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List of recommended titles HUMAN RIGHTS – GENERAL
The Belgrade Circle was established as an intellectual forum to promote the establishment of a free, open, democratic and rational civil society around the world. In pursuit of such an aim this book sets out to describe the political and philosophical underpinnings of the idea of human rights by bringing together original contributions from a group of distinguished writers. Above all, it argues that the best way of promoting a universal concept of human rights is to demonstrate international solidarity with those many individuals around the world whose basic rights are jeopardized or denied.
Analytical work of leading scholars and activists in the field of international human rights is specifically designed for educational uses by international relations, law, and political and social science classes.
Straightforward and clear basic exposition of human rights law, oriented towards complete beginners and readily comprehensible to non-lawyers. Contains a short historical survey of the field followed by the various theoretical approaches and a broad classification (fundamental, second generation, etc). Also includes chapters on general international law, human rights law-making, and the principal systems for human rights protection.
Donnelly explicates and defends an account of human rights as universal rights. Considering the competing claims of the universality, particularity, and relativity of human rights, he argues that the historical contingency and particularity of human rights is completely compatible with a conception of human rights as universal moral rights, and thus does not require the acceptance of claims of cultural relativism. The book moves between theoretical argument and historical practice. Rigorous and tightly-reasoned, material and perspectives from many disciplines are incorporated. (Booknews)
Discusses the borderline between the promotion of human rights and the promotion of interventionist and coercive diplomacy. Can the US and the UN find an acceptable balance between unnecessary, protracted violence (Somalia) and simply letting genocide spread (Rwanda)? While looking at specific cases, Falk also sheds important new light on non-Western attitudes toward human rights, the challenge of genocidal politics, the intersection of morality and global security, and the pursuit of international justice. Thoughtful and very accessibly written, Human Rights Horizons clearly presents a path to an original new humanitarian policy for the 21st century.
Contents include: Human Rights and the Western Tradition, Human Rights and the Legal Tradition, Human Rights and Human Needs, Human Rights and Social Structures, and Human Rights and Social Processes.
Brings together established and emerging human rights scholars, practitioners and activists to propose a human rights agenda for the 21st century. It fuses solid academic research, specialist knowledge and practical experience of human rights issues and problems to present a coherent and thought provoking exploration of the new and emergent themes in this exciting area. It will be of particular interest to human rights specialists, in the academic, voluntary and public sectors and will be of particular use to those teaching graduate and undergraduate programmes in human rights. Strong British perspective.
Louis Henkin explores the principal issues and developments both in international human rights and in rights in the United States, and then compares the concepts and conditions of rights in various parts of the world. Henkin provides a mature, insightful survey of the developments in human rights law and politics from an international perspective. Considering the range of attitudes and practices surrounding the protection of individuals’ rights from an international perspective in relation to American foreign policy and the American concept of "inalienable rights," Henkin offers an excellent overview of this vital issue. Essential reading for policymakers and for any reader interested in a global understanding of human rights.
Ishay (Graduate School of International Studies and director of the human rights program, Univ. of Denver) takes a historical approach to human-rights literature in this book. Her introduction summarizes each writing and its significance, with no critical analysis or comparison of any of the selections. To ground the reader in the religious/philosophical origins of human rights thinking, she chooses writings from Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam as well as classical philosophers. She then selects significant political writers such as Rousseau, Paine, Marx, and Gandhi, as well as lesser-known authors’ works on women's, gay, and minority rights to illustrate the development of human rights consciousness during important historical periods. A selection of contemporary international documents such as the Helsinki Agreement and the Beijing Declaration conclude the collection. (Library Journal)
Brings together entries on international, regional, and national activities in human rights between 1945 and 1996, concentrating on the work of the UN and its Division of Human Rights. Contains detailed entries on international instruments and organizations (both governmental and nongovernmental), Nobel Peace Prize winners, and the state of human rights in 186 countries and territories, with citations, cross-references, and bibliographies. Introductions overview the history of the UN and major concepts in human rights. Includes a glossary of human rights and Latin terms, a chronological list of documents referred to, and a list of the statuses of all major UN human rights treaties and conventions. This second edition contains complete texts of the latest treaties and documents.
Brief and informative introduction to both the substantive and procedural aspects of international human rights law. Contains a summary of the historical background, an explanation of its sources, an overview of its content, and covers treaties on specific subjects. Appendices include lists of the principal human rights instruments.
Simply written and designed for readers with little or no pre-existing knowledge of international human rights law. Covers procedural and remedial questions, regional and international systems, issues such as discrimination and minorities, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Wide-ranging series of explorations of specific issues that are newly developing and not as yet comprehensively covered by individual books. Addresses the broad subject areas of such as interdependence and solidarity, discrimination, violence, and challenges of science and technology.
Scholars in political science and law contribute ten essays revisiting the debate between universalists and cultural relativists, and also engage new notions of "third-generation" rights. After an analytical framework encompassing changing perspectives on human rights, subsequent essays address specific human rights issues, globally and in particular regions. The final chapter considers the impact, negative and positive, of globalization on human rights, as well as the effect that human rights doctrines and practices may have on the processes of globalization.
Former Congressman Father Robert F. Drinan, Commonweal : With unrelenting logic Shue recommends that American law be broadened to require the termination of aid not merely to those governments that engage in shocking and outrageous conduct but to those countries indifferent to the rights of their citizens to food, shelter, and health care.... Shue has written the classical statement affirming that the rich nations are required by justice and by international law to share their abundance with those millions who are chronically malnourished. Carl Wellman, Human Rights Quarterly: "This is one of the strongest arguments for an economic human right that I have found to date. "
Critical and analytical look at UN action on human rights, containing seven essays on the activities of various organs and dealing with the monitoring activities of five treaty bodies.
