The Maastricht Journal of Liberal Arts

Gender-Based Violence During the Armenian Genocide

Sanne de Jong — Tue, 19 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

This paper analyses atrocities during the Armenian genocide through a gendered lens. Asking to what extent men and women have been differently affected by gender-based violence, Carpenter’s framework is applied that specifically recognises men’s often-overlooked victimisation of gender-based violence. The application concludes that men were, just like women, victims of gender-based violence during the Armenian genocide, but that the rationales behind the targeting of women and men greatly differed. It follows that, while Carpenter is right in arguing that gender-based violence against women and men cannot be prevented separately from each other, as the gender roles naturalising the violence depend on one another, the mainstreaming of gender in atrocity-prevention and treatment should still safeguard female-tailored sexual violence prevention and treatments, given their remaining higher victimisation and the additional underlying rationales for their victimisation that do not apply to men.

Keywords: Armenian Genocide, Atrocity-Prevention, Gender-Based Violence

Confucianism and China’s Victims of SGBV

Caroline Seil — Tue, 19 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The term ‘comfort women’ refers to young Asian females who were forced into prostitution by the Imperial Japanese Army between 1932 and 1945, resulting in gross human rights violations. The paper will explore how pre-existing gender relations and sociocultural dynamics contributed to this violence and will analyse the factors that allowed it to persist. As a conceptual framework, Confucianism, an ancient Chinese belief system that emphasises differentiation of women and men, is used to argue for the facilitation and legitimization of sexual and gender-based violence against Chinese women. Based on arguments of gender hierarchy, the sexual desire of Japanese soldiers, and ethnic victimization, victims faced social ostracization and discrimination.

Keywords: Comfort Women, Confucianism, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV), Gender Inequality

Representation of the Electorate in the Eerste Kamer

Tom ter Laak — Tue, 19 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

This paper aims to assess to what extent the Eerste Kamer, one of the chambers of the Dutch parliament, provides political representation. This is done by comparing three models of political representation to the political reality. These three models are the trustee, the delegate, and the resemblance models. All three models and their respective characteristics are explained in the paper before moving to the analysis. The paper concludes that political representation is not realized through these three models in the instance of the Eerste Kamer, as it fails to fulfil key characteristics of all three. The paper also evaluates some possible solutions for increasing political representation in light of these models.

Keywords: Delegate, Eerste Kamer, Trustee, Political Representation

Granting Nature Legal Rights

Maya Müller-Perron, Paulina Habsburg — Tue, 19 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

This interdisciplinary research paper is centred around the concept of environmental personhood as a means of tackling the impending climate crisis. More specifically, it focuses on how the implementation of legal personhood as a juridical tool could lead to a shift towards a more ecocentric conception of nature. A philosophical approach will highlight the underlying discussion of the worth we grant nature and its correlated socio-cultural tradition. A legal approach will set this into the context of the German constitution and examine this issue by proposing constitutional amendments.

Keywords: Environmental Personhood, Legal Personhood, Ecocentrism, German Constitution, Socio-Cultural Tradition

Freedom and Equality for the Sake of National Independance?

Henning Seland — Tue, 19 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Fukuzawa Yukichi is considered to be one of the most important Japanese philosophers during the Meiji period (1868-1912) who is known for his strong advocacy of liberal values such as freedom and equality. His plea contained the political demands of liberalising Japanese society and reforming its strict social hierarchy. However, within the logical structure of Fukuzawa’s argument, these principles only assume an instrumental value in which they are conceived as a means to secure Japan’s national independence, which ultimately weakens his endorsement of liberalism. The case of Fukuzawa Yukichi thereby constitutes a particularly important example of how the instrumental approach towards liberal rights by philosophers in Meiji Japan undermined the liberal movement itself and contributed to its own decline and the corresponding rise of nationalism.

Keywords: Liberalism, Nationalism, Fukuzawa Yukichi, Meiji Japan, Japanese Philosophy

The Medicalisation of Ayahuasca as a Depression Treatment

Elena Gomel Cordeiro — Tue, 19 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

This paper examines the possible consequences of medicalising the psychedelic Ayahuasca to be used as a treatment for depression. Through a science and technology studies (STS) understanding of the social construction of scientific facts, I consider how traditional indigenous uses of Ayahuasca are translated into Western medicine. Two special points of attention are: (1) the cultural reductivism entailed in the standardisation of the active substance of Ayahuasca (DMT), understood through Martin’s (2000) analysis of neuroreductivism in Western medicine, and (2) the issue of biopiracy, wherein biological resources are appropriated without fair compensation for indigenous communities. In conclusion, I suggest that the dangers of medicalising ayahuasca boil down to an unjustified hierarchy of scientific knowledge over indigenous knowledge systems, which might lead to serious consequences also for the effectiveness of the proposed treatment.

Keywords: Medicalization, Ayahuasca, Neuroreductivism, Biopiracy