There is an interesting special issue on the subject of land rights, indigenous peoples and development in Indonesia published in the Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology. The issue addresses, amongst others, that the manifestation of indigenous ‘adat’ politics is no longer confined to the national struggle for the recognition of land rights, but instead, has proliferated into many localized short term ‘adat projects’.
Some of the articles are:
Call for Papers: Global Human Rights at Risk? Challenges, Prospects, and Reforms
6th and 7th June 2019
The Hague, Netherlands (Campus Den Haag of Leiden University)
Abstract Submission Deadline: November 15, 2018 (17:00, CET)
Email: globalhumanrights@hum.leidenuniv.nl
This multidisciplinary conference aims to analyze the causes and consequences of various contemporary challenges to international human rights and emancipatory politics. First, the seminar examines whether, and if so, how the apparently declining influence of the West, the rise of authoritarianism, and increasing material inequality within and between nations could impact the legitimacy and effectiveness of international human rights. Second, the seminar invites new and radical perspectives that aim to reinvent the future of transnational human rights norms and human dignity — its substantive content, ethical assumptions, as well as its representative global and national institutions. Third, the seminar brings together leading and promising scholars in conversation with human rights practitioners in an effort to bring a dynamic and fruitful debate that bridges theory and practice.
I would like to share another publication which is written in the context of my research project the negotiation of the right to food. The article is titled “The Limit of Narratives: Ethnicity and Indigenous Rights in Papua, Indonesia” published in the journal International Journal on Minority and Group Rights.
Here is the abstract:
As in many countries in Asia, the concept “indigenous” is a highly contested term in Indonesia. The government is of the opinion that Indonesia is a nation that has no indigenous peoples, or that all Indonesians are equally indigenous. The article aims to analyse the role and the paradox of using ethnic narratives, i.e. distinct social, economic or political systems, as well as language, culture and beliefs as their material and political basis, in the articulation of indigenous rights. Upon discussing a case study from Papua, Indonesia, it is observed that the use of ethnic narratives does create opportunity structures necessary for the struggles of indigenous rights. However, the salience of these endeavours is shaped by how these groups, their autonomy and marginalisation are positioned in the wider context of development, sovereignty and territoriality, which make them also dependent on the design and orientation of the state.
Together with Dr. Chiseche Mibenge (Stanford), we have launched a new book series, titled Human Rights Interventions, with Palgrave MacMillan. The series joins the list International Relations and Security Studies held by Palgrave Senior Commissioning Editor Dr. Anca Pusca. And we are now accepting book proposals. Please check the instructions for submitting one here, and below is a short description of the series.
The traditional human rights frame creates a paradigm by which the duty bearer’s (state) and rights holder’s (civil society organizations) interests collide over the limits of enjoyment and enforcement. The series departs from the paradigm by centering peripheral yet powerful actors that agitate for intervention and influence in the (re)shaping of rights discourse in the midst of grave insecurities. The series privileges a call and response between theoretical inquiry and empirical investigation as contributors critically assess human rights interventions mediated by spatial, temporal, geopolitical and other dimensions. An interdisciplinary dialogue is key as the editors encourage multiple approaches such as law and society, political economy, historiography, legal ethnography, feminist security studies, and multi-media.
In this article I revisit the concept of development hazard, which was the core of my doctoral research defended in 2009. Some new insights are included to argue for employing two main principles – fair distribution of benefits and popular participation, contained in the Declaration on the Right to Development. This article is published as open access in the Chinese Journal of Good Governance, and can be downloaded here.
The abstract reads:
It is common to criticize the right to development as a confusing compilation of ideas that brings into question its progressive realisation. This article concentrates precisely on this deferring situation. However, rather than scrutinizing the reasons of failures, it aims to explore a violation-based approach to the right to development in its connection as an instrument to address development hazards. The analysis focuses on two aspects of the right to development, firstly, the entitlement to fair distribution of benefits, as the basic argument to the obligation not to cause any harm in development, and secondly, the entitlement to participation, as an instrument to prevent and combat development hazards.