The madness of working as a human rights lawyer in times where rights are (treated as) useless (original) (raw)

Crossing Borders conference proceedings, 7-10.7.2016, Lesvos

The rights of refugees and the degree of their protection using national and international law as a tool for the enhancement of their legal and material position is a volatile field, immanent in which are mechanisms that attempt to limit their access to their established rights. Discourses on the rights of man vary, from the liberal view of rights as inherent features of all humans, to critiques of human rights in terms of their hidden, material and symbolic, aspects that favor dominant power relations. The paper will discuss the hardships of working in the field of refugee law, and will attempt to criticize the state and EU policies concerning international protection and the management of the refugee population, within a refugee crisis that has deteriorated the visibility of a frightened state in a constant despair. The current refugee crisis is approached as a situation compressing human rights, creating an everyday dystopia which you can resist in a day to day basis, with a critical stance against dominant perceptions, and using as a guide the unreasonable dignity of these people. Human rights are critiqued within a foucauldian analysis of power relations and are approached as a strategic codification of the points of resistance, important as they are for the development of practices of freedom, towards a justice approached in terms of social struggle. Key words: refugee law, critical human rights, Foucault, power relations, practices of freedom