... Om de rest van dit artikel te lezen moet u inloggen. Gebruikersnaam. Wachtwoord. Heeft u een ... more ... Om de rest van dit artikel te lezen moet u inloggen. Gebruikersnaam. Wachtwoord. Heeft u een registratiecode ontvangen maar nog geen toegang? Activeer dan hier uw code. Weet u uwwachtwoord niet meer? Nieuw wachtwoord aanvragen. Gratis attendering! ...
All over the world, more and more cities explicitly base their policies on international human ri... more All over the world, more and more cities explicitly base their policies on international human rights law. Whilst these human rights differ in size, approach and focus, they all hold the promise of strengthening social justice at the local level, and realizing abstract human rights ideals.
Local governments and transnational city networks (‘TCNs’) have been increasingly engaging with n... more Local governments and transnational city networks (‘TCNs’) have been increasingly engaging with norm-generation in the traditionally state-centric international law and migration governance. We ide...
Human rights as Eleanor Roosevelt famously said, begin in small places: 'Unless they have mea... more Human rights as Eleanor Roosevelt famously said, begin in small places: 'Unless they have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere'. In this inaugural lecture on the sociology of human rights, Barbara Oomen sets out a model for understanding how human rights acquire meaning in such places. Next to the laws involved, like the constitutional dispensation of a given country, it is important to look at legal culture and legal consciousness and the actors involved. She applies this model to come to an understanding of the paradox of human rights in the Netherlands. Whilst human rights play a key role in Dutch foreign policies, they are hardly ever invoked as a frame for analyzing and addressing domestic problems, like polarization, domestic violence or access to health care. This human rights exportism can be understood by not only looking at the legal framework - which is characterized by a marked openness towards human rights - but also at the lack of knowledge of right...
Recently, many European countries have moved towards codification of international human rights l... more Recently, many European countries have moved towards codification of international human rights law. Aiming for a deeper socio-legal understanding of the rationale behind these processes, this article discusses one country – the Netherlands. It looks at the rationale behind, and the outcomes of the 2009-2010 Constitutional Review Commission, mandated to advise on the relationship between the national and the international legal orders and the inclusion of certain human rights into the Constitution. Both rationale and outcome, it is argued, can be understood by focusing on Rosenfeld’s three aspects of constitutional identity: the actual text of the constitution, constitutional culture and the interplay between the constitution and national identity. The Dutch constitution is layered, sober, incomplete and relatively unimportant, with internationalism as its main distinguishing feature. The political rationale for Dutch constitutional revision was, contrary to common understanding, to use the constitution as a bulwark rather than a bridge vis-a-vis the international legal order thus foreseeing a new, more symbolic role for the Constitution. The fact that such strengthening of constitutional identity did not materialise is explained by the culture of pragmatic relativising of the Constitution and, paradoxically, the fact that commitment to internationalism is the only pronounced element of Dutch constitutional identity.
Cities claim an ever-larger role in migration governance, often by means of progressive policies ... more Cities claim an ever-larger role in migration governance, often by means of progressive policies that “decouple” the local from the national. The literature on this “local turn” has generally failed to recognize how this decoupling increasingly takes place within the context of Transnational Municipal Networks (TMNs). On the basis of a database of the 20 most important TMNs in refugee and migrant welcome and integration in Europe and additional empirical research, this article identifies and analyzes their main characteristics, composition, and activities in a multiscalar context, thus contributing to a better understanding of migration governance. It argues that these networks, by means of a wide variety of activities, serve a practical but also a symbolic and jurisgenerative purpose. These implicit and explicit objectives of city networking also account for the proliferation of TMNs witnessed across Europe since 2015. In “teaming up,” European cities not only share practical exper...
