Showing papers on "Fundamental rights published in 2001"

Human Rights as Politics and Idolatry

Abstract: Introduction by Amy Gutmann vii HUMAN RIGHTS AS POLITICS AND IDOLATRY by Michael Ignatieff Human Rights as Politics 3 Human Rights as Idolatry 53 COMMENTS Grounding Human Rights by K. Anthony Appiah 101 Debates with the PTA and Others by David A. Hollinger 117 The Moral Imagination and Human Rights by Thomas W. Laqueur 127 Relativism and Religion by Diane F. Orentlicher 141 RESPONSE TO COMMENTATORS by Michael Ignatieff Dignity and Agency 161 Contributors 175 Index 177

Culture and rights : anthropological perspectives

Abstract: Do people everywhere have the same, or even compatible, ideas about multiculturalism, indigenous rights or women's rights? The authors of this book move beyond the traditional terms of the universalism-versus-cultural relativism debate. Through detailed case studies from around the world (Hawai'i, France, Thailand, Botswana, Greece, Nepal and Canada) they explore the concrete effects of rights talk and rights institutions on people's lives.

The Helsinki Effect: International Norms, Human Rights, and the Demise of Communism

Abstract: Acknowledgments vii Abbreviations xi Introduction The Internationa Politics of Human Rights 3 THE EVOLUTION OF NORM 25 Chapter One: The Emergence of Human Rights Norms in East-West Relations 27 Chapter Two: Negotiating Human Rights in the Helsinki Final Act 55 THE FRAMING OF NORM 89 Chapter Three: Framing "Helsinki" at Home: ocia Movements against the Communist Party-state 91 Chapter Four: Framing "Helsinki" Abroad: Transnationa Networks and U.S. Policy 121 THE EFFECT OF NORM 157 Chapter Five: Mobilization: The Expansion of Human Rights Movements 159 Chapter Six: Backlash: Communism's Response to Human Rights 195 Chapter Seven: Socialization: Human Rights and the Dismantling of Communist Rule 220 Conclusions The Helsinki Effect 257 Appendix: Interviews 289 Index 295

Social and Economic Rights? Lessons from South Africa

Abstract: Do social and economic rights belong in a democratic constitution? Skeptics have wondered whether it is possible to constitutionalize such rights without imposing an untenable managerial responsibility on courts. In an extraordinary decision, the Constitutional Court of South Africa has provided a new approach to social and economic rights, one that respects the fact of limited resources while also requiring governmental attention to basic needs. This new approach might be called an administrative law model of constitutional rights. It contains considerable promise, because it recognize rights to reasonable programs, rather than to protection of each individual, a path that might well be beyond governmental capacities.

Misanthropy without borders: the international children's rights regime.

Abstract: The issue of children's rights has become key to human rights-based international security strategies. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) is being operationalised in complex political emergencies. Children's rights now inform humanitarian principles. Universal concern for children is viewed as transcending political and social divides and able to mobilise societies to confront social problems and prevent war. The operationalisation of child rights is accompanied by the development of psycho-social programmes to rehabilitate the child victim. Critically analysing the implications of the children's rights regime for the right to self-determination, the paper unpacks the assumptions underlying children's rights and psycho-social intervention. The paper begins by examining the conceptualisation of the rights-holding subject universalised under the UN Convention and then goes on to consider Article 39 on the right to psycho-social intervention. Equally important as the novel conceptualisation of childhood and children's rights under the international children's rights regime is the (unspoken) mistrust of adulthood and political rights that informs the imperative to institutionalise children's rights as higher law. Moreover while the rights-based approach consciously sought to move away from the earlier moralising child-salvation model, psycho-social rehabilitation reveals a similar preoccupation with deviancy, but conducted through the paradigm of psychological functionalism. Rather than representing a trend towards more humane international relations, the paper suggests that the elevation of children's rights is premised on a profound disenchantment with humanity. The logical implication of the international children's rights regime is to challenge both the moral and political capacity of individuals and their right to self-determination and to institutionalise a more unequal international system.

Human Rights and Multinationals: Is there a Problem?