Designed to both serve as a self-contained introduction to the international law of human rights and to complement other course materials by providing the reader with a concise overview of human rights norms and the institutional context within which they evolve. Contents include: Historical Antecedents of International Human Rights Law; United Nations Human Rights System; European System for the Protection of Human Rights; Inter-American Human Rights System; African System of Human and Peoples' Rights; Humanitarian Law; U.S. and International Human Rights; and Non-Governmental Human Rights Organization.
"Handy and easily portable" collection, including UN Convention on Refugees, 1989 ILO Convention of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples, the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, and the European Social Charter, as well as important texts such as the covenants and optional protocols, the conventions on genocide, racial discrimination, discrimination against women. and against torture, together with the principal regional conventions.
"Human rights" as we know them did not exist (as a cultural and political force) before 1945. Author Jack Donnelly traces the rise of human rights issues coming out of World War II and shows their transformation in the intervening years, including the post-Cold War agendas that have emerged since 1989. Includes figures, tables, documents, suggested readings, photos, and more.
More comprehensive than the Columbia Center book, including texts such as the 1993 Vienna Declaration on Human Rights, key resolutions on regulating petitions to the UN Commission on Human Rights, greater material on regional systems, and an extensive collection of documents from the Helsinki process.
Basic but thorough introduction including chapters on the sources and making of international law, its impact on national law, state responsibility, development and the environment, general law of treaties, and international institutions.
Useful research and reference tool for those seeking an initial entry. Traces the general framework of treaty-based law, deals with provisions of general application, and addresses various substantive human rights, while juxtaposing texts from the various instruments and accompanied by cross-references, commentary and case law summaries.
"Lively and readable" account that emphasizes the idea that human rights are inherent rights of persons, not states, whose proper role is in safeguarding and enforcement. Also explains the important distinction between the theoretical subject of human rights and the practical one of human rights law.
The new edition of this popular book has been completely revised to include developments in international human rights over the last five years. It includes judicial opinions on constitutional issues by the national courts; a completely new chapter on globalization and its implications for human rights; and expanded treatment of many issues including democracy, self-determination, and responses to massive tragedies through prosecutions and truth commissions.
Most thorough collection available of universal human rights instruments, containing not only conventions but also resolutions and declarations and covering civil and political and economic, social and cultural rights, as well as war crimes and humanitarian law.
Short and clear chronological history of human rights activity at the UN, readable but not very detailed, as well as a listing UN promulgations of conventions, declarations, guidelines, codes of conduct, etc. and texts of one hundred basic documents.
An immensely detailed reference book on UN initiatives throughout its history and covering the entire range of international human rights. A sort of encyclopedia, its headings include peoples' rights and self-determination; racial and religious discrimination; apartheid; the rights of women; economic, social and cultural rights; civil and political rights; refugees and stateless persons; and human rights in armed conflicts.
For all its achievements in integrating Europe, the EU lacks a human rights policy which is coherent, balanced and professionally administered. This volume provides an insightful critique of current policies and detailed recommendations for the future by leading experts in the field including individuals from every EU country.
Collection of articles, half of which are analyses of institutional mechanisms, including human rights reporting procedures generally, the effectiveness of individual complaint procedures, and the contribution of NGOs. Other contributions related to the monitoring of specific subject areas: the prevention of torture, minority rights, armed conflicts and humanitarian situations, with two relating specifically to the Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
Describes the Convention machinery -- in particular, the Commission, Committee of Ministers and Court -- along with chapters devoted to admissibility criteria and an article-by-article picture of the current state of the substantive law under the Convention, with a short but clear account of the principal practical issues that have arisen. Includes tables of cases, decisions and reports, the relevant rules of procedure, and the official application form for lodging complaints.
Short and simple, though informative and thorough, highly suitable as a basic introduction. Focuses primarily on the substantive rights of the Convention, article by article, with the text of each provision, short explanatory notes, and names of the major cases on each topic. There is also an explanation of the principle Strasbourg institutions and their procedures and powers.
A comprehensive, in-depth survey covering both substantive and procedural aspects, proceeding article by article and consisting of chapters on the Convention institutions: the Commission (including admissibility of applications, and the abolishment of the Commission by Protocol 11), the operation of the Court (covering issues such as jurisdiction and burden of proof) and the Committee of Ministers.
The Guide is a compilation of the relevant passages of all the Court's judgments up to 1994, arranged according to the Articles of the Convention and its Protocols; many Articles are further subdivided according to element (such as Articles 5, 6, 8, 10 and 1 of Protocol No. 1). The Guide will enable you to find all the rulings of the Court which may be relevant to a given problem, and will reduce considerably the time and effort needed for research. This Systematic Guide is aimed at practitioners -- such as judges and advocates -- and scholars alike. Updated: 1995-1996, Kluwer Law International, 1998, ISBN: 9041103988; 1997-1998, Kluwer Law International 2000, ISBN: 9041112235.
Invaluable reference work on the subject of freedom of expression in both national and international law. Interprets freedom of expression broadly to include related issues such as freedom of assembly and association, freedom of information and language rights, and specific aspects such as press freedom, artistic expression and broadcasting. Includes court decisions covering restrictions in the interest of national security or public order, content-related restrictions and prior censorship. Also provides information on the filing of individual complaints before a variety of international bodies and contains texts of international provisions.
