Moral Victories: