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Series 1, Number 1 (Spring 1994): Human Rights in the Post-Cold War Era

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On December 2, 1993, over thirty academic, NGO, and government human rights specialists from the United States, Japan, Korea, China, the Philippines, and Burma gathered at Merrill House, the Carnegie Council's headquarters in New York, for a one-day seminar to consider the human rights environment in Asia and the moral obligations and policy options for donor countries, namely the U.S., Japan, and the new regional economic aid donor, South Korea. This volume provides a summary report of the issues raised by the seminar, including methods to improve dialogue and to build institutional capacity in target countries, as well as strategies the international community could adopt for promoting human rights.

Articles

Human Rights in the Post-Cold War Era: The cases of North Korea, China, and Burma - 05/04/94
With continuing human rights violations and protests against mostly Western governments accused of meddling in other country's internal affairs, international debate suggests that while human rights may have agreed upon in form, they have not been accepted in substance.
Author(s): Joanne Bauer

Refining Definitions of Human Rights - 05/04/94
There is agreement in the West that human rights are absolute, but diverse opinion about the place of human rights in foreign affairs. What is the best path toward improving human rights? How does political liberalization affect economic development?

What Can and Should the International Community Do to Promote Human Rights? - 05/04/94
In opening a discussion of human rights, countries must consider cultural and security contexts. The key to an effective human rights policy is to distinguish between punitive approaches and constructive measures: a punitive approach isolates; a constructive approach includes.

In Conclusion - 05/04/94
This report deals especially with what the international human rights community should do to promote human rights in Asia. In doing so, it also describes areas where new work can begin.

The Republic of Korea's Role in the Emerging Debate - 05/04/94
While only a few years ago, Korea was alarming the international human rights community with egregious human rights violations toward its citizens, in 1993 it emerged in international fora as a solid advocate of universality.

About Human Rights Dialogue

Human Rights Dialogue promotes a global discussion of human rights ideas and practices by presenting firsthand accounts of human rights issues as they arise within specific real-life contexts. In so doing, it helps to clarify the significant and ongoing evolution that is taking place within the human rights movement to make the human rights framework more relevant and effective in addressing the social, economic, and political challenges of the twenty-first century.

The entire publication is online, or you may purchase individual print copies.

Series One (1993–1998)examines all sides of the Asian values debate—the argument that Asian cultural values imply different human rights standards and priorities from those in the West.

Series Two(2000–2005)addresses the problem of the “human rights box”—the constraints that have enabled the human rights framework to gain currency among elites while limiting its advance among the most vulnerable. Specifically, the essays aim to locate the barriers to greater public legitimacy of human rights and to demonstrate how those barriers can be overcome.