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Human Rights Issues (human + right_issues)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Humanities and Social Sciences100%

Selected Abstracts

Museums of ,human suffering' and the struggle for human rights

MUSEUM INTERNATIONAL, Issue 1 2001
Terence M. Duffy
Following the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Terence M. Duffy describes museum exhibits of ,human suffering' and the struggle for human rights, particularly recent museums and proposals for museums in places where genocide has occurred, or where human beings were held in bondage. Human rights issues constitute important subjects for museums, from concentration camps to museums of slavery. Professor Duffy teaches Peace Studies at the University of Ulster and directs the Irish Peace Museum Project. [source]

Congress, Kissinger, and the Origins of Human Rights Diplomacy

DIPLOMATIC HISTORY, Issue 5 2010
Barbara Keys
The Congressional "human rights insurgency" of 1973,1977 centered on the holding of public hearings to shame countries engaging in human rights abuses and on legislation cutting off aid and trade to violators. Drawing on recently declassified documents, this article shows that the State Department's thoroughly intransigent response to Congressional human rights legislation, particularly Section 502B, was driven by Kissinger alone, against the advice of his closest advisers. Many State Department officials, usually from a mixture of pragmatism and conviction, argued for cooperation with Congress or for taking the initiative on human rights issues. Kissinger's adamant refusal to cooperate left Congress to implement a reactive, punitive, and unilateral approach that would set the human rights agenda long after the Ford administration left office. [source]

The International Petroleum Industry Environmental Conservation Association social responsibility working group and human rights

INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SCIENCE JOURNAL, Issue 2005
Jenny Owens
This chapter describes how the oil and gas industry is responding to one specific challenge to sustainable development , the promotion of human rights. The human rights activities and practices of the industry fall into three categories: direct responsibility, shared responsibility and indirect influence. Specific responses to human rights issues are illustrated through case studies from some of the member companies of the International Petroleum Industry Environmental Conservation Association. The chapter demonstrates that the oil and gas industry has achieved substantial progress in establishing and implementing human rights policies and practices. However, the debate between industry, representatives of civil society and governments over the roles, responsibilities and accountability for human rights of transnational corporations in general, and of the oil and gas industry in particular, continues. While under international law the responsibility to protect human rights rests primarily with governments, companies and others, including non-governmental organisations and multilateral organisations, can support human rights. The industry recognises the need to develop measures to help address human rights challenges and that this effort will require co-operation and shared responsibility among all relevant actors. [source]

Commerce and Imagination: The Sources of Concern about International Human Rights in the US Congress

INTERNATIONAL STUDIES QUARTERLY, Issue 3 2010
Ellen A. Cutrone
Do members of Congress put human rights concerns on the agenda in response to their constituents' demands for trade protection? Humanitarian concern may be an important motive, but the normative weight of these issues also makes them a potentially powerful tool for politicians with less elevated agendas. They may criticize the behavior of countries with whom their constituents must compete economically, while overlooking the actions of countries with which their constituents have more harmonious economic relations. This paper tests several hypotheses about the salience of human rights concerns in the politics of US foreign policy using data on congressional speeches during the late 1990s gathered from the Congressional Record. We find evidence that, while humanitarian interests remain an important motive for raising human rights issues, the economic interests of their constituents influence which members of Congress speak out on these questions, and the countries on which they focus their concern. [source]

People's Exit in North Korea: New Threat to Regime Stability?

PACIFIC FOCUS, Issue 2 2010
Kyung-Ae Park
As suggested in a growing literature that securitizes the phenomenon of refugee migration and analyzes it as a national as well as a regional security issue, the growing number of North Korean border-crossers has far-reaching political implications for both North Korea and the international community. Studies have argued that refugees could contribute significantly to democratic change in their home countries by assisting and actively participating in the struggle of the domestic opposition, even sparking regime instability and eventual regime breakdown. Much of the North Korean refugee research has focused on the human rights issues faced by the refugees, but a largely unexplored area of the refugee research concerns the political consequences of the refugee flight for the current regime in Pyongyang. This article examines whether North Korean refugees are expected to play the role of political opposition in exile by raising the following four questions: (i) Are the refugees political dissidents? (ii) Are they a resourceful critical mass? (iii) Does exit always lead to regime instability? and (iv) Would China and South Korea encourage exile politics against the current North Korean regime? The article contends that the North Korean refugee community does not currently represent a critical mass that can trigger instability of the Pyongyang regime. Most of the North Korean refugees are not political dissidents, nor have they organized into any resourceful critical mass capable of generating a threat to their home country. In addition, people's exit does not necessarily destabilize the regime as it can sometimes yield a positive political effect by driving out dissidents' voices. Furthermore, several of the receiving countries, in particular, China and South Korea, would not encourage exile dissident movements against North Korea for fear of Pyongyang's collapse. The North Korean regime's stability does not seem to be threatened by the current refugee situation, although the potential of refugees becoming a critical threat should not be discounted should people's exit ever reach the point of developing into an uncontrollable mass exodus. [source]