Showing papers on "Human rights published in 2003"

The right to the city

Abstract: The right to the city is not merely a right of access to what already exists, but a right to change it. We need to be sure we can live with our own creations. But the right to remake ourselves by creating a qualitatively different kind of urban sociality is one of the most precious of all human rights. We have been made and re-made without knowing exactly why, how, and to what end. How then, can we better exercise this right to the city? But whose rights and whose city? Could we not construct a socially just city? But what is social justice? Is justice simply whatever the ruling class wants it to be? We live in a society in which the inalienable rights to private property and the profit rate trump any other conception of inalienable rights. Our society is dominated by the accumulation of capital through market exchange. To live under capitalism is to accept or submit to that bundle of rights necessary for endless capital accumulation. Free markets are not necessarily fair. Worse still, markets require scarcity to function. The inalienable rights of private property and the profit rate lead to worlds of inequality, alienation and injustice. The endless accumulation of capital and the conception of rights embedded threin must be opposed and a different right to the city must be asserted politically. Derivative rights (like the right to be treated with dignity) should become fundamental and fundamental rights (of private property and the profit rate) should become derivative. But new rights can also be defined: like the right to the city which is not merely a right of access to what the property speculators and state planners define, but an active right to make the city different, to shape it more in accord with our heart's desire, and to re-make ourselves thereby in a different image.

Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor

Abstract: Pathologies of Power uses harrowing stories of life--and death--in extreme situations to interrogate our understanding of human rights. Paul Farmer, a physician and anthropologist with twenty years of experience working in Haiti, Peru, and Russia, argues that promoting the social and economic rights of the world's poor is the most important human rights struggle of our times. With passionate eyewitness accounts from the prisons of Russia and the beleaguered villages of Haiti and Chiapas, this book links the lived experiences of individual victims to a broader analysis of structural violence. Farmer challenges conventional thinking within human rights circles and exposes the relationships between political and economic injustice, on one hand, and the suffering and illness of the powerless, on the other. Farmer shows that the same social forces that give rise to epidemic diseases such as HIV and tuberculosis also sculpt risk for human rights violations. He illustrates the ways that racism and gender inequality in the United States are embodied as disease and death. Yet this book is far from a hopeless inventory of abuse. Farmer's disturbing examples are linked to a guarded optimism that new medical and social technologies will develop in tandem with a more informed sense of social justice. Otherwise, he concludes, we will be guilty of managing social inequality rather than addressing structural violence. Farmer's urgent plea to think about human rights in the context of global public health and to consider critical issues of quality and access for the world's poor should be of fundamental concern to a world characterized by the bizarre proximity of surfeit and suffering.

Dignity is a useless concept

Abstract: It means no more than respect for persons or their autonomy Appeals to human dignity populate the landscape of medical ethics. Claims that some feature of medical research or practice violates or threatens human dignity abound, often in connection with developments in genetics or reproductive technology. But are such charges coherent? Is dignity a useful concept for an ethical analysis of medical activities? A close inspection of leading examples shows that appeals to dignity are either vague restatements of other, more precise, notions or mere slogans that add nothing to an understanding of the topic. Possibly the most prominent references to dignity appear in the many international human rights instruments, such as the United Nations' universal declaration of human rights.1 With few exceptions, these conventions do not address medical treatment or research. A leading exception is the Council of Europe's convention for the protection of human rights and dignity of the human being with regard to the application of biology and medicine.2 In this and other documents “dignity” seems to have no meaning beyond what is implied by the principle of medical ethics, respect for persons: the need to obtain voluntary, informed consent; the requirement to protect confidentiality; …

