Suchergebnisse

The issue of international human rights norms which have not yet been fully established within the existing international human rights standard belongs at present to the essential components of the UN Human Rights Council agenda. Based on a synthesis of legal and political notions of the process of emergence of human rights norms, the paper attempts to clearly define and classify these emerging norms, which are sometimes called "new" human rights. At the same time it focuses on individual emerging human rights that are included on the Council's agenda, examines the stages they reached in the international norm cycle and briefly discusses the tools used by the UN Human Rights Council to achieve progress in this respect and turn the norms in statu nascendi into full international standards. Adapted from the source document.

Contemporarily human rights are ranked among the most crucial foreign policy priorities in many countries. At the same time numerous states are forced to consider the human rights agenda under growing international pressure. The substance of foreign policy in the field of human rights, its intensity & instruments vary in many different aspects. The paper focuses on foreign policy in the field of human rights analysis. Its aim is to comprehend & extend prevailing methods in order to obtain an analytical scheme applicable to almost every country. To fulfill this aim it includes several steps, the most important of which are: examining the essence of analyzing foreign policy in the field of human rights as a specific part of the foreign policy agenda, introduction & elaboration of the so called Mower's apparatus, interpretation of foreign policy in the field of human rights using different levels of analysis & developing methods of its evaluation. In the end the paper summarizes the current state of research & makes some recommendations for the future. Adapted from the source document.

Being a part of the social world, international law is not closed nor isolated system -- on the contrary, it is in an intimate interaction with international relations & politics. Richard Falk, Professor of International Law, taught for example at the Princeton University & presently at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is interested in the connections between IL & IR & is a prolific writer on this topic. Two of his last books, The costs of War -- International Law, the UN & World Order After Iraq (2008) & Achieving Human Rights (2009) are reviewed in this essay in highly critical manner. In the essay, Falk's normative inquiry into the legal & political developments is contrasted with the latest discussions in both the International Law & International Relations. In the review essay, Falk is criticized for his unconvincing criticism of the US foreign policy, for his intellectual shortcuts & excessive idealism. However, very interesting & significant parts of both books are emphasized & Falk's books are considered to be worth reading. His insight into the international legal problems & into the developments of human rights is outstanding. Adapted from the source document.

The objective of this analysis is to introduce the concept of Asian values and, more particularly, the Asian concept of human rights. The Asian debate on human rights centers around issues such as the human rights generations, individual versus collective rights, rights of states, & the relationship between rights & duties. The criticism of the Western concept of human rights constitutes an inseparable part of this debate. This analysis thus aims at bringing forth a greater understanding of this issue through the study of cultural relativism, which is prominent in the criticism leveled at Western societies. This study starts with defining two core theoretical concepts of human rights -- universalism & cultural relativism. Consequently it presents the major features of the Asian values debate & Asian criticism, illustrating them on the case of Singapore, Malaysia & Indonesia. Adapted from the source document.

The application of Elias's Theory of civilization, in the field of international relations, is the theoretical concept of civilian power. In this analysis, I concluded that there are several attributes that allow the use of military force by civilian power. These attributes consist of: (1) using military force as a last resort for dealing with conflicts, and only when all other means have failed; (2) playing an active role in seeking non-militant ways of crisis resolution and military conflict prevention; (3) conducting only military operations that conform to international law and (4) that intend to support and defend human rights while (5) minimizing destruction and casualties, not only on its own side but also on the side of its enemy and finally, (6) having military operations (with the exception of self defense) take place in a multinational framework, which would not be used as a tool for unilateral policies. Adapted from the source document.

Relationship between European Union & The People's Republic of China declared in 2003 as the "strategic partnership" attracts attention as a new & remarkable phenomenon within post-bipolar international framework. This article reviews essentials & motives of both partners' mutual & deepening relations by pointing at their growing economic interdependence, upgrading political relations, & further developing their cultural, science & technology, academic, environmental etc. cooperation. However, while critically analyzing EU-China basic agenda of the strategic partnership & its real outcomes, this article points at poor Chinese human rights record, persistence of EU arms embargo, mutual trade disputes, Chinese failure at obtaining the EU's Market Economy Status, as well as insufficient intellectual property & trade mark protection in China. This study concludes with finding an attaining the real EU-China strategic partnership questionable, considering that as a mere term of official-level politeness, lacking behind expectations & potential. Adapted from the source document.

Contemporary normative debates about justice increasingly revolve around the problem of extending the principles of justice (and corresponding theories) beyond the level of the nation-state, to which they have been for a long time confined. The article below discusses several authors from the wide and heterogenous politico-philosophical current of liberal egalitarianism, which can be considered one of the leading contemporary schools of thought, or the mainstream. There are two interrelated goals in this enterprise: First, to show how varied and cross-cutting the normative landscape of justice is, even within this specific current. Second, since I concentrate on the problem of extending the principles and theories of justice to supra-state levels, the universality (or the "cosmopolitan reach") of these ideas stands out as one of the most interesting features of these discussions. The work of Brian Barry, David Miller, Onora O'Neill and John Rawls exemplify many crucial issues that any theory of justice with cosmopolitan ambitions must cope with. The article concludes that the concept of (universal) human rights seems to be the only value that can buttress any cosmopolitan theories of justice; however, the normative debate over (1) their grounding, scope and corresponding obligations and (2) their connection to a comprehensive account of a good society, i.e. liberal democracy -- and therefore, the acknowledged danger of ethnocentrism -- is still far from being resolved. Adapted from the source document.

The article compares the foreign energy strategies of the EU and the PRC on the African continent within the context of the efforts of ensuring the diversifiction of the supply of fossil fuels. Both actors are connecting some sets of values to their strategies, and these values are integral to their perception of the international environment. The main purpose of the article is to compare these strategies, especially in the context of the values that are connected with them -- e.g. state sovereignty, human rights, and social responsibility -- and the impact of these values on the form of the energetic strategies. While the EU urges normative values such as democratic government, human rights and quality public domain management, the PRC adheres to the values of non-interference, state sovereignty and, last but not least, the principle of "One China". Despite the fact that, rhetorically, the two actors share some of the same principles, they are applied differently by each actor due to the actors' diametrically different understandings of these principles. In addition to that, it is necessary to lay emphasis on the difference between the official and the actual strategies of both actors. Adapted from the source document.