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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Reforming Humanitarian Rescue, Brent J. Steele
Reforming Humanitarian Rescue, Brent J. Steele
Human Rights & Human Welfare
There is much to commend in Morton Abramowitz and Thomas Pickering’s article “Making Intervention Work.” They propose to reform the United Nations’ capacity for intervention with the creation of an autonomous U.N. force largely constituted with forces contributed by the Security Council’s member-states. If such a force were kept to a minimal operational mission, “a small rapid-deployment force with special engineering, logistical, medical, and police skills,” as the authors suggest, then I think this is a good idea. If such a force would, however, become more than this—an autonomous army of military personnel meant to intervene with force into any …
October Roundtable: Introduction
October Roundtable: Introduction
Human Rights & Human Welfare
An annotation of:
“Making Intervention Work.” by Morton Abramowitz and Thomas Pickering. Foreign Affairs. September/October 2008.
Has The Iraq War Torpedoed The “Responsibility To Protect”?, William F. Felice
Has The Iraq War Torpedoed The “Responsibility To Protect”?, William F. Felice
Human Rights & Human Welfare
At a U.N. World Summit in 2005, the nations of the world approved the “responsibility to protect.” This emerging principle of international law, charges each individual state with the responsibility to protect its population from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. If a nation fails to protect its populations from these barbarities, the nations of the world declared that they would act, through the Security Council, in accordance with the U.N. Charter, to stop the violence against innocents everywhere and protect imperiled peoples. In theory, Chapter VII of the U.N. Charter gives the member states the military …
The Responsibility To Protect And The Failure To Respond, Todd Landman
The Responsibility To Protect And The Failure To Respond, Todd Landman
Human Rights & Human Welfare
Commentators on global politics frequently observe the abject failure of states and global institutions to respond to local, regional, and global crises ranging from dramatic climatic events, humanitarian crises, warfare and violence, to the continuation of unsavoury rights-abusive regimes. In my own work in the field of the comparative politics of human rights, the types of observations that Abramowitz and Pickering make in this piece are all too common, and have led many in the past to make similar such observations that powerful states constantly engage in a grand human rights “double standard.”
Improving The Agents And Mechanisms Of Humanitarian Intervention, James Pattison
Improving The Agents And Mechanisms Of Humanitarian Intervention, James Pattison
Human Rights & Human Welfare
I agree with the broad thrust of Abramowitz and Pickering’s article. They rightly highlight the failings of the current agents and mechanisms of humanitarian intervention. The problem, however, is twofold. First, all the currently-existing interveners possess notable, and well-known, flaws. The U.N. and regional organizations suffer from serious shortfalls in funding and equipment. States frequently lack the commitment and willingness to act. And, although NATO’s operations in Bosnia and Kosovo raised hopes that it would be a willing and powerful humanitarian intervener, the reluctance of many of its members to commit troops in Afghanistan (where member states have clear interests) …
Exile: Why The Human Rights Council Will Not Work, Daniel J. Graeber
Exile: Why The Human Rights Council Will Not Work, Daniel J. Graeber
Human Rights & Human Welfare
The Economist writes in an April 24th edition that the U.N.’s Human Rights Council, the predecessor to the sixty-year-old U.N. Commission on Human Rights, is a “one-sided Israeli-bashing” organization. The Economist argues that the inclusion of second- and third-tier countries from the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) and the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) makes it a forum for targeting offenses committed by the Israeli government against the Palestinian people.
June Roundtable: Introduction
Human Rights & Human Welfare
An annotation of:
"A Screaming Start: The UN and Human Rights." The Economist. April 24, 2008.
The Human Rights Council: A Failure In Global Governance, Eric K. Leonard
The Human Rights Council: A Failure In Global Governance, Eric K. Leonard
Human Rights & Human Welfare
“The UN and Human Rights: A Screaming Start,” makes several valid points of concern in regards to the recently formed Human Rights Council. As the article stipulates, in many ways the Council does not look radically different from its predecessor, the Human Rights Commission, in that it fails to provide membership regulations that would keep “not free” states of the Council (with only twenty-three out of forty-seven states defined as free) and it lacks the clout in the political hierarchy to truly accomplish anything of substance. However, the article does point out that the one mechanism that could prove useful …
The Myth Of Membership: Reforming The U.N. Human Rights Council, Sonia Cardenas
The Myth Of Membership: Reforming The U.N. Human Rights Council, Sonia Cardenas
Human Rights & Human Welfare
The purportedly new-and-improved Human Rights Council is, by most accounts, failing to live up to its promise. Critics accuse the Council of following in the footsteps of its predecessor the U.N. Human Rights Commission because it permits rights abusers among its ranks and it focuses overwhelmingly on Israel. The dominant assumption, articulated by the United States, is that this is a problem of membership; more stringent criteria would result in a less biased body. This, however, is wishful thinking. Changing the rules of membership would only substitute one set of biases for another. A productive dialogue about reforming the Human …
Heather Heckel On Child Soldiers: From Violence To Protection By Michael Wessells. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2006. 284 Pp., Heather Heckel
Human Rights & Human Welfare
A review of:
Child Soldiers: From Violence to Protection by Michael Wessells. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2006. 284 pp.
Neotrusteeship Or Mistrusteeship? The "Authority Creep" Dilemma In United Nations Transitional Administration, Christian E. Ford
Neotrusteeship Or Mistrusteeship? The "Authority Creep" Dilemma In United Nations Transitional Administration, Christian E. Ford
Christian E Ford
No abstract provided.
Gregory J. Moore On The U.N. Secretary General And Moral Authority: Ethics And Religion In International Leadership. Edited By Kent J. Kille. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press. 2007. 370pp., Gregory J. Moore
Human Rights & Human Welfare
A review of:
The U.N. Secretary General and Moral Authority: Ethics and Religion in International Leadership. Edited by Kent J. Kille. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press. 2007. 370pp.
Tugba Basaran On The Rights Of Refugees Under International Law By James C. Hathaway. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. 1239pp., Tugba Basaran
Human Rights & Human Welfare
A review of:
The Rights of Refugees Under International Law by James C. Hathaway. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. 1239pp.
Eric Pianowski On Trafficking In Humans: Social, Cultural And Political Dimensions Edited By Sally Cameron And Edward Newman. New York: United Nations University Press, 2008. 284 Pp., Eric Pianowski
Human Rights & Human Welfare
A review of:
Trafficking in Humans: Social, Cultural and Political Dimensions edited by Sally Cameron and Edward Newman. New York: United Nations University Press, 2008. 284 pp.
China- Tibet Conflict, Allen Gnanam
China- Tibet Conflict, Allen Gnanam
Allen Gnanam
China- Tibet tensions are continually growing, as Tibetans are protesting for total independence from China, despite condemnation from their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, who is only seeking a sense of autonomy for Tibet (Sinder, 2008). As Tibetan protests are becoming violent and aggressive, the Dalai Lama has also threatened to resign as Tibet’s government in exile (Sinder, 2008), however, his rhetoric is not being exposed to the Tibetan people, due to government censorship in China. Therefore the Dalai Lama, an exiled institutional entrepreneur, has to find new methods that will enable his influential message, to be received by the …