Principles of International Environmental Law

Abstract: This new and fully updated edition of Principles of International Environmental Law offers a comprehensive and critical account of one of the fastest growing areas of international law: the principles and rules relating to environmental protection Introducing the reader to the key foundational principles, governance structures and regulatory techniques, Principles of International Environmental Law explores each of the major areas of international environmental regulation through substantive chapters, including climate change, atmospheric protection, oceans and freshwater, biodiversity, chemicals and waste regulation The ever-increasing overlap with other areas of international law is also explored through examination of the inter-linkages between international environmental law and other areas of international regulation, such as trade, human rights, humanitarian law and investment law Incorporating the latest developments in treaty and case law for key areas of environmental regulation, this text is an essential reference and textbook for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students, academics and practitioners of international environmental law

The Origins of Indigenism: Human Rights and the Politics of Identity

Abstract: Preface Acknowledgments 1. A New Global Phenomenon? 2. The Origins of the International Movement of Indigenous Peoples 3. Sources of Global Identity 4. Relativism and Rights 5. The New Politics of Resistance 6. Indigenism, Ethnicity, and the State 7. Conclusion Notes References Index

International Law from Below: Development, Social Movements and Third World Resistance

Abstract: Abbreviations Preface and acknowledgements Introduction Part I. International Law, Development and Third World Resistance: 1. Writing Third World resistance into international law 2. International law and the development encounter Part II. International Law, Third World Resistance and the Institutionalization of Development: the Invention of the Apparatus: 3. Laying the groundwork: the Mandate system 4. Radicalizing institutions and/or institutionalizing radicalism? UNCTAD and the NIEO debate 5. From resistance to renewal: Bretton Woods institutions and the emergence of the 'new' development agenda 6. Completing a full circle: democracy and the discontent of development Part III. Decolonizing Resistance: Human Rights and the Challenge of Social Movements: 7. Human rights and the Third World: constituting the discourse of resistance 8. Recoding resistance: social movements and the challenge to international law 9. Markets, gender and identity: a case study of the Working Women's Forum as a social movement Part IV. Epilogue References Index.

Distant Proximities: Dynamics beyond Globalization

Abstract: List of Figures and Tables ix Preface xi Acknowledgments xv Part One Theoretical Perspectives: Recasting Global Life 1 Chapter One An Emergent Epoch 3 Chapter Two People, Collectivities, and Change 18 Chapter Three Sources and Consequences of Fragmegration 50 Chapter Four Local Worlds 79 Chapter Five Global Worlds 118 Chapter Six Private Worlds 153 Chapter Seven Movement among Twelve Worlds 170 Chapter Eight Emergent Spaces, New Places, and Old Faces: Immigrants and the Proliferation of Identities 184 Part Two Conceptual Equipment: Retooling the Storehouse 203 Chapter Nine Normative and Complexity Approaches 205 Chapter Ten The Skill Revolution 232 Chapter Eleven The Information Revolution: Both Powerful and Neutral 256 Chapter Twelve Structures of Authority: In Crisis or in Place? 273 Chapter Thirteen Spheres of Authority 293 Part Three Issues, Processes, and Structures as Distant Proximities 315 Chapter Fourteen Progress toward Human Rights 317 Chapter Fifteen Retreat from Human Rights: The Challenge of Systemic Hatred 336 Chapter Sixteen Corruption as a Global Issue 348 Chapter Seventeen Prosperity and Poverty 369 Chapter Eighteen Governance in Fragmegrative Space 390 Part Four Postscript 403 Chapter Nineteen A Transformed Observer in a Transforming World: Confessions of a Pre-Postmodernist 405 Author Index 421 Subject Index 427

Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with Regard to Human Rights

Abstract: Transnational corporations and other large businesses have acquired a significant amount of power since the trends of globalization started to develop. With this increase in power comes an increase in responsibility. The UN Human Rights Norms for Transnational Corporations and Other Businesses help fill a major gap in the international human rights system, which already addresses the responsibilities of governments, individuals, and armed opposition groups, but has not yet focused on one category of powerful nonstate actors, businesses. The Norms provide companies that want to be socially responsible with an easily understood and comprehensive summary of their obligations under such systems as human rights law, humanitarian law, international labor law, environmental law, consumer law, and anticorruption law. Accordingly, the Norms help to establish a level playing field for competition. Further, the Norms can strengthen the will of governments to insist that businesses avoid human rights abuses. Implementation remains a key issue in the future development of these standards.

