Showing papers on "Human rights published in 1993"

The social contract ; and, The discourses

Abstract: THE SOCIAL CONTRACT is one of three most influential treatises ever written (the others being PLato's REPUBLIC and Marx's DAS KAPITAL) Of the three it is safe to say that only THE SOCIAL CONTRACT is much read in its entirety today, and it continues to exert a direct influence on contemporary political thought. In it - and in the three DISCOURCES here printed with it - Rousseau discusses the nature of liberty, human rights and the state; the origins of private property the function of education; the economic structure of society; and the relationship between individuals and the community. This revised re-issue of G. D. H. Cole's celebrated translation, long published by Everyman, includes sections from the manuscript draft of the text and is accompanied by an extensive new introduction, chronology and bibliography prepared by Professor Alan Ryan.

Human rights, principled issue-networks, and sovereignty in Latin America

Abstract: International relations theorists have devoted insufficient attention to the processes through which state sovereignty is being transformed in the modern world. The human rights issue offers a case study of a gradual and significant reconceptualization of state sovereignty. In the human rights issue-area, the primary movers behind the international actions leading to changing understandings of sovereignty are transnational nonstate actors organized in a principled issue-network, including international and domestic nongovernmental organizations, parts of global and regional intergovernmental organizations, and private foundations. These networks differ from other forms of transnational relations in that they are driven primarily by shared values or principled ideas. Through a comparative study of the impact of international human rights pressures on Argentina and Mexico in the 1970s and 1980s, this article explores the emergence and the nature of the principled human rights issue-network and the conditions under which it can contribute to changing both state understandings about sovereignty and state human rights practices.

The new Cold War? : religious nationalism confronts the secular state

Abstract: Will the religious confrontations with secular authorities around the world lead to a new Cold War? Mark Juergensmeyer paints a provocative picture of the new religious revolutionaries altering the political landscape in the Middle East, Asia and Eastern Europe. Impassioned Muslim leaders in Egypt, Palestine and Algeria, political rabbis in Israel, militant Sikhs in India, and triumphant Catholic clergy in Eastern Europe are all players in Juergensmeyer's study of the explosive growth of religious movements that decisively reject Western ideas of secular nationalism. Juergensmeyer revises notions of religious revolutions. Instead of viewing religious nationalists as wild-eyed, anti-American fanatics, he reveals them as modern activists pursuing a legitimate form of politics. He explores the positive role religion can play in the political life of modern nations, even while acknowledging some religious nationalists' proclivity to violence and disregard of Western notions of human rights. Finally, he situates the growth of religious nationalism in the context of the political malaise of the modern West. Noting that the synthesis of traditional religion and secular nationalism yields a religious version of the modern nation-state, Juergensmeyer claims that such a political entity could conceivably embrace democratic values and human rights.

International Human Rights

Abstract: Part One: Introduction and Theory 1. Human Rights as an Issue in World Politics 2. Theories of Human Rights 3. The Relative Universality of Human Rights 4. The Domestic Politics of Human Rights: Dirty Wars in the Southern Cone Part Two: Multilateral, Bilateral, and Transnational Action 5. Global Multilateral Mechanisms 6. Regional Human Rights Regimes 7. Assessing Multilateral Mechanisms 8. Human Rights and American Foreign Policy: Cold War Cases 9. Human Rights and Foreign Policy 10. Transnational Human Rights Advocacy 11. Comparing International Actors and Evaluating International Action 12. Responding to Human Rights Violations in China: Tiananmen and After 13. Humanitarian Intervention Against Genocide 14. Globalization, the State, and Human Rights 15.(Anti-)Terrorism and Human Rights

Outline of a Theory of Human Rights

Abstract: Although the study of citizenship has been an important development in contemporary sociology, the nature of rights has been largely ignored. The analysis of human rights presents a problem for sociology, in which cultural relativism and the fact-value distinction have largely destroyed the classical tradition of the natural-law basis for rights discourse. This critique of the idea of universal rights was prominent in the work of Marx, Durkheim and Weber. However, recent developments in the organisation of nation states, the globalisation of political issues, the transformation of family life, and changes in medical technology in relation to human reproduction have brought the question of human rights to the forefront of social and political debate. The paper argues that a sociology of rights is important, because there are obvious limitations to the idea of citizenship, which is based on membership of a nation state. Existing conceptualisations of citizenship require the supplement of rights theory. It i...

