The Pluriverse of Human Rights: The Diversity of Struggles for Dignity: The Diversity of Struggles for Dignity (Epistemologies of the South)

The impasse currently affecting human rights as a language used to express struggles for dignity is, to a large extent, a reflection of the epistemological and political exhaustion which blights the global North. Since the global hegemony of human rights as a language for human dignity is nowadays incontrovertible, the question of whether it can be used in a counter-hegemonic sense remains open. Inspired by struggles from all corners of the world that reveal the potential but, above all, the limitations of human rights, this book offers a highly conditional response. The prevailing notion of human rights today, as the hegemonic language of human dignity, can only be resignified on the basis of answers to simple questions: why does so much unjust human suffering exist that is not considered a violation of human rights? Do other languages of human dignity exist in the world? Are these other languages compatible with the language of human rights? Obviously, we can only find satisfactory answers to these questions if we are able to envisage a radical transformation of what is nowadays known as human rights. Herein lies the challenge posed by the Epistemologies of the South: reconciling human rights with the different languages and forms of knowledge born out of struggles for human dignity. The impasse affecting human rights as a language used to express struggles for dignity reflects the epistemological and political exhaustion which blights the global North. Inspired by struggles from all corners of the world, this book offers a highly conditional response to the prevailing notion of human rights today. Cover 1 Half Title 2 Series Page 3 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Table of Contents 6 List of Contributors 8 Preface 12 Acknowledgements 14 Introduction 16 Part I Human Frontiers 34 Chapter 1 Human Rights, Democracy and Development 36 Chapter 2 “A Being Who is Not Made to Suffer”: On the Difference of the Human and on the Differences of Humans 56 Chapter 3 On the Coloniality of Human Rights 77 Part II Struggles and Emergences 98 Chapter 4 Revisiting the Bhopal Disaster: Times of Violence and Latitudes of Memory 100 Chapter 5 Pluralism and the Post-Minority Condition: Reflections on the “Pasmanda Muslim” Discourse in North India 121 Chapter 6 Picturing Law, Reform and Sexual Violence: Notes on the Delhi Protests of 2012–2013 143 Chapter 7 Women and Mass Violence in Mozambique during the Late Colonial Period 163 Chapter 8 Women’s Human Rights, Legal Mobilization and Epistemologies of the South 183 Chapter 9 The Power of Racism in Academia: Knowledge Production and Political Disputes 201 Chapter 10 The Roma Collective Memory and the Epistemological Limits of Western Historiography 220 Chapter 11 Rights, Confinement and Liberation: Rearguard Theory and Freedom of Movements 233 Chapter 12 The Mediterranean as the EU Human Rights Boundary 252 Conclusion 271 Human,Rights;,Democracy;,Development;,Coloniality;,Mass,Violence;,Pluralism;,Legal,Mobilization;,Racism;,Western,Historiography;,Liberation;,Freedom,of,Movements;,Confinement Human Rights,Democracy,Development,Coloniality,Mass Violence,Pluralism,Legal Mobilization,Racism,Western Historiography,Liberation,Freedom of Movements,Confinement