Framing Issues and Seizing Opportunities: The UN, NGOs, and Women's Rights

Abstract: How, why, and under what conditions are NGOs able to influence state's interests? To answer these questions, I examine the process through which women's organizations succeeded in placing front and center on the UN agenda two issues that had been perceived as exclusively private: violence against women and reproductive rights and health. I develop a theoretical framework drawing on both the agenda-setting and social movement literature. I suggest that NGOs attempt to influence states' interests by framing problems, solutions, and justifications for political action. Whether they are successful in mobilizing support is contingent on the dynamic interaction of primarily two factors: (1) the political opportunity structure in which NGOs are embedded, comprising access to institutions, the presence of influential allies, and changes in political alignments and conflicts; and (2) the mobilizing structures that NGOs have at their disposal, including organizational entrepreneurs, a heterogeneous international constituency, and experts. I find that in the beginning of the agenda-setting process, the influence of NGOs is rather limited, their frames are highly contested, and structural obstacles outweigh organizational resources. However, over time the influence of NGOs increases. As they establish their own mobilizing structures, they become capable of altering the political opportunity structure in their favor, and their frames gain in acceptance and legitimacy.

Commitment and compliance : the role of non-binding norms in the international legal system

Abstract: Introduction: Law, Non-Law and the Problem of 'Soft Law' PART I. THE INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM 1. Normative Development in the International Legal System 2. Compliance Theories Choosing to Comply: Theorizing from International Relations and Comparative Politics Beyond Compliance: Helping Nations Cooperate 3. Challenges to the International Legal System Interdependence, Globalization, and Sovereignty: The Role of Non-binding International Legal Accords The Role of Soft Law in a Global Order 4. Commentary: Compliance with International Soft Law PART II. PERSPECTIVES ON COMPLIANCE WITH NON-BINDING NORMS 5. The Environment and Natural Resources The General Assembly Ban on Driftnet Fishing Pesticides and Chemicals: The Requirement of Prior Informed Consent The Legal Status and Effect of Antarctic Recommended Measures Selected Agreements Concluded Pursuant to the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals Commentary and Conclusions 6. Trade and Finance International Efforts against Money Laundering 'Soft Law' in a 'Hybrid' Organization: The International Organization for Standardization Policy Guidance and Compliance: The World Bank Operational Standards Environmental Norms in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum Commentary: Compliance with Non-binding Norms of Trade and Finance 7. Human Rights A Hard Look at Compliance with 'Soft' Law: The Case of the OSCE International Labor Organization: Recommendations and Similar Instruments Inter-American Human Rights Law, Soft and Hard Human Rights Codes for Transnational Corporations: The Sullivan and McBride Principles Commentary and Conclusions 8. Multilateral Arms Control The System of Non-proliferation Export Controls Protection of Nuclear Materials International Regulation of Land Mines Commentary 9. Conclusions: Understanding Compliance with Soft Law Editor's Concluding Note: The Role of Non-binding Norms in the International Legal System

Child Poverty in the Developing World

Abstract: This short report presents the first ever scientific measurement of the extent and depth of child poverty in all the developing regions of the world. It represents a summary of a much larger research report on child poverty and child rights funded by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) (Gordon et al 2001 2003). Full details of this research will be published in a future book on this subject. (excerpt)

Eyes off the Prize: The United Nations and the African American Struggle for Human Rights, 1944–1955

Abstract: Introduction: the struggle for black equality 1. Beyond Civil Rights: the NAACP, the United Nations, and redefining the struggle for black equality 2. The struggle for human rights: African Americans petition the United Nations 3. Things fall apart 4. Bleached souls and red negroes 5. The mirage of victory Epilogue: the prize.

