12 research outputs found
Human Rights and the Pink Tide in Latin America : Which Rights Matter?
Latin America witnessed the election of ânew Leftâ governments in the early 21 st century that, in different ways, sought to open a debate about alternatives to paradigms of neoliberal development. What has this meant for the way that human rights are understood and for patterns of human rights compliance? Using qualitative and quantitative evidence, this article discusses how human rights are imagined and the compliance records of new Left governments through the lens of the three âgenerationsâ of human rights â political and civil, social and economic, and cultural and environmental rights. The authors draw in particular on evidence from Andean countries and the Southern Cone. While basic civil and individual liberties are still far from guaranteed, especially in the Andean region, new Left countries show better overall performances in relation to socio-economic rights compared to the past and to other Latin American countries. All new Left governments also demonstrate an increasing interest in âthird generationâ (cultural and environmental) rights, though this is especially marked in the Andean Left. The authors discuss the tensions around interpretations and categories of human rights, reflect on the stagnation of first generation rights and note the difficulties associated with translating second and third generation rights into policy
Problems, policy and politics â perspectives of public health leaders on food insecurity and human rights in Australia
Personal and political: post-traumatic stress through the lens of social identity, power, and politics
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has always been controversial and highly politicized. Here, using a
social identity approach, we review evidence that trauma and its aftermath are fundamentally linked to social
position, sociopolitical capital, and power. We begin this contribution by demonstrating how a personâs group
memberships (and the social identities they derive from these memberships) are inherently linked to the
experience of adversity. We then go on to consider how it is through group memberships that individuals are
defined by their trauma risk and trauma historiesâthat is, a personâs group memberships and their trauma
are often inherently linked. Considering the importance of group memberships for understanding trauma, we
argue that it is important to see these, and group processes more generally, as more than just âdemographicâ
risk factors. Instead, we argue that when groups are defined by their trauma history or risk, their members will
often derive some sense of self from this trauma. For this reason, attributes of group memberships are important
in developing an understanding of adjustment and adaptation to trauma. In particular, groupsâ status, their
recourse to justice, and the level of trust and solidarity within the group are all central to the impact of traumatic
events on individual-level psychological resilience. We review evidence that supports this analysis by focusing
on the exacerbating effects of stigma and social mistrust on post-traumatic stress, and the value of solidarity and
strong identities for resilience. We conclude that because of these group-related processes, trauma interweaves
the personal with the political and that post-traumatic stress is fundamentally about power, positionality, and
politics