美国社会组织与联合国人权规范的起源

二战爆发后,美国社会组织在对战争与和平问题的研究中提出依靠国际组织保障人权的规范构想。美国政府则并未重视人权议题,人权在敦巴顿橡树园会议上只处于边缘地位。社会组织在此后掀起大规模的游说活动,要求提高人权议题的地位,这使得美国政府考虑融合社会组织的人权规范构想与主权规范原则。旧金山会议上,美国说服其他大国接受其人权立场,极力否决拉美国家的人权提案,体现出美国借人权话语行使霸权的实质意图。最终出台的《联合国宪章》多处涉及人权,奠定了此后联合国人权规范的基础。但是,社会组织与美国政府围绕人权的争论凸显了宪章人权条款的复杂特征,这使得美国在此后联合国人权规范的发展中面临更多的挑战。     

西方史学界的人权史研究述评

西方史学界的人权史研究兴起于20世纪90年代,主要受国际局势和史学研究趋势的双重影响。已有研究试图从20世纪40年代之前的权利观念与社会及政治运动的互动中探寻人权的起源,40年代"人权革命"中国家、社会组织及个人如何处理人权理念与国家利益、国际和平的关系也受到学者关注。西方学者还考察了五六十年代人权在国际、区域及国家三个层次的不同历史进程及其影响。关注70年代全球范围内人权"突破"的学者则重新审视整个人权史脉络,提出颠覆性看法,引发激烈争议。已有研究的概念界定还不够清晰严谨,人权与国内及国际诸多议题之间的关系还有待深入考察。人权史的未来发展在丰富主题和拓宽路径方面展现出巨大潜力。     

论人权保障与死刑存废

死刑是一种非常残酷的刑罚,它直接剥夺人的生命。而随着社会的不断发展进步,人权保障的意识越来越高,人权中最重要的生命权,也必须得到应用的尊重。本文从人权保障与死刑存废的角度出发,简单探讨分析二者的关联与矛盾,阐述一下作者的见解。     

分析国际人权法的发展对中国人权法的影响

近年来,人权问题已经成为国际社会普遍关心的重大问题之一。这是由于国际形势瞬息万变,导致国际人权法不断得到了更新和发展。在这种影响之下作为发展中国家的中国,其人权法也得到长足进步。本文通过从人权的定义入手,主要阐述了中国人权法受到的深远影响。     

论中美国际人权较量

人权问题是当今国际社会普遍关注的问题,也是中关之间的焦点问题。美国的所谓“人权外交”,实质是“霸权外交”。中美国际人权较量已不仅仅是人权问题,从根本上说是美国霸权主义和中国反霸权主义的较量。     

美国宪法改革与人权政策

美国人权政策是建立在古典政治哲学基础之上的,它过分强调人民的消极权利,而忽视了人民的积极权利。随着美国社会的发展,这种人权政策显得越来越不能适应时代的需要。因此,20世纪80年代以来,美国又掀起了宪法改革运动的高潮,以解决宪法中存在的人权概念不清楚和政治自由太多、人民的经济利益太少的问题。在修宪运动中,美国的最高法院发挥了重要的历史作用,使运动取得了一些阶段性成果。但由于种族偏见的根深蒂固,因此美国人权政策的发展依然面临着有待进一步克服的问题。     

人权六十年:从否定到回归

人权,本义是"人该有之"和"人皆有之"的权利,即人人应有的权利。解放后,我国人权事业从人权禁区到人权入宪,走过了60多年艰难曲折的崎岖道路。回顾这一历程,反思其经验教训,对今后人权事业的健康发展,很有必要。     

