Carnegie Council

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Articles

International Human Rights and Asian Commitment 12/04/95
After the 1993 Bangkok Regional Preparatory Meeting, human rights were no longer dismissed as a tool of foreign oppression but were promoted as a means of asserting Asian distinctiveness from Western-dominated norms of social and political order.
Author(s): Joanne Bauer

A Brief History of the Modern Human Rights Discourse in China 12/04/95
Given the logic of communist ideology—that the working people are the masters in society—human rights did not make much sense. After all, the logic went, from whom do you want rights?
Author(s): Xin Chunying

Authoritarian Culture and the Struggle for Human Rights in Thailand 12/04/95
A Hindu notion of divine kingship and a feudal absolute monarchy have reinforced authoritarianism as the dominant political culture from ancient to present-day Thai society, clashing with a modern culture of democracy and human rights.
Author(s): Jaran Cosananund

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.