Harsh Mander – författare

In Partitions of the Heart: Unmaking the Idea of India, human rights and peace worker Harsh Mander takes stock of whether the republic has upheld the values it set out to achieve and offers painful, unsparing insight into the contours of hate violence. Through vivid stories from his own work, Mander shows that hate speech, communal propaganda and vigilante violence are mounting a fearsome climate of dread, that targeted crime is systematically fracturing our community, and that the damage to the

This feeble blemished light, this dawn mangled by night, this is not the morning we had all so longed for... -Faiz Ahmed FaizIn the two decades since the early 1990s, when India confirmed its allegiance to the Free Market, more of its citizens have become marginalized than ever before, and society has become more sharply riven than ever.In ''Looking Away'', Harsh Mander ranges wide to record and analyse the many different fault lines which crisscross Indian society today.There is increasing prosperity among the middle classes, but also a corresponding intolerance for the less fortunate. Poverty and homelessness are also on the rise-both in urban and rural settings- but not only has the state abandoned its responsibility to provide for those afflicted, the middle class, too, now avoids even the basic impulses of sharing. And with the sharp Rightward turn in politics, minority communities are under serious threat-their very status as citizens in question-as a belligerent, monolithic idea of the nation takes the place of an inclusive, tolerant one.However, as Harsh Mander points out, what most stains society today is the erosion in the imperative for sympathy, both at the state and individual levels, a crumbling that is principally at the base of the vast inequities which afflict India. Exhaustive in its scope, impassioned in its arguments, and rigorous in its scholarship, ''Looking Away'' is a sobering checklist of all the things we must collectively get right if India is to become the country that was promised, in equal measure, to all its citizens.

This book collects and analyzes a repertoire of responses by human rights organizations to the crackdown against civil society in the populist context. Written by scholars and advocates in challenging political settings from around the world, this book offers ideas and inspiration to their peers in the human rights community who are grappling with and resisting the erosion of democracy and rights.This collection takes two steps towards clearing the path for this civil society transformation. First, it clarifies the specific challenges to human rights raised by contemporary populist regimes and movements. What is the populist playbook against human rights? Second, it contributes to documenting and learning from a wealth of initiatives by human rights actors. What innovations are human rights actors introducing into their strategies and narratives to counter those of populist regimes? In short, what is the human rights playbook against populism?From meticulous documentation of abuses in Turkey to more grassroots forms of social networking in Hungary, from peace caravans in India to finding new ways of being useful under 21st century dictatorships in Venezuela, like war correspondents reporting from the trenches, our authors step forward to share their own continuing struggles to help their communities.Based on evidence from populist governments in India, Venezuela, Hungary, Turkey, Russia, the United States, and Ecuador—as well as crackdowns against civil society in South Africa, Egypt and other countries—this volume provides hope, solidarity, and reinvigoration for the human rights movement.

What does justice mean in times of transition? What kinds of possibilities and dissapointments emerge from processes of seeking justice through transition? How might we understand these processes through narrative?In August 2015, a group of Global South human rights activists and researchers gathered in Colombia for a workshop organized around the theme of transitional justice. This book, the third in a series, is the result of the discussions performed in that encounter.The chapters in this volume illustrate many complexities of transitional justice processes from the perspective of young human rights advocates involved in these struggles, many with their own complicated personal connections to the search for justice. These advocates hail from countries that have divergent relationships with the notion of transitional justice, from places deeply embedded in its norms and processes, such as Argentina and Colombia, to countries undergoing various kinds of transitions on very different terms, such as Turkey and Mexico. All of the chapters, however, write the messiness of seeking justice through transitions, spanning from the personal and intimate to the national and global.Together, these chapters beautifully illustrate both the pain and the political possibilities that come from the inability to leave history in the past, as well as the creativity of individual and collective efforts to seek justice through transitions. They also demonstrate the beauty of speaking, working, and writing justice from the hear.

Una nueva guía para actores de derechos humanos. Este libro recopila y analiza un repertorio de respuestas de organizaciones de derechos humanos a la represión contra la sociedad civil en el contexto populista. Escrito por académicos y defensores que trabajan en entornos políticos desafiantes en todo el mundo, este libro ofrece ideas e inspiración para los activistas de derechos humanos que luchan y resisten la erosión de la democracia y los derechos.Esta colección busca facilitar la transformación de la sociedad civil de dos formas: En primer lugar, identifica los desafíos específicos que los regímenes y movimientos populistas contemporáneos crean para los derechos humanos. ¿Cuáles son las estrategias de los populistas contra los derechos humanos? En segundo lugar, contribuye a documentar y aprender de una variedad de iniciativas lideradas por diferentes defensores de derechos humanos. ¿Qué innovaciones están integrando los actores de derechos humanos en sus estrategias y narrativas para contrarrestar las de los regímenes populistas? En resumen, ¿cuál es el manual o las estrategias de derechos humanos contra el populismo?Desde una documentación detallada sobre abusos en Turquía a formas más populares de redes sociales en Hungría, desde caravanas de paz en la India hasta nuevas formas para tener impacto bajo las dictaduras del siglo XXI en Venezuela, como corresponsales de guerra informando desde las trincheras, nuestros autores comparten sus propias luchas continuas para ayudar a sus comunidades.Con base en la evidencia de gobiernos populistas en India, Venezuela, Hungría, Turquía, Rusia, Estados Unidos y Ecuador, así como enérgicas medidas contra la sociedad civil en Sudáfrica, Egipto y otros países, este volumen brinda esperanza, solidaridad y revitalización para el movimiento de derechos humanos.

Activists, particularly those based in the global South, have accumulated a wealth of experience in dealing with a range of transnational networks operating in diverse issue areas. New theoretical understandings have reflected this accumulating experience.As the twentieth century came to a close, the practice of global and transnational politics was undergoing a sea change. Understandings of its dynamics were changing along with the practice. Classic paradigms of international relations, which had focused almost exclusively on relations among nation-states, were being expanded to consider the impact of transnational civil society organizations. Recognition of the role of new nonstate actors in global politics was epitomized by the impact of Margaret Keck and Kathryn Sikkink''s Activists beyond Borders in 1998. Their framework is a foundational reference point for the analyses of recent and future trends that are set out in this book.This volume brings together a set of ten essays by reflective activists who draw on their experience to provide new insights into what has been happening in the world of transnational advocacy, and by engaged academics who are committed to using the tools of their disciplines to contribute to the same agenda. The essays reflect not only the views of individual authors but also the collective dialogue among the authors at the workshop where the papers were originally presented in the spring of 2015.