4 March 2022, 14:00-15:30
Human Rights Conversations
UN Photo / Violaine Martin
Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) is a movement encompassing scholars and practitioners of international law and policy who are concerned with issues related to the Global South in its broad conception.
While the scholarly agendas associated with TWAIL are diverse, the common themes of TWAIL’s interventions are to unpack and deconstruct the colonial legacies of international law. TWAIL is, as Makau Mutua writes: ‘a response to decolonization and the end of direct European colonial rule over non-Europeans. It basically describes a response to a condition, and is both reactive and proactive.’ Over the last twenty years, the TWAIL network has grown and flourished, encompassing thousands of people on all five continents.
This Human Rights Conversation aims at sensitising Western-centric stakeholders – both academics and practitioners active in multilateral fora – to legitimate criticism coming from the Global South through the so-called TWAIL movement. Panelists will notably discuss how to respond to theoretical arguments such as cultural relativism, which now permeate political dynamics and multilateral negotiations – making it increasingly harder to achieve (or sometimes even maintain) consensus.
To this end, this discussion will constitute an integral part of an ongoing research project at the Geneva Academy aimed at taking stock of and contributing to a better understanding of the various criticisms and tensions around the principle of universality of human rights, contrasting or reconciling different narratives.
Human Rights Conversations are a series of events, hosted by the Geneva Human Rights Platform, aimed at discussing contemporary issues and challenges related to the promotion and protection of human rights in Geneva and beyond.
Watch this Human Rights Conversation aims at sensitising Western-centric stakeholders – both academics and practitioners active in multilateral fora – to legitimate criticism coming from the Global South through the so-called TWAIL movement.
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Geneva Academy