Children's consent to surgery

Abstract: Surgery at school age limb lengthening children's human rights childrens legal rights reviewing research with children hoping for benefit: reasons for having surgery giving information: adults views understanding information: children's views making a wise choice: competence and consent the many stages of surgery respecting childrens consent.

Competing with integrity in international business

Abstract: The first textbook to address the whole spectrum of multinational business ethics, Richard T. De George's Competing with Integrity in International Business examines moral debates about operating ethically in virtually every major market environment in the world. With examples from a variety of international settings, including the former Soviet bloc, China, Japan, and the European Community, and taking the company of integrity as its objective, this text offers guidelines for multinationals in underdeveloped countries as well as original strategies for corporations competing in corrupt environments. Backed by the distinguished author's wide and varied experience, both as a scholar and as consultant to firms and business institutions around the world, Competing with Integrity in International Business covers cooperation with local government, taxes, respect for and compliance with local society, human rights, national development, and other challenges, as well as responses to immoral adversaries and the use of publicity to expose corrupt actions. With insightful discussion of topics such as corporate culture and corporate virtue and chapter case studies from across the globe, this comprehensive text will prove invaluable for business and philosophy students at all levels.

Between two armies in the Ixil towns of Guatemala

Abstract: Challenging the views of human rights activists, Stoll argues that the Ixils who supported Guatemalan rebels in the early 1980's did so because they were caught in the crossfire between the guerillas and the army, not because revolutionary violence expressed community aspirations.

From Above and Below Social Movements, the International System, and Human Rights in Argentina

Abstract: What role does the international system play in amplifying the impact of domestic social movements on social change? The Argentine human rights movement reached the international system through the projection of cognitive and affective information—persuasion. International response was facilitated by the international human rights regime, and transnational nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) played a critical role. This challenge from above and below did have a clear impact on the target government and the development of broader mechanisms for the protection of human rights—even under the most severe conditions of repression and powerlessness.

Human Rights and Crimes of The State: The Culture of Denial*:

Abstract: Introduction For personal and political reasons that I won't impose on you, I have gradually moved during the last decade from \"doing\" criminology to \"doing\" human rights. Living these years in Israel and faced by the mass violation of Palestinian rights in the Israeli Occupied Territories, my academic pre-occupations have made way for more activist work in the human rights field. This has' meant dealing with different subjects from those of traditional criminology or even the broader discourse of the sociologyof law and social control. It has also meant getting used to a different style of work; the rhythms of human rights organisations (deadline, press conference, organising, casework) are not those of the leisurely university life; the genre of a human rights report (as I painfully discovered) is not the same as a paper for an academic journal. This is altogether a different intellectual subculture, with its own people, preoccupations, values and references. Of course, these different worlds do meet. Some subjects appear to be pretty much the same (law, police, prisons, courts, violence, victims, justice ...); there are the familiar debates between practitioners and theorists; research methods are not very different from regular social science work (a shoddy human rights report is bad for the same reasons as a shoddy research paper). The research project on which I have just started working, though, stems more consciously from my human rights involvement than my academic criminology. So, when I was invited to give this lecture, my first thought was that I had nothing much .to say to a criminological audience. On second thoughts, it seemed to me that the ,ways these fields have diverged despite their common grounds seemed worthy of attention. To frame my human rights topic for a criminological audience might be a worthwhile exercise. My lecture has two aims. The first is to note some substantive lines of enquiry about my subject, the sociology of denial. The second is to suggest that the criminological agenda should take into account the subject of crimes of the state and its even wider referent, that is, human rights violations. Pretentiously others before me have tried and failed this second task is comparable to what Sutherland set himself in placing white collar crime on the criminological agenda. Which of these two tasks is more important? Frankly, the first the substance of my question. But in deference to the occasion the John Barry Memorial Lecture at the conference of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology I'll start with my second task, looking for the criminological connection.

