From: Islamic Human Rights Commission

23 January 2018

PRESS RELEASE – UK: IHRC to host conference on American Exceptionalism

In a heightened era of American Exceptionalism under an overtly chauvinistic President and administration, IHRC is convening a conference to unmask the more systemic problems that undergird US Exceptionalism.

This conference will focus on the Americanisation of human rights, and the praxis of human rights, arguing that they have become a tool of US led foreign policy rather than a transformative discourse that seeks to liberate individuals, groups and indeed large sections of society who are oppressed by unjust systems.

The conference will be convened in two parts witht he first focussing on the Americanisation of human rights and the second looking at the US as a failed state:

(i) The US Model and Praxis of Human Rights

How has advocacy and narrative changed over the last fifty years?

How does it need to change to tackle manifest injustice in the contemporary era?

Issues for possible discussion:

Institutionalisation of American Exceptionalism in International Organisations e.g UN, Security Council, World Bank, IMF, WTO

The War on Terror

The War(s) on Drugs

The roll out of COINTELPRO type measures and its impact on global human rights advocacy

Americo-centrism

The Double Standards of American Exceptionalism and the American Discourse of Human Rights

American Exceptionalism as a Domination Policy of Human Rights

American Globalisation of Human Rights

Americanisation of Human Rights

Americanisation, Power, Hate Policy and Human Rights

(ii) The US as a failed state

How and what do current modes of human rights narrative and praxis mask internal injustices, indeed the contradiction at the heart of the US State?

Issues for possible discussion:

The Prison Industrial Complex

Guantanamo and the Guantanamisation of the US

Black, Latina, Indigenous and other Narratives of Oppression and Liberation

Speakers:

• Saeid Reza Ameli
• Tasneem Chopra
• Sohail Daulatzai
• Ramon Grosfoguel
• Sandew Hira
• Saeed A Khan
• Rajeesh Kumar
• Laurens De Rooij
• Mary Ryan
• Mushtaq ul Haq
• Ahmad Sikandar

Notes to editors:

WHEN: Saturday, 10 February from 9.30am – 4.30pm

WHERE: Sarah Fell Room, Friends House, 173-177 Euston Road, London, NW1 2BJ (nearest stations: Euston / Euston Square / King’s Cross / Warren Street)

Guests can reserve tickets online

For media enquiries or further details please call +44 20 8904 4222 or +44 7958 522196 or +44 7426 728074. Email nadia@ihrc.org if you’d like to attend and cover the event[Ends]

——————————————————————————————

IHRC is an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.

Islamic Human Rights Commission
PO Box 598
Wembley
HA9 7XH
United Kingdom

Telephone (+44) 20 8904 4222
Email: info@ihrc.org
Web: www.ihrc.org
Twitter @ihrc