Both nationally and internationally, the south Indian state of Kerala has been an object of study for its matrilineal kinship organization among some communities, as well as its achievements in education, literacy, and life expectancy for women against a weak economic base. Nonetheless, scholars have drawn attention to a paradox in Kerala’s model of development, namely women’s deteriorating social position in Kerala and the rise in violence against women. Against this backdrop, this book explores the intersections of gender, sexuality, marriage, family and kinship as related to the matrilineal Nayar community in Kerala. Chapters unravel the interplay between the triple categories of gender, power and social development as they play out at the micro, meso, and macro levels of society, probing the ways in which Nayar women practice agency. Ultimately, the authors explore how the strength of the Nayar community can be used as a case study toward circumventing the prevailing gender paradox and re-imagine a more liberated, empowered and self-reliant woman not only in Kerala, but in India at large. This book will be of interest to scholars in sociology, gender studies, and development studies, particularly those with a focus on South Asia.
Both nationally and internationally, the south Indian state of Kerala has been an object of study for its matrilineal kinship organization among some communities, as well as its achievements in education, literacy, and life expectancy for women against a weak economic base. Nonetheless, scholars have drawn attention to a paradox in Kerala’s model of development, namely women’s deteriorating social position in Kerala and the rise in violence against women. Against this backdrop, this book explores the intersections of gender, sexuality, marriage, family and kinship as related to the matrilineal Nayar community in Kerala. Chapters unravel the interplay between the triple categories of gender, power and social development as they play out at the micro, meso, and macro levels of society, probing the ways in which Nayar women practice agency. Ultimately, the authors explore how the strength of the Nayar community can be used as a case study toward circumventing the prevailing gender paradox and re-imagine a more liberated, empowered and self-reliant woman not only in Kerala, but in India at large. This book will be of interest to scholars in sociology, gender studies, and development studies, particularly those with a focus on South Asia.
This major new study examines the developing practice of universal jurisdiction, as well as the broader phenomenon of "globalizing" justice, and its ramifications. With a detailed overview of the contemporary practice of universal jurisdiction, it discerns three trends at work: pure universal jurisdiction, universal jurisdiction "plus", and non-use. It also argues that these disparities in practice should raise serious concerns as to the legitimacy and perceived legitimacy of such globalized justice. It then turns to a further consideration, that of globalized justice, precisely because it takes place far from the locus of the crime, and is therefore "externalized" and may fail to achieve many of its putative goals. In addition, this is a key assessment of civil accountability, through the use of the Alien Tort Claims Act in the United States. It details how the use of civil penalties may offer new avenues for redress, particularly with relation to group accountability, whether that of armed groups or of corporations. However, it balances this approach to accountability with recognition of certain flaws within externalized criminal accountability. This study also focuses on mixed tribunals, or other methods of internationalized justice as viable alternatives, which may avoid some of the problems with external justice, but are themselves far from perfect. Mixed or hybrid tribunals in East Timor and Sierra Leone represent different models of hybrid justice and provide the reader with excellent examples of these new forms of justice in action. This book will be of great interest to all students and scholars of human rights international law and political science.
This book examines what makes accountability for previous violations more or less possible for transitional regimes to achieve. It closely examines the other vital goals of such regimes against which accountability is often balanced. The options available are not simply prosecution or pardon, as the most heated polemics of the debate over transitional justice suggest, but a range of options from complete amnesty through truth commissions and lustration or purification to prosecutions. The question, then, is not whether or not accountability can be achieved, but what degree of accountability can be achieved by a given country. The focus of the book is on the politics of transition: what makes accountability more or less feasible and what strategies are deployed by regimes to achieve greater accountability (or alternatively, greater reform). The result is a more nuanced understanding of the different conditions and possibilities that countries face, and the lesson that there is no one-size-fits-all prescription that can be handed to transitional regimes.
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