The minority rights paradox is articulated at the level of political theory, is deployed by liberal democratic institutions, and can be observed in the political discourse of mass communications. Minority groups, it is argued, are paradoxically claiming purported rights that are unsupported by the values upon which the claimants base their claim. On the one hand, minority claims are made on the basis of rights secured by a liberal democracy; on the other hand, the claims undermine the legitimacy of liberal reasoning—the same reasoning that legitimizes the rights on which the claims are made. The self-referential implications of this paradox are as follows: Either the minority claim negates its own justification or the underlying justification renders the claim moot. In either case, the charge of paradox effectively puts an end to the conversation by dismissing minority rights claims before they are properly understood. My aim is to first, come to terms with political dialogues in which the charge of paradox occurs and second, to overcome the stultifying effects of the minority rights paradox through a deliberative approach to negotiating the concept and content of minority rights claims. Evaluating the claims of minorities, I will argue, requires a dialogue that can adapt to the participants in the dialogue—an inclusive deliberative process that gives formal, procedural and substantive recognition to the worldviews of minority cultures in political decision-making.

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This study investigates what factors impede women's ability to be included in politics in Kenya in light of reforms such as decentralization and electoral gender quotas. The Kenyan case highlights a paradox: reforms are progressive in reaching a more gender-balanced representation, including women from more levels of the country in the political sphere. Despite this, women in Kenyan politics face several barriers when aiming for a position in office and partaking in political activities on equal terms as men. The material was collected through a three-week field trip to Nairobi, interviewing female politicians either elected through the number of votes or nominated through quota in the National Parliament and the devolved level of Nairobi City County Assembly. Findings suggest that women on both levels face several barriers when attaining a political position and performing their roles in the office. Women face unattainable financial requirements, violence and threats, voters' biases towards their capacity, and parties favoring men. Patriarchal structures also hinder women's political inclusion, where non-governmental organizations play an important role by offering different venues for political training to build aspiring female politicians from the bottom-up. More work is needed to ensure women's political inclusion in Kenya, starting with implementing the two-thirds gender rule in National Parliament and pressuring political parties to be gender-inclusive. To reach women's political inclusion, educating people on women's equal rights to gain political representation and be included in political work on similar terms as men is vital.

Submitted by Liliane Ferreira (ljuvencia30@gmail.com) on 2018-12-04T14:50:44Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Anna Caroline Queiroz Dias - 2018.pdf: 2575144 bytes, checksum: 6485f70351943c9aa22d944d707909fc (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2018-12-05T10:22:31Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Anna Caroline Queiroz Dias - 2018.pdf: 2575144 bytes, checksum: 6485f70351943c9aa22d944d707909fc (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-12-05T10:22:31Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Anna Caroline Queiroz Dias - 2018.pdf: 2575144 bytes, checksum: 6485f70351943c9aa22d944d707909fc (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-11-09 / The present study seeks to understand why the human rights of prisoners in Brazil are not fulfilled even in the face of extensive domestic legislation and international oversight of bodies such as the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. The hypothesis raised in the study is that one of the reasons justifying the numerous attacks on specific rights of people imprisoned in Brazil is in the fact that these people, in committing their crimes and being imprisoned, have their character of belonging in the original political community denied. In order to understand these processes, a historical retrospective of the sedimentation of the prison sentence was carried out in the period of Western modernity, and it was found that this penalty served not only to attend to liberal discourses of humanity, but also to a utilitarian discipline of bodies for a new society supported by values of the bourgeoisie that required an economy of punitive power. The discourse that the prison sentence from then on removed only the right of "freedom", dialogues with the liberal political philosophy in vogue in the eighteenth century. However, not only the withdrawal of individual liberty was in check in prison, but also political freedom. The effects of this suppression of political freedom in correspondence with the decadence of the individual as a citizen sustained by contractualist theories, for which the criminal would be a traitor or enemy, generated effects of exclusion that transcend the punitive segregation of prison bars. To analyze this, an Arendtian re-interpretation was proposed to understand how the human condition of action, dialogue and plurality is obstructed in the prison context and how the internal expulsion of the political community itself corresponds to the expulsion of humanity itself, leaving the person in prison in a state of abstract nudity. Finally, considering the Arendtian concept that there is no human life when it cannot be lived among men, a brief reflection was proposed in Putnam on the mitigation of the effects of political exclusion through associativism and fomenting a virtuous circle that can instill cooperation and mutual trust between prisoners and nonprisoners and between society at large. / O presente estudo busca compreender a razão pela qual direitos humanos de pessoas presas no Brasil não são efetivados mesmo diante de uma extensa legislação interna e vigilância internacional de órgãos como a Corte Interamericana de Direitos Humanos. A hipótese levantada no estudo é de que uma das razões justificadoras dos inúmeros ataques a direitos específicos de pessoas presas no Brasil está no fato de que estas pessoas, ao cometerem seus delitos e serem aprisionadas, tem sua qualidade de pertencimento na comunidade política originária negada. Para entender este processo foi realizada uma retrospectiva histórica da sedimentação da pena de prisão no período da modernidade ocidental e ali se constatou que esta pena serviria não só para atender discursos liberais de humanidade, como também de disciplina utilitarista de corpos para uma nova sociedade sustentada pelos valores da burguesia que requeria uma economia do poder punitivo. O discurso de que a pena de prisão a partir de então retirava apenas o direito de “liberdade”, dialoga com a filosofia política liberal em voga no século XVIII. No entanto, não apenas a retirada da liberdade individual se via em xeque na prisão, mas também a liberdade política. Os efeitos desta supressão da liberdade política em correspondência à decadência do indivíduo em sua qualidade de cidadão, sustentada por teorias contratualistas, para as quais o criminoso seria um traidor ou inimigo, gerou efeitos de exclusão que transcendem a segregação punitiva das grades das prisões. Para analisar isto foi proposta uma releitura arendtiana para se compreender como a condição humana da ação, do diálogo e da pluralidade é obstruída no contexto prisional e como a expulsão interna da própria comunidade política corresponde à própria expulsão da humanidade, deixando a pessoa presa na condição de abstrata nudez. Por fim, considerando o conceito arendtiano de que não há vida humana quando esta não pode ser vivida entre os homens, propôs-se uma breve reflexão em Putnam sobre a mitigação dos efeitos da exclusão política através de associativismos e fomento de círculo virtuoso que possa incutir a cooperação e a confiança recíproca entre os cidadãos presos e não presos, e entre a sociedade em geral.