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Reconstructing
Children’s Rights
An online institute about dismantling racism, neo-colonialism,
and patriarchy in humanitarian and development efforts to
protect children and support families
APRIL 2021
Ghazal Keshavarzian and Mark Canavera
Reconstructing
Children’s Rights
Conversation #1:
Confronting Colonialism, Racism and Patriarchy
in International Relations, Development and
the Humanitarian Aid Industries
OVERVIEW
The goal of the Reconstructing Children’s Rights Institute is to raise awareness and recognition
of how racism, patriarchy, and power permeate the international child rights and child
protection field. Before we can delve deeply into the children’s rights space, we must first
examine the larger ecosystems of international development, humanitarian aid, international
relations, and peace and security, and unpack the colonial vestiges and power imbalances
intrinsic to these larger contexts. Analyses and critique of the international development and
humanitarian aid industries are critical for understanding international child protection and
children’s rights efforts.
“Decolonizing aid/development” has become the in-vogue slogan of the international aid
and development sectors in 2021 following the killing of George Floyd and the ensuing racial
justice protests that took place in the US and around the world. There has been a flood of
statements and internal diversity reflection exercises by some international development and
humanitarian organizations and philanthropic foundations.1 Building upon reflection about
how to upend racism in the American context, some reflections have led to debates regarding
the colonial legacy and systematic racism within the international aid industry, including
fundamental questioning of the way foreign aid works. As Degan Ali noted, “the unfinished
business of decolonization is the original sin of the modern aid industry.”2
While some may perceive this critique of international development and humanitarian aid as
an emerging phenomenon, such critical analysis is nothing new. The recognition of this power
imbalance has deep-rooted historical underpinnings, and constructive critique has been taking
place for decades. Academics, researchers, and activists have been critically examining the
international relations and humanitarian aid systems, as well as the neo-liberal institutions that
have been replicating neo-colonial structures, hierarchies and ideologies.3
1. Refer to Reference List below.
2. https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/opinion/2020/07/13/decolonisation-aid-humanitarian-development-rac-
ism-black-lives-matter
3. Refer to Reference List below.
2
Practiced incorrectly and without making explicit the underlying dynamics of power and
funding, humanitarian and development aid can cause harm and undermine the dignity
and autonomy of those it intends to support, who become othered “beneficiaries”. The
axes of power differentiation include wealth discrepancies, age, gender, and race. As the
humanitarian community seeks to create quick, cost-effective solutions, the likelihood of the
imposition of concepts and practices that replicate oppressive, patriarchal, and racist norms
is high. In turn, many are questioning whether the technocratic, foreign-dominated system
should even exist— How can we continue to fund a paternalistic system that disempowers
those that it intends empower? Who is deemed the holder of power and why? This session
will bring these scholarly voices and critiques, which have been marginalized to the fringes of
discussions and teachings, to the center of our discussions.
SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES
Dr. Nimmi Gowrinathan is a writer, a
scholar, and an activist. She is a Professor
at the City College of New York, where
she founded the Politics of Sexual
Violence Initiative, a global initiative that
draws on in-depth research to inform
movement-building around the impact
of sexual violence on women's political
identities. As a key part of this initiative,
Dr. Gowrinathan created Beyond Identity:
A Gendered Platform for Scholar-Activists,
a program that seeks to train immigrants and students of color in identity-
driven research, political writing, and activism anchored in a thoughtful
analysis of structural violence. She has been an analyst and policy consultant
on women's political voice and participation in violence in South Asia for
the International Crisis Group, The Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, UN
Women, and the Asian Development Bank. She is also currently a Senior
Scholar at the Center for Political Conflict, Gender, and People's Rights at
the University of California, Berkeley. She provides expert analysis for CNN,
MSNBC, Al Jazeera, and the BBC, and has been published in Harper's
Magazine, Freeman's Journal, and Guernica Magazine among others.
Dr. Gowrinathan is the creator of the Female Fighter Series at Guernica
Magazine and the Publisher of Adi, a new literary journal to rehumanize policy.
Her work and writings can be found at www.deviarchy.com. Her forthcoming
book, Radicalizing Her, examines the complex politics of the female fighter
(Beacon Press, April 2021).
