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Human Rights

California State University, Dominguez Hills
Created: December 28, 2001
Latest update: December 28, 2001
E-Mail :jeannecurran@habermas.org.

Journal of Human Rights

On Friday, December 28, 2001, Ian Harris posted this notice of a new Journal of Human Rights on the PEC list:

From Thomas Cushman:
Subject: Announcement of New Journal

This is a message to the section officers, council, media editors, and Committee Chairs of the ASA Section on Peace, War, and Social Conflict. I am hoping that those of you in these central positions can circulate this message to other members of the section and to the ASA more generally in the hope of involving sociologists in the emerging global discourse on human rights. p> I am the founding editor of a new journal called The Journal of Human Rights, which will be published by Taylor and Francis and appear in January 2002. Prior to that, I had been the editor of Human Rights Review (and the founder as well) which was published by Transaction. For various reasons, I resigned as editor of HRR and have constituted this new journal on a bigger and better scale. I have the full support of Taylor and Francis in this venture and , therefore, expect the journal to have a global reach and impact.

What is most notable about the new journal is its active involvement of sociologists on the editorial board and in the publication of articles. As you know, human rights has become a very big issue in global society. Both the American Anthropological Association and the American Association of Political Science have sections on human rights. Sociology does not, although I believe that this is not indicative at all of sociology's relevance to the the study of human rights. In fact, over the last three years, I have come to understand that sociology is central to the study of human rights, as some notable sociologists such as Gideon Sjoberg and Bryan S. Turner have been arguing. The sheer number of substantive areas in sociology which deals with questions of rights is amazing: immigration, inequality, conflict, war, genocide, globalization, etc. are all areas in which sociologists can contribute to the emerging discourse on human rights. I believe it is imperative for sociologists not to be "left behind" in what promises to be a central "Weltgeist" over the next decades -- indeed, I believe that sociologists, with their unique perspectives, can make a significant contribution to the analysis of issues related to human rights.

The Section for Peace, War, and Social Conflict is an ideal space within which to begin to forge out a discussion of the relevance of sociology to human rights. Clearly, this is going on already in various ways, but I would like to work toward formalizing and institutionalizing the discussion of human rights among sociologists. I would appreciate any ideas that members might have and I anticipate having a "wine and cheese" gathering at the 2002 ASA meetings for those who are interested in discussing sociology and human rights and finding out more about The Journal of Human Rights. Also, I will be making available free sample copies of the first few issues of the journal for anyone who is interested.

I would also like to offer some preliminary information about The Journal of Human Rights in the hope that more sociologists will be aware of it and consider it as a place to publish their work. As editor, I intend to foster the work of sociologists on human rights issues. Already, in early issues, we have contributions from Zygmunt Bauman, Bryan S. Turner, Anthony Elliott, Charles Tilly, Keith Tester, John Torpey, and several other leading sociologists. Our editorial board includes many leading sociologists in this area.

All of you can expect to receive soon formal materials advertising the journal, but for now, I wanted to make available some basic information about what we are, who is involved, and the kinds of things we are publishing in the first year. I hope you will circulate this to your colleagues and consider making a contribution to the journal. I invite you to query me at any time to discuss articles, ideas, etc. related to The Journal of Human Rights. I look forward to engaging in dialogue with you and other sociologists in this exciting venture.

Sincerely,
Thomas Cushman
Professor of Sociology<
Editor, The Journal of Human Rights

The Journal of Human Rights: Aims and Scope

In recent years there has been an exponential growth of interest in the study and practice of human rights. The cultural discourse of human rights has become increasingly globalized and now serves as the basis for legal and normative frameworks and social relations in a variety of geographical, social, and cultural settings. In addition, new social organizations and forms of political action are grounded in the idea of human rights. Scholarship on key issues in human rights has also burgeoned and includes scholars from a wide range of perspectives and disciplines.

The Journal of Human Rights serves as an interdisciplinary arena for the for public discussion and scholarly analysis of human rights, broadly conceived. It seeks to broaden the study of human rights by fostering critical re-examination of existing approaches to human rights and developing new perspectives on the theory and practice of human rights, as well as new empirical approaches to the study of human rights. The journal provides the opportunity for the critical examination of the human rights community and of the different visions of human rights and different practical strategies which exist within that community. The editor welcomes papers from scholars and disciplines traditionally associated with the study of human rights, as well as papers from those in other disciplines or fields of inquiry which have traditionally been underrepresented in the field of human rights. The Journal of Human Rights is committed to theoretical and ideological diversity in the study of human rights, to the fostering of international and global perspectives on human rights, and to explanding the discourse on human rights to include voices from different cultural and religious traditions and native and indigenous peoples. The editor welcomes ideas for special issues, symposia, and reviews from scholars and practitioners of human rights.

Confirmed editorial board: Kenneth Anderson, American University
Ivo Banac, Yale University
Michael Barnett, University of Wisconsin
Michael Davis, University of Hong Kong
Nicolas de Warren, Wellesley College
Jack Donnelly, University of Denver
Costas Douzinas, Birbeck College, London
William R. Garrett, St. Michaels College
Todd Gitlin, New York University
Richard J. Goldstone, Constitutional Court of South Africa
Rhoda Howard-Hassmann, University of Connecticut
Michael Ignatieff, Harvard University
Thomas Keenan, Bard College
Ben Kiernan, Yale University
Eric Markusen, Danish Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies
Sally Merry, Wellesley College
Adam Michnik, Gazeta Wyborcza, Warsaw, Poland
Andrew Nathan, Columbia University
Martha C. Nussbaum, University of Chicago
Michael Perry, Wake Forest University
Vesna Petrovic, Belgrade Center for Human Rights
Sabrina Ramet, University of Trondheim, Norway
David Rieff, New York City
John Rodden, University of Texas at Austin
Nancy Scheper-Hughes, University of California, Berkeley
Gideon Sjoberg, University of Texas at Austin
Charles Taylor, McGill University
Keith Tester, University of Portsmouth
John Torpey, University of British Columbia
Bryan S. Turner, University of Cambridge
Arne Johan Vetlesen, University of Oslo

Table of Contents for Volume One, Number One:
Journal of Human Rights
Volume 1, Number 1
March 2002

Atrocity, Memory, Photography: Imaging the Concentration Camps of Bosnia ­ The Case of ITN versus Living Marxism, Part I.
David Campbell

Symbolic Closure through Memory, Reparation, and Revenge in post-Conflict Societies.
Brandon Hamber and Richard Wilson

Pacifism, Ideology, and the Human Right of Self-Defense
Jan Narveson

Introducing Human Rights into Conflict Resolution: The Relevance for the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process
Edy Kaufman and Ibrahim Bisharat

Genocide and Humanitarian Intervention
Jack Donnelly

A Symposium on Kosovo: David Rieff, Thomas Weiss, and Mary Kaldor

Review Essays

  • The Logic of Opposition

    • Charles Tilly on Uncivil War. Intellectuals and Identity Politics During the Decolonization of Algeria

  • States, Citizenship and Human Rights

    • Bryan Turner and Thomas Cushman on Human Rights as Politics and Idolatry by Michael Ignatieff (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2001)
    • John Torpey on Stay the Hand of Vengeance: The Politics of War Crimes Tribunals