Abstract: In recent years interested individuals and pressure groups have expressed considerable concern over the alleged complicity of multinational enterprises (MNEs) in violations of human rights. While such allegations are not historically unprecedented, the context in which they arise has changed. In particular, the increased integration of the global economy has created a perception that MNEs should take more responsibility for the social dimension of their actions, a perception that enterprises themselves have in part accepted through inter alia the issuing codes of corporate conduct. Furthermore, the rise of identity and lifestyle politics has made MNEs, as purveyors of products and services that help to define consumer lifestyles, a target of concern. These changes have significant implications for the evolution of human rights theory. In particular, they require a shift in the traditional view that corporations can only be victims of violations of human rights committed by states, towards one that extends responsibility for the commission, prevention and avoidance of such violations to MNEs themselves. On the other hand, there exist strong arguments against such an extension of human rights responsibilities. In particular, it is said that MNEs should only be responsible for the conduct of their business and should not be forced to involve themselves in such wider social issues. They are also private law entities and so should not possess the same responsibilities as states. This articles posits that such arguments in favour of extension, though strong and likely to remain influential, cannot answer the need for an extension of responsibility for human rights violations to MNEs where appropriate, on the basis that any attack on human dignity, whatever that legal nature and functions of its originator, must be liable to legal sanction. The technical legal means by which this might be done are considered. None the less, the article ends with a caution that any extension of human rights responsibilities to MNEs must not be allowed to deflect attention from the primary responsibility of states, as the most likely perpetrators of human rights violations, to avoid human rights violations on their own part and to establish a legal order in which the risk of such violations committed by private entities can be minimized, whether through effective national regulatory laws or international agreements on standards of corporate conduct.

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

Abstract: 2. The Committee welcomes the submission of the sixth periodic report of Poland, submitted in accordance with the guidelines and the inclusion in the report of information on a number of measures taken to address the concerns expressed in the Committee’s previous concluding observations (CCPR/CO/82/POL). It welcomes the dialogue that the Committee held with the high-level delegation, the detailed written replies (CCPR/C/POL/Q/6/Add.1) submitted in response to the Committee’s list of issues and the additional information and clarifications provided during the consideration of the report.

The Law of International Watercourses: Non-Navigational Uses

Abstract: I. INTRODUCTION 1. Human Use of Water and the Coming Era of Water Scarcity 2. The Concept of the International Watercourse System II. THEORETICAL BASES OF THE LAW OF INTERNATIONAL WATERCOURSES 3. Theoretical Bases of International Watercourse Law: Introductory Considerations 4. International Watercourses as Exclusively National Resources: The 'Harmon Doctrine' in United States Practice 5. The Theoretical Basis of International Watercourse Law: An Examination of the Four Principal Theories III. THE MAJOR CASES AND CONTROVERSIES: A SURVEY OF STATE PRACTICE 6. The Major Cases 7. Selected Case Studies IV. FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS AND OBLIGATIONS 8. Introduction: The 1997 United Nations Convention A. SUBSTANTIVE OBLIGATIONS 9. The Obligation to Utilize an International Watercourse in an Equitable and Reasonable Manner 10. The Obligation to Prevent Harm to Other Riparian States 11. The Obligation to Protect International Watercourses and their Ecosystems B. PROCEDURAL OBLIGATIONS 12. Procedural Obligations C. GROUNDWATER 13. The Special Case of Groundwater D. DISPUTE AVOIDANCE AND SETTLEMENT 14. Dispute Avoidance and Settlement: Selected Aspects ANNEXES BIBLIOGRAPHY Index

Human Rights: Universality and Diversity

Abstract: General Introduction. Part One: Human Rights and the Universality Principle. I. Universality Concepts. II. Brief History of the Universality of Human Rights. Part Two: An Analysis of Non-Western Human Rights Claims. I. Introduction. II. Asian Human Rights Claims. III. African Human Rights Views. IV. Islam and Human Rights Views. V. Some Common Conclusions. Part Three: Inclusive universality. I. Introduction. II. Upholding the Ideal of the Universality of Human Rights. III. Necessary Consequences of the Universality of Human Rights: Toward Inclusive Universality. IV. Further Marking Out Inclusive Universality. V. Summing Up. Part Four: Legal Techniques for the Accommodation of Diversity. I. Introduction. II. Flexibility. III. Transformation. IV. Conclusion on Legal Techniques for the Accommodation of Diversity. General Conclusion. Bibliography. Index.

