Baderin, Mashood A.

views updated

Baderin, Mashood A.

PERSONAL:

Education: University of Nottingham, England, Ph.D.

ADDRESSES:

Office—School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Thornhaugh St., Russell Sq., London WC1H 0XG, England. E-mail—[email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected].

CAREER:

Writer, educator, and attorney. Brunel University, Uxbridge, England, former professor; Brunel Law School, West London, England, former professor; University of the West of England School of Law, Bristol, England, former reader; University of Nottingham School of Law, Nottingham, England, former instructor; University of Southampton, Southampton, England, former instructor; University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies, current professor of law. Former barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria. Consultant on human rights and Islamic law for government departments and institutions in England.

WRITINGS:

International Human Rights and Islamic Law, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2003.

(Editor, with Mahmood Monshipouri, Shadi Mokhtari, and Lynn Welchman) Islam and Human Rights: Advocacy for Social Change in Local Contexts, Global Media (New Delhi, India), 2006.

(Editor, with Robert McCorquodale) Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in Action, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2007.

International Law and Islamic Law, Ashgate (Burlington, VT), 2008.

Contributor of articles to journals, including the American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences and Human Rights Law Review. Founder and coeditor of the Muslim World Journal of Human Rights.

SIDELIGHTS:

Mashood A. Baderin is professor of law at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, and the author or editor of several books dealing with the intersection of international and Islamic law. In his 2003 work, International Human Rights and Islamic Law, Baderin examines the compatibility of Islamic law with human rights on the international stage, questioning whether or not in fact Muslim states, operating by Islamic law, can comply with international laws regarding human rights. Baderin closely examines the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and articles of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women as they compare to Islamic law and concludes that such laws are compatible, especially if there is a synthesis made, and if international laws are not simply imposed from the top down.

The author also makes the important distinction between the universality of human rights and universalism of human rights. Since the 1948 adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, all countries in the world accept the principle of such rights and would strongly disagree if accused of violations of human rights. However, as Baderin further notes, the interpretation of such laws and the depth to which they are part of the culture of all countries—their universalism, that is—has not reached worldwide consensus. Writing in Ethics & International Affairs, Farid Abdel-Nour noted, "The overall goal of Mashood Baderin's book is twofold: to offer a theoretical justification of international human rights from within the framework of Islamic law, and to seek ways of ameliorating the tension between the international human rights regime and Muslim legal systems." Thus, Baderin makes proposals not only for changes within Muslim states, such as the inclusion of human rights training in legal education, but also considers it vital for international institutions such as the United Nations Human Rights Commission to give more leeway for the interpretation of human rights protection by individual countries. Abdel-Nour went on to conclude, "Baderin's arguments encourage us to start grouping the tensions between Islamic law and international human rights together with political tensions and debates within many modern ‘Western’ societies."

Baderin has also edited several volumes dealing with similar topics. Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in Action, which he edited with Robert McCorquodale, was published in 2007 and examines the adoption and application of the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. In the 2008 work International Law and Islamic Law, Baderin collects essays examining the relationship between the two sets of laws, looking for common ground and understanding in the hopes of promoting better international relations.