Thinking Global, Beyond Limits – The Haitian Revolution and Socio-Economic Rights

• In-person event
• D199, Loeb Building, Carleton University
• 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, ON, K1S 5B6

Professor Phillip Kaisary of the Department of Law & Legal Studies will be presenting his essay titled “The Haitian Revolution and Socio-Economic Rights” on Friday, February 9th, in D199 Loeb Building.

Abstract: This essay comprises a study of the significance of the Haitian Revolution of 1791–1804 for the historiography of socioeconomic rights and the production of global intellectual history more broadly. Achieving the overthrow of colonialism, slavery, and racial inequality, the Haitian Revolution was animated by the rhetoric and ideals of liberty and freedom. However, the significance of the Haitian Revolution for rights discourse remains largely unknown or misunderstood. Examining constitutional documents (the 1801 Constitution of Saint-Domingue and the 1805 Imperial Constitution of Haiti) as well as other texts written by the revolutionaries themselves, this essay argues that in the context of the Haitian Revolution socioeconomic rights cannot be properly understood as ‘second generation rights.’ On the contrary, in revolutionary Saint Domingue/Haiti, ‘socioeconomic rights’ were an integral component of a project for an alternative, radical human rights.

Discussant: Prof. Meredith Terretta, Department of History, University of Ottawa

RSVP: Please RSVP for the event by emailing Julie Stcyr.