Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na`im n By the People for Themselves: The people of a state must n n demand their own human rights; only they can claim their rights. Because of the principle of national sovereignty and self-interest, external states will rarely exert pressure on an oppressive state. If people do not demand certain rights then they probably do not consider those rights essential to their human existence. The postcolonial state is a foreign structure imposed on the peoples of Africa. Leaders of postcolonial states were frequently put in place by the departing colonizing powers. These leaders are more concerned with preserving the state’s right to sovereignty than with protecting the rights of their people. External intervention to protect citizens’ rights must be prompted by internal efforts to demand rights. The people of a state must initiate the call for their rights. Only then should external activists intervene to provide the necessary help – e. g. , psychological empowerment and the establishment of relevant infrastructures.
Human Rights and Narration (Schaffer and Smith) n Personal and collective storytelling can be a powerful way for victims of human rights violations to share their experiences, assert their humanity, and claim their selfhood. n The Holocaust survivor’s traumatic story has become the emblematic template of the narrative of human rights abuse in the 20 th century. Radical suffering and trauma are emphasized in the life narratives of human rights violations. n The focus is on gross violations, sensational abuses. Day-to-day and less horrific violations therefore do not carry the same narrative impact. n Who publishes these narratives of human rights violations? Who reads them and why?
Universalism and Cultural Relativism n The tension between human rights as entirely universal and not n n subject to modifications due to culture, on the one hand, versus human rights as affected by the cultural demands of specific contexts, on the other. Radical relativism (Donnelly)– culture is the source of all values and human rights considerations must be modified by cultural imperatives. Radical universalism (Donnelly) – all values are universal; human rights are universal and not affected by cultural particulars. Strong relativism – human rights values are principally but not entirely determined by culture. Weak relativism– human rights are principally determined by universal values but they can be modified by some cultural factors.
Critique of Culture and the Rhetoric of “Saving” n “White men saving brown women from brown men. ” (Spivak n n n quoted in Abu-Lughod). Politics of the veil in Afghanistan. International bodies and Western powers focus on human rights abuses of women in Afghanistan, Sudan, Fiji, and India. All forms of cultural practice are considered oppressive, without consideration for local particulars. French headscarf ban seeks to protect female Muslim schoolchildren from the oppression of culture. Turkish headscarf ban in universities seeks to prevent an image of Turkey as “backward” and traditional in order to appear more fully European. CEDAW requires that activists on the ground resist all cultural traditions; activists, on the other hand, seek from CEDAW officials sensitivity and attention to local circumstances.
Universalism versus Relativism: FGM/C n Preoccupation of western feminists with this form of human rights violation of women and female children. n Activists within Sudan and other countries in Africa who are also resisting this tradition and calling for its end. They use the rhetoric of the right to health. n Example of Radical universalism: The Hosken report uses problematic rhetoric implying that women in Sudan and other parts of Africa who go through FGC do not know their rights and are unable to “save” themselves. n Example of Radical relativism: “Circumcision is the mechanism through which Samburu women are prepared for marriage, and it therefore becomes a desirable event in a woman’s life” (Ntarangwi).
Human Rights and the Israel-Palestine Situation n n n Zionism– a political project articulated in the late 19 th century calling for a homeland for the Jewish people where they would be safe from anti-Semitism. Balfour Declaration – the letter written in 1917 by Arthur Balfour of the British government to the head of the British Zionist movement, Lord Rothschild, expressing support for the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine. The letter promised to preserve the civil and religious rights of the Palestinians living in the area. UN Security Resolution 181: Adopted in 1947; partitioning the land into two states– one for Palestinian Arabs, the other for the Jewish people, with Jerusalem as independent territory. UN Security Resolution 242: Adopted in 1967; Israel must withdraw from territories occupied in the 1967 conflict with Egypt, Syria, and Jordan. Rights of Palestinians for self-determination; right of return of refugees. “Under the Guise of Security”– Israeli separation wall; human rights organizations identify violations of the Palestinians’ rights to freedom of movement (checkpoints and searches, fragmentation of farmland, lengthening of travel time), right to make a living; right to access to health care; right to education.
Restorative and Retributive Justice and South Africa (Boraine and Borer) n Restorative Justice – a restoration of dignity for the victims and survivors of human rights violations; a limited and conditional amnesty for perpetrators; search for truth about the past, and healing and reconciliation for the future. n Retributive Justice—perpetrators brought to trial in the style of the Nuremberg trials n Post-apartheid South Africa chose restorative justice. n Necessary to move beyond the simple dichotomy of perpetrators and victims. There are numerous other categories– bystanders, beneficiaries, indirect victims, indirect perpetrators, and so on (compare with Primo Levi’s “Grey Zone”)
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