Pub Date : 2023-10-04DOI: 10.1080/14754835.2023.2259423
Katie Morris
In 2007, Freeman pioneered the phrase “food oppression” to capture the state’s perpetuation of socioeconomic and racial disparities in nutrient consumption and diet-related diseases in the United States. Amid an increasing awareness of the impact of intersecting identities in all facets of life, particularly in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement, this article argues that food oppression is an equally applicable, and necessary, characterization of the unequal enjoyment of the right to food in the United Kingdom. Patterns of food insecurity—chiefly, the overrepresentation of Black households among food bank users—are tied back to the austerity measures enacted by the Conservative–Liberal Democrat Coalition Government in response to the 2007/2008 financial crisis. These findings illuminate the race- and class-based barriers to access to adequate food in the United Kingdom that predate the pandemic as a manifestation of racial capitalism yet have increased in prominence. The article concludes that the adoption of a rights-based approach to household food security by the state is necessary to formulate policies that target the commodification of food and ensure a nutritious diet is available to all without discrimination.
{"title":"Food oppression in the United Kingdom: A study of structural race and income-based food access inequalities","authors":"Katie Morris","doi":"10.1080/14754835.2023.2259423","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14754835.2023.2259423","url":null,"abstract":"In 2007, Freeman pioneered the phrase “food oppression” to capture the state’s perpetuation of socioeconomic and racial disparities in nutrient consumption and diet-related diseases in the United States. Amid an increasing awareness of the impact of intersecting identities in all facets of life, particularly in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement, this article argues that food oppression is an equally applicable, and necessary, characterization of the unequal enjoyment of the right to food in the United Kingdom. Patterns of food insecurity—chiefly, the overrepresentation of Black households among food bank users—are tied back to the austerity measures enacted by the Conservative–Liberal Democrat Coalition Government in response to the 2007/2008 financial crisis. These findings illuminate the race- and class-based barriers to access to adequate food in the United Kingdom that predate the pandemic as a manifestation of racial capitalism yet have increased in prominence. The article concludes that the adoption of a rights-based approach to household food security by the state is necessary to formulate policies that target the commodification of food and ensure a nutritious diet is available to all without discrimination.","PeriodicalId":51734,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Human Rights","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135591828","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-04DOI: 10.1080/14754835.2023.2259420
Paroma Wagle
AbstractThis article responds to the need, highlighted in the academic literature, for in-depth investigations into the role of contextual factors in shaping the struggles for water justice, deploying a strategy that relies on the normative appeal or legitimacy of the human right to water—called the HRW strategy. It demonstrates how specific contextual factors were crucial in influencing the course and outcome of a judicial intervention based on the HRW strategy deployed in the struggle for securing formal water connections to two million slum-dwellers in Mumbai. Although the court upheld the HRW of slum-dwellers and ordered the release of the water connections, the municipal administration promulgated a policy that effectively continued the denial of water access for most of these slum-dwellers. More specifically, the article discusses the strong influence of contextual factors on the initial decision to adopt the HRW strategy and judicial intervention, the success of the legal tactic deployed, and the favorable court order. The article relies mainly on the detailed analysis of formal policy and judicial documents and the data from multiround, semistructured, and extended interviews with 11 respondents who were activists, experts, municipal officials, or media persons. AcknowledgmentsI wish to acknowledge the ethics approval from the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of the University of California, Irvine, for interviews and fieldwork carried out in 2019.Notes1 I decided to use the terms “slum,” “slum-dwellings,” and “slum-dwellers” instead of my preference for fair and considerate terms such as “informal settlements” and “informal settlers” because of the widespread use of the former set of terms in the formal policy and legal documents and the everyday language in the city.2 The detailed break-up of these 64 respondents from the following five categories was (1) municipal officials including engineers (n = 12); (2) activists from water, housing, and other sectors (n = 16); (e) elected representatives and other participants in electoral politics (n = 14); (4) experts, academics, and researchers (n = 18); and (5) media (n = 4).3 Interviews with a senior water activist and water sector activist. In accordance with the Institutional Review Board guidelines of the University of California, Irvine, the anonymity of the interview subjects is maintained in this publication by using monikers designed to ensure their anonymity while identifying them.4 Interviews with senior urban sociologist and planning academic (both were involved in providing research support to PHS).5 Interviews with a senior water activist and water researcher-activist.6 Interviews with water researcher-activist and senior urban sociologist.7 Interview with a water researcher-activist.8 Interview with a water researcher-activist.9 Interviews with two water researcher-activists.10 Interview with a public policy academic.11 Interview with a water researcher-activist.12 These unprotec
