Carnegie Council

Text Size: A A

Articles

Introduction: Human Rights for All? The Problem of the Human Rights Box 12/05/99
The human rights box is a set of historical and structural circumstances that enables the human rights framework to gain currency among elites while limiting advances among the general population - a universe of opportunities for the few, none for the majority.

To Our Readers: Human Rights for All? The Problem of the Human Rights Box 12/05/99
In this issue we examine the barriers that prevent a broad cross-section of people from embracing and benefiting from human rights.
Author(s): Joanne Bauer

Why More Africans Don't Use Human Rights Language 12/05/99
What explains the current crisis of human rights and the retreat from the human rights paradigm as an engine of struggle? To begin to understand, we must examine the evolution and practices of the organizations and institutions that espouse the protection of human rights.
Author(s): Chidi Anselm Odinkalu

Reflections on Human Rights at Century's End 12/05/99
Larry Cox reflects on the record of human rights throughout the past century as well as what the future holds for the human rights movement around the world.
Author(s): Larry Cox

Crime: A Latin American Challenge for Human Rights 12/05/99
Carlos Basombrío writes on the the issue of crime in Latin America. Crime presents human rights advocates with challenges that must be resolved if Latin American countries are to build legitimacy for human rights principles.
Author(s): Carlos Basombrío

Human Rights in the Aftermath of Kosovo 12/05/99
In the Balkans, where human rights discourse was used to morally justify the loss and destruction of thousands of lives, the human rights language, paradigm, and call to action have become problematic. In the aftermath of Kosovo, the soul of human rights is in search of a new embodiment.
Author(s): Dimitrina Petrova

The Credibility Crisis of International Human Rights in the Arab World 12/05/99
International groups should collaborate with the local Arab movement to develop strategies to build the moral standing of human rights among the public and improve the responsiveness of human rights practice to Arab concerns.
Author(s): Bahey El Din Hassan

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.