Does Human Rights Education Exist?

In this paper I trace my own thoughts and praxes on human rights education (HRE) in conversation with others since 2007. An element of self-referentiality is tracking my arguments, for which I apologize. Revisiting my research and engagement with HRE over the past decade, I try to make sense of the shifts in my own praxes to disclose, to myself, radical-alternative possibilities for thinking and doing HRE. In travelling with myself, and others, I began to wonder: Does Human Rights Education exist

Refractions: social theory, human rights and philosophy

This speculative article endeavours to highlight the polemics and disputations of knowledge transformation, while simultaneously demonstrating the productive possibilities of such disputations via three examples of refractions. The latter are generated within the crises and critiques of the discourses within which Social Theory, Human Rights and Philosophy are located. They are further cultivated and sharpened by the interplays between these discourses, suggesting the possibility of self-transforming knowledge constellations. The article concludes that the political import of refractions allows the prospects of just social practices to come sharper into view

Social theory, human rights and philosophy

From text: The new series of Acta Academica, launched earlier this year, is positioned to generate critical views on society, culture and politics. Acta seeks to attract a more globally representative public and authors and become a site of debate and contestation for humanities research by crossing disciplinary boundaries.1 Critical social theories, as intermediaries for traversing these boundaries, frontiers and limits, organise a variety of interpretive schemes, which conjoins with social reality and the demands of disclosing critiques. Thus, the fresh brief of Acta, as it continuously crafts a new intellectual identity, alludes to an assortment of social and other challenges that are structurally anchored within the polity. Poverty, unemployment, globalised racism, social exclusion and unequal power relations in all spheres and levels of society, are at the core of what the humanities and social sciences should regard as the mainstay of their intellectual and practical endeavours

#MustFall–TheEvent: Rights, Student Activism and the Transformation of South African Universities in University on the Border: Crisis of Authority and Precarity

In this chapter, we read the 2015-2016 #MustFall movement as an “event” in Badiou’s sense of the word. Employing Badiou’s (2005, 2013) interpretive scheme, we suggest that the #MustFall movement fractured the appearance of regularity of the South African higher education landscape to such an extent that it can be considered the kind of ‘event’ that Badiou defines as “something that brings to light a possibility that was invisible or even unthinkable. [It] is, in a certain way, merely a proposition. It proposes something to us” (Badiou, 2013:9-10). Reflecting on a long-term research project on ‘transformative student citizenship’ that started in 2011, we argue that the #MustFall movement’s contemporary emergence and forms of political action that disrupted the functioning of the social order can be perceived as a demand for ‘retreating’ rights. We suggest that the ‘event’ breaks with established power’s control over what should or should not be considered possible. While established power institutes and sustains this distinction through the use of state apparatus and capital, the ‘event’ extracts the possible from the impossible: “the ‘event’, for its part, will transform what has been declared impossible into a possibility” (Badiou, 2013:11). Though much work needs to be done within the realm of what is pragmatically possible, the case for a free, ‘decolonised’ higher education system has most certainly been snatched from the realm of the impossible. We tentatively explore what possibilities are proposed by #MustFall–TheEvent. For this chapter, #MustFall–TheEvent will designate the protests prior, during and after the 2015-2016 student ‘uprising’. This ‘uprising’ nearly brought the country to a standstill and temporarily disrupted the appearance of social stability. Mainly peaceful, productive and unsettling, the protests were also accompanied by violence, damage to property, intimidation and bullying across a wide spectrum, and political opportunism and proprietary inclinations of all sorts. Our analysis here does not make any judgements in these regards, nor will it attempt to provide an explanatory historical interpretation. These matters are well-traversed in a large number of opinion pieces as well as substantial studies such as Free Fall: Why South African Universities are in a Race against Time (Ray, 2016) and Fees Must Fall: Student Revolt, Decolonisation and Governance in South Africa (Booysen, 2016). Instead, we make a modest attempt at formulating the possibilities that have been opened up by #MustFall–TheEvent. To do so, we briefly provide a context for positioning student politics and protests within broader societal processes. We then proceed to read the #MustFall movements as a Badioun ‘event’, followed by an exploration of #MustFall–TheEvent as an instance for ‘retreating’ rights. In conclusion, we contemplate the implications of our analysis for the discourse on social justice