European Convention on Human Rights

Abstract: Lepping’s view that rights under the European Convention on Human Rights were not ‘implemented’ in Britain until the Human Rights Act 1998 is incomplete ( Psychiatric Bulletin , 2003, 27 , 285-289). The UK has been a signatory to the ECHR since its outset in 1951. Since 1966, it has granted

A Conceptual Framework for Human Security.

Abstract: The paper reviews the ways that human security has been defined, provides a working definition and shows how this can form the basis of operational responses by many different institutions. New threats to human wellbeing, associated with globalisation, climate change and conflict, have drawn attention to the need to protect human security, while it has come to be seen increasingly as a fundamental objective of foreign policy. Hence it is important to identify a working definition. A review of definitions in the literature point to freedom from need and vulnerability as being fundamental characteristics. The working definition suggested in the paper is based on safeguarding, or protecting, human beings against economic, political, health and natural hazards that are beyond their immediate control. It is argued that there is a vital core of elements that should be included in the working definition, in general encompassing freedom from fear and from want—the exact constituents of this vital core may be defined differently by different societies. It is argued that human security is a necessary part of human development and fulfilment, but it is not sufficient. Requirements for human development and wellbeing go beyond those of human security.

Humanitarian Intervention: Ethical, Legal and Political Dilemmas

Abstract: Introduction Robert O. Keohane Part I. The Context for Humanitarian Intervention: 1. The humanitarian intervention debate J. L. Holzgrefe 2. Humanitarian intervention before and after 9/11: legality and legitimacy Tom J. Farer Part II. The Ethics of Humanitarian Intervention: 3. The liberal case for humanitarian intervention Fernando R. Teson 4. Reforming the international law of humanitarian intervention Allen Buchanan Part III. Law and Humanitarian Intervention: 5. Changing the rules about rules?: unilateral humanitarian intervention and the future of international law Michael Byers and Simon Chesterman 6. Interpretation and change in the law of humanitarian intervention Thomas M. Franck 7. Humanitarian intervention: incremental change versus codification Jane Stromseth Part IV. The Politics of Humanitarian Intervention: 8. Political authority after intervention: gradations in sovereignty Robert O. Keohane 9. State failure and nation-building Michael Ignatieff.

Too young to wed. The lives rights and health of young married girls.

Abstract: Millions of young girls in the developing world are married when they are still children and as a result are denied the ordinary experiences that young people elsewhere take for granted: schooling good health economic opportunities and friendship with peers. Despite national laws and international agreements forbidding early marriage gender roles and marriage systems in many countries dictate the practice through which girls are deprived of basic rights and subjected to discrimination and health risks. Instead of being viewed as children or teenagers with potential and opportunities in their lives girls are often defined by social custom solely wives and mothers. This limited view exposes girls to responsibilities and risks that they are often not physically or mentally prepared to undertake while at the same time disrupting their prospects for education and employment. In addition to having a negative impact on girls themselves the practice of early marriage also has negative consequences for children families and society as a whole. (excerpt)

Borders Beyond Control

Abstract: INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION lies close to the center of global problems that now seize the attention of politicians and intellectuals across the world. Take just a few recent examples. Prime Ministers Tony Blair of the United Kingdom and Jose Maria Aznar of Spain proposed at last year's European Council meet ing in Seville that the European Union withdraw aid from countries that did not take effective steps to stem the flow of illegal emigrants to the EU. Blair's outspoken minister for development, Clare Short, described the proposal as "morally repugnant" and it died amid a storm of other protests. Australia received severe condemnation worldwide last sum mer when a special envoy of the UN high commissioner for human rights exposed the deplorable conditions in detention camps that held Afghan, Iranian, Iraqi, and Palestinian asylum seekers who had landed in Australia. Following the September 1i attacks in New York City and Wash ington, D.C., U.S. Attorney GeneralJohn Ashcroft announced several new policies that rolled back protections enjoyed by immigrants. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Human Rights Watch fought back. So did Islamic and Arab ethnic organizations. These groups employed lawsuits, public dissent, and congressional lobbying to secure a reversal of the worst excesses. The Economist ran in just six weeks two major stories describing the growing outflow of skilled citizens from less developed countries to