The unique case of African democracy

Abstract: Africa's long neglected democracy movement is now enjoying unprecedented support at home and abroad. But it does so amid considerable confusion about what the movement is and what it portends to be. This confusion is not unrelated to its complex nature. The movement has many components: out of power politicians for whom democratization is less a commitment than a strategy for power; ethnic, national and communal groups who are obliged to wage struggles for democratic incorporation because a manipulative leadership has seized state power in the name of an ethnic or national group; ordinary people who are calling for a second independence having concluded that the politics of the present leadership, far from offering any prospect of relief from underdevelopment, has deepened it immensely; international human rights non-governmental organizations (NGOs), which are only just beginning to perceive the relation between human rights and democracy; international financial institutions, especially the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, for whom democracy provides the political requirements for the operation of market forces; and Western governments who support democracy in Africa as the process through which the universalizing of the Western model of society can take place. Amid this confusion it is difficult to discern what kind of democracy is emerging in Africa and what unique features will give it depth and sustainability in African conditions. This paper addresses those questions. A useful way of approach is to begin by ascertaining whose democratic participation is at issue-an obvious but important point, the significance of which is often elusive. Clearly, it is not that of World Bank officials, Western NGOs or for that matter, the African elite. But it is that of a society which is still preindustrial and communal and whose cultural idiom is radically different. This is a society whose members are barely surviving on informal sector activities

Humanitarian war: military intervention and human rights

Abstract: Both these questions fall partly within the field of the legitimacy, or otherwise, of the resort to force in particular circumstances-the jus ad bellum. These particular questions are, to some extent at least, separate from the laws of war-or jus in bello-but the membrane between these fields is less permeable in fact than in legal theory. These two questions also take us beyond law, and into the fields of historical interpretation and prudential judgement. They involve ancient problems which have been debated since time immemorial. With respect to both questions, international thought and practice seem to be changing.

Population Policy and Women's Rights: Transforming Reproductive Choice

Abstract: Human Rights, Women's Rights, and Reproductive Freedom: The Evolution of Ideas "Population Controllers" and the Feminist Critique The Elusive "Woman Question" in United States International Population Policy Population Policy and Women's Political Action in Three Developing Countries Women's Rights and Reproductive Choice: Rethinking the Connections Objective and Subjective Dimensions of the Right to Health Unnecessary Danger: Abortion and Women's Health in Developing Countries Toward a Feminist Population Policy Women's Rights and Reproductive Health: A Policy Agenda U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women Selected Demographic Indicators, Countries with Populations of over One Million Persons, around 1990 Selected Indicators of the Status of Women, around 1990 Government Policies Relating to Population and the Status of Women Bibliography Index

Natural Relations: Ecology, Animal Rights and Social Justice

Abstract: In this challenging book, Ted Benton takes recent debates about the moral status of animals as a basis for reviewing the discourse of 'human rights'. Liberal-individualist views of human rights and the advocates of animal rights tend to think of individuals, whether humans or animals, in isolation from their social position. This makes them vulnerable to criticisms from the left which emphasise the importance of social relationships to individual well-being. Benton's argument supports the important assumption, underpinning the cause for animal rights, that humans and other species of animal have much in common, both in the conditions for their well-being and their vulnerability and harm. Both liberal rights theory and it socialist critique fail adequately to theorize these aspects of human vulnerability. Nevertheless, it is argued that, enriched by feminist and ecological insights, a socialist view of rights has much to offer. Lucid and wide-ranging in its argument, Natural Relations enables the outline of an ecological socialist view of rights and justice to begin to take their shape.

International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights Law

Abstract: International humanitarian law is increasingly perceived as part of human rights law applicable in armed conflict. This trend can be traced back to the United Nations Human Rights Conference held in Tehran in 1968 which not only encouraged the development of humanitarian law itself, but also marked the beginning of a growing use by the United Nations of humanitarian law during its examination of the human rights situation in certain countries or during its thematic studies. The greater awareness of the relevance of humanitarian law to the protection of people in armed conflict, coupled with the increasing use of human rights law in international affairs, means that both these areas of law now have a much greater international profile and are regularly being used together in the work of both international and non-governmental organizations.

Anthropology and Human Rights

Abstract: This essay reviews what anthropologists have contributed to the human rights framework and how they have used it for research and advocacy (117, 144, 176, 221, 258, 282, 283). Since 1948 the United Nations (UN) has aspired to create a global community, based on human rights, "a common standard of achievement for all peoples and nations" (the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights), the substance of which is continually evolving. Anthropolo­ gists have contributed to these continuing efforts in two critical ways: first, by providing cross-cultural research on the questions of "What are rights?" and "Who is counted as a full 'person' or 'human being' eligible to enjoy them?" (117, 152, 176, 221); and second, by monitoring compliance with human rights standards and by criticizing human rights violations or abuses (282, 283). A conventional wisdom persists both inside and outside of anthropology that anthropologists have been largely uninvolved in human rights formula­ tions for five main reasons: 1. anthropologists' insistence that human rights concepts are culturally relative, in opposition to universal formulations (51, 79,208,209); 2. anthropologists' advocacy of collective and indigenous rights over and against the universal formulations framed in terms of the individual's rights (51); 3. anthropologists' commitment to applied anthropology and polit­ ical economic action over human rights approaches to overcoming oppression and inequality (268,282); 4. the political sensitivities of doing fieldwork (67, 69); and 5. anthropologists' involvement with small-scale sociocultural analy-

