International and Area Studies Commons^™

Opening The Dichotomy Of Universalism And Relativism, Chih-Yu Shih

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Negotiating Culture and Human Rights edited by Linda S. Bell, Andrew J. Nathan and Ilan Peleg. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001. 428 pp.

and

East Meets West: Human Rights and Democracy in East Asia by Daniel A. Bell. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000. 369 pp.

Explaining Rwanda’S 1994 Genocide, Paul Magnarellav

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Mahmood Mamdani, When Victims Become Killers: Colonialism, Nativism, and the Genocide in Rwanda. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2001. 364 pp.

and

John A. Berry and Carol Pott Berry (eds.), Genocide in Rwanda: A Collective Memory. Washington, DC: Howard University Press, 1999. 201 pp.

Kosovo And Beyond: Is Humanitarian Intervention Transforming International Society?, Roberto Belloni

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Saving Strangers: Humanitarian Intervention in International Society by Nicholas J. Wheeler. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. 352pp.

and

The Kosovo Tragedy: The Human Rights Dimensions edited by Ken Booth. Portland, OR: Frank Cass, 2001. 386pp.

Feeling The Heat Of Human Rights Branding: Bringing Transnational Corporations Within The International Human Rights Fence, Robert Mccorquodale

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Human Rights Standards and the Responsibility of Transnational Corporations edited by Michael K. Addo. The Hague: Kluwer Law International, 1999. 384pp.

Darkness In Anthropology, Peter Van Arsdale

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An essay covering Darkness in El Dorado: How Scientists and Journalists Devastated the Amazon by Patrick Tierney. New York: W.W. Norton, 2000. 417 pp. and related documents.

Capitalizing On Market Reforms: Facets Of Legal Development In Contemporary China, Stefanie Elbern

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Law and Justice in China’s New Marketplace by Ronald C. Keith and Zhiqiu Lin. New York: Palgrave, 2001. 315pp.

and

Profits and Principles: Global Capitalism and Human Rights in China by Michael A. Santoro. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2000. 256pp.

Reshaping The Present And Constructing The Future Through Remembering The Past, Mercedes Barros

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

When History is a Nightmare: Lives and Memories of Ethnic Cleansing in Bosnia Herzegovina by Stevan Weine. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1999. 259 pp.

and

The Politics of Memory: Truth, Healing and Social Justice by Ifi Amadiume and Abdullahi An-Na’im. New York: Zed Books, 2000. 207 pp.

Publish Not Punish: The Contested Truth Of The South African Truth And Reconciliation Commission, Todd Landman

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

After the TRC: Reflections on Truth and Reconciliation in South Africa, Wilmot James and Linda van de Vijver, Editors. Athens: Ohio University Press and Cape Town: David Philip Publishers, 2000. 228pp.

and

Looking Back, Reaching Forward: Reflections on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa, Charles Villa-Vicencio and Wilhelm Verwoerd, Editors. Cape Town: University of Cape Town Press and London: Zed Books, 2000. 322pp.

The Deconstruction Of Refugees And The Reconstruction Of History, Peter W. Van Arsdale

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of States and Strangers: Refugees and Displacements of Statecraft, by Nevzat Soguk. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press (Borderlines Series, No. 11) 1999. 328 pp.

I would characterize Nevzat Soguk as either a neo-liberal operating in the guise of a postmodern deconstructionist, or a post-modern deconstructionist operating in the guise of a neoliberal. This is not a trivial distinction, nor an attempt to play semantic games, but my attempt to classify a brilliant theorist (known for his work in political science) whose book has a great deal of merit—but whose writing at times seems aimed more at discursive analysis …

Preface, Tom Farer

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A quarter century ago, when I was elected to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the human rights institutional landscape had the appearance and analogical character of a largely undeveloped sub-division on the metropolitan fringe. In large part, the land was not even platted. Here and there a few structures poked out of the muddy soil. One, the Human Rights Commission of the United Nations, had the look of a community hall built with little hope and less conviction by largely disinterested city fathers obligated to intimate belief in the sub-division’s arresting features and future. Among public buildings, only the …

Challenging The Gendered Hegemony Of Space: Acknowledging ‘Difference’ In Development Planning, Laura Hebert

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of Gender, Planning and Human Rights, edited by Tovi Fenster. New York: Routledge, 1999 (International Studies of Women and Place Series). 240pp.

Traditionally, feminist efforts to promote and protect women’s rights as human rights have focused on legalistic strategies, such as advocating for the inclusion of gender-specific concerns in international human rights conventions, the implementation of national legislation, the revision of laws that are discriminatory to women, and the strengthening of police and judicial procedures. In recent years, however, feminist activists and academics have recognized that advancing the status and empowerment of women requires recognition of the multiple …

“¡Tierra Y Libertad!” A 100 Year-Old Echo For The Maya Of Chiapas, Sharon Healey

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of Conflict in Chiapas: Understanding the Modern Mayan World. By Worth H. Weller. North Manchester, IN: DeWitt Books, 2000. 152pp.

