On the Coloniality of Human Rights

“A decolonial form of energy justice requires us to destabilize Modern and eurocentric notions like human rights and participatory democracy (Maldonado-Torres, 2017).”

“Section 2.1 identifies norms and values as main pillars of governance, (see Section 1.1) , and found that notions of inclusivity and non-discrimination regularly appeared. respecting privacy and promoting the agency of data and algo-rithm subjects . a concern for respecting rights of the text creators (e.g., copy-righ…”

“The experiences of migrant sex workers analysed here show that the structurally racist coloniality of human rights (Maldonado-Torres 2017; Wynter 2003) and the limited degree of sexual humanitarian support they have provided to their target populations in times of relatively ‘progressive’ neoliberalism were further er…”

“Franz Fanon (1968/2004), Maldonado Torres (2017), and Abdenur Prado (2018) have shown how colonialism is reproduced through colonial mentalities, imaginaries, and pedagogies, where (neo)colonial institutions and philanthropy’s ‘good intentions’ have been instrumental to sustaining these extractive…”

“Anthropic’s constitution for Claude includes the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 10 which too is an example of moral universalism and subject to coloniality (Mastin 2009; Maldonado-Torres 2021).”

“It rests on the institutionalization of colonial hierarchies of power, being, knowledge and gender and the erasure of non-western practices (Maldonado-Torres, 2017; Lugones, 2010).”

“Maldonado-Torres (2017) argues that any decolonial conversation on human rights needs to start with the decolonising of the concept of Human (Maldonado-Torres, 2017, p. 117).”

“13 The analysis of Wynter ’ s critique of Man urges us to examine, in section two, the possibilities a ff orded in her meditations on ‘ after Man ’ .”

“…and universality of human rights are conceptually and historically delimited by systems of oppression that see certain people as not fully human (Maldonado-Torres, 2017), or require forms of expression and governance that can undermine the very ways of life that are claimed to be protected…”

“Sharia regulates human relations with Allah SWT, humans with humans, humans with nature, and becomes a guideline for solving all problems of human life both in this world and in the hereafter (Maldonado-Torres, 2021).”

“In other words, the pursuit of human rights should ‘ seek to ground whatever is universal in humanity in the very struggles of the colonised in a ffi rming their humanity ’ (Maldonado-Torres 2017, 132).”

“…key facets of the knowledge-truth regime and the techniques through which they are operationalized, and to ‘provincialize’ them – exposing their ‘situatedness’ in particular times, places, actor constellations and interests (Chakrabarty 2000; Maldonado-Torres 2017; Mignolo and Walsh 2018).”

“Even in my present day life, my regiments with looking “legitimate” is a reflection of coloniality (Maldonado-Torres, 2017).”

“Thus, although the human rights discourse used in the South African Constitution and legislation speaks to sexual and gender diversity, the embedded power of coloniality continues to establish white heterosexuality as the colonial “original” against which “othered” sexualities and genders are performed and defined (Bu…”

“Maldonado-Torres (2017) reflects on Spivak’s call for a new kind of education geared specifically toward poor rural communities.”

“Sadja’s trajectory into foster care uncovers how implementing her rights relies on “experts” designated to speak to and act on behalf of marginalised peoples (cf. Maldonado-Torres 2017).”

“In other words, to be effective, coloniality must of necessity include those ‘othered’ (Maldonado-Torres 2017: 123).”

“Thus, coloniality is here understood as the diversity of practices created by colonialism that are still at work within contemporary, postcolo-nial societies (Maldonado-Torres 2017).”

“The invisibilization of the indigenous identity in the ELT field does not only have to do with its lack of quantitative saliency but also, framed within the idea of mainstream bilingualism and ethnic bilingualism as mutually exclusive, emerges out of a logic, a culture, and a structure of the modern world-system which…”

“This perspective may be associated with the human rights discourse, which, according to Maldonado-Torres (2021), is largely in fl u-enced by Western and Eurocentric knowledge systems that prioritize individualism and autonomy.”

“De ahí las dos dimensiones básicas del giro decolonial: la identificación del colonialismo como problema fundamental (ver Césaire 2000, p. 32), y la idea de la descolonización como proyecto continuado e inacabado (Grosfoguel et al. , 2005; Maldonado-Torres, 2017).”

“…thus offered an experience of knowledge-making as a human right for all, rather than for the benefit of a few knowledge holders, enabling the co-creators to experience themselves and the other co-creators as humans, and addressing the aims of decolonial research praxis (Maldonado-Torres 2017).”

