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Last updated: 11 October 2015
Scholarly Essays on Human Rights Human Rights and Equal Opportunity More recent links are at the
top of each section |
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Scholarly Essays on Human Rights |
Michael
A Bouzigard, review of “Making People Illegal: What
Globalisation Means for Migration and Law,” by Catherine Dauvergne,
Human Rights Review, Vol. 12, No. 4
(December 2011), pp. 537-539.
Available for purchase at: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs12142-011-0208-9. The reviewer reports that throughout the book,
a focus on migration law reveals a history of contestation within and across
nations as a resistance to human rights norms and as a malleable means for
protecting national borders. Yet, “Dauvergne argues that globalising forces are now shifting
the framework of migration law imbuing it with a more solid, rule of law
quality,” The book was published in
2008. Nicholas
Rengger, “The World Turned Upside Down? Human
Rights and International Relations after 25 Years,” International Affairs, Vol. 87, No. 5 (September 2011), pp.
1159-1178. Available to Chatham House
members at: http://www.chathamhouse.org/publications/ia/archive/view/178547. The author examines the evolution of thought on
human rights over a 25-year period and considers whether the “huge sea-change
in attitudes and claims about them” reflect a “high tide for human rights” as
a result of the emergence of 21st century powers whose commitment to human
rights is less than that of the older powers. Amital
Etzioni, “Obama’s Implicit Human Rights Doctrine,” Human Rights Review, Vol. 12, No. 2 (March
2011), pp. 93-107. Available at: http://icps.gwu.edu/files/2011/02/obama-human-rights.pdf. President Barack Obama outlined
a human rights doctrine during his first term in office. The author contends
that the essence of Obama’s position is that the “foreign policy of the USA
is dedicated to the promotion of the most basic human right—the right to
life—above and beyond all others and that the USA will systematically refrain
from actively promoting other rights, even if this merely entails sanctions
or raising a moral voice”. Seyla Benhabib,
“The Legitimacy of Human Rights,” Daedalus, Vol. 137, No. 3 (Summer 2008), pp. 94-105. Available at: http://www.yale.edu/polisci/sbenhabib/papers/The%20Legitimacy%20of%20Human%20Rights.pdf. The author examines the wide-ranging disagreement
among philosophers and jurists about the nature and scope of supposedly
universal human rights. She concludes
that the discourse
of human rights has often been exploited and misused by political moralists;
“its proper place is to guide the moral politician, be they citizens or
leaders”. All that philosophers and
jurists can offer is a “clarification of what we can regard as legitimate and
just in the domain of human rights.” Michael Dusche, “Human Rights, Autonomy and
National Sovereignty,” Ethical Perspectives, Vol. 7, No. 1 (2000), pp.
24-36. Available for purchase at: http://poj.peeters-leuven.be/content.php?url=article&id=503790&journal_code=EP&download=yes. The author states a case that, “from the legal
and ethical viewpoint, the preservation of human rights has precedence over
the right to political self-determination [of a sub-national group of
people].” This implies that parties to
the formation of a separate political community would reject any form of such
a community that was not “capable of guaranteeing their human rights and
basic liberties.” |
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Human Rights and Equal Opportunity |
Anna Neistat,
“Human Rights a Casualty of Ukraine’s Political ‘Madness,’” The Sydney Morning Herald, 3 June
2014. http://www.smh.com.au/comment/human-rights-a-casualty-of-ukraines-political-madness-20140603-zrwlp.html. Anna is Associate Director, Program/Emergencies
for Human Rights Watch and was previously director of their Moscow office
(click here for her profile). The article contains recent experiences acquired
during her visit to Ukraine.
United Nations
Human Rights, “Report of the Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” and a 365 page report on the details
of the findings are available at: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/CoIDPRK/Pages/ReportoftheCommissionofInquiryDPRK.aspx. The commission found that systematic, widespread and gross human
rights violations have been are being committed by the Democratic People’s
Republic of Korea. In many instances,
the violations found entailed crimes against humanity based on State
policies.
Susan E Rice,
“Human Rights: Advancing American Interests and Values,” remarks at the Human
Rights First Annual Summit, Washington, DC, 4 December 2013. Text available at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/12/04/remarks-national-security-advisor-susan-e-rice-human-rights-advancing-am. The speech
indicates the specific aspects of human rights to which the American
government remains committed.
Irene Khan, “Lost Rights, Lost Lives,” The New York Times, 14 May 2013. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/15/opinion/global/lost-rights-and-lost-lives-in-bangladesh.html?hpw. The author
indicates that in 1971 Bangladeshis fought for rights for all, “but rights
for all is now what we got. The Rana Plaza disaster and the outbreak of Islamist violence
are part of a concatenation of ills, fed by corruption, political expediency
and contempt for universal human rights.