Both practicing attorneys, one the daughter of JFK, deliver a knowing and intelligent account of our most basic and most contested civil right. Moving among anecdotes, landmark trial decisions, and little-known cases, the authors consider questions such as the right to e-mail privacy on company computers, the right to a court-ordered cesarean to save an endangered fetus, and the defense against strip-searching: the broadest questions of privacy in the media, workplace, and in the world of information.
Across-the-board analysis, focusing on British law but containing comparison with the U.S., Germany and the European Convention. Discusses reasons for the legal protection of speech and its meaning, as well as covers topics such as prior restraint and censorship, political speech, libel and invasion of privacy, public order aspects, and concerns of administration of justice.
Mainly focuses on the UN era, discussing the UN's promotion of the principle of democracy and examining earlier cases and recent experiences. Also deals with other bodies and NGOs and includes useful annexes.
"a definite contribution to UK human rights literature," European Human Rights Law Review, Iss 4, 1999.
A vigorous debunker of the pieties of both the left and the right, Stanley Fish takes aim at the ideological gridlock paralyzing academic and political exchange in the nineties. Fish places such current education controversies as those over multiculturist requirements in historical perspective; scores simplistic critics of affirmative action; suggests self-segregation can be justified as an exercise of autonomy; and observes that political power and `` real political correctness'' is determined by the ``triple threat of money, media domination and governmental regulation.'' His provocative title essay argues cogently that the neat legal definition between speech and conduct breaks down in concrete examples. In more abstruse essays, Fish turns his analytic skills, honed in literary criticism, to dissect some of the presumptions of legal thought. Fish is Arts and Sciences Professor o English and Professor of Law at Duke University, and the author of many books.
By examining the silencing effects of speech - its power to overwhelm and intimidate the underfunded, underrepresented, or disadvantaged voice - Fiss shows how restrictions on political expenditures, hate speech, and pornography can be defended in terms of the First Amendment, not despite it.
Describes the structure and activities of the body which oversees the implementation of the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights -- including the reporting process and the basic operation of the individual application mechanism under the first Optional Protocol -- as well as an analysis of selected substantive articles: self-determination, duty to implement the norms of the Covenant, derogation in emergencies, the right to life, the prohibition against torture, fairness of criminal trials, freedom of opinion and expression, and the prohibition against propaganda for war and against hate speech.
Article-by-article commentary, which also takes account of the Human Rights Committee's general comments and case law. Easy to use and clearly written, with encyclopedic thoroughness and a useful appendix.
A review of the international criteria and what they mean in practice for the conduct of elections, including international human rights standards and selected regional human rights instruments, along with the "Draft General Principles on Freedom and Non-discrimination in the Matter of Political Rights."
ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS
This book is the first comprehensive textbook on internationally recognized economic, social and cultural rights. While focusing upon this category of rights, it also brings out their relations to other human rights, civil and political rights in particular.
Covers the concept of economic, social and cultural rights, the drafting history of the Covenant, and a description of its supervision mechanism. Gives particular attention to the rights to work, to just and favorable conditions, to form and join trade unions and to an adequate standard of living.
Informative look at the experience of affirmative actions programs as a means of redressing patterns of discrimination inherited from the past, including philosophical perspectives, economic theory and legal aspects (particularly the United States and India). Also offers a comparative analysis of various sources of policy -- constitutional provisions, legislation, court orders, voluntary and informal programs -- and coverage -- public or private, categories of beneficiaries, eligibility criteria, and enforcement mechanisms.
Draws an intimate connection between civil and political rights, on the one hand, and economic, social and cultural rights, on the other. Largely through case studies, explores the topics of famine, land-tenure -- including urban squatting, freedom of movement, grazing rights, landowner violence, and development -- environmental protection, and labor rights -- such as forced labor, trade unions, and migrant workers.
Essential reference work on trade unions, devoted to a systematic summary of the principles that have emerged from the committee's activities, covering matters such as the physical security of trade unionists, their arrest and detention, including states of emergency; their freedom of movement, freedom of association, opinion and expression; and protection of premises. Also provides information the functioning of trade unions, including their constitutions and rules, election of representatives, protection from interference, collective bargaining, and strikes.
A leading scholar of constitutional law delivers an incisive and brilliant new account of the Bill of Rights and explodes conventional wisdom about our most basic charter of liberty. Akhil Reed Amar not only illuminates the text, structure, and history of the 1789 Bill but also argues that its present character owes more to antislavery activists of the Reconstruction era than to the Founding Fathers who created the Bill. He further argues that the 14th Amendment transformed the meaning of the Bill of Rights: designed originally to protect the people against abusive government, they were seen in its aftermath as a safeguard of the rights of minorities against majority will.
Dworkin argues that Americans have been systemically misled about what their Constitution is and how judges decide what it means. What does its abstract language mean when it is applied to the political controversies that divide Americans--about affirmative action, euthanasia, censorship, pornography, and homosexuality, for example? Is the moral reading of the Constitution--the only reading that really makes sense--really undemocratic? In this fascinating book, Dworkin discusses these and other aspects of the document.
Offers a comparative analysis of the growth of civil rights, examining the high courts of the US, Britain, Canada, and India within their specific constitutional and cultural contexts. Argues that, rather than being, the fruit of an activist judiciary, the ascendancy of civil rights and liberties has rested on the, democratization of access to the courts. An appendix provides rights-provision documents.