Crafting a Foucauldian Archaeology Method: A Critical Analysis of Occupational Therapy Curriculum-as-Discourse, South Africa

South Africa has a colonial and apartheid past of social injustice, epistemological oppression, and exclusion. These mechanisms are historically inscribed in the designs, practices, and content of higher education including in occupational therapy curriculum. If these historical markers are not consciously interrogated, patterns of reproduction are reified along the fault lines that already exist in society. The focus of this article is to demonstrate how an archaeological Foucauldian method was crafted from foundational Foucauldian archaeology analytics and existing approaches of Foucauldian discourse analysis to unearth the rules of the formation of the occupational therapy profession. These rules pertain to the formation of (a) the ideal occupational therapist (b) who had a say about the profession; (c) the ways of preferred reasoning; and (d) underlying theoretical themes and perspectives about the future. Data sources for this archaeology analytics included commemorative documents of universities on the origin of their programmes; historical regulatory documents; and the South African Journal of Occupational Therapy archive from the period 1953–1994. The analysis rendered two subthemes for each of the rules of formation including white exceptionalism, white male national, and international, regulatory bodies, the profession know-how practical knowledge, and its need for recognition within a bio-medical paradigm. Unearthing the historical markers of a curriculum and viewing it as discourse may enable a conscious reconfiguration thereof

Effect of Hydrocortisone on Mortality and Organ Support in Patients With Severe COVID-19: The REMAP-CAP COVID-19 Corticosteroid Domain Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Evidence regarding corticosteroid use for severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is limited. Objective: To determine whether hydrocortisone improves outcome for patients with severe COVID-19. Design, Setting, and Participants: An ongoing adaptive platform trial testing multiple interventions within multiple therapeutic domains, for example, antiviral agents, corticosteroids, or immunoglobulin. Between March 9 and June 17, 2020, 614 adult patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 were enrolled and randomized within at least 1 domain following admission to an intensive care unit (ICU) for respiratory or cardiovascular organ support at 121 sites in 8 countries. Of these, 403 were randomized to open-label interventions within the corticosteroid domain. The domain was halted after results from another trial were released. Follow-up ended August 12, 2020. Interventions: The corticosteroid domain randomized participants to a fixed 7-day course of intravenous hydrocortisone (50 mg or 100 mg every 6 hours) (n = 143), a shock-dependent course (50 mg every 6 hours when shock was clinically evident) (n = 152), or no hydrocortisone (n = 108). Main Outcomes and Measures: The primary end point was organ support-free days (days alive and free of ICU-based respiratory or cardiovascular support) within 21 days, where patients who died were assigned -1 day. The primary analysis was a bayesian cumulative logistic model that included all patients enrolled with severe COVID-19, adjusting for age, sex, site, region, time, assignment to interventions within other domains, and domain and intervention eligibility. Superiority was defined as the posterior probability of an odds ratio greater than 1 (threshold for trial conclusion of superiority >99%). Results: After excluding 19 participants who withdrew consent, there were 384 patients (mean age, 60 years; 29% female) randomized to the fixed-dose (n = 137), shock-dependent (n = 146), and no (n = 101) hydrocortisone groups; 379 (99%) completed the study and were included in the analysis. The mean age for the 3 groups ranged between 59.5 and 60.4 years; most patients were male (range, 70.6%-71.5%); mean body mass index ranged between 29.7 and 30.9; and patients receiving mechanical ventilation ranged between 50.0% and 63.5%. For the fixed-dose, shock-dependent, and no hydrocortisone groups, respectively, the median organ support-free days were 0 (IQR, -1 to 15), 0 (IQR, -1 to 13), and 0 (-1 to 11) days (composed of 30%, 26%, and 33% mortality rates and 11.5, 9.5, and 6 median organ support-free days among survivors). The median adjusted odds ratio and bayesian probability of superiority were 1.43 (95% credible interval, 0.91-2.27) and 93% for fixed-dose hydrocortisone, respectively, and were 1.22 (95% credible interval, 0.76-1.94) and 80% for shock-dependent hydrocortisone compared with no hydrocortisone. Serious adverse events were reported in 4 (3%), 5 (3%), and 1 (1%) patients in the fixed-dose, shock-dependent, and no hydrocortisone groups, respectively. Conclusions and Relevance: Among patients with severe COVID-19, treatment with a 7-day fixed-dose course of hydrocortisone or shock-dependent dosing of hydrocortisone, compared with no hydrocortisone, resulted in 93% and 80% probabilities of superiority with regard to the odds of improvement in organ support-free days within 21 days. However, the trial was stopped early and no treatment strategy met prespecified criteria for statistical superiority, precluding definitive conclusions. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02735707

