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This collection of previously published work on security and rights focuses on the appropriate relationship between rights and what we can think of as counter terrorism policy. Such a focus might seem both necessary, because of 9/11, and unfortunate, because there are other causes of insecurity besides terrorism. However, the intensity of the 'war on terror' has created an ongoing surge of scholarship on the relationship between security and human rights that either has indirect implications for debates about security where terrorism is not in issue, or has directly led to an attempt to rethink more generally the idea of security and its relationship to rights. ... Read more

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307 pages covering: Black Reconstruction, Achievements despite Separation, Implications of Black Inferiority, Protest and Affimative Action,etc; with many photos ... Read more

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In the period following World War II, the federal government devoted more time and attention to civil rights reform and legislation than it had since the end of Reconstruction in 1876. Despite the impressive literature that analyzes the modern civil rights movement, its connection to American foreign policy during and after the war remains largely unexplored. Focusing on this gap, Professor Layton shows that the revolutionary changes in world politics created by the war also created new opportunities and pressure points for reforming U.S. race policies. The Holocaust, the dismantling of colonial empires, the Cold War, and the establishment of the United Nations all contributed to a new receptivity to civil rights reform in both the executive and judicial branches of the federal government. And, as Professor Layton describes, civil rights leaders quickly recognized the opportunities presented by the new international environment and were able to use them in exerting their own pressure to enact domestic policy reforms. ... Read more

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Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, First Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Aburi Accord, Tashkent Declaration, U.s.-thai Treaty of Amity, International Convention on Load Lines, Accommodation of Crews Convention, 1966, Fishermen's Competency Certificates Convention, 1966. Excerpt:Aburi Accord was reached 1967 at a meeting attended by delegates of both the Federal Government of Nigeria (The supreme Military Council) and the Eastern delegates, led by the soon-to-become-rebel leader Colonel Ojukwu . The meeting was billed to be the last chance of preventing out-and-out war . It was held between 4 and 5 January 1967. Aburi as venue Aburi , Accra Ghana was chosen as a venue because of the fact that the eastern delegates led by the Governor of Eastern State Colonel Ojukwu's safety could not be guaranteed anywhere within in the western or northern part of the country . Agenda of Aburi Meeting Delegates The following are the delegates at the Aburi Conference: Others as follows: The Accord Aburi accord is as follows: Breakdown In response to the accord, the federal government promulgated Decree No. 8, which was mainly an embodiment of the accord. The accord finally broke down because of differences of interpretation on both sides. This led to the outbreak of Nigerian Civil War . References (URLs online) A hyperlinked version of this chapter is at url{http... ... Read more

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The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) is the most important human rights treaty in the world.Now fully updated and in its second edition, this book provides a comprehensive collation and analysis of the jurisprudence of the Human Rights Committee, the monitoring body established under the ICCPR. Presented in a clear and illuminating manner, this book will be of use to the judiciary, human rights practitioners, human rights activists, government institutions, academics, and students alike. ... Read more

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Heapful
I am a professor of law. The book(ICCPR) I bought from AMAZON is helpful for teaching in criminal law and procedure. ... Read more

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The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the InternationalCovenant on Civil and Political Rights have established the right to afair trial as an internationally recognized human rights norm. Thisvolume examines the origins of the right to a fair trial asarticulated in the Universal Declaration and the Covenant. The rightto a fair trial has been the subject of more interpretation andadjudication than other rights in the Covenant. Accordingly, the bookanalyzes the fair trial jurisprudence of the Human Rights Committeeunder the Covenant. The book also explores the process by which someaspects of the right to a fair trial have gradually been considerednon-derogable, that is, not subject to suspension even in times ofpublic emergency. This volume should provide a convenient tool forhuman rights advocates, judges, lawyers, scholars, and others involvedwith and interested in the right to a fair trial.

