Carnegie Council

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Articles

Introduction: New Issues in East Asian Human Rights 12/05/96
The topics chosen—the treatment of migrant workers, the plight of indigenous peoples, prostitution, discrimination against minority populations—suggest a new emphasis on social, cultural, and economic rights in the region's human rights discourse.

The Appropriateness of Rights Language 12/05/96
At the workshop, the language and logic of the indivisibility of rights—as expressed at the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna—fell victim to the realities of competing rights claims that cannot be simultaneously implemented.

Balancing Rights, Duties, and Underlying Values 12/05/96
In their reluctance to unconditionally embrace rights language and logic, some participants turned to the concepts of duty and responsibility, which are commonly believed to be deeply embedded in East Asian cultures.

Globalization and Its Impact on Rights Consciousness 12/05/96
While economic growth can assist the progressive implementation of some social rights such as education, it also tends to generate new abuses, such as poor working conditions and prohibitions against organized labor.

Identity, Recognition, and Group Rights 12/05/96
The threat of either homogenization or "forced multiculturalism" posed by globalization has fueled crises of identity, the politics of difference, and struggles for recognition. Indigenous peoples are demanding recognition and poliferation of minority claims throughout East Asia.

The Role of Cultural Reflection 12/05/96
Relative to globalization and development imperatives, renewed reflection on cultural traditions played a lesser, or not clearly delineated, role as the impetus for emerging rights issues in Thailand.

Shifting Responsibility: State and Nonstate Actors 12/05/96
When the factors of social disintegration deny the realization of particular rights to an individual or collective, who in a given society is expected to fill the void? Is it the individual, the family, the local community, the school, the religious institution, or the state?

Challenges to and Prospects for Implementation 12/05/96
What can human rights proponents do when victims, say prostitutes, see their work not so much as a violation of their dignity—let alone a violation of their rights—but rather as a duty to their family? How can their rights be protected when they do not view them as rights?

In Conclusion 12/05/96

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.