Challenging the Prevailing Paradigm of Displacement and Resettlement


Book Description

Development-caused forced displacement and resettlement (DFDR) is a critical problem on the international development agenda. The frequency of forced displacements is rapidly increasing, the sheer numbers of uprooted and impoverished people reveal fast accelerating trends, whilst government reporting remains poor and misleading. Challenging the Prevailing Paradigm of Displacement and Resettlement analyzes widespread impoverishment outcomes, ​risks to human rights, and other adverse impacts of displacement; it documents under-compensation of expropriated people, critiques cost externalization on resettlers, and points a laser light on the absence of protective, robust, and binding legal frameworks in the overwhelming majority of developing countries. In response, this book proposes constructive solutions to improve quality and measure the outcomes of forced resettlement, prevent the mass-manufacturing of new poverty, promote social justice, and respect human rights. It also advocates for the reparation of bad legacies left behind by failed resettlement. It brings together​ prominent scholars and practitioners from several countries who argue that states, development agencies, and private sector corporations which trigger displacements must adopt a "resettlement with development" paradigm. Towards this end, the book’s co-authors translate cutting edge research into legal, economic, financial, policy, and pragmatic operational recommendations. An inspiring and compelling guide to the field, Challenging the Prevailing Paradigm of Displacement and Resettlement will be of interest to university faculty, government officials, private corporations, researchers, ​and students in anthropology,​ economics,​ sociology, law, political science, human geography, and international development.




Law in the Pursuit of Development


Book Description

Law in the Pursuit of Development critically explores the relationships between contemporary principles and practice in law and development. Including papers by internationally renowned, as well as emerging, scholars and practitioners, the book is organized around the three liberal principles which underlie current efforts to direct law towards the pursuit of development. First, that the private sector has an important role to play in promoting the public interest; second, that widespread participation and accountability are essential to any large scale enterprise; and third, that the rule of law is a fundamental building block of development. This insightful and provocative collection, in which contributors critique both the principles and efforts to implement them in practice, will be of considerable interest to students, academics and practitioners with an interest in the fields of law and development, international economic law, and law and globalization.




Black Women and International Law


Book Description

From Compton to Cairo, Bahia to Brixton, black women have been disproportionally affected by poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, discrimination and violence. Despite being one of the largest and geographically dispersed groups in the world, they are rarely referenced or considered as a subject of analysis in international law literature. Thus, it is vital that scholars refashion global discourse by re-conceptualizing international law and relations from their unique experiences and perspectives. This collection covers a broad range of topics and issues that examine the complex interactions - as subjects and objects - between black women and international law. The book critically explores the manifold relationship between them with a view toward highlighting the historic and contemporary ways in which they have influenced and been influenced by transnational law, doctrine, norms, jurisprudence, public policy, public discourse and global governance. It purports to unearth old law and fashion new paradigms born out of the experiences of black women.




Widow Inheritance and Contested Citizenship in Kenya


Book Description

This book examines the practice of widow inheritance in order to explore the intersection between power, gender and sexualities in Kenya. Using widow inheritance amongst the Luo of Kenya as a case study, the book explores the role of body politics in the construction of gendered subjects and nations. Widow Inheritance and Contested Citizenship in Kenya unpacks how ‘respectable femininities’ and ‘wayward sexualities’ become the ‘sites’ within which national and state politics are ritualized and where tensions resulting from non-hegemonic performances of both gender and sexuality are ‘resolved’. The empirical research that underpins this book is qualitative and grounded in feminist methodology, challenging the erasure of women’s narratives in hegemonic epistemologies. Widow Inheritance and Contested Citizenship in Kenya will be of interest to students and scholars of African gender studies and women's rights.




Where There is No Government


Book Description

It is safe to say that a sizeable majority of the world's population would agree with the proposition that that property rights are important for political and social stability as well as economic growth. But what happens when the state fails to enforce such rights? Throughout sub-Saharan Africa, this is in fact an endemic problem. In Where There is No Government, Sandra Joireman explains how weak state enforcement regimes have allowed private institutions in sub-Saharan Africa to define and enforce property rights. After delineating the types of actors who step in when the state is absent--traditional tribal leaders, entrepreneurial bureaucrats, NGOs, and violent groups--she argues that the institutions they develop can be helpful or predatory depending on their incentives and context. Because such institutions are neither inherently good nor inherently bad, Joireman develops a set of measurement criteria to assess which types of property regimes and enforcement mechanisms are helpful and which are harmful to social welfare. By focusing on the varieties of property rights enforcement in Ghana, Kenya and Uganda, Joireman moves beyond simply evaluating the effectiveness of official property rights laws. Provocatively, she also challenges the premise that changes in property law will lead to changes in property rights on the ground. Indeed, states that change their property laws face challenges in implementation when they do not control the authority structures in local communities. Utilizing original research on the competitors to state power in Sub-Saharan Africa and the challenges of providing secure and defensible property rights, Where There is No Government is a sharp analysis of one of the most daunting challenges facing the African subcontinent today.




The Oxford Handbook of Feminist Theology


Book Description

This volume highlights the relevance of globalization and the insights of gender studies and religious studies for feminist theology. It focuses on the changing global contexts for the field and its movement towards new models of theology, distinct from the forms of traditional Christian systematic theology and of secular feminism.







Women's Land Rights & Privatization in Eastern Africa


Book Description

Are women's fragile land rights in Africa being eroded in a period of privatisation and land reforms sponsored by the World Bank? Changing global employment and trade patters and the HIV/AIDS epidemic has affected women in particular. A complexity is that women's and men's interests within households are both joint and separate, yet many land reform programmes are based on the notion of a unitary household in which resources benefit the whole family. Today new land market opportunities also tend to put women at a disadvantage, just as they were under colonialism. Women's secondary rights to land are being extinguished. The detailed, local level research in this volume not only challenges the status quo, but demonstrates that another world is possible and documents the many ways women in Eastern Africa are finding to ensure their rights to land.




Women's Human Rights


Book Description

According to Susan Deller Ross, many human rights advocates still do not see women's rights as human rights. Yet women in many countries suffer from laws, practices, customs, and cultural and religious norms that consign them to a deeply inferior status. Advocates might conceive of human rights as involving torture, extrajudicial killings, or cruel and degrading treatment—all clearly in violation of international human rights—and think those issues irrelevant to women. Yet is female genital mutilation, practiced on millions of young girls and even infants, not a gross violation of human rights? When a family decides to murder a daughter in the name of "honor," is that not an extrajudicial killing? When a husband rapes or savagely beats his wife, knowing the legal authorities will take no action on her behalf, is that not cruel and degrading treatment? Women's Human Rights is the first human rights casebook to focus specifically on women's human rights. Rich with interdisciplinary material, the book advances the study of the deprivation and violence women suffer due to discriminatory laws, religions, and customs that deny them their most fundamental freedoms. It also provides present and future lawyers the legal tools for change, demonstrating how human rights treaties can be used to obtain new laws and court decisions that protect women against discrimination with respect to employment, land ownership, inheritance, subordination in marriage, domestic violence, female genital mutilation, polygamy, child marriage, and the denial of reproductive rights. Ross examines international and regional human rights treaties in depth, including treaty language and the jurisprudence and general interpretive guidelines developed by human rights bodies. By studying how international human rights law has been and can be implemented at the domestic level through local courts and legislatures, readers will understand how to call upon these newly articulated human rights to help bring about legislation, court decisions, and executive action that protect women from human rights violations.