Slavery, segregation, abortion, workers' rights, the power of the courts. These issues have been at the heart of the greatest constitutional controversies in American history. And in this concise and thought-provoking volume, some of today's most distinguished legal scholars and commentators explain for a general audience how five landmark Supreme Court cases centered on those controversies shaped the country's destiny and continue to affect us even now. The book is a profound exploration of the Supreme Court's importance to America's social and political life. It is also, as many of the contributors show, an intriguing reflection of what some have seen as an important trend in legal scholarship away from an uncritical belief in the essentially benign nature of judicial power.
"Perry (professor of law, Ohio State University) has written a . . . treatise on what he terms the central problem of contemporary constitutional theory: whether the Supreme Court in exercising judicial review may create rights and enforce values that, while not specifically opposed by the framers, were not in their original vision. The 'interpretivists' maintain that the Supreme Court is acting illegitimately when it enforces norms not constitutionalized by the framers; the 'noninterpretivists' defend the Court as a continuing constitutional convention properly updating the fundamental law in the light of changing social and economic conditions." (Choice)
Exploring the history and theory of constitutionalism in a comparative perspective this account is concerned not only with the mechanics of government, but more comprehensively with the organization of state-society relations. Drawing on some classic examples, such as the history and fundaments of the US constitution, the 1791 French constitution or the Weimar constitution, we are reminded that we can learn the most from earlier failures.
HUMANITARIAN LAW, TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE
This book challenges several traditional assumptions concerning human rights. In particular it challenges the presumption that the fundamental rights and freedoms contained in the European Convention on Human Rights are irrelevant for cases which concern the sphere of relations between individuals. It asks whether victims should be protected from non-state actors, and attempts to develop a coherent approach to 'human rights in the private sphere'. This study concentrates on the rights contained in the European Convention on Human Rights, and their enforcement in the courts of the United Kingdom and at the European level: at the European Commission and Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, and at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg. In addition, some constitutional cases are examined from the United States and Canadian legal orders. The application of international human rights law to the private sphere has implications for the worlds of labour relations, race relations, discrimination, and violence against women and for victims of indignities everywhere. This study shows that respect for privacy need not mean excluding wrongs in the private sphere from the world of human rights.
This book sheds light on the collective amnesia that overtook European governments and peoples regarding their own responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity--an amnesia that has only recently begun to dissipate as a result of often painful searching across the continent. In inspiring essays, a group of internationally renowned scholars unravels the moral and political choices facing European governments in the war's aftermath: how to punish the guilty, how to decide who was guilty of what, how to convert often unspeakable and conflicted war experiences and memories into serviceable, even uplifting accounts of national history.
Leading photojournalists, reporters, and legal and military law scholars present a compelling, detailed, and important A-to-Z account of armed conflicts worldwide. Entries range from Acts of War and Enforced Prostitution to Safety Zones and Weapons. Graphic b&w photographs from war zones around the world. Offers a compendium of more than 150 entries that broadly define "international humanitarian law," a subject that involves most of the legal and political aspects of modern conflict.
Scholarly and comprehensive survey of the whole of international humanitarian law, dealing with it in the broad sense of the term, i.e. the laws governing the conduct of war as well as law relating to the protection of victims.
The distinguished panel of contributors, who range from activists to university law professors, concentrate on four basic themes: punishment, reconciliation, creating a culture of law, and transitions. Well-constructed essays discuss lessons learned in Argentina, Chile, and Haiti and at the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia and build on historical experience to develop new legal concepts. Along the way, it is argued that truly putting the horrors of the 20th century behind us will require even broader recognition of the universality of human rights and that the culture of democracy builds respect for human rights just as it dampens our urge to fight. (Library Journal)
Short but thorough general overview of the basic treaty rules.
Offers actual studies of genocide in India, China, Colonial Africa, the Soviet Union, Burma, and the former Yugoslavia. Beyond narrating the most horrendous atrocities, the book focuses on the nature of gross human rights violations and genocides, and how best to stop them. Jonassohn formulates a typology that distinguishes events that have different origins, occur in different situations, and follow different processes. This work is motivated by the hope that it might be possible to reduce the number of genocides and to intervene in those that do occur.
Contents include: Politics and the Judiciary in the Greek Transition to Democracy, Democracy Dignified and an End to Impunity: Bolivia's Military Dictatorship on Trial, Guarding the Guardians in Argentina: Some Lessons about the Risks and Benefits of Empowering the Courts, The Unsettled Story of Transitional Justice in Chile, The Hungarian Approach to Judging the Past, Transitional Justice and the Political Struggles of Post-Communist Poland, The East German Past and the German Future, International Law and the South African Model
Broad survey for beginning readers of the content and role of humanitarian law in internal conflict, with a discussion of the legal rules governing combat in civil wars -- such as permitted and forbidden tactics and weapons -- and the recognition of belligerency and the status of parties. Also covers humanitarian activities of international organizations, refugees and the internally displaced, "ethnic cleansing", peacekeeping, genocide, and international jurisdiction.
War Crimes catalogs and addresses the many issues surrounding the prosecution of war crimes, including accusations of "victor's justice," international jurisprudence, and the accountability of lower-ranking officers. Many times, Neier reveals, the parties responsible for war crimes manage to escape retribution for want of a favorable transition of political power. As a possible remedy, Neier argues for the creation of a permanent international war crimes tribunal.
