TAFAHRV15U Human Rights and Violence in Africa

Human rights and human rights interventions have taken centre stage in Africa in recent years. Rights discourse has become a dominant lens through which Africa is understood and rights-based development a dominant paradigm through which to ‘reform’ Africa. The rights paradigm in development has furthermore been accompanied by a focus on transitional justice mechanisms in the wake of conflict and war. This course examines the ‘practice of human rights’ with a particular focus on the ways in which rights discourse is translated and appropriated in relation to violence. The lectures will pay meticulous attention to both rights-based reform practices in development and in transitional justice  and to Africa ‘in and for itself’ covering issues such as authority, legal pluralism, colonial history, youth violence, violent institutions and networks as well as  understandings of confinement and the relation between benefactors and beneficiaries.

Through discussion of empirical cases we will explore the common assumptions and conceptual links between a variety of interventions, for example: police and prison officer training , truth commissions and tribunals, demobilization and child soldier projects as well as civil society support. Participants will learn about everyday life, political culture and ways of understanding and attempting to counter violence in Africa. Through the cases, the seminars will draw attention to the dilemmas and paradoxes of rights practice and the conceptual ambivalence of human rights when applied to violence in Africa. The focus on the practices of implementing human rights in Africa and the subjects of human rights interventions hopefully offers a counter-balance to the usual legal/normative approach to rights.