A sociology of human rights

Abstract: This paper has two main objectives. One is to consider the central place of human rights in today's global order and the other is to articulate a theoretical framework that will make sociological sense out of current human rights discourse and practice. Human rights emerged from, but need to be distinguished from, societal rights, and they are to be viewed as social claims upon social power arrangements. In advancing our perspective, special attention is given to the place of organizations in human rights theorizing; at the same time, we delineate some of the highly contested aspects of the endeavor to institutionalize a set of human rights principles.

Human Rights of Migrants: Challenges of the New Decade

Abstract: This review summarizes main trends, issues, debates, actors and initiatives regarding recognition and extension of protection of the human rights of migrants. Its premise is that the rule of law and universal notions of human rights are essential foundations for democratic society and social peace. Evidence demonstrates that violations of migrants' human rights are so widespread and commonplace that they are a defining feature of international migration today. About 150 million persons live outside their countries; in many States, legal application of human rights norms to non-citizens is inadequate or seriously deficient, especially regarding irregular migrants. Extensive hostility against, abuse of and violence towards migrants and other non-nationals has become much more visible worldwide in recent years. Research, documentation and analysis of the character and extent of problems and of effective remedies remain minimal. Resistance to recognition of migrants' rights is bound up in exploitation of migrants in marginal, low status, inadequately regulated or illegal sectors of economic activity. Unauthorized migrants are often treated as a reserve of flexible labour, outside the protection of labour safety, health, minimum wage and other standards, and easily deportable. Evidence on globalization points to worsening migration pressures in many parts of the world. Processes integral to globalization have intensified disruptive effects of modernization and capitalist development, contributing to economic insecurity and displacement for many. Extension of principles in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights culminated in the 1990 International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families. With little attention, progress in ratifications was very slow until two years ago. A global campaign revived attention; entry into force is likely in 2001. Comparative analysis notes that ILO migrant worker Conventions have generally achieved objectives but States have resisted adoption of any standards on treatment of non-nationals. A counter-offensive against human rights as universal, indivisible and inalienable underlies resistance to extension of human rights protection to migrants. A parallel trend is deliberate association of migration and migrants with criminality. Trafficking has emerged as a global theme contextualizing migration in a framework of combatting organized crime and criminality, subordinating human rights protections to control and anti-crime measures. Intergovernmental cooperation on migration “management” is expanding rapidly, with functioning regional intergovernmental consultative processes in all regions, generally focused on strengthening inter-state cooperation in controlling and preventing irregular migration through improved border controls, information sharing, return agreements and other measures. Efforts to defend human rights of migrants and combat xenophobia remain fragmented, limited in impact and starved of resources. Nonetheless, NGOs in all regions provide orientation, services and assistance to migrants, public education and advocating respect for migrants rights and dignity. Several international initiatives now highlight migrant protection concerns, notably the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights of Migrants, the Global Campaign promoting the 1990 UN Convention, UN General Assembly proclamation of International Migrants Day, the 2001 World Conference Against Racism and Xenophobia, anti-discrimination activity by ILO, and training by IOM. Suggestions to governments emphasize the need to define comprehensive, coordinated migration policy and practice based on economic, social and development concerns rather than reactive control measures to ensure beneficial migration, social harmony, and dignified treatment of nationals and non-nationals. NGOs, businesses, trade unions, and religious groups are urged to advocate respect for international standards, professionalize services and capacities, take leadership in opposing xenophobic behaviour, and join international initiatives. Need for increased attention to migrants rights initiatives and inter-agency cooperation by international organizations is also noted.

