Collateral damage: human rights consequences of counterterrorist action in the Asia–Pacific

A number of states in the Asia-Pacific region have long been recognized to be indifferent or even hostile to the international human rights regime and to have rather poor records when it comes to protection of the right to personal integrity. Since 9/11 many of these same states have become closely involved in the US-led anti-terrorist campaign, and in the course of that involvement have been identified with the serious abuse of the personal security rights of those held in detention as terrorist suspects. This article uncovers some of the bases for that indifference to human rights treaties and why the human rights records of some of these states have become of even greater concern, particularly to domestic and transnational NGOs, in the contemporary anti-terrorist era. It argues that long-standing factors associated with intra-state armed conflict and separatist rebellions, the governmental tendency to accuse domestic NGOS of following a western rights agenda, and strong attachment to the non-interference norm have undercut official governmental concerns about the abuse of the right to personal security. More recently, emulation of the worst aspects of US anti-terrorist behaviour has given rise to a sense of impunity in some cases, and has justified a militarized response to political and religious unrest in others. Finally, the difficulties that the local human rights NGOs have had in making their case to the wider domestic populations have been compounded in a climate where many of their fellow citizens are fearful of the apparent rise in support for terrorist causes and methods.     

Children and Urban Regional Planning: Participation in the Public Consultation Process through Story Writing

Blue Mountains City is a unique urban area of 75 000 people, located along a narrow mountain ridge and within a world heritage national park, between 60 and 120 kilometres west of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The Blue Mountains City Council is currently developing a regional city strategy to guide development over the next 25 years. All sections of a very diverse community have been consulted in the public participation process, including children aged between six and 12 years. This paper deals with the analysis of 269 entries for a children's story-writing competition organised by the council. The children had to imagine that they were adults in 2025 and write a story about what their home and city would be like at that time. The paper discusses the complex problems of consulting with children on strategic regional planning matters, and the results from analysis of these competition entries in the light of those problems. The most important issues for the children as a whole were the impact of traffic, the impact of urban development on residential neighbourhoods, places for children to play, protection of the natural environment, for which the city is famous, and the ability to keep domestic pets. One of the most significant impressions emerging from the analysis is that children were far from optimistic about the future. Thirty-five per cent of entries had a negative tone, whereas only 24% were positive. The remaining 41% were written in a matter-of-fact narrative style that indicated neither enthusiasm nor disappointment with the future of the city. The children were more or less evenly divided on whether the future would be strongly based on advances in technology, much the same as now, or based on simpler technology than at present. The technique of story writing, despite some methodological difficulties in this particular case, was a useful tool for consultation with children of this age group.     

Holism and individualism in ecological anthropology

Rappaport, Roy A. Pigs for the Ancestors: Ritual in the Ecology of a New Guinea People, enlarged edition. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984. xviii + 501 pp. including illustrations, appendices, bibliographies, and index. $30.00 cloth, $9.95 paper.

Ellen, Roy. Environment, Subsistence and System: The Ecology of Small‐Scale Social Formations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982. xvi + 324 pp. including bibliography and indices. $42.50 cloth, $13.95 paper.

Jochim, Michael A. Strategies for Survival: Cultural Behavior in an Ecological Context. New York: Academic Press, 1981. x + 233 pp. including bibliography and index. $18.50 cloth.     

Towards Equity in Indigenous Co‐Management of Protected Areas: Cultural Planning by Miriuwung‐Gajerrong People in the Kimberley,Western Australia

Delivery of the potential mutual benefits for biodiversity conservation and Indigenous peoples through protected area co‐management remains challenging, with partnership arrangements frequently delivering inequitable outcomes that marginalise Indigenous interests. In the Kimberley region of Western Australia, Miriuwung‐Gajerrong people initiated a Cultural Planning Framework to help achieve greater equity in planning for co‐management of the first Indigenous‐owned protected areas managed with the state. Analysis of the negotiation and delivery of this Indigenous‐controlled planning initiative concluded it made a key contribution in shaping an equitable intercultural space for ongoing negotiation of co‐management. A practitioners' model of related design concepts drawn from the analysis identified three factors of significance: a foundation platform of recognition of rights and interests; a set of effective organisations to support the roles of the key actors; and effective mechanisms for working together. The model proved robust when evaluated against international standards for best practice, suggesting it may be a useful tool for guiding better uptake of those standards. Interrogation of the two major theories underpinning these standards – common pool resource (CPR) and governance – demonstrated the theories are synergistic and inform different parts of the model. Both theories highlight the significance of Indigenous‐controlled planning. Attention to relational theory for interrogation of the intercultural space may help illuminate their relative importance. Further investigation of the potential of Indigenous‐controlled planning to build theory and practice in Indigenous co‐management of protected areas is recommended.     

No friend of democratization: Europe's role in the genesis of the ‘Arab Spring’

The argument advanced in this article is that EU policies helped to trigger the so‐called Arab Spring, not by intention but by default. This contention is advanced through an examination of four strands of EU policy towards those countries designated as Mediterranean Partner Countries (MPCs) under the Euro‐Mediterranean Partnership Programme (EMP) and the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), namely: trade and economic development, political reform, the ‘peace process’, and regional security (including migration control). What emerges is that the EU has not just departed from its own normative principles and aspirations for Arab reform in some instances, but that the EU has consistently prioritized European security interests over ‘shared prosperity’ and democracy promotion in the Mediterranean. The net result is a set of structured, institutionalized and securitized relationships which will be difficult to reconfigure and will not help Arab reformers attain their goals.     

‘Doing some things’ in the Xi Jinping era: the United Nations as China's venue of choice

A more powerful China under the seemingly confident leadership of President Xi Jinping has committed to a more activist global policy. In particular, this commitment has influenced Beijing's policy towards UN peacekeeping operations, with a long‐awaited decision to add combat forces to the engineering troops and police and medical units that have been features of its past contribution. In addition, Beijing has doubled the size of its contribution to the UN peace operations budget. This article explains why the UN is a key venue for China to demonstrate its ‘responsible Great Power’ status and expressed willingness to provide global public goods. The main explanatory factors relate to the UN's institutional design, which accords special status to China even as it represents a global order that promotes the sovereign equality of states. Moreover, there are complementarities between dominant Chinese beliefs and interests, and those contained within the UN system. Especially important in this latter regard are the links that China has tried to establish between peacebuilding and development assistance with the aim of strengthening the capacity of states. China projects development support as a contribution both to humanitarian need and to the harmonization of conflict‐ridden societies. The Chinese leadership has also spoken of its willingness to contribute to peacemaking through stepping up its efforts at mediation. However, such a move will require much deeper commitment than China has demonstrated in the past and runs the risk of taking China into controversial areas of policy it has hitherto worked to avoid.