Showing papers in "Human Rights Quarterly in 1999"
245Â citations
TL;DR: In the past decade, development, democracy, and human rights have become hegemonic political ideals as mentioned in this paper, and it has been argued that regimes that do not at least claim to pursue rapid and sustained economic growth ("development"), popular political participation ("democracy"), and respect for the rights of their citizens ("human rights")' place their national and international legitimacy at risk.
Abstract: In the past decade, development, democracy, and human rights have become hegemonic political ideals. Regimes that do not at least claim to pursue rapid and sustained economic growth ("development"), popular political participation ("democracy"), and respect for the rights of their citizens ("human rights")' place their national and international legitimacy at risk.2 Without denying important practical and theoretical linkages, this article focuses on tensions between the logics of human rights, democracy, and development. In doing so, this article challenges the comfortable contemporary assumption that, as the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action (adopted by the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights) put it,
173Â citations
141Â citations
TL;DR: The McDonald's advertising campaign as discussed by the authors showed images of Russian soldiers and American grandfathers, young Mexican women and Australian Aboriginal children, all celebrating the thing they share in common: a love of McDonald's food.
Abstract: An advertising campaign by the McDonald's food corporation in the late 1990s showed images of Russian soldiers and American grandfathers, young Mexican women and Australian Aboriginal children, all celebrating the thing they share in common: a love of McDonald's food. According to the advertisement: "everyone around the world is saying 'It's Mac time now."' These advertising images are simultaneously symptomatic and symbolic of globalization. The apparent universal market and demand for a product, which is created and presented by the use of new communication technologies and produced by a transnational corporation, could be seen as a manifestation of new opportunities provided by globalization for all people after the end of the Cold War. At the same time, the impacts of the universal market on diverse cultures and on state sovereignty, as well as the pervasiveness of development measured in market terms, could indicate the dangers in this process of globalization. These opportunities and dangers arise because globalization is "an economic, political, social, and ideological phenomenon which carries with it unanticipated, often contradictory, and polarizing consequences."' This process of globalization is part of an "ever more interdependent world,"2 where political, economic, social, and
133Â citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors trace the evolution of thought and activism over the centuries aimed at defining women's human rights and implementing the idea that women and men are equal members of society.
Abstract: This article will trace the evolution of thought and activism over the centuries aimed at defining womens human rights and implementing the idea that women and men are equal members of society. Three caveats are necessary. First because womens history has been deliberately ignored over the centuries as a means of keeping women subordinate and is only now beginning to be recaptured this is primarily a Northern story until the twentieth century. Second because of this ignorance any argument that the struggle to attain rights for women is only a Northern or Western effort is without foundation. Simply not enough available records exist detailing womens struggles or achievements in the Southern or Eastern sections of the world. The few records available to Northern writers attest that women in other parts of the world were not content with their status. Third the oft-heard argument that feminism (read the struggle for womens equality) is a struggle pursued primarily by elite women is simply another example of the traditional demeaning of women. History is replete with examples of male leaders who are not branded with this same charge even though much of history is about elite men. (excerpt)
129Â citations
TL;DR: The human rights movement has much to offer the struggle against poverty, but it must first move beyond its unnecessarily narrow vision of human rights as mentioned in this paper. But if the expansion of freedom and democracy represented a victory for human rights, it also underscores the dangers of equating civil and political rights with human dignity.
Abstract: The end of the Cold War represented a seminal moment for the human rights movement. In less than three decades of active campaigning, non-governmental advocates had made human rights a common and powerful language and could claim no small part in the widespread attention to civil liberties and democratic reforms in countries throughout Latin America, Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe. But if the expansion of freedom and democracy represented a victory for human rights, it also underscores the dangers of equating civil and political rights with human dignity. The enduring and pervasive poverty suffered by well over a billion people across the globe stands as an inescapable rebuke to those ready to celebrate the "age of rights."' The human rights movement has much to offer the struggle against poverty, but it must first move beyond its unnecessarily narrow vision of human rights. The domination of Western nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and governments has produced a model of human rights advocacy that is limited to civil liberties and state action.2 While the narrow focus on
124Â citations
93Â citations
TL;DR: In countries emerging from periods of great political turmoil, particularly turmoil associated with gross violations of human rights, the question of how to deal with the past has been a crucial part of the transformation process as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: In countries emerging from periods of great political turmoil, particularly turmoil associated with gross violations of human rights, the question of how to deal with the past has been a crucial part of the transformation process. The issue is: how does a society return to any sort of normality when two neighbors living side by side are, respectively, victim and perpetrator of heinous crimes? Perhaps nowhere else in the world is this question more vital or more difficult than in Rwanda, the small,' poor, rural, inland African state that became the site of one of the bloodiest genocides ever known. As many as a million people died in the Rwandan genocide of 1994,2 and many others have been killed subsequently, largely because the tragedy
72Â citations
TL;DR: In the context of international human rights economic social and cultural rights are generally distinguished from civil and political rights as mentioned in this paper, and they are considered nonjusticiable and are regarded as general directives for states rather than rights.