The Animal Question: Why Nonhuman Animals Deserve Human Rights

Abstract: How much do animals matter-morally? Can we keep considering them as second class beings, to be used merely for our benefit? Or, should we offer them some form of moral egalitarianism? Inserting itself into the passionate debate over animal rights, this fascinating, provocative work by renowned scholar Paola Cavalieri advances a radical proposal: that we extend basic human rights to the nonhuman animals we currently treat as "things." Cavalieri first goes back in time, tracing the roots of the debate from the 1970s, then explores not only the ethical but also the scientific viewpoints, examining the debate's precedents in mainstream Western philosophy. She considers the main proposals of reform that recently have been advanced within the framework of today's prevailing ethical perspectives. Are these proposals satisfying? Cavalieri says no, claiming that it is necessary to go beyond the traditional opposition between utilitarianism and Kantianism and focus on the question of fundamental moral protection. In the case of human beings, such protection is granted within the widely shared moral doctrine of universal human rights' theory. Cavalieri argues that if we examine closely this theory, we will discover that its very logic extends to nonhuman animals as beings who are owed basic moral and legal rights and that, as a result, human rights are not human after all.

Universalizing Human Rights: The Role of Small States in the Construction of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Abstract: In the fifty years that have passed since the United Nations General Assembly approved the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR),' literally hundreds of books on the subject of human rights have come to fill the shelves of major university libraries in the United States and around the world. Human rights has claimed the attention of scholars in several disciplines, and the notion is alternatively approached as a philosophical idea, a legal concept, or a political project. Human rights readily finds a home in Western political philosophy, where theories of natural rights and social contract are well-anchored and help elaborate the modern concept of human rights. This concept has also been discussed in comparative philosophical frameworks.2 Human rights as a legal concept is part of the bedrock of contemporary international law, and neither legal scholarship

The new Commonwealth model of constitutionalism

Abstract: There has been a tremendous growth in constitutionalism around the world in the last sixty years. Mostly, it has come in two concentrated bursts: in western Europe and Japan following World War II, and in central Europe and Africa following the collapse of communism in 1989. Despite fascinating and important differences in the forms that this growth has taken in various countries, the overarching story is one in which the essentials of the American model of constitutionalism have been adopted. These essentials posit a necessary and fundamental incompatibility between legislative supremacy and the effective legal protection of individual rights, so that opting for the latter requires "constitutionalizing" them in the following specific sense: giving such rights the status of supreme law; entrenching them against ordinary legislative repeal or amendment; and enforcing them through the power of judicial review, exercise of which is unreviewable by ordinary legislative means. There has, however, been a set of recent developments in the three Commonwealth countries of Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom that present an intriguing alternative to this dominant model of constitutionalism. Between 1982 and 1998, each of these three countries adopted a bill of rights in a form that self-consciously and deliberately rejected the central axiom of the American model by seeking to reconcile and accommodate judicial protection of fundamental rights with (what they see as) the legitimate core claims of parliamentary sovereignty. Although they grant significant new power to the courts to protect fundamental rights, each in a different way empowers the legislature to have the final word on what the law of the land is. This article identifies, analyzes and evaluates this new Commonwealth model of constitutionalism. In addition to presenting novel institutional possibilities within the framework of constitutionalist democracy, the new model suggests solutions to a number of practical and theoretical problems that have long been thought to bedevil the American model. By attempting to create genuine dialogue and joint responsibility between courts and legislatures with respect to rights, the new model may both help to reinject matters of principle back into legislative and popular debates, and offer a radically direct solution to the countermajoritarian difficulty associated with judicial review.

Implications of Legal Pluralism for Natural Resource Management

Abstract: Summaries This article illustrates the implications of legal pluralism for our understanding of natural resource management and policies toward resource tenure, using the example of water rights. There is widespread recognition that property rights play a fundamental role in shaping how people manage natural resources. But many conceptions of property rights have focused only on static definitions, usually as defined in statutory law. The legal anthropological perspective highlights the coexistence and interaction between multiple legal orders such as state, customary, religious, project and local laws, all of which provide bases for claiming property rights. These multiple legal frameworks also facilitate considerable flexibility for people to manoeuvre in their use of natural resources, thus helping to cope with uncertainty. In many parts of the world, water rights are dynamic, flexible and subject to frequent negotiations because of uncertain water supply, damages to intake structures due to floods and landslides, and social, economic and political changes. The article demonstrates how multiple, flexible and dynamic legal orders are more responsive to these uncertainties and changes than a single, fixed legal system with a static property regime

