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ABSTRACT
The legal defence and high-profile campaigning by progressive human rights organisations representing or working on behalf of Al Qaeda fighters and supporters has generated furious debate internationally over the past decade. In the context of a rights-based perspective, this article explores two case studies, one related to a United States progressive, human rights delegation’s visit to Pakistan to protest drone strikes, and another focusing on the activities of a self-described human rights organisation working in the United Kingdom for those detained during the ‘global war on terror’. The article focuses on the left-wing and progressive arguments related to these two cases to examine some broader issues about the orientation of the political left to political violence, the nature of reactive human rights approaches to imperialism and war, and the prospects for more visionary orientations regarding human rights and political change.
Acknowledgements
I am very grateful to Rob Merrett, Karima Bennoune, Steve Cross, Meredith Tax, Steve Charkewycz, Sukhwant Dhaliwal and anonymous reviewers for helpful comments.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Note on contributor
Chetan Bhatt is Professor in the Department of Sociology and Director of the Centre for the Study of Human Rights at London School of Economics and Political Science.
Notes
1 A small sample of views include: K. Bennoune, ‘Why I Spoke Out on Anwar al-Awlaki’, Guardian, 19 November 2010, http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/nov/19/human-rights-usa; Concerned Algerian Citizens, ‘Letter to the Center for Constitutional Rights’, 14 November 2010, http://www.siawi.org/article2308.html; V. Brittain and A. Qureshi, ‘A Reply to Karima Bennoune on al-Awlaki’s Rights’, Guardian, 23 November 2010, http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/nov/23/human-rights-us-constitution-and-civil-liberties; R. Kerbaj, ‘Amnesty International is “Damaged” by Taliban Link’, Sunday Times, 7 February 2010; ‘A Statement by Gita Sahgal on Leaving Amnesty International’, New York Review of Books, 13 May 2010, http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2010/05/13/statement-gita-sahgal-leaving-amnesty-internationa/; V. Brittain, ‘Dangerous Game: A Reply to Gita Sahgal and Her Supporters’, Open Democracy, 30 June 2010, https://www.opendemocracy.net/victoria-brittain/dangerous-game-reply-to-gita-sahgal-and-her-supporters; M. Tax, Double Bind: The Muslim Right, the Anglo-American Left, and Universal Human Rights (London: Centre for Secular Space, 2013); Amnesty International, ‘Amnesty International on its Work with Moazzam Begg and Cageprisoners’, 11 February 2010, https://www.amnesty.org.uk/press-releases/amnesty-international-its-work-moazzam-begg-and-cageprisoners; Amnesty International, ‘Amnesty International Responds to Questions about Cage’, 12 March 2015, https://www.amnesty.org.uk/amnesty-international-responds-questions-about-cage.
2 I knew several of the protagonists involved in the Amnesty International case and I discussed the Anwar al-Awlaki case with the Centre for Constitutional Rights.
3 H. Miller and R. Redhead, ‘Beyond Rights-based Approaches’, International Journal of Human Rights (2017), this issue.
4 C. Bhatt, ‘The New Xenologies of Europe: Civil Tensions and Mythic Pasts’, Journal of Civil Society 8 (2012): 307–26.
5 D. Kennedy, ‘The International Human Rights Movement: Part of the Problem?’, Harvard Human Rights Journal 15 (2002): 101–25.
6 UN General Assembly Resolution, ‘Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms’, Fifty-third session, 9 December 1998, https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N99/770/89/PDF/N9977089.pdf?OpenElement.
7 Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, ‘Who is a Defender’, not dated, http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/SRHRDefenders/Pages/Defender.aspx#ftn1.
8 A.A. Anderson, The Community Builder’s Approach to Theory of Change: A Practical Guide to Theory Development (Washington, DC: The Aspen Institute, 2005), http://www.aspeninstitute.org/sites/default/files/content/docs/rcc/rcccommbuildersapproach.pdf.
9 C. Cordone, ‘Amnesty International’s Response to “The Global Petition to Amnesty International: Restoring the Integrity of Human Rights”’, 28 February 2010, AI International Secretariat, London.