When only my rights count, not yours, no human right is safe”.
Seyla Benhabib, “Human Rights, International Law and the Transatlantic Rift,” Chapter 9 of The Democratic Disconnect: Citizenship and Accountability in the Transatlantic Community, Transatlantic Academy, May 2013. Available at: http://www.gmfus.org/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files_mf/1366057825TA20123report_May13_complete_web.pdf. The author begins by examining the international human rights regime of the post-1948 period and its paradoxes. She argues that the spread of the human rights regime exacerbates the democratic disconnect even as, “by pushing the practice of democratic citizenship beyond borders through transnational legal sites, it deepens democratic commitments.” Cheng
Guangjin and Pu Zhendong, “US ‘Turns Blind Eye’ to Human Rights,” People’s Daily, 22 April 2013. Available at: http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90883/8218177.html. The authors summarise the “Human Rights Record of
the United States in 2012”, (http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2013-04/21/c_132327175.htm) which was released by the State Council
Information Office of the People’s Republic of China on 21 April 2013,
mentioning specifically that “for a ling time, the US has favoured civil and
political rights, and overlooked social and economic rights. But human rights are an organic whole,
including economic, social and cultural rights, based on the interpretation
the advocacy of the United Nations,” “China:
Refugees Forcibly Returned to Burma,” Human Rights Watch, 24 August
2012. Available at: http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/08/24/china-refugees-forcibly-returned-burma. Note that the news release contains links to
other related news items and reports concerning the ethnic Kachin people from northern Myanmar. Anna
Sevortian and Tanya Likshina,
“Russian Rights at the Crossroads,” originally published in Open Democracy and is available from
Human Rights Watch, 24 August 2012 at: http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/08/24/russian-rights-crossroads. Joel
Ng, “Asean Human Rights
Declaration: A Pragmatic Compromise – Analysis,” Eurasia Review, 26 November 2012.
Available at: http://www.eurasiareview.com/26112012-asean-human-rights-declaration-a-pragmatic-compromise-analysis/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+eurasiareview%2FvsnE+%28Eurasia+Review%29. The
full text of the Asean Human
Rights Declaration is available at: http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=11&token=ODYwNjEzMDgzNTIzODcwMGIyNTNiZGRkZWM4ODM0. Additional commentaries on it: Sam
Campbell, “ASEAN Declaration Allows Cambodia to Flout Human Rights, Warn
Campaigners,” The Guardian, 23
November 2012. Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2012/nov/23/asean-declaration-cambodia-flout-human-rights Associated
Press, “ASEAN’s Human Rights Declaration Criticised by US and Others,” South China Morning Post, 19
November 2012. Available at: http://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1085659/aseans-human-rights-declaration-criticised-us-and-others. Joshua
Rozenberg, “Gary McKinnon: Theresa May Had No
Choice but to Use Human Rights Grounds”, The
Guardian, 16 October 2012.
Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2012/oct/16/gary-mckinnon-theresa-may-human-rights. Charlie
Savage, “Election May Decide When Interrogation Amounts to Torture,” The New York Times, 27 September
2012. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/28/us/politics/election-will-decide-future-of-interrogation-methods-for-terrorism-suspects.html. Paul
Sheehan, “Rudd’s Electoral Cracks About to Open Further,” The Sydney Morning Herald, 9 June
2010. Available at: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/rudds-electoral-cracks-about-to-open-further-20100609-xugc.html?autostart=1. George
Williams, “Human Rights: People with Power Don’t Want to Give It Up,” The Sydney Morning Herald, 27 April
2010. Available at: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/human-rights-people-with-power-I-want-to-give-it-up-20100426-tn7b.html. Brennan
Report: “China-Australia
Human Rights Technical Cooperation Program,” background information by Mr
David Robinson, Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, with
introduction by Michael C.H. Jones, dated August 2002. Click here for both documents. David
Robinson’s background information updated as at 5 July 2007: Click here for this document in Microsoft
Word. “Human Rights Fundamentalisms,” by David Kinley. This is the
Inaugural Lecture for the Chair in Human Rights Law at Sydney University,
delivered 6 December 2006 with the text made available by the author that
included updates as at February 2007.
In portable document format. Information from the Department of Foreign Affairs
and Trade on matters relating to global and regional bodies that are
advancing human rights priorities.
Link to the document is: http://www.dfat.gov.au/hr/. Information
on human rights and equal opportunity in Australia’s aid program is available
at: http://www.ausaid.gov.au/china/hrtc_program.cfm. No author cited, “And the Law
Won: Politics,” The Economist, 23 May 2015.