From Skepticism to Embrace: Human Rights and the American Anthropological Association from 1947-1999

Abstract: In 1947, the Executive Board of the American Anthropological Association (AAA) submitted its Statement on Human Rights to the United Nations.1 Anthropologists have been embarrassed ever since. In the late 1940s, anthropologists were embarrassed because they saw the Statement as limiting tolerance. In recent years, embarrassment has derived from a sense that the document refused to place a limit on tolerance.This debate among anthropologists over the limits of tolerance has occurred in the context of the development of an international human rights regime. In the debate, culture and human rights have largely been seen as oppositional. To be for human rights would be to oppose the acceptance of cultural practices that might conflict with one’s interpretations of human rights’ norms. To support an acceptance of conflicting cultural practices would be to oppose human rights.This article proceeds by describing and situating the 1947 Statement and discussing the embarrassment it has engendered over the past fifty years. It grounds the discussion in an historical account of the rise and fall and partial resurrection of Boasian anthropology. It then considers the statements and interventions of the AAA’s Human Rights Committee and other recent pro-rights anthropological scholarship to discuss the similarities in the positions. Through this analysis, I argue that current anthropological attempts at embracing human rights continue to be plagued by the controversies of the 1940s.In examining the AAA Human Rights Committee’s discourse and the recent Declaration adopted by the AAA, I do not assume that these positions represent the state of American anthropology in the 1990s. Indeed, one of the striking aspects of pro-rights anthropology is that it asserts a human right to culture, often failing to attend to conflicts within cultures, despite the tendency in much of anthropology over the past fifteen years to complicate or even abandon the notion of culture.

From Discretion to Scrutiny: Revisiting the Application of the Margin of Appreciation Doctrine in the Context of Article 15 of the European Convention on Human Rights

Abstract: The margin of appreciation doctrine has come to occupy a central position in the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights ("Court") operating under the European Convention on Human Rights ("European Convention").' Not mentioned anywhere in the European Convention itself or in the Convention's Travaux Pr6paratoires,2 the doctrine has developed in the case law emanating from the Court and the European Commission of Human Rights ("Commission").3

Race, Gender, and the Prison Industrial Complex California and Beyond

Abstract: A central achievement ofthe 1995 United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing was the emphatic articulation ofwomen's rights as human rights. In specifically identifying violence against women in both public and private life as an assault against women's human rights, the Beijing Conference helped to deepen awareness of violence against women on a global scale. Yet, even with this increasing attention, the violence linked to women's prisons remains obscured by the social invisibilityofthe prison. There, violence takes the form ofmedical neglect, sexual abuse, lack ofreproductive control, loss ofparental rights, denial oflegal rights and remedies, the devastating effects ofisolation, and, ofcourse, arbitrary discipline. Recent reports by international human rights organizations have begun to address the invisibilityofwomen prisoners and to highlight the severity of the violence they experience. For example, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have specifically focused on the widespread problem of sexual abuse in United States' prisons. In 1999 the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women issued a report on her findings—which were even more disturbing than prison activists had predicted—from visits to eightwomen's prisons in the U.S. In general, although international human rights standards rarely have been appliedwithin the contextofthe U.S., particularlyin the legal arena, un documents (such as the International Covenanton Civil and Political Rujhts and the Standard Minimum Rules/or theTreatmentofPrisoners) have been used

Sceptical essays on human rights

Abstract: 1. Introduction 1: SCEPTICISM AND HUMAN RIGHTS 2. Political Citizenship versus Fundamental Rights 3. Rights, Democracy, and the Nature of the Legal Order 4. The Unbalanced Constitution 5. Human Rights in a Postnational Order: Reconciling Political and Constitutional Pluralism 6. Rights, Sovereignty, and 'the People' 7. Incorporation through Interpretation 2: THE IMPACT AND IMPLICATIONS OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS ACT 8. Rights Versus Devolution 9. Human Rights in Northern Ireland 10. Taking Wales Seriously 11. Scepticism under Scrutiny: Labour Law and Human Rights 12. Discrimination Law and the Human Rights Act 13. Tort Law and the Human Rights Act 14. Criminal Justice, Legal Rights, Judicial Interpretation: On Being Sceptical about the Human Rights Act 15. Minority Protection and Human Rights 3: THE EXPERIENCE OF ELSEWHERE: REASONS TO BE SCEPTICAL 16. The Canadian Charter of Rights: Recognition, Redistribution, and the Imperialism of the Courts 17. The South African Experience 18. Postcommunist Central Europe 19. Scepticism about Judicial Review: A Perspective from the United States 20. The New Zealand Bill of Rights Act: Lessons for the UK? 21. The Australian Free Speech Experiment and Scepticism about the Human Rights Act Index

