Rhetoric in Human Rights Advocacy: A Study of Exemplars PDF
Preview Rhetoric in Human Rights Advocacy: A Study of Exemplars
RHETORIC IN HUMAN RIGHTS ADVOCACY RHETORIC IN HUMAN RIGHTS ADVOCACY A Study of Exemplars Richard K. Ghere LEXINGTON BOOKS Lanham • Boulder • New York • London PublishedbyLexingtonBooks AnimprintofTheRowman&LittlefieldPublishingGroup,Inc. 4501ForbesBoulevard,Suite200,Lanham,Maryland20706 www.rowman.com UnitA,WhitacreMews,26-34StannaryStreet,LondonSE114AB Copyright©2015byLexingtonBooks Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereproducedinanyformorby anyelectronicormechanicalmeans,includinginformationstorageandretrieval systems,withoutwrittenpermissionfromthepublisher,exceptbyareviewer whomayquotepassagesinareview. BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationInformationAvailable LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Ghere,RichardK.,1945- Rhetoricinhumanrightsadvocacy:astudyofexemplars/RichardK.Ghere. pagescm Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN978-0-7391-9393-8(cloth:alk.paper)--ISBN978-0-7391-9394-5(electronic) 1.Humanrightsadvocacy.2.Rhetoric.I.Title. JC571.G4482015 323.01'4--dc23 2015002887 TMThepaperusedinthispublicationmeetstheminimumrequirementsof AmericanNationalStandardforInformationSciencesPermanenceofPaperfor PrintedLibraryMaterials,ANSI/NISOZ39.48-1992. PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica CONTENTS Preface vii 1 Introduction:RhetoricandHumanRightsAdvocacy 1 2 AdvocacyRhetoricthroughThickandThin:AConceptual Backdrop 23 3 RhetoricinMoralCrises 47 4 RhetoricinMoralConfrontations 93 withYoussefFarhat 5 RhetoricinMoralProjects 133 6 RhetoricinMoralWork 177 7 DialecticalHumanRightsAdvocacy 217 Bibliography 245 Index 255 AbouttheAuthor 269 v PREFACE O n a chilly winter afternoon in 1981, a window display at a bookstore near Boston University caught my attention as I walked toward Marsh Chapel onthe otherside ofCommonwealthAvenue. Specifically, Ispot- tedtwolight-bluesweatshirts,bothwithfacialsilhouettesoffamousduos on their fronts. One featured “Steve and Idi” with representations of a well-known vocalist of the 1960s and the third president of Uganda. The other displayed “Ike and Tina” with the thirty-fourth President of the United States and an entertainer sometimes called “the queen of rock.” Why I did not cross the street to purchase one or both, I cannot recall— whether a case of a lack of cash (as often the case at that time) or of initiative. Thatwindowdisplayflashedbackinmymindsometwelveyearslater when Icame across aterrific bookonpublic ethics that offered compari- sons of some public servants whose careers exemplified the loftiest of ethical standards with others of lesser scruples. Through their novel for- mat, Terry Cooper and Dale Wright—editors of Exemplars in Public Administration (1992)—invited readers to evaluate how exemplars ap- proached their public callings, some with ferocious integrity and others with quite less. CooperandWrightchallenged meto discern howethical character makes a qualitative difference in public service; but beyond that, they prodded their readers to determine how contextual circum- stancessurroundingthesepublicofficialsimpingedupontheiractions.In this respect, strong character and principles are to be celebrated, so long asindividualscanpersevereoverthelonghaultotacklethecomplexities vii viii PREFACE and frustrations of their work. Suffice it to say that I am grateful to both Terry and Dale for their book that now provides a cogent model to char- acterizehumanrightsadvocacyinpraxis,especiallyintermsoftherheto- ricandnarrativesthatparticularrightsexemplarsemploytosupporttheir appeals. A number of events over the past few years have coincided to extend my workatthe University ofDaytonto teachingandresearch in thearea of human rights. Specifically, the University of Dayton has instituted an interdisciplinaryhumanrightsundergraduatemajorintendedononehand to prepare some students for human rights–related vocations but on the other to articulate what it means to be human and to advocate for human dignity in any chosen career. The University has also established a Hu- man Rights Center that draws upon its faculty members from various disciplinary backgrounds to share their expertise in researching human rights. The Center prioritizes research and programming efforts directed to what it calls the social practice of human rights that, among other con- cerns, focuses upon advocacy as a craft if not an art. As one involved withHumanRightsCenterresearch,Igrapplebothwithwhatthepractice of rights advocacy actually entails and exactly who qualifies as a human rightsadvocate.Asforthefirst,ouremphasisuponadvocacyimpliesthat an understanding of the human rights movements extends beyond con- cerns about global standards and mechanisms of protection to direct at- tention to people who champion the causes of other people who suffer indignity and deprivation. Somehow we need to reconcile mixed mes- sages that on one hand convey absolutist resolve to “denounce injustice” (reminiscent of the late cartoonist Doug Marlette’s character Will B. Dunn)butontheothercallforpragmaticcollaborationthatbringsdiverse stakeholderstothetable. Inourpassions to breathe lifeintotheCenter,we colleaguescontinue ourdialoguesaboutwhathumanrightsspecificallyencompasses.Trueto our moorings in the social sciences, we tend to proceed along the reduc- tionist road of the “isn’ts”—human rights isn’t humanitarianism, isn’t peace-keeping, and so forth—to endorse a precise identity for it as a legitimate academic pursuit. Such a stringent road would effectively dis- qualify some exemplars included in the book (as examples, Mary B. AndersonandDanielBarenboim)asbonafidehumanrightsadvocates.
The list of books you might like
