International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) was the first international human rights treaty. The newly independent States participated and played a leading and decisive role in drafting the first piece of the ICRERD international law. The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), established under Article 8 from 1970 once the treaty had entered into force, was the first international treaty-monitoring body of its kind. This chapter presents some key concepts discussed in this book. The book presents a CERD member discussion of racial discrimination and gender justice, or the link between the elimination of all forms of racial discrimination and the furtherance of gender justice via the UN treaty system. It reviews CERD's engagement with and contribution to indigenous peoples' rights under international law. The book further examines the emergence of the issue of caste-discrimination in international human rights law.

This chapter elaborates on more particular themes that comprise modernism as well as postmodernism in Michel Foucault's work, and deals with Jurgen Habermas' defence of modernity, which was concurrent with Foucault's negative critique towards modern science and rationality. It enquires into issues of normativity and modernity within a comparative perspective on modernism, postmodernism and critical theory. The modernism that Foucault presented opposed Immanuel Kant's idea of critique, and in the overall assessment served as a meta-narrative of modernity or as the formative idea of postmodernism. The dialectical element, for the postmodernists, provides a moment of legitimation by composing a mechanism of arguments and proofs. Foucault's modernism finds itself much closer to the idea of dialectics dealing or being occupied with the negative or the 'other' in science and society than with the postmodern exclusion of reason and the potential of a rational modernity.

This chapter aims to sketch a portrait of the Shanghai Americans in three parts, examining community building in the 1930s, the wartime collapse, and the post-war efforts to revive the American presence. It suggests that the Americans established a distinctive place for themselves in pre-war Shanghai, while also fitting comfortably within the larger foreign-dominated enclave. But the triple blows of an eight-year war, the demise of the treaty port system and the emergence of the communist revolution conspired to destroy the Shanghai American community by 1949. The chapter attempts to describe the Americans a little more accurately than Edgar Snow did in 1930 and to set their lives in the broader context of the wars that enveloped them. In the 1930s, the Shanghai Americans were a part of a functioning international community.

Local history as a distinctive genre of written history can hardly be said to exist before the fifteenth century. In the fifteenth century, rising literacy among the mercantile classes in London created the preconditions necessary for the development of local history and led to the appearance of the earliest chronicles of the city. John Leland is an important figure in the development of local history, not only as an author, but also as a preserver of the literary heritage of medieval England. The sort of pride in the place of his birth and his family's influence which led William Worcestre to describe Bristol, also led to the growth of the urban chronicle and the development of civic annals. While the publication of Britannia and the appearance of Christopher Saxton's maps encouraged the development of local history, it was in the particular field of county history that they were most influential.

W. G. H. Salmond initially thought of involving existing British air transport companies but he concluded quickly that each was too self-absorbed. The Atlantic crossing had been 'by a British pilot and navigator, in a British machine powered by British engines'. In recognition of a staggering achievement generally, but in celebration of a triumph for British aviation in particular, both J. R. Alcock and A. W. Brown were made Knights Commander of the British Empire. Ignoring the prospect of direct air service between England and Empire, J. B. Seely judged that Egypt would be 'an ideal starting point' for air journeys to India, Australasia, and central, East and South Africa. Not only did the Smiths link Britain and Australia by air, but the Royal Air Force (RAF) ended its African air route survey and its programme of establishing basic aviation infrastructure.

Hermann Adler operated in a post-Enlightenment and post-Emancipation context, in which affiliation to the Jewish community was voluntary. This chapter examines the new methods Adler had to employ to achieve his aims. He used his powers as ecclesiastical authority for the United Synagogue to impose discipline, and worked to extend and deepen his religious authority, as part of a policy of religious centralism that has come to be known as Adlerism. Michael Friedlander was a typical traditionalist Wissenschaft scholar. He was thus, like Adler, best understood as part of the scientific branch of the acknowledgement school. When the Jewish Religious Union began to hold services, which Adler regarded as unacceptable, he condemned them in a sermon entitled The old paths. This continued Nathan Adler's policy. The French rabbinate officially enjoyed significant authority but in practice was severely constrained, and therefore conceded more than Adler did in Britain.

This chapter explores some of the themes and variations of popular imperialism as revealed by the history and development of the Scout and Guide movements within the British Empire. It first examines the imperial elements within Baden-Powell's thinking and how they were developed after the initial reception of his book, Scouting for Boys. Then, the chapter follows an analysis of the views and policies of the headquarters of the Boy Scouts and Girl Guides as they expanded and extended their activities and responsibilities after 1910. It explains how the Scout movement was actually taken up within the Empire and the implications for those in London trying to respond to those initiatives. The chapter concludes with some suggestions as to the impact of those imperial concerns upon the individual adult and child involved in the movements.

This chapter discusses the effectiveness of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) in protecting minority rights. It examines the initial marginalisation of minority rights questions within the UN system, highlighting how the mainstreaming of human rights provided early justification for not having titular standards devoted to protecting minorities and indigenous peoples. The chapter focuses on why the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) is the only universal binding international standard for minority rights. Arguing that the Convention is a 'minority and indigenous rights' treaty, it examines CERD's contribution to the advancement of such rights. The chapter focuses on how CERD has handled key questions such as the definition of 'racial discrimination', 'hate speech' and 'affirmative action'. It provides comments on the effectiveness of CERD in furthering minority rights.