The growing influence and self-confidence of local authorities count among the most interesting r... more The growing influence and self-confidence of local authorities count among the most interesting recent phenomena in global governance. While not entirely oblivious, international law as a field has struggled to get ahead of this dynamic, focusing instead on how to integrate local authorities into static conventional frameworks firmly based on the notion of state sovereignty. However, as a discussion of the global state of affairs and a focus on human rights cities shows, local actors increasingly claim and obtain a key role in the realization of international law. Additionally, they hold important potential to address some of the most pressing challenges to international human rights law concerning its efficacy and legitimacy. This article therefore calls for a proactive approach to the study of local authorities that considers local authorities as a 'new frontier' in international law generally and in human rights law specifically. It proposes a critical research agenda for this purpose that could produce important new insights into (i) the continued relevance and legitimacy of human rights as a discourse of governance; (ii) the bearing of domestic constitutional arrangements on the implementation of human rights law and (iii) questions of, and possible shifts in, legal sub-jecthood in the contexts of 'state failure'.
The ever-increasing scholarship on the politics of human rights focuses on either international t... more The ever-increasing scholarship on the politics of human rights focuses on either international treaty negotiations or domestic politics after ratification. It thus misses how the stage of implementation is often crucially set in the period between signing and ratifying. This article addresses this lacuna via an in-depth discussion of the ratification process of the Disability Convention (CRPD) in the Netherlands. In this period, stakeholders highlight certain treaty obligations, while downplaying or ignoring others. This theory of preratification politics calls for more differentiation between treaty obligations and attention to the politics of their mobilization, even in the most monist countries.
The central contention in Fernanda Pirie’s contribution to this Forum - that anthropologists shou... more The central contention in Fernanda Pirie’s contribution to this Forum - that anthropologists should pay more attention to what law is - immediately brought to mind the many (legal) anthropological conferences I have attended over the years. Locations, themes and organizers changed: from the Commission on Legal Pluralism Conference in Chile, the meeting of the American Anthropological Association in Williamsburg, a session on legal anthropology in Cape Town and in Nigeria and the Law and Society Association gathering in Berlin to great meetings at the Max Planck Institute in Halle. Yet, in all these meetings, there was one red thread. Somewhere during the presentations, invariably, someone would stick up a finger to ask what I have, by now, come to consider the key question that legal anthropologists obsess with: ‘What exactly, in the context of this paper/study/presentation, do you mean by law?’...
This article sets out the value of socio-legal theories of legal pluralism in understanding both ... more This article sets out the value of socio-legal theories of legal pluralism in understanding both the implementation and the integration of multilayered human rights. Legal pluralism is concerned with the coexistence of different normative orders within one socio-political space. Theories of the interactions between human rights and legal pluralism help to understand why and how human rights (do not) acquire meaning in a given setting and how to thus - from a normative point of view - enable the integration of human rights in a given setting. Concepts central to this analysis are the notion of a semi-autonomous social field, the role of actors, of power differentials, and of framing, all understood via empirical research. The theoretical insights on how legal pluralism helps to understand and support human rights implementation and integration is illustrated with the case of passive voting rights of orthodox-protestant (SGP) women in The Netherlands.
Over the past several years, there has been an increase in critiques of the European Court of Hum... more Over the past several years, there has been an increase in critiques of the European Court of Human Rights, most notably and surprisingly amongst its founding members, like The Netherlands. These critiques are often understood as a crisis of legitimacy. In order to assess whether this is the case, the definition and operationalisation of legitimacy is crucial. This article evaluates the critiques in The Netherlands, using a subjective understanding of legitimacy by Sharpf and Schmidt, who emphasize input, throughout, and output legitimacy, but also that of the demos concerned. The latter dimension is often overlooked in other studies. The critiques of the European Court of Human Rights in The Netherlands are discussed on the basis of archival research, literature review, interviews, and survey research. On the basis of the exploratory findings for The Netherlands, the article concludes that, in taking a subjective approach to legitimacy that covers all its dimensions, including support for the European demos, into account, the crisis of legitimacy could be deeper than most scholars estimate. Both the theoretical approach and the empirical insights from The Netherlands are considered of relevance to wider research on the legitimacy of the international human rights regime.
