Carnegie Council

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Section 1

Section One Introduction: The Case for Cultural Rights 04/22/05
This section of Human Rights Dialogue: Cultural Rights (Spring 2005) serves as an introduction to the application of cultural rights and addresses the question of why the concept of cultural rights is a necessary part of a human rights approach.

Rethinking Cultural Genocide Under International Law 04/22/05
Cultural genocide is a unique wrong that should be recognized independently and that rises to the level of meriting individual criminal responsibility. If the highest values of a society are expressed through its criminal laws, then acts of cultural genocide are indeed criminal.
Author(s): David Nersessian

"This Forest Is Ours" 04/22/05
The cultural survival of the Yiaaku people in the Mukogodo forest of Kenya depends upon preserving their intimate relationship with the forest. The Yiaaku want the status of the Mukogodo forest changed from a protected forest to a Trust Forest in their name.
Author(s): Muthee Thuku

Language Rights And Guarani Renaissance In Bolivia 04/22/05
Guarani claim the right to native language schooling not just to reproduce their distinct identity, but also to engage in a pluralistic society as equals.
Author(s): Bret Gustafson

The Stolen Generation: Aboriginal Children In Australia 04/22/05
The Australian government's policy to eradicate Aboriginal culture constitutes a clear-cut violation of the group's cultural rights.
Author(s): Danielle Celermajer

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.