Prior to the January 1, 1994 uprising of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) the indigenous peoples of Chiapas, Mexico’s impoverished southernmost state, were largely oppressed by their own government and ignored by the rest of the world. The Zapatistas, (named after the mustachioed hero of the Mexican Revolution, Emiliano Zapata), and their eloquent, pipe smoking spokesperson, Sub-Comandante Marcos, changed that by turning the international spotlight on the woeful living conditions of Mexico’s indigenous population.

Universality By Consensus: The Evolution Of Universality In The Drafting Of The Udhr, Amy Eckert

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Drafting, Origins & Intent by Johannes Morsink. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press (Pennsylvania Studies in Human Rights), 2000. 400pp.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) has helped to define human rights standards and bring them to the forefront of global concern. Yet the UDHR continues to suffer from charges of cultural imperialism. While many scholars have answered these charges with philosophical justification for universal human rights, Johannes Morsink takes another approach to the question of cultural relativism in The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Origins, Drafting & Intent.

Human Rights From Paper To Practice: How Far Have We Come?, Gerald Robert Pace

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of The Power of Human Rights: International Norms and Domestic Change, edited by Thomas Risse, Steve C. Ropp, and Kathryn Sikkink. New York: Cambridge University Press (Cambridge Studies in International Relations, 66) 1999. 308pp.

The adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is now some fifty years behind us. Perhaps now is the time to focus less on which aspects of the political and private realms should fall under the domain of human rights, and more on the effect of the human rights discourse on the harmonization of state behavior. We presently live in a world …

Democratization And Human Rights: Affinity Or Tension?, Sharon Healey

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of Democratization and the Protection of Human Rights: Challenges and Contradictions, edited by Patricia J. Campbell and Kathleen Mahoney- Norris. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 1998. 140pp.

Historically, studies on democracy and human rights have considered the two as unrelated issues, and where treated as related, many scholars have assumed a positive relationship between democracy, human rights and development. The contributors to Democratization and the Protection of Human Rights, Challenges and Contradictions examine and critique some of the popular conceptions about the relationship between democracy and human rights.

China’S Cautious Participation In The Un Human Rights Regime, Greg Moore

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of China, the United Nations, and Human Rights: The Limits of Compliance, by Ann Kent. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999. 328pp.

When most Western students of human rights and/or international relations think of China, unfortunately they are most likely to think not of the greatness and longevity of Chinese civilization, the goodness of Chinese cuisine, or the grandesse of the Chinese landscape. Rather, they are most likely to think of the Tian’anmen Square incident of 1989 and China’s human rights problems. Considering both the interest and the emotion generated in the West over the issue of human …

Now We Know About Pinochet, But Where Do We Go From Here?, Gerald Robert Pace

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of Chile Under Pinochet: Recovering the Truth. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press (Pennsylvania Studies in Human Rights), 1999. 296pp.

General Augusto Pinochet, who served as military and civil leader of Chile from 1973 until 1990, forged perhaps one of the most authoritarian regimes ever to govern in the Western Hemisphere. Spearheading the violent coup d’état that ousted socialist President Salvador Allende, Pinochet not only achieved power, but also created a personalistic dictatorship bolstered by a military run governmental bureaucracy to secure his rule. And indeed, this combination perpetuated Pinochet’s seventeen-year tenure.

Shaping Asylum: The Power Of Language, Teresa Tellechea

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of Arguing about Asylum: The Complexity of Refugee Debates in Europe by Niklaus Steiner. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000. 186pp.

It is June 1992. War has broken out in the Balkans. When we leave Madrid by car for the frontlines in Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bosnians and Croats are defending themselves against Serbians. Our license plates begin with SA, the abbreviation for Salamanca, Spain, which is taken to mean Sarajevo, which is currently under siege. On the road to Mostar we are greeted as heroes having been able to escape from SArajevo, though we are two free-lance photographers from …

Universal Human Rights And Cultural Diversity, Hilde Hey

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of Human Rights: New Perspectives, New Realities, edited by Adamantia Pollis and Peter Schwab. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2000. 259pp.

The debate as to whether human rights should be considered universal or culturally relative has come a long way. In 1947, when the Commission on Human Rights considered proposals for formulating a declaration on basic human rights, the American Anthropological Association submitted a statement expressing concern about the universality of the proposed declaration. The association’s main argument was that ideas about rights and wrongs and good and evil that exist in one society are incompatible with the ideas …

Assessing The Concept Of Human Rights In Africa, Paul J. Magnarella

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of Human Rights in Africa: The Conflict of Implementation by Richard Amoako Baah. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2000. 123pp.

The title of this book is somewhat more expansive than its contents. The author, a native Ghanaian who holds a Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee and teaches government at South Texas College, reports on an interesting study of human rights/human dignity conceptualizations among the Akan people of Ghana. The Akan constitute about 60% of Ghana’s 14 million people and consist of five major groups: Fanti, Ashanti, Akim, Brong, and Akwapim. A sizable Akan population also lives …

Swallowing Injustice To Build Community: Latin America After The Era Of State Terror, Tom J. Farer

Human Rights & Human Welfare

From the mid-1960's to the late 1980's (even later in certain countries), militarized governments in most of Latin America enforced their view of a desirable public order by terrorizing great numbers of citizens who happened to have different views and also their friends and relations and persons who, whatever their views or lack thereof, objected to terror as a means of governing.