Showing papers on "Human rights published in 2008"

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Abstract: It made it possible to improve people's lives. Now it prevents all forms of discrimination in the world. It helps to improve our world.

Linguistic Genocide in Education--Or Worldwide Diversity and Human Rights?

Abstract: Contents: Preface. Introduction. Part I: Setting the Scene. What Is Happening to the Languages of the World. Connections Between Biodiversity and Linguistic and Cultural Diversity. Mother Tongue(s), Culture, Ethnicity, and Self-Determination. Linguistic Diversity--Curse or Blessing? To Be Maintained or Not? Why? Part II: Linguistic Genocide, State Policies, and Globalisation. State Policies Towards Languages--Linguistic Genocide, Language Death, or Support for Languages? Globalisation, Power, and Control. Part III: Struggle Against Linguistic Genocide and for Linguistic Human Rights in Education. Linguistic Human Rights. Linguistic Human Rights in Education? Alternatives to Genocide and Dystopia.

Universal declaration of human rights

Abstract: Powerful, moving, simple and forceful, the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights speaks to us all -- about our ideals, about hope, about the sort of world we want to create and live in. Bought to vivid life by illustrator Michel Streich, this edition of the "Universal Declaration of Human Rights" marries the forceful words of the Declaration with a series of striking yet simple illustrations, making us see afresh the power, hope and idealism contained in these words. The perfect gift for any thinking person.

National Responsibility and Global Justice

Abstract: This chapter outlines the main ideas of my book National responsibility and global justice. It begins with two widely held but conflicting intuitions about what global justice might mean on the one hand, and what it means to be a member of a national community on the other. The first intuition tells us that global inequalities of the magnitude that currently exist are radically unjust, while the second intuition tells us that inequalities are both unavoidable and fair once national responsibility is allowed to operate. This conflict might be resolved either by adopting a cosmopolitan theory of justice (which leaves no room for national responsibility) or by adopting a ‘political’ theory of justice (which denies that questions of distributive justice can arise beyond the walls of the sovereign state). Since neither resolution is satisfactory, the chapter defends the idea of national responsibility and proposes a new theory of global justice, whose main elements are the protection of basic human rights worl...

Imperial Debris: Reflections on Ruins and Ruination

Abstract: In this article, I look at “imperial formations” rather than at empire per se to register the ongoing quality of processes of decimation, displacement, and reclamation. Imperial formations are relations of force, harboring political forms that endure beyond the formal exclusions that legislate against equal opportunity, commensurate dignities, and equal rights. Working with the concept of imperial formation, rather than empire per se, the emphasis shifts from fixed forms of sovereignty and its denials to gradated forms of sovereignty and what has long marked the technologies of imperial rule—sliding and contested scales of differential rights. Imperial formations are defined by racialized relations of allocations and appropriations. Unlike empires, they are processes of becoming, not fixed things. Not least they are states of deferral that mete out promissory notes that are not exceptions to their operation but constitutive of them: imperial guardianship, trusteeships, delayed autonomy, temporary intervention, conditional tutelage, military takeover in the name of humanitarian works, violent intervention in the name of human rights, and security measures in the name of peace.

On human rights

Abstract: Introduction PART I: AN ACCOUNT OF HUMAN RIGHTS I. Human Rights: The Incomplete Idea II. First Steps in An Account of Human Rights III. When Human Rights Conflict IV. Whose Rights? V. My Rights: But Whose Duties? VI. The Metaphysics of Human Rights VII. The Relativity and Ethnocentricity of Human Rights PART II: HIGHEST LEVEL HUMAN RIGHTS VIII. Autonomy IX. Liberty X. Welfare PART III: APPLICATIONS XI. Discrepanices Between the Best Philosophical Account of Human Rights and the International Law of Human Rights XII. A Right to Life, A Right to Death XIII. Privacy XIV. Do Human Rights Require Democracy? XV. Group Rights

Sticks and Stones: Naming and Shaming the Human Rights Enforcement Problem

Abstract: “Naming and shaming” is a popular strategy to enforce international human rights norms and laws. Nongovernmental organizations, news media, and international organizations publicize countries' violations and urge reform. Evidence that these spotlights are followed by improvements is anecdotal. This article analyzes the relationship between global naming and shaming efforts and governments' human rights practices for 145 countries from 1975 to 2000. The statistics show that governments put in the spotlight for abuses continue or even ramp up some violations afterward, while reducing others. One reason is that governments' capacities for human rights improvements vary across types of violations. Another is that governments are strategically using some violations to offset other improvements they make in response to international pressure to stop violations.

