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31. Beyond Power Politics: International Law and Human Rights Discourse in the Post-9/11 World

Author:
J. Peter Pham
Publication Date:
11-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Human Rights Human Welfare (University of Denver)
Abstract:
In the early 1970s, legal scholars began reexamining the dominant legal paradigms within Western polities with a skeptical view of their underlying doctrines and arguments. While the critique was radical in the context of its time, the critical legal movement itself, both inside and outside academia, has largely become somewhat passé as its valid insights have either been absorbed into mainstream juridical scholarship or largely superseded by newer fields of legal inquiry that it had nurtured, including feminist jurisprudence, critical race theory, and postmodern scholarship.
Topic:
Development, Human Rights, Non-Governmental Organization, and Politics

32. The Promise and Peril of Public Anthropology

Author:
Ben Feinberg
Publication Date:
08-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Human Rights Human Welfare (University of Denver)
Abstract:
In recent years, as we accelerate our planetary experiment into increasing violence and social inequality, cultural anthropologists have increasingly expressed their befuddlement about why, amid all the clamor and reckless talk about the state of the world that characterizes public discourse, our voice has been notably absent. We have moved from the introspection of the 80s, when the big debates within the discipline involved tearing at our own flesh and flaunting the sackcloth of self-doubt: how do know what we know about other people? Are we not projecting our colonialist narratives onto the weak? Who the Hell do we think we are to talk so pompously and authoritatively about them? Emerging from this doubt, we remembered that, at the same time that we sparred with each other and devoured our elders in the hidden corners and footnotes of obscure journals, our discipline has actually reached a near-unanimous consensus—as strong as the consensus for evolution among physical anthropologists or for global warming among climate scientists—on a number of vitally important issues that are relevant to the masses outside our club, and could, if applied by the right people, actually benefit society and serve in defense of human rights.
Topic:
International Relations, Development, and Human Rights
Political Geography:
United States

33. Globalization and the Construction of Universal Human Rights

Author:
Eric K. Leonard
Publication Date:
08-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Human Rights Human Welfare (University of Denver)
Abstract:
Every human rights scholar and activist must eventually engage the question of whether a set of universal human rights exists. For international relations scholars, this is an interesting debate, whether one is immersed in human rights research or not. The reason for the interest in the question is its focus on notions of authority and rule in the international system. If one accepts that a universal understanding of human rights exists, then one accepts that the relevant actors of the international community agree to uphold a common norm or set of norms despite the obvious differences in culture and history. In essence, an investigation into universal human rights is an investigation into the normative underpinnings of our global society and the actors that construct the rules for this society. This question becomes even more interesting given the intensification of the globalization process and the increased interdependence of traditional state actors, along with the increased relevance of non-actors.
Topic:
International Relations, Civil Society, Globalization, and Human Rights

34. In Plain Sight? Human Trafficking and Research Challenges

Author:
Austin Choi-Fitzpatrick
Publication Date:
04-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Human Rights Human Welfare (University of Denver)
Abstract:
The recently released exploratory work, In Modern Bondage: Sex Trafficking in the Americas, edited by David E. Guinn and Elissa Steglich, is a helpful analysis of the state of trafficking for sexual exploitation in Central America and the Caribbean. The book makes two things clear: how far researchers have been able to come given the scarcity of reliable data; and how much work remains to be done before a clear picture of the nature and magnitude of trafficking and the best means for its eradication is obtained.
Topic:
International Relations, Human Rights, and Human Welfare
Political Geography:
Central America and Caribbean