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Call for Papers
Theme: Critical Exploration of Human Rights
Subtitle: When Human Rights become Part of the Problem
Type: 23rd Irish European Law Forum
Institution: University College Dublin
Location: Online
Date: 7.–8.5.2021
Deadline: 12.3.2021
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Human rights advocates are largely insular, offensive, and lacking
introspection in terms of the ways in which human rights can
potentially cause a variety of undesired outcomes. Consequently,
critics of human rights are often derided or dismissed as undermining
the entire human rights agenda. However, immanent criticism is not
about making human rights weaker but stronger. Human rights, as a set
of normative ideals, norms, and values, promoted through networks of
institutions and people, are deeply political and, as such, have a
varying impact in different political settings. In the last two
decades, within the community of human rights scholars and
practitioners, a new field of critical thinking on human rights has
emerged, showcasing a range of unsought outcomes produced
unintentionally through the implementation of human rights agendas.
Critical explorations of human rights have also re-examined the
potential for human rights, as conceived beyond hegemonic liberalism,
to drive radical transformations of law and society (for an overview
of such works, Stump 2019). In fact, human rights programmes,
policies and practices may cause new forms of social inequalities and
marginalization (David 2020), often by ignoring the struggle for
economic rights (Moyn 2018). They also, at times, promote violent
action (Bob 2012; Perugini and Gordon 2015). A number of researchers
have successfully demonstrated that human rights became commodified
through its alliance with consumption, consumerism and capitalism,
effectively mitigating any political space for change (Douzinas 2000,
Hopgood 2006, Nolan 2011, Pruce 2019), and becoming non-threatening
to the structures of domination (Perugini and Gordon 2015). Others
have debated about rights inflation and whether framing social
grievances as human rights issues have limiting attempts to
successfully address systemic social problems (Clément 2018).
Keynote Speaker:
‘Human Rights and the Humanization of War’
Professor Samuel Moyn, Henry R. Luce Professor of Jurisprudence at
Yale Law School and Professor of History at Yale University
Professor Moyn’s areas of interest include international law, human
rights, the law of war, and legal thought, in both historical and
current perspective. He has written several books in the fields of
European intellectual history and human rights history, including The
Last Utopia: Human Rights in History (2010), and edited or coedited a
number of others. His most recent books are Christian Human Rights
(2015) and Not Enough: Human Rights in an Unequal World (2018). He is
currently working on a new book on the origins and significance of
humane war.
This two-day online conference aims at critically exploring those
undesired outcomes that human rights promotion may lead to on the
ground. We are seeking to address the downsides and shortcomings of
the promotion and implementation of the human rights agenda, asking
‘what happens when it becomes counterproductive?’ This conference
will cover a wide spectrum of topics from a variety of disciplinary
approaches including in sociology, law, politics, and history.
The following topics and themes will be particularly relevant:
- Uses and Misuses of Human Rights: Examples from around the Globe
- Human Rights and Inequality
- Human Rights and Violence
- Human Rights in a Time of Crisis (including Covid-19 crisis,
climate change, migration crisis)
- Institutional Perspective on Human Rights
The conference will include panels (20 min presentations) and
roundtables (10 min presentations). The Conference Committee will
decide where the accepted papers will be allocated. The accepted
presenters will be notified upon their acceptance.
Please email an abstract of no more than 300 words to the conference
organisers, Dr. Paris and Dr. David:
marieluce.pa...@ucd.ie & lea.da...@ucd.ie
Abstract submission deadline:
Friday 12 March 2021
Acceptance notification:
Friday 2 April 2021
Contact:
Marie-Luce Paris & Lea David
UCD Sutherland School of Law
UCD School of Sociology
University College Dublin
Ireland
Email: marieluce.pa...@ucd.ie
lea.da...@ucd.ie
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