Carnegie Council

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SECTION 1 THE INSEPARABILITY OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND ENVIRONMENTALISM

Environmental Rights as a Matter of Survival 04/20/04
Ratner points out that, for Cambodia's fishing communities, whose livelihoods depend on access to fishing grounds, human rights and the environment are "related in every way."
Author(s): Blake D. Ratner

The Ecological Roots of a Democracy Movement 04/21/04
Kilburn and Vanek describe how widespread environmentalism propelled the human rights agenda of a generation of young activists in the former Czechoslovakia.
Author(s): Michael Kilburn, Miroslav Vanek

Climate Change and Human Rights 04/22/04
For the Arctic's Inuit, climate change is having very real human rights effects. Sheila Watt-Cloutier describes their creative efforts to hold governments accountable.
Author(s): Sheila Watt-Cloutier

Commentary on "The inseparability of human rights and environmentalism" 04/22/04
Johnston considers the three essays in this section, noting how they remind us that as the exploitation of world resources and the degradation of the biosphere intensify, social movements to reshape priorities and ways of life are assuming an increasingly significant role.
Author(s): Barbara Rose Johnston

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.