10 Code Pink, ‘American Delegation Will Fast in Islamabad to Atone for US Drone Strikes’, 8 October 2012, http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2012/10/08/american-delegation-will-fast-islamabad-atone-us-drone-strikes. The ‘Pakistan Taliban’ refers to the extremely violent Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan and an associated set of often disputing militia groups. Opposition to the Code Pink visit is illustrated in M. Tax, ‘Code Pink, the Taliban and Malala Yousafzai’, Open Democracy, 13 October 2012.
11 Tax, ‘Code Pink, the Taliban and Malala Yousafzai’.
12 J. Lombardo, ‘Report on the CodePink delegation to Pakistan’, http://nepajac.org/pakistantrip.html.
13 See: the UK-based Justice for Aafia Coalition, https://www.facebook.com/groups/justiceforaafia/; the US-based Peace Thru Justice Foundation, http://www.peacethrujustice.org/aafia1.htm; the Pakistan-based Aafia Movement, http://aafiamovement.com/.
14 ‘Special Issue on Dr. Aafia Siddiqui’, Payam-e-Haya e-magazine (2014), http://www.darsequran.com/images/multimedia/magazines/shumarano5/eng/; Aafia Movement, The Story of the World’s Most Dangerous Woman (Karachi: Aafia Movement, 2013), http://www.aafiamovement.com/wp-content/themes/goodnews/images/Books/Comic%20Book.pdf; J. Bello, ‘The Nightmare Story of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui’, Countercurrents.org, 11 April 2013, http://www.countercurrents.org/bello110413.htm.
15 Lombardo, ‘Report on the Codepink Delegation to Pakistan’.
16 United States Attorney Southern District of New York, ‘Pakistani Man Convicted of Providing Material Support to Al Qaeda Sentenced to 30 Years in Federal Prison’, Press Release, 20 July 2006, 2.
17 D. Walsh, ‘The Mystery of Dr Aafia Siddiqui’, Guardian, 24 November 2009.
18 Ibid.
19 ‘Protest: Justice for Aafia Siddiqui (London)’, 12 September 2008, http://www.ihrc.org.uk/events/4779-Protest-Justice-for-Aafia-Siddiqui-London-.
20 ‘US Embassy Cables: US Denies Knowledge of Siddiqui Children’, Guardian, 1 December 2010, http://www.theguardian.com/world/us-embassy-cables-documents/175741; Walsh, ‘The Mystery of Dr Aafia Siddiqui’.
21 Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Report of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Committee Study of the Central Intelligence Agency’s Detention and Interrogation Program (Washington, DC: US Senate, 2014), 82.
22 K. Bennoune, ‘Terror/Torture’, Berkeley Journal of International Law 26 (2008): 7. See also K. Bennoune, ‘Remembering the Other’s Others: Theorizing the Approach of International Law to Muslim Fundamentalism’, Columbia Human Rights Law Review 41 (2010): 635–98.
23 USA v. Aafia Siddiqui, Sealed Complaint (SDNY), 31 July 2008, 3.
24 A. Abbas, ‘Unwarranted Hysteria for “Pakistan’s Daughter”’, The Express Tribune, 26 September 2010; M. Qadri, ‘Aafia Siddiqui: Emblem of an Uncertain Pakistan’, Guardian, 1 October 2010.
25 A. al-Zawahiri, ‘Who Will Support the Scientist, Aafia Siddiqui?’, November 2010, As-Sahab Media.
26 A. al-Zawahiri, ‘Address to the People of Pakistan on the American Attack on Pakistan Army in Mohmand’, February 2012, As-Sahab Media.
27 T. Joscelyn, ‘“Lady al Qaeda” in Propaganda’, Long War Journal, 16 December 2010, http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2010/12/analysis_lady_al_qae.php.
28 M. Azhar, ‘Mazloom Aafia Siddiqui by Maulana Masood Azhar’, Audio Recording of Speech, Urdu, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OHA9anqQY8.
29 T. Joscelyn, ‘Al Qaeda Group Demands Release of 2 Well-known Jihadists’, Long War Journal, 18 January 2013, http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2013/01/report_al_qaeda_grou.php.
