The Advisory Committee on Human Rights and Foreign Policy in the Netherlands

1993 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 283-292 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Flinterman ◽  
Y.S. Klerk

In this article an overview is given of the functioning of the Dutch Advisory Committee on Human Rights and Foreign Policy. First, the history of the Advisory Committee and its institutional aspects is described. Subsequently, a survey of the advisory reports which the Advisory Committee has published so far and of their effects is given. Finally, the authors say a few words about the usefulness of a commission like the Advisory Committee and look into its future.

2014 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 60-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evan McCormick

The Reagan administration came to power in 1981 seeking to downplay Jimmy Carter's emphasis on human rights in U.S. policy toward Latin America. Yet, by 1985 the administration had come to justify its policies towards Central America in the very same terms. This article examines the dramatic shift that occurred in policymaking toward Central America during Ronald Reagan's first term. Synthesizing existing accounts while drawing on new and recently declassified material, the article looks beyond rhetoric to the political, intellectual, and bureaucratic dynamics that conditioned the emergence of a Reaganite human rights policy. The article shows that events in El Salvador suggested to administration officials—and to Reagan himself—that support for free elections could serve as a means of shoring up legitimacy for embattled allies abroad, while defending the administration against vociferous human rights criticism at home. In the case of Nicaragua, democracy promotion helped to eschew hard decisions between foreign policy objectives. The history of the Reagan Doctrine's contentious roots provides a complex lens through which to evaluate subsequent U.S. attempts to foster democracy overseas.


European View ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-114
Author(s):  
Günter Nooke

According to former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, world peace is based on the pillars of security, development and human rights. The defence of human rights is a particular foreign policy strength of both the EU and Germany. Despite advances, human rights are currently under threat from two angles. The first is a tendency to demand so much in the realm of human rights that, in the end, very little is achieved. The second is a growing movement that prioritises the rights of the collective over individual rights. However, it is individual human rights that are paramount and it is possible to extend individual rights without trampling cultural diversity. Given Europe's history of freeing itself from the shackles of dictatorship, its role in the defence of human rights is invaluable.


2002 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 992-1010 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. R. (Peter R.) Baehr ◽  
Monique C Castermans-Holleman ◽  
Fred Grunfeld

Significance This comes after the formal withdrawal of the Dutch ambassador to Turkey in early February and the resignation of Foreign Minister Halbe Zijlstra on February 13 marked new lows in the Netherlands’ relations with Ankara and Moscow, respectively. Impacts Poor bilateral relations could hit Dutch tourism to Turkey. Tension with Russia combined with shrinking domestic reserves may encourage the Dutch to move away from gas as the main energy resource. The Netherlands is likely to reject any further talks about Turkey’s EU accession for the foreseeable future. The Netherland’s foreign policy focus on human rights, particularly of minority groups, could further sour relations with Turkey and Russia.


2015 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. VC56-VC84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marijke Huisman

In recent years life writing scholars have increasingly linked the autobiographical genre to human rights causes, such as abolitionism. This article aims to historicize and contextualize the presupposed connection between human rights and the human subject of autobiographical discourse by focusing on the cultural mobility of Anglo-American slave narratives. Tracing their presence in the Netherlands since the late eighteenth century, it is demonstrated that slave narratives were considered of no value to Dutch abolitionism and Dutch debates on slavery and its legacy until very recently. Publishers and readers did, however make sense of slave narratives as sensational, gothic literature. Furthermore, the narratives were appropriated by Dutch fundamentalist Protestants advocating the nation’s emancipation from its state of spriritual “slavery”. Only when secularization converged with post-colonial migration patterns new interpretations stressing Black experience, agency, and subjectivity came to the fore in the Netherlands. Inspired by African-American rhetoric, Afro-Dutch migrants appropriated slave narratives in order to break the public silence on the Dutch history of slavery. This article was submitted to the European Journal of Life Writing in June 2014 and published in April 2015.


Author(s):  
Lauren Frances Turek

This chapter reviews the influential role that evangelical lobbyists played in shaping human rights legislation during the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush administrations. It mentions how evangelical lobbyists placed their work on the International Religious Freedom Act within a larger historical context. The chapter traces the early history of effective evangelical lobbying efforts on matters related to human rights and U.S. foreign policy. It illuminates key moments when evangelical activism actually influenced the specific policy directions that government leaders pursued or the manner in which they discussed and understood global issues. It also reflects on the legacy of earlier evangelical foreign policy engagement in building the political capital and international networks necessary for effective advocacy at the turn of the twenty-first century.


1994 ◽  
Vol 139 ◽  
pp. 622-643 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew J. Nathan

Influence in world affairs is not limited to military and economic power. A government can use ideas and values to build support at home and to recruit sympathizers among publics and policy-makers abroad. The struggle over beliefs and values may be as complex as the struggle over other forms of power. The history of the human rights issue in Chinese foreign policy exemplifies such a process.


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