NUTS SLUTS AND PERVERTS CONFLICTS AND CHALLENGES IN

NUTS, SLUTS AND PERVERTS: CONFLICTS AND CHALLENGES IN THE DOMESTICATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS LAW Centre for Human Rights in Conflict 18 th April 2012 Elizabeth Stokes

GEARTY, C (2011: 472) “The universities remain largely uninterested in constructing any kind of serious foundations for human rights in general, much less for a Human Rights Act that is largely seen as the preserve of lawyers and even then – when viewed from within that discipline as little more than a branch of public law (and certainly not an ethical field in its own right)”

Liazos, A. (1972) ‘The poverty of the sociology of deviance: nuts, sluts and preverts’. Social Problems, 20, pp 103 -20 (The spelling ‘preverts’ recalls Stanley Kubrick’s ‘Dr Strangelove’ and is taken to refer to sexual perversion)

“I began to suspect this reverse effect from the many essays and papers I read while teaching the “deviance” course. The clearest example is the repeated use of the word “tolerate”. Students would write that we must not persecute homosexuals, prostitutes, mental patients and others, that we must be “tolerant” of them. But one tolerates only those one considers less than equal, morally inferior, and weak; those equal to oneself, one accepts and respects; one does not merely allow them to exist, one does not “tolerate” them. ” (Liazos, 1972: 105)

CONSERVATIVE RIGHTS SCEPTICISM E. G. Pinto-Duschinsky, M. (2011) “Bringing Rights Back Home: Making human rights compatible with parliamentary democracy in the UK”. London: Policy Exchange. Raab, D (2009 ) “The Assault on Liberty: What went wrong with rights? ”. London: Fourth Estate. Raab, D (2011) “Strasbourg in the Dock: Prisoner Voting, Human Rights and the Assault on Democracy”. London: Civitas.

HUMAN RIGHTS SCOTLAND “There is no getting away from the fact that human rights law will throw up what lawyer’s call ‘hard cases’ – those where we must decide upon the rights of criminals or unpleasant people. The mistake is to find that this is a result of human rights legislation. Under the Bill of Rights system proposed by the Conservatives. . . we would face the same difficult questions. What is at stake here are the fundamental rights of citizens in a democratic society”

GEARTY (2011: 475) NOTES: “. . . the paradoxical plight of a Human Rights Act which has proved so unpopular to the two largest mainstream parties that the commitment to rights of which it is the epitome was likely to be greatly expanded whichever party (or indeed parties) emerged victorious from the electioneering of 2010”

DAVID CAMERON: “At the heart of this concern is not antipathy to human rights: it is anxiety that the concept of human rights is being distorted. As a result for too many people, the very concept of rights is in danger of slipping from something noble to something discredited” Speech to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe 25 th January 2012

COMMISSION ON A BILL OF RIGHTS: “. . . a Commission to establish the creation of a British Bill of Rights that incorporates and builds upon all our obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights, ensures that these rights continue to be enshrined in British law, and protects and extends British liberties. We will seek to promote a better understanding of the true scope of these obligations and liberties. ” The Coalition: Our Programme for Government 2010

‘OUR’ HISTORIC ‘LIBERTIES’: “You mustn’t sell, delay, deny, A freeman’s right or liberty, It wakes the stubborn Englishry, We saw ‘em roused at Runnymede!” RUDYARD KIPLING ‘What say the Reeds at Runnymede? ’ See Raab, D (2009) “The Assault on Liberty: What went wrong with rights”. London: Fourth Estate.

JUDICIAL SUPPORT FOR RIGHTS SCEPTICISM? Re Lord Hoffmann in Belmarsh, JJ, MB and AF: “. . . in the immediate aftermath of the decision Poole postulated that this conscious attempt to recruit the ancient protections of habeas corpus to the cause of challenging detention without trial could be regarded ‘as an attempt to circumvent the widespread sentiment against judges using “foreign” law. . . however a less sophisticated rationale for this decision appears to be increasingly plausible. . . his reluctance to accept the extent to which the right to liberty granted by the ECHR (and the right to a fair hearing which supports it) outstrip historic domestic protections of similar interests”. Murray, CRG (2012: 107)

DOUZINAS ON RIGHTS HUMANITARIANISM “The human rights campaigner as rescuer can become deeply egotistical: he is the one who keeps the world together and, as a bonus, he receives full recognition for his goodness by others from close and afar. ” (2007: 75)

LIAZOS, CRIMES OF THE POWERFUL AND HUMAN RIGHTS: Schwendinger, H & Schwendinger, J (1975) ‘Defenders of Order or Guardians of Human Rights? ’ pp 1130147 in Taylor, I. , Walton, P. , and Young, J. (eds) “Critical Criminology” London: Routeledge and Kegan Paul. Green, P & Ward, T. (2000) “State Crime, Human Rights and the Limits of Criminology”, Social Justice Vol 27.

SOCIALISM AND SOCIAL JUSTICE “. . . these phrases work better than human rights to legitimise a key facet of the work of social justice campaigners, the struggle against the powerful and the many beneficiaries of vested interests who oppose change and many of whom are not above deploying the rhetoric of liberalism in defence of their privilege. But, and perhaps sadly, we do not live in such a perfect world. . . in the relatively barren landscape of post-Cold War capitalism, we much all be human rights advocates or we are nothing at all” Gearty (2011: 485)

HARVEY, C (2012) ENGAGING WITH HUMAN RIGHTS IN A DISUNITED KINGDOM “Understanding the flawed humanity enthroned within human rights seems just as urgent as pressing hard on the potential normative force of personhood. . Everyone believes in human rights now, but what sort of rights culture do you hold to? A constant effort is required to ensure a justifiable conception is promoted and defended. These are interpretative battles with worldly consequences”