Unit 5: Resolving Conflicting Claims for Justice: Revisiting the Individual-Collective Debate
What happens when populations disagree about issues of fairness? In this unit, we analyze global justice in terms of resolving these conflicting claims. How can we apply the theories we have discussed to situations where individuals, groups, and communities make competing claims for justice?
Most societies have conflict resolution mechanisms to mete out justice. Do parallel mechanisms exist for global justice? What do we do when individuals and communities have competing claims of justice? This unit examines two contexts: gender and sexuality (female genital mutilation, FGM, and sexual orientation), and race and ethnicity (self-determination and genocide).
Completing this unit should take you approximately 5 hours.
Upon successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- describe individual-community rights tensions through the theoretical lens of global justice;
- examine arguments communities have made that support or reject the claims of communities for self-determination in contrast to the claims of states for sovereignty;
- discuss specific situations where individuals' and communities' claims for justice may clash and how such competing claims may be reconciled; and
- examine the ramifications of genocide for global justice as it pertains to both individuals and groups.
5.1: Individuals, Communities, and the Pursuit of Justice
We often interpret human rights documents as applying solely, or primarily, to individuals. However, specific groups often have an interest in protecting certain rights for their entire community. In some cases, it makes sense to understand rights as communal, but they can also conflict with interpretations of individual rights. In other cases, a compelling public interest may provide grounds for undermining individual rights to protect everyone.
This article asks whether governments must provide for and protect immigrants and migrant workers' human rights in their territories. The author argues that international law creates protections for immigrant rights as a minority group, but few practical tools are in place to ensure states respect these fundamental rights. Pay attention to the case studies provided and how they present these issues.
Read this article, which explores the tensions between individual and collective human rights by examining public health policies surrounding drug-resistant forms of tuberculosis. Public health is one functional policy area where it is virtually impossible to protect individuals' and groups' human rights equally.
5.2: Gender and Sexuality: Female Genital Mutilation
This section offers a deep dive into a major issue of gender violence in some parts of the world. While female genital mutilation has cultural roots in the places where it is practiced, it is widely considered a significant violation of women's rights, both for individuals subjected to the practice and for women as a group. This practice contrasts the individual's rights with those of the group, and conflicts between two different groups over their access to rights.
This article considers attempts to medicalize traditional practices of female genital cutting to make them safer but still comply with tradition's demands. The author argues that no form of FGC can be ethical due to the procedure's long-lasting negative impact on women's health and their place in society. Consider this issue from the perspective of an individual versus the group.
As you read the next two articles, pay attention to the underlying rationale for this practice's existence and perpetuation. In what ways do the authors frame their debate into a human rights context? Are there any inherent tensions in applying a human rights approach to this practice?
This article uses the framework of the Ghanaian constitution to examine how a cultural, religious practice can violate individual human rights and the rights of a specific group: women and girls. In this case, the author argues that the freedom of religion enshrined in the constitution must not override women's and girls' constitutional rights. How does this issue relate to other conflicts between individual and group rights you have learned about? What about the conflict between rights for two groups: followers of a specific religion versus women and girls?
5.3: Gender and Sexuality: Sexual Orientation
While human sexuality and gender expression have always varied widely and been expressed in different ways, in recent years, there has been a greater acknowledgment of this diversity, accompanied by debate over the rights of LGBTI people. While these rights remain contentious, activists are working to promote members of this community's individual and group rights.
Read this introduction to the human rights issues that most commonly impact members of the LGBTI community, and the human rights frameworks used to defend their rights. This is an evolving area in international human rights law. As you read how international human rights law applies to the LGBTI community, consider what changes are still necessary to protect this group.
This article digs deeper into how discrimination against members of the LGBTI community affects them in daily life. The first section studies how anti-LGBTI bullying, harassment, and violence affects youth. This issue demonstrates an overlap of two groups who may need extra protection under human rights law: the LGBTI community and children. Consider how issues affecting the LGBTI community might overlap with other marginalized groups and how this affects individual lives.
This chapter examines how human rights, based on gender and sexual orientation, intersect with indigenous sovereignty and group rights. It examines the history of nonbinary genders among indigenous peoples, and how colonization erased and discriminated against them. How do these legacies continue to affect Native peoples of all genders today? Once again, this situation displays the intersection of group, community, and individual rights.
In 2011, the United Nations issued their first report on the human rights of LGBTI people around the world. In 2015, this report described how states improved their protection of LGBTI rights and the major issues they still need to address.
5.4: Race, Ethnicity, and Indigeneity: The Identity Bridge between Individuals and Communities
Group and community rights raise questions about maintaining culture, especially for indigenous peoples whose lands were colonized, whose cultures were systematically destroyed, and whose populations were forced to assimilate to the culture of the colonizer. Today, the preservation of cultural identity is a crucial issue for indigenous peoples around the world.
Read this statement, which presents the concept of cultural rights with a report on the author's experience investigating this issue in Brazil. Pay particular attention to who gets to decide what qualifies as cultural heritage and the power relationships involved in that process.
This article digs deeper into the question of how to define and protect cultural rights. Consider the author's arguments about cultural identity not being static. How do we preserve and protect cultures that are in flux?
This article considers the idea of viewing indigeneity as a "natural" versus a political category. As you read, consider the differences between these categories. How does this designation affect indigenous people?
5.5: Self-Determination and Sovereignty
For many indigenous peoples, sovereignty and self-governance are even more important than cultural rights. While sovereignty – the full right and power to govern oneself – is considered a human right, it has been undermined for indigenous peoples, who are often minorities in their lands of origin. The following resources break down how the United Nations has approached this issue and how indigenous peoples continue to fight to preserve or re-establish sovereignty.
The U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) was adopted in 2007 and sought to address some of the specific rights and protections that apply uniquely to indigenous peoples worldwide. As you read the declaration, pay attention to what these rights are and how they compare to other group and individual rights you have studied in this course.
Read this overview of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA). Pay special attention to the history section and its explanation of the need for the Act. How do issues like adoption and family separation affect the sovereignty and cultural rights of tribes?
This article summarizes the state of indigenous rights today. It discusses how international law, specifically the Rome Statute, was used to defend indigenous rights. Pay particular attention to how Guatemala used the Rome Statute to alter its national laws and address crimes against indigenous peoples. What other rights and issues do they address here? How do these rights intersect with indigenous rights?
5.6: Genocide
The term genocide emerged during and after World War II to refer to the deliberate attempt to destroy a people, as typically defined by nationality, race, ethnicity, or religion. While we can identify other acts of genocide throughout history, the Holocaust in Europe was so large in scale and so horrifying in its brutality that it helped create this new term. This section starts with the U.N. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide but then digs into some less well-known or clearly-defined acts of genocide, and how they affect communities.
Read this document and think about its historical context. This convention was adopted in the immediate aftermath of World War II and the Holocaust. Consider how events shaped the creation of the document. Also, pay attention to other genocides that may seem less obvious, such as "imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group" and "transferring children of the group to another group". How do these measures contribute to the destruction of the kinds of groups the convention identifies? How do these issues relate to the ideas we have discussed in previous units?
This short article examines the American government's policy of forced sterilization against Native Americans as recently as the 1970s, and the role physicians and healthcare providers played in perpetuating those policies. Consider this in connection with the definition of genocide the previous source provides, and within the context of the indigenous rights we discussed in the last section.
Explore this short article from the Coalition for the International Criminal Court which describes the plight of the Rohingya who live in the country of Myanmar (formerly called Burma). Think about the evidence presented in this case, the country's situation, and whether the case has been brought to trial. What does genocide or attempted genocide look like today? How is justice served, or miscarried, in its aftermath?
Here is a second article from the Coalition for the International Criminal Court to explore. This article decries Jordan's "failure to comply" with its obligation to the ICC "to arrest former Sudan President Omar Al-Bashir during his visit to the Jordan territory in 2017." As with the article you just read, think about the evidence presented in this case, the country's situation, and whether the case has been brought to trial. What does genocide or attempted genocide look like today? How is justice served, or miscarried, in its aftermath?
Read this short article for the International Criminal Court which looks at the role of international justice and its role in preventing genocide.
Unit 5 Current Events Exercise
While this exercise is optional, you are strongly encouraged to complete it. This activity is designed to deepen your understanding of course material by linking such material to current events. Follow the instructions in the document. It may be beneficial to present your findings and answers to the questions by posting to the course discussion forum and responding to other students' posts.