Human Rights and Gender Violence: Translating International Law into Local Justice (Chicago Series in Law and Society) Review

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Human Rights and Gender Violence: Translating International Law into Local Justice (Chicago Series in Law and Society) ReviewWe live in an era where both globalization and universalization of international legal discourse have become progressively dominant. On one hand these developments open up new political and socio-economic potentials for the world. On the other hand they stimulate further tensions between the global and the local. In particular, these tensions strongly affect the ability to implement international human rights, which have become strongly institutionalized by now. Sally Merry's book Human rights and Gender Violence: Translating International Law into Local Justice provides a valuable analysis of this theme. In fact, this book does much more that merely identifying these tensions; through a study of the translation of women rights from global into local contexts, Merry examines origins of the existing conflict between the two and presents suggestions for more effective approaches to cultural implications when dealing with the complexity of transnational struggle against human rights abuses.
As expected from a legal anthropologist, Merry combines international law and an ethnographic perspectives in her study of global activism, which characterized by its secular universalistic view, in relation to local realization and "vernacularization", done mainly by NGOs and activist on grass root level. In the beginning of her book she sketches out her (ethnographic) research method, which included attendance of several international conferences, background reading, three years of thorough study of United Nations meetings, extended research in Hawaii, relatively short visits of the Asia-Pacific region in Fiji, India, China, Hong Kong where she had the opportunity to interview local academics and activists. From a purely anthropological perspective Merry's approach could have been stronger if she had stayed for longer periods in different localities simply because her understanding of the subject would have had more time to develop. In addition, the view of one particular group most directly involved in the matter is not sufficiently discussed in this study, namely that of the victims of gender violence. Nevertheless, Merry's nuanced style and the use of geographic diversity add value to her engaging research.
Merry argues that although women's rights have been internationally formulated, the conceptualization of these rights remain problematic. Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination against Women came in 1979. Next to Commission on Human Rights, the UN took specific measures though appointing the Special Reporter on Violence against Women and establishing the Commission on the Status of Women. Nevertheless, it is still difficult to establish gender violence as human rights violations, because it is often perceived as "daily problem", incorporated in system of kinship, religion, welfare and nationalism. Gender violence either occurs in private sphere which makes it shielded from interference from outside or is packed in various concepts that are protected by the society, such as the practice of honor killings in Pakistan (p. 63). Even tough Merry strongly opposes such practices; she stresses the importance of understanding of particular histories, traditions and cultures.
Two main reasons are pointed out. First, generally unrecognized reason that the global human rights discourse established by state representatives and NGOs is narrow because of the uneven power relations that shaped it, and should therefore also be seen as part of a certain culture system, secular transitional modernity. Second, politicians and experts see customs as harmful practices and completely reject them, for they do not have the time to investigate how costumes can help protecting human rights. Merry explores the practice of Bulubulu in her research and uses it as an example to illustrate her point. Bulubulu, central in village life of Fiji, is a practice of reconciliation through apology and gift giving for an offence. It is a fundamentally different approach, with emphasis on reconciliation and avoiding vengeance, rather than punishing and deterring future offenders. The main goal is to restore peace in the community life. This local practice became embedded in the Fiji court system (customary law), but faced complete rejection by the UN committee of CEDAW, because of the relatively new use of Bulubulu in cases of rape (p.144).
Merry stresses the importance of contextualization of human rights strategies in order to be successful. Three forms of transnational cultural flow necessary for appropriation of human rights are distinguished. First, Merry emphasizes something that also Ignatieff argued in his article Human Rights as Politics and Idolatry, Praemium Erasmianum: it is crucial that transnational consensus is built, but it is only possible if consistency is maintained, especially by more influential Western states like the US. Second, transnational program transplantation must be done with use of local values, symbols and meanings through strengthening the national and local culture practices. An Na'im argues in the same direction when talking about human rights appropriation of Sharia in Areas of Expressions and the Universality of Human Rights: Mediation a Contingent Relationship. Last but not least, it is essential to localize transnational knowledge of human rights so that it becomes part of the local consciousness (p.179). Merry argues that international actors and local activist can form a link between the global and the local. Grass root activists can translate and negotiate the rights into frameworks that are relevant to the life situation of local people.
It would have been indeed like this if all grass root human rights activists truly represented the mainstream societies they live in; in reality, their beliefs are often strongly influenced by the global discourse. In addition, Merry tends to underestimate "harmful" practices and the resistance against the international human rights discourses. Traditions and customs are indeed not homogeneous and dynamic; it does not mean however that power holders in existing kinship, religious and cultural entities will easily allow significant change that would threaten their privileged position. While it is especially relevant in women rights and gender violence, Merry is eager to nuance here too strongly. Besides, as one of the case studies presented by Merry shows, women are "slow" to claim their rights (p.181). Reconsidering and contextualizing is undeniably necessary, but we might run into bigger obstacles than expected.
Human Rights and Gender Violence: Translating International Law into Local Justice (Chicago Series in Law and Society) Overview

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Caribbean Pleasure Industry: Tourism, Sexuality, and AIDS in the Dominican Republic (Worlds of Desire: The Chicago Series on Sexuality, Gender, and Culture) Review

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Caribbean Pleasure Industry: Tourism, Sexuality, and AIDS in the Dominican Republic (Worlds of Desire: The Chicago Series on Sexuality, Gender, and Culture) ReviewMost studies of sex tourism focus on female sex workers with foreign male clients. Even some studies look at men involved in sex work with foreign women. This book tries to fill in a gap by discussing Dominican men who sell sex to foreign male tourists. This book tries to break a rigid hetero/homo dichotomy by showing the many men who engage in hustling but with no desire for other males.
There is a rare but excellent anthology called "Caribbean Masculinities" and the author's contribution is reprinted here. Really, I hope this book is a sign that the author got tenure somewhere. The info in this book is similar to another study about "pingueros" in Cuba. Those who saw the French-language film "Vers le Sur" may also enjoy this.
The book NEVER mentions "the down-low" and this is understandable as the study takes place outside the United States. Nevertheless, for those interested in reading about Black men who get busy with men on the hush-hush, they'll want to read this book. The interviewees here never suggest that kicking it with men means they don't have women at home and desire women all the time. There's a lot of "don't ask, don't tell" here too. Relatives of these men don't question how men who are penniless on Friday afternoon can now pay the rent on Monday morning. There's also machismo here where women are conditioned not to question their male partners and these male sex workers can lie about getting with women when they are actually selling to men.
Let me mention the most important comment to me in this book: "[The Zona Colonial] also stands as the most vivid symbol of what has been described as a kind of Dominican "hispanophilia"--an exaggerated identification with all things of Spanish origin, and a simultaneous denial (and repression) of the African cultural influences on contemporary Dominican society" (81). A whole mess of books and word-of-mouth mention how Dominicans go out of their ways to downplay or deny being Black. While the author brings this up only once, I really wish he would have spoken about race more. He dances around it as many people in that nation do. A student could write an awesome paper comparing this book and "What's Love Got to Do with It?" and they will note how the latter is explicit about Blackness when the former plays into the denial.
Sometimes the book felt long-winded. However, this was not another anthropological text in which a writer just recalls, "First I did this, then I did that." This was an informative book about Black bisexuality in a transnational context.Caribbean Pleasure Industry: Tourism, Sexuality, and AIDS in the Dominican Republic (Worlds of Desire: The Chicago Series on Sexuality, Gender, and Culture) Overview

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Democracy Is in the Streets: From Port Huron to the Siege of Chicago, With a New Preface by the Author Review

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Democracy Is in the Streets: From Port Huron to the Siege of Chicago, With a New Preface by the Author ReviewThis is another history concerning the SDS, or the Students for a Democratic Society. Miller admits in the introduction that he was a member of SDS and is sympathetic to what they did or tried to do. Not only is this book shorter than Kirkpatrick Sale's excellent history of SDS, but its focus is different as well. Where Sale focuses on the group as a whole, Miller provides more of an intellectual history of SDS. Miller provides exacting detail on the early period of SDS, especially the convention that produced the Port Huron Statement. For a much more thorough and detailed history of the SDS, please refer to Kirkpatrick Sale's SDS.
I still really enjoyed reading Miller's book. I like books that discuss intellectual development, and this one certainly accomplishes that. There is even an entire chapter devoted to C. Wright Mills, the radical sociologist that so many in the New Left idolized. Mills's idea of publics and his concerns about technology spoke directly to the alienation many young leftists felt. Miller points out that both Mills and the New Left shared a crucial weakness; both articulated problems without posing any effective solutions. This is most apparent in the idea of participatory democracy, the cornerstone of Port Huron. This idea, much touted by SDS members for most of its history, was never adequately defined in the document. Miller shows that many of the SDS projects, such as ERAP, were attempts to put participatory democracy into practice. The end result was failure because a concept such as this would probably only work on an extremely small level. As more people are brought into the mix, participation becomes problematic because so many different ideas are brought forth. Process and decisions become arthritic and meetings drag on for hours without results.
Miller seems to bog down considerably when he moves into the second half of his work. He provides four accounts of four separate members of SDS, one of whom is of course Tom Hayden. The problem with this technique is that none of these members had much to do with SDS after 1965. The later struggles of SDS are subsumed under these four accounts. Therefore, not nearly enough detail is given to the PL-SDS and Weather split in 1969. For description of the old guard of SDS, Miller is an excellent source. Just don't expect to find out much about late 1960's SDS.Democracy Is in the Streets: From Port Huron to the Siege of Chicago, With a New Preface by the Author Overview

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