Geoffrey Robertson QC tells the dramatic story of how the human-rights idea has come to dominate world politics, culminating in the decision to bomb Serbia for its crimes against humanity. Identifying a shift from diplomacy to law as the crucial post-Cold War development, Robertson reveals what else we can expect from the demand for global justice. He explains how an identification of the crime against humanity, first defined at Nuremburg, has become the key that unlocks the closed door of state sovereignty, and that holds political leaders responsible for the evils they visit upon humankind.
Concerned with the general legal setting for analyzing issues concerning impunity, dealing with legal duties to investigate, prosecute and provide redress for human rights violations, as well as individual country situations, including post-1989 Eastern Europe generally, and more detailed studies of the Berlin Wall shootings, de-Stalinization in the former Soviet Union and the situation in Romania.
Leading philosophers, lawyers, social scientists, and activists representing several perspectives look at the process of truth commissioning in general and in post-apartheid South Africa. They ask whether the truth commission, as a method of seeking justice after conflict, is fair, moral, and effective in bringing about reconciliation. Ultimately they find the truth commission to be a worthy if imperfect instrument for societies seeking to say "never again" with confidence.
Useful survey of the range of areas in which there is individual liability under international law for violations of human rights law, relating to the three classes of international offences set out in the Nuremberg trials (crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity) as well as liability for grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions and the question of a defense of superior orders. Also treats the question in other areas of human rights law: genocide, apartheid, torture, slavery and discrimination, in addition to the question of enforcement measures: the application of universal criminal jurisdiction by individual states, the possible establishment of an international criminal court, and the application of the law of state responsibility.
At the century's end, societies all over the world are moving from authoritarian rule to democracy. At any such time of radical change, the question arises: should a society punish its "ancien regime" or let bygones by bygones? Teitel explores the recurring question of how regimes should respond to evil rule, taking the debate to a new level with an interdisciplinary approach that challenges the very terms of the contemporary debate CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND PENAL REFORM
Identifies the principles issues that arise in the application of international human rights law to police practices, such as arrest and search, the use of force, police restrictions on public meetings and processions, police access to and use of personal data, and surreptitious surveillance. Dated, and focusing largely on the European Convention.
Builds a case against the death penalty on legal and policy grounds and surveys the progress of abolitionist movements around the world. Includes a description of various restrictions on the death penalty, an account of the various methods and processes applied in carrying it out, and country-by-country surveys of the death penalty in the national laws of various states.
Currie, an international authority on crime and punishment and a professor in the Legal Studies Program at UC-Berkeley, dissects myths surrounding approaches to crime. He shows that incarceration of larger proportions of our population is not a solution to crime, and describes characteristics of prevention and rehabilitation programs that do work
Drawing on firsthand experience as a prison psychiatrist, his own family history, and literature, Gilligan unveils the motives of men who commit horrifying crimes, men who will not only kill others but destroy themselves rather than suffer a loss of self-respect. With devastating clarity, Gilligan traces the role that shame plays in the etiology of murder and explains why our present penal system only exacerbates it. Brilliantly argued, harrowing in its portraits of the walking dead, Violence should be read by anyone concerned with this national epidemic and its widespread consequences. A primer on violence and the basis to any thinking about what to do with it. In fact, this is the basis for the prison treatment programs - in San Francisco and in Poland Publishers Weekly gave a starred review to this study by the Harvard Medical School professor and former director of a hospital for the criminally insane.
Professor Meron presents a picture of the evolution of international humanitarian and criminal law, slow at first, but dramatic since the beginning of the atrocities in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. His book will be welcomed by all humanitarian and human rights scholars, by NGOs and by all persons interested in accountability for war crimes, as a useful and significant contribution to our understanding of humanitarian law.
A team of distinguished scholars offers a vivid account of the rise and development of this critical institution. The authors trace the persistent tension between the desire to punish and the hope for rehabilitation, recounting the institution's evolution from the rowdy and squalid English jails of the 1700s, in which prisoners and visitors ate and drank together; to the sober and stark nineteenth-century penitentiaries, whose inmates were forbidden to speak or even to see one another; and finally to the "big houses" of the current American prison system, in which prisoners are as overwhelmed by intense boredom as by the threat of violence. The text also provides a gripping and personal look at the social world of prisoners and their keepers over the centuries. In addition, thematic chapters explore in-depth a variety of special institutions and other important aspects of prison history, including the jail, the reform school, the women's prison, political imprisonment, and prison and literature.
Provides a clear explanation of the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners and what they mean in practice. Covers basic and guiding principles; due process and complaints; physical conditions; physical and mental health of prisoners; contacts with the outside world; programs for prisoners; prisoner staff; and inspection.
Covers not only prisoners detained in institutions after due legal process, but all detainees, and includes relevant experience from the European Convention on Human Rights. Also deals with legal safeguards against arbitrary arrest and detention and prisoner-related aspects of torture, extra-legal executions, disappearances and corporal punishment. Contains documentary annexes, as well as tables of treaties and cases.
Of value to anyone concerned with the administration of justice. Discusses the meaning of "criminal charge" and its applicability to disciplinary and regulatory proceedings and other situations involving the imposition of penalties; the standard of fairness; and "quasi-criminal proceedings."
Deals with death penalty norms at the universal level (Universal Declaration, Second Optional Protocol to the Civil and Political Covenant, Third and Fourth Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the Additional Protocols of 1949) and covers death penalty norms at the regional level, in the European and the inter-American human rights systems.
Contents include: The Western Tradition of Imprisonment, The Great Incarcerator: The United States, The New Gulag: Russia, Mind Reform? China and Japan, Women in Prison, The Young, Making Prisons Better, Penal Reform, The Future of Imprisonment, and Prison Expansion and the Private Sector.
