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The title of this volume is the critical and provocativequestion -- do we need minority rights? -- in order toannounce that it does make sense to ask whether there arespecial obligations to minority protection. The following essays, noneof which is published elsewhere, explore several of the many importantphilosophical questions about minority protection, as well as thepractical and judicial problems related to certain answers. The firstfour essays concern minority rights within the theory of liberalism,while the last four focus on more detailed problems of minorityprotection. ... Read more

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The report documents human rights' issues of concern to Amnesty International during 2007. ... Read more

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This work builds on existing studies of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights by reviewing the challenges to implementation posed by the evolving global macroeconomic environment. The inter-disciplinary focus adopted highlights the limits to a purely legal approach to this instrument at both a theoretical and practical level: issues such as the justiciability debate and the difficulties which the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights have experienced in applying the ICESCR to States parties' economic policy choices are reviewed from a macroeconomic perspective and it is argued that only once the economic de-contextualisation of this instrument has been addressed will the guarantees in the ICESCR be fully actualised. In this vein it is proposed that reform of the existing supervisory architecture to incorporate economic expertise would be a more positive step forward for the ICESCR than the adoption of the proposed optional protocol. This work is aimed at those working within the sphere of socio-economic rights as well as human rights specialists interested in the implications of global economic integration for the international human rights system as well as the possibility of new paradigms in international human rights methodology. ... Read more

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In the period following World War II, the federal government devoted more time and attention to civil rights reform and legislation than it had since the end of Reconstruction in 1876. Despite the impressive literature that analyzes the modern civil rights movement, its connection to American foreign policy during and after the war remains largely unexplored. Focusing on this gap, Professor Layton shows that the revolutionary changes in world politics created by the war also created new opportunities and pressure points for reforming U.S. race policies. The Holocaust, the dismantling of colonial empires, the Cold War, and the establishment of the United Nations all contributed to a new receptivity to civil rights reform in both the executive and judicial branches of the federal government. And, as Professor Layton describes, civil rights leaders quickly recognized the opportunities presented by the new international environment and were able to use them in exerting their own pressure to enact domestic policy reforms. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Intriguing, but Unrealisitic and Philosophically Weak
An Na'im's "Toward an Islamic Reformation" is a fascinating excursion into the evolutionary aspect of Islamic law.Without repeating previous comments, I will get to the core of his thesis and the problem with it.In essence, he states that since Islamic law evolved from a Makkan to a Madinan stage, it can "de-evolve" back to the Makkan stage.It was in Makkah where the Prophet gave his statements about tolerance and freedom of religion, while in Madinah those concepts were withdrawn.As Islamic jurisprudence argues that earlier revelations that are contradicted by later ones are abrogated, An Na'im is arguing for reverse abrogation, stating that the Madinan stage of Islam was necessary then, but is not needed now.This is the core of his argument.

Now the problems.First, An Na'im is asking for Islamic jurists to ignore 1,300 years of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) to engage in reverse abrogation.One must ignore a good portion of the writings of al-Tabari, Ibn Kathir, Ibn Taymiyyah, Ibn Qayyim, al-Mawardi, not to mention large sections of hadith collections (al-Bukhari, Imam Muslim, al-Tirmidhi, Abu Dawud, etc).While not wishing to appear as a nay-sayer, this is simply an impossible task.He simply has no Qur'anic or hadith basis for saying that Islam can backtrack and abrogate much of the Madinan message.

This highlights the second problem he encounters is the amount of abrogation.For anyone who has even done a casual examination of the hadith and Qur'an regarding war and jihad, one can see that there would be large sections of both (more of the former) that would require abrogation.Large portions of the sayings and deeds of the Prophet and his Companions (the "Salafi") would have to be virtually ignored.Considering the fact that the Prophet on numerous occasions indicates that one must follow his sayings and deeds to live his Islam makes this extremely difficult.

But the third problem is possibly the most damning... and dangerous.Let us say it succeeds.Let us speculate that, yes indeed, Islam engages in reverse abrogation and the violent and warrior sections of the hadith and Qur'an are now ignored.What is to prevent an abrogation of the reverse abrogation in the future?What is to stop a group of Imams and other leaders from standing up later and calling for the re-imposition of the Madinan passages calling for war and jihad against those who refuse to give their Islam?Islamic law, rather than a higher law such as in the Judeo-Christian tradition, is really a series of juristic pronouncements, with the schools of law having difficulty finding agreement on anything.For example, the schools of law cannot even agree on how many phrases are in the adhan (call to prayer), let alone anything else.Thus, there is no core law that can prevent a return to the Madinan stage.This may buy us time, but will present no permanent solution.The world will see a temporary respite, and then a return to more violence, more killing, and more devastation, all in the name of the expansion of Islam.

