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Begin New Search Topic International Law Publishing Institution Human Rights Human Welfare (University of Denver)

1. Human Rights, Health Sector Abuse and Corruption

Author:
Brigit Toebes
Publication Date:
04-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Human Rights Human Welfare (University of Denver)
Abstract:
Research indicates that health sectors in both poor and rich nations are vulnerable to abuse and corruption. This paper discusses the character and scope of health sector abuse and corruption. It suggests that human rights law can play an important role in enhancing the transparency and integrity of health systems. Based on the existing human rights framework, some tools are provided and examples are given of how this can be done.
Topic:
Corruption, Health, Human Rights, Human Welfare, and International Law

2. Necessary fictions: Indigenous claims and the humanity of rights

Author:
Peter Fitzpatrick
Publication Date:
02-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Human Rights Human Welfare (University of Denver)
Abstract:
To begin, not propitiously. When checking whether my title 'Necessary Fictions' was being used elsewhere, Google revealed that it was going to be used in a future talk, and by me. It transpired mercifuly that this use was going to be quite different to the present which suggested the prospect of a new academic genre: same title, different paper; rather than the standard combination of same paper, different title. Fortuitously, that contrast gave me the leitmotiv for this talk – that things ostensibly the same can be different, and that things ostensibly different can be the same.
Topic:
Human Rights, International Law, Political Theory, and Minorities
Political Geography:
United Arab Emirates

3. In Search of an "Action Principle"

Author:
Patrick J. Glen
Publication Date:
12-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Human Rights Human Welfare (University of Denver)
Abstract:
In his seminal work on the history of scientific development, Thomas Kuhn described the structure of that development as revolutionary in nature, occurring at that point in time “in which an older paradigm is replaced in whole or in part by an incompatible one.” The impetus for this paradigm shift is malfunction—“scientific revolutions are inaugurated by a growing sense … that an existing paradigm has ceased to function adequately in the exploration of an aspect of nature to which that paradigm itself had previously led the way…. [T]he sense of malfunction that can lead to crisis is prerequisite to revolution.” Kuhn himself analogized his conception of the theory and operation of scientific revolutions to political revolutions, drawing out parallels in genesis, form and function between the two. The notion of revolutionary change, or paradigm shifts, itself provides a useful framework to judge the evolution, current state, and potential future of international human rights and criminal law. Although the analogy must necessarily be incomplete, as is the analogy between scientific and political revolutions, it does go a long way in explaining how the current system of international justice has reached its present state, and what may need to occur before that system can develop further.
Topic:
Crime, Human Rights, Human Welfare, International Law, and Political Theory

4. Human Rights Education in Peace-building: A Look at Where the Practice Has Come from, and Where It Needs to Head

Author:
Tracey Holland
Publication Date:
12-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Human Rights Human Welfare (University of Denver)
Abstract:
The world's peace-building and development organizations increasingly are incorporating human-rights frameworks into the myriad of activities now under their purview. Slower to develop, however, are the capacity-building programs designed to impart knowledge about human rights to citizens and communities. Field-workers throughout the world indicate that the lack of such guidance-giving education hinders them when it comes to monitoring activities, helping to rebuild public institutions, setting up and organizing electoral politics, building an unfettered media, protecting human security, setting up transitional justice mechanisms, and the myriad of other peace-building activities and democratization challenges they face in post-conflict situations. This paper not only explores this emerging field of the study and practice of human-rights education within the cross-national peace-building sphere by sharing the perspectives of educators around the world, but also considers a host of ideas that should help to advance the human-rights agendas of present and future post-conflict planners.
Topic:
Security, Development, Human Rights, Human Welfare, International Law, Peace Studies, and Peacekeeping

5. The International Security Presence in Kosovo and the Protection of Human Rights

Author:
Federico Sperotto
Publication Date:
06-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Human Rights Human Welfare (University of Denver)
Abstract:
On March 11th, 2000, two children who were playing in the neighborhoods of Mitrovica, Kosovo, got hurt by an “unexploded ordnance”. One of them died in the explosion, the other was severely injured. An inquire clarified that the ordnance was a “bomblet”, a part of a cluster bomb dropped during the 1999 NATO air campaign against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
Topic:
Security, Human Rights, Human Welfare, International Cooperation, and International Law
Political Geography:
Kosovo, Yugoslavia, and Balkans

6. A Holistic Approach for Promoting the Rule of Law

Author:
Josef Bucher
Publication Date:
09-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Human Rights Human Welfare (University of Denver)
Abstract:
The world has become smaller as a result of globalization tendencies, making the establishment of a global order more important than ever. Nations have become closer. Hence, the intensive relations between countries must be increasingly protected by legal security. In order to stabilise this global order, also intra-state relations must be subjected to the protection of the law. The rule of law has thus become a central element of successful globalisation on two different levels.
Topic:
International Relations, Civil Society, Globalization, Human Rights, Human Welfare, and International Law
Political Geography:
Asia

7. Accommodating Indigenous Peoples within the Human Rights Regime:The Case of Awas Tingni v. Nicaragua

Author:
Amy E. Eckert
Publication Date:
06-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Human Rights Human Welfare (University of Denver)
Abstract:
Some critics allege that the human rights regime is based upon the values of liberal individualism and therefore inappropriate for communities that do not share a commitment to these values (Pollis and Schwab 1979). Such critics characterize human rights as being either irrelevant because of the lack of fit between liberal individualism and more community-based cultures or, even worse, as an imperialist tool in the hands of the West. However, the individual rights that are secured by the international human rights regime can be used for a variety of different purposes, including both liberal and non-liberal ends. A person, or a group of persons, may use the individual freedoms secured by international human rights treaties to express opinions that are entirely inconsistent with, or even in certain respects contrary to, liberal political ideals. To restrict the rights of this individual to the expression of liberal ideals would be, ultimately, inconsistent with the idea of freedom underlying these rights. Because liberalism values the autonomy of the individual (and, arguably, the autonomy of the community) above that individual's willingness to embrace any particular ideas, a liberal approach to human rights enables individuals and communities to utilize their rights and freedoms in a broad manner of ways. Recent progress in the area of indigenous rights underscores the extent to which the rights secured by the international human rights regime, though expressed in liberal individualistic terms, can nevertheless be used to secure non-liberal communitarian goals.
Topic:
Human Rights, Human Welfare, International Law, and International Organization
Political Geography:
Central America and Nicaragua