Carnegie Council

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Articles

Introduction: Efforts, East and West, to Improve Human Rights Assessments 09/05/97
These articles highlight the need to improve the current human rights assessment regime. They describe the work by a few individuals and organizations to accomplish this, primarily by investing attention and resources in the recognition, monitoring, and realization of ESC rights.
Author(s): Tonya Cook

ESC Rights Assessments at the UN 09/05/97
United Nations system for monitoring implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), is done by the Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural (ESC) Rights.

The Need for an Intercivilizational Approach to Evaluating Human Rights 09/05/97
Onuma Yasuaki is engaged in a critique of some of the standards currently used by Western NGOs to assess the state of human rights within countries. Yasuaki argues for the development of an “intercivilizational” approach to human rights assessments.
Author(s): Onuma Yasuaki

Human Rights for the Next Century 09/05/97
Chris Jochnick provides his view on the future of human rights along with the predicted efforts of the United Nations and other NGOs.
Author(s): Chris Jochnick

"The West" Is Not Only the United States: European Assessments of Human Rights 09/05/97
Peter R. Baehr analyzes the human rights of European nations. These countries continue to contribute to the development of more balanced human rights assessments in the West.
Author(s): Peter R. Baehr

Human Rights Assessments: A Role for UNDP? 09/05/97
Håkan Björkman asks whether United Nations development agencies, such as UNICEF, should be assessing human rights around the world.
Author(s): Håkan Björkman

Bringing Women's Rights Back into the Human Rights Movement 09/05/97
Jessica Neuwirth would like to bring women's rights to the forefront in the human rights movement as most of the UDHR have a far more significant impact on women.
Author(s): Jessica Neuwirth

Assessing Survival Rights: A New Initiative of the Free Legal Assistance Group in the Philippines 09/05/97
Ma. Socorro Diokno believes FLAG’s work is a first step toward the creation of just social structures that could lead to the full realization of the rights of survival, in terms of assessing survival rights.
Author(s): Ma. Socorro Diokno

A "Violations Approach" to Monitoring the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights 09/05/97
Audrey R. Chapman believes the United Nations system and relevant nongovernmental organizations should adopt a “violations approach” to monitoring economic, social, and cultural (ESC) rights.
Author(s): Audrey R. Chapman

Examples of Violations 09/05/97
Sites violations resulting from Government Action, Policy, or Legislation, and Related to Patterns of Discrimination, as well as Omission or State Failure to Fulfill Obligations.

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.