Rights beyond Borders: The Global Community and the Struggle over Human Rights in China

Abstract: 1. Introduction PART I: THE SETTING 2. The Evolution of the Global Human Rights Regime 3. The Global Consequences of Chinas Economic Reforms PART II: THE PROCESS 4. The Generating of Attention, 1976-1989 5. Tiananmen and its Aftermath, June 1989 to November 1991 6. The Shift to Multilateral Venues, 1992 to 1995 7. From Public Exposure to Private Dialogue, 1996 to 1998 8. Betting on the Long Term, 1998-1999 9. Conclusion - Rights Beyond Borders?

The Attack on Human Rights

Abstract: Since 1945, human rights language has become a source of power and authority. Human rights doctrine is now so powerful, but also so unthinkingly imperialist in its claim to universality, that it has exposed itself to serious intellectual attack. The cultural challenge to the universality of human rights arises from three distinct sources—from resurgent Islam, from within the West itself, and from East Asia. Western defenders have forced human rights activists to question their assumptions, to rethink the history of their commitments, and to realize just how complicated intercultural dialogue on rights questions becomes when all cultures participate as equals. Western defenders of human rights have traded too much away. Human rights represent a revolutionary creed, since they make a radical demand of all human groups that they serve the interests of the individuals who compose them. The best way to face the cultural challenges to human rights coming from Asia, Islam, and Western postmodernism is to admit their truth.

Canaries in the Mines of Citizenship: Indian Women in Canada

Abstract: This article explores the concept of citizenship in relation to certain Aboriginal women, whose membership in First Nations is subject to Canadian federal legislation and First Nations constitutions and membership codes. In the struggle for decolonization, Aboriginal peoples use the language of rights - rights to self-determination, and claims of fundamental human rights. The state has injected its limited policy of ''self-government'' into this conversation, characterized by the federal government's preference for delegating administrative powers to Indian Act bands. Since the 1985 Indian Act revisions, bands have been able to control their membership. Where prior to 1985 the federal government implemented sexist, racist legislation determining band membership, now some bands have racist, sexist membership codes. In both cases, the full citizenship capacity of affected Aboriginal women, in either the colonial state or in First Nations, is impaired. The bands in question resist criticism by invoking rights claims and traditional practices; the federal government washes its hands in deference to self-government. The rights claims of affected women are scarcely acknowledged, much less addressed. Meanwhile, their citizenship in both dominant and Aboriginal communities is negotiated with the realities of colonialism, racism and sexism. Their experience demonstrates the limitations of citizenship theory and of Canadian citizenship guarantees.

Law's limits : the rule of law and the supply and demand of rights

Abstract: Preface Part I. The Basic Framework: 1. Supply and demand 2. The spectrum of rights 3. The supply side - the little engine of law and rights Part II. Land Use and Rights: 4. Zoning and its discontents - political malfunction and the demand for rights 5. Just compensation - the problems of pricing 6. High stakes players and hidden markets Part III. Law's Laws: 7. Theories of property: from Coase to communitarianism 8. Numbers, complexity and the rule of law 9. Changes References Index.