Subsidiarity as a Structural Principle of International Human Rights Law

Abstract: There is an inherent tension in international human rights law between affirming a universal substantive vision of human dignity and respecting the diversity and freedom of human cultures. Although understanding and securing human rights in international law requires us to grapple with that conflict, classic notions of state sovereignty cannot adequately address the issue. The principle of subsidiarity, instead, gives us a conceptual tool to mediate the polarity of pluralism and the common good in a globalized world and helps us make sense of international human rights law. I argue that we should regard subsidiarity as a structural principle of international human rights law.

Do Human Rights Matter in Bilateral Aid Allocation? A Quantitative Analysis of 21

Abstract: Objective. This paper analyses the role of human rights in bilateral aid allocation decisions of 21 donor countries. Methods. Econometric analysis is applied to a panel of three-year averages from 1984 to 1995. Results. Respect for civil/political rights plays a statistically significant role for almost all aid donors on whether a country is deemed eligible for the receipt of aid. Personal integrity rights, on the other hand, are insignificant. Civil/political rights remain significant for a bare majority of aid donors with respect to the amount of aid allocated to a country. Personal integrity rights gain some significance at this stage, but for a few donor countries only. There is no systematic difference apparent between countries commonly regarded as committed to human rights (Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway) and the rest of donor countries.Conclusions. Donor countries still have a long way to go in rewarding respect for human rights in their foreign aid allocation.

Another World is Possible: Popular Alternatives to Globalization at the World Social Forum