{"title":"Contextuality of the strategy of human right to water: Struggle for water access to slum-dwellers in Mumbai, India","authors":"Paroma Wagle","doi":"10.1080/14754835.2023.2259420","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14754835.2023.2259420","url":null,"abstract":"AbstractThis article responds to the need, highlighted in the academic literature, for in-depth investigations into the role of contextual factors in shaping the struggles for water justice, deploying a strategy that relies on the normative appeal or legitimacy of the human right to water—called the HRW strategy. It demonstrates how specific contextual factors were crucial in influencing the course and outcome of a judicial intervention based on the HRW strategy deployed in the struggle for securing formal water connections to two million slum-dwellers in Mumbai. Although the court upheld the HRW of slum-dwellers and ordered the release of the water connections, the municipal administration promulgated a policy that effectively continued the denial of water access for most of these slum-dwellers. More specifically, the article discusses the strong influence of contextual factors on the initial decision to adopt the HRW strategy and judicial intervention, the success of the legal tactic deployed, and the favorable court order. The article relies mainly on the detailed analysis of formal policy and judicial documents and the data from multiround, semistructured, and extended interviews with 11 respondents who were activists, experts, municipal officials, or media persons. AcknowledgmentsI wish to acknowledge the ethics approval from the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of the University of California, Irvine, for interviews and fieldwork carried out in 2019.Notes1 I decided to use the terms “slum,” “slum-dwellings,” and “slum-dwellers” instead of my preference for fair and considerate terms such as “informal settlements” and “informal settlers” because of the widespread use of the former set of terms in the formal policy and legal documents and the everyday language in the city.2 The detailed break-up of these 64 respondents from the following five categories was (1) municipal officials including engineers (n = 12); (2) activists from water, housing, and other sectors (n = 16); (e) elected representatives and other participants in electoral politics (n = 14); (4) experts, academics, and researchers (n = 18); and (5) media (n = 4).3 Interviews with a senior water activist and water sector activist. In accordance with the Institutional Review Board guidelines of the University of California, Irvine, the anonymity of the interview subjects is maintained in this publication by using monikers designed to ensure their anonymity while identifying them.4 Interviews with senior urban sociologist and planning academic (both were involved in providing research support to PHS).5 Interviews with a senior water activist and water researcher-activist.6 Interviews with water researcher-activist and senior urban sociologist.7 Interview with a water researcher-activist.8 Interview with a water researcher-activist.9 Interviews with two water researcher-activists.10 Interview with a public policy academic.11 Interview with a water researcher-activist.12 These unprotec","PeriodicalId":51734,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Human Rights","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135591162","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-09-26DOI: 10.1080/14754835.2023.2249931
Shadi Mokhtari
The article develops and applies a typology of marginalized non-Western populations’ experiences of and engagements with human rights, drawing from Egyptian and broader Middle Eastern experiences of human rights over the last three decades. The experiences laid out are of human rights as (1) mockery of morality encompassing practice flying in the face of human rights’ emancipatory promise, (2) manifesting morality encompassing practice embodying human rights’ emancipatory promise, and (3) moral maze, the morally fractured space in between where human rights politics increasingly play out. Through the typology and its application, I argue that popular dispositions toward, and meanings accorded to human rights in marginalized contexts are varied, complex, and stem not just from popular evaluations of the human right framework’s content (the values, moral claims, or rhetorical promise), but also from these populations’ experiences of, judgements on, and emotional reactions to the morality of the practice of human rights unfolding around them. The research presented demonstrates that contrary to assumptions underlying both mainstream and critical scholarship, the content of human rights can be highly resonant to marginalized non-Western populations, yet they may choose to keep a distance from the framework because in its practice, is not persuasive to them.