This book is the first volume in The Universal Declaration ofHuman Rights Series. The Series consists of approximately 20volumes, each dealing with a substantive right (or group of rights)set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Eachvolume is authored by an expert in human rights generally and in theparticular subject addressed. Without losing sight of the politicalcontext in which the implementation of human rights must occur, eachbook provides a comprehensive, legally-oriented analysis of the rightsconcerned, including an examination of the legislative history of thetext of each right as adopted in 1948, the right's subsequentarticulation and interpretation by international bodies and insubsequent international instruments, and a survey of state practicein defining and enforcing the right. ... Read more

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In the wake of September 11th, the trend among states has been to move away from recognition of the right of peoples to self-determination as enshrined in the International Bill of Rights, and increasingly to view individuals and groups seeking that right within the new context of the "war on terrorism".This second international conference on the right to self-determination sought to respond to deepening UN acquiescence to the erosion of this basic right,by seeking to re-enforce its earlier understandings related to right to self-determination, and the institutional options for conflict resolution and management between groups within states.It addresses the question of whether the establishment of an International Civil Tribunal on the Right to Self-determination might be the most effective tool whereby international civil society might facilitate UN instruments and mechanisms as it concerns the right to self-determination. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Intriguing, but Unrealisitic and Philosophically Weak
An Na'im's "Toward an Islamic Reformation" is a fascinating excursion into the evolutionary aspect of Islamic law.Without repeating previous comments, I will get to the core of his thesis and the problem with it.In essence, he states that since Islamic law evolved from a Makkan to a Madinan stage, it can "de-evolve" back to the Makkan stage.It was in Makkah where the Prophet gave his statements about tolerance and freedom of religion, while in Madinah those concepts were withdrawn.As Islamic jurisprudence argues that earlier revelations that are contradicted by later ones are abrogated, An Na'im is arguing for reverse abrogation, stating that the Madinan stage of Islam was necessary then, but is not needed now.This is the core of his argument.

Now the problems.First, An Na'im is asking for Islamic jurists to ignore 1,300 years of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) to engage in reverse abrogation.One must ignore a good portion of the writings of al-Tabari, Ibn Kathir, Ibn Taymiyyah, Ibn Qayyim, al-Mawardi, not to mention large sections of hadith collections (al-Bukhari, Imam Muslim, al-Tirmidhi, Abu Dawud, etc).While not wishing to appear as a nay-sayer, this is simply an impossible task.He simply has no Qur'anic or hadith basis for saying that Islam can backtrack and abrogate much of the Madinan message.

This highlights the second problem he encounters is the amount of abrogation.For anyone who has even done a casual examination of the hadith and Qur'an regarding war and jihad, one can see that there would be large sections of both (more of the former) that would require abrogation.Large portions of the sayings and deeds of the Prophet and his Companions (the "Salafi") would have to be virtually ignored.Considering the fact that the Prophet on numerous occasions indicates that one must follow his sayings and deeds to live his Islam makes this extremely difficult.

But the third problem is possibly the most damning... and dangerous.Let us say it succeeds.Let us speculate that, yes indeed, Islam engages in reverse abrogation and the violent and warrior sections of the hadith and Qur'an are now ignored.What is to prevent an abrogation of the reverse abrogation in the future?What is to stop a group of Imams and other leaders from standing up later and calling for the re-imposition of the Madinan passages calling for war and jihad against those who refuse to give their Islam?Islamic law, rather than a higher law such as in the Judeo-Christian tradition, is really a series of juristic pronouncements, with the schools of law having difficulty finding agreement on anything.For example, the schools of law cannot even agree on how many phrases are in the adhan (call to prayer), let alone anything else.Thus, there is no core law that can prevent a return to the Madinan stage.This may buy us time, but will present no permanent solution.The world will see a temporary respite, and then a return to more violence, more killing, and more devastation, all in the name of the expansion of Islam.

