Human Rights and Racism: An Approach to reparations
Keywords:
International human rights, discrimination, international communityAbstract
International human rights law seeks to eliminate racial discrimination in the world through treaties that bind and norms that transform. Yet law's impact on eradicating racism has not matched its intent. Racism, in all of its forms, remains a massive cause of discrimination, indignity, and lack of equality for millions of people in the world today. This Article investigates why. Applying a critical race theory analysis of the legal history and doctrinal development of race and racism in international law, Professor Spain Bradley identifies law's historical preference for framing legal protections around the concept of racial discrimination. She further exposes that international law has neither explicitly defined nor prohibited racism. In response, Professor Spain Bradley advances a long-overdue claim: racism should be affirmatively and explicitly recognized as a human rights violation under international law. She argues that addressing racism in the world today requires understanding how human rights are violated by racial ideologies in addition to discriminatory acts. Insights from neuroscience about racial bias deepen these understandings. By naming "human rights racism" as the central challenge, this Article calls upon the international community to affirmatively recognize racism's extensive harm and to take more seriously it's eradication.
References
• Angela P. Harris, Foreword, in CITICAL THFOR1ES OF RACE AND RACISM IN WORLD PERSPECTrVE (2011).
• Harris, supra note 164.
• BALAKRISHNAN RAJAGOPAL, INTERNATIONAL LAW FROM BELOW: DEVELOPMENT, SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND THIRD WORLD RESISTANCE (2003); R. PAL, INTERNATIONAL MILITARY TRIBUNAL 1OR THE FAR EAST: DISSENTIENT JUDGEMENT OF JUSTICE 115 (1993).
• See generally Wendy Roth, Genetic Ancestry Tests Don't Change Your Identity, but You Might, THE CONVERSATION (July 4, 2018), https://theconversation.com/genetic-ancestry-tests-dont-change-youridentity-but-you-might-98663 [https://perma.cc/5AGT-Y2A9] (discussing how people use genetic tests, accurate interpretations of the findings, and the concept of racial identity).
• ANGHiE, supra note 32.
• AORIEN WING, CRITICAL RACE FEMINISM: A READER (1998).
• Crenshaw, supra note 301, at 2319.
• See Antony Anghie, What is TWAIL?: Comment, 94 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AM. Soc. OF INT'L L. ANNUAL MEETING 31, 39 (2000).
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