Human Dignity and judicial Interpretation of Human Rights

Abstract: The Universal Declaration on Human Rights was pivotal in popularizing the use of ‘dignity’ or ‘human dignity’ in human rights discourse. This article argues that the use of ‘dignity’, beyond a basic minimum core, does not provide a universalistic, principled basis for judicial decision-making in the human rights context, in the sense that there is little common understanding of what dignity requires substantively within or across jurisdictions. The meaning of dignity is therefore context-specific, varying significantly from jurisdiction to jurisdiction and (often) over time within particular jurisdictions. Indeed, instead of providing a basis for principled decision-making, dignity seems open to significant judicial manipulation, increasing rather than decreasing judicial discretion. That is one of its significant attractions to both judges and litigators alike. Dignity provides a convenient language for the adoption of substantive interpretations of human rights guarantees which appear to be intentionally, not just coincidentally, highly contingent on local circumstances. Despite that, however, I argue that the concept of ‘human dignity’ plays an important role in the development of human rights adjudication, not in providing an agreed content to human rights but in contributing to particular methods of human rights interpretation and adjudication.

International covenant on civil and political rights

Abstract: 1.1 The authors of the communication are R.I.H., born on 10 April 1971, and his wife, S.M.D., born on 15 April 1971. They present the communication on their own behalf and that of their four children, two of whom are minors: R.R.H., born on 1 January 2002, and M.R.H., born on 1 January 2003. The authors also have two adult children, Ri.R.H., born on 7 August 1996, and Ra.R.H., born on 3 April 1995.

Issues and methods in comparative politics : an introduction

Abstract: Part 1: Why, How, and Problems of Comparison 1. Why compare countries? 2. How to compare countries 3. Comparing many countries 4. Comparing few countries 5. Case studies as comparison Part 2: Comparing Comparisons 6. Economic development and democracy 7. Violent political dissent and social revolution 8. Non-violent political dissent and social movements 9. Transitions to democracy 10. Institutional design and democratic performance 11. Human rights 12. International relations and comparative politics Part 3: Comparative Methods and New Issues 13. Common themes and different comparisons 14. New challenges for comparative politics

Political Institutions and Human Rights: Why Dictatorships Enter into the United Nations Convention Against Torture

Abstract: This article addresses a puzzle: dictatorships that practice torture are more likely to accede to the UN Convention Against Torture (CAT) than dictatorships that do not practice torture. I argue the reason has to do with the logic of torture. Torture is more likely to occur where power is shared. In one-party or no-party dictatorships, few individuals defect against the regime. Consequently, less torture occurs. But dictatorships are protorture regimes; they have little interest in making gestures against torture, such as signing the CAT. There is more torture where power is shared, such as where dictatorships allow multiple political parties. Alternative political points of view are endorsed, but some individuals go too far. More acts of defection against the regime occur, and torture rates are higher. Because political parties exert some power, however, they pressure the regime to make concessions. One small concession is acceding to the CAT.For detailed suggestions, I thank Rodwan Abouharb, Emanuel Adler, Lawrence Broz, Jose Cheibub, David Cingranelli, Jennifer Gandhi, Geoff Garrett, Valerie Frey, Stephan Haggard, Oona Hathaway, Darren Hawkins, Stathis Kalyvas, Judith Kelley, Paul Lagunes, Jeffrey Lewis, Ellen Lust-Okar, Nikolay Marinov, Lisa Martin, Covadonga Meseguer, Layna Mosley, Louis Pauly, Daniel Posner, Kal Raustiala, Dan Reiter, Darius Rejali, Ronald Rogowski, Peter Rosendorff, Mike Tomz, Jana Von Stein, Christine Wotipka, and especially the two anonymous reviewers. I am also grateful for comments from participants at the Kellogg Institute International Political Economy Seminar at Notre Dame; the UCLA International Institute Global Fellows Seminar; the University of Southern California Center for International Studies Workshop; the UCSD Project on International Affairs Seminar; and the Emory University Globalization, Institutions, and Conflict Seminar. For support, I thank the UCLA International Institute, the ETH Zurich, and the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras.

