International Human Rights, Gender-Based Violence, and Local Discourses of Abuse in Postconflict Liberia

"A Problem of "Culture

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2431869
AutoresSharon Abramowitz (0000-0003-3671-8842, University of Florida), Mary H Moran (Colgate University)
Año2012
Volumen55
Número2
Páginas119-146
Fecha de publicación2012-09-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaAfrican Studies Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0002-0206 • E-ISSN: 1555-2462
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1353/arw.2012.0037
OpenAlexW2115162417
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas29
Referencias citadas39

In this article we draw on three years of ethnographic observation of postconflict humanitarian intervention in Liberia to consider the process whereby global efforts in the areas of gender-based violence (GBV) and human rights are interacting with local debates over kinship, entitlement, personal rights, and social responsibility. This article draws upon Liberian narratives, complaints, and efforts to regulate, in a national context, social norms and behavior in regard to gender-based violence issues in postconflict life while also engaging with an ongoing international human rights discourse on the subject of GBV. Our ethnography takes a multiscalar approach to give a sense of the process, multiple discourses, and dialectics of power involved in this issue, and to demonstrate how the definition of "the GBV problem" in Liberia, the target of complex GBV interventions, is different from the conception held by agencies, governmental ministries, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that are responsible for implementing global mandates

Collective responsibility · Context (archaeology · Criminology · Entitlement (fair division · Ethnography · Human rights · Political science · Power (physics · Refugee · Sociology · Anthropology · Gender Studies · Gender, Security, and Conflict · Historical and Contemporary Political Dynamics · Law · Peacebuilding and International Security