{"title":"Human rights as <i>mockery of morality</i> , <i>manifesting morality</i> , and <i>moral maze</i>","authors":"Shadi Mokhtari","doi":"10.1080/14754835.2023.2249931","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14754835.2023.2249931","url":null,"abstract":"The article develops and applies a typology of marginalized non-Western populations’ experiences of and engagements with human rights, drawing from Egyptian and broader Middle Eastern experiences of human rights over the last three decades. The experiences laid out are of human rights as (1) mockery of morality encompassing practice flying in the face of human rights’ emancipatory promise, (2) manifesting morality encompassing practice embodying human rights’ emancipatory promise, and (3) moral maze, the morally fractured space in between where human rights politics increasingly play out. Through the typology and its application, I argue that popular dispositions toward, and meanings accorded to human rights in marginalized contexts are varied, complex, and stem not just from popular evaluations of the human right framework’s content (the values, moral claims, or rhetorical promise), but also from these populations’ experiences of, judgements on, and emotional reactions to the morality of the practice of human rights unfolding around them. The research presented demonstrates that contrary to assumptions underlying both mainstream and critical scholarship, the content of human rights can be highly resonant to marginalized non-Western populations, yet they may choose to keep a distance from the framework because in its practice, is not persuasive to them.","PeriodicalId":51734,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Human Rights","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134886971","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-08-17DOI: 10.1080/14754835.2023.2239273
Frédéric Mégret
Abstract More than 20 years after the 9/11 attacks and the ensuing “war on terror,” there is still very little comprehension of what its transitional justice implications might be. This article interrogates the transitional justice silence over the legacies of the war on terror as a way of problematizing both the war on terror and dominant liberal transitional justice paradigms. It charts how both paradigms have often failed to intersect, how some existing initiatives might nonetheless be understood as arising at their intersection, and the sort of questions that would need to be answered to frame a broad and ambitious transitional justice agenda to deal with the legacies of both terrorism and the response to it.
{"title":"Transitional justice for the “war on terror?”","authors":"Frédéric Mégret","doi":"10.1080/14754835.2023.2239273","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14754835.2023.2239273","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract More than 20 years after the 9/11 attacks and the ensuing “war on terror,” there is still very little comprehension of what its transitional justice implications might be. This article interrogates the transitional justice silence over the legacies of the war on terror as a way of problematizing both the war on terror and dominant liberal transitional justice paradigms. It charts how both paradigms have often failed to intersect, how some existing initiatives might nonetheless be understood as arising at their intersection, and the sort of questions that would need to be answered to frame a broad and ambitious transitional justice agenda to deal with the legacies of both terrorism and the response to it.","PeriodicalId":51734,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Human Rights","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2023-08-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47682656","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-08-08DOI: 10.1080/14754835.2022.2135370
Gina R Rosich, E. Caraballo
Abstract Use of a human rights (HR) framework in direct social work practice is gaining traction in social work education. A gap remains, however, regarding its application within field education. This study seeks to fill the gap in knowledge regarding field educators’ understanding of and training in use of a human rights lens. Using a qualitative-dominant, mixed-method, quasi-experimental design, the study explores the extent to which the introduction of a human rights-based approach to social work impacts both the attitudinal positioning of field educators (preceptors) in a small clinically based MSW program toward HR based clinical practice, and the integration of this approach to their pedagogical practice with MSW-level field students. Participants were administered the Human Rights Lens in Social Work (HRLSW) scale as both a pre- and posttest, provided a training on human rights concepts, and participated in a focus group discussion. Although there was only a small improvement in scores, participants reported qualitative evidence that the training started a shift in their thinking. Participants also indicated that more training would be well received.
{"title":"Perceptions of a human rights lens in relation to the training of social work field educators","authors":"Gina R Rosich, E. Caraballo","doi":"10.1080/14754835.2022.2135370","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14754835.2022.2135370","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Use of a human rights (HR) framework in direct social work practice is gaining traction in social work education. A gap remains, however, regarding its application within field education. This study seeks to fill the gap in knowledge regarding field educators’ understanding of and training in use of a human rights lens. Using a qualitative-dominant, mixed-method, quasi-experimental design, the study explores the extent to which the introduction of a human rights-based approach to social work impacts both the attitudinal positioning of field educators (preceptors) in a small clinically based MSW program toward HR based clinical practice, and the integration of this approach to their pedagogical practice with MSW-level field students. Participants were administered the Human Rights Lens in Social Work (HRLSW) scale as both a pre- and posttest, provided a training on human rights concepts, and participated in a focus group discussion. Although there was only a small improvement in scores, participants reported qualitative evidence that the training started a shift in their thinking. Participants also indicated that more training would be well received.","PeriodicalId":51734,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Human Rights","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2023-08-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59933294","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-07-13DOI: 10.1080/14754835.2023.2227204
Krystal Batelaan
Abstract COVID-19 has been unprecedented in many ways, including the drastic changes to the activities and behaviors that shape our everyday lives, particularly the practice of physical distancing and self-isolation. Moreover, the pandemic has highlighted the damaging effects of going “stir crazy,” loneliness, and the restrictions on people’s civil liberties, as demonstrated by the impact that self-isolation is having on people’s mental health and well-being. However, the science behind self-isolation and quarantine is designed to prevent the spread of disease and to save lives. Meanwhile, prisoners and prisoner’s rights advocates have long been arguing that the curtailment of civil liberties in prisons, especially the use of solitary confinement, is a human rights violation and is intentionally designed to be punitive and proven to have devastating effects on one’s mental (and physiological) health. Therefore, the COVID-19 pandemic has helped to highlight the need to revisit the practice of solitary confinement in prisons. In this article, by using Orlando Patterson’s theory on social death, I will examine the practice of solitary confinement, and the detrimental impact it has on one’s health amid this “new normal.”