Refractions: social theory, human rights and philosophy

This speculative article endeavours to highlight the polemics and disputations of knowledge transformation, while simultaneously demonstrating the productive possibilities of such disputations via three examples of refractions. The latter are generated within the crises and critiques of the discourses within which Social Theory, Human Rights and Philosophy are located. They are further cultivated and sharpened by the interplays between these discourses, suggesting the possibility of self-transforming knowledge constellations. The article concludes that the political import of refractions allows the prospects of just social practices to come sharper into view

Social theory, human rights and philosophy

From text: The new series of Acta Academica, launched earlier this year, is positioned to generate critical views on society, culture and politics. Acta seeks to attract a more globally representative public and authors and become a site of debate and contestation for humanities research by crossing disciplinary boundaries.1 Critical social theories, as intermediaries for traversing these boundaries, frontiers and limits, organise a variety of interpretive schemes, which conjoins with social reality and the demands of disclosing critiques. Thus, the fresh brief of Acta, as it continuously crafts a new intellectual identity, alludes to an assortment of social and other challenges that are structurally anchored within the polity. Poverty, unemployment, globalised racism, social exclusionand unequal power relations in all spheres and levels of society, are at the core of what the humanities and social sciences should regard as the mainstay of their intellectual and practical endeavours

Concentrations of faecal glucocorticoid metabolites in physically injured free-ranging African elephants Loxodonta africana

Free-ranging African elephants Loxodonta africana use their front feet frequently during the process of foraging and this could be the reason for the high prevalence of physical injuries to these parts of the body. Although the occurrence of severe lameness caused by foot lesions in adult elephants has already been investigated and the clinical and pathological findings have been reported, the effect of foot injuries on glucocorticoid levels as a potential physiological stress response has not been examined. Given the practical difficulties involved in monitoring unpredictable events in free-ranging animals, like the occurrence of foot injuries in elephants, it is not surprising that information regarding the endocrine correlates of physical injury is still limited for elephants. In our study we investigated the effects of foot injuries on concentrations of faecal glucocorticoid metabolites (GCM), body condition score (BCS) and reproductive behaviour in two GPS/radio-collared elephant bulls in the Kruger National Park, South Africa.Wemonitored the bulls aged 40+ (Bull 1) and 30+ (Bull 2) 2-3 times per week for 13 months starting in June 2007 and frequently collected faecal samples for non-invasive hormone monitoring. Faecal samples were lyophilised, extracted and assayed with an enzyme immunoassay which detects GCM with a 3a-hydroxy-11-oxo-structure. Both bulls acquired foot injuries (right-front), which caused temporary lameness, but the effect of injury on GCM concentration differed between bulls (P , 0.001). In Bull 1 the injury lasted 6 250 days and was associated with an up to four-fold increase in GCM concentrations (P,0.001) and his BCS reduced from ’good’ to ’very thin’ by the end of the injury period. In Bull 2 the injury lasted 65 days and was associated with a smaller increase in GCM concentrations (P ¼ 0.03) together with a reduced loss in condition when compared to Bull 1. Following recovery, the condition of both bulls improved progressively and faecalGCMreturned to baseline concentrations. Collectively, the data clearly underlined the value of non-invasive hormone measurements as a tool to provide information on the level of stress experienced by elephants. Thus, monitoring GCM levels could help improve the assessment of an elephant’s state of health