In reality, we have seen such a reversal before.For the last 300 years, prior to the Islamic Resurgence Movement (starting about 50 years ago), Islam was relatively contained.With virtually no money they had little influence in the world as a whole.Thus we saw virtually no Islamic terror operations and the like.But now that Islamic organizations have money and wealth, the jihadists have surged forward on the offensive.Thus, we have been down this road before, and a philosophical attempt to reform Islam, while well-intentioned, is stillborn from the beginning.

I simply do not see how An Na'im's thesis, intriguing as it is, can prevent this in the future.

Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na 'Im
I wonder why the American government doesn't get this fellow andsend him to Iraq to head up their religious studies department and establish a modern Islamic Studies program in an Arab country to educate the Arab as to what Islam could be about, if they weren't so backwards.

A Fascinating Challenge to Orthodoxy
Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im, as a scholar of Islam and law, offers an analysis of Islamic decline and possible reformation that is much more clearly delineated and rigorous than the cultural accounts given by authors like Bernard Lewis.An-Na'im's argument rests on the separation of "historical Shari'a" (often wrongly treated as if it were itself divine revelation) from the essence of Islam itself, as revealed by the early tenure of Mohammed in Mecca, before he moved to Medina and grappled with the difficult and immediate imperatives of political power.

Like a good lawyer, An-Na'im's case in "Toward an Islamic Reformation" unfolds like a geometrical proof, proceeding deductively from an axiom (a universal principle of reciprocity) and reasoning from there; namely, that all peoples have rights of self-determination, as long as they don't clash with others' rights of self-determination.To this norm, An-Na'im adds two sociological observations.The first is that Muslim majorities are now becoming politically assertive, exercising their right to self-determination, which is in itself a healthy thing.However, the second observation is that the hitherto weakened and disorganized condition of the Muslim community has usually been attributed to departure from "true" belief and practice, as well as to outside interference by non-Muslims.Thus, An-Na'im reasons, secular solutions to social problems will not appeal to most Muslims.Even the doctrine of necessity (darura) is not enough, although it has been used with some degree of success in the past, because only a truly Islamic solution will satisfy Muslim demands for self-determination.Thus, any proposed reforms must be seen as Islamic in origin.

However, An-Na'im here makes a strong case that the implementation of "historical Shari'a" (he calls it historical, obviously, to emphasize its man-made, temporal quality), while seen as a solution by many (due to the yearning to go back to tradition), will likely oppress others, and limit their right to self-determination, because it conflicts with modern norms of constitutionalism, human rights, international law and criminal justice.However, historical Shari'a was constructed by early jurists, written for a specific time and place, and does not come directly from revelation.So, given that secular and Shari'a solutions both are inadequate, the question becomes: how can Muslims' rights vis-à-vis others be exercised, while also being legitimately limited in accordance with universal principles (and the earlier, more tolerant words of Mohammed)?

An-Na'im acknowledges that any attempt to answer this question and "evolve" alternative principles will be difficult, due to the likely suspicion that tampering with the weight of tradition will inflame, but must be done, and can be based directly on revelation.This is the task that he sets himself to in the second half of the book, once he has demonstrated how Shari'a: 1) is man-made; 2) is non-divine; 3) originally arose for political expediency; 4) goes against the early word of Mohammed (much of which it "abrogated" under the doctrine of naskh); and 5) will likely violate the rights of non-Muslims, women, slaves, etc., and be incompatible with the very idea of the nation-state, international law, and human rights.In this, An-Na'im is clearly a modernist, in that he takes the nation-state, etc. as a given, and holds that there are benefits from secularism that would be lost (self-expression, women, religious minorities, slavery) if Shari'a were to be implemented.He also makes a very specific negative judgment about the application of Shari'a in today's "fundamentalist" states (Iran, Sudan), arguing that "it has created more problems than it has solved" (67).While an "anti-imperialist" might take issue with this statement, arguing that the worst excesses of fundamentalism are preferable to "western" institutions, An-Na'im's mission is to make Islam palatable to western institutions, and vice-versa, by "rehabilitating" the "early Mohammed" in much the same way that neo-Marxists drew upon the "Young Marx" to get away from the stale determinism of scientific socialism.Thus, the early Mohammed of the Mecca period is portrayed as a tolerant, "reasonable" leader, while the Mohammed of the Medina period, and the later rulers under whom Shari'a developed, were forced to adapt their ideas to the expediencies an extremely harsh, violent political world.