30 ‘Police: Owner of NYC Car Bomb SUV Traced’, CBS News, 2 May 2010, http://www.cbsnews.com/news/police-owner-of-nyc-car-bomb-suv-traced/; ‘Pakistani Taleban Release Video Praising Late Terror Trainer’, BBC Monitoring South Asia, 21 January 2014.
31 Dabiq, Issue 3 (July 2014): 38.
32 Tax, ‘Code Pink, the Taliban and Malala Yousafzai’.
33 J. Boone, ‘Imran Khan Says Taliban’s “Holy War” in Afghanistan is Justified by Islamic Law’, Guardian, 14 October 2012, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/oct/14/imran-khan-taliban-afghanistan-islam; ‘TTP Does Not Want to Enforce Shariah at Gunpoint, Says Imran’, Dawn, 27 March 2014, http://www.dawn.com/news/1095926; O. Waraich, ‘Imran Khan: We Need to Talk to the Taliban’, Independent, 14 February 2014, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/imran-khan-we-need-to-talk-to-the-taliban-war-is-no-solution-9129536.html.
34 A.C. Alessandrini, ‘The Egyptian Revolution and the Problem of International Solidarity’, in Revolutionary Egypt: Connecting Domestic and International Struggles, ed. R.A. El-Fadl (Oxford: Routledge, 2015).
35 Lombardo, ‘Report on the Codepink Delegation to Pakistan’.
36 See for example Off the Record: US Responsibility for Enforced Disappearances in the ‘War on Terror’ (London: Amnesty International, 2007), jointly written and compiled by Amnesty International, Cageprisoners, the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights, the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at NYU School of Law, Human Rights Watch and the London-based Reprieve.
37 M. Begg with V. Brittain, Enemy Combatant: A British Muslim’s Journey to Guantánamo and Back (London: The Free Press, 2006).
38 D. Hussain, ‘A United Front against the Criminalization of Islam’, 6 January 2014, http://5pillarsuk.com/2014/01/06/a-united-front-against-the-criminalisation-of-islam/
39 Begg with Brittain, Enemy Combatant, 76.
40 ‘Attack on Mystic: Lashkar Man Identified’, The Hindu, 25 June 2006, http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article3124053.ece.
41 Tax, Double Bind, 10.
42 Begg and Brittain, Enemy Combatant, 75.
43 Maktabah Al Ansar, Azzam.com, Tibyan Publications and later Kalamullah.com were the main UK-based publishers of English-language salafi-jihadi material.
44 http://www.maktabah.net/home.asp, author archive.
46 Cageprisoners, ‘Statements of Classical Scholars on Freeing Muslim Captives’, 31 December 2003, http://www.cageprisoners.com/articles.php?id=84.
47 Tax, Double Bind, 46–7.
49 ‘Review of Combatant Status Review Tribunal for Detainee ISN [Classified]’, 18 December 2004.
50 Begg and Brittain, Enemy Combatant, 55.
51 Ibid., 82.
52 M. Begg, ‘Jihad and Terrorism: A War of the Words’, Arches Quarterly 2 (2008): 26.
53 A. Azzam, Join the Caravan (Azzam Publications, 2001), 26.
54 ‘Moazzam Begg Against Islamophobia’, Rally, Manchester, UK, 5 June 2008, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJPpSP_eY3M.
55 Begg. ‘Jihad and Terrorism’, 22–3.
56 Cordone, ‘Amnesty International’s Response’.
57 ‘Amnesty International Responds to Questions about Cage’, 12 March 2015, https://www.amnesty.org.uk/amnesty-international-responds-questions-about-cage.
58 ‘Judith Butler on Hamas, Hezbollah and the Israel Lobby (2006)’, 28 March 2010, https://radicalarchives.org/2010/03/28/jbutler-on-hamas-hezbollah-israel-lobby/.
59 Kennedy, ‘The International Human Rights Movement’.
60 D. Kumar, ‘Imperialist Feminism and Liberalism, Open Democracy, 6 November 2014.