3
SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES
Dr. Dipali Mukhopadhyay is an associate
professor in the global policy area at the
Humphrey School of Public Affairs. Her
research focuses on the relationships
between political violence, state building,
and governance during and after war. She
is currently serving as senior expert on the
Afghanistan peace process for the U.S.
Institute of Peace. She is the author of Good
Rebel Governance: Revolutionary Politics and
Western Intervention in Syria (Cambridge
University Press, forthcoming) with Kimberly Howe, and Warlords, Strongman
Governors and State Building in Afghanistan (Cambridge University Press,
2014). Her scholarly work also includes articles published in Conflict, Security
and Development, International Negotiation, Perspectives on Politics, as well
as a series of book chapters in edited volumes.
Her policy-oriented writing has been published by the Carnegie Endowment
for International Peace, Foreign Policy, Lawfare, the U.S. Institute of Peace,
and The Washington Post. Dr. Mukhopadhyay’s research has been funded
by the Carnegie Corporation, the Eisenhower Institute, the Smith Richardson
Foundation, the U.S. Institute of Peace, Harvard Law School, the U.S. Agency
for International Development, and the U.S. Department of Education. She is
vice president of the American Institute of Afghan Studies and a term member
of the Council on Foreign Relations. Prior to joining the Humphrey School,
Dr. Mukhopadhyay was on the faculty at Columbia University's School of
International and Public Affairs from 2012 to 2020. In 2016, she was a visiting
scholar at New York University’s Center on International Cooperation.
4
REFERENCE LIST
The following is a brief list of resources by academics, researchers, practitioners and activists
critically examining colonialism, racism and patriarchy in international relations, development
and the humanitarian aid industry.4 Please refer to the Institute’s Master Reference List for a
complete list of resources.
Confronting Colonial Legacies and Racism in International Relations and
Political Theory: Academic Journal Articles and Book Chapters
• Gurminder K. Bhambra, Yolanda Bouka, • Political Legacy of Colonialism,”
Randolph B. Persaud, Olivia U. Rutazibwa, Comparative Studies in Society and
Vineet Thakur, Duncan Bell, Karen History (October 2001).
Smith, Toni Haastrup, and Seifudein
• Lata Mani, “Contentious Traditions: The
Adem, “Why is Mainstream International
Debate on Sati in Colonial India,” Cultural
Relations Blind to Racism,” Foreign Policy
Critique (October 1987).
(July 2020).
• Achille Mbembe, Out of the Dark Night:
• Keisha N. Blain, “Civil Rights International:
Essays on Decolonization (Columbia
The Fight Against Racism Has
University Press, January 2021)
Always Been Global,” Foreign Affairs
(September/October 2020). • John J. Mearsheimer, “The False Promise
of International Institutions,” in Karen
• Zeynep Gulshah Capan, “Decolonising
Mingst and Jack Snyder, eds., Essential
International Relations?” Third World
Readings in World Politics, Second
Quarterly (October 2016).
Edition) (New York: Norton 2004) pp.
• Mahmood Mamdani, “Beyond Settler and 319-331.
Native as Political Identities: Overcoming
the Political Legacy of Colonialism,”
Comparative Studies in Society and
History (October 2001).
4. List was compiled thanks to resources shared by Dipali Mukhopadhyay and Alyssa Bovell as well as research by
the Institute.
5
Critical reflections on humanitarian aid and humanitarian interventions:
Academic Journal Articles and Book Chapters
• Lila Abu-Lughod, Do Muslim Women Gowrinathan, and Rafia Zakaria,
Need Saving? (Cambridge: Harvard “Emissaries of Empowerment” White
University Press 2013) pp. 27-80. Paper (The City College of New York:
September 2017)
• Séverine Autesserre, Peaceland: Conflict
Resolution and the Everyday Politics of • Ilana Feldman, “The Poverty of Our
International Intervention (New York: Humanitarian Imagination,” Middle East
Cambridge University Press 2014) pp.1-17. Research and Information Project (MERIP)
(Spring 2018)
• Madeline Otis Campbell and Sarah Tobin,
“NGO Governance and Syrian Refugee • Marcelle Shenwaro, “The Price of a Voice:
“Subjects” in Jordan,” Middle East Inside Syria, political voices emerged
Research and Information Project (MERIP) from repression. Outside, they resist
(Spring 2016) appropriation,” Adi Magazine (Winter
2019)
• Dara Cohen, “Female Combatants and the
Perpetration of Violence: Wartime Rape in • Robert A. Pape, “When Duty Calls: A
the Sierra Leone Civil War,” World Politics Pragmatic Standard of Humanitarian
65 No 3 (July 2013): 383-415. Intervention,” International Security 37
No 1 (Summer 2012): 41-80.