Internal Dispute Resolution: The Transformation of Civil Rights in the Workplace

Abstract: Many employers create internal procedures for the resolution of discrimination complaints. We examine internal complaint handlers' conceptions of civil rights law and the implications of those conceptions for their approach to dispute resolution. Drawing on interview data, we find that complaint handlers tend to subsume legal rights under managerial interests. They construct civil rights law as a diffuse standard of fairness, consistent with general norms of good management. Although they seek to resolve complaints to restore smooth employment relations, they tend to recast discrimination claims as typical managerial problems. While the assimilation of law into the management realm may extend the reach of law, it may also undermine legal rights by deemphasizing and depoliticizing workplace discrimination. Civil rights law, in particular Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act (Title VII), creates administrative and legal channels for redressing complaints regarding equal employment opportunity and affirmative action (EEO/AA). [FN1] Employers cannot forbid employees to use

Women As Wombs: Reproductive Technologies and the Battle over Women's Freedom

Abstract: This is a scathing feminist analysis that contributes ground-breaking insights to the raging debate over reproductive technology. In the book, renowned scholar and feminist activist, Janice Raymond, delivers a passionate expose that uncovers the alarming ethical, legal and political implications of high-tech biomedical reproductive technologies. She argues that these technologies are neither liberatory nor an issue of reproductive 'choice'. Rather, they violate the integrity of women's bodies, perpetuate prostitution and an international trafficking in women and children, and are a threat to women's basic human rights.

The struggle for citizenship: the case of disabled people

Abstract: The notion of ‘citizenship’ has become a popular slogan of governments who espouse a commitment to democratic ideals. Such discourse tends to emphasise responsibilities with little serious significance being given to the question of rights. In this paper we explore the continual discrimination which disabled people experience and which militates against the realisation of meaningful citizenship. The struggle for citizenship is viewed as an affirmation of the value of choice, independent and control which disabled people conceive in terms of human rights.

Human rights and reproductive choice.

Abstract: A central challenge in developing reproductive health strategies is giving real meaning to the right of couples and individuals to determine freely and responsibly the number and spacing of their children. This article places the right of reproductive choice in legal and historical contexts highlights salient issues that arise in trying to formulate international standards for its enforcement and examines 2 particularly thorny issues: the tension between demographic priorities and reproductive choice and the tension between international standards and local custom/religion. The article calls on health professionals to participate actively in the elaboration of reproductive rights both through their immediate work in the health care field and through involvement in the international policymaking process that will take place in 3 upcoming international conferences. (authors)

Liberal Rights: Collected Papers 1981-1991

Abstract: 1. Introduction: 'Liberal rights: two sides of the coin' 2. Theoretical foundations of liberalism 3. A right to do wrong 4. Locke, toleration and the rationality of persecution 5. Mill and the value of moral distress 6. Religion and the imagination in a global community: a discussion of the Salmon Rushdie affair 7. Legislation and moral neutrality 8. Particular values and critical morality 9. Rights in conflict 10. Welfare and the images of charity 11. John Rawls and the social minimum 12. Citizenship, social citizenship and the defence of welfare rights 13. Homelessness and the issue of liberty 14. Can communal goods be human rights? 15. When justice replaces affection: the need for rights 16. Rights and majorities: Rousseau revisited.

Fantasies of the Master Race: Literature, Cinema and the Colonization of the American Indians

Abstract: Chosen an "Outstanding Book on the Subject of Human Rights in the United States" by the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Human Rights. In this volume of incisive essays, Ward Churchill looks at representations of American Indians in literature and film, delineating a history of cultural propaganda that has served to support the continued colonization of Native America. During each phase of the genocide of American Indians, the media has played a critical role in creating easily digestible stereotypes of Indians for popular consumption. Literature about Indians was first written and published in order to provoke and sanctify warfare against them. Later, the focus changed to enlisting public support for "civilizing the savages," stripping them of their culture and assimilating them into the dominant society. Now, in the final stages of cultural genocide, it is the appropriation and stereotyping of Native culture that establishes control over knowledge and truth. The primary means by which this is accomplished is through the powerful publishing and film industries. Whether they are the tragically doomed "noble savages" walking into the sunset of Dances With Wolves or Carlos Castaneda's Don Juan, the exotic mythical Indians constitute no threat to the established order. Literature and art crafted by the dominant culture are an insidious political force, disinforming people who might otherwise develop a clearer understanding of indigenous struggles for justice and freedom. This book is offered to counter that deception, and to move people to take action on issues confronting American Indians today.