Abstract: In the context of international human rights economic social and cultural rights are generally distinguished from civil and political rights. Although it is often asserted that both sets of rights are interdependent interrelated and of equal importance in practice Western states and NGOs in particular have tended to treat economic social and cultural rights as if they were less important than civil and political rights. Civil and political rights for example are frequently invoked in national judicial proceedings and several complaint mechanisms are designed to protect these rights at the international level. In contrast economic social and cultural rights are often considered nonjusticiable and are regarded as general directives for states rather than rights. Another serious obstacle to the implementation of economic social and cultural rights is their lack of conceptual clarity. An economic and social right that is characterized by particular vagueness is the international human right to health. It is by no means clear precisely what individuals are entitled to under the right to health nor is it clear what the resulting obligations are on the part of states. Given these difficulties this article seeks to further clarify the scope and implications of the right to health in order to contribute to an improved implementation of this specific right. This article will address some definitional problems when it comes to the right to health as well as its international codification and current implementation practice. Finally this article will outline the scope of the right to health and the ensuing state obligations. (excerpt)
70Â citations
TL;DR: The article adresses the legal context for creating a state obligation to reduce maternal mortality as part of the right to health, which is in turn part of its economic and social rights obligations under specific international treaties.
Abstract: Maternal mortality and morbidity are the leading causes of premature death and disability among women of reproductive age in developing countries. 99% of pregnancy-related deaths occur in developing countries. Moreover according to the World Bank although men and women aged 15-44 years lose approximately the same number of years of healthy life due to disease there is no single cause of death and disability for men that comes close to the magnitude of maternal death and disability. This article provides an overview from a public health standpoint of the scope and determinants of maternal morbidity and mortality together with the issues involved in their detection treatment and measurement. It also explains how the UN Guidelines for monitoring national programs can be used as human rights tools to monitor a states compliance with respect to aspects of the right to health under various international treaties.
65Â citations
TL;DR: The International Covenant on Economic, Social, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) as mentioned in this paper is the progeny of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and was later created through two instruments: ICCPR and ICCR.
Abstract: One of the dominant normative features of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)2 is the relatively integrated translation of the aspiration to protect human dignity into the enumeration of fundamental human rights. The bifurcation of what is now thought of as the two grand categories of human rights (so-called "civil and political rights" and "economic and social rights") had yet to occur at the time of the UDHR's adoption. These categories were progeny of the UDHR, later created through two instruments: the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)3 and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).4
TL;DR: While few scholars and officials today believe the simplistic notion that economic progress automatically brings about political and civil freedom, many think that such progress will automatically enlarge the social welfare of all citizens as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: While few scholars and officials today believe the simplistic notion that economic progress automatically brings about political and civil freedom, many think that such progress will automatically enlarge the social welfare of all citizens. This theory, which is widely held in the West, is an obstacle to the development of national or international social welfare law since it denies the need for rights to social welfare.
TL;DR: The proliferation of international human rights agreements has been an unprecedented development in the history of international law as mentioned in this paper, allowing scholars and practitioners alike to gain a better and more current knowledge of countries' human rights performance.
