The impact of empathy on the realisation of human rights in general and female genital mutilation in particular
(2008)Human Rights Studies
- Abstract
- More than 130 million girls and women have undergone female genital mutilation (FGM). FGM is an act violating human rights (HR) involving many actors, most importantly children, mothers and fathers. This notwithstanding, WHO estimate that 2 millions will undergo FGM each year, despite FGM being a punishable act on international as well as on national levels. What is the impact of empathy on the realisation of HR in general and FGM in particular? Empathy i.e. to understand another person's feelings is, compared to sympathy, a neutral word i.e. free of value. To use sympathy instead of empathy might if misguided give the feeling of pity, and yield resentment, thus hampering the eradication of FGM. Furthermore, empathy is easily lost e.g. by... (More)
- More than 130 million girls and women have undergone female genital mutilation (FGM). FGM is an act violating human rights (HR) involving many actors, most importantly children, mothers and fathers. This notwithstanding, WHO estimate that 2 millions will undergo FGM each year, despite FGM being a punishable act on international as well as on national levels. What is the impact of empathy on the realisation of HR in general and FGM in particular? Empathy i.e. to understand another person's feelings is, compared to sympathy, a neutral word i.e. free of value. To use sympathy instead of empathy might if misguided give the feeling of pity, and yield resentment, thus hampering the eradication of FGM. Furthermore, empathy is easily lost e.g. by numbing, distancing, demonising, and intellectualising ?them? into being so different as for ?us? not to believe ?them? to have the same feelings as ?we? have. Most importantly, the majority of the children and some of the women undergoing FGM are non-autonomous, non-consenting, hence it is of great importance not to forget that the realisation of their HR requires that the individuals making the decisions on their behalf can afford to feel empathy, and acknowledge HR. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/1319850
- author
- Nilsson, Thérése
- supervisor
- organization
- year
- 2008
- type
- L2 - 2nd term paper (old degree order)
- subject
- keywords
- human rights, FGM, empathy, Humanities, Humaniora, Mänskliga rättigheter
- language
- English
- id
- 1319850
- date added to LUP
- 2008-01-10 00:00:00
- date last changed
- 2014-09-04 08:27:52
@misc{1319850,
abstract = {{More than 130 million girls and women have undergone female genital mutilation (FGM). FGM is an act violating human rights (HR) involving many actors, most importantly children, mothers and fathers. This notwithstanding, WHO estimate that 2 millions will undergo FGM each year, despite FGM being a punishable act on international as well as on national levels. What is the impact of empathy on the realisation of HR in general and FGM in particular? Empathy i.e. to understand another person's feelings is, compared to sympathy, a neutral word i.e. free of value. To use sympathy instead of empathy might if misguided give the feeling of pity, and yield resentment, thus hampering the eradication of FGM. Furthermore, empathy is easily lost e.g. by numbing, distancing, demonising, and intellectualising ?them? into being so different as for ?us? not to believe ?them? to have the same feelings as ?we? have. Most importantly, the majority of the children and some of the women undergoing FGM are non-autonomous, non-consenting, hence it is of great importance not to forget that the realisation of their HR requires that the individuals making the decisions on their behalf can afford to feel empathy, and acknowledge HR.}},
author = {{Nilsson, Thérése}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{The impact of empathy on the realisation of human rights in general and female genital mutilation in particular}},
year = {{2008}},
}