{"title":"“It’s like living in a black hole”: Reevaluating the use of solitary confinement during COVID-19","authors":"Krystal Batelaan","doi":"10.1080/14754835.2023.2227204","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14754835.2023.2227204","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract COVID-19 has been unprecedented in many ways, including the drastic changes to the activities and behaviors that shape our everyday lives, particularly the practice of physical distancing and self-isolation. Moreover, the pandemic has highlighted the damaging effects of going “stir crazy,” loneliness, and the restrictions on people’s civil liberties, as demonstrated by the impact that self-isolation is having on people’s mental health and well-being. However, the science behind self-isolation and quarantine is designed to prevent the spread of disease and to save lives. Meanwhile, prisoners and prisoner’s rights advocates have long been arguing that the curtailment of civil liberties in prisons, especially the use of solitary confinement, is a human rights violation and is intentionally designed to be punitive and proven to have devastating effects on one’s mental (and physiological) health. Therefore, the COVID-19 pandemic has helped to highlight the need to revisit the practice of solitary confinement in prisons. In this article, by using Orlando Patterson’s theory on social death, I will examine the practice of solitary confinement, and the detrimental impact it has on one’s health amid this “new normal.”","PeriodicalId":51734,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Human Rights","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2023-07-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43613037","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-07-07DOI: 10.1080/14754835.2023.2227206
Rhoda E. Howard-hassmann
{"title":"Human rights, human goods, universality, and colonialism","authors":"Rhoda E. Howard-hassmann","doi":"10.1080/14754835.2023.2227206","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14754835.2023.2227206","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":51734,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Human Rights","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2023-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48638538","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-05-12DOI: 10.1080/14754835.2023.2199025
Sharon Jayoung Song
Abstract This article seeks to analyze the aftereffects of the #MeToo movement to measure the efficacy of digital feminism. Perhaps the most recognizable outcome of the #MeToo movement is forcing a once-taboo subject of workplace sexual harassment into the limelight. The digital phenomenon prompted federal and state courts across the United States to navigate a seemingly new terrain of contributing to broader institutional change in reducing sexism. Yet, four years after the two-word hashtag ricocheted through social media, one pressing question remains: Did the benefits of the #MeToo movement produce changes for female workers in the United States most vulnerable to facing gender-based violence or harassment in the workplace? The study first identifies the factors that often put women at greater risk of sexual harassment in the workplace and determines women in authority and low-wage workers as victims who may be more frequent targets. The article explores the question of gender violence and a lack of access to economic rights as being two sides of the same coin. The research then surveys how governments—in the post-#MeToo era—have attempted to improve gender equality through legal obligations, and whether their attempts were effective in targeting the correct groups.
{"title":"Digital feminism: In the aftermath of #MeToo, what’s next for workplace equity for women?","authors":"Sharon Jayoung Song","doi":"10.1080/14754835.2023.2199025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14754835.2023.2199025","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article seeks to analyze the aftereffects of the #MeToo movement to measure the efficacy of digital feminism. Perhaps the most recognizable outcome of the #MeToo movement is forcing a once-taboo subject of workplace sexual harassment into the limelight. The digital phenomenon prompted federal and state courts across the United States to navigate a seemingly new terrain of contributing to broader institutional change in reducing sexism. Yet, four years after the two-word hashtag ricocheted through social media, one pressing question remains: Did the benefits of the #MeToo movement produce changes for female workers in the United States most vulnerable to facing gender-based violence or harassment in the workplace? The study first identifies the factors that often put women at greater risk of sexual harassment in the workplace and determines women in authority and low-wage workers as victims who may be more frequent targets. The article explores the question of gender violence and a lack of access to economic rights as being two sides of the same coin. The research then surveys how governments—in the post-#MeToo era—have attempted to improve gender equality through legal obligations, and whether their attempts were effective in targeting the correct groups.","PeriodicalId":51734,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Human Rights","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2023-05-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48376913","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-05-01DOI: 10.1080/14754835.2023.2190747
J. Alemán
Abstract What makes some authoritarian regimes more willing to employ extrajudicial violence (torture and killings), as opposed to more conventional forms of repression (restrictions on speech and association)? A voluminous literature addresses the causes and dynamics of state repression. Whereas large-N studies explain repressive activities as proportional responses to the challenges governments face, historical work reveals instances of disproportionate repression. This literature, moreover, is inconclusive regarding the effects of communist and military regimes on violations of physical integrity rights. Another shortcoming of current work is that different types of repression are modeled separately. I distinguish between oppression (restrictions on speech), repression (the use of beatings, arrests, and trials to restrain the rights of assembly and association), and state terrorism (when governments intimidate political opponents using extrajudicial violence). I examine the relationships among them in a multivariate regression framework from 1952 to 2010. My analysis reveals that communist dictatorships repress the freedoms of expression, travel, and association, whereas military dictatorships engage in extrajudicial violence. My study contributes to the literature by providing an institutional account of why tactics of repression differ between these two political systems, and by considering the effects of temporal lags, endogeneity, and diffusion processes on state repression.
