Table Of ContentRHETORIC IN HUMAN RIGHTS
ADVOCACY
RHETORIC IN HUMAN RIGHTS
ADVOCACY
A Study of Exemplars
Richard K. Ghere
LEXINGTON BOOKS
Lanham • Boulder • New York • London
PublishedbyLexingtonBooks
AnimprintofTheRowman&LittlefieldPublishingGroup,Inc.
4501ForbesBoulevard,Suite200,Lanham,Maryland20706
www.rowman.com
UnitA,WhitacreMews,26-34StannaryStreet,LondonSE114AB
Copyright©2015byLexingtonBooks
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereproducedinanyformorby
anyelectronicormechanicalmeans,includinginformationstorageandretrieval
systems,withoutwrittenpermissionfromthepublisher,exceptbyareviewer
whomayquotepassagesinareview.
BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationInformationAvailable
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Ghere,RichardK.,1945-
Rhetoricinhumanrightsadvocacy:astudyofexemplars/RichardK.Ghere.
pagescm
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-0-7391-9393-8(cloth:alk.paper)--ISBN978-0-7391-9394-5(electronic)
1.Humanrightsadvocacy.2.Rhetoric.I.Title.
JC571.G4482015
323.01'4--dc23
2015002887
TMThepaperusedinthispublicationmeetstheminimumrequirementsof
AmericanNationalStandardforInformationSciencesPermanenceofPaperfor
PrintedLibraryMaterials,ANSI/NISOZ39.48-1992.
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
CONTENTS
Preface vii
1 Introduction:RhetoricandHumanRightsAdvocacy 1
2 AdvocacyRhetoricthroughThickandThin:AConceptual
Backdrop 23
3 RhetoricinMoralCrises 47
4 RhetoricinMoralConfrontations 93
withYoussefFarhat
5 RhetoricinMoralProjects 133
6 RhetoricinMoralWork 177
7 DialecticalHumanRightsAdvocacy 217
Bibliography 245
Index 255
AbouttheAuthor 269
v
PREFACE
O
n a chilly winter afternoon in 1981, a window display at a bookstore
near Boston University caught my attention as I walked toward Marsh
Chapel onthe otherside ofCommonwealthAvenue. Specifically, Ispot-
tedtwolight-bluesweatshirts,bothwithfacialsilhouettesoffamousduos
on their fronts. One featured “Steve and Idi” with representations of a
well-known vocalist of the 1960s and the third president of Uganda. The
other displayed “Ike and Tina” with the thirty-fourth President of the
United States and an entertainer sometimes called “the queen of rock.”
Why I did not cross the street to purchase one or both, I cannot recall—
whether a case of a lack of cash (as often the case at that time) or of
initiative.
Thatwindowdisplayflashedbackinmymindsometwelveyearslater
when Icame across aterrific bookonpublic ethics that offered compari-
sons of some public servants whose careers exemplified the loftiest of
ethical standards with others of lesser scruples. Through their novel for-
mat, Terry Cooper and Dale Wright—editors of Exemplars in Public
Administration (1992)—invited readers to evaluate how exemplars ap-
proached their public callings, some with ferocious integrity and others
with quite less. CooperandWrightchallenged meto discern howethical
character makes a qualitative difference in public service; but beyond
that, they prodded their readers to determine how contextual circum-
stancessurroundingthesepublicofficialsimpingedupontheiractions.In
this respect, strong character and principles are to be celebrated, so long
asindividualscanpersevereoverthelonghaultotacklethecomplexities
vii
viii PREFACE
and frustrations of their work. Suffice it to say that I am grateful to both
Terry and Dale for their book that now provides a cogent model to char-
acterizehumanrightsadvocacyinpraxis,especiallyintermsoftherheto-
ricandnarrativesthatparticularrightsexemplarsemploytosupporttheir
appeals.
A number of events over the past few years have coincided to extend
my workatthe University ofDaytonto teachingandresearch in thearea
of human rights. Specifically, the University of Dayton has instituted an
interdisciplinaryhumanrightsundergraduatemajorintendedononehand
to prepare some students for human rights–related vocations but on the
other to articulate what it means to be human and to advocate for human
dignity in any chosen career. The University has also established a Hu-
man Rights Center that draws upon its faculty members from various
disciplinary backgrounds to share their expertise in researching human
rights.
The Center prioritizes research and programming efforts directed to
what it calls the social practice of human rights that, among other con-
cerns, focuses upon advocacy as a craft if not an art. As one involved
withHumanRightsCenterresearch,Igrapplebothwithwhatthepractice
of rights advocacy actually entails and exactly who qualifies as a human
rightsadvocate.Asforthefirst,ouremphasisuponadvocacyimpliesthat
an understanding of the human rights movements extends beyond con-
cerns about global standards and mechanisms of protection to direct at-
tention to people who champion the causes of other people who suffer
indignity and deprivation. Somehow we need to reconcile mixed mes-
sages that on one hand convey absolutist resolve to “denounce injustice”
(reminiscent of the late cartoonist Doug Marlette’s character Will B.
Dunn)butontheothercallforpragmaticcollaborationthatbringsdiverse
stakeholderstothetable.
Inourpassions to breathe lifeintotheCenter,we colleaguescontinue
ourdialoguesaboutwhathumanrightsspecificallyencompasses.Trueto
our moorings in the social sciences, we tend to proceed along the reduc-
tionist road of the “isn’ts”—human rights isn’t humanitarianism, isn’t
peace-keeping, and so forth—to endorse a precise identity for it as a
legitimate academic pursuit. Such a stringent road would effectively dis-
qualify some exemplars included in the book (as examples, Mary B.
AndersonandDanielBarenboim)asbonafidehumanrightsadvocates.
Description:This book examines the rhetoric of various “exemplars” who advocate for causes and actions pertaining to human rights in particular contexts. Although some of these exemplars champion human rights, others are human rights antagonists. Simply put, the argument here is that concern for how particu
