Conference Program

During the 1990s, the conditions of possibility for justice for indigenous peoples in Latin America were significantly reconfigured through the adoption of multicultural reforms by governments across the continent. In contrast with earlier societal expectations for indigenous peoples to disavow cultural differences and assimilate into the ideal of the homogenous mestizo nation, the multicultural turn has seen the recognition of indigenous groups as bearers of distinct cultures deserving of respect and preservation. In Colombia, the primary vehicle for the multicultural project is the 1991 constitution, which formally recognises the country’s ethnic diversity and grants an array of special rights to indigenous peoples. These constitutional rights have opened important avenues to redress the historical marginalisation of indigenous groups by granting communities legal titles to nearly 30 percent of the country’s land and fomenting indigenous political representation. At the same time, multiculturalism has also instituted a new form of governmentality, wherein the granting of ethnic rights is predicated on indigenous groups performing and proving indigeneity in accordance with state criteria. This paper interrogates the ways in which the state configures indigenous subjects by analysing the discourses of two key institutions tasked with governing and conferring multicultural rights, namely the Constitutional Court and Directorate of Indigenous, Minority and Roma Affairs. By placing the lens on the conditions of inclusion into the category of the indigenous subject of rights, this paper reflects on both the possibilities and limitations of multicultural regimes of governance in meeting demands for the justice of indigenous peoples.

The Japan-South Korea “comfort women issue” is first and foremost an ethical question before it is a diplomatic issue since the debate began with the human rights and dignity of women who experienced the “comfort women” system as the main point. However, as is typical of the 2015 “Comfort Women Agreement,” the focus has been exclusively on state-centric Westphalian relationships rather than ethical relationships with the women. This paper sees the fundamental cause of this biased focus as logos dualism in the Westphalian system. It then aims to reposition the issue into a framework that focuses on ethics towards the women who experienced the “comfort women” system by introducing Mahāyāna Buddhist relationality. Informed by the notion of engi (縁起), a subject is seen as temporarily generated by a relationship with others mediated by an action, rather than as a given, as in the Westphalian relationality. This relational ontology enables to shift of the issue’s focus from a unilateral interpretation by specific subjects to a relationship that seeks to construct ethics with others. Moreover, the notion of engi ensures relationships that do not privilege any particular subject by using tetralemma whereas logos dualism continuously reproduces hierarchical relationships that privilege self over others. Therefore, this paper argues that engi relationality not only relativizes the state-centric Westphalian relationality in the Japan-South Korea “comfort women issue,” but also contributes to creating a space for discussion that focuses on the human rights and dignity of women who experienced the “comfort women” system.

In contrast to most mainstream scholarship on French foreign policy in Africa, I argue that former colonies continue to being subjugated by France as the latter exerts power over francophone African countries through its combined result of monetary and military policies. This study describes the limits of postcolonial sovereignty as an endpoint of decolonisation in francophone West-Africa by exploring the impact of this contemporary French military-monetary power structure. I deploy a critical approach to this question with a theoretical framework that merges international political economy, foreign policy and postcolonial currents together. I have conducted a qualitative literature review in which I focus on the role of the franc CFA and the role of the military. The franc CFA is a French-managed coin stemming from the colonial area, currently used in 15 African countries and criticised for rendering political sovereignty to France. The military analysis concerns the Franco-African defense agreements, the military cooperation agreements and the French military bases in place. French military actions are seen as another way of retaining influence in the internal political affairs, with over 150 military interventions since colonial independence in Africa. In the 21st century, French military interventions in Africa are justified under the security discourse and "the fight against terrorism". Together the monetary-military nexus is key in understanding the manifestation of postcolonial sovereignty of these former colonies in relation to their former coloniser. Through this combined military-monetary focus, this research contributes to the academic debate on post-colonial sovereignties by reconceptualising how sovereignty is expressed.