An Analysis of the Factors Influencing Human Rights Discourse

人权问题一直是美国和其他国家关系的引爆点。许多人权学者传统上使用“人权制度”一词来指一套已在国际法中正式确定和编纂的规范和程序。但是，在地方背景下，普遍人权的编纂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出现的，以及如何以看似矛盾或违反直觉的方式进行辩论的。移民政策和外交实践将受益于本项目将提供的对这些背景的更好理解。这个项目还将扩大历史上代表性不足的群体在科学领域的参与。印第安纳大学的马文·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，研究者将这项研究作为第一次系统的努力，以确定后殖民经验，特别是在英联邦国家中，形成或导致这些社会中人权辩论的具体共性。该项目还旨在了解如何通过跨国合作形成与当地有关的权利解释。在这个为期六个月的项目中，数据收集方法包括收集档案数据，目的是使人权话语历史性，采访成员并观察当地人权团体的活动，以及对国内和国际媒体进行内容分析。该项目将有助于推进人权的人类学理论，特别是在法律人类学和政治人类学的分支领域内。具体来说，该项目将人权制度作为由历史、经济和文化特定的公民、自由和自治概念构成的东西进行探索。

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.