Human Rights as Battlefields: Changing Practices and Contestations

Description

This book examines human rights as political battlefields, spaces that are undergoing constant changes in which political conflicts are expressed by a translation process within networks of interactions. This translation, in turn, contributes to modifying the scope and understanding of human rights. Ultimately, these battlefields express the legitimacy encounter of different versions of human rights in contemporary political practices. The volume thus challenges both the tendency to minimize the changing nature of human rights as well as the struggles emerging from the use of human rights discourses as a legitimization tool. By shifting the focus on what stakeholders do instead of solely on the origin, nature or foundations of human rights, the authors reveal that human rights are not static objects: they are constantly transformed and, as such, affect the horizon of universal rights. Front Matter ....Pages i-xviii Introduction: Becoming Human Rights Subjects Through New Practices (Gabriel Blouin-Genest, Marie-Christine Doran, Sylvie Paquerot)....Pages 1-12 Front Matter ....Pages 13-13 Human Rights as Battlefields: Power Relations, Translations and Transformations—A Theoretical Framework (Gabriel Blouin-Genest, Marie-Christine Doran, Sylvie Paquerot)....Pages 15-30 The Gender of Human Rights: The French Debate Over “les droits de l’Homme” (Charles Bosvieux-Onyekwelu)....Pages 31-51 The Right to Water: The Political Function of Human Rights as an Expression of the Contradictions in Globalization (Sylvie Paquerot)....Pages 53-75 Politics of Neutrality, Human Rights and Armed Struggles: The Turkey Example (Ozan Kamiloglu)....Pages 77-98 Front Matter ....Pages 99-99 Child Prisoners, Human Rights, and Human Rights Activism: Beyond ‘Emergency’ and ‘Exceptionality’—An Australian Case Study (Judith Bessant, Rob Watts)....Pages 101-127 Who Is a Child? The Politics of Human Rights, the Convention on the Right of the Child (CRC), and Child Marriage in Nigeria (Olabanji Akinola)....Pages 129-148 Forcibly Sterilized: Peru’s Indigenous Women and the Battle for Rights (Ñusta Carranza Ko)....Pages 149-172 Politicization of Rights-Based Development and Marginalization of Human Rights from Below: The Case of Maternal Health Rights in India (Surma Das)....Pages 173-196 Front Matter ....Pages 197-197 Indigenous Peoples in Chile: Contesting Violence, Building New Meanings for Rights and Democracy (Marie-Christine Doran)....Pages 199-223 Improving HIV/AIDS Drugs Access: A Genealogy of the Human Right to Health from Below (Gabriel Blouin-Genest, Mikey Erb)....Pages 225-247 Internet Access as Human Right: A Dystopian Critique from the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Fabio Cristiano)....Pages 249-268 Conclusion: Changing Human Right Practices and the Battlefields of World Politics (Gabriel Blouin-Genest, Marie-Christine Doran, Sylvie Paquerot)....Pages 269-280 Back Matter ....Pages 281-288