In reality, we have seen such a reversal before.For the last 300 years, prior to the Islamic Resurgence Movement (starting about 50 years ago), Islam was relatively contained.With virtually no money they had little influence in the world as a whole.Thus we saw virtually no Islamic terror operations and the like.But now that Islamic organizations have money and wealth, the jihadists have surged forward on the offensive.Thus, we have been down this road before, and a philosophical attempt to reform Islam, while well-intentioned, is stillborn from the beginning.

I simply do not see how An Na'im's thesis, intriguing as it is, can prevent this in the future.

Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na 'Im
I wonder why the American government doesn't get this fellow andsend him to Iraq to head up their religious studies department and establish a modern Islamic Studies program in an Arab country to educate the Arab as to what Islam could be about, if they weren't so backwards.

A Fascinating Challenge to Orthodoxy
Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im, as a scholar of Islam and law, offers an analysis of Islamic decline and possible reformation that is much more clearly delineated and rigorous than the cultural accounts given by authors like Bernard Lewis.An-Na'im's argument rests on the separation of "historical Shari'a" (often wrongly treated as if it were itself divine revelation) from the essence of Islam itself, as revealed by the early tenure of Mohammed in Mecca, before he moved to Medina and grappled with the difficult and immediate imperatives of political power.

Like a good lawyer, An-Na'im's case in "Toward an Islamic Reformation" unfolds like a geometrical proof, proceeding deductively from an axiom (a universal principle of reciprocity) and reasoning from there; namely, that all peoples have rights of self-determination, as long as they don't clash with others' rights of self-determination.To this norm, An-Na'im adds two sociological observations.The first is that Muslim majorities are now becoming politically assertive, exercising their right to self-determination, which is in itself a healthy thing.However, the second observation is that the hitherto weakened and disorganized condition of the Muslim community has usually been attributed to departure from "true" belief and practice, as well as to outside interference by non-Muslims.Thus, An-Na'im reasons, secular solutions to social problems will not appeal to most Muslims.Even the doctrine of necessity (darura) is not enough, although it has been used with some degree of success in the past, because only a truly Islamic solution will satisfy Muslim demands for self-determination.Thus, any proposed reforms must be seen as Islamic in origin.

However, An-Na'im here makes a strong case that the implementation of "historical Shari'a" (he calls it historical, obviously, to emphasize its man-made, temporal quality), while seen as a solution by many (due to the yearning to go back to tradition), will likely oppress others, and limit their right to self-determination, because it conflicts with modern norms of constitutionalism, human rights, international law and criminal justice.However, historical Shari'a was constructed by early jurists, written for a specific time and place, and does not come directly from revelation.So, given that secular and Shari'a solutions both are inadequate, the question becomes: how can Muslims' rights vis-à-vis others be exercised, while also being legitimately limited in accordance with universal principles (and the earlier, more tolerant words of Mohammed)?

An-Na'im acknowledges that any attempt to answer this question and "evolve" alternative principles will be difficult, due to the likely suspicion that tampering with the weight of tradition will inflame, but must be done, and can be based directly on revelation.This is the task that he sets himself to in the second half of the book, once he has demonstrated how Shari'a: 1) is man-made; 2) is non-divine; 3) originally arose for political expediency; 4) goes against the early word of Mohammed (much of which it "abrogated" under the doctrine of naskh); and 5) will likely violate the rights of non-Muslims, women, slaves, etc., and be incompatible with the very idea of the nation-state, international law, and human rights.In this, An-Na'im is clearly a modernist, in that he takes the nation-state, etc. as a given, and holds that there are benefits from secularism that would be lost (self-expression, women, religious minorities, slavery) if Shari'a were to be implemented.He also makes a very specific negative judgment about the application of Shari'a in today's "fundamentalist" states (Iran, Sudan), arguing that "it has created more problems than it has solved" (67).While an "anti-imperialist" might take issue with this statement, arguing that the worst excesses of fundamentalism are preferable to "western" institutions, An-Na'im's mission is to make Islam palatable to western institutions, and vice-versa, by "rehabilitating" the "early Mohammed" in much the same way that neo-Marxists drew upon the "Young Marx" to get away from the stale determinism of scientific socialism.Thus, the early Mohammed of the Mecca period is portrayed as a tolerant, "reasonable" leader, while the Mohammed of the Medina period, and the later rulers under whom Shari'a developed, were forced to adapt their ideas to the expediencies an extremely harsh, violent political world.

What is An-Na'im's program for rehabilitating Islam from the legacy of this world?The four main areas of law concerned are constitutionalism (how can Islam reconcile itself to self-determination, but with limits on power?), criminal justice (how can Islam democratically enforce Islamic justice without violating the rights of non-Muslims?), international law (how can Islam reconcile itself to interactions between nation-states, some of whom will be non-Muslim?), and human rights (how can Islam leave behind the legacy of subordinate status for women, slaves and non-believers, and grant universal rights to all people?).