Abstract: * Editors' Preface * Acknowledgements * Foreword - Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri * Introduction: The World Social Forum and the Reinvention of Democracy * Thomas Ponniah and William F. Fisher * PART I: The Production of Wealth and Social Reproduction * Overview: Key Questions, Critical Issues * William F. Fisher and Thomas Ponniah * 1. External Debt * Abolish the Debt in Order to Free Development * Eric Toussaint and Arnaud Zacharie (Committee for the Annulment of Third World Debt) * 2. Africa/Brazil * Conference Synthesis * Jacques d'Adesky (Facilitator) * 3. Financial Capital * Controls on Financial Capital * ATTAC-France * 4. International Trade * Conference Synthesis * Bernard Cassen, ATTAC (Facilitator) * 5. Transnational Corporations * Issues and Proposals * Joshua Karliner, CorpWatch and Karolo Aparicio, Global Exchange * 6. Labour * A Strategic Perspective on the International Trade Union Movement for the 21st Century * Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) * A Global Strategy for Labour * Jeff Faux (Economic Policy Institute) * 7. A Solidarity Economy: * Resist and Build * Economic Solidarity Group of Quebec * Conference Synthesis * Sandra Quintela (Institute of Alternative Policies for the Southern Cone) (Facilitator) * PART II: Access to Wealth and Sustainability * Overview: Key Questions, Critical Issues * William F. Fisher and Thomas Ponniah * 8. Environment and Sustainabity * The Living Democracy Movement: Alternatives to the Bankruptcy of Globalization * Vandana Shiva, Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology * Conference Synthesis * Sara Larrain, International Forum on Globalization, Chile (Facilitator) * 9. Water - A Common Good * Conference Synthesis * Glenn Switkes, International Rivers Network, USA, and Elias Diaz Pena, Rios Vivos/Amigos de la Tierra, Paraguay (Facilitators) * 10. Knowledge, Copyright and Patents * Intellectual Property and the Knowledge Gap * OXFAM, UK * Conference Synthesis * Francois Houtart, Tricontinental Centre (Facilitator) * 11. Medicine, Health, AIDS * Conference Synthesis * Sonia Correa, IBASE and DAWN Network (Facilitator) * 12. Food * People's Right to Produce, Feed Themselves and Exercise their Food Sovereignty * APM World Network * 13. Cities, Urban Populations * Conference Synthesis * Erminia Maricato (Facilitator) * 14. Indigenous Peoples * Indigenous Commission Statement * Dionito Makuxi, Pina Tembe, Simiao Wapixana, Joel Pataxo, Lurdes Tapajos, Luiz Titia Pataxo Ha-Ha-Hae * Conference Synthesis * Paulo Maldos, Centre for Popular Education, Brazil (Facilitator) * PART III: The Affirmation of Civil Society and Public Space * Overview: Key Questions, Critical Issues * William F. Fisher and Thomas Ponniah * 15. The Media * Democratization of Communications and the Media * Osvaldo Leon, Agencia Latinoamerica de Informacion * 16. Education * Conference Synthesis * Bernard Charlot, World Forum on Education and Paul Belanger, International Council on Adult Education (Facilitators) * 17. Culture * Cultural Diversity, Cultural Production and Identity * Fatma Alloo, Luiza Monteiro, Aureli Argemi, Imruh Bakari, Xavi Perez * 18. Violence * Violence Against Women: The 'other world' must act * World March of Women * Conference Synthesis on the Culture of Violence and Domestic Violence * Fatima Mello, ABONG, Brazil (Facilitator) * 19. Discrimination and Intolerance * Combating Discrimination and Intolerance * National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights, India * Conference Synthesis * Lilian Celiberti, Articulacion Feminista Marcosur (Facilitator) * 20. Migration and the Traffic in People * The Contradictions of Globalization * Lorenzo Prencipe, Centre for Documentation and Research on International Migration, Paris * 21. The Global Civil Society Movement * Discussion Document * Latin American Social Observatory (OSAL), Latin American Social Science Council (CLACSO) * Conference Synthesis * Vittorio Agnoletto, Genoa Social Forum (Facilitator) * Part IV: Political Power and Ethics in the New Society * Overview: Key Questions, Critical Issues * William F. Fisher and Thomas Ponniah * 22. The International Architecture of Power * International Organizations and the Architecture of World Power * Walden Bello, Focus on the Global South * Conference Synthesis * Teivo Teivainen, Network Institute for Global Democratization (Facilitator) * 23. Militarism and Globalization * Conference Synthesis * Marcela Escribano, Alternatives, Canada (Facilitator) * 24 Human Rights * Conference Synthesis on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights * Maria Luisa Mendonca, Social Network for Justice and Human Rights (Facilitator) * 25. Sovereignty * Sovereignty, Nation, Empire * Daniel Bensaid, University of Paris (St-Denis) * 26. Democracy * Participatory Democracy * M. P. Parameswaran, Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad * 27. Values * Values of a New Civilization * Mi

Rights Talk and the Experience of Law: Implementing Women's Human Rights to Protection from Violence

Abstract: How does a person come to understand his or her problems in terms of rights? This is a critical problem for the battered women’s movement as well as for other human rights movements that rely on rights awareness to encourage victims to seek help from the law. The adoption of a rights consciousness requires experiences with the legal system that confirm that subjectivity. Rights-defined selves emerge from supportive encounters with police prosecutors judges and probation officers. This empirical study shows how victims of violence against women come to take on rights consciousness. (authors)

The Human Right to Water

Abstract: The new century has begun with one of the most fundamental conditions of human development unmet: universal access to basic water services. More than a billion people lack access to safe drinking water. Two-and-a-half-billion people live without access to the adequate sanitation systems necessary to reduce exposure to water-related diseases. The failure of the international aid community, nations, and local organizations to satisfy these basic human needs has led to substantial, unnecessary, and preventable human suffering. Tens of thousand of people, mostly young children and the elderly, die every day from water-related diseases. This situation is intolerable, unnecessary and preventable. In my paper, I hope to answer the fundamental questions: Is access to water a fundamental human right? Where 'human right' takes on its full legal meaning. Water Nepal Vol. Vol.9-10, No.1-2, 2003, pp.115-149

