If God Were a Human Rights Activist

If God Were a Human Rights Activist
Author: Boaventura de Sousa Santos
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Total Pages: 153
Release: 2015-04-29
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0804795037

We live in a time when the most appalling social injustices and unjust human sufferings no longer seem to generate the moral indignation and the political will needed both to combat them effectively and to create a more just and fair society. If God Were a Human Rights Activist aims to strengthen the organization and the determination of all those who have not given up the struggle for a better society, and specifically those that have done so under the banner of human rights. It discusses the challenges to human rights arising from religious movements and political theologies that claim the presence of religion in the public sphere. Increasingly globalized, such movements and the theologies sustaining them promote discourses of human dignity that rival, and often contradict, the one underlying secular human rights. Conventional or hegemonic human rights thinking lacks the necessary theoretical and analytical tools to position itself in relation to such movements and theologies; even worse, it does not understand the importance of doing so. It applies the same abstract recipe across the board, hoping that thereby the nature of alternative discourses and ideologies will be reduced to local specificities with no impact on the universal canon of human rights. As this strategy proves increasingly lacking, this book aims to demonstrate that only a counter-hegemonic conception of human rights can adequately face such challenges.

Does God Believe in Human Rights?

Does God Believe in Human Rights?
Author: Nazila Ghanea-Hercock
Publisher: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers
Total Pages: 296
Release: 2007
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9004152547

Where can religions find sources of legitimacy for human rights? How do, and how should, religious leaders and communities respond to human rights as defined in modern International Law? When religious precepts contradict human rights standards - for example in relation to freedom of expression or in relation to punishments - which should trump the other, and why? Can human rights and religious teachings be interpreted in a manner which brings reconciliation closer? Do the modern concept and system of human rights undermine the very vision of society that religions aim to impart? Is a reference to God in the discussion of human rights misplaced? Do human fallibilities with respect to interpretation, judicial reasoning and the understanding of human oneness and dignity provide the key to the undeniable and sometimes devastating conflicts that have arisen between, and within, religions and the human rights movement? In this volume, academics and lawyers tackle these most difficult questions head-on, with candour and creativity, and the collection is rendered unique by the further contributions of a remarkable range of other professionals, including senior religious leaders and representatives, journalists, diplomats and civil servants, both national and international. Most notably, the contributors do not shy away from the boldest question of all - summed up in the book's title. The thoroughly edited and revised papers which make up this collection were originally prepared for a ground-breaking conference organised by the Clemens Nathan Research Centre, the University of London Institute of Commonwealth Studies and Martinus Nijhoff/Brill.

Good God, Lousy World, and Me

Good God, Lousy World, and Me
Author: Holly Burkhalter
Publisher: National Geographic Books
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2014-11-18
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1601425104

“In this extraordinary memoir, one of the foremost human rights advocates of the last half century shares her brutally and hilariously honest story of finding God.” —Gary A. Haugen, president and CEO, International Justice Mission For years, Holly Burkhalter was a heartbroken idealist working on the front lines of change around the world—a witness to the brutalities of genocide, sex trafficking, rape, slavery, greed and injustice. Throughout her career she found herself angrily, sometimes hilariously at odds with a God who seemed distant at best and tyrannical at worst. Until the day she found herself drawn into a community of fellow activists who loved, worshiped, and served another God altogether—a God who hated injustice, too. And who had a plan for combating it. Us. It was the greatest, most radiant surprise of her life. Today Holly engages deeply with the questions that kept her from faith for most of her adult life: How could a good God allow brutality, mental illness, and AIDS? Why does God seem indifferent when we are in great need? What is our part in pushing back the darkness? Through riveting stories from her life, she wrestles these questions to the ground. Sometimes she wins. Sometimes the questions do. Either way, Good God, Lousy World & Me will transform your understanding of God’s presence and purpose—and ours—in a broken world. Now includes a small group discussion guide.

Curriculum Epistemicide

Curriculum Epistemicide
Author: João M. Paraskeva
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 283
Release: 2016-03-10
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1317562011

Around the world, curriculum – hard sciences, social sciences and the humanities – has been dominated and legitimated by prevailing Western Eurocentric Anglophone discourses and practices. Drawing from and within a complex range of epistemological perspectives from the Middle East, Africa, Southern Europe, and Latin America, this volume presents a critical analysis of what the author, influenced by the work of Sousa Santos, coins curriculum epistemicides, a form of Western imperialism used to suppress and eliminate the creation of rival, alternative knowledges in developing countries. This exertion of power denies an education that allows for diverse epistemologies, disciplines, theories, concepts, and experiences. The author outlines the struggle for social justice within the field of curriculum, as well as a basis for introducing an Itinerant Curriculum Theory, highlighting the potential of this new approach for future pedagogical and political praxis.

Race, Religion, and Politics

Race, Religion, and Politics
Author: Stephanie Y. Mitchem
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2018-09-06
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1538107961

This book examines race, religion, and politics in the United States, illuminating their intersections and what they reveal about power and privilege. Drawing on both historic and recent examples, Stephanie Mitchem introduces readers to the ways race has been constructed in the United States, discusses how race and religion influence each other, and assesses how they shape political influence. Mitchem concludes with a chapter looking toward possibilities for increased rights and justice for all.