Wat is het doel van het onderwijs? De discussie is even oud als het onderwerp zelf, maar onvermin... more Wat is het doel van het onderwijs? De discussie is even oud als het onderwerp zelf, maar onverminderd actueel. Daarbij is een terugkerend thema dat het onderwijs niet alleen moet gaan over het vergaren van kennis, het stimuleren voor de liefde van het leren en een voorbereiding op het werkzame leven (Aristotle & Lord, 2013; Dewey, 1899; Nussbaum, 2010). Het onderwijs heeft ook een socialiserende functie en bereidt jonge mensen voor op een leven binnen de samenleving (Ten Dam, Geijsel, Reumerman, & Ledoux, 2010). Daarmee zijn de uitdagingen binnen die samenleving ook uitdagingen binnen de klas - in het zoeken van oplossingen voor sociaaleconomische verschillen, polarisatie, individualisering, milieuverontreiniging, kijken beleidsmakers vroeg of laat onvermijdelijk naar de toekomstige generaties. Als gevolg hiervan worden docenten overstelpt met materialen en lespakketten, of deze nu gaat om terreinen als gezond eten, financiële huishouding, terrorismebestrijding of anti-pestgedrag...
... Om de rest van dit artikel te lezen moet u inloggen. Gebruikersnaam. Wachtwoord. Heeft u een ... more ... Om de rest van dit artikel te lezen moet u inloggen. Gebruikersnaam. Wachtwoord. Heeft u een registratiecode ontvangen maar nog geen toegang? Activeer dan hier uw code. Weet u uwwachtwoord niet meer? Nieuw wachtwoord aanvragen. Gratis attendering! ...
All over the world, more and more cities explicitly base their policies on international human ri... more All over the world, more and more cities explicitly base their policies on international human rights law. Whilst these human rights differ in size, approach and focus, they all hold the promise of strengthening social justice at the local level, and realizing abstract human rights ideals.
Local governments and transnational city networks (‘TCNs’) have been increasingly engaging with n... more Local governments and transnational city networks (‘TCNs’) have been increasingly engaging with norm-generation in the traditionally state-centric international law and migration governance. We ide...
Human rights as Eleanor Roosevelt famously said, begin in small places: 'Unless they have mea... more Human rights as Eleanor Roosevelt famously said, begin in small places: 'Unless they have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere'. In this inaugural lecture on the sociology of human rights, Barbara Oomen sets out a model for understanding how human rights acquire meaning in such places. Next to the laws involved, like the constitutional dispensation of a given country, it is important to look at legal culture and legal consciousness and the actors involved. She applies this model to come to an understanding of the paradox of human rights in the Netherlands. Whilst human rights play a key role in Dutch foreign policies, they are hardly ever invoked as a frame for analyzing and addressing domestic problems, like polarization, domestic violence or access to health care. This human rights exportism can be understood by not only looking at the legal framework - which is characterized by a marked openness towards human rights - but also at the lack of knowledge of right...
Recently, many European countries have moved towards codification of international human rights l... more Recently, many European countries have moved towards codification of international human rights law. Aiming for a deeper socio-legal understanding of the rationale behind these processes, this article discusses one country – the Netherlands. It looks at the rationale behind, and the outcomes of the 2009-2010 Constitutional Review Commission, mandated to advise on the relationship between the national and the international legal orders and the inclusion of certain human rights into the Constitution. Both rationale and outcome, it is argued, can be understood by focusing on Rosenfeld’s three aspects of constitutional identity: the actual text of the constitution, constitutional culture and the interplay between the constitution and national identity. The Dutch constitution is layered, sober, incomplete and relatively unimportant, with internationalism as its main distinguishing feature. The political rationale for Dutch constitutional revision was, contrary to common understanding, to use the constitution as a bulwark rather than a bridge vis-a-vis the international legal order thus foreseeing a new, more symbolic role for the Constitution. The fact that such strengthening of constitutional identity did not materialise is explained by the culture of pragmatic relativising of the Constitution and, paradoxically, the fact that commitment to internationalism is the only pronounced element of Dutch constitutional identity.
Cities claim an ever-larger role in migration governance, often by means of progressive policies ... more Cities claim an ever-larger role in migration governance, often by means of progressive policies that “decouple” the local from the national. The literature on this “local turn” has generally failed to recognize how this decoupling increasingly takes place within the context of Transnational Municipal Networks (TMNs). On the basis of a database of the 20 most important TMNs in refugee and migrant welcome and integration in Europe and additional empirical research, this article identifies and analyzes their main characteristics, composition, and activities in a multiscalar context, thus contributing to a better understanding of migration governance. It argues that these networks, by means of a wide variety of activities, serve a practical but also a symbolic and jurisgenerative purpose. These implicit and explicit objectives of city networking also account for the proliferation of TMNs witnessed across Europe since 2015. In “teaming up,” European cities not only share practical exper...