{"title":"The dictator’s dilemma: Why communist regimes oppress their citizens while military regimes torture and kill","authors":"J. Alemán","doi":"10.1080/14754835.2023.2190747","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14754835.2023.2190747","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract What makes some authoritarian regimes more willing to employ extrajudicial violence (torture and killings), as opposed to more conventional forms of repression (restrictions on speech and association)? A voluminous literature addresses the causes and dynamics of state repression. Whereas large-N studies explain repressive activities as proportional responses to the challenges governments face, historical work reveals instances of disproportionate repression. This literature, moreover, is inconclusive regarding the effects of communist and military regimes on violations of physical integrity rights. Another shortcoming of current work is that different types of repression are modeled separately. I distinguish between oppression (restrictions on speech), repression (the use of beatings, arrests, and trials to restrain the rights of assembly and association), and state terrorism (when governments intimidate political opponents using extrajudicial violence). I examine the relationships among them in a multivariate regression framework from 1952 to 2010. My analysis reveals that communist dictatorships repress the freedoms of expression, travel, and association, whereas military dictatorships engage in extrajudicial violence. My study contributes to the literature by providing an institutional account of why tactics of repression differ between these two political systems, and by considering the effects of temporal lags, endogeneity, and diffusion processes on state repression.","PeriodicalId":51734,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Human Rights","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2023-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49061583","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-04-24DOI: 10.1080/14754835.2023.2193971
Alexander Dukalskis
Abstract Decades of social science research on human rights has mapped the conditions under which states sign and ratify treaties, abide by their conditions, and promote or criticize human rights in other states. Some norms contained in the core human rights treaties, particularly civil and political rights, are seen by authoritarian states as politically threatening. Autocracies can reshape human rights through international institutions and seek to change their content over time. This article investigates China’s engagement in the UN Human Rights Council, focusing on both the content and practices of the People’s Republic of China’s approach. In terms of content, it examines China’s voting record to determine the issues it prioritizes. In terms of practices, it identifies four modes of pursuing normative change: mobilizing like-mindedness, implied coercion, tactical deception, and repression of critical voices. These modes capture a range of activity in and around multilateral institutions, some of which usually does not draw scholarly attention in studies of normative change. The findings provide insights into the future of human rights norms in the United Nations and beyond.
{"title":"A fox in the henhouse: China, normative change, and the UN Human Rights Council","authors":"Alexander Dukalskis","doi":"10.1080/14754835.2023.2193971","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14754835.2023.2193971","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Decades of social science research on human rights has mapped the conditions under which states sign and ratify treaties, abide by their conditions, and promote or criticize human rights in other states. Some norms contained in the core human rights treaties, particularly civil and political rights, are seen by authoritarian states as politically threatening. Autocracies can reshape human rights through international institutions and seek to change their content over time. This article investigates China’s engagement in the UN Human Rights Council, focusing on both the content and practices of the People’s Republic of China’s approach. In terms of content, it examines China’s voting record to determine the issues it prioritizes. In terms of practices, it identifies four modes of pursuing normative change: mobilizing like-mindedness, implied coercion, tactical deception, and repression of critical voices. These modes capture a range of activity in and around multilateral institutions, some of which usually does not draw scholarly attention in studies of normative change. The findings provide insights into the future of human rights norms in the United Nations and beyond.","PeriodicalId":51734,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Human Rights","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2023-04-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45065958","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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