Challenges to the international human rights regime have intensified in recent years. Yet, this is by no means a new phenomenon. Since their emergence, human rights have been the subject of persistent political, social, and legal contestation, with their meaning, scope, and interpretation being continually questioned and refined.
Contestation, understood here as a social practice through which norms or their implementation are being criticized, rejected, or reinterpreted, is therefore not merely an expression of current normative conflicts; rather, it is also a driving force that has shaped the evolution and institutionalization of human rights from the very beginning.
Nonetheless, such contestation can also place considerable strain on the societal acceptance, legal enforceability, and the institutional entrenchment of human rights. This tension lies at the heart of the Journal for Human Rights’ (zfmr) issue 1/2027.
We invite empirical, conceptual, and normative contributions that examine both processes of contestation and the political, legal, or institutional responses they provoke. Relevant questions include, but are not limited to: How do patterns of human rights contestation change in historical comparison? Are there fundamental differences between past and contemporary forms of contestation? Which political, social, and legal dynamics drive them? How do courts, states, international institutions and civil society respond to the contestation of human rights? Under what conditions do human rights norms and institutions prove to be resilient, and when do they become particularly vulnerable to contestation?
Please submit an abstract of approximately 500 words by September 30, 2026. Authors of selected abstracts will be invited to submit a full manuscript by January 15, 2027, which will then be subject to peer-review. zfmr is published both in print and online as a Diamond Open Access journal.
Contact: redaktion@zeitschriftfuermenschenrechte.de
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