What are the main similarities or differences between the contemporary topic (Arab Spring and its contemporary struggles for human rights and the historical counter-point (slave revolutions, Haitian Revolution of 1804? Which of these similarities or differences do you find most significant for the history of international relations and why?
This paper aims to explore the similarities and differences between the slave revolutions, against the Arab Spring. The context of the Haitian Revolution of 1804 shall be used as a historical counter-point, against the contemporary topic of the Arab Spring and its contemporary struggles for human rights. The point is to argue which similarities and differences are most important to the history of the international relations and why?
The case of human rights beyond borders looks at a continuing major event of social change, the Arab Spring of 2011 and its various repercussions in the MENA region (Middle East and North Africa). We will also reflect more on the concept of revolutions and how it is used in various disciplines. We will use the historical example of the Haitian Revolution of 1804 to illustrate how non-European revolutionary events tend to be interpreted differently and relegated to the ‘violent’ and ‘illegitimate’ history of international law and international relations.
Essential reading
Mokhtari, S. 2015, ‘Human rights and power amid protest and change in the Arab world’, Third World Quarterly, 36:6, 1207-1221
Bhambra, G K 2014, ‘What does the Haitian Revolution tell us about the Society of Equals?’, Theory, Culture and Society (http://www.theoryculturesociety.org/gurminder-bhambra-what-does-the-haitian-revolution-tell-us-about-the-society-of-equals/)
Lawson, G 2015 ‘Revolution, non-violence, and the Arab Uprisings’, Mobilization: An International Quarterly, 20(4) (http://mobilizationjournal.org/toc/maiq/20/4)
Complementary reading
Arab Spring
Abu-Lughod, L 2009, ‘Dialects of Women’s Empowerment: The International Circuitry of the Arab Human Development Report 2005, International Journal of Middle East Studies, 41, 83–103
Aleya-Sghaier, A. 2012, ‘The Tunisian Revolution: The Revolution of Dignity’, Journal of the Middle East and Africa, 3, 18-45
Delegation of Attorneys from National Lawyers Guild (US), Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers (UK), and Mazlumder (Turkey), 2011, Promises and Challenges: The Tunisian Revolution of 2010-2011 Report, New York: National Lawyers Guild, June 2011 (http://nlginternational.org/report/Tunisia-Report-2011.pdf)
El Naggar, M. H. 2012, ‘Human Rights Organisations and the Egyptian Revolution’, IDS Bulletin, Vol. 43, 1, (January 2012), 78-86
Falk, R. 2012, ‘Reflections on Revolution, Politics and Law: The Unfolding Process in the Arab World’, Transnational Legal Theory, 4(1), 83-107
Gilbert, J. 2011, ‘Indigenous People’s Human Rights in Africa: The Pragmatic Revolution of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights’, International & Comparative Law Quarterly, Vol. 60, 245-270
Gunning, J. and Zvi Baron, I. 2014, Why Occupy a Square?: People, Protests and Movements in the Egyptian Revolution, Oxford: Oxford University Press
Hicks, N. 2002, ‘Does Islamist Human Rights Activism Offer a Remedy to The Crisis of Human Rights Implementation in the Middle East?’, Human Rights Quarterly, Volume 24, Number 2, May 2002, pp. 361-381
Turner, C. 2015, ‘Transitional Constitutionalism and the Case of the Arab Spring’, International and Comparative Law Quarterly, 64, pp267-291
On Bahrain, see National Lawyers Guild Review, Fall 2012, Vol. 69 Issue 3
Haiti
Blackburn, R. 2006, ‘Haiti, Slavery, and the Age of the Democratic Revolution’, The William and Mary Quarterly, Third Series, Vol. 63, No. 4 (Oct., 2006), 643-674
Dubois, L. 2004, A colony of citizens: revolution & slave emancipation in the French Caribbean, 1787-1804, Chapel Hill, N.C. : University of North Carolina Press
Fick, C. 2007, ‘The Haitian revolution and the limits of freedom: defining citizenship in the revolutionary era’, Social History, Vol. 32 No. 4, November 2007, 394-414
Getachew, A 2016, ‘Universalism After the Post-colonial Turn: Interpreting the Haitian Revolution’, Political Theory, 1-25
Ghachem, M. W. 2012, The Old Regime and the Haitian Revolution. New York: Cambridge University Press
James, C. L. R. 1963, The Black Jacobins, New York: Vintage
Kaisary, P. 2012, ‘Human Rights and Radical Universalism: Aimé Césaire’s and CLR James’s Representations of the Haitian Revolution’, Law and Humanities, 6- 2, 197–216
Knight, F. 2005, ‘The Haitian Revolution and the Notion of Human Rights’, The Journal of the Historical Society, V:3 Fall 2005, 391-416
Nesbitt, N. 2009, ‘Alter-Rights: Haiti and the singularization of universal human rights, 1804–2004’, International Journal of Francophone Studies, Volume 12 Number 1, 93-108
Wood, L. M. 2014, ‘Across Oceans and Revolutions: Law and Slavery in French Saint-Domingue and Beyond (Review)’, Law & Social Inquiry, Volume 39, Issue 3, 758–782, Summer 2014, 758-782
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