The growing influence and self-confidence of local authorities count among the most interesting r... more The growing influence and self-confidence of local authorities count among the most interesting recent phenomena in global governance. While not entirely oblivious, international law as a field has struggled to get ahead of this dynamic, focusing instead on how to integrate local authorities into static conventional frameworks firmly based on the notion of state sovereignty. However, as a discussion of the global state of affairs and a focus on human rights cities shows, local actors increasingly claim and obtain a key role in the realization of international law. Additionally, they hold important potential to address some of the most pressing challenges to international human rights law concerning its efficacy and legitimacy. This article therefore calls for a proactive approach to the study of local authorities that considers local authorities as a 'new frontier' in international law generally and in human rights law specifically. It proposes a critical research agenda for this purpose that could produce important new insights into (i) the continued relevance and legitimacy of human rights as a discourse of governance; (ii) the bearing of domestic constitutional arrangements on the implementation of human rights law and (iii) questions of, and possible shifts in, legal sub-jecthood in the contexts of 'state failure'.
The ever-increasing scholarship on the politics of human rights focuses on either international t... more The ever-increasing scholarship on the politics of human rights focuses on either international treaty negotiations or domestic politics after ratification. It thus misses how the stage of implementation is often crucially set in the period between signing and ratifying. This article addresses this lacuna via an in-depth discussion of the ratification process of the Disability Convention (CRPD) in the Netherlands. In this period, stakeholders highlight certain treaty obligations, while downplaying or ignoring others. This theory of preratification politics calls for more differentiation between treaty obligations and attention to the politics of their mobilization, even in the most monist countries.
The central contention in Fernanda Pirie’s contribution to this Forum - that anthropologists shou... more The central contention in Fernanda Pirie’s contribution to this Forum - that anthropologists should pay more attention to what law is - immediately brought to mind the many (legal) anthropological conferences I have attended over the years. Locations, themes and organizers changed: from the Commission on Legal Pluralism Conference in Chile, the meeting of the American Anthropological Association in Williamsburg, a session on legal anthropology in Cape Town and in Nigeria and the Law and Society Association gathering in Berlin to great meetings at the Max Planck Institute in Halle. Yet, in all these meetings, there was one red thread. Somewhere during the presentations, invariably, someone would stick up a finger to ask what I have, by now, come to consider the key question that legal anthropologists obsess with: ‘What exactly, in the context of this paper/study/presentation, do you mean by law?’...
This article sets out the value of socio-legal theories of legal pluralism in understanding both ... more This article sets out the value of socio-legal theories of legal pluralism in understanding both the implementation and the integration of multilayered human rights. Legal pluralism is concerned with the coexistence of different normative orders within one socio-political space. Theories of the interactions between human rights and legal pluralism help to understand why and how human rights (do not) acquire meaning in a given setting and how to thus - from a normative point of view - enable the integration of human rights in a given setting. Concepts central to this analysis are the notion of a semi-autonomous social field, the role of actors, of power differentials, and of framing, all understood via empirical research. The theoretical insights on how legal pluralism helps to understand and support human rights implementation and integration is illustrated with the case of passive voting rights of orthodox-protestant (SGP) women in The Netherlands.
Over the past several years, there has been an increase in critiques of the European Court of Hum... more Over the past several years, there has been an increase in critiques of the European Court of Human Rights, most notably and surprisingly amongst its founding members, like The Netherlands. These critiques are often understood as a crisis of legitimacy. In order to assess whether this is the case, the definition and operationalisation of legitimacy is crucial. This article evaluates the critiques in The Netherlands, using a subjective understanding of legitimacy by Sharpf and Schmidt, who emphasize input, throughout, and output legitimacy, but also that of the demos concerned. The latter dimension is often overlooked in other studies. The critiques of the European Court of Human Rights in The Netherlands are discussed on the basis of archival research, literature review, interviews, and survey research. On the basis of the exploratory findings for The Netherlands, the article concludes that, in taking a subjective approach to legitimacy that covers all its dimensions, including support for the European demos, into account, the crisis of legitimacy could be deeper than most scholars estimate. Both the theoretical approach and the empirical insights from The Netherlands are considered of relevance to wider research on the legitimacy of the international human rights regime.