Sets out the international standards applicable to a broad range of pre-trial detention issue, as well as interpretations of those standards by human rights monitoring bodies. Topics covered include: non-discrimination, presumption of innocence, arrest, notification of charges, appearance before a judicial or other authority, substitutes for confinement, length of pre-trial detention, segregation of classes of detainees, access to council, communication by detainees, investigation of detained persons, ill-treatment of detainees, physical conditions of detention, discipline and restraints, intellectual and religious conditions of detention, supervision of places of detention, fair trials, judicial review of confinement, administrative detention and special provisions for juveniles.
Well-organized summation of law enforcement standards, set forth in single-sentence quotations from relevant sources, without commentary. Covers police investigations, arrest, detention, the use of force, civil disorder, police command and management, community policing and the rights of victims.
Traces the historical evolution, discusses self-determination, and deals with implementation procedures (reporting, monitoring and complaints). Covers various bodies and contains selected documents.
Thorough legal analysis of the international law on self-determination of peoples, possibly difficult for non-lawyers but with a strong emphasis on actual practice. Contains a brief historical survey a sustained analysis of the legal principle of self-determination in the UN Chapter, the two international human rights conventions, and in customary international law, along with a discussion of whether peoples are holders of a legal right of self-determination in the true sense, or whether they are merely beneficiaries of duties imposed on states, and short illustrative case studies from diverse regions (Gibraltar, the Western Sahara, Eritrea, East Timor, Palestine, Quebec, the Soviet Union, and Yugoslavia).
Includes chapters on issues such as: Conceptual Problems of Rights of Minorities, The Definition of Minorities in International Law, Can Minorities Treaties Work?, Toward a Minority Convention: Its Need and Content, The Legal Status of Population Groups in a Multi-national State under Public International Law, General Problems of Rights of Minorities, Freedom of Religion and the Protection of Religious Minorities, Minority Rights in the CSCE Context, The 1989 ILO Convention on Indigenous Populations: New Standards?, Surviving in Babel? Language Rights and European Integration, Minorities and Terrorism: Some Legal and Strategic Perspectives, International Protection of Minorities: The Soviet Perspective, Nationalities and Minorities in the Yugoslav Federation, and Minority Protection in Hungary--Hungarian Minorities Abroad.
A serious and well written examination probing the evolution and development of human rights concepts in international relations. Felice (international relations and global affairs, Eckerd College) points toward the tensions between individual and collective human rights in regards to race, gender, sexuality, and self-determination, uncovering the moral soil beneath the liberal and Marxist politics. He argues for a method to ensure human rights in an international arena which relies on an agreement of basic human needs and equality. Includes appendices of particular public documents that exemplify the movement toward mutual understanding and agreement e.g. the "Universal Declaration of the Rights of People." (Booknews)
"An extraordinary research effort....Kluger has written three distinct books within one jacket. The first is an account of race relations in America. The second is a detailed study of the complex process--the litigation strategy--by which the five consolidated cases that we know as Brown arose and worked their way up to the Supreme Court. The third is a meticulously researched account of the process within the Supreme Court by which the Brown decision was reached."--Harvard Law Review
This volume collects together the most important contemporary articles on the rights of minority cultures. While drawing on particular case studies, the articles focus on the more general theoretical and normative issues raised by the accommodation of cultural differences. The authors represented in this volume come from a variety of countries and disciplines, and reflect a wide range of opinion.
Covers topics such as Sovereignty and self-determination in the new Europe, International and European standards on minority rights, Northern Ireland, South Tyrol, The former Yugoslavia, the rest of the Balkans, the role of the Council of Europe, and the role of the CSCE.
In this provocative application of moral philosophy to contemporary political processes, Sabrina P. Ramet draws upon the literature of Natural Law to demonstrate that liberal democracy depends on a delicate balance between individual and societal rights. Appeals to the collective rights of national and religious groups rest on spurious claims, as Ramet convincingly shows in her analysis of the situations of Hungarians in Slovakia, Albanians in Kosovo, theoretically inclined Catholic bishops in Poland, Serbs in Croatia, and contending forces in post-Dayton Bosnia. What Ramet calls the doctrine of collective rights actually subverts the liberal democratic project, legitimating instead intolerance and group exclusivity.
Begins with an account of the League of Nations system for minorities protection, followed by four categories of substantive issues: the right to existence (Genocide Convention), the rights of identity and non-discrimination (UN Charter, Article 27 of the ICCPR, UN Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, UNESCO, the European Convention and customary international law), and the rights of indigenous peoples (ILO).
In Human Rights of Women, Rebecca J. Cook and the contributors to this volume seek to analyze how international human rights law applies specifically to women in various cultures worldwide, and to develop strategies to promote equitable application of human rights law at the international, regional, and domestic levels. Their essays present a compelling mixture of reports and case studies from various regions in the world, combined with scholarly assessments of various aspects of international law as these rights specifically apply to women. The book addresses multiple and overlapping agendas: international human rights law, feminist studies, family law, political science, third world studies, jurisprudence, and philosophy.
Carol Gilligan believes that psychology has persistently and systematically misunderstood women. Repeatedly, developmental theories have been built on observations of men's lives. Here, Gilligan attempts to correct psychology's misperceptions and refocus its view of female personality. The result reshapes our understanding of human experience.