Drawing the Global Colour Line: White Men's Countries and the International Challenge of Racial Equality

Abstract: Introduction Part I. Modern Mobilities: 1. The coming man: Chinese migration to the Goldfields Part II. Discursive Frameworks: 2. James Bryce's America and the negro problem 3. Charles Pearson's prophecy: 'The day will come' 4. Theodore Roosevelt: re-asserting racial vigour 5. Imperial brotherhood or white: Gandhi in South Africa Part III. Transnational Solidarities: 6. White Australia points the way 7. Defending the Pacific slope 8. White ties across the ocean: the Pacific Tour of the US Fleet 9. The Union of South Africa: white men reconcile Part IV. Challenge and Consolidation: 10. International conferences: enmity and amity 11. Japanese alienation and imperial ambition 12. Racial equality? Paris Peace Conference, 1919 13. 'Segregation on a Large Scale': immigration restriction, 1920s Part V. Towards Universal Human Rights: 14. Rights without distinction.

Out of Darkness into Light? Introducing the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

Abstract: On 13 December 2006, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and an associated Optional Protocol. The formulation of the CRPD has been hailed as a great landmark in the struggle to reframe the needs and concerns of persons with disability in terms of human rights. The CRPD is regarded as having finally empowered the world's largest minority to claim their rights, and to participate in international and national affairs on an equal basis with others who have achieved specific treaty recognition and protection. This essay interrogates the intellectual antecedents of the CRPD and its continuity and discontinuity with 25 years of international law and its struggles with disability and human rights. It then explores the text of the CRPD, critically examining its potential contribution to the realisation of the rights of persons with disability.

On Global Order: Power, Values, and the Constitution of International Society

Abstract: 1. Governing the globe PART I: FRAMEWORKS 2. The anarchical society revisited 3. State solidarism and global liberalism 4. Complex governance beyond the state PART II: ISSUES 5. Nationalism and the politics of identity 6. Human rights and democracy 7. War, violence and collective security 88. Economic globalization in an unequal world 9. The ecological challenge PART III: ALTERNATIVES 10. One world? Many worlds? 11. Empire reborn? PART IV: CONCLUSIONS 12. The state of international society and the pursuit of justice Biobliography

Courting social justice : judicial enforcement of social and economic rights in the developing world

Abstract: 1. Introduction: the elements of legalization, and the triangular shape of social and economic rights Varun Gauri and Daniel M. Brinks 2. Litigating for social justice in post-apartheid South Africa: a focus on health and education Jonathan Berger 3. Accountability for social and economic rights in Brazil Florian F. Hoffmann and Fernando R. N. M. Bentes 4. Courts and socio-economic rights in India Shylashri Shankar and Pratap Bhanu Mehta 5. The impact of economic and social rights in Nigeria: an assessment of the legal framework for implementing education and health as human rights Chidi Anselm Odinkalu 6. The implementation of the rights to health care and education in Indonesia Bivitri Susanti 7. A new policy landscape: legalizing social and economic rights in the developing world Helen Hershkoff 8. Transforming legal theory in the light of practice: the judicial application of social and economic rights to private orderings Daniel M. Brinks and Varun Gauri.

Protect, Respect and Remedy: a Framework for Business and Human Rights

Abstract: rights regime to provide more effective protection to individuals and communities against corporaterelated human rights harm. This report to the Human Rights Council presents a principles-based conceptual and policy framework intended to help achieve this aim. Business is the major source of investment and job creation, and markets can be highly efficient means for allocating scarce resources. They constitute powerful forces capable of generating economic growth, reducing poverty, and increasing demand for the rule of law, thereby contributing to the realization of a broad spectrum of human rights. But markets work optimally only if they are embedded within rules, customs, and institutions. Markets themselves require these to survive and thrive, while society needs them to manage the adverse effects of market dynamics and produce the public goods that markets undersupply. Indeed, history teaches us that markets pose the greatest risks—to society and business itself— when their scope and power far exceed the reach of the institutional underpinnings that allow them to function smoothly and ensure their political sustainability. This is such a time, and escalating charges of corporate-related human rights abuses are the canary in the coal mine, signalling that all is not well. The root cause of the business and human rights predicament today lies in the governance gaps created by globalization—between the scope and impact of economic forces and actors, and the capacity of societies to manage their adverse consequences. These governance gaps provide the permissive environment for wrongful acts by companies of all kinds without adequate sanctioning or reparation. How to narrow and ultimately bridge the gaps in relation to human rights is our fundamental challenge.

