Suchergebnisse

Human rights reflect a determined effort to protect the dignity of each and every human being against abuse of power. This endeavour is as old as human history. What is relatively new is the international venture for the protection of human dignity through internationally accepted legal standards and generally accessible mechanisms for implementation. That mission got a major impetus with the founding of the United Nations in 1945. While the primary focus of the international project for the realisation of human rights used to be on ways and means of limiting and governing political power, other institutions than the state are coming within its range of attention, too, including those of the corporate world. Recently, a 'human rights approach' to poverty has gained a prominent place on the development agenda. When human rights are seen as not just legal resources but also political instruments, this means that power is to be regarded as legitimate only if international human rights standards are followed. Legitimacy, in other words, becomes the core concept, referring to the right institutions and principles, the right procedures and also normatively acceptable outcomes. Hence, rights-based approaches to overcome poverty imply efforts to address economic injustices as well, in the first place at the level of the global economy as such.

Introduction -- The four paradigms or ideal-types in the discipline of international relations -- The different debates in the discipline of international relations -- Realism : theory and (the effectiveness of ) international human rights treaties -- Liberalism : theory and the effectiveness of international human rights treaties -- Institutionalism : theory and the effectiveness of international human rights treaties -- Fairness : theory and the effectiveness of international human rights treaties -- Transnational legal process : theory and the effectiveness of international human rights treaties -- Managerial process : theory and the effectiveness of international human rights treaties -- The autonomous legal discourse and the appellative or the discursive effect of human rights.

Human rights are the fundamental rights and freedoms that belong to everyone, everywhere throughout their lifespan, by virtue of being human. They apply regardless of a person's thoughts, beliefs or behavours and cannot be permanently removed, though there are som circumstances under which they can be restricted, including when a person commits a crime or when they are detained under mental health legislation. Human rights are based on values such as dignity, respect, equality and authonomby and are enshrined in law.

Human rights are among the key concepts of sustainability science because they constitute the basis for sustainable well-being in any given society. Human rights form an understanding of a world in which individuals and peoples can trust in justice and claim rights by virtue of being human. The idea of an international human rights law is that it is not up to a specific government to decide how it treats individuals and peoples living in its territory. Thus, human rights form a discourse of emancipation with a universal outreach. They are essential to achieve sustainable development as specified inthe 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which indicates that the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is based on human rights. However, there are some tensions that continue to oppose SDGs to human rights. This is partly the case in relation to the rights of Indigenous peoples, an issue that will be further explicated in this contribution with regard to the situation of the Indigenous Sámi people. This chapter elaborates on the concept of human rights from the perspective of sustainability sciences. It explores human rights as a concept of law and as a concept of global politics, and it analyzes its differing functions depending on the contexts in which it is applied. This contribution considers the recent interconnections of human rights with the issues raised by sustainable development and the rights of Indigenous peoples. ; Peer reviewed

Human rights against the maelstroms -- Human rights, capitalism, and the ends of economic life -- Remaking sovereignty in the image of human rights -- Human rights beyond the rule of law -- Decolonizing human rights -- Human rights otherwise -- The subjects of human rights -- Human rights in a G20 world.

Financial resources : present and future / Charles Elliott -- Water supply in developing countries / B.H. Dieterich -- Domestic water supply : right or good? / Gilbert F. White -- Domestic water supplies for rural peoples in the developing countries: the hope of technology / Ian Burton -- Water supplies : the consequences of change / David J. Bradley -- The food potential / N.W. Pirie -- Whither the food and population equation? / W.H. Pawley -- Food supplies for physiologically vulnerable groups / Derrick B. Jelliffe, E.F. Patrice Jelliffe -- Health services and medical education in China : a brief report / O. Mellander -- The control of communicable disease : problems and prospects / Geoffrey Edsall -- Cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit aspects of preventive measures against communicable diseases / B. Cvjetanovic -- The basic human right to the means of controlling fertility / Malcolm Potts -- Personal health care : the quest for a human right / Maurice King -- Bottlenecks in implementation : some aspects of the Scandinavian experience / Wenche B. Eide, Mogens Jul, Olof Mellander

"Violations of the right to the physical integrity of the person, such as torture, cruel and unusual punishment, extra-judicial executions, disappearances, and political imprisonment have long been treated as an anomaly in democratically governed societies. In the current literature on human rights, violations of this right are by-and-large seen as the hallmark of autocratic and repressive regimes.This study takes on this dominant paradigm and shows not only that the common assumption that democratic countries effectively limit human rights abuse is simply wrong, but that its widely accepted theory of what drives human rights violations accounts for only a small part of these abuses at best. Haschke shows that despite the increasing numbers of countries that are democracies, and despite growing numbers of national signatories to international treaties prohibiting human rights abuse, the number of allegations has not declined. This book also demonstrates that the bulk of this abuse, which takes the form of torture and ill-treatment, extra-judicial killings, rape, and the like, is committed against marginal members of society, seeming to reveal environments that enable agents of the state to abuse those with whom they are in contact. This violence is found in democracies and dictatorships alike.This work will be of interest to students and scholars of international relations, human rights and comparative politics."--Provided by publisher.

There is no end or teleology to the struggle for human rights. There is no economic development as warranty for the abolition of human rights violations. There is no justice system immune to examples of injustice and inhumane behaviour. However, universal human rights are one way to ensure that humanitarian movements win one victory at a time. The paper discusses how Portugal, Greece and Spain each have surprisingly diverse human rights struggles, depending on their histories. No wonder that in much different countries, western countries or else, the human rights struggles are so different. Regardless, these facts should not provide an excuse for social theory to avoid understanding what is universal wherever human rights activists are involved. Social theory should take as its goal to show how in each and every society, regardless of very different history, culture or politics, humans share universal needs and desires that transcend their differences.