Carnegie Council

People Topics

Text Size: A A

Series 1, Number 2 (Fall 1995): About the Human Rights Initiative

$5.00

Add to Shopping Cart

This volume reviews contemporary writings which have helped to refocus the human rights debate in Asia by such authors as Joseph Chan, professor of politics and public administration at the University of Hong Kong, Sidney Jones of Human Rights Watch/Asia, Jon Elster, professor of economics at the University of Chicago, Daniel A. Bell, visiting scholar at New York University, and Yash Ghai, professor of law at the University of Hong Kong. All of the authors address the question of how human rights are given meaning and prioritized in different contexts and how cultural differences affect the claim of universality.

Articles

About the Human Rights Initiative - 09/04/95
With a better understanding of the aspirations of the people within individual countries, this project seeks to develop a blueprint for human rights and civil society and a more effective means of transnational implementation of human rights norms in East Asia.
Author(s): Joanne Bauer

Refocusing the Human Rights Debate in East Asia: A Review of Recent Writings - 09/04/95
The Bangkok Declaration on Human Rights marked a standoff between human rights advocates and East Asian governments, underscoring the need to improve human rights discourse between East and West. These writings were distributed to participants preparing for this workshop.
Author(s): Baldwin Robertson

On Social and Economic Rights - 09/04/95
Linking social and economic rights to political rights is essential for human rights to genuinely fulfill the holistic vision of the UDHR, but only western Europe has been able to realize the delicate balance of socialism, capitalism, and democracy.
Author(s): Erik Kuhonta

The Language of Human Rights in East Asia - 09/04/95
Human rights are widely advocated for their instrumental worth, but this strategy may change. Political and civil rights may eventually be championed for their own worth after a certain amount of material well-being has been achieved.
Author(s): Erik Kuhonta

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.