and practitioners to examine the most pressing global issues in the protection of freedom of expression. And the challenges are many. Governments, even liberal democratic ones, routinely engage in covert (dis)information campaigns, censorship, surveillance, and unwarranted [End Page 742] intrusions into the privacy of their citizens. Extremist speech, disinformation, and incitement to communal violence are rife on the internet. In this context, what guidance exists in current law and policy to bolster freedom of expression? Agnès Callamard's answer in the Introduction is the international human rights system that has developed over the past seventy years and the global norms of freedom of expression that it contains and promotes. These norms are grounded in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), Articles 19 and 20 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), UN General Comment no. 34, and the decisions of regional human rights bodies such as the Inter-American Court and Commission of Human Rights, the European Court of Human Rights, and the African Court and Commission on Human and People's Rights. Emerging from these UN conventions and regional court rulings are a set of coherent legal and social norms that provide guidance on how to address the global challenges to freedom of expression. Callamard and other contributors rely on Martha Finnemore and Kathryn Sikkink's theory of the "justice cascade" to explain how human rights norms are generated, adopted, and internalized. This theory is largely vindicated in accounts of the international convergence on key free speech norms such as the right to information, the protection of journalist's sources, and the repeal of criminal defamation laws that protect public figures. Other global norms, such as the regulation of hate speech and disinformation, are a little more problematic. Since there are twenty-two contributions in total, space only permits the review of a selection of chapters. Part I contains five chapters assessing the conditions under which a global freedom of expression norm might exist. Nani Jansen Reventlow and Jonathan McCully's chapter examines the protection of political expression necessary for democratic deliberation. They break the protection of political expression down into four separate global norms of political speech and identify an emerging consensus on some, but not others. International law prioritizes political expression above other free speech rights and robustly defends the speech
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