Civil Society Conflicts And The Politicization Of Human Rights

Civil Society, Conflicts and the Politicization of Human Rights explores violent conflict and peace. The contributors examine how violence is generated, managed, exploited and eradicated in ethno-political conflicts, and how societies can be dragged out of conflict onto the transition towards peace. The usual take on these phenomena focuses on the role of governmental actors, both national and international. While official actors remain important, Civil Society, Conflicts and the Politicization of Human Rights examines the other side of the coin: the non-governmental component in ethno-politic.

This publication explores violence, conflict and peace. It focuses on the non-governmental component in ethno-policitcal conflicts. Civil society actors, or "conflict society organizations" (CoSOs), are increasingly central in view of the complexity of contemporary ethno-political conflicts. CoSOs are key players in ethno-political conflicts, both as violators and as promoters of human rights. Nevertheless, the precise relationships underpinning the human rights-civil society-conflict nexus have not been fully examined. This volume analyses the impact of civil society on ethno-political conflicts through their human rights-related activities, and identifies the means to strengthen the complementarity between civil society and international governmental actors in promoting peace. These aims are addressed in case studies on Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cyprus, Turkey's Kurdish question, and Israel-Palestine.

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. This book looks at the role that civil society organizations play in dealing with conflict and violence. The authors argue that in most of the prevalent conceptualizations the conflict dimension of civil society is either downplayed or inadequately addressed. They contend that the ability to deal with conflict is at the heart of organized civil society; in the political process, one of civil society's key functions is to express and mediate between different interests, thus contributing to political decision-making. The chapters draw on detailed, empirical data from the CIVICUS Civil Society Index - a unique comparative data-set drawn from 25 countries, which has not previously been made publicly available. It examines the different ways violence has been manifested in civil societies, the meaning of violent protest and the impact of security legislation that might hinder the mediating efforts of civil society. The book offers a sophisticated comparison between conflict and post-conflict countries and an analysis of the role of civil society in conflict resolution, reconciliation and transitional justice.

Human rights and conflict resolution have been traditionally perceived as two separate fields, sometimes in competition or in tension and occasionally with contradictory approaches towards achieving a lasting peace. Although human rights norms have been incorporated and institutionalized by various national, regional, and international organizations that deal with conflict resolution, negotiators and mediators are often pressured in practice to overlook international human rights principles in favor of compliance and more immediate outcomes. The chapters in this volume navigate the relationship between human rights and conflict resolution by fleshing out practical, conceptual, and institutional encounters of the two agendas and engaging with lessons learned and windows of opportunities for mutual learning. Recognizing the increasing relevance of this debate and important gaps in the current research on the topic, this book addresses the following questions: How can we improve our practical and theoretical understanding of the complementarity between human rights and conflict resolution? How would a human rights-based approach to conflict resolution look like? How are international, regional, and national organizations promoting, implementing, and/or adapting to better coordinate between human rights and conflict resolution? Building on empirical evidence from contemporary conflict resolution processes, how have human rights been integrated in different efforts on the ground? What are the main lessons learned in this regard? Examining a wide range of countries and issues, this work is essential reading for human rights, conflict resolution, and security experts including scholars, diplomats, policy-makers, civil society representatives, and students of international politics.

Human Rights: Politics and Practice is an introduction to human rights that goes beyond a purely legal perspective to look at theoretical issues and practical approaches. Bringing together leading experts, it is up to date with cutting edge research in a constantly evolving field.

Human Rights, Power and Civic Action examines the interrelationship between struggles for human rights and the dynamics of power, focusing on situations of poverty and oppression in developing countries. It is argued that the concept of power is a relatively neglected one in the study of rights-based approaches to development, especially the ways in which structures and relations of power can limit human rights advocacy. Therefore this book focuses on how local and national struggles for rights have been constrained by power relations and structural inequalities, as well as the extent to which civic action has been able to challenge, alter or transform such power structures, and simultaneously to enhance protection of people’s basic human rights. Contributors examine and compare struggles to advance human rights by non-governmental actors in Cambodia, China, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa and Zimbabwe. The country case-studies analyse structures of power responsible for the negation and denial of human rights, as well as how rights-promoting organisations challenge such structures. Utilising a comparative approach, the book provides empirically grounded studies leading to new theoretical understanding of the interrelationships between human rights struggles, power and poverty reduction. Human Rights, Power and Civic Action will be of interest to students and scholars of human rights politics, power, development, and governance.

Global civil society and the society of democratic states are the two most inclusive and powerful global practices of our time. In this book, Frost claims that, without an understanding of the role that individual human rights play in these practices, no adequate understanding of any major feature of contemporary world politics from 'globalisation' to 'new wars' is possible. Constituting Human Rights, therefore argues that a concern with human rights is essential to the study of International Relations.

Examines the effectiveness of national human rights institutions in promoting and protecting human rights through a series of comparative case studies.