Ethics in Action
The Ethical Challenges of International Human Rights Nongovernmental Organizations
Published on 16. October 2006
Book
Paperback/Softback
336 pages
978-0-521-68449-1 (ISBN)
Description
This book is the product of a multi-year dialogue between leading human rights theorists and high-level representatives of international human rights NGOs (INGOs). It is divided into three parts that reflect the major ethical challenges discussed at the workshops: the ethical challenges associated with interaction between relatively rich and powerful northern-based human rights INGOs and recipients of their aid in the South; whether and how to collaborate with governments that place severe restrictions on the activities of human rights INGOs; and the tension between expanding the organization's mandate to address more fundamental social and economic problems and restricting it for the sake of focusing on more immediate and clearly identifiable violations of civil and political rights. Each section contains contributions by both theorists and practitioners of human rights.
Reviews / Votes
'Ethics in Action fills an important gap in the growing literature on the contributions that INGOs make to the international system, and the editors deserve praise for taking on such an important, yet often neglected, subject.' H-Net ReviewsMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
Worked examples or Exercises
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
547 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-521-68449-1 (9780521684491)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Daniel A. Bell | Jean-Marc Coicaud
Ethics in Action
The Ethical Challenges of International Human Rights Nongovernmental Organizations
E-Book
12/2007
1st Edition
Cambridge University Press
€38.49
Available for download
Persons
Daniel A. Bell is a professor in the Department of Philosophy at Tsinghua University in Beijing. He has held fellowships at Stanford's Center for Advanced study in the Behavioral Sciences and Princeton University Center of Human Values. His books include Beyond Liberal Democracy: Political Thinking for an East Asian Context (Princeton University Press 2006), East Meets West: Human Rights and Democracy in East Asia (Princeton University Press 2000) and Communitarianism and Its Critics (Oxford University Press 1993). Jean-Marc Coicaud heads the UNU Office at the United Nations in New York. Dr Coicaud was Senior Academic Officer in the Peace and Governance Programme at UNU in Tokyo from 1996 to 2003. Before joining UNU, he served in the Executive Office of the United Nations Secretary-General as a speechwriter for Dr Boutros Boutros-Ghali. A former fellow at Harvard University Center for International Affairs and Harvard Law School, Coicaud has held appointments as Cultural Attache with the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and as Legislative Aide with the European Parliament (Financial Committee).
Content
Introduction: reflection on dialogues between practitioners and theorists of human rights Daniel A. Bell; Part I. Northern INGOs and Southern Aid Recipients: The Challenge of Unequal Power: 1. The pornography of poverty: a cautionary fundraising tale Bette Plewes; 2. An imperfect process: funding human rights - a case study Mona Younis; 3. Transformational development as the key to housing rights Steven Weir; 4. Human rights INGOs, the North/South Gap: the challenge of normative and empirical learning Bonny Ibhawoh; Part II. INGOs and Governments: The Challenge of Dealing with States that Restrict the Activities of INGOs: 5. Dilemmas facing INGOs in coalition-occupied Iraq Lyal Sunga; 6. Human rights in action: supporting human rights work in authoritarian countries Birgit Lindsnaes, Hans-Otto Sano and Hatla Thelle; 7. Driving without a map: implementing legal projects in China aimed at improving human rights Sophia Woodman; 8. Normative compliance and hard bargaining: China's strategies and tactics in response to International Human Rights criticism Sun Zhe; Part III. INGOs and Economic Rights: The Challenge of Dealing with Global Poverty: 9. Defending economic, social and cultural rights: practical issues faced by an International Human Rights Organization Kenneth Roth; 10. Thinking through social and economic rights Neera Chandhoke; 11. Amnesty International and economic, social and cultural rights Curt Goering; 12. Moral priorities for International Human Rights NGOs Thomas W. Pogge; 13. The problem of doing good in a world that isn't: reflections on the ethical challenges facing INGOs Joseph H. Carens; Conclusion: International NGOs as collective mobilization of transnational solidarity: implications for human rights at the United Nations Jean-Marc Coicaud.