While the program is well-argued and eloquently framed, obviously drawing much inspiration from the mentorship of the Sudanese reformist martyr, Mahmoud Taha, An-Na'im himself, though an optimist, admits that the book is not likely to receive a warm reception in the Muslim world.Though he doesn't admit it, part of the problem with this reception might be a feeling that he is engaged in sophist apologism for the West, finding parts of Islamic teaching to justify a wholesale adaptation to modern, secular developments.For those Muslims who feel their identity under attack, and thus advocate a return to tradition, the particular tradition that An-Na'im cites might seem a bit too conveniently Western.And after all, arguing that the Prophet went against his own early teachings out of expediency might seem unfathomable for one who believes that everything the Prophet did was divine!

Superb, groundbreaking scholarship
This is a wonderfully refreshing work on the possiblity of reforming Islamic law. Na'im's basis stems from Mahmud Taha's work on the evolutionary nature of the revealed Qur'an. The basic thesis is that the Meccan suras were abrogated through naksh in favor of the later Medinan verses due to political and social circumstances of early Islam. Na'im takes up Taha's argument, that God gave differing foundations for Shari'a, the earlier, tolerant, pluralistic Meccan one being the ideal for which all must strive for. Na'im argues that in order for Islamic peoples to align themselves according to their faith with univeral notions of human rights, a new Shari'a needs to be derived from the earlier Meccan suras. Na'im points out that Shari'a isn't divine in nature, as it is human interpretation of certain portions of the Qur'an. Very well researched and congruent with the universal principles that all faiths share. Also check out Taha's original work on the evolutionary revelation, translated by Na'im, called "The Second Message of Islam". ... Read more

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This book is about the impact of human rights on the relations among states. It seeks to bring together in one place an account of the theory of human rights (what they are; where they come from; whether they are universal); a discussion of the part they play in contemporary international politics (including East/West and North/South relations); and a view of what ought to be done about them--especially by the Western powers.Dr. Vincent recommends that provision for subsistence rights has a strong claim to priority over other human rights. Dr. Vincent's conclusion neither endorses the notion of the advance of cosmopolitan values in the society of states, nor rests on an observation of the continuing strength of state society. He shows how the grip of the sovereign state might in fact be tightened by its successful co-option of the international doctrine of human rights. Published in association with the Royal Institute of International Affairs. ... Read more

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This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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Sometime in the coming months and years, Sudan will face a transition to peace and democracy. This will be a time of immense opportunity for the country: how will it respond to the enormous challenges of building a society based on equality, democracy and human rights?This book represents the efforts of Sudanese civil society organizations to come to terms with these challenges. Each chapter deals with a basic issue for the future of Sudan. Some of the issues addressed are inequality, militarism, free expression, religion, women, self-determination, and race. ... Read more

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This briefly annotated list of prosecutions under war statutes and cases of mob violence due to the war was originally published in 1919.

This list of cases involving the rights of free speech, free press and peaceful assemblage is compiled from the correspondence and press clippings of the National Civil Liberties Bureau from April 1, 1917 to March 1, 1919. ... Read more

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The Oxfam Campaign for Basic Rights is about turning words into action. With extensive case studies and examples, information about global institutions, and useful statistics, this book explains why poverty persists, what can be done to overcome it, and the part everyone can play in the Oxfam Campaign. Words Into Action is an ideal introduction to the concept of basic rights and the problem of global poverty for teachers, students, and general readers. ... Read more

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Massive, shocking violations of human rights are taking place in conflicts, crises, and emergencies around the world. There is broad agreement that human rights must be protected in the field, on the ground, where people are vulnerable. But how is this to be done? There is a crisis of protection world-wide. Human rights and humanitarian organizations are in a quandry. They have all sounded the alarm. But how can protection be extended to those at risk, whether it be children, women, civilians, non-combattants, or the victims of oppression and violence? This is one of the first books to examine the need for protection in the field, survey the experiences of the different human rights and humanitarian organizations, and assess what works and what does not work. For the most part it reveals, sadly, a crisis in protection efforts in the field. But in doing so, it will, hopefully, spur on greater efforts for strengthened protection in the field. More effective protection of human rights is its quest. ... Read more

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This volume highlights the judicial and legislative tug of war over civil liberties and government actions, focusing on the actions of a little known but important court with direct and significant impact on individual freedoms - The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. It explores where this court originated, why it was created, what its track record has been, and what policies it uses to justify expansion of its authority in the post 9/11 arena. ... Read more

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This volume is a comprehensive treatment of the African human rights system in terms of the laws, practice, and institutions of the system. The volume discusses, analyzes, and evaluates normative instruments of the African system, the Charter of the Organization of the African Unity (OAU), and the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, presenting article-by-article analysis of its provisions and those of the Protocol on the Establishment of the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights. Similarly the OAU (now the African Union), the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, and the proposed African Court on Human Rights, as institutions of the system, are discussed. The book emphasizes a comparative approach and presents a summary of the UN, the European and the Inter-American human rights mechanisms with regard to their impact on the African system. The role of NGOs in the African system is also considered, as well as the controversial issue of human rights in pre-colonial and colonial Africa. ... Read more