The Globalization of Rights: From Citizenship to Human Rights

Globalization is shifting the balance away from membership-based citizenship towards universal human rights, thus we ask: how are new human rights generated? We argue that the movement for human rights follows on the heels of the much older and richer tradition of citizenship, as can be seen from the fact that many of the new claims put forward by human rights activists seek to define traditional citizenship rights as universal human rights. Most recently, we witness attempts by NGOs and CSOs to bring health, rights-based development, and identity rights under the umbrella of human rights. We examine the changing but continuous relationship of these two rights traditions, the gains made by human rights activists and the global solidarity and national enforcement capacity needed to underwrite their further progress.     

ADA, Disability Rights, and Evolving Regulatory Federalism: Articles

This article explores the evolution of regulatory federalismby examining the shifting basis of disability rights mandatesfrom conditions-of-aid to federal preemption. It also examinesthe disability rights mandates placed on state and local governmentsby the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and compares themwith those provided in earlier federal laws. The central thesisis that by adopting a preemptive approach, the U.S. Congressclaimed for itself the dominant role in creating and enforcingnondiscrimination mandates to protect the rights of people withdisabilities. While several organizing principles and implementationdirectives stipulated in ADAwerefirst devised in earlier federallaws and administrative regulations, their application throughfederal preemption strengthened the force and reach of disabilityrights protections. In the process, preemption substantiallyreduced the authority of state and local governments to createand implement their own disability rights measures.     

The Idea of Citizenship in the Early Civil Rights Movement

Luther P. Jackson was a key supporter of the Association for the study of Negro Life and History and a leading historian of the African American experience. As a leader in the voting rights movement in Virginia as well a prominent activist within region-wide civil rights organizations, Jackson crafted a message of black citizenship that balanced rights and civic duties. His emphasis on political engagement and civic consciousness transcended the specific issues that occupied civil rights activists of the 1940s. This philosophy of political commitment tied the black freedom struggle to the fulfillment of the democratic promise enshrined in the founding documents of the American republic. It also connected the movement for racial justice to the working-class movement for union organization and economic democracy. His effort to place citizenship front-and-center in the civil rights movement echoed the universal ideals of the American crusade to free the world of fascism. It also resonated with the egalitarian aspirations of the Reconstruction era. By linking black equality to political engagement, Jackson set out the only terms under which full equality could be achieved. As much as his message of justice through citizenship challenged the racial orthodoxies of his day, it challenges our contemporary society, transfixed as it is by the illusions of consumerism and marketplace privatization. As Carter G. Woodson and Luther Jackson both understood, racial justice required more than historical consciousness; it required political awareness grounded in a sense of civic responsibility.     

NGOs invite attention: From the United Nations Commission on Human Rights to the Human Rights Council

This article first reviews and compares Human Rights Council and University Period Review (HRC/UPR) research published during and shortly after the institution-building period (2006–2009) to more recent work (2010–2014) to identify patterns of scholarly interest in NGO roles and behavior at the HRC/UPR. It divides research into that which either “ignores” NGOs or offers “indirect” attention, “direct” attention, or “foregrounds” NGO activity, concluding that NGOs are surprisingly underexamined, given remarkable new participatory opportunities in the HRC/UPR and the centrality of NGO information provision to the success of the new body. Empirical analysis of NGO statements from the CHR to the HRC indicates sharply increasing NGO participation, particularly among domestic, regional, and Southern NGOs. The increased volume and changing characteristics of participating NGOs may have important effects on the HRC/UPR and should also encourage further analysis.     