Washington, D.C.: Women, Law & Development International, c1995
Kevin Bales's disturbing investigation of conditions in Thailand, Mauritania, Brazil, Pakistan, India, and parts of America and Europe reveals the nature of the new slavery and how it has adapted to the global economy. Bales interviews actual slaves, slaveholders, and public officials to reveal the lives of slaves, including enslaved brickmakers in Pakistan, sex slaves in Thailand, and domestic slaves in France. Throughout he uncovers the economic and social forces that sustain slavery, from the corruption of local governments to the complicity of multinational corporations. He pinpoints just who benefits from the incredible profits of the new slavery. And he shows how the lives of these slaves are bound by our own through our purchase of slave-made products or mutual funds that invest in companies using slave labor. In his conclusion, Bales offers suggestions for how individuals and governments can combat slavery and describes successful antislavery actions by international and local organizations.
Comprehensive and authoritative study, addressing the legal concept of refugee status and protection. Contents include: Definition and Description, Determination of Refugee Status: Analysis and Application, Loss and Denial of Refugee Status and Its Benefits, Non-Refoulement, The Concept of Asylum, International Protection, Treaty Standards, as well as Basic Instruments and Selected Regional Instruments
Traces protection from the pre-human rights era, when the primary procedural device was diplomatic protection by states of nationality, to the modern period, with its stress on the direction possession of human rights by aliens in their own right.
Focusing on the implications of religious anthropologies for the possibility of acknowledging human rights, the eighteen essays collected here respond to the central question Can human rights be interpreted and justified from within religious traditions such that they are supported, rather than undermined, as the "common core" of a universal morality among these traditions? These responses clearly display the diverse religious and cultural backgrounds of the participating scholars - including Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam - and serve to further an open, congenial, and critical dialogue on this important topic.
General discussion of the phenomenon of "disappearances" and how to deal with it, with a strongly practical orientation. Selected case studies in six countries (Iraq, Sri Lanka, Colombia, Zimbabwe, Turkey and Morocco), followed by an explanation of international legal norms and chapters on prevention, investigation, bringing perpetrators to justice, and international mechanisms.
Discusses how environmental issues can most effectively be addressed through the medium of international human rights law, debating the pros and cons of three possible strategies: using existing human rights norms, reinterpreting existing norms, and devising new rights. Also includes case studies on South Africa, India, Malaysia, Ecuador, Brazil and Pakistan, as well as tables of cases and treaties.
Definitive treatise on the UN Torture Convention of 1984, discussing its background and its drafting history, as well as providing an article-by-article commentary on its text, covering both substantive and implementation provisions and comparing them with those of other relevant documents. With 19 appendices.
Contains a general treatment of international legal standards -- relating to proportionality, non-discrimination, good faith, and non-derogable rights -- as well as the means of monitoring compliance, including UN treaty and non-treaty mechanisms and the role of the press and NGOs.
This book is the first to examine sexual orientation from the viewpoint of international human rights law. It does not simply `create' a platform of rights and argue for their `introduction' in human rights law. Rather, it examines how extant international norms should be construed to include rights against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, including rights of privacy, equality, speech, expression, and association. It raises questions of cultural relativism, religious faith, social science, and legal theory. It will be of interest to international jurists, human rights organizations, gay rights organizations, constitutional scholars, and anyone interested in expanding the role of international human rights law as a formidable adversary of persecution and discrimination throughout the world.
This volume is intended to promote both academic and public understanding of the different positions that exist on sexual orientation within four major American religious traditions: Jewish, Roman Catholic, mainline Protestant, and African-American churches. Opposing views are presented from each of these traditions.
Comprehensive treatment, arranged by subject matter, covering rights in the family context, preservation of identity, freedom of expression, freedom of thought, conscience and religion, juvenile justice issues, right to education, protection against exploitation, right to survival and development, rights in armed conflict and rights of children with special needs. Also addresses the history of children's rights, the problems of definition and status, and the implementation of various substantive rights.
Comparison of the French and American revolutions with an explanation of why the Americans were able to "constitutionalize" their revolution while the French were not.
What is social justice? In Theories of Justice Brian Barry provides a systematic and detailed analysis of two kinds of answers. One is that justice arises from a sense of the advantage to everyone of having constraints on the pursuit of self-interest. The other answer connects the idea of justice with that of impartiality. Though the first book of a trilogy, Theories of Justice stands alone and constitutes a major contribution to the debate about social justice that began in 1971 with Rawls's A Theory of Justice.
Berlin exposes the links between the ideas of the past and the social and political cataclysms of our present century: between the Platonic belief in absolute Truth and the lure of authoritarianism; between the eighteenth-century reactionary ideologue Joseph de Maistre and twentieth- century fascism; between the romanticism of Schiller and Byron and the militant--and sometimes genocidal--nationalism that convulses the modern world.
A valuable clarification and defence of human rights, Bobbio argues that the development of human rights is an historical sign of progress in a world marked by the proliferation of cruel wars, the arms trade, pollution, famine and almost universal pessimism. Drawing widely on the work of Kant, Locke, Beccaria and Paine, Bobbio argues that the French Revolution is a crucial event in moulding our ideas and attitudes today. He suggests that the proclamation of rights does not necessarily mean that those rights are actually enforced. He carefully traces the development of human rights through various 'generations' - libertarian, social, ecological - and argues that the recognition and effective protection of human rights are the foundations of modern democratic institutions. Human rights, democracy and peace are the three essential components of the same historic movement.
