The Populist Challenge to Human Rights

Alston, Philip

doi:10.1093/jhuman/hux007

Cited by 131 publications

(71 citation statements)

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“…To be sure, the challenges to its realization are still formidable both in structural terms and within a political climate that is currently unfavourable both to immigration and to human rights (Alston 2017). The examples of Utrecht and San Francisco prove, however, that our propositions are plausible.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 87%

Pulling human rights back in? local authorities, international law and the reception of undocumented migrants

Baumgärtel

Oomen

2019

The Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law

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The category of the 'irregular' migrant is usually seen as the quintessential non-status under international law, offering states plenty of discretion while providing few practically accessible rights for migrants. At the same time, certain local authorities have struggled to justify more pragmatic responses when dealing with the reception of irregular immigrants. This article explores a recent trend that potentially holds the key to both conundrums: the invocation of international human rights law, in their defence, by local authorities. More specifically, their engagement of human rights can force international institutions to apply and develop norms in this area. Within this story of legal pluralism, nation states are under increasing pressure to live up to the standards that they had previously avoided. Two examples of 'frontier cities' operating in very different constitutional and discursive environments will be used to substantiate the argument. The first concerns support by the city of Utrecht of a case concerning emergency social assistance for undocumented migrants before the European Committee of Social Rights. The second example concerns San Francisco as a sanctuary city in the US and a place with a long history of localization of international human rights law. The article closes with a critical reflection on the potential trajectories that this trend might take and what this means for understandings of legal pluralism as well as future research.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 87%

Pulling human rights back in? local authorities, international law and the reception of undocumented migrants

Baumgärtel

Oomen

2019

The Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law

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“…His reflection was certainly forward-thinking, and for all of its endemic corruption we can still agree with Guattari's (2015) assertion that for any resolution of the majority of "social, urban and ecological questions, trans-disciplinarity would consist in stepping back at a planetary level and problematizing local questions on the basis of horizons that put the whole of life and of international relations into play" (p. 134; see also Alston, 2017). These threads are visible in the transdisciplinary literature even though, as American author Ken Wilber noted in Wilber, 1999, the structure of today's "modern world" is characterized by a scientific framework that is planetary in its reach, but forms a useless skeleton around which hundreds of premodern religions create meaning and value for billions of Earth's inhabitants.…”

Section: Transdisciplinarity and Child And Youth Studiesmentioning

confidence: 83%

Transdisciplinary Child and Youth Studies: Critical Praxis, Global Perspectives

Mitchell

Moore

2018

World Futures

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Drawing on empirical and theoretical literature from across six continents, this Introduction to a special issue of World Futures serves as a prelude to seven articles focused on transdisciplinary child and youth studies. The resulting gestalt builds on the assumption that those engaged in transdisciplinary research and pedagogy are also deeply engaged in the global reform movement currently underway in higher education. As a contribution to this process, we make two key arguments. First, Indigenous epistemologies (defined as traditional integrated knowledge systems drawing on connectedness to the Earth and ontologies of respect for past and future generations) must be fully included within the transdisciplinary canon. Second, we introduce child and youth studies as an inherently transdisciplinary field, one that embraces complex systems analysis along with young people's participation in research that concerns their well-being.

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“…Populists and authoritarian actors often consider that there are too much liberty and rights, and that is partly the explanation for the moral crisis that should be confronted with traditional values restoration. Therefore, the human rights agenda is usually narrowed during these times [69].…”

Section: Right-wing Authoritarianism and Its Disputes With Human-righmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rights in the Time of Populism: Land and Institutional Change Amid the Reemergence of Right-Wing Authoritarianism in Colombia

Coronado

2019

Land

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In Colombia, right-wing leadership returned to power after winning the presidential elections in 2018 in a campaign in which they opposed the previous government, primarily because of the negotiations and peacemaking with the FARC-EP (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia—Ejército del Pueblo ‘Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia—People’s Army’), Colombia’s largest guerrilla organization. Globally, there is a vibrant academic debate about how to characterize the current rise of right-wing populism or authoritarianism, but more profound insights from each country’s situation and its political economy implications are needed. The victory in Colombia was due to numerous factors, including the support from some rural elites who have historically obstructed the enforcement of redistributive land policies. However, the populist aspirations of the right-wing government have been persistently frustrated not only by social unrest and political mobilization but also because of the enforcement of institutions previously incorporated into the country’s political scenario. Specifically, in terms of agrarian political economy, two sets of human rights-oriented institutional changes are relevant regarding this matter: (a) the Land Restitution Law enacted in 2011 and (b) the Comprehensive Rural Reform contained in the Agrarian Chapter of the Peace Agreement between the national government and the FARC-EP in 2016. The purpose of this paper is to ground the ongoing theoretical and political debate about the rise of different forms of populism and right-wing authoritarianism in the current Colombian political context, and its implications on the countryside. The analytical contribution of this paper is twofold: On the one hand, I propose an alternative for explaining the nature of the current political regime in Colombia as right-wing authoritarianism; on the other hand, I analyze some features of such regimes in terms of its disputes with the enforcement of human rights-oriented institutions, that are in force as the result of political processes triggered by peasants’ mobilization.

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The Populist Challenge to Human Rights

Cited by 131 publications

References 1 publication

Pulling human rights back in? local authorities, international law and the reception of undocumented migrants

Pulling human rights back in? local authorities, international law and the reception of undocumented migrants

Transdisciplinary Child and Youth Studies: Critical Praxis, Global Perspectives

Rights in the Time of Populism: Land and Institutional Change Amid the Reemergence of Right-Wing Authoritarianism in Colombia

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