西藏农奴社会制度的变迁

中国政府认为:西藏的民主改革废除了政教合一的封建农奴制度,解放了百万农奴和奴隶,是西藏社会发展和人权进步的划时代的重大历史事件。     

论马克思主义人权理论和前苏联人权实践对美国人权政策的影响

长期以来,我国学普遍认为美国人权政策是沿西方轨道发展的。然而新的资料表明,美国人权政策的发展也受到了马克思主义人权观和前苏联人权实践的影响。研究这些影响,有助于了解21世纪美国人权政策的发展趋势,因而具有重要学术价值与现实意义。     

目前民商法对人权保护的现状解析

作为一种私法,民商法强调的是主体之间的平等,它通过对具体交易过程中非合理利益的否定来维护社会的公平。人权是自由与平等的抽象化,同时也是人们生存与发展的前提。本文将对我国民商法领域关于人权保护的现状进行分析,并在此基础上提出一些建设性建议。以期为我国民商法的完善提供一些参考。     

青藏高原地区冬虫夏草资源保护的立法及评价

依法保护青藏地区的冬虫夏草资源,对维护少数民族地区民众的生存权、经济发展权等具有重要的影响。但是,目前涉及冬虫夏草的相关立法在利益倾向、立法技术、区域特征的等方面还存有一些缺陷。     

保障公民的文化权益是维护社会公平的重要保证

公民文化权利与公民政治权利、经济权利一样,属于公民的基本权利。保障公民文化权益,不断满足人民群众日益增长的精神文化需求,对全面建设小康社会和构建和谐社会具有重大的意义。文化差距而产生的文化矛盾、公共文化服务资源短缺等是制约当前公民文化权益健康发展的主要因素。因此,我们必须从现阶段经济社会发展水平出发,以实现和保障公民基本文化权益、满足广大人民群众基本文化需求为目标,坚持公共服务普遍均等原则,兼顾城乡之间、地区之间的协调发展,最大限度地满足人民群众日益增长的精神文化需求。     

The deliberative deficit of prior consultation mechanisms

This article discusses the right to prior consultation guaranteed to indigenous people by international documents such as Convention 169 of the International Labour Organisation and the United Nations Declaration on the rights of Indigenous people. Using New Zealand and Colombia as case studies, the article argues that this right currently offers very little tangible benefits to indigenous people and is usually reduced to a legal bureaucratic requirement that defeats the purpose and intent of the right to consultation. I use deliberative democratic theory to show that the consultation mechanisms currently taking place in the two case studies suffer from a deliberative deficit and argue that prior consultation initiatives would better help respecting the rights of indigenous people if they were consistent with the political ideals that inform deliberative democratic theory.     

Establishing a Market-orientated Urban Planning System after State Socialism: The Case of Tallinn

The article examines the development of the urban planning system in Tallinn from 1991, when Estonia re-established its independence from the Soviet Union, until 2004. The planning laws and planning documents are analysed from the point of view of what kind of tools they provide for the public authority to intervene in urban development. It is argued that a liberal ad hoc urban planning that was established in the early 1990s is currently gradually being replaced by a more regulatory system where the rights of landowners are increasingly yet not always comprehensively defined in advance. Nonetheless, despite the recent revival of planning, the market still primarily dictates Tallinn's urban development.     

Challenges in ‘Translating’ Human Rights: Perceptions and Practices of Civil Society Actors in Western India

Rights‐based approaches have become prevalent in development rhetoric and programmes in countries such as India, yet little is known about their impact on development practice on the ground. There is limited understanding of how rights work is carried out in India, a country that has a long history of indigenous rights discourse and a strong tradition of civil society activism on rights issues. In this article, we examine the multiple ways in which members of civil society organizations (CSOs) working on rights issues in the state of Rajasthan understand and operationalize rights in their development programmes. As a result of diverse ‘translations’ of rights, local development actors are required to bridge the gaps between the rhetoric of policy and the reality of access to healthcare on the ground. This article illustrates that drawing on community‐near traditions of activism and mobilization, such ‘translation work’ is most effective when it responds to local exigencies and needs in ways that the universal language of human rights and state development discourse leave unmet and unacknowledged. In the process, civil society actors use rights‐based development frameworks instrumentally as well as normatively to deepen community awareness and participation on the one hand, and to fix the state in its role as duty bearer of health rights, on the other hand. In their engagement with rights, CSO members work to reinforce but also challenge neoliberal modes of health governance.     

