Lecture 13 Flashcards
what is Umoja: The Village Where Men Are Forbidden
a French documentary film about the Kenyan village Umoja. For nearly 30 years, hundreds of women living in Umoja say they were raped by British soldiers in northern Kenya. Accused of having brought shame on their community, they are beaten by their husbands and divorce. A handful of them created Umoja, the village prohibits men who became the refuge of Samburu women. Jealous men regularly attack the village and cause problems to its founder Rebecca Lolosoli.
local camping for justice that emerged in Kenya
are males in Umoja
created this village that consisted sole of female
males to work for firewood and stuff, but they were not permanent residents
basically a women’s shelter on a big scale
what are the 3 paradoxes in Sally Merry’s Human Rights and Gender Violence
1.Culture as source of abuse v. cultural heritage.
2. Universalism of law v. local context.
3. Ambitious, “deep” goals of social change v. local vernacularization and acceptance
change occurs in human rights processes in glacial paces; because of the way international agencies work and the challenges of translating values into local context and having an impact on the way people see and practice
Paradox 1: Culture as source of abuse v. culture heritage, who critiques this
UNICEF
what does UNICEF say about paradox 1
“violence against women is a product of traditional cultural practices, which must be changed, but cultural heritage is something to treasure” (Merry, 11).
Women’s rights are often opposed by who
Women’s rights are often opposed by those who claim to defend culture. Challenging women’s subordinate position in the family or the workplace threatens to disrupt a wide range of patriarchal privileges
what is the solution to paradox 1
Culture as Contentious
what is Culture as Contentious
“This conception emphasizes the active making of culture, society, and institutions and the grounding of this action in specific places and moments” (15).
“When a group’s failure to abide by human rights principles is blamed on its ‘traditional culture’, this ignores the complex and dynamic nature of culture” (15).
what is Paradox 2:
Law v. local context (see Englund)
what is meant by Law v. local context
“As a legal system, human rights law endeavors to apply universal principles to all situations uniformly . . . Local context is ignored in order to establish global principles” (103).
“There is a struggle between the generalizing strategies of transnational actors and the particularistic techniques of activists working with local contexts” (103).
what is the solution to paradox 2
Ethnographically sensitive intervention
what is Ethnographically sensitive intervention
“A more anthropological view of culture could highlight changes in the sociocultural life of village communities or urban neighborhoods. The cash economy, state bureaucracy, media, and warfare, for example, have penetrated deep into most rural and remote places” (132).
“There are embedded in local communities alternative visions of social justice that are not founded on conceptions of rights but on ideas such as sharing, reconciliation, or mutual responsibility” (133).
what is Paradox 3:
local vernacularization and acceptance v. “deep,” ambitious goals of change
what is meant by local vernacularization and acceptance v. “deep,” ambitious goals of change
“This is the paradox of making human rights in the vernacular: in order to be accepted, they have to be tailored to the local context and resonate with the local cultural framework. However, in order to be part of the human rights system, they must emphasize individualism, autonomy, choice, bodily integrity, and equality, ideas embedded in the legal documents that constitute human rights law” (
wha is the solution to paradox 3
Translation and appropriation by local actors
what is Translation and appropriation by local actors
“Intermediaries such as NGO and social movement activists play a critical role in interpreting the cultural world of transnational modernity for local claimants . . . Activists often participate in two cultural spheres at the same time, translating between them with a kind of double consciousness” (3).
Understanding appropriation and translation illuminates the less elite dimensions of the norm change process and highlights areas where norms and ideas are resisted or only temporarily and tentatively adopted” (222).
what is Hegemony
The rule of law and the primacy of rights, as John and Jean Comaroff argue, are emphasized, “even when both the spirit and the letter of that law are violated, offended, distended, purloined (2006: 23)
who came up with “lawfare”
Hegemony: The rule of law and the primacy of rights, as John and Jean Comaroff argue, are emphasized, “even when both the spirit and the letter of that law are violated, offended, distended, purloined (2006: 23). This recourse to what the Comaroff’s refer to as “lawfare”
what is lawfare
the use of law as an instrument of political leverage or coercion—“becomes most readily visible when those who act in the name of the state conjure with legalities to act against some or all of its citizens”
what is Counter-Hegemonic Globalization
Boaventura de Sousa Santos and César Rodríguez-Garavito call for more attention to be given to an “unprecedented effervescence of debate and experimentation in bottom up legal reform and new international legal regimes” (2). In their view a “subaltern cosmopolitan legality” is upending the common assumption that those on the margins lack political and legal agency. These once-excluded actors are now the beneficiaries of “new forms of global politics and legality” (9). Socio-legal research is able to undertake a “genealogical expedition” to reveal the power struggles and strategies through which hegemonic power structures are asserted; and it is at the same time able to bring into view the myriad actors who work with NGOs and progressive elites to secure their local rights as they mobilize resistance to “neoliberal legality” (