The Battlefield of Water Rights: Rule Making Amidst Conflicting Normative Frameworks in the Ecuadorian Highlands

Abstract: Property relations in irrigation and water rights distribution have become central issues in current policy debates and rural development initiatives. Nevertheless, there is still a great lack of understanding about what water rights-in-practice are, how they function, and how they are created, consolidated, and transformed from abstract sociolegal categories into local procedures and in-the-field practices. Understanding users’ rationality and local expressions of water rights in peasant and indigenous communities is of crucial importance if we want to comprehend their claim for water rights and perhaps support local empowerment processes in common property water control systems. This article explores irrigation development in the Ceceles zone in Ecuador. It is based on action research that has pulled the researchers into an analysis of the peasants’ struggle to acquire and define water rights and to achieve recognition for the legitimacy of their normative system authorizing those rights. The article analyzes how different interest groups have sought to defend and control rule making amidst conflicting normative frameworks. The research made clear that actual water rights are not simply defined in lawyers’ offices and at engineers’ design desks; they are negotiated and enforced in processes of social struggle. Moreover, water rights not only give access to water but also constitute power relations that define the control over decision making on water management. Water rights are dynamic, and even long-standing rights may be sacrificed to strengthen local autonomous organization.

Women, gender, and human rights : a global perspective

Abstract: "This anthology adds strength and credence to the struggle for women's human rights. It reinforces the conviction that no society can prosper and no new world be born until the rights of women are fully protected and realized."-William F. Schulz, executive director of Amnesty International, USA "The devastating commonalities and startling differences in women's oppression and activism around the world are keenly explored in this excellent anthology. Agosin's collection provokes a powerful reexamination of the human rights field."-Jacqueline Bhabha, Harvard University "This moving anthology, masterfully compiled by poet and human rights activist Marjorie Agosin, is a must for scholars, students, and human rights workers; it also will captivate the general reader."-Elena O. Nightingale, scholar-in-residence, National Academy of Sciences "Essential reading, Women, Gender, and Human Rights argues forcefully and convincingly that the elimination of gender-based violence and discrimination, so often ignored by governments and aid organizations, must be at the center of the struggle for social justice and human dignity in this new century." -Eric Stover, author of The Graves: Srebrenica and Vukovar The 1948 United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights expresses the credo that all human beings are created free and equal. But not until 1995 did the United Nations declare women's rights to be human rights, and bring gender issues into the global arena for the first time. Women, Gender, and Human Rights is the first collection of essays encompassing a wide range of women's issues, including political and domestic violence, education, literacy, and reproductive rights. Most of the essays were written expressly for this volume by internationally known experts in the fields of government, bioethics, medicine, public affairs, literature, history, anthropology, law, and psychology. Recipient of the Henrietta Szold Award by Hadassah (2001), the Gabriela Mistral Medal of Honor (2000), and the United Nations Leadership Award (1999), Marjorie Agosin is a professor of Spanish at Wellesley College. Among her books are A Map of Hope: Writings on Women and Human Rights and The Alphabet in My Hands (both by Rutgers University Press).

Human rights and development in Africa: moral intrusion or empowering opportunity?

Abstract: Throughout the 1990s the debates about human rights and development have increasingly converged. The article asks whether the emerging human rights‐based approach to development, honed in the period of revisionist neo‐liberalism, can deliver meaningful improvements to the African crisis.It begins by outlining the evolution of the rights‐based development agenda in order to understand how the present agenda is defined. The next section examines the theoretical underpinnings of the current rights‐based development agenda and summarises two recent reports which place such concerns at their centre. From there we examine the implementation of rights‐based procedures in Africa and assess the moral and practical implications of the rights agenda for Africa. We conclude by arguing that the emphasis on economic and developmental rights should be welcomed, because it raises the possibility of cementing the right to a decent standard of living. However, the potential exists for the rights‐based agenda to be used as ...

The Best of Both Worlds for Children's Rights? Interpreting the European Convention on Human Rights in the Light of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

Abstract: The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) has always operated successfully as a regional mechanism of human rights protection. Now, following the ECHR's incorporation into the legal systems of the vast majority of Council of Europe States, including, most recently, the United Kingdom, its potential to influence law and policy can be realized at the domestic as well as the regional level.' The Convention's scope for enforcing and protecting the rights of children is not immediately evident given that it contains few specific references to the rights of the child. However, the European Commission of Human Rights and the European Court of Human Rights have made a considerable contribution to European law and practice in the areas of private and public family law, the protection of children from abuse and neglect and, most recently, juvenile justice and detention.2 They have done this, it is submitted, through a variety of