Going Forward

Author(s):  
Aryeh Neier

This chapter traces the history of the international human rights movement back to the anti-slavery movement that took hold in England in the second half of the eighteenth century. It details how the anti-slavery movement was instrumental in securing the abolition of slavery in many countries. It also reviews ways in which the human rights cause became an important force in world affairs in the mid-to-late 1970s. The chapter looks into the favorable development in the recent years for human rights, such as the readiness of a number of leading business corporations to take stands on human rights issues. It also suggests that the progress in the human rights movement is to keep building the public constituency for rights, until the dynamic that resulted in significant improvements that that took place in the 1980s and 1990s is re-created.

2012 ◽  
Vol 111 (748) ◽  
pp. 325-326
Author(s):  
William W. Finan

A new book recounts the history of the international human rights movement, a movement that of late has become in part an instrument of war.


Author(s):  
Aryeh Neier

This chapter details how the rise of the international human rights movement as a significant force in world affairs cannot be separated from the Cold War context in which it took place. The Cold War magnified the importance of citizen efforts to promote rights and, though many of those involved in the movement during the Cold War era took significant risks and suffered severe consequences, it was the circumstances of the East–West conflict that attracted many of them to the cause in the first place. Rights activists on both sides of the Iron Curtain became aware that calling attention to abuses of rights by their own governments carried extra weight in an era when a global competition was underway for people's hearts and minds.


Author(s):  
Aryeh Neier

This chapter focuses on the major goal of the international human rights movement has been in securing accountability for grave abuses. It talks about “truth commissions” in Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, several countries of Asia, Morocco, and Canada, which deals with abuses against the country's indigenous population. It also highlights the establishment of several international criminal tribunals in order to prosecute and punish those accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. The chapter explores accountability, which has become a central concern of the international human rights movement for the recognition or official acknowledgment of the suffering of victims of human rights abuses. It also analyzes the purpose of deniability, which made it possible for military regimes in that commit abuses to maintain a facadeof legality.


Author(s):  
Clooney Amal ◽  
Webb Philippa

This chapter examines the right to a public trial, which protects both the defendant in a criminal trial and the interests of society as a whole in having a fair system of open justice. Under international human rights law, the right requires that a criminal trial should be held in public and that the court’s judgment is pronounced publicly. However, the right to a public trial is not absolute. The right may, for instance, be limited by valid national security concerns, or to protect the interests of a child or victim of sexual assault. This chapter examines the circumstances in which international bodies have found that exceptions to the right to a public trial are justified, and the additional measures that may be required to ensure that a criminal trial remains fair when there are restrictions on the public nature of proceedings. right to fair trial


Author(s):  
Bill Emmott

When Miyoshi Mari joined the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1980 as a trainee diplomat she was the only female recruit out of twenty-eight; in 2016, the ministry recruited ten females and eighteen males. So recruitment is not yet equal but there will in future be a much larger number of potential female ambassadors to follow in Miyoshi-san’s footsteps. She was motivated to become a diplomat by an interest in peace and reconciliation, which similarly drew Osa Yukie to study and then become active in international human rights issues. Osa-san has studied indigenous minorities including Japan’s own Ainu but more recently has specialized in the issues of war crimes and genocide.


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