Minority Rights in the Middle East

Joshua Castellino is Professor of Law and Head of Law at Middlesex University, London, and Adjunct Law Professor of Law at the Irish Centre for Human Rights, Ireland. He worked as a journalist in India and completed his PhD in International Law in 1998. He has authored six books on issues concerning Global Minority Rights, International and Comparative Law. He was part of the EU-China Experts & Diplomatic Dialogue and the Lawyers for the New Millennium, a project run by the Law Society of England & Wales with the Arab Lawyers Union. He regularly engages with multilateral organisations such as the United Nations, and with Law Societies and NGOs around the world, on issues of human rights advocacy, with a special focus on minorities and indigenous peoples.Kathleen Cavanaugh is a Lecturer at the Irish Centre for Human Rights, National University of Ireland, Galway. She has worked for Amnesty International, especially in the context of the organisation's work in the Middle East, in Operation Defensive Shield and the Iraqi operation. She was a key participant in Lawyers for the New Millennium a project run by the Law Society of England & Wales with the Arab Lawyers Union, and is regularly called upon to comment and engage on questions concerning human rights in the region. She has been a part of an IBA project which brings together International and Islamic Legal Scholars to address the interface of Islamic and Human Rights Law. The results of this five year project is an OUP publication on Islamic Law and International Human Rights Law: Searching for Common Ground (2012), to which she is a contributor.

• Introduction ; 1. The Contemporary Middle East ; 2. Minority Identities in the Middle East: Religious Minorities ; 3. Minority Identities in the Middle East: Ethno-National and Other Minorities ; 4. Minority Rights in Iraq ; 5. Minority Rights in Syria ; 6. Minority Rights in Lebanon ; Conclusion

Joshua Castellino and Kathleen Cavanaugh draw on their expertise as law professors to first sketch the construction of minority status in modern international legal instruments, notably with regard to human rights norms pertaining to such themes as religion, gender, migrants, and territorial minorities ... Time and again, ^iMinority Rights in the Middle East^r effectively chronicles the interplay of religious, political, and historical forces that have framed contemporary settings, including the Palestinian situation which has pervasively influenced the politics of the region as a whole.