What is An-Na'im's program for rehabilitating Islam from the legacy of this world?The four main areas of law concerned are constitutionalism (how can Islam reconcile itself to self-determination, but with limits on power?), criminal justice (how can Islam democratically enforce Islamic justice without violating the rights of non-Muslims?), international law (how can Islam reconcile itself to interactions between nation-states, some of whom will be non-Muslim?), and human rights (how can Islam leave behind the legacy of subordinate status for women, slaves and non-believers, and grant universal rights to all people?).

While the program is well-argued and eloquently framed, obviously drawing much inspiration from the mentorship of the Sudanese reformist martyr, Mahmoud Taha, An-Na'im himself, though an optimist, admits that the book is not likely to receive a warm reception in the Muslim world.Though he doesn't admit it, part of the problem with this reception might be a feeling that he is engaged in sophist apologism for the West, finding parts of Islamic teaching to justify a wholesale adaptation to modern, secular developments.For those Muslims who feel their identity under attack, and thus advocate a return to tradition, the particular tradition that An-Na'im cites might seem a bit too conveniently Western.And after all, arguing that the Prophet went against his own early teachings out of expediency might seem unfathomable for one who believes that everything the Prophet did was divine!

Superb, groundbreaking scholarship
This is a wonderfully refreshing work on the possiblity of reforming Islamic law. Na'im's basis stems from Mahmud Taha's work on the evolutionary nature of the revealed Qur'an. The basic thesis is that the Meccan suras were abrogated through naksh in favor of the later Medinan verses due to political and social circumstances of early Islam. Na'im takes up Taha's argument, that God gave differing foundations for Shari'a, the earlier, tolerant, pluralistic Meccan one being the ideal for which all must strive for. Na'im argues that in order for Islamic peoples to align themselves according to their faith with univeral notions of human rights, a new Shari'a needs to be derived from the earlier Meccan suras. Na'im points out that Shari'a isn't divine in nature, as it is human interpretation of certain portions of the Qur'an. Very well researched and congruent with the universal principles that all faiths share. Also check out Taha's original work on the evolutionary revelation, translated by Na'im, called "The Second Message of Islam". ... Read more

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Since its inception, the Human Rights Committee has arguably become the most important independent international human rights body in the world. Vested with wide-ranging power, the Committee has developed a large body of case-law to complement the activities of other United Nations organizations. This in-depth study examines the institutional characteristics of the Committee, traces the development of its practices and procedures, and discusses its jurisprudence under selected key articles of the Optional Protocol to the Covenant. ... Read more

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The Human Rights Committee started its work under the Optional Protocol at its second session in 1977. From then until its seventy-fourth session in 2002, 1069 communications relating to alleged violations by 69 States Parties were placed before it for consideration. This volume presents interlocutory and final decisions from the sixty-sixth to the seventy-fourth sessions. ... Read more

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This book condenses the guidance of the Human Rights Committee and accompanying legal scholarship into an easily accessible reference handbook for understanding the nature and scope of rights set forth in the ICCPR. The ICCPR offers the most widely accepted definition of civil and political rights at the international level, and as such this Practical Guide serves as an indispensable tool for legal practitioners and others who are dedicated to the promotion and protection of civil and political rights throughout the globe. It is also a useful source of information for introductory courses in international human rights law. Though geared to legal professionals and academics, the Guide's aim is to inform and educate a variety of audiences including international organisations, non-governmental organisations, human rights advocates and defenders, and governments of signatory states. The authors are all attorneys associated with the Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative of the Section of International Law and Practice of the American Bar Association. ... Read more