International Handbook of War, Torture, and Terrorism

Engaging moral agency for human rights: Outlooks from the Global South.

“…In our own work, we have posited a matching set of moral engagement processes that facilitate rather than interfere with moral agency. This parallel set of sociocognitive moral engagement mechanisms consists of: (a) cognitive integrity (e.g., commitment to universal ethical principles such as the ethic of reciprocity); (b) recognizing and appreciating consequences (e.g., of violence and human rights violations); (c) embracing responsibility (e.g., for confronting human rights violations and aggression by one’s government); and (d) valuing/humanizing the other (Malley-Morrison, Hines, & McCarthy, 2013; Malley-Morrison, Mercurio, & Twose, 2013). In our view, if the sociocognitive processes involved in moral disengagement can subvert moral agency, then perhaps the sociocognitive processes involved in moral engagement can reinforce moral agency.…”

“…A major effort to elicit the human rights views of ordinary people in the Global South comes from the work of an international research collaborative, the Group on International Perspectives on Governmental Aggression and Peace (GIPGAP), which administered the Personal and Institutional Rights to Aggression and Peace Survey (PAIRTAPS) in more than 40 countries around the world. Preliminary findings from this collaboration were published by Praeger Security International/ABC/Clio in the four volume series on State Violence and the Right to Peace (Malley-Morrison, 2009a, 2009b, 2009c, 2009d), and by Springer in the International Handbook on War, Torture, and Terrorism (Malley-Morrison, Hines et al, 2013) and the International Handbook on Peace and Reconciliation (Malley-Morrison, Mercurio et al, 2013).…”