Postcolonial Approaches to International Human Rights Law: The TWAIL Case

Authors : Elif Çağla YILDIZ

Pages : 353-369

Doi:10.26650/ppil.2023.43.1181972

View : 89 | Download : 97

Publication Date : 2023-07-19

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :In the first two decades of the 2000s, TWAIL insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(Third World Approaches to International Law); attracted considerable attention in academia with its critical approach to international law. Although TWAIL is characterized as a heterogeneous construct due to the various orientations, a postcolonial approach could be considered as a common ground that promotes cooperation across its members. TWAIL scholars questioned the neutrality and universality of international law by emphasizing its association with colonialism. Certain members of TWAIL also investigated the international human rights law based on postcolonial perspectives, stressing that it universalized particular European constructs through certain norms based on European experiences and history. However, it should be noted that some TWAILers did not limit their analysis to deconstruction and, due to their postcolonial perspectives, they also adopted a reconstructionist strategy. In other words, in addition to the norms of human rights law that prioritize and universalize the European experience, the necessity of a human rights corpus free from Eurocentric dimensions is also addressed in TWAIL literature. Furthermore, the postcolonial emancipatory agenda in favour of subalterns seems to have led certain TWAIL members to consider rights as a language of emancipation and a set of limits imposed on state authority. The present article argues that the postcolonial approach of TWAIL members went beyond the deconstructive criticism and proposed a detailed analysis that investigated human rights law based on various perspectives. From this point of view, it aims to reveal the postcolonial character of the mentioned approach, which combines a critical stance with a reconstructive vision.
Keywords : Postkolonyalizm, Uluslararası İnsan Hakları Hukuku, Üçüncü Dünya, Evrenselcilik, Avrupamerkezcilik