Domestic violence as a human rights issue.

Abstract: Part I of this paper examines why domestic violence was not analyzed traditionally as a human rights issue. It discusses the three independent though interrelated changes that occurred to begin to make such an analysis possible: the expansion of the application of state responsibility; the recognition of domestic violence as widespread and largely unprocesuted (brought about by greater public and international recognition of the daily violence experienced by women); and the understanding that the systematic discriminatory non-prosecution of domestic violence constitutes a violation of the right to equal protection under international law. Part II describes the first practical application of this evolving approach in Brazil where the presence of a broad-based womens movement made it possible to collect the data necessary to support an analysis of the governments responsibility for domestic violence. Finally Part III explores the value and limitations of the human rights approach to combating domestic violence. We conclude that the human rights approach can be a powerful tool to combat domestic violence but that there are currently both practical and methodological limitations--in part related to the use of the equal protection framework to assign state responsibility for domestic violence--that are problematic and require further analysis to make the approach more effective. (excerpt)

Civil liberties and human rights in England and Wales

Abstract: I: The Nature of the Subject: The Political Philosophy of Civil Liberties. 1: Methods of Identifying and Protecting Rights and Freedoms. II: Life, Liberty, Physical Integrity: The Right to Life. 2: Physical Security and Integrity. 3: Freedom from Arbitrary Deprivation of Liberty. 4: Stop and Search, Arrest, Detention. 5: Rights Under Restraint. 6: Prison Conditions and Mental Health Act Patients. 7: Freedom of Movement: Immigration, Deprivation, Asylum, Exclusion Orders. III: Privacy: The Nature of Privacy. 8: Freedom from Arbitrary Search and Seizure. 9: Business and Professional Confidences. 10: Gender and Family Life. IV: Political Protest and Expression: Freedom of Expression. 11: Media Freedoms. 12: Restrictions on Freedom of Speech in the Interests of National Security. 13: Restrictions on Freedom of Speech in the Public Interest: Blasphemy, Obscenity, Indecency. 14: Restrictions on Freedom of Speech in the Public Interest: Contempt of Court. 15: Protest and Public Order. V: Equality: Freedom from Racial Discrimination. 16: An Overview of Social and Economic Rights. 17: Conclusions: The Courts and Freedom

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child : a guide to the "Travaux préparatoires"

Abstract: Part 1 The origins, development and significance of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, N. Cantwell. Part 2 Compilation of the "Travaux Preparatoires", S. Detrick: development of the Polish proposal drafting process article-by-article general considerations of the working group. Part 3 The current status of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, J.E. Doek.

