Author Archives: Mathea Loen

New master course on backlash against democracy


 


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The Bergen-based part of the team project team will this semester hold a graduate course on democratic backlash for graduate students at the Department of Comparative Politics, University of Bergen. The course focuses on mapping and explaining the composition and causes of the recent backlash. It follows the structure of the research project, with separate seminars on contestation, association, rule of law and gender and minority rights.

What aspects of democracy are under pressure, and in which arenas are we seeing resistance to the backlash? How can we compare the challenges facing American democracy with those in Poland, the Philippines or Tanzania? And is the recent backlash against democracy seen in many countries mainly due to increasing levels of domestic political competition or the decline of international commitment to ideals of democracy? These are some of the questions students will be challenged to answer in our master course scheduled for the spring 2019 semester.

Sampol338: Breaking Bad: Understanding Backlash Against Democracy is a graduate research seminar focusing on theoretical and empirical analyses of the state of democracy in the world today. The graduate course aims to provide the students with a rigorous empirical basis for understanding the scope, causes, responses to and effects of the backlash against democracy. Unlike the project, the course will look at the phenomenon at the global level, using data and literature that focus on democratic backsliding and authoritarian retrenchment in both what has previously been considered as consolidated democracies, new democracies and hybrid regimes. The common empirical denominator in the course is thus a focus on understanding processes where democracy is weakened – independent of initial level of democracy.

The first part of the course focuses on conceptualizing and measuring the backlash. We will discuss both changes in demand and supply of democracy and challenge the students on how the choices we make in terms of conceptualization and measurement affects the answers we get. The second part of the course is structured around four distinctive democratic rights clusters, contestation rights, associational rights, gender and minority rights and rule of law (judicial independence). To each rights dimension, we will present and discuss central theoretical arguments and empirical applications. The emphasis will be on understanding these different rights clusters as key battlegrounds for both promoting and resisting democratic backsliding and discussing linkages between the different dimensions.

Each student participating in the course will be expected to contribute actively to the seminars. There will be a 5000-word research paper that addresses the concept of democratic backsliding along one or more of the four dimensions of rights. Students will also be expected to use one or more of the articles on the syllabus to discuss developments in an ongoing backlash process, either through an oral presentation or a blog post – some of which might appear on this very blog.

For those interested in taking the course or those who just find the topic interesting: you can find an overview of the different seminar topics and reading list for the course below. We will bring you more from the course on this blog from January onwards.

 

  

Caliban Unleashed: What role for strategic litigation in an illiberal era?

Author: Alicia Ely Yamin

What is the role for strategic litigation of social rights, and in particular health rights, in a world where democratic social practices and institutions are loosing ground and where conservative agendas seek to revoke the rights of minorities? In a recent article in “Open Global Rights”, Alicia  Ely Yamin argue that in changing political climates, courts have an inherent role to play in establishing principles and criteria relating to the functioning of a democratic health system. ” There are inherent limitations in litigating health rights, but it has led to important victories, and must remain a key strategy as populism surges” Yamin writes.

https://www.openglobalrights.org/caliban-unleashed-what-role-for-strategic-litigation-in-an-illiberal-era/ 

 

Motley`s Law – A New Age of Legal Representation

Mino.Jur Bergen in collaboration with Bergen Resource Centre and Centre on Legal and Social Transformation have the pleasure to welcome you to an evening with the international litigator and activist Kimberley Motley!

You might know Motley from the documentary «Motley’s Law», attendance in TED talks, Oslo Freedom Forum and from her appearance on the talk show «Skavlan». 

Kimberley Cy Motley is an American international attorney and is mostly known for being the first woman and foreigner to practice law in Afghanistan.

 

Kimberley Motley is known for her no-nonsense, unapologetic approach to litigation. In 2009 she represented a myriad of afghan clients in afghan courts, primarily women. Kimberley Motley will highlight how she used the law to secure afghan women and children`s rights in a chaotic legal system, through her experience as an international attorney and human rights activist.
After the seminar, the floor will be opened for questions.

Date: 31 may 2018
Time: 17:00-18:30
Place: Resource Centre, first floor, Jekteviksbakken 31, 5006, Bergen.                                                  The event will be free and light refreshments will be served.

If you have not yet watched «Motley’s Law», we invite you to watch it with us on Tuesday, May 29th at Det Akademiske Kvarter, Speilsalen at 18.00.
Trailer «Motley’s Law»:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lc56yY04L1o

We hope to see you there!

 

The impossible imperative – Navigating the competing principles of child protection

Join us for a book presentation of the newly published book The Impossible Imperative with author Jill Duerr Berrcik.

The Impossible Imperative brings to life the daily efforts of child welfare professionals working on behalf of vulnerable children and families. Stories that highlight the work, written by child welfare staff on the front lines, speak to the competing principles that shape everyday decisions.

The book shows that, rather than being a simple task of protecting children, the field of child welfare is shaped by a series of competing ideas. The text features eight principles that undergird child protection practice, all of which are typically in conflict with each other.

The Impossible Imperative is design to inspire a lively debate about the fundamental nature of child welfare and about the principles that serve as the foundation for the work.

Date: 16 November 2017
Time: 14:15-15:45
Place: Christies gate 17, 5007 Bergen – seminar room 112 at the Department of Administration and Organization theory.

About the author:

Jill Duerr Berrick is the Zellerbach Family Foundation Professor in the School of Social Welfare at the Univerity of California Berkely.  Dr. Berrick’s research focuses on the relationship of the state to vulnerable families. Her approach relies upon the voices of service system consumers and providers to identify the impacts of social problems and social service solutions on family life
Welcome!

Health and Human Rights: Short Teaching Videos

These three videos were developed by the Global Health Education and Learning Incubator in collaboration with human rights lawyer Alicia Ely Yamin.

Part 1 of 3: Alicia Ely Yamin walks us through a brief history of human rights, and how that struggle has developed over the last century.

Part 2 of 3: Alicia Ely Yamin walks us through issues of health in human rights through the late 1990s.

Part 3 of 3: Alicia Ely Yamin guides us through the Millennium Development Goals, the Sustainable Development Goals, and the role of changing global priorities from the early 2000s until present day.

Direct Link: https://vimeopro.com/gheli/human-rights-series

http://www.lawtransform.no/health-and-human-rights-teaching-pack/

Health and Human Rights: Teaching Pack

This teaching pack on health and human rights was developed by the Global Health Education and Learning Incubator in collaboration with human rights lawyer Alicia Ely Yamin. It introduces students to this interdisciplinary topic through a series of three videos, in which Yamin uses narrative to introduce the concepts of health and human rights, explain how they are related to each other, and articulate why they matter in today’s world.

The videos are accompanied by tools for further learning, including an annotated bibliography, glossary of terms, timeline of key events, and factsheet on universal health coverage.

Video series: https://vimeopro.com/gheli/human-rights-series

Introduction to Human Rights: In the first video, Yamin explains what human rights are and why they are important for everyone around the world.

A Brief History of Health and Human Rights: In the second video, she offers a brief history of health and human rights since World War II.

Health, Human Rights, and the Sustainable Development Agenda: In the third video, Yamin describes how health-related human rights developed during the era of the Millennium Development Goals (2000-2015) and the Sustainable Development Goals (2016-2030). The series concludes in video three by considering the vital role that human rights plays in diverse political environments.

Health and Human Rights: Teaching Pack

Source:

Health and Human Rights: Teaching Pack. Global Health Education and Learning Incubator at Harvard University. http://gheli.harvard.edu.

http://repository.gheli.harvard.edu/repository/collection/2/