Human rights performativity? Challenges for Guatemala and Colombia

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

While in the middle of a peace process, Colombia shares some disturbing similarities with post-conflict Guatemala: violence, corruption, impunity, extractivism and human rights violations. Taking into consideration the paradoxical function of human rights, as being both political and legal in nature, this panel will discuss the experiences and strategies deployed by different actors, at different levels, in both countries using the human rights language and/or institutions. Our analysis will focus on the ways these strategies redistribute political and legal power among these actors, therefore questioning traditional understandings of political transitions.

Sub Track

• Human Rights

Session Organizer

• Marc-André Anzueto, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)

Chair

• Bernard Duhaime, University of Quebec/Montreal

Individual Presentations

• Human rights, the institutionalization of Corporate Social Responsibility and the Colombian social contract - Etienne Roy Gregoire, University of Ottawa

• Performativity in Canada’s human rights policies: support for the work of the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) - Marc-André Anzueto, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)

• The role of the Inter-American case law on public participation: promoting socially mindful public policies in Colombia? - Elise Hansbury

• The French roots of counterinsurgency doctrine in Guatemala and beyond - Marc Drouin