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Introduction The notion of human rights describes what it is to be human and defines the ‘rock bottom of human existence’. 1 Human rights law challenges the traditional state-centred scope of international law, giving individuals and groups, otherwise with very restricted access to the international legal system, the possibility of making
Contemporary Asian art has had a remarkable impact on global art practice, and simultaneously has produced an enduring record of the history of that region from the moment of decolonisation to the present. Many artists in the region have a deep concern about what it means to be human and to contribute to the development of a better future for their communities as well as having a sustained commitment to making art. This book, written at the start of the ‘Asian century’, focuses on the contexts and conditions which have helped to shape both art practice, and postcolonial society, in the region. Using case studies of selected artists, it discusses their work in relation to issues of human rights, social and environmental wellbeing, and creativity and is one of the first surveys of these issues in contemporary Asian art. It is an important contribution to studies of contemporary Asian art and art history.
This book provides an expanded and up-to-date account of the European Convention on Human Rights and the evolution of its system of human rights protection. It explains the scope of the rights and freedoms which are guaranteed, then reviews the institutional arrangements, first as they functioned until November 1998, and now under Protocol No. 11. To put the Strasbourg system in perspective, the book begins with a short historical overview of the Convention and its progressive elaboration and describes the new European Court of Human Rights. It also mentions other arrangements which now exist for promoting and protecting human rights in Europe. The Council of Europe was set up as a peaceful association of democratic States which proclaimed their faith in the rule of law and 'their devotion to the spiritual and moral values which are the common heritage of their peoples'. The 'Congress of Europe', convened by the International Committee of Movements for European Unity, was held at The Hague in May 1948. Articles 14-18 of the Convention relate to the scope and exercise of the rights guaranteed. They are therefore not intended to secure additional rights, but rather to ensure the effective exercise of the rights set out in the earlier provisions, or in certain situations to permit their limitation. Article 14 establishes the principle of non-discriminatory application, Article 15 allows for the exercise of emergency powers, and Article 17 is intended to prevent abuse of the Convention's freedoms.
This book examines the intersection between incarceration and human rights. It is about why independent inspection of places of custody is a necessary part of human rights protection, and how that independence is manifested and preserved in practice. Immigration and asylum policies ask crucial questions about national identity, about human rights, and about our values as compassionate citizens in an era of increasingly complex international challenges. The book deals with the future of prisons and shows how the vulnerable population has been unconscionably treated. To arrive at a proper diagnosis of the expansive use and abuse of the prison in the age of economic deregulation and social insecurity, it is imperative that we effect some analytic breaks with the gamut of established approaches to incarceration. The book explores the new realities of criminal confinement of persons with mental illness. It traces the efforts of New Right think-tanks, police chiefs and other policy entrepreneurs to export neoliberal penality to Europe, with England and Wales acting as an 'acclimatization chamber'. In a series of interventions, of which his Oxford Amnesty Lecture is but one, Loic Wacquant has in recent years developed an incisive and invaluable analysis of the rise and effects of what he calls the penal state.
98 Recognition and development International human rights and the international criminal responsibility of individuals were more clearly recognised only after the Second World War. Human rights have been further developed on the basis of the non-binding Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The current human rights treaty catalogue
99 6 Dancing human rights We have seen that ever since Isadora Duncan entered the stage of political dance, various instances of sic-sensuous have been performed on the stage of the argument by bodies contracting into themselves and releasing to other bodies, moving and being moved. Those bodies affirm their equality to other bodies –whether the dancing bodies they intervene against, or bodies inhabiting other worlds that deem them unequal. From Martha Graham’s audiences who are uninvited spectators to the gumboot dancers in South Africa and the flash mob
Human rights and humanitarian diplomacy provides an up to date and accessible overview of the field, and serves as a practical guide to those seeking to engage in human rights work. Pease argues that while human rights are internationally recognised, important disagreements exist on definition, priority and implementation. With the help of human rights diplomacy, these differences can be bridged, and a new generation of human rights professionals will build better relationships.
I don’t like to see other people suffering. (Peter Tatchell, Interview with Triggernometry , 27th May 2018) Introduction In the first chapter of this book, we saw that international human rights law has a tendency to expand its purview in a manner which is largely unfettered. We observed that this results from a conception of human rights law as being purposive. In Chapter 2 , we noted that law in general has a tendency to be conceived of as a teleocratic rule-book, declaratory of purposes and specifying the actions and duties necessary to
same year, consumers in the UK were shocked to learn that Christmas cards by the country’s leading supermarket chain were alleged to have been made by prison laborers in China. 2 Labor rights and conditions have also taken center stage in football, with FIFA – under unprecedented pressure – creating a Human Rights Advisory Body in 2017 to “ensure respect for human rights
This book describes how human rights have given rise to a vision of benevolent governance that, if fully realised, would be antithetical to individual freedom.
It shows that contemporary human rights practice is increasingly managerial in nature, interested above all in measuring and improving human rights performance. This has the effect of shifting the focus of human rights from the individual rights-holder to the activities of the duty-bearer: the state, international organisation, or business. The result is a preoccupation with achieving measured improvements within abstract groups such as the population or ‘stakeholders’, with the individual rights-holder being relevant only insofar as he or she is a datapoint in a larger grouping. The book then analyses this trend and its consequences. It describes human rights’ evolution into a grand but nebulous project, rooted in compassion, with the overarching aim of improving universal welfare by defining the conditions of human well-being and imposing obligations on the state and other actors to realise them. The ultimate result is the ‘governmentalisation’ of a pastoral form of global human rights governance, in which power is exercised for the general good, moulded by a complex regulatory sphere which shapes the field of action for the individual at every turn.
The conclusion is that it is unsurprising that this alienating discourse has failed to capture the popular imagination – and that if the human rights movement is to succeed it may be necessary for it to do less rather than more.