Visual Imagery and Human Rights Practice

Visual Imagery and Human Rights Practice
Author: Sandra Ristovska
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 325
Release: 2018-11-19
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 3319759876

Visual Imagery and Human Rights Practice examines the interplay between images and human rights, addressing how, when, and to what ends visuals are becoming a more central means through which human rights claims receive recognition and restitution. The collection argues that accounting for how images work on their own terms is an ever more important epistemological project for fostering the imaginative scope of human rights and its purchase on reality. Interdisciplinary in nature, this timely volume brings together voices of scholars and practitioners from around the world, making a valuable contribution to the study of media and human rights while tackling the growing role of visuals across cultural, social, political and legal structures.

Globalisation, Human Rights Education and Reforms

Globalisation, Human Rights Education and Reforms
Author: Joseph Zajda
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 282
Release: 2016-09-23
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9402408711

This book, the seventeenth instalment in the 24-volume series Globalisation, Comparative Education and Policy Research, explores the interrelationship between ideology, the state and human rights education reforms, setting it in a global context. The book examines major human rights education reforms and policy issues in a global culture. It focuses on the ambivalent and problematic relationship between the state, globalisation and human rights education discourses. Using a number of diverse paradigms, ranging from critical theory to historical-comparative research, the authors examine the reasons for, and the outcomes of human rights education reforms and policy. The authors discuss discourses surrounding the major dimensions affecting the human rights education, namely national identity, democracy, and ideology. These dimensions are among the most critical and significant dimensions defining and contextualising the processes surrounding the nation-building, identity politics and human rights education globally. With this as its focus, the chapters represent hand-picked scholarly research on major discourses in the field of human rights education reforms. The book draws upon recent studies in the areas of globalisation, equality, and the role of the state in human rights education reforms. Furthermore, the perception of globalisation as dynamic and multi-faceted processes clearly necessitates a multiple-perspective approach in the study of human rights education. This book provides that perspective commendably. It also critiques current human rights education practices and policy reforms. It illustrates the way shifts in the relationship between the state and human rights education policy. In the book, the authors, who come from diverse backgrounds and regions, attempt insightfully to provide a worldview of current developments in research concerning human rights education, and citizenship education globally. The book contributes, in a very scholarly way, to a more holistic understanding of the nexus between nation-state, human rights education both locally and globally.

If God Is Love, Don't Be a Jerk

If God Is Love, Don't Be a Jerk
Author: John Pavlovitz
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
Total Pages: 266
Release: 2021-09-28
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1646982134

Thou Shalt Not Be Horrible. Imagine for a moment what the world might look like if we as people of faith, morality, and conscience actually aspired to this mantra. What if we were fully burdened to create a world that was more loving and equitable than when we arrived? What if we invited one another to share in wide-open, fearless, spiritual communities truly marked by compassion and interdependence? What if we daily challenged ourselves to live a faith that simply made us better humans? John Pavlovitz explores how we can embody this kinder kind of spirituality where we humbly examine our belief system to understand how it might compel us to act in less-than-loving ways toward others. This simple phrase, "Thou Shalt Not Be Horrible," could help us practice what we preach by creating a world where: spiritual community provides a sense of belonging where all people are received as we are; the most important question we ask of a religious belief is not Is it true? but rather, is it helpful? it is morally impossible to pledge complete allegiance to both Jesus and America simultaneously; the way we treat others is the most tangible and meaningful expression of our belief system. In If God Is Love, Don't Be a Jerk, John Pavlovitz examines the bedrock ideas of our religion: the existence of hell, the utility of prayer, the way we treat LGBTQ people, the value of anger, and other doctrines to help all of us take a good, honest look at how the beliefs we hold can shape our relationships with God and our fellow humans—and to make sure that love has the last, loudest word.

Social Institutions and International Human Rights Law

Social Institutions and International Human Rights Law
Author: Julie Fraser
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 339
Release: 2020-08-06
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1108489575

Critiquing the State-centric and legalistic approach to implementing human rights, this book illustrates the efficacy of relying upon social institutions.

Historical Dictionary of Human Rights

Historical Dictionary of Human Rights
Author: Jacques Fomerand
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 973
Release: 2021-03-29
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1538123061

The second edition of Historical Dictionary of Human Rights explores both the theory and the practice of international human rights with a focus on the norms and institutions that make up the “architecture” of the global human rights regime and the tools, processes and procedures through which such norms are realized and “enforced.” Particular attention is given to the contextual political and sociological factors that shape and constrain the operation and functioning of international human rights institutions and their state and non-state actors. This is done through a chronology, an introduction, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has more than 1.000 cross-referenced entries on terminology, conventions, treaties, intergovernmental organizations in the United Nations, and non-governmental organizations, as well as some of the pioneers and defenders. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about human rights.