Uluslararası İnsan Hakları Hukukuna Postkolonyal Yaklaşımlar: TWAIL Örneği

Year 2023, Volume: 43 Issue: 1, 353 - 369, 19.07.2023

Elif Çağla Yıldız

https://doi.org/10.26650/ppil.2023.43.1181972

Abstract

2000’li yılların ilk yirmi yılında TWAIL (Uluslararası Hukuka Üçüncü Dünya Yaklaşımları) uluslararası hukuka eleştirel yaklaşımıyla akademik dünyada önemli ölçüde ilgi toplamıştır. TWAIL her ne kadar üyelerinin çeşitli eğilimleri sebebiyle heterojen bir oluşum olarak karakterize edilse de postkolonyal bir yaklaşımı üyelerini birleştiren ortak zemin olarak düşünmek mümkündür. TWAIL üyeleri kolonyalizmle ilişkisini vurgulayarak uluslararası hukukun tarafsızlığını ve evrenselliğini sorgulamışlardır. Kimi TWAIL üyeleri insan hakları hukukunu da postkolonyal perspektifler temelinde incelemiş, uluslararası insan hakları hukukunun Avrupa deneyimi ve tarihine dayalı belli normlar yoluyla Avrupa yapılarını evrenselleştirdiğini vurgulamışlardır. Öte yandan, bazı TWAIL üyelerinin analizlerini yapıbozumla sınırlamadığını ve postkolonyal perspektifleri gereği yeniden inşacı bir strateji de benimsediklerini belirtmek gerekir. Diğer bir deyişle, Avrupa deneyimini üstün kılan ve evrenselleştiren normların varlığının yanı sıra Avrupamerkezci taraflarından arınmış bir insan hakları korpusunun gerekliliğine de TWAIL yazınında işaret edilmektedir. Dahası, madunlar lehine özgürleştirici bir gündem kimi TWAIL üyelerini hakları bir özgürleşme dili ve devlet iktidarını sınırlayan bir mekanizma olarak düşünmeye sevk etmiş görünmektedir. Bu makale TWAIL üyelerinin insan hakları yaklaşımının yapıbozumcu eleştirinin ötesine geçerek hakları çeşitli perspektiflerle değerlendiren detaylı bir analiz ortaya koyduğunu ileri sürmektedir. Buradan hareketle, belirtilen yaklaşımın eleştirel bir tutumu yeniden inşacı bir vizyonla birleştiren postkolonyal karakterinin açığa çıkarılması hedeflenmektedir.

Keywords

Postkolonyalizm, Uluslararası İnsan Hakları Hukuku, Üçüncü Dünya, Evrenselcilik, Avrupamerkezcilik

Postcolonial Approaches to International Human Rights Law: The TWAIL Case

Abstract

In the first two decades of the 2000s, TWAIL (Third World Approaches to International Law) attracted considerable attention in academia with its critical approach to international law. Although TWAIL is characterized as a heterogeneous construct due to the various orientations, a postcolonial approach could be considered as a common ground that promotes cooperation across its members. TWAIL scholars questioned the neutrality and universality of international law by emphasizing its association with colonialism. Certain members of TWAIL also investigated the international human rights law based on postcolonial perspectives, stressing that it universalized particular European constructs through certain norms based on European experiences and history. However, it should be noted that some TWAILers did not limit their analysis to deconstruction and, due to their postcolonial perspectives, they also adopted a reconstructionist strategy. In other words, in addition to the norms of human rights law that prioritize and universalize the European experience, the necessity of a human rights corpus free from Eurocentric dimensions is also addressed in TWAIL literature. Furthermore, the postcolonial emancipatory agenda in favour of subalterns seems to have led certain TWAIL members to consider rights as a language of emancipation and a set of limits imposed on state authority. The present article argues that the postcolonial approach of TWAIL members went beyond the deconstructive criticism and proposed a detailed analysis that investigated human rights law based on various perspectives. From this point of view, it aims to reveal the postcolonial character of the mentioned approach, which combines a critical stance with a reconstructive vision.

Keywords

Postcolonialism, International Human Rights Law, Third world, Universalism, Eurocentrism

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