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Wednesday, 16 May 2018 - 5.30pm
Location: 
Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, Finley Library

Lecture summary: This paper reconstructs the French government’s response to accusations of rights abuses in Algeria, drawing on material from the drafting of reports to the UN about human rights in the colonies, negotiations with the Red Cross about prisoners in Algeria, and discussions of how to respond to petitions received by the UN. Throughout, France offered a narrative that relied on ideas about education and tutelage in order to render a commitment to rights compatible with ongoing colonial violence. Tracing several scandals in the metropole over French action in Algeria, I look at the relationship between this narrative of gradual universalization and the accusations of hypocrisy that France faced from its critics at the time, and in historical accounts now, to consider how different understandings of human rights hypocrisy relate to narratives of gradual universalization.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER : Dr Mackinnon holds a PhD in political science from the University of Chicago, and is currently a Junior Research Fellow at Emmanuel College.

This session is part of the Legal Histories beyond the State work-in-progress seminar series.

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