Public Relations and International Affairs: Effects, Ethics and Responsibility

Abstract: On 20 October 1990, during the escalation of the Persian Gulf crisis, a teary-eyed 15-year-old Kuwaiti girl known only as Nayirah testified to the Congressional Human Rights Caucus that she had seen Iraqi soldiers take babies from hospital incubators in Kuwait and leave them on the floor to die Months later, an op-ed piece in the New York Times, followed by stories on the television programs "60 Minutes" and "20-20," revealed that Nayirah was the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador to the United States The hearing had been arranged by the Hill and Knowlton public relations firm on behalf of an organization called Citizens for a Free Kuwait -- an organization funded primarily by the exiled government of Kuwait In a book on Robert Keith Gray, then head of Hill and Knowlton's Washington, DC office, freelance author Susan Trento reported that Hill and Knowlton had provided witnesses for the hearing, coached them, wrote testimony, produced videotapes detailing the alleged atrocities and ensured that the room was filled with reporters and television cameras(1) Fewer than three months later the United States attacked Iraq By that time, Hill and Knowlton had received $107 million from Citizens for a Free Kuwait With the money, Hill and Knowlton among other things -- organized a press conference with a so-called Kuwaiti freedom fighter, "National Prayer Day" services for Kuwaiti and American servicemen and "Free Kuwait" rallies at 21 college campuses It also promoted an Islamic art tour, produced advertisements and video news releases, arranged luncheons with journalists and spent more than $1 million polling the American people(2) Critics have asked whether or not these extensive and expensive activities by an international public relations firm led the United States to war The answer is probably no As Trento put it: H&K's efforts succeeded in the United Nations, the Congress and the media because, in each case, there was a receptive audience The diplomats and congressmen and senators wanted something to point to to support their positions The media wanted interesting, visual stories(3) In short, the Hill and Knowlton campaign probably encouraged decision makers and public opinion to move in a direction in which they were already headed Even though the war probably would have occurred without the campaign, one still must ask whether such campaigns are ethical As Trento noted: In the end, the question was not whether H&K effectively altered public opinion, but whether the combined efforts of America's own government, foreign interests, and private PR and lobbying campaigns drowned out decent and rational, unemotional debate When practiced ethically and responsibly, public relations provides a vital communication function for organizations, nations and even the world, helping to develop an understanding among groups and eventually reduce conflict When practiced unethically and irresponsibly, however, public relations can manipulate and deceive More often, though, such public relations merely makes "decent and rational, unemotional debate" on issues difficult(5) In this article, I will first describe a theory of public relations and its role in a national and global communication system Next, I will discuss ethical issues related to the use of public relations firms by governments and political factions I will then use this theory to analyze several cases of international public relations Finally, I will analyze the effects and ethics of these international campaigns and derive recommendations for how international public relations can contribute to global diplomacy without obfuscating or corrupting the process MANAGEMENT AND DIPLOMACY The Management Function Most people, including journalists, understand public relations simplistically as an attempt to influence the media or make an organization or person look good -- in short, as image-making …

The EUropean System for the Protection of Human Rights

Abstract: tions (whether within the UN system or regional) convene their meetings, adopt their agendas, and express their views—including those of censure and condemnation; and international campaigns for or against economic sanctions for rights abuses are undertaken. All of this happens because it is an incontrovertible reality at the end of the twentieth century that old notions of sovereignty no longer justify a nation's claim to exclusive control over the rights of the human beings living within its borders. The test that can fairly be put to the ICJ, then, is whether it has helped to disseminate the view that international human rights law is law, and that compliance with it is mandatory as a matter of law. Tolley's book provides ample and persuasive evidence that this test has been passed. The success of the ICJ, through the unparalleled prestige and unquestionable objectivity of its members, is seen in myriad examples. Perhaps the most important of these is the Commission's universality; it is selfconsciously multinational, multiracial and multiethnic. Although founded by First World lawyers, it has had an African president and now boasts its first African secretary-general. As Tolley shows, even when it was funded principally (if not openly) by certain governments, it did not hesitate to criticize those governments themselves when they deserved criticism. It is, therefore, together with Amnesty International, unusually resistant to the charge of cultural imperialism or systematic bias.

Human rights in Africa: cross-cultural perspectives

Abstract: This powerful volume challenges the conventional view that the concept of human rights is peculiar to the West and, therefore, inherently alien to the non-Western traditions of third world countries. This book demonstrates that there is a contextual legitimacy for the concept of human rights. Virginia A. Leary and Jack Donnelly discuss the Western cultural origins of international human rights; David Little, Bassam Tibi, and Ann Elizabeth Mayer explore Christian and Islamic perspectives on human rights; Rhoda E. Howard, Claude E. Welch, Jr., and James C. N. Paul examine human rights in the context of the African nation-state; Kwasi Wiredu, James Silk, and Francis M. Deng offer African cultural perspectives; and Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im and Richard D. Schwartz discuss prospects for a cross-cultural approach to human rights.

Women's International Human Rights Law: The Way Forward

Abstract: This article is a report of a consultation of lawyers from Africa the Americas Asia Australia and Europe held at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law in August 1992. The participants brought legal theory and practice to bear on the relationship between international human rights and womens rights in order to develop legal strategies to promote and protect womens international human rights. Although this article is a report of that consultation it is by no means the report as there are as many reports as participants. However the real impact of the event will be realized only when the findings of the consultation are used to prevent investigate and punish violations of womens human rights. The purpose of this report is to offer some idea of the multiple perspectives that emerged on the consultation themes. The themes were: i. to review the progress of womens rights and identify challenges and prospects; ii. to recharacterize internationally protected human rights to accommodate womens experiences of injustice; iii. to guarantee specific human rights of women; and iv. to make international human rights law more effective for women. The papers presented at the consultation (as amended in response to discussion following presentation) will form the basis of a forthcoming book on Womens International Human Rights Law. (excerpt)