Review of the Report of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the Issue of Human Rights and Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises, Professor John Ruggie to the United Nations Human Rights Council, Protect, Respect and Remedy: A Framework for Business and Human Rights Ah/Hrc/8/5, 7 April 2008

Abstract: The responsibilities of Transnational Corporations (TNCs) in the area of human rights have been on the international agenda for sometime now and have gain more momentum in the last two decades. In the past, several attempts were made under the auspices of the United Nations to devise a framework for controlling Transnational corporations without much success. In the face of increasing allegation of human rights abuses by TNCs, the United Nations Sub-commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights approved the 'Norms on Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and other Business Enterprises with Regard to Human Rights' (Norms).

Difficult Heritage: Negotiating the Nazi Past in Nuremberg and Beyond

Abstract: 1. Negotiating Difficult Heritage: Introduction 2. Building Heritage: Words in Stone? 3. Demolition, Cleansing and Moving On 4. Preservation, Profanation and Image-Management 5. Accompanied Witnessing: Education, Art and Alibis 6. Cosmopolitan Memory in the City of Human Rights 7. Negotiating on the Ground(s): Guided Tours of Nazi Heritage 8. Visting Difficult Heritage 9. Unsettling Difficult Heritage

From Poverty to Power: How Active Citizens and Effective States Can Change the World

Abstract: The twenty-first century will be defined by the fight against the scourges of poverty, inequality, and the threat of environmental collapse as the fight against slavery or for universal suffrage defined earlier eras. From Poverty to Power argues that it requires a radical redistribution of power, opportunities, and assets to break the cycle of poverty and inequality and to give poor people power over their own destinies The forces driving this transformation are active citizens and effective states. Why active citizenship? Because people living in poverty must have a voice in deciding their own destiny, fighting for rights and justice in their own society, and holding states and the private sector to account. Why effective states? Because history shows that no country has prospered without a state structure than can actively manage the development process. There is now an added urgency beyond the moral case for tackling poverty and inequality: we need to build a secure, fair, and sustainable world before climate change makes it impossible. This book argues that leaders, organisations, and individuals need to act together, while there is still time.

Is Democracy Possible Here?: Principles for a New Political Debate

Abstract: Acknowledgments ix Preface xi Chapter 1: Common Ground 1 Chapter 2: Terrorism and Human Rights 24 Chapter 3: Religion and Dignity 52 Chapter 4: Taxes and Legitimacy 90 Chapter 5: Is Democracy Possible? 127 Epilogue 160 Notes 165 Index 171

Rethinking Human Security

Abstract: In the last two decades, the international community has begun to conclude that attempts to ensure the territorial security of nation-states through military power have failed to improve the human condition. Despite astronomical levels of military spending, deaths due to military conflict have not declined. Moreover, even when the borders of some states are secure from foreign threats, the people within those states do not necessarily have freedom from crime, enough food, proper health care, education, or political freedom. In response to these developments, the international community has gradually moved to combine economic development with military security and other basic human rights to form a new concept of "human security". Unfortunately, by common assent the concept lacks both a clear definition, consistent with the aims of the international community, and any agreed upon measure of it. In this paper, we propose a simple, rigorous, and measurable definition of human security: the expected number of years of future life spent outside the state of "generalized poverty". Generalized poverty occurs when an individual falls below the threshold in any key domain of human well-being. We consider improvements in data collection and methods of forecasting that are necessary to measure human security and then introduce an agenda for research and action to enhance human security that follows logically in the areas of risk assessment, prevention, protection, and compensation.

Impacts of Corporate Code of Conduct on Labor Standards: A Case Study of Reebok’s Athletic Footwear Supplier Factory in China

Abstract: This study examines the social impacts of labor-related corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies or corporate codes of conduct on upholding labor standards through a case study of CSR discourses and codes implementation of Reebok – a leading branded company enjoying a high-profiled image for its human rights achievement – in a large Taiwanese-invested athletic footwear factory located in South China. I find although implementation of Reebok labor-related codes has resulted in a “race to ethical and legal minimum” labor standards when notoriously inhumane and seriously illegal labor rights abuses were curbed, Chinese workers were forced to work harder and faster but, earned less payment and the employee-elected trade union installed through codes implementation operated more like a “company union” rather than an autonomous workers’ organization representing worker’ interests. In order to explain the paradoxical effects of Reebok labor-related codes on labor standards, I argue the result is determined by both structural forces and agency-related factors embedded in industrial, national and local contexts. To put it shortly, I find the effectiveness of Reebok labor-related codes is constrained not only by unsolved tension between Reebok’s impetus for profit maximization and commitment to workers’ human rights, but also by hard-nosed competition realities at marketplace, and Chinese government’s insufficient protection of labor rights. Despite drawing merely from a single case study, these findings illuminate key determinants inhibiting the effectiveness of labor-related CSR policies or codes in upholding labor standards, and hence two possible way-outs of the deadlock: (1) sharing cost for improving labor standards among key players in global supply chain; and (2) combining regulatory power of voluntary codes and compulsory state legislations.

