Human Rights

Postcolonial sociology as a remedy for global diffusion theory

“…Often excluded from analytical consideration are the multitude of global norms and innovations that originate in the periphery and spread both to other countries in the periphery and globally through the initiatives of non-Western actors. Examples include anti-imperialism (Aminzade, 2013), various musical influences (Patterson, 1994), and the central but hitherto unacknowledged role of Latin American, Asian, and African actors in not just the creation, but also the diffusion of postwar norms and institutions such as universal human rights, sovereignty, international development, disarmament, universal participation, and more (Acharya, 2014;Finnemore & Jurkovich, 2014;Glendon, 2003;Helleiner, 2014;Limoncelli, 2017;Morsink, 1999;Sikkink, 2008Sikkink, , 2014Sikkink, , 2016Steinhipler, 2015;Wright-Carozza, 2003). Evidence also shows how actors in the periphery reconstruct global norms to fit prior local norms (Acharya, 2004;Appadurai, 1996) and create new norms/understandings out of existing global norms (Acharya, 2011;Finnemore, 1996).…”

Why International Ethics Will Survive the Crisis of the Liberal International Order

“…Latin American countries were forceful advocates of universal human rights that preceded the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, having signed the American Declaration of Rights and Duties of Man in Bogota, Colombia in April 1948, seven months before the passage of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in December of that year. 38 As Joseph Nye concedes "[W]hile US support has been important to human rights, the US was not always very liberal during the Cold War, and the origins of the regime in the 1940s owed much to Latin Americans and others." 39 A stark binary between Northern universalism and Southern relativism over international ethics is uncalled for.…”