Reminder: Call for Contribution - Western Europe, the EEC and Human Rights during the '70s and '80s

Umberto Tulli Announcement
Location
Italy
Subject Fields
Contemporary History, Diplomacy and International Relations, European History / Studies, German History / Studies, Human Rights

 

During the 1970s and 1980s, human rights moved to the center of international politics, fueling political activism and debates at the international, transnational, and national levels. Nowhere was the debate on human rights more intense than in Western Europe, where social movements, political parties, national governments, and EEC institutions took front stage in debating human rights.

 

The proposal is based on the multifaceted transformations of the ’70s, a decade of radical change for the international system. Two transformations were particularly significant: the affirmation of the EEC as an actor in international politics and the rise of human rights activism. So far, these two bodies of scholarship have had little contact. On one hand, over the last few years, the emergence/popularity of human rights in the ’70s and ’80s has become a prominent field of historical enquiry. New questions have been formulated and new methodologies developed in order to tackle the origins, developments and consequences of the growing international interest in human rights. As a relatively young field, much remains for scholars to explore. On the other hand, many historians of European integration have recently suggested that the EEC entered the ’70s with a strongly ambitious political agenda. Following the inception of European Political Cooperation, the adoption of the Declaration on European Identity, and the will to prove that the Community was a political player in the international system, EEC supranational institutions, and Member States developed some autonomous and original actions in international relations.

 

In particular, we believe that the role of Community Europe (broadly defined to encompass EEC supranational institutions, the Council of Europe, Western European States, political parties and transnational movements) in the global surge for human rights remains an understudied area of research.

 

We are soliciting essays for a proposed edited volume that aims to conceptualize and analyze the role of Western European political players (national, supranational, international and transnational) in the international surge for human rights of the ’70s and ’80s. On a broader level, the volume seeks to understand whether a specific Western European discourse on human rights ever existed, how it originated, and how it interacted with other approaches to international human rights.

 

Areas the volume will investigate include, but are not limited to:

  1. Tensions over the definition of a human rights policy between European institutions and national governments
  2. Transnational activism and European supranational institutions (EEC; Council of Europe; the European Court of Human Rights)
  3. EEC institutions, the “Helsinki network” and the Cold War
  4. The place of human rights in EEC development policy
  5. Transatlantic conflicts and cooperation over human rights

 

Essays that use new primary sources and new methodologies are particularly welcome. The volume will be academic in approach, but essays should be written in accessible, jargon-free language. This invitation to submit does not guarantee that your submission will be published.

 

Submission Requirements:

  1. 500-word abstract
  2. Short CV (max 2-3 pages)
  3. the proposal should be sent to: Umberto Tulli, umberto.tulli@unitn.it , and Ilaria Zamburlini, ilaria.zamburlini@uniud.it . Deadline for submission is October 30, 2019.

 

Notification of acceptance will follow soon after the deadline.

Final essays will not exceed 9,000 words (notes included).

Contact Email
umberto.tulli@unitn.it