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Articles

Introduction: Human Rights Litigation: Promise v. Perils 04/06/00
This issue of Human Rights Dialogue examines human rights litigation as one aspect of the “human rights box.” It also seeks to investigate ways of overcoming barriers to greater participation in the human rights movement.

Representation in Human Rights Litigation 04/06/00
For human rights litigation to meet its potential as a means of political expression and community mobilization for human rights victims depends, in part, on the extra judicial skills of the lawyers who represent them.
Author(s): Benedict Kingsbury

The Story from the Oil Patch: The Under-Represented in Aguinda v. Texaco 04/06/00
The Aguinda v. Texaco lawsuit and its impact on the people fo the remote Amazon region in Ecuador has provided an opportunity to make the litigation responsive to the peoples whose rights are being violated and to sow the seeds of an enduring human rights legacy in the region.
Author(s): Judith Kimerling

Waiting for Justice in the Marcos Litigation 04/06/00
The jury issued a guilty verdict against Ferdinand Marcos for the human rights crimes of forced disappearance, summary execution, and torture of some 10,000 Filipinos. But the litigation itself demonstrates that human rights law and international jurisdiction need strengthening.
Author(s): Ramon C. Casiple

An Incomplete Victory at Ok Tedi 04/06/00
As the Ok Tedi case sadly demonstrates, policy reforms and legal precedents do not necessarily translate into improved conditions for the peoples whose rights have been violated.
Author(s): Stuart Kirsch

What Does "International Justice" Look Like in Post-Genocide Rwanda? 04/06/00
"The Tribunal can make a difference for the future of human rights in Rwanda by exposing the truth of the genocide: It was not a result of ancient, tribal hatred, but rather a carefully planned exploitation of ethnic differences by rulers seeking to hold onto their power."
Author(s): Aloysius Habimana

The Meaning of a Legal Victory in the Ecuadorian Amazon 04/06/00
Tamara Jezic and Chris Jochnickv try to find the meaning of a legal victory in the case of Arco Oriente and towns of Shuar and Achuar in terms of expliotation of oil, and wheter it was effective or not.
Author(s): Tamara Jezic, Chris Jochnick

Big Oil in Louisiana and a Community’s Bottom Line 04/06/00
"Everyone was sick–sore throats, burning eyes, headaches, dizziness, nausea, diarrhea. Convoys of trucks were bringing in waste daily, and the smell was everywhere. In March 1994 we decided that it was time we stood together and fought for our lives."
Author(s): Clarice Friloux

Resisting Litigation in Umm El-Fahem 04/06/00
Several months after the Israeli Defense Forces informed residents of Umm El-Fahem that some of their lands were to become a military firing range, the town’s mayor asked our group, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, to file a petition to the Supreme Court of Israel.
Author(s): Samera Esmeir

Caught in the Claws of the Rich: The Struggle of the Mapalad Farmers 04/06/00
Even with legal knowledge and public support, the law is a double-edged sword: It protects the interests of the poor and implements reforms, but it also preserves the interests of the elite. How can the interests of the poor be advanced if the legal system is caught in the claws of the rich?
Author(s): Josel Gonzales, Kaka Bag-ao and Azon Gaite-Llanderal

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.