Need for a Human Rights Section

The place of human rights in international relations has expanded dramatically in the past 20 years. Human rights have featured prominently in debates regarding war and peace, international trade, security, and a wide variety of other issues. Further, The vast expansion of human rights and humanitarian NGOs illustrates the growing importance of non-state actors and civil society (both global and domestic). Human rights have intruded into core theoretical debates within international relations regarding state actions and identity, as well as the structure of the international system itself. The study of human rights itself has grown significantly, with a variety of journals and other outlets devoted to human rights. And, a growing number of academics identify themselves specifically as teachers and scholars of human rights.

While human rights issues are represented within ISA, they are scattered among the various component sections of the organization, which is understandable, given the interdisciplinary nature of human rights. However, the number of scholars interested in human rights has grown to such an extent that there is now a need for a central place where individuals from a variety of disciplines and fields can gather to exchange ideas on research and teaching human rights. The section, given its interdisciplinary nature, will inevitably interact and collaborate with other sections, but the scale of people involved in human rights scholarship now requires a coherent institutional identity.

Purpose of a Human Rights Section

The purpose of HR-ISA will be to encourage multidisciplinary scholarship and teaching in the area of human rights. This includes those in the disciplines of political science, law, history, philosophy, economics, sociology, anthropology, and other related fields. It will foster discussion and other interaction between members of the ISA as well as those outside of the ISA with view toward enhancing academic research, policy development and teaching in the broad and varied area of human rights and related issues.