Category Archives: Human Rights History

This article examines the role of the League of Nations in the South West African/Namibian independence movement. Dedering argues that although the League of Nations era is largely passed over by historians, since the short-lived organization was unable to affect any real change, it is actually an important part of the narrative. Despite stemming fromContinue reading ““Petitioning Geneva: Transnational Aspects of Protest and Resistance in South West Africa/Namibia after the First World War” by Tilman Dedering”

Samuel Moyn is Henry R. Luce Professor of Jurisprudence at Yale Law School and Professor of History at Yale University. He specializes in international law, human rights, the law of war, and legal thought, as well as 20th-century European moral and political theory.

The Rights of Spring tells the story of David Kennedy’s early experience in Uruguay as a “first generation human rights professional,” using his experience in law alongside New York doctor Richard Goldstein and Washington writer Patrick Breslin to investigate the current well-being of four medical students made political prisoners and tortured over the preceding twoContinue reading “The Rights of Spring: A Memoir of Innocence Abroad by David Kennedy (the Harvard Law professor, not the astronaut)”

Peter Kulchyski is currently a full-time professor at the University of Manitoba in the Department of Native Studies. Dr. Kulchyski’s research revolves around “Aboriginal cultural politics, political development in the Canadian Arctic, land claims and self-government, Indigenous rights, contemporary critical theory, and political performance art.” (U of M website) Aside from being a professor andContinue reading “Are Indigenous People Second Class Citizens? How Kulchyski Conceptualizes Aboriginal Rights apart from Human Rights.”

by Alex Larsen Dominique Clément is a sociology professor at the University of Alberta. He has a Bachelor of Arts from Queens, a Master of Arts from the University of British Columbia and a PhD from Memorial University of Newfoundland, he had also done studying in various universities throughout the world. He specializes in humanContinue reading “Clément: Human Rights in Canada”

by Cléo VANDEWALLE             Sally Engle Merry is a professor of Anthropology at New York University and Faculty Co-director of the Centre for Human Rights and Global Justice at the New York University School of Law. Her research includes focuses on law and colonialism, human rights and gender violence and the law. She published HumanContinue reading “Translating global Human Rights law into the vernacular : the example of gender violence.”

by Melody Perkins Laura A. Belmonte is the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences at Virginia Tech and is a specialist in US Foreign Relations, having authored a number of articles on cultural diplomacy. “The International LGBT Rights Movement: An Introductory history,” asks readers to imagine whether or not LGBT equalityContinue reading “Gay Rights are Human Rights”

Carey Atkinson French intellectual Michel Foucault introduced Power/Knowledge discourse, in which power and knowledge are seen as inextricably related entities. Knowledge is always an exercise of power, and power is always a function of knowledge. It is upon this framework that lies Martha Nussbaum’s conceptualisation of the origins of human rights, and upon this injusticeContinue reading “Sex and social justice: Women and cultural universals”

by Robyn Sulkko Randall Williams is an instructor of literature at the University of California, San Diego. In this chapter of his book The Divided World: Human Rights and Its Violence, Williams argues that the commitment of Amnesty International to their nonviolence clause marks the beginning of the international human rights movement being in supportContinue reading “Violence and Human Rights: Can They be Compatible?”