After a decade of grand projects to remake regions of the world, the U.S. foreign policy debate has been increasingly dominated by more realist concerns. But even in a period characterized by restraint and austerity, the protection of human rights remains vital. Valerie Hudson, T. Jeremy Gunn, Sharon Shalev, Sandra Coliver and Pharis Harvey discuss the fundamental issues at stake in the global human rights agenda.
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Eleanor Roosevelt once said that universal human rights begin “in small places, close to home.” It might be more accurate to say that they begin in the home, as the most intimate expression of whether human rights are respected within a society occurs between husbands and wives. Too often, however, the circumstances under which men and women come together to form households fall short of meeting basic standards of human rights. more
Religion is widely understood to be a powerful force in domestic and international politics. It is used by multinational groupings to justify international cooperation and by both political figures and terrorists to justify violence. Since the 1990s, religion has become so pervasive in international politics that it is almost impossible to imagine that it has not always attracted the attention that it now commands.
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Numerous international human rights instruments stipulate that, other than the limitations inherent in the deprivation of liberty, prisoners retain their human rights and freedoms while incarcerated. Furthermore, an absolute prohibition against all forms of torture, inhuman or degrading treatment is reaffirmed in a large number of human rights instruments. It is at least arguable that supermax prisons violate the prohibition on such treatments. more
According to the United Nations and other organizations, whistleblowing is protected by both the individual's right to freedom of expression as well as the public's right to have access to information held by public authorities. This protection is subject to limited exceptions, when secrecy is necessary to protect public or private interests. But how should those limited exceptions be defined? more
Many human rights abuses confront workers today, but the root of them all is the relative powerlessness of workers when confronting labor rights violations. Consequently, the right of workers to associate freely, to bargain collectively and to take collective action in pursuit of their interests constitute the most significant human rights to be restored or gained in today’s troubled global economy. more