Watch the videos and see images of the conference, supported by UJN, on this page below.
The material is appropriate for older high school and university students. Lectures average 15 – 25 minutes.
Conference Overview
In a heightened era of American Exceptionalism under an overtly chauvinistic President and administration, the event was convened to unmask the more systemic problems that undergird US Exceptionalism. In particular this conference focussed on the Americanisation of Human Rights, and the praxis of human rights, arguing that they have become a tool of US led foreign policy rather than a transformative discourse that seeks to liberate individuals, groups and indeed large sections of society who are oppressed by unjust systems.
The conference was convened in two parts:
(i) The US Model and Praxis of Human Rights
How has advocacy and narrative changed over the last fifty years?
How does it need to change to tackle manifest injustice in the contemporary era?
Issues for possible discussion:
Institutionalisation of American Exceptionalism in International Organisations e.g UN, Security Council, World Bank, IMF, WTO
The War on Terror
The War(s) on Drugs
The roll out of COINTELPRO type measures and its impact on global human rights advocacy
Americo-centrism
The Double Standards of American Exceptionalism and the American Discourse of Human Rights
American Exceptionalism as a Domination Policy of Human Rights
American Globalisation of Human Rights
Americanisation of Human Rights
Americanisation, Power, Hate Policy and Human Rights
(ii) The US as a failed state
How and what do current modes of human rights narrative and praxis mask internal injustices, indeed the contradiction at the heart of the US State?
Issues for possible discussion:
The Prison Industrial Complex
Guantanamo and the Guantanamisation of the US
Black, Latina, Indigenous and other Narratives of Oppression and Liberation
With presentations from Saied R. Ameli, Laurens de Rooij, Mary K. Ryan, Saeed A. Khan, Tasneem Chopra, Sandew Hira, Ramon Grosfoguel, Rajeesh Kumar and Sohail Daulatzai.
Find out more about the book of the same name here*.
Watch below.
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