Summary
In Welchman’s account, a discourse and activism still relatively new and unfamiliar in Palestine in the late 1970s, which Al-Haq’s founders took up secondarily to the Rule of Law frame and which later scholarship both credits with internationalising the local conflict and criticises as an industry (Al-Haq: A Global History of the First Palestinian Human Rights Organization, PDF p.21-23, p.25).
Details
- Hajjar argues LSM’s reframing of political issues in legal/human rights language politicized law itself, provided new ways of intervening, and internationalised local conflict; Allen examines later professionals acting “as if” human rights could stop abuses without real political, structural change (PDF p.21).
- Chase, as quoted: “human rights are more about processes than ends—processes that can restrain state dominance, empower peoples and social groups, and advance individual and group agency” (PDF p.22-23).
- Distrust in the region was fuelled by selective Cold War deployment against the Soviet Union; Batrawi recalls the idea “was that it was a new form of colonialism, or imperialism, a western discourse” (PDF p.43).
- The two International Human Rights Covenants, in force in 1976, affirm in common Article 1 that “all peoples have the right to self-determination” (PDF p.41).
Related pages
Al-Haq: A Global History of the First Palestinian Human Rights Organization, Al-Haq, Rule of Law, Self-determination