Reproductive Health and Human Rights: Integrating Medicine, Ethics, and Law

Abstract: 2. REPRODUCTIVE AND SEXUAL HEALTH A. OVERVIEW PART III: REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH AND SEXUAL HEALTH: DATA, BASIC DOCUMENTS, AND SOURCES

Reading Humanitarian Intervention: Human Rights and the Use of Force in International Law

Abstract: During the 1990s, humanitarian intervention seemed to promise a world in which democracy, self-determination and human rights would be privileged over national interests or imperial ambitions. Orford provides critical readings of the narratives that accompanied such interventions and shaped legal justifications for the use of force by the international community. Through a close reading of legal texts and institutional practice, she argues that a far more circumscribed, exploitative and conservative interpretation of the ends of intervention was adopted during this period. The book draws on a wide range of sources, including critical legal theory, feminist and postcolonial theory, psychoanalytic theory and critical geography, to develop ways of reading directed at thinking through the cultural and economic effects of militarized humanitarianism. The book concludes by asking what, if anything, has been lost in the move from the era of humanitarian intervention to an international relations dominated by wars on terror.

Developing Better Indicators of Human Trafficking

Abstract: AS RECENTLY AS TEN YEARS AGO, the term “human trafficking” was rarely referred to in debates about migration policy. Today, however, it is one of the major concerns of both governments and organizations active in the migration field and has become a priority for those working in many other policy areas such as human rights, health, gender, law enforcement, and social services. The organization of the largest ever EU conference on “Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Human Beings,” held in Brussels from 18-20 September 2002, is an example of the growing political priority being accorded to combating human trafficking. The conference, organized by International Organization for Migration (IOM) on behalf of the EU, brought together over 1,000 representatives of European institutions, EU Member States, candidate countries, and relevant third world countries, drawn from governments, international organizations, and NGOs. The conference produced “The Brussels Declaration,” which outlines a set of policy recommendations for the EU in the area of human trafficking. In the United States also, trafficking has been high on the political agenda. In

Strong Religion: The Rise of Fundamentalisms around the World

Abstract: Since the September 11 terrorist attacks against the United States, religious fundamentalism has dominated public debate as never before. Policymakers, educators and the general public all want to know: Why do fundamentalist movements turn violent? Are fundamentalisms a global threat to human rights, security and democratic forms of government? What is the future of fundamentalism? To answer questions like these, "Strong Religion" draws on the results of the Fundamentalism Project, a decade-long interdisciplinary study of antimodernist, antisecular militant religious movements on five continents and within seven religious traditions. The authors of this study analyze the various social structures, cultural contexts and political environments in which fundamentalist movements have emerged around the world, from the Islamic Hamas and Hizbullah to the Catholic and Protestant paramilitaries of Northern Ireland, and from the Moral Majority and Christian Coalition of the United states to the Sikh radicals and Hindu nationalists of India. Offering a vividly detailed portrait of the cultures that nourish such movements, "Strong Religion" describes different modes of fundamentalism and identifies the kinds of historical events that can trigger them. For anyone who wants to understand why fundamentalist movements arise and what makes them turn violent, "Strong Religion" should be essential reading.

Do Human Rights Matter in Bilateral Aid Allocation? A Quantitative Analysis of 21 Donor Countries*

Abstract: Objective. To analyze the role of human rights in aid allocation of 21 donor countries. Methods. Econometric analysis is applied to a panel covering the period 1985 to 1997. Results. Respect for civil/political rights plays a statistically significant role for most donors at the aid eligibility stage. Personal integrity rights, on the other hand, have a positive impact on aid eligibility for few donors only. At the level stage, most donors fail to promote respect for human rights in a consistent manner and often give more aid to countries with a poor record on either civil/political or personal integrity rights. No systematic difference is apparent between the like-minded countries commonly regarded as committed to human rights (Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden) and the other donors. Conclusions. Contrary to their verbal commitment, donor countries do not consistently reward respect for human rights in their foreign aid allocation.