Human Rights in the Middle East Frameworks, Goals, and Strategies

by Monshipouri, Mahmood

• ISBN13: 9780230120617
• ISBN10: 023012061X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-12-15
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

To what extent are underlying social, economic, and political causes of human rights violations in the Middle East unique to the region and conversely, to what extent are the apparent or real features of such uniqueness a function of contemporary manifestations of Orientalism and Islamophobia? What does the international human rights framework offer Middle Eastern countries? In what ways does it foster local efforts to improve human rights in the Middle East and in what ways does its baggage of imperialism, neo-imperialisms, power relations, and appropriations of human rights discourses by governments pursuing their own geo-political interests, damage such local and authentic efforts? In addressing these questions, the authors provide a systematic analysis of looking beyond the abuses of human rights in the Middle East with a view toward (1) problematizing traditional doctrinal thinking and concepts in the region; (2) ascertaining comparative and historical roots of human rights abuses in the Middle East, and (3) developing strategies for improving human rights conditions of the vast majority of people more generally and those of minorities and marginal communities more particularly.

Author Biography

Mahmood Monshipouri is an Associate Professor of International Relations at San Francisco State University. He specializes in human rights, international relations, globalization, democratization, and Middle Eastern and Muslim world studies. He is the author, most recently, of Muslims in Global Politics: Identities, Interests, and Human Rights (2009) and Terrorism, Security, and Human Rights: Harnessing the Rule of Law (2012). He is co-editor of Islam and Human Rights: Advocacy for Social Change in Local Contexts (2006) and Constructing Human Rights in the Age of Globalization (2003). He is author of Islamism, Secularism, and Human Rights in the Middle East (1998) and Liberalization, Democratization, and Human Rights in the Third World (1995). His articles have appeared in Insight Turkey, International Peacekeeping, International Politics, Yale Human Rights and Development Law Journal, Journal of Church and State, Ethics and International Affairs, and Middle East Policy. He is the chair of the Best Book Award Committee, Human Rights Section, of the American Political Science Association. He regularly reviews books for Human Rights Quarterly. Monshipouri also serves as one of the editors of the Muslim World Journal of Human Rights.

Table of Contents

Section I: Problems with the Current Frameworks * Framing the Human Rights Discourse: The Role of Natural Localism and the Power of Paradigm--Lawrence Davidson * Islam and Human Rights: Ideals and Practices--Manochehr Dorraj * Human Rights through the Lens of Legal Thought--Halim Rane * Defamation of Religious and Incitement to Religious Hatred in International Human Rights--Turan Kayaoglu * Section II: Common Goals and Case Studies * Human Rights and the Kurdish Question in the Middle East--Nader Entessar * The Janus Nature of Human Rights in Iran: Limited Progress on Human Rights since the Revolution--Barbara Rieffer-Flanagan * From Omission to Reluctant Recognition: Political Parties’ Approach to Women’s Rights in Turkey--Zehra F. Kabasakal Arat * Minority Rights and Marginalized Communities in the Middle East--Mahmood Monshipouri and Jonathon Whooley * On Escaping the False Binary Between Human Rights Being Founded in Universalism or Particularism: Lessons from Movements for Rights Regarding Sexual Orientation in the Arab World--Anthony Tirado Chase * Section III: Strategies * A Prospect for Democratic Uprising in the Arab World--Bahey eldin Hassan * Counterterrorism, Nation-building, and Human Rights in the Middle East: Complementary or Competing Interests--Mahmood Monshipouri and Shadi Mokhtari * Migrant Workers and Their Rights in the United Arab Emirates--Mahmood Monshipouri and Ali Assareh * Health and Human Rights in Palestine: The Siege and Invasion of Gaza and the Role of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement--Jess Ghannam