Available at: http://www.economist.com/news/china/21651843-rise-and-fall-chinas-civil-rights-lawyers-says-much-about-communist-partys-approach. |
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Thomas L Friedman, “Takin’
It to the Streets,” The New York Times,
29 June 2013. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/30/opinion/Sunday/takin-it-to-the-streets.html?hp&_r=1. Friedman considers an essay by Paul R. Pillar in the National Interest about the recent spate of street
demonstrations, particularly in Brazil and Turkey. Friedman offers some suggested explanations
for the phenomenon: the rise and proliferation of illiberal “majoritarian” democracies; the way middle-class workers
are being squeezed between a shrinking welfare-state and much more demanding
job market; and the increased power and ability for people to link up with
others through information and communications technology to require their
leaders to engage in two-way conversations. Gerald M Callucci,
‘US Foreign Policy and the Pursuit of “Democracy,” TransConflict,
8 July 2013. Available at: http://www.transconflict.com/2013/07/us-foreign-policy-and-the-pursuit-of-democracy-087. “The
problem with the US effort to push “democracy” is that it doesn’t seem to
help anyone. When the US talks democracy, it means the kind it has – with
checks and balances and all. Yet, democracy cannot simply be transferred or
grafted onto another country; it rather must arise from within the historical
experience and political culture of a society. |
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Robert Levine,
“Behind the European Privacy Ruling That’s Confounding Silicon Valley,” The New York Times, 9 October
2015. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/11/business/international/behind-the-european-privacy-ruling-thats-confounding-silicon-valley.html. “When Max Schrems won a
landmark privacy case in the European Court of Justice, Edward J. Snowden
told him on Twitter that he had ‘changed the world for the better.’” Judith DeCew, “Privacy,”
Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, 9 July 2012. Available at: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/privacy/. The essay discusses the following topics
associated with privacy: (1) the historical roots of the concept,
(2) the critiques of privacy as a right, (3) )
the wide variety of philosophical definitions or defences of privacy as a concept,
and (4) the challenges to privacy that are posed in an age of technological
growth. Michael Hart, “Striking a
Balance: Defining the Right of Privacy,” The
Chambers Magazine, Issue 34, 2011.
Available at: http://www.chambersmagazine.co.uk/Article/Striking-a-balance-Defining-the-right-of-privacy. Michael discusses the major differences in the
approach to privacy and freedom of the press in the EU and raises the point
that once a secret emerges it can quickly go viral on the Internet and appear
in countries such as the USA which do not have strong privacy
protection. “When does the public have
a right to know? At what point must you accept that the genie is out of the
bottle?” Jed Rubenfeld, “The Right of Privacy,” Faculty Scholarship Series, Yale Law School, 1989. Available at: http://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/fss_papers/1569. In Rubenfeld’s opinion,
“privacy
analysis must not look to what a law prohibits, which forms the starting
point of prevailing analysis, but rather to what the law affirmatively brings
about.” No
author cited, “Guide for Human Rights in the Information Society,”
undated. Available at: http://rights.jinbo.net/english/privacy.html. This gives a brief summary of recommendations
pertaining to the right of privacy that are given by international organisations
such as the OECD, the United Nations and the International Labour Office. Jacqueline Maley,
“The Eyes Have It: Why We Give Ourselves Away,” The Sydney Morning Herald, 13 February 2015. Available at: http://www.smh.com.au/comment/the-eyes-have-it-why-we-give-our-selves-away-20150213-13d6ks.html. “We shouldn’t be
surprised our televisions are watching us. They are simply the last in a long
line of appliances and gadgets to take an interest in us, the latest
technology to reverse the natural order in which we are the masters and they
are our servants.” News of the
World Phone Hacking Scandal Jane Martinson and Garry
Blight, “Leveson report: The Speed Read,” The Guardian, 20 November 2012. Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/interactive/2012/nov/29/leveson-inquiry-report-speed-read. The authors present a summary of 1,987-page
report by Lord Justice Leveson of his 17-month
inquiry into the culture, practices and ethics of the press, including phone
hacking. No author
cited, “Anatomy of the News International Scanda,l” The New York Times, 29 November 2011. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/09/01/magazine/05tabloid-timeline.html?ref=newsoftheworld.