Wat is het doel van het onderwijs? De discussie is even oud als het onderwerp zelf, maar onvermin... more Wat is het doel van het onderwijs? De discussie is even oud als het onderwerp zelf, maar onverminderd actueel. Daarbij is een terugkerend thema dat het onderwijs niet alleen moet gaan over het vergaren van kennis, het stimuleren voor de liefde van het leren en een voorbereiding op het werkzame leven (Aristotle & Lord, 2013; Dewey, 1899; Nussbaum, 2010). Het onderwijs heeft ook een socialiserende functie en bereidt jonge mensen voor op een leven binnen de samenleving (Ten Dam, Geijsel, Reumerman, & Ledoux, 2010). Daarmee zijn de uitdagingen binnen die samenleving ook uitdagingen binnen de klas - in het zoeken van oplossingen voor sociaaleconomische verschillen, polarisatie, individualisering, milieuverontreiniging, kijken beleidsmakers vroeg of laat onvermijdelijk naar de toekomstige generaties. Als gevolg hiervan worden docenten overstelpt met materialen en lespakketten, of deze nu gaat om terreinen als gezond eten, financiële huishouding, terrorismebestrijding of anti-pestgedrag...
The final version of this lecture was published as: Oomen, B. (2015). Where Law and Politics Mee... more The final version of this lecture was published as: Oomen, B. (2015). Where Law and Politics Meet – Looking at Human Rights Law Through the Lens of Legitimacy. Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights, 33(4), 506-516.
This lecture starts with a confession. I find it very hard to delete the phone numbers of people who have passed away from my smartphone. This means that many great Dutch human rights scholars who are no longer among us still have a place in my phone - most notably Gerti Hesseling, Fried van Hoof and Peter Baehr. Of course, this often reminds me of them, most particularly in Peter's case. Peter used to live in Heemstede and his phone number started with the exact same digits as that of my parents. This means that every time I dial 023-528 my phone gives me the option of calling Peter Baehr, or my parents. Of course, I always go for the latter, but I would like to base this lecture on the question as to what I would say, should I be able to get a direct line with Peter Baehr today...
One of the metro stations in Gwangju, Korea, is filled with sculptures, posters and books dedicat... more One of the metro stations in Gwangju, Korea, is filled with sculptures, posters and books dedicated to human rights. The site is designed to underscore Gwangju’s identity as a human rights city; in commemorating the massacre of 200,000 striking workers, protesting students, and citizens that occurred in 1980, the city has reinvented itself as the ‘birthplace of democracy’ (Lee 2007). In its Basic Ordinance on Human Rights, the city sets out its aspiration to be ‘the model city, which succeeds, develops, and realises the historicity and spirit of democracy and human rights in the local community, and spreads them widely’ (Bouchard 2014). In defining itself as a human rights city, Gwangju is not alone. When it hosted the World Human Rights Cities Forum in 2014, it welcomed 500 participants to discuss creating ‘Global Alliance of Human Rights Cities for All’. The urban actors in Gwangju are just part of a much larger group of cities to explicitly base their urban policies on international human rights...
Nowadays, schools have the task to prepare pupils for and teach them about the society they live ... more Nowadays, schools have the task to prepare pupils for and teach them about the society they live in. In the Netherlands schools have to stimulate active citizenship, but tend to focus on social skills and Dutch society in doing so. This whilst both the globalizing world and Dutch treaty obligations call for an emphasis on education for global citizenship. Taking as a point of departure that the realization of human rights and global citizenship should start close to home, this paper investigates the attitudes and practices pertaining to global citizenship of primary school teachers in Zeeland, a rural area in the Netherlands. Based on qualitative research, it discusses how teachers reflect on educational policies in the Netherlands and perceive their pupils' needs and identities as global citizens, thus aiming to understand how these perceptions influence pedagogical choices and preferences. This study shows how the teachers tend to focus on differences instead of similarities between children and on diversity in cultural, social and religious backgrounds. Issues to consider are the example given by the teacher, the contents of the curriculum and democracy in the classroom. Attitudes of teachers, clearly, are important in education for global citizenship.
