Theses Master's

Radicalizing Human Rights through Black Radical Tradition Capabilities and Language

Lee, Jayshawn

This thesis considers the long history surrounding the human rights system that emerged with the UN and how the Black radical tradition aimed to influence international solidarity and collective liberties through it. Recognizing the strengths language gives in the capability for rights to be realized has been an ongoing debate. Despite Eleanor Roosevelt's initial leading of the UN, the disconnect and dissolution to provide specified human rights protections based on identity in the UDHR are felt today. The ongoing black liberation movement was and is still a movement about international solutions. The failures to solidify change by US delegates offered in petitions like We Charge Genocide in the 50s, 70s, and onward are still present today.

The failures are particularly felt in how domestically in the US but also in territories like Palestine dismissed by the US on the international level, wrapping back to the international stakes Black activists recognized priorly. Ultimately we have to ask two questions. What were the conditions that arose in the United States post-1951s We Charge Genocide, and post-1971 resurgence, that could have established a better system for BIPOC individuals domestically and abroad to receive fully realized human rights? What are the possibilities of today's "third push" by the Spirit of Mandela Tribunal that can potentially be more or less successful?

Finally, this essay aims to offer the closing gaps to improve new age advocacy strategies that can potentially overstep prior critics. These possibilities are highlighted by defining tangible goals in the development of active global citizens and evaluating the means language and international solidarity can finally give redress for Black Americans and a possible indictment of the United States.

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More About This Work

Academic Units
Institute for the Study of Human Rights
Thesis Advisors
Sandler, Matthew F.
Degree
M.A., Columbia University
Published Here
April 5, 2023