An Analysis of the Factors Influencing Human Rights Discourse

人权问题一直是美国与其他国家关系中的一个热点。许多人权学者传统上使用人权制度一词来指国际法中正式确定和编纂的一套规范和程序。但是，普遍人权的编纂在地方背景下受到的争议要大得多，因为权利的概念取决于广泛的历史、文化和政治经济经验。这个项目探讨了不同的人权概念是如何产生和辩论的，往往是以似乎自相矛盾或违反直觉的方式。移民政策和外交实践可以受益于该项目将提供的对这些背景的更好理解。这一项目还将扩大历来代表性不足的群体对科学的参与。印第安纳州大学的马文·斯特林博士将探讨影响人权话语和实践的因素。以牙买加的案例为重点，调查员将这项研究视为第一次系统性的努力，以确定后殖民经验中的具体共同点，特别是在英联邦国家中，这些共同点形成或产生于这些社会的人权辩论。该项目还旨在了解如何通过跨国参与形成对权利的地方性解释。在这个为期六个月的项目中，收集数据的方法包括收集档案数据，目的是将人权论述历史化，采访当地人权团体的成员并观察其活动，以及对国家和国际媒体的内容进行分析。该项目将有助于推进人权的人类学理论，特别是在法律的和政治人类学的分领域内。具体而言，该项目探讨了人权制度作为由历史，经济和文化上特定的公民，自由和自治概念构成的东西。

Human rights have been a flashpoint in relations between the U.S. and other nations. Many scholars of human rights have traditionally used the phrase human rights regime to refer to a set of norms and procedures that have been formalized and codified in international law. But the codification of universal human rights has been far more contested in local contexts, where concepts of rights are contingent upon widely ranging historical, cultural, and political economic experiences. This project explores how different notions of human rights have emerged and have been debated, often in ways that might seem paradoxical or counterintuitive. Immigration policy and diplomatic practice could benefit from the improved understanding of these contexts that this project will afford. This project would also broaden the participation of a historically underrepresented group in the sciences. Dr. Marvin Sterling of Indiana University will explore the factors that influence the discourse and practice of human rights. With focus on the Jamaican case, the investigator frames the study as a first systematic effort to identify specific commonalities in the postcolonial experience, particularly in the Commonwealth of Nations, that shape or have resulted from human rights debates in these societies. The project also aims to understand how locally contextual interpretations of rights have been formed through transnational engagements. Methods of data collection during this six-month project include gathering archival data with the aim of historicizing discourses of human rights, interviewing the members and observing the activities of local human rights groups, and a content analysis of national and international media. The project would contribute to advancing anthropological theories of human rights, particularly within the subfields of legal and political anthropology. Specifically, the project explores the regime of human rights as something constituted by historically, economically, and culturally specific notions of citizenship, freedom, and autonomy.