Ronald Dworkin insists, to the contrary, that equality is the indispensable virtue of democratic sovereignty. A legitimate government must treat all its citizens as equals, that is, with equal respect and concern, and, since the economic distribution that any society achieves is mainly the consequence of its system of law and policy, that requirement imposes serious egalitarian constraints on that distribution. What distribution of a nation's wealth is demanded by equal concern for all? Dworkin draws upon two fundamental humanist principles: first, it is of equal objective importance that all human lives flourish, and second, each person is responsible for defining and achieving the flourishing of his own life-to ground his well-known thesis that true equality means equality in the value of the resources that each person commands, not in the success he or she achieves. Equality, freedom, and individual responsibility are therefore not in conflict, but flow from and into one another as facets of the same humanist conception of life and politics. Since no abstract political theory can be understood except in the context of actual and complex political issues, Dworkin develops his thesis by applying it to heated contemporary controversies about the distribution of health care, unemployment benefits, campaign finance reform, affirmative action, assisted suicide, and genetic engineering.
Gorecki (sociology, U. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign) offers a critique of the most common attempts to formulate objective standards in ethics through appeals to human nature, religion, and reason. He considers the role of norm-making concepts in the history of ethical thought, and shows how justifications based on external authoritative sources may be discounted on analytical or practical grounds, using such instances as divine will and Kantian reason. Of interest to political theorists, philosophers, sociologists, and human rights activists.
Seven of the world's leading historians examine the relationship between historical change and the evolution of human rights.
Classic study by a human rights activist and scholar of the moral basis of human rights
Michael J. Perry's new book is a personal and scholarly exploration of the idea of human rights. Perry is one of our nation's leading authorities on the relation of morality, including religious morality, to politics and law. He seeks, in this book, to disentangle the complex idea of human rights by way of four probing and interrelated essays. The initial essay, which is animated by Perry's skepticism about the capacity of any secular morality to offer a coherent account of the idea of human rights, suggests that the first part of the idea of human rights - the premise that every human being is "sacred" or "inviolable" - is inescapably religious. Responding to recent criticism of ‘rights talk’, Perry explicates, in his second essay, the meaning and value of talk about human rights. In his third essay, Perry asks a fundamental question about human rights: Are they universal? In addressing this question, Perry disaggregates and criticizes several different varieties of "moral relativism" and then considers the implications of these different relativist positions for claims about human rights. Perry turns to another fundamental question about human rights in his final essay: Are they absolute? Perry concludes that even if no human rights, understood as moral rights, are absolute or unconditional, some human rights, understood as international legal rights, are - and indeed, should be – absolute.
Classic arguments in defense of the individual's right to assert his or her freedom in the face of tyranny.
Ranging over central issues of morals and politics and the nature of freedom and authority, this study examines the role of value-neutrality, rights, equality, and the prevention of harm in the liberal tradition, and relates them to fundamental moral questions such as the relation of values to social forms, the comparability of values, and the significance of personal commitments.
The author clarifies and analyses the role played by ideas of liberty and rights in legal, moral and economic reasoning. He then moves to formulate a coherent set of original rights that is at once appropriate for persons' external property and for their bodies, and which takes account of differences between their locations in time and place and their genetic endowments. This original and important book will appeal to readers concerned with central problems in moral, political and legal philosophy, the history of ideas, and theoretical aspects of economics and social policy. Its trenchant argument is accessible, even on technical issues, and is illustrated throughout with real and hypothetical examples.
PRACTICE (IMPLEMENTATION and EDUCATION)
Contents include: Human Rights Education in the Post-Cold War Context, Human Rights as Education for Peace, Human Rights Education in UN Peace Building: From Theory to Practice, Human Rights Education s a Strategy for Development, Human Rights Education as Empowerment, Conflict Resolution and Human Rights Education, Education on the Human Rights of Women as a Vehicle for Change, Human Rights Awareness and Skill Games in Political Science, Human Rights Education for Law Enforcement, Teaching Human Rights to Public Health Practitioners, and Fund-Raising for Human Rights Education.
Explicitly oriented towards human rights activism, this book includes four essays on individual complaint procedures in the UN system, as well as chapters devoted to the reporting process under various human rights conventions, the role of national courts in the enforcement of international norms, and quasi-legal standards and guidelines.
Focuses on educating teaching in human rights, including chapters on the universality of human rights principles, the application in schools of the norms from the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child, the human rights education programme of the Council of Europe, and curriculum development, both for teachers and in schools.
Aims to guide the researcher around the overall body of human rights literature and provides a list of useful books, periodicals, and collections of articles, as well as databases on human rights. Institutionally it stress intergovernmental organizations, while the substantive portion deals with topics such as labor rights, indigenous people's rights, and women's rights.
Sets out the standards to which national human rights institutions (established by a government under the constitution or by law) are supposed to adhere, including a discussion of their principal tasks: education and promotion of awareness of human rights, advising and assisting governments, and investigating alleged human rights violations -- including information about establishing a complaints mechanism, conducting investigations, and remedies for violations.
Useful publication for groups concerned with human rights monitoring. Deals with the purposes of reporting and the process of preparation and submission of reports to the various treaty monitoring bodies (two covenants of 1966, conventions on racial discrimination, apartheid, women, and torture). Also discusses the functioning of the relevant committees, including their comments on what the reports of states ought to contain.
Concerned with the caseload of the two bodies in question and their means of dealing with it, with a particular interest in increasing the efficiency of their functions and in devising methods to discourage applications that have no hope of success. Its value lies in the detailed discussion of the various pitfalls that await individual applicants at the crucial preliminary stage of admissibility. Contains concise, thorough summaries of the procedures used for the examination of applications, followed by in-depth analyses of the various specific admissibility criteria. |
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