Een bevriend politicoloog vertelde onlangs, met het schaamrood op de kaken, hoe hij in het eerste... more Een bevriend politicoloog vertelde onlangs, met het schaamrood op de kaken, hoe hij in het eerste jaar dat hij 'Europese Politiek' doceerde stelselmatig de Europese Raad en de Raad van Europa met elkaar verwarde. Een Tsjechische student had hem hierop gewezen. De Raad van Europa, het Europees Verdrag voor de Rechten van de Mens, het Hof in Straatsburg: zij behoren tot de best bewaarde geheimen van juridisch Nederland. Zo weten mijn Nederlandse eerstejaarsstudenten steevast niet wat het EVRM is, in tegenstelling tot hun Belgische, Duitse, Engelse, Poolse, Macedonische, of Letse klasgenoten. In 2010 vroegen wij een representatieve groep van vierhonderd Nederlanders naar 'een verdrag of een ander document waarin fundamentele rechten en vrijheden staan'. Waar 20% nog op de Grondwet kwam, 9% de Universele Verklaring noemde en 5% het Kinderrechtenverdrag, noemde nog geen 4% het EVRM...
Final version published as: Oomen, B., & Rijke, N. (2013). The Right to be Different: Homosexuali... more Final version published as: Oomen, B., & Rijke, N. (2013). The Right to be Different: Homosexuality, Orthodoxy and the Politics of Global Legal Pluralism in Orthodox-Protestant Schools in The Netherlands. Journal of Law and Religion, XXVIII (2), 361-400.
In the summer of 2011, Dutch teacher Duran Renkema was dismissed from the Orthodox Reformed school in Oegstgeest because he had left his wife and family, and decided to openly live together with his boyfriend. In the court case that followed, the judge ruled that the publicly funded denominational school did not have the right to dismiss a teacher who otherwise functioned well, merely because of his sexual identity. In collecting funds so it could take the case to the Equal Treatment Commission, the Dutch gay rights organization COC emphasized that this was the first time that a teacher at a religious school publicly dared to contest his dismissal...
Final version published as: Oomen, B. (2011). Rights for others: the contested homecoming of huma... more Final version published as: Oomen, B. (2011). Rights for others: the contested homecoming of human rights in the Netherlands. Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights, 31(1), 41-73.
This article describes and explains the historical and current emphasis on human rights as a foreign policy issue in The Netherlands. Whilst human rights have, in the past decades, had a central place in Dutch foreign policy they hardly figure in political and societal discourse on pressing domestic social problems. In order to explain why this is the case, the article presents a threefold model of understanding how human rights acquire meaning as a discursive framework. Whilst the legal dispensation is important, attention also has to be paid to legal culture and legal consciousness and the role of actors in rights implementation. Applying this model to the Netherlands, it is noted that there is hardly a country in the world in which human rights have a more privileged legal position. There is, however, a lack of knowledge of human rights combined with a legal culture that privileges consensualism over adversarialism and fears juridification of disputes. Additionally, the many actors involved in policy-making are also considered a factor in explaining the relative lack of reference to human rights in a country that is so active in their formulation and implementation at the international level.
Bij mensenrechten denken we al snel aan marteling en verdwijningen in dictaturen ver weg. Maar me... more Bij mensenrechten denken we al snel aan marteling en verdwijningen in dictaturen ver weg. Maar mensenrechten gelden overal en voor iedereen. Ook hier in Nederland. Met name op lokaal niveau - daar waar mensen leven, werken en naar school gaan - moeten mensenrechten worden nageleefd en gerealiseerd. Lokale sociale problemen zoals armoede, participatie van mensen met een beperking, huiselijk geweld, discriminatie of jeugdwerkloosheid raken aan rechten en plichten uit mensenrechtenverdragen zoals het recht op een bestaansminimum, het recht op deelname aan het maatschappelijk leven, op bescherming van de lichamelijke integriteit, het discriminatieverbod of het recht op arbeid. Met de decentralisatie van essentiële voorzieningen naar lokale overheden worden mensenrechten steeds relevanter voor gemeenten.