重新审视冷战时期的中美关系--评《从对峙走向缓和--冷战时期中美关系再探讨》

中美关系一直是学者探讨的焦点与热点。由姜长斌、罗伯特·罗斯主编、世界知识出版社出版的新书《从对峙走向缓和——冷战时期中美关系再探讨》（以下简称《再探讨》），在国际问题和外交史学界引起了广泛的注意。该书以翔实可靠的最新史料为基础，着力从不同的角度，重新审视了冷战时期的中美关系。该书有以下几个特点。 一、视角的突破。多角度的透视更能准确全面地把握事物的本来面目，提炼出事物的本质，甄别轻重，区分主次。中、美、英、加四国十六位学者以不同的知识结构，植根于不同的文化，进行中美关系史的发现与解读。这种多角度…     

From Family Values to Religious Freedom: Conservative Discourse and the Politics of Gay Rights

On the issue of gay rights, today’s social conservatives are more likely to describe their opposition as a matter of religious freedom or personal conscience as opposed to a belief that gays and lesbians represent an existential threat to the traditional family. But how new is this contemporary argument, and how different is it from the family values politics of the previous era? This article develops what Victoria Hattam and Joseph Lowndes call “associative chains” from two important moments in anti-gay politics: Anita Bryant’s Save Our Children campaign and Kim Davis’s decision to not issue gay marriage licenses in Rowan County, KY. On one level, these moments reveal competing roles of the state in the lives of its citizens. Family values politics authorized an interventionist state for the protection of children, while religious freedom defenders promote a zone of personal conscience impervious to the state. On another level, however, these moments reveal the mutability of social conservative opposition to gay rights. Calls for protecting religious freedom preserve a heterosexism derived from antecedent family values politics. The novelty of religious freedom as a defense for homophobia obscures a persistent social conservative commitment to using the state to enshrine the heteronuclear family.     

Externalizing Human Rights: From Commission to Council, the Universal Periodic Review and Egypt

Critics of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (CHR) and its successor, the Human Rights Council (HRC), focus on member state efforts to protect themselves and allies from external pressure for human rights implementation. Even though HRC members still shield rights abusers, the new Universal Periodic Review (UPR) subjects all states to regular scrutiny, and provides substantial new space for domestic NGOs to externalize domestic human rights demands. This paper offers an institutional account of the expansion of NGO externalization opportunities from the CHR to the HRC, and during UPR institution building and Egypt’s 2010 UPR. It draws on 45 longitudinal, open-ended interviews with Egyptian human rights activists, donors, and other observers conducted in 2007 and 2010.     

The Anti-Poll Tax Movement: a Pressure Movement?

The anti-poll tax campaign has been the subject of scant empirical or theoretical analysis. One explanation lies in the difficulty of locating the campaign within existing theories of pressure groups or social movements. This article argues for the creation of a distinct model of protest, based upon the concept of a pressure movement, to explain a campaign that was single-issue, decentralised, non-hierarchical and variable according to location. Distinctions between pressure groups and social movements have become increasingly arbitrary with the rise of groups lacking formalised membership. Pressure movements are thus likely to form key contestatory actors in future years.     

Movement Outcomes and Movement Decline: The Vietnam War and the Antiwar Movement

Conventional accounts underestimate the duration and impact of the movement against the Vietnam War. Data from the New York Times Index show more arrests in antiwar protests in 1972 than in the years usually considered the height of the movement; demonstrations continued until a week before the end of the war. The persistence of the movement strengthens claims it succeeded. While those who minimize movement influence assume it had to be popular to succeed, it had a direct impact on policy makers uncertain about future trends in public opinion and electoral behavior. The movement changed the discourse about, and the conduct of, the war, restraining escalation and accelerating troop withdrawals. Comparing Nixon's goals and those of the movement with the Paris Peace Accords shows the success of the movement. The movement also helped lower the voting age, reform the presidential nominating system, and change attitudes towards military action.     

Reconsidering Citizenship in the Light of the Concerns of the UK Disability Movement

Perhaps largely due to the successful campaigning of a number of pressure groups and social movements, but also due to the established position of related subjects within academia, there is a now almost routine consideration of class, ethnicity, gender and sexuality in relation to citizenship. Disability and the position of disabled people as “citizens” has not, however, received as much attention. It is the assertion of this article that this is a significant fact, for a consideration of disability in relation to citizenship provides useful insights into the strengths and weaknesses of some important theories of citizenship. Further, it demonstrates the need for an approach that takes account of the increasing uncertainty of groups such as disabled people towards their own identities and that conceives citizenship as being a process of “proactive engagement” towards a “reflexive position”.