Human Rights in Perspective

Part 1 International efforts to protect and encourage respect for human rights by the UN problems and prospects after 40 years: national sovereignty and international efforts to realize human rights, Asbjorn Eide; "political" and "legal" control mechanisms - the competition and co-existence, Theo van Boven; the compatibility of regional systems of human rights with international conventions, Etienne R Mbaya. Part 2 Human rights, world civilizations and indigenous religious traditions - re-opening the question of universal validity: human rights in comparative civilisational perspective, Shmuel N Eisenstadt; human rights and the new circle of equity - Muslim political theory and the rejection of skepticism, Ernest Geliner; universal human rights and the cultures of indigenous peoples and other ethnic groups - the critical frontier of the 1990's, Rudolfo Stavenhagen; the universality of human rights re-visited - some less applaudable consequences of the human rights tradition, Johan Galtung. Part 3 International and domestic socio-political and economic impediments for the realization of human rights: types of political regimes and respect for human rights - historical and cross-national perspectives, Juan J Linz; democracy and human rights under different conditions and developments, Robert A Dahl; compliance with economic and social human rights - realistic evolutions and monitoring in the light of immediate obligations, Bard A Andreassen et al; the structure of dominance in the international geo-economic system and the prospects for human rights realization.