This special issue had its genesis in the work of the Human Rights Researchers’ Network (HRRN),Footnote1 which is hosted by the Human Rights Consortium, in the School of Advanced Study, University of London and is supported by the publishers of the International Journal of Human Rights, Taylor and Francis. The HRRN was founded to bring together scholars in the academy and other institutions, such as NGOs, think tanks, government and grassroots movements, who share a common focus on the research of human rights norms and their implementation. The network aims to bridge the university-practitioner divide in order to collaborate on the many challenges of research and to exchange knowledge on shared interests concerning human rights.
The HRRN convened the conference on which this special issue is based, entitled Activist Scholarship in Human Rights: New Challenges, held on 28 June 2017 at Senate House, University of London.Footnote2 We felt this would be an apt topic for the first major conference of the HRRN because it touches on dilemmas that researchers of human rights face, including shrinking space for the freedom to do human rights research; ethical challenges we encounter in conducting research on human rights and our duties to those who have experienced human rights violations; various methodological choices we have and reflecting on how we can be faithful to the human rights approach in our work. We would like to thank all of those who participated in the conference for sharing their insights. Several participants submitted their papers for inclusion in this special issue. The result is a diverse, critical and highly personal look at the experiences of activist scholarship across disciplines and spaces.
Scholars and activists in human rights are facing new levels of persecution. For some scholars, this has meant disparagement of their research and teaching, self-censorship, closing of university departments, and even life-threatening attacks that have forced them into exile. For many activists, their defence of human rights has resulted in crackdowns on social mobilisation and institutions, arbitrary arrest and prosecution, imprisonment and even murder. Activists and scholars have united to fight these trends. At the conference, for example, we heard from members of the Academics for Peace group that is challenging various forms of persecution of academics and human rights defenders in Turkey. We also heard from the support organisations Front Line Defenders and the Fund for Global Human Rights that are working across countries to support individuals facing this oppression.
The conference presentations ranged from the most extreme cases to experiences where civic space and academic freedom remain open. Yet we found commonalities even across these divides. We were privileged to hear from Professor Donatella Della Porta as one of the conference speakers, who drew from her long experience of research on and with social movements to centre our discussions on the ethics of knowledge production. Activist scholarship is distinguished by its method of knowledge production, one in which the researcher and activists co-produce knowledge and by the purpose of knowledge production, where knowledge is used by researchers and activists together to challenge existing power structures and to achieve justice and equality. Activist scholarship is also distinguished by its efforts to break down the divide between the academy and activism, recognising the unique contributions of each constituency to wider projects of emancipation. The conference gave a platform for both activists and scholars to discuss these projects and how better to work together despite the new and ongoing structures and circumstances that make such collaboration difficult.
The special issue begins with an article by the special issue editors, Dr Corinne Lennox and Dr Yeşim Yaprak Yıldız, which gives an overview of activist scholarship in general before moving to discuss the contours of activist scholarship in human rights. This is developed further by offering some proposals for a human rights-based approach (HRBA) to activist scholarship in human rights, drawing from existing communities of practice of the HRBA, which is derived from core principles of human rights, including non-discrimination, the right to participation and obligations of accountability. We argue that this can build on and complement wider practices of activist scholarship.
The articles by Dr Aziz Choudry and Dr Ornette Clennon, both keynote speakers at the conference, offer personal reflections on their own research and practices of activism with communities. Choudry focuses our attention on knowledge produced from within social movements, arguing that too much of activist scholarship still centres on the academy. He steers our attention to understanding the modalities of knowledge production by activists, arguing that scholars can learn both from the substance and methods of this process. Clennon relays a specific case study of how he other scholars employed activist scholar methodologies in collaboration with a local community social mobilisation and arts learning project. He is candid about the limitations of what the academy can offer in many cases given its own internal constraints, including those posed by the move towards marketisation of higher education in the UK.
The article by Dr Senthorun Raj brings a perspective from the field of law and strategic litigation for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) people. His critique of queer activist legal scholarship makes a case for self-reflection by activist scholars through the lens of ‘emotion’ to examine the unintended consequences of their engagement with activist agendas, particularly where there are alternative normative projects that may not be supported by mainstream case law.
There are two additional articles that were intended for this special issue but which were erroneously published in earlier editions of the journal: Dr Matthew Evans, ‘Contentious politics and contentious scholarship: challenges researching social movements in South Africa’Footnote3 and Dr Karen Kong, ‘Human rights activist scholars and social change in Hong Kong: reflections on the Umbrella Movement and beyond’.Footnote4 Both articles are focussed on the positionality of the activist-scholar within social movements. Evans distils some learning from his experience of researching and working with social movements in South Africa seeking housing and land rights. He highlights how the tensions common to social mobilisation can manifest also in relation to the research produced by activist scholars associated with movements. Kong describes the leadership and participation of activist scholars in the Hong Kong Umbrella Movement. Her summary is a crucial reminder of the personal costs and risks that many activist scholars face in their pursuit of solidarity and emancipation.
We hope this special issue will be a useful tool for the HRRN and all journal readers in future discussions on how this exciting field of study can make a positive impact on human rights struggles globally.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes on contributor
Corinne Lennox is Senior Lecturer in Human Rights at the School of Advanced Study, University of London and Co-Director of the Human Rights Consortium. Her research focuses on issues of minority and indigenous peoples’ rights protection, civil society mobilisation for human rights and on human rights and development. She has worked for many years as a human rights practitioner with various NGOs, including at Minority Rights Group International, and has been an advisor on minority rights to governments, the UNDP and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Notes
1. The Human Rights Researchers Network is open to individual membership. More information on the HRRN can be found at: https://hrrn.blogs.sas.ac.uk/.
2. The conference organisers would like to thank the John Coffin Memorial Trust and Taylor and Francis Publishers for their donations in support of the conference.
3. Matthew Evans, ‘Contentious Politics and Contentious Scholarship: Challenges Researching Social Movements in South Africa’, The International Journal of Human Rights 23, no. 4 (2019): 653–78.
4. Karen Kong, ‘Human Rights Activist Scholars and Social Change in Hong Kong: Reflections on the Umbrella Movement and Beyond’, The International Journal of Human Rights 23, no. 6 (2019): 899–914.