Abstract: Since World War II the proliferation of international human rights agreements has been an unprecedented development in the history of international law. Organizations like Amnesty International, Freedom House, and the US State Department first issued global reports on human rights practices in the 1970s. More recently, these organizations and others have issued human rights news virtually worldwide via the Internet, allowing scholars and practitioners alike to gain a better and more current knowledge of countries' human rights performance.1 As a result of these new communications
TL;DR: A number of recent developments of the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) are designed to enhance the effectiveness of the Womens Convention as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The Vienna Conference not only marked an acceptance of the importance of asserting the indivisibility of human rights for women but also of strengthening the enforcement mechanisms for protecting womens human rights. As a reconceptualization of human rights has begun to take place the agenda is shifting toward the challenge of ensuring the effective enjoyment of these rights. A number of recent developments of the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) are designed to enhance the effectiveness of the Womens Convention. In particular the state reporting procedure under the Womens Convention which is the principal means by which the CEDAW monitors implementation of the Convention is under scrutiny and a proposal for the establishment of an individual complaints procedure is currently approaching its final stages of consultation. Both steps represent a serious effort to counteract the operational difficulties that have impaired the effective enjoyment of womens human rights and to breathe life into the embryonic right to be free from violence in the public and private sphere. These developments illustrate how far the human rights movement has shifted toward embracing womens issues fifty years after the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 8 first asserted that "[a]ll human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights." This article aims to describe and evaluate the progress that has ensued. Section II will briefly explain why the human rights community has been so slow to respond to womens issues. Section III will then trace the development of the international communitys response to the issue of violence against women. Next Section IV will explain why the international instruments dealing with violence against women mark a reconceptualization of human rights law and assess their wider significance. Section V will then set out some of the recent operational developments in enforcing womens human rights. In conclusion Section VI will suggest with reference to recent jurisprudence on state responsibility how these developments might be exploited. (excerpt)
TL;DR: Liberia is the oldest republic on the African continent and it enjoys no strategic importance in international circles as discussed by the authors, and its human rights catastrophe has therefore been ignored by the media scholars the human rights community the United States and the United Nations.
Abstract: Human rights advocates and UN officials offered themselves fulsome praise and congratulations at the World Conference on Human Rights in 1993 for including in the final Vienna Declaration the assertion that "[t]he universal nature of these [human] rights and freedoms is beyond question." Specific controversy at the conference over "universalism" arose out of an important but abstruse debate between the human rights community and leaders of a few authoritarian Asian states who argue that collectivist "Asian values" somehow supercede the specific tenets of the human rights doctrine. The principle at stake however is profound. One overly fecund laboratory for inquiry into the international communitys sincerity in undertaking to act upon the principle of the universality of human rights is the oldest republic on the African continent. Liberia has no strategic importance. It enjoys no diplomatic or political cachet in international circles. Liberias immediate environs are bereft of the intercontinental air facilities luxury hotels and exotic "rest and recreation" destinations that tend to attract journalists and itinerant young human rights activists. Liberia and its human rights catastrophe have therefore been ignored by the media scholars the human rights community the United States and the United Nations. (excerpt)
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present an alternative argument for the justification of IPR and its manifestation as a human right, which is not an adequate or coherent prescriptive theory for the recognition of IP rights.
Abstract: Given the ever-widening acceptance of a right to protection of intellectual property (IP), one might assume that there is at least implicitly an equally broad and agreed upon rationale or justification for this right. This, however, is not the case. Among those who write on the subject, there are two dominant, and not at all consistent, lines of reasoning. John Locke's labor theory of property, one of the foundations of traditional property rights in the modern world, is a logical starting point for attempts to justify intellectual property rights (IPR), that is, the protection of exclusive ownership in intangible objects that acquire their value mainly from creative efforts. 1 The second justification for IPR is derived from a traditional doctrine of [End Page 156] utilitarian inference, whereby the right to property is granted based on maximizing the benefits society can obtain. 2 Although there are zones of overlap between these two lines of reasoning, even if they are taken together and their zones of disagreement ignored, they do not constitute an adequate or coherent prescriptive theory for the recognition of IP rights. Without a logical foundation for justifying IPR, their consideration as a basic human right seems untenable. Thus, this article presents an alternative argument for the justification of IPR and its manifestation as a human right.
TL;DR: The adoption in June 1998 of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the establishment of an African Court on Human Rights (African Human Rights Court)' by the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) is potentially an important step in the protection of human rights in the African continental system.
Abstract: The adoption in June 1998 of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Establishment of an African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights (African Human Rights Court)' by the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) is potentially an important step in the protection of human rights in the African continental system.2 The African Human Rights Court would complement3
TL;DR: The Human Rights Law and the UN Intervention in Rwanda: A Frustrated Search for Effective Integration and Application 4 A. as discussed by the authors The United Nations and the Rwandan Peace Process 6 C. Failure of the UN Human Rights System 9 III.
