Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Chapter I Introduction
- Chapter II Denialism and the Problem of Indifference
- Chapter III Denial and Acknowledgment in Public Responses to Information about Human Rights Violations
- PART I CHILDREN'S RIGHTS
- PART II GENOCIDE
- PART III (INTER)NATIONAL ORGANISATIONS
- PART IV NEW PENOLOGY
- PART V SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND CULTURAL RIGHTS
- About the Authors
- Maastricht Series in Human Rights
Chapter I - Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 September 2018
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Chapter I Introduction
- Chapter II Denialism and the Problem of Indifference
- Chapter III Denial and Acknowledgment in Public Responses to Information about Human Rights Violations
- PART I CHILDREN'S RIGHTS
- PART II GENOCIDE
- PART III (INTER)NATIONAL ORGANISATIONS
- PART IV NEW PENOLOGY
- PART V SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND CULTURAL RIGHTS
- About the Authors
- Maastricht Series in Human Rights
Summary
‘After having rejected the scientific wisdom about AIDS, former South African president Thabo Mbeki and his government were directly responsible for many avoidable deaths according to research by Harvard University’. (The Guardian, 2008)
‘A discussion paper on Rwanda, prepared by an official in the Office of the Secretary of Defense stated: “Be Careful. Legal at State was worried about this yesterday – Genocide finding could commit [the US government] to actually ‘do something’.”’ (Power, 2001)
‘In 2001, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would have required United States importers and manufacturers to certify and label their products “slave free.” The defendants and others in the chocolate industry rallied against the bill, urging instead the adoption of a private, voluntary enforcement mechanism. A voluntary enforcement system was eventually adopted, a result that, according to the plaintiffs, “in effect guarantee[d] the continued use of the cheapest labour available to produce [cocoa] – that of child slaves.”’ (Doe v. Nestlé USA, Inc. 2014)
‘“The majority of civilians in Syria continues to bear the brunt of the ongoing conflict,” the head of a United Nations-appointed human rights panel said today, noting that violence has escalated to an unprecedented level, humanitarian aid is arbitrarily denied and perpetrators of crimes have no fear of consequence.’ (UN News Centre 2014)
RATIONALE OF THIS BOOK
The cases above illustrate that the safeguarding of human rights remains problematic, despite the proliferation of human rights instruments and the many actions taken by a variety of actors, such as governmental and non-governmental organisations, (individual) states and the international community in recent decades. Human rights violations do still occur and injustice remains rampant. Central to this problem appears to be that social, economic, cultural and political structures in societies provide for denialist defence mechanisms. Such deeply embedded denialism causes and/or facilitates human rights violations, because the true nature of the problems involved remains fully or partly unacknowledged and as a result appropriate action is not taken. In order to safeguard the effctuation of human rights, it is thus pertinent to acknowledge and address this problem of denialism and develop strategies to move beyond it.
To address the above-mentioned problem, an international conference was organised on the theme of Denialism and Human Rights by the Maastricht Centre for Human Rights.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Denialism and Human Rights , pp. 1 - 8Publisher: IntersentiaPrint publication year: 2016