The article outlines the major events associated with the scandal from
November 2005. Sarah Lyall, “Murdoch Facing Parliament’s Ire in Hacking Case,”
The New York Times, 6 July
2011. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/07/world/europe/07britain.html?ref=world. The article announced that Parliament
“collectively turned on Rupert Murdoch, the head of News Corporation, and the
tabloid culture he represents using a debate about a widening phone hacking
scandal to denounce reporting tactics by newspapers once seen as too
politically influential to challenge.” No author cited, “Two Charged
in ‘Phone-Tap Probe,” BBC News, 9 August 2006. Available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4778159.stm. The article reported that Scotland Yard confirmed
that two people were accused of accessing voicemail messages on eight occasions
between January and August of 2006.
They were also charged with conspiring to intercept communications. Phone Records Collected by the NSA Glenn
Greenwald, “As Europe Erupts Over US Spying, NSA Chief Says Government Must
Stop Media,” The Guardian, 26
October 2013. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/25/europe-erupts-nsa-spying-chief-government. The lead-in to the article states the following: “With
General Alexander calling for NSA reporting to be halted, US
and UK credibility as guardians of press freedom is crushed.” James Kanter, “Europe Moves to Shield Citizens’ Data, The New York Times, 17 October 2013. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/18/technology/europe-moves-to-put-online-data-beyond-us-reach.html?hpw. The article’s lead-in states: Lawmakers here have introduced a measure in the European Parliament that could require American companies like Google and Yahoo to seek clearance from European officials before complying with United States warrants seeking private data. Daniel J Solove,
“Five Myths About Privacy,” The
Washington Post, 14 June 2013.
Available at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/five-myths-about-privacy/2013/06/13/098a5b5c-d370-11e2-b05f-3ea3f0e7bb5a_story.html?tid=pm_opinions_pop. The purpose of the article is to clarify the issues
concerning the trade-off between privacy and security by dispelling some of
the myths surrounding secret surveillance programs. Charles Krauthamer,
“Pushing the Envelope, NSA-Style,” The
Washington Post, 14 June 2013.
Available at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/charles-krauthammer-pushing-the-envelope-nsa-style/2013/06/13/ac1ecf5c-d45f-11e2-8cbe-1bcbee06f8f8_story.html. Krauthamer’s main comment
is: The problem here is not
constitutionality. It’s
practicality. Legally this is fairly
straightforward. But between intent and execution lies a shadow — the human
factor, the possibility of abuse. And because of the scope and power of the
NSA, any abuse would have major consequences for civil liberties. Hayley Tsukayama, “Secrecy-Focused Web Services Find a
Mainstream Audience,” The Washington
Post, 13 June 2013. Available at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/secrecy-focused-web-services-find-a-mainstream-audience/2013/06/12/401c6256-d2a2-11e2-8cbe-1bcbee06f8f8_story.html?wpisrc=nl_headlines. The article describes the increased usage of an
Internet search engine for people who do not want their search results
tracked. Conor Friedersdorf, “It’s Not Too Late: You Better
Fight for Your Right to Privacy,” The
Atlantic, 11 June 2013. Available
at: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/06/defeatism-is-premature-you-better-fight-for-your-right-to-privacy/276728/.
The
author’s principal theme is: the pervasive surveillance state isn’t
inevitable unless we give up on opposing it.
Ross Douthat, “Your Smartphone Is Watching You,” The New York Times, 8 June 2013. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/09/opinion/Sunday/douthat-your-smartphone-is-watching-you.html?ref=global. Douthat states: “the motto ‘nothing to hide, nothing to fear’ — or,
alternatively, ‘abandon all privacy, ye who enter here’ — might as well be
stamped on every smart phone and emblazoned on every social media log-in
page.” Because genuinely dangerous people are likely to be more easily caught
with their government’s potential access to email logs, phone records, video
chats, etc., many citizens will be willing to give up privacy for
security. But it is a forfeiture of
civil liberties and, as he reiterates, just make sure you have nothing to
hide. Additional commentary by Maureen Dowd,
“Peeping Barry,” The New York Times,
8 June 2013. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/09/opinion/Sunday/dowd-peeping-president-obama.html?ref=global Glenn Greenwald, “NSA Collecting Phone Records of
Millions of Verizon Customers Daily,” The
Guardian, 6 June 2013. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/06/nsa-phone-records-verizon-court-order. This is the “breaking” news article that
announced the US National Security Agency’s ability to obtain phone records
through the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Court. A copy of
the court order is available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2013/jun/06/verizon-telephone-data-court-order.
Megan
Garber, “Government Phone Surveillance for Dummies,” The Atlantic, 6 June 2013.
Available at: http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/06/government-phone-surveillance-for-dummies/276629. This article answers some of the questions that arose
from Greenwald’s announcement (see above).
This includes: What kind of data was actually sought through the
order? Is it a one-off order or is it part of an on-going program? What ahs
the government been doing with the data it has gathered? Should we be
outraged by all this? |
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