Proportionality Balancing and Global Constitutionalism

Abstract: Over the past fifty years, proportionality balancing – an analytical procedure akin to strict scrutiny in the United States – has become a dominant technique of rights adjudication in the world. From German origins, proportionality analysis spread across Europe, into Commonwealth systems (Canada, New Zealand, South Africa), and Israel; it has also migrated to treaty-based regimes, including the European Union, the European Convention on Human Rights, and the World Trade Organization. Part II proposes a theory of why judges are attracted to the procedure, an account that blends strategic and normative elements. Parts III and IV provide a genealogy of proportionality, trace its global diffusion, and evaluate its impact on law and politics in a variety of settings, both national and supranational. In the conclusion, we discuss our major finding, namely, that proportionality constitutes a doctrinal underpinning for the expansion of judicial power globally. Although there is significant variation in how it is used, judges who adopt proportionality position themselves to exercise dominance over policymaking and constitutional development.

Convention On The Prevention And Punishment Of The Crime Of Genocide

Abstract: In its hundred and seventy-ninth plenary meeting held on 9 December 1948, the General Assembly approved the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and proposed it for signature and ratification or accession in accordance with its article XI. This chapter contains the text of the Convention. The General Assembly also invited the International Law Commission to study the desirability and possibility of establishing an international judicial organ for the trial of persons charged with genocide or other crimes over which jurisdiction will be conferred upon that organ by international conventions.Keywords: genocide convention; International Law Commission; prevention and punishment of crime; United Nations General Assembly

"A Hand upon the Throat of the Nation": Economic Sanctions and State Repression, 1976-2001

Abstract: While intended as a nonviolent foreign policy alternative to military intervention, sanctions have often worsened humanitarian and human rights conditions in the target country. This article examines the relationship between economic sanctions and state-sponsored repression of human rights. Drawing on both the public choice and institutional constraints literature, I argue that the imposition of economic sanctions negatively impacts human rights conditions in the target state by encouraging incumbents to increase repression. Specifically, sanctions threaten the stability of target incumbents, leading them to augment their level of repression in an effort to stabilize the regime, protect core supporters, minimize the threat posed by potential challengers, and suppress popular dissent. The empirical results support this theory. These findings provide further evidence that sanctions impose political, social, and physical hardship on civilian populations. They also underscore a need for improvements in current strategies and mechanisms by which states pursue foreign-policy goals and the international community enforces international law and stability.

The declaration of Istanbul on Organ trafficking and transplant tourism

Abstract: Organ commercialism, which targets vulnerable populations (such as illiterate and impoverished persons, undocumented immigrants, prisoners, and political or economic refugees) in resource-poor countries, has been condemned by international bodies such as the World Health Organization for decades. Yet in recent years, as a consequence of the increasing ease of Internet communication and the willingness of patients in rich countries to travel and purchase organs, organ trafficking and transplant tourism have grown into global problems. For example, as of 2006, foreigners received two-thirds of the 2000 kidney transplants performed annually in Pakistan. The Istanbul Declaration proclaims that the poor who sell their organs are being exploited, whether by richer people within their own countries or by transplant tourists from abroad. Moreover, transplant tourists risk physical harm by unregulated and illegal transplantation. Participants in the Istanbul Summit concluded that transplant commercialism, which targets the vulnerable, transplant tourism, and organ trafficking should be prohibited. And they also urged their fellow transplant professionals, individually and through their organizations, to put an end to these unethical activities and foster safe, accountable practices that meet the needs of transplant recipients while protecting donors. Countries from which transplant tourists originate, as well as those to which they travel to obtain transplants, are just beginning to address their respective responsibilities to protect their people from exploitation and to develop national self-sufficiency in organ donation. The Declaration should reinforce the resolve of governments and international organizations to develop laws and guidelines to bring an end to wrongful practices. \"The legacy of transplantation is threatened by organ trafficking and transplant tourism. The Declaration of Istanbul aims to combat these activities and to preserve the nobility of organ donation. The success of transplantation as a life-saving treatment does not require-nor justify-victimizing the world's poor as the source of organs for the rich\" (Steering Committee of the Istanbul Summit).