“Besides the judgment, I relied on decolonial scholarship (Maldonado-Torres, 2018; Martinot, 2016) and in a way built on the work of Filip Strandberg Hassellind (Hassellind, 2020) by pointing out the larger contextual issue (war spirits, spiritual wars, war prophets and war diviners) as an alibi for…”

“The human rights discourse, critiqued by prominent decolonial scholars such as Maldonado-Torres (2017), is used by men to distance themselves from the issue as shown by some comments in online forums such as #NotAllMen (see Hayes and Luther, 2018; Nicholas and Agius, 2018).”

“Following from this, decolonial thinkers have coined concepts and theories such as the coloniality of being, the coloniality of human rights, and the coloniality of gender (Lugones 2016; Maldonado-Torres 2007, 2017).”

“The youth’s intentional use of 생명들 subtly refused the boundaries and separations between human and non-human that they exposed as facilitating death and destruction and as embedded in everyday language (Maldonado-Torres 2017; Sánchez 2020).”

“A formative project, led by my erudite colleague Shahnaaz Suffla and organized as rebellion against coloniality (see Maldonado-Torres, 2017), summons historiographic accounts of Africa (e.g., Mazrui, 2005; Mudimbe, 1988; Zeleza, 2007) to retrieve African knowledge archives.”

“…na Amazônia enfrenta um desafio duplo: de um lado, precisa superar o epistemicídio denunciado por Santos (2018); de outro, deve evitar a armadilha do relativismo ingênuo que, na visão de Maldonado-Torres (2017), iguala todos os saberes sem enfrentar as assimetrias de poder que os estruturam.”

“…coloniality continues to inform the prevailing knowledge system as I draw on their refusal of imperial hierarchies and their attentiveness to othered epistemic life-worlds that are often erased by colonial ways of thinking (Abu-Lughod, 1990; Cetinkaya, 2023; Kapur, 2018; Maldonado-Torres, 2017).”

“…requires a decolo-nial inquiry with knowledge-sharing practices in our research approach (Barreto, 2018; Davis, 2020; Denzin & Lincoln, 2005; Maldonado-Torres, 2017; Mignolo, 1995, 2021; Smith, 2021) to create coalition building (Gawerc, 2021; Gullion & Tilton, 2020; Maldonado et al., 2021;…”

“Key scholars on decoloniality (Grosfoguel 2007; Maldonado-Torres 2017; Mignolo 2011) concur that coloniality is a “fundamental problem”; thus, this study challenges Eurocentric views of indigenous fruits and medicinal herbs in the Global South.”

“I will conclude with some thoughts on the role of the canon in what can be understood as the unfinished project of decolonization (Maldonado-Torres, 2017: 118).”

“This legacy has meant that the language of development and that of human rights—as leading trademarks of the industry—have been called to account for the extent of their nobility as well as their concern for all humanity (Ndlovu-Gatsheni 2012; Douzinas 2013; Maldonado-Torres 2017).”

“As Maldonado-Torres’s analysis of the coloniality of human rights reminds us, these frameworks historically and structurally produce zones of salvation and zones of damnation, determining whose lives are considered fully human and whose are not (Maldonado-Torres, 2021).”

“The findings of the study suggest that teachers of history had started imagining the possibilities (Maldonado-Torres, 2017; Mignolo, 2007; Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2019; Wa Thiongo, 1981) of what a decolonised history curriculum could be by advocating for inclusion of neglected histories, emphasis on local…”

“…indivisible, inalienable, and interrelated” (UNESCO, 2023), Bhuvi and Jinu are noting that in reality, their right to dignity is inextricably linked to their geo-politic (“backward” Attappady) and body-politic (“backward” Scheduled Tribe) situatedness (Maldonado-Torres, 2017; Mignolo, 2009).”

“…with their mélange of Latin and Arabic writing, altar stones, and bird feathers—then Rarey has uncovered an alternative genealogy of human rights beyond the Global North’s monopoly, one grounded more in orations, or prayers against oppression, than declarations of freedom (Maldonado-Torres 2017).”

“Maldonado-Torres (2017) argues that international human rights law re-iterates the ‘rights of man’ in the U.S. Declaration of Independence and French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen.”

“Linda’s perspectives engage with decolonial projects (Maldonado-Torres, 2017a) in that she draws from her own decolonial lived position to promote a decolonial attitude in her pedagogy.”