Counting the Dead

by Tate, Winifred

• ISBN13: 9780520252820
• ISBN10: 0520252829
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-10-15
• Publisher: Univ of California Pr

Summary

At a time when a global consensus on human rights standards seems to be emerging, this rich study steps back to explore how the idea of human rights is actually employed by activists and human rights professionals. Winifred Tate, an anthropologist and activist with extensive experience in Colombia, finds that radically different ideas about human rights have shaped three groups of human rights professionals working there--nongovernmental activists, state representatives, and military officers. Drawing from the life stories of high-profile activists, pioneering interviews with military officials, and research at the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva,Counting the Deadunderscores the importance of analyzing and understanding human rights discourses, methodologies, and institutions within the context of broader cultural and political debates.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Abbreviations	p. xiii
Map of Colombia	p. xvii
Introduction	p. 1
Colombia: Mapping the Eternal Crisis	p. 31
Solidarity with Our Class Brothers: The First Wave of Colombian Human Rights Activism	p. 72
The Production of Human Rights Knowledge and the Practice of Politics	p. 107
The Emotional Politics of Activism in the 1990s	p. 146
The Global Imaginaries of Colombian Activists at the United Nations and Beyond	p. 175
State Activism and the Production of Impunity	p. 215
Human Rights and the Colombian Military's War Stories	p. 256
Conclusion: The Politics of Human Rights Knowledge	p. 290
Notes	p. 307
Selected Bibliography	p. 345
Index	p. 371
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