In Defense of Human Rights

This Article argues that international human rights law, and the human rights movement more generally, need more defenders than critics in the current international political environment. Groups ranging from academics to governments have taken stances critical of human rights, and this Article seeks to defend the rights framework from some of these while also arguing for the importance of human rights in today\u27s world. Noting that the field of human rights is not beyond criticism, this Article embraces some of those criticisms. However, it suggests that human rights law specialists need to spend at least as much time defending human rights law, and the universality of human rights, as they do criticizing it. Moreover, their criticisms need to be grounded in the reality of the theory and practice of human rights law to be useful and advance human dignity. Decontextualized hypercriticism risks playing into the hands of antirights actors, including some contemporary governments, as well as diverse fundamentalists and extremists

We must stand with Somalis who have been speaking out against the savagery of Al Shabaab

Last month, the Somali terrorist group Al Shabaab attacked the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, killing 61 civilians. Karima Bennoune, who has conducted research in the Somali-American community in Minneapolis, argues that to truly defeat groups like Al Shabaab, we must support those who stand up to them and oppose their recruitment efforts. She finds that those who have tried to counter the efforts of Al Shabaab have sometimes been ostracized by some in their own communities and let down by state and federal officials. She writes that rather than stereotyping and stigmatizing all Somalis, we need to support those who speak out against Al Shabaab

First Session: Holy Wars

This panel will explore topics of the Holy Wars. Associate Professor Haider Ala Hamoudi will speak about Muslim expansionism and its compatibility with modern notions of international relations and how “lone wolf” terrorism bears little resemblance to Islam’s history. Associate Professor Sahar F. Aziz explores how the religion and race of Muslims in America has been closely intertwined and has created the “racial muslim,” which exposes Muslims to discrimination with no legal recourse or civil rights protection. Also, Professor Beverly I. Moran and Mr. Rahimjon Abdugafurov will speak on whether Muslims are required to engage in Holy War

Discussant Commentary on the Twenty-Fourth Annual Grotius Lecture

I express my sincere thanks to the American Society of International Law and the International Legal Studies Program at American University Washington College of Law for the invitation to be this year’s commentator. It is indeed an honor to respond to Judge Charlesworth’s erudite Grotius Lecture: “The Art of International Law.” Just getting to say Judge Hilary Charlesworth alone is very meaningful. She is only the fifth woman judge out of 110 total judges on the International Court of Justice (ICJ) so far. Thanks to hard work by feminist international lawyers like her, there is finally an uptick in women’s inclusion in the field of international law. That is great news, but there is a long way to go. The progress being made has to be nurtured, expanded, and protected. I want to start off by congratulating the 2022 Grotius lecturer and thanking her personally, and her whole generation of feminist international lawyers around the world, for working so hard to increase the representation of women in international law and for creating space for many of us within the discipline

Your Fatwa Does Not Apply Here: Untold Stories from the Fight Against Muslim Fundamentalism

In Lahore, Pakistan, Faizan Peerzada resisted being relegated to a “dark corner” by staging a performing arts festival despite bomb attacks. In Senegal, wheelchair-bound Aissatou Cissé produced a comic book to illustrate the injustices faced by disabled women and girls. In Algeria, publisher Omar Belhouchet and his journalists struggled to put out their paper, El Watan (The Nation), the same night that a 1996 jihadist bombing devastated their offices and killed eighteen of their colleagues. In Afghanistan, Young Women for Change took to the streets of Kabul to denounce sexual harassment, undeterred by threats. In Minneapolis, Minnesota, Abdirizak Bihi organized a Ramadan basketball tournament among Somali refugees to counter the influence of Al Shabaab. From Karachi to Tunis, Kabul to Tehran, across the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia, and beyond, these trailblazers often risked death to combat the rising tide of fundamentalism within their own countries. But this global community of writers, artists, doctors, musicians, museum curators, lawyers, activists, and educators of Muslim heritage remains largely invisible, lost amid the heated coverage of Islamist terror attacks on one side and abuses perpetrated against suspected terrorists on the other.https://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/dlpp_all/1387/thumbnail.jp