• Kate Cronin-Furman, Nimmi
Colonialism and Racism in International Development Studies: Academic
Journal Articles
• Robtel Neajai Pailey, “De-centering • E. Tuck and K.W. Yang, “Decolonization
the White Gaze of Development,” is not a metaphor,” Decolonization;
Development and Change (May Indigeneity, Education and Society (1)1
2020). Additional resource: Featured (2012)
voice: Robtel Neajai Pailey on racism in
• S. White, “Thinking Race, Thinking
development, Power in the Pandemic
Development,” Third World Quarterly,
Podcast (June 2020)
23(30, 407-419 (2002)
6
Confronting Colonial Legacies and Racism in International Relations,
Development and Humanitarian Aid: Articles, Personal Reflections, Blogs,
and Critical Conversations
• Adi Magazine, Issue 6: White Deeds • Corinne Gray, “Doing good and being
(Winter 2021). The issue of Adi racist,” The New Humanitarian
interrogates the global force of whiteness (14 June 2020)
not (only) as a racial category, but as a
• Lynne Jones, “An aid industry laboring
worldview.
under neocolonial structures is no help,”
• Degan Ali and Mari-Rose Romain Murphy, Aeon
“Black Lives Matter is also a reckoning
• Rosebell Kagumire, “Being Black Working
for foreign aid and international NGOs,”
in a White Male-Dominated Aid Industry,”
OpenDemocracy (July 19, 2020)
African Feminism (June 8, 2018)
• Arbie Baguios, “It’s time to decolonize
• Anu Kumar, “White Supremacy in Global
project management in the aid sector,”
Health,” Think Global Health
The Medium (22 October 2019)
(18 June 2020)
• Jamelle Bouie, “The Enlightenment’s Dark
• Arnab Majumdar, “Bearing witness inside
Side,” Slate (June 7, 2018).
MSF,” The New Humanitarian
• Alyssa Bovell, “Interested in international (August 18, 2020)
development work? Take time to examine
• Hugo Slim, “Is racism part of our
your power and privilege.” University of
reluctance to localise humanitarian
Dayton Human Rights Center Blog
action?” Humanitarian Practice Network
(28 February 2020)
(June 5, 2020)
• Devex Articles by Angela Bruce-Raeburn
• Rethinking humanitarianism altogether:
(Regional Advocacy Director for Africa at
A compendium of short articles by
the Global Health Advocacy Incubator)
new Humanitarianism on rethinking
• Teju Cole, “The White Savior Industrial Humanitarianism. The New Humanitarian
Complex,” The Atlantic (March 21, 2012) (2020)
• Paul Currion, “Decolonising aid, again: • Thandie Mwape Villadsen, “Aid workers:
The unfinished business of decolonization It’s time to practice what you preach,” The
is the original sin of the modern aid New Humanitarian (June 8, 2020)
industry,” The New Humanitarian
• The Editorial Board, “Foreign Aid is
(July 13, 2020)
Having a Reckoning,” New York Times
(February 13, 2021)
7
Podcasts and Videos
• “What we can do about the White Savior
Complex,” Tiny Spark Podcast, hosted
by Amy Costello (October 26, 2018)
Conversation with Lydia Namubiru,
Angela Bruce Raeburn, Solome Lemma,
Jennifer Lentfer, Teddy Ruge, Tiny Spark
has several episodes focusing on anti-
racism and diversity, equity and inclusion
in the international development and
non-profit sectors.
• Aid Re-imagined: How to be Anti-Racist
in Aid: A Conversation about Racism in
the Aid Sector with Stephanie Kimou,
Marie Rose Romain Murphy, Naomi Tulay-
Solanke, and facilitated by Arbie Baguios
(17 June 2020)
• Rethinking Development Podcast Series
with Safa Shahkhalili (2020)
The artwork for the Institute has been created by
Galuh Indri Wiyarti
Graphic design by
Rec Design
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