Abstract: II. Human Rights Law and the UN Intervention in Rwanda: A Frustrated Search for Effective Integration and Application 4 A. UN Activities Before the Genocide and Mass Killings ..... 5 B. The United Nations and the Rwandan Peace Process ..... 6 C. Failure of the UN Human Rights System 9 III. The HRFOR: Struggles to Navigate a Productive Course ...... 14 A. Objective(s) 14 B. Mandate 16 C. Structure ......... . 17
Journal Article•
TL;DR: The current international human rights regime is a development of the Western liberal interest in the rights of the individual as mentioned in this paper, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was written primarily by representatives of the United States and Western Europe.
Abstract: The current international human rights regime is a development of the Western liberal interest in the rights of the individual. Its earliest documents, particularly the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR),' were drafted primarily by representatives of the United States and Western Europe.2 Later developments have broadened somewhat the types of rights covered by international treaty law, particularly into more "positive" social rights with some rhetorical nods to notions of "non-Western" rights. Even so, human rights documents continue to reflect the traditional liberal preoccupation with the individual and the protection of the individual from the powers of government and other collectives.
TL;DR: The wind of change that has been sweeping the African Continent since the end of the Cold War has rekindled and catalyzed demands for respect for human rights and the establishment of viable and durable democratic institutions as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The wind of change that has been sweeping the African Continent since the end of the Cold War has rekindled and catalyzed demands for respect for human rights and the establishment of viable and durable democratic institutions. These demands are, of course, not new or alien to the millions of oppressed people of Africa. The main differences, however, are that the lone voices that have consistently challenged the autocratic, oppressive, and one-party regimes in Africa since independence are now being joined
TL;DR: The 1998 arrest of Augusto Pinochet in London, based on the warrant of a Spanish court for crimes committed in Chile, was a landmark in the movement for international justice and accountability.
Abstract: The 1998 arrest of Augusto Pinochet in London, based on the warrant of a Spanish court for crimes committed in Chile, was a landmark in the movement for international justice and accountability. The story behind the Spanish prosecutions, both legal and political, is little-known outside of a small circle of lawyers and activists who initially mounted the case in the Spanish Audiencia Nacional. This paper tells that story. Parallel actions against the military leadership of Chile and Argentina began in the Spanish courts in 1996 with the careful marshalling of evidence to show the pattern of torture and disappearances by the governments of both countries. This article documents the procedural history and the evidence offered in both the Chilean and Argentine prosecutions, and gives the context of Spanish law and procedure on which the prosecutions were based.
TL;DR: Human rights needs to be more than the poetry of individual affirmation as mentioned in this paper, as human rights has always been concerned with major and urgent challenges, and the raison d'etre of human rights law is the upholding of human dignity.
Abstract: Human rights needs to be more than the poetry of individual affirmation. Yet by attempting to use international human rights law as one of the tools to help combat child poverty, one risks being labelled a Don Quixote naively jousting at windmills. This attitude is surely defeatist, as human rights has always been concerned with major and urgent challenges. The raison d'etre of human rights law is the upholding of human dignity. People have a legitimate expectation that international human rights law can and must be used to help eradicate gross inequalities, including inequalities of resources. International human rights law is a peaceful but powerful instrument of change. In essence, human rights is about peacefully redistributing unequal power. Over the past quarter of a century, international human rights law has had an increasingly creative role in shaping the public agenda, framing the nature of the citizen's rights discourse, and creating an embryonic culture of children's rights within the state.2 So far, however, despite repeated claims
TL;DR: A limited number of studies have sought to establish the causal impact of multinational corporations (MNCs) on human rights in the third world as mentioned in this paper, and these studies have produced some interesting (but not always consistent) results.
Abstract: Some scholars of human rights have turned their attention to a relatively new issue. A limited number of studies have sought to establish the causal impact of multinational corporations (MNCs) on human rights in the third world.' These studies, conducted at several different levels of analysis, have produced some interesting (but not always consistent) results.2 My own work in this area first appeared in the Human Rights Quarterly (HRQ) in May of 1996.3 A follow-up study by Jackie Smith, Melissa Bolyard, and Anna Ippolito (Smith et al.) appears in this issue of HRQ.4 My work tended