Advocating Dignity: Human Rights Mobilizations in Global Politics

Preface

Preface The origin of this book in some ways reflects my own intellectual biography as a German historian. It follows from my earlier study of the medical philanthropic associations run by patriotic women in the territories of Germany during the long nineteenth century. In the l860s, when many Central European states signed the Geneva Conventions, these associations became part of the state and, after the wars of unification, the national German Red Cross. These ties drew me to the International Red Cross and Crescent movement and its wartime humanitarian relief services and also, for the first time, to international law. I had to grapple with many problems at the heart of this project on human rights: for example, the place of norms in power politics, of rights traditions in state-building, and of the role of history-writing in the struggle for a more just and peaceful world order. My readings on the International Committee of the Red Cross also pushed my interests beyond German borders and into a world of transnational networks and connections. To place this book solely in the context of scholarly research, however, misses much of its passion. As a historian, I always have been deeply committed to teaching and writing about a past that is vital to the present. I tell my students that history is one of the great humanistic disciplines because it continuously speaks to the concerns and issues of each new generation. This book, I hope, practices what I preach. Based on my years as a working historian, this book reflects my conviction that historical perspectives are necessary for critical understanding of present-day challenges. As a historical inquiry, the book explores the emergence and development of human rights thinking and organizing and their impact on the course of global and domestic politics since l945. And it does so partly by drawing on the voices, perspectives, and activities of the many courageous individuals and groups who took up the struggle for human rights in specific local, transnational, and international contexts. Much is at stake in writing about human rights advocacy. The topic captures many ethical visions of a different future premised on human dignity: of global justice, equality, and nondiscrimination; of individual xii Preface and group empowerment; and of meeting basic human and security needs in the face of armed struggle, environmental degradation, famines , and poverty. Their advocacy brought these principles to the intersection of clashing community, state, and global power interests. A major challenge has been to find the right voice for this book—to balance my own personal values and strong commitment to international human rights and humanitarian laws and norms with the need to offer historically precise accounts of the compromises and impediments that have affected the history. I have not shied away from confronting the limitations of human rights work, which had its own biases and uneven application. It was as flawed and imperfect as the human beings who originally created and then defended it from their own understandings, interests, and values. In confronting these conflicting pulls, I hope I have struck the right tone. In writing this book, I have drawn widely from many fields of inquiry, including legal studies, philosophy, international relations theory, and political science, as well as women’s and gender history. In addition, I have read broadly in the literature written by the activists themselves, from prominent U.N. staff to the founders of mainstream international nongovernmental organizations to those running refugee camps and providing humanitarian relief during times of war and civil strife to the people involved in the day-to-day campaigns for justice and equity. Each writes from his or her passionate and particular point of view. As a project with a global reach for both specialists and the interested public, the book makes extensive use of secondary literature. It is not a traditional historical monograph rooted in archival materials but nonetheless uses primary sources. I have consulted a number of archives, notably for the background contexts, working in the repositories of the international socialist movement (the International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam) and also the archives and historical libraries of international feminism, namely The Women’s Library (the Fawcett Library) in London and the International Information Centre and Archives for the Women’s Movement in Amsterdam. In this age of the World Wide Web, furthermore, archival sources are available online, including extensive records of the African National Congress, the domestic organization at the center...