Land Rights under Stress in Darfur: A Volatile Dynamic of the Conflict

Abstract

The aggravation of land rights over time in Darfur was a primary factor in the initiation of the conflict, and has emerged as a particularly dif?cult set of issues in the search for viable peace. While the prospect of being able to keep land acquired in course of the conflict was a primary factor in recruitment for the Janjaweed, it came on the heels of a set of changes in the environment, land use and population patterns, institutions, law and governance that produced a highly unwieldy and volatile land rights scenario. This article explores the role of land tenure in the Darfur conflict, examining the aggravation of rights, custom, and law over time, and then focusing on two of the primary war-related tenure problems currently facing Darfur — use of land rights as tools of belligerence, and the land dispossession — secondary occupation problem.     

The Evolutionary Theory of Land Rights as Applied to Sub-Saharan Africa: A Critical Assessment

The evolutionary theory of land rights can be considered the dominant framework of analysis used by mainstream economists to assess the land tenure situation in developing countries, and to make predictions about its evolution. A central tenet of this theoryis that under the joint impact of increasing population pressure and market integration, land rights spontaneously evolve towards rising individualization and that this evolutioneventually leads rightsholders to press for the creation of duly formalized private property rights — a demand to which the state will have an incentive to respond. This article looks critically at the relevance of the evolutionary theory of land rights as currently applied to Sub-Saharan Africa. In particular, the question of whether the establishmentof private property rights is an advisable structural reform in the present circumstancesis examined, in the light of evidence accumulated so far. It will be argued that most of the beneficial effects usually ascribed to such a reform are grossly over-estimated and that, given its high cost, it is generally advisable to look for more appropriate solutions that rely on existing informal mechanisms at community level.     

刑事犯罪被害人救助问题探讨

刑事诉讼的目的是保护人权、惩罚犯罪。保护人权,既包括对被告人人权的保护,也包括对被害人人权的保护。但是,长期以来,人权保护的天平始终倾向于前者。加强对被害人的权利保护,并对被害人与被告人的权利加以合理与适当的平衡,已经成为各国刑事诉讼法普遍发展的趋势。因此,要加强对犯罪被害人的权利保护,使己经失衡了的犯罪被害人与犯罪人的权利关系回到平衡的状态上来。     

论科学发展观的民众意识

科学发展观的精神实质在于它的民众意识。民众意识是对人民群众利益高度负责的态度,它要求把实现好民众利益作为社会发展的目标,根据民众利益实现的水平来评判社会发展的得失。民众意识是科学发展观的价值倾向和价值定位,是确保社会和谐健康发展的重要前提,也是党的群众路线在新的历史条件下的继承和发展,是提高党的执政能力、保持党的先进性的思想基础。     

Planning reform and development rights in Greece: institutional persistence and elite rule in the face of the crisis

This paper discusses the process of development rights allocation in Greece and the changes to that process which occurred from 2009 onward. It argues that the interaction of institutions which regulate the allocation of development rights, with social practices of formal and informal land development, gives rise to development pathways which demonstrate institutional persistence. In the case of Greece, these pathways range from ‘urban development by state organisations’, to development without planning permission on land that is not owned by the developer. The crisis was a shock to the Greek governance system, yet the analysis in this paper shows that the reforms of the development rights allocation process followed the pre-existing ‘mentality of rule’. The paper therefore argues that development pathways reflect a political arrangement between the ruling elites and other social strata. The technologies of governance and the associated institutions and practices which support elite rule, were sustained, if not reinforced, during the crisis. This analytical approach therefore offers insights of relevance to other countries in Europe and around the world which contemplate reforms to their development rights allocation system.