1. People Power Movements and International Human Rights: Creating a Legal Framework
- Author:
- Elizabeth Wilson
- Publication Date:
- 08-2017
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC)
- Abstract:
- International human rights came into existence bottom-up, from the e orts of ordinary people to ally with each other in solidarity and demand their rights through civil resistance campaigns in support of democracy, an end to slavery and child labor, women’s rights, labor rights, and tenant rights, among other rights. Yet international law recognizes only states as the ultimate source of law. This monograph develops a novel, people-powered or “demos-centric” approach to international human rights law that acknowledges the role in lawmaking of average human beings, seeing them as both the source of rights and the most e ective means of overcoming the central weakness of international law—namely, its inability to ensure that states and governments comply with the human rights obligations they supposedly undertake. Taking account of nonviolent movements and their impact on the formation and implementation of international human rights law recognizes the human agency of the supposed bene ciaries of human rights law: common people.
- Topic:
- Human Rights and International Cooperation
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus