In the context of turbulent global politics and power shifts, the role of human rights in global politics is undergoing profound and rapid transformation. The pressures on human rights from the rise authoritarianism, the persistence of inequalities and mass atrocities, the double standards, the impunity and injustice to the unmapped threats posed by rapid technological advancements and climate emergency have led scholars to debate whether human rights are coming to an end. Yet, despite these challenges human rights discourses are still playing an important role in global politics. This panel considers the hegemonic role of human rights in global politics but also far-reaching questions about the human rights moral maze in this changing global order.
We invite contributions that study current developments in the human rights in global politics.
Papers could address, but are not limited to, the following questions/issues:
• What can a critical study of human rights, both at the national and the international levels, tell us about global politics and global power shift?
• How can non-Western approaches to rights challenge hegemonic discourses? Can they move human rights beyond state-centered frameworks?
• How can recent calls for decolonising human rights reshape the global politics? Are indigenous rights perspectives included or excluded?
• How does the normative architecture of global human rights regime evolve?
• How to study the role of the changing world order play in enabling or constraining human rights in global politics? What are the methodological challenges of exploring these dynamics?
• How can a study of human rights discourse during the global power shift reveal contribute to ongoing debates about morality and international relations?
• How are marginalised voices represented within the emerging debates in the field?
• What does it mean to label that human rights are under attack? What insights there are from historical precedents of global power shifts for the shifting hegemonic discourses?