Dit Liber Amicorum voor Hans Adriaansens betreft het zonder enige twijfel meest vernieuwende aspe... more Dit Liber Amicorum voor Hans Adriaansens betreft het zonder enige twijfel meest vernieuwende aspect uit zijn academische carrière, namelijk de Liberal Arts & Sciences (LAS) colleges die hij oprichtte. Het University College Utrecht (UCU), dat in 1998 de deuren opende, en de Roosevelt Academy, die in 2004 van start ging. Colleges in de klassieke zin, in prachtige gebouwen - de voormalige Kromhout kazerne in Utrecht en het oude Middelburgse stadhuis - met gemotiveerde studenten van over de hele wereld en een verbluffend studiesucces. De university colleges zijn door VSNU-voorzitter Sijbolt Noorda wel getypeerd als dé vernieuwing in het Nederlands hoger onderwijs van de afgelopen decennia. De vernieuwing is meerledig: de nadruk op een breed onderwijsaanbod in de bachelor, de selectie op motivatie, het intensieve Engelstalige aanbod en de nadruk op excellent onderwijs. Dit boek beoogt de achtergrond van deze meervoudige onderwijsvernieuwing vast te leggen, na te gaan hoe zij plaats heeft kunnen vinden, en te bezien welke lessen - colleges - hieruit te trekken zijn voor de algemene toekomst van het universitaire onderwijs in Nederland.
How can universities educate young people who are rooted in a given locality, have an eye for glo... more How can universities educate young people who are rooted in a given locality, have an eye for global challenges, and see the local opportunities to address them? This question lies at the heart of this book. There are many reasons why it is important to address the specific role that universities have to play in offering a type of education for global citizenship that emphasizes the connections between the local and the global. For one, there are enormous challenges that humanity, as a whole, faces. From global warming to economic crises, from persistent poverty to protracted warfare - all these challenges cross national boundaries and their resolution lies in the combination of international cooperation and concerted citizen action. As our brightest minds, our students will - whether they want to or not - have to face these challenges in the future...
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Papers by Barbara Oomen
This lecture starts with a confession. I find it very hard to delete the phone numbers of people who have passed away from my smartphone. This means that many great Dutch human rights scholars who are no longer among us still have a place in my phone - most notably Gerti Hesseling, Fried van Hoof and Peter Baehr. Of course, this often reminds me of them, most particularly in Peter's case. Peter used to live in Heemstede and his phone number started with the exact same digits as that of my parents. This means that every time I dial 023-528 my phone gives me the option of calling Peter Baehr, or my parents. Of course, I always go for the latter, but I would like to base this lecture on the question as to what I would say, should I be able to get a direct line with Peter Baehr today...
In the summer of 2011, Dutch teacher Duran Renkema was dismissed from the Orthodox Reformed school in Oegstgeest because he had left his wife and family, and decided to openly live together with his boyfriend. In the court case that followed, the judge ruled that the publicly funded denominational school did not have the right to dismiss a teacher who otherwise functioned well, merely because of his sexual identity. In collecting funds so it could take the case to the Equal Treatment Commission, the Dutch gay rights organization COC emphasized that this was the first time that a teacher at a religious school publicly dared to contest his dismissal...
This article describes and explains the historical and current emphasis on human rights as a foreign policy issue in The Netherlands. Whilst human rights have, in the past decades, had a central place in Dutch foreign policy they hardly figure in political and societal discourse on pressing domestic social problems. In order to explain why this is the case, the article presents a threefold model of understanding how human rights acquire meaning as a discursive framework. Whilst the legal dispensation is important, attention also has to be paid to legal culture and legal consciousness and the role of actors in rights implementation. Applying this model to the Netherlands, it is noted that there is hardly a country in the world in which human rights have a more privileged legal position. There is, however, a lack of knowledge of human rights combined with a legal culture that privileges consensualism over adversarialism and fears juridification of disputes. Additionally, the many actors involved in policy-making are also considered a factor in explaining the relative lack of reference to human rights in a country that is so active in their formulation and implementation at the international level.