tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38587925309531801522009-06-01T13:07:46.330-06:00Human Rights and Human Welfarehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181968740131075603noreply@blogger.comBlogger132125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3858792530953180152.post-25960810161255234632009-06-01T13:05:00.002-06:002009-06-01T13:07:46.338-06:00

“The Red Cross Torture Report: What It Means.” by Mark Danner. The New York Review of Books. April 30, 2009.An AnnotationTorture is one of the most controversial issues facing the US today. Amid two wars and concerns of unresolved government accountability, the release of the “Torture Memos” has forced Americans, and the international community, to re-examine the role of torture in national

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by Charli Carpenter, University of Massachusetts-Amherst“Torture probably does work occasionally. But so what? The whole point of the anti-torture regime is to stay the Inquisitor’s hand even when it’s in our interest to torture.”Danner’s NY Review of Books treatise on torture calls our attention to many significant issues, but in his key argument he is critically wrong.“The central unanswered

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by Mark Gibney, University of North Carolina-Asheville"...the Bush administration’s approach to human rights was not nearly as far out of the mainstream as it might otherwise appear. They worked under the premise that a state’s human rights obligations are territorial in nature. Unfortunately, this has come to be the dominant approach to human rights."Like most other human rights scholars, I am

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by Tyler Moselle, Harvard University"The torture policy relies on centralized power, secrecy, and fear. The 'no torture' policy relies on openness, diplomacy, and concerted intelligence."Mark Danner’s New York Review of Books piece on torture in conjunction with John Nichols’ comment on the Bush administration, outline moral, legal and political problems related to the global war on terrorism

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by Rebecca Otis, University of Denver“Where torture and interrogation policies supported by the Bush Administration has become the context for the War on Terror, it becomes necessary that we hold ourselves to task, no less in the same way that we hold our enemies."On 14 September 2001, Representative Barbara Lee (CA-D) voted against the House bill that granted President Bush the authority to use

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by Rhona Smith, Northumbria University“International human rights law imposes a positive obligation on States to achieve the prohibition on torture. Thus the State must go beyond mere passive prohibition of torture to seek out and prosecute perpetrators, actively discharging this positive obligation."Three legal issues are raised by the centerpiece of this month’s Roundtable: Does the legal

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by Chandra Lekha Sriram, University of East London“If countries from Argentina to South Africa have endured commissions of inquiry and even prosecutions of former abusers...there is no reason to think that the more robust legal and political institutions of the United States could not."The declassification and leaking of the so-called “torture memos” only supplements much which was already

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Annotation of“Case Closed: A Prosecutor Without Borders” by Julie Flint and Alex de Waal. World Affairs. Spring 2009.In their extensive assessment of the International Criminal Court (ICC), and specifically its Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo, researchers Julie Flint and Alex de Waal detail the multitude of striking problems facing the once promising global institution.“[The ICC] promised to be a

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by Charli Carpenter, University of Massachusetts-Amherst“Many other international organizations have had rocky starts only to emerge down the line, with some tinkering, as powerful forces for good…”Julie Flint and Alex de Waal have published a damning article about the ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo which reads, by extension, as a trouncing of the entire institution. I’m not in the loop with

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by Mark Gibney, University of North Carolina-Asheville“The ICC certainly can play an important role in the protection of human rights, but it is essential to recognize the limitations that the Court has been placed under.”I believe I speak for many when I say that the International Criminal Court (ICC) has not been anywhere near the institution that it was anticipated as being, and the latest

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by Tyler Moselle, Harvard University “To what extent is the ICC relevant in the context of human rights and international ‘justice’ juxtaposed with the hard realism of political treaties and negotiations?”Alex de Waal and Julie Flint employ character assassination on Luis Moreno Ocampo in their World Affairs article “Case Closed: A Prosecutor Without Borders.” Ironically, they are guilty of the

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by Rebecca Otis, University of Denver “This is a tremendously exciting and ambitious time for the UN in the creation of new legal interpretations and precedents for the fair governance of the global community.”Coming from the perspective of one who roundly agrees with Kofi Annan that the creation of the International Criminal Court was “a gift of hope to future generations, and a giant step

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by Rhona Smith, Northumbria University“Questions including what is the role of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in administering justice, what is seen to be happening, and is justice actually being done, are appropriate.”“[U]ntil a time in which the global governance structure is not reliant on states, humanity will continue to fail in its attempt to protect global human rights” (Eric

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by Chandra Lekha Sriram, University of East London“The prosecutorial strategy—in terms of situations and individual cases, and in terms of timing of crucial steps and engagement with peace negotiations—illustrate an approach that is both highly political and strangely blind to its political impact.”Much of the criticism of the behavior of the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis

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Annotation of“Cambodia's Curse” by Joel Brinkley. Foreign Affairs. March/April 2009.“Cambodia's Curse” by Joel Brinkley. Foreign Affairs. March/April 2009.Given the complex nature of conflict—intense violence, a myriad of foreign and domestic actors, and victimized populations—the task of rebuilding a post-conflict society is one of the most difficult facing the international community today.

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by Charli Carpenter, University of Massachusetts-Amherst “Good guys with guns are not a panacea for long-term stability in a country. But sometimes, they are better than nothing.”Joel Brinkley has written a heartbreaking piece in Foreign Affairs about Cambodian society thirty-five years after Pol Pot. We are presented with anecdote after anecdote about historical trauma, corruption, and poverty.

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by Mark Gibney, University of North Carolina-Asheville"In this particular case, like many others, those who have not forgotten the past are the ones who have been forced to keep repeating it. Those of us who repeatedly do forget the past have not had to repeat it at all."For someone of my generation, any mention of Cambodia conjures up a jumble of images and emotions—albeit, nearly all from the

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by Tyler Moselle, Harvard University"The truth is that Cambodia’s Curse is a microcosm of international politics and pricks the conscience of many individuals."The government of Cambodia is replete with corruption and does not respond adequately to the needs of its citizens according to Joel Brinkley’s Foreign Affairs article “Cambodia’s Curse.” Pol Pot, the killing fields, and the Khmer Rouge

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by Rebecca Otis, University of Denver“It would seem that little effort has been made in the nation-building efforts of the Cambodian case...certainly Cambodia is cursed by its past, but where lies the cure?"In a timely coincidence, Henry Alford’s recent travel article, “Banishing the Ghosts in Cambodia,” recently tantalized this reader with visions of a destination vacation in mind. Written for

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by Rhona Smith, Northumbria University “Developing a culture of mutual respect and equality should lead in time away from a blanket acceptance of insidious corruption as a way of life"Corruption is endemic in modern society, but history attests this problem is as old as states themselves. No single solution to date has garnered sufficient political and/or popular support to effect change. Could

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by Chandra Lekha Sriram, University of East London“Institutions ostensibly designed to right past wrongs and promote an end to a culture of impunity instead become tools in political battles by entrenched elites hoping that they can limit their impact."Brinkley’s piece draws welcome attention to the virtual farce of hybrid justice now underway in Cambodia, although the emphasis of the piece on

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“Scientists Come Out for Human Rights” by Sonia Shah. The Nation. January 27, 2009.Scientists are often regarded by society as methodical intellectuals solely fixated in their pursuit of medical and technological advances. However, as detailed by Sonia Shah in this month's centerpiece, the establishment of the Science and Human Rights Coalition by the American Association for the Advancement of

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by Clair Apodaca, Florida International University"Scientists and other scholars are actually more active in human rights advocacy than many other professional groups or many members of the general public. It is so because their work and research are intricately tied to human rights and human welfare issues." Sonia Shah's categorization of the scientific community as having been “by and large…

Human Rights and Human Welfarehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181968740131075603noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3858792530953180152.post-90562966261374458622009-03-02T21:34:00.003-07:002009-03-05T20:49:58.255-07:00

by Edward Friedman, University of Wisconsin-Madison"We should welcome the involvement of scientists with a broadened notion of integrated human rights. We should think of new and large contributions by scientists globally on these matters to be crucial to any success in any larger human rights agenda." Scientists have long been involved with work to protect fundamental human rights. The

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by Sarah Stanlick, Harvard University"One of the greatest challenges faced in the field of human rights is the “proof” needed to prosecute, negotiate, monitor, delegate, or resolve. By using scientific methodology, evidence is given to what is too often dismissed as baseless or subjective."The combination of level-headed scientific approaches and passionate activism seems at first glance an

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