Human rights and power amid protest and change in the Arab world.
The stunning popular uprisings in the Arab world in 2011 inaugurated an era of protest, revolutions and political transitions, on the one hand, and heightened repression, civil war and renewed authoritarianism, on the other. During this era the human rights paradigm was often at the fore of politica...
| Published in: | Third World Quarterly Vol. 36; no. 6; pp. 1207 - 1222 |
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| Format: | Article |
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Taylor & Francis Ltd
Jun2015
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=103644505&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 103644505 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 01436597 TWQ jtl: Third World Quarterly issn: 01436597 maglogo: Y pubinfo: dt: Jun2015 vid: 36 iid: 6 pid: 377 pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd artinfo: ui: 103644505 10.1080/01436597.2015.1047213 ppf: 1207 ppct: 15 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T db: hlh ui: 103644505 – @attributes: type: P db: hlh ui: 103644505 tig: atl: Human rights and power amid protest and change in the Arab world. aug: au: Mokhtari, Shadi affil: School of International Service, American University, Washington, DC, USA su: Middle East Arab countries Human rights Social justice Authoritarianism Political participation Arab Spring Uprisings, 2010-2012 Tunisian politics & government, 2011- Egyptian politics & government sug: subj: Human rights Social justice Authoritarianism Political participation Middle East Arab countries Arab Spring Uprisings, 2010-2012 Tunisian politics & government, 2011- Egyptian politics & government keyword: Arab uprisings Arab world human rights Arab uprisings Arab world human rights ab: The stunning popular uprisings in the Arab world in 2011 inaugurated an era of protest, revolutions and political transitions, on the one hand, and heightened repression, civil war and renewed authoritarianism, on the other. During this era the human rights paradigm was often at the fore of political and social contests, repeatedly being claimed, co-opted and appropriated. This paper argues that within the Middle East’s uprisings and transitions, deployments of human rights had notable emancipatory effects; yet invocations of the discourse continued to emerge from, converge with or (re)produce various power-laden domestic and international political dynamics. The human rights paradigm served as a primary discourse of the most serious challenge to Arab authoritarianism and its Western sponsorship in contemporary history, with the outcome in Tunisia exemplifying its potential to influence both the processes and substance of genuine political change. The period’s events and ethos also created openings for rights claims to be made by marginalised groups and facilitated local actors’ agency in driving the region’s human rights politics and agendas after decades of ‘human rights in the Arab world’ being a discourse largely driven by foreign actors. Yet the paradigm was also frequently curtailed or instrumentalised by local rulers and Western powers clinging to longstanding authoritarian arrangements, as well as by emergent political actors vying for power. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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