Right-Wing Pressure on Minority Civil Liberties in the US, Canada, and Europe

• In Event: Right-Wing Pressure on Minority Civil Liberties - Sponsored by the Division of International Criminology

Abstract

Using data from The Atlas of Impunity (Miliband, Chicago Council on Global Affairs, and Eurasia Group 2023), the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (2021, 2022), the World Justice Project (2023), the European Social Survey, the European Commission Rule of Law Reports (RoL), and the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, this paper considers the United States, Canada, and Europe in examining the impact of the twenty-first century rise of the far right in reducing the effectiveness of previously established legal protections for minorities. With increased vote share and nativist support, right-wing extremist parties promote legislation enabling elected leaders to act with impunity, ignoring the rule of law and the civil liberties of minority constituents. Of the thirteen indicators categorized under the Abuse of Human Rights dimension of the Index of Impunity several relate to the protection of minorities: for example, protection of civil liberties and human rights, “equal treatment and no discrimination”, “right to life and security”, due process, “freedom from torture” and from the death penalty and from state violence against civilians and from legal discrimination (ATLAS, 2023: 12-13). Whether requirements imposed by outside constraints, such as EU membership, can mitigate democratic backsliding is also explored.

Author

• Pamela Irving Jackson, Rhode Island College