Author(s): Ludsin, Hallie | Abstract: The international human rights movement is facing an existe... more Author(s): Ludsin, Hallie | Abstract: The international human rights movement is facing an existential crisis—a crisis created in part by its continuing failure to adequately address strong criticism that international human rights law (IHRL) is a form of cultural imperialism designed to destroy local religion and culture. While the debate underlying the crisis is not new, the strength of its threat to IHRL and the liberal democratic order is. One of the primary points of friction is over IHRL’s seeming rejection of a group right to be governed by religious or cultural law—a right IHRL proponents fear would open the doors to discrimination against women, the LGBT community and nonconformists. Already, populist leaders like President Erdogan of Turkey have been able to capitalize on a combination of demands for a role for religion in governance and frustration with economic inequality to claw back on human rights and democratic guarantees.The debates surrounding group rights have rea...
This article seeks to challenge a potentially dangerous assumption that constitution-drafting is ... more This article seeks to challenge a potentially dangerous assumption that constitution-drafting is an appropriate peacemaking tool in countries suffering from on-going violent conflict. A recent trend in conflict resolution is to use constitution-drafting as a form of peace negotiation and the resultant constitution as a peace treaty, such as in Iraq, Afghanistan and Nepal. Policy-makers simply assume that the goals and needs of constitution-drafting and peacemaking are compatible. On closer examination, however, while theoretically the goals and needs of the two processes can be harmonized, in practice, a combined constitution-drafting/peacemaking process causes deep, inherent tensions to erupt that make it far too likely that peacemaking needs will subordinate constitution-drafting goals. In doing so, the merged process not only risks the failure of the constitution but also risks renewing violence. When warring parties demand constitutional change to secure peace, however, it may b...
Governments across the world regularly invoke sovereignty to demand that the international commun... more Governments across the world regularly invoke sovereignty to demand that the international community “mind its own business” while they commit human rights abuses. They proclaim that the sovereign right to be free from international intervention in domestic affairs permits them unfettered discretion within their territory. This Article seeks to challenge those proclamations by resort to sovereignty in the people, a time-honored principle that is typically more rhetorical than substantive. Relying on classical interpretations of sovereignty, this Article infuses substance into the concept of sovereignty in the people to recognize that a government is entitled to sovereign rights only as the legitimate representative of the people and only as long as it fulfills its duties to them. The Article then examines the conditions that must be met for a government to claim sovereign rights, as well as how and by whom access to these rights should be determined. Taken to its logical conclusion,...
... Lakhdar Brahimi, a former Special Advisor to the Secretary-General of the United Nations who ... more ... Lakhdar Brahimi, a former Special Advisor to the Secretary-General of the United Nations who monitored post-conflict Iraq, blames this ... Mona Iman of the United States Institute of Peace expressly blames the "rushed constitutional process" for the constitution's failure to achieve ...
... Christine Biancheria, Restoring the Right to Have Rights: Statelessness and Alienage Jurisdic... more ... Christine Biancheria, Restoring the Right to Have Rights: Statelessness and Alienage Jurisdiction in Light of Abu-Zeineh v. Federal Laboratories, Inc., 11 Am. ... 17, 2005). Mr. Mushahwar specializes in representing individuals before the ecclesiastic courts. ...
Author(s): Ludsin, Hallie | Abstract: The international human rights movement is facing an existe... more Author(s): Ludsin, Hallie | Abstract: The international human rights movement is facing an existential crisis—a crisis created in part by its continuing failure to adequately address strong criticism that international human rights law (IHRL) is a form of cultural imperialism designed to destroy local religion and culture. While the debate underlying the crisis is not new, the strength of its threat to IHRL and the liberal democratic order is. One of the primary points of friction is over IHRL’s seeming rejection of a group right to be governed by religious or cultural law—a right IHRL proponents fear would open the doors to discrimination against women, the LGBT community and nonconformists. Already, populist leaders like President Erdogan of Turkey have been able to capitalize on a combination of demands for a role for religion in governance and frustration with economic inequality to claw back on human rights and democratic guarantees.The debates surrounding group rights have rea...
This article seeks to challenge a potentially dangerous assumption that constitution-drafting is ... more This article seeks to challenge a potentially dangerous assumption that constitution-drafting is an appropriate peacemaking tool in countries suffering from on-going violent conflict. A recent trend in conflict resolution is to use constitution-drafting as a form of peace negotiation and the resultant constitution as a peace treaty, such as in Iraq, Afghanistan and Nepal. Policy-makers simply assume that the goals and needs of constitution-drafting and peacemaking are compatible. On closer examination, however, while theoretically the goals and needs of the two processes can be harmonized, in practice, a combined constitution-drafting/peacemaking process causes deep, inherent tensions to erupt that make it far too likely that peacemaking needs will subordinate constitution-drafting goals. In doing so, the merged process not only risks the failure of the constitution but also risks renewing violence. When warring parties demand constitutional change to secure peace, however, it may b...
Governments across the world regularly invoke sovereignty to demand that the international commun... more Governments across the world regularly invoke sovereignty to demand that the international community “mind its own business” while they commit human rights abuses. They proclaim that the sovereign right to be free from international intervention in domestic affairs permits them unfettered discretion within their territory. This Article seeks to challenge those proclamations by resort to sovereignty in the people, a time-honored principle that is typically more rhetorical than substantive. Relying on classical interpretations of sovereignty, this Article infuses substance into the concept of sovereignty in the people to recognize that a government is entitled to sovereign rights only as the legitimate representative of the people and only as long as it fulfills its duties to them. The Article then examines the conditions that must be met for a government to claim sovereign rights, as well as how and by whom access to these rights should be determined. Taken to its logical conclusion,...
... Lakhdar Brahimi, a former Special Advisor to the Secretary-General of the United Nations who ... more ... Lakhdar Brahimi, a former Special Advisor to the Secretary-General of the United Nations who monitored post-conflict Iraq, blames this ... Mona Iman of the United States Institute of Peace expressly blames the "rushed constitutional process" for the constitution's failure to achieve ...
... Christine Biancheria, Restoring the Right to Have Rights: Statelessness and Alienage Jurisdic... more ... Christine Biancheria, Restoring the Right to Have Rights: Statelessness and Alienage Jurisdiction in Light of Abu-Zeineh v. Federal Laboratories, Inc., 11 Am. ... 17, 2005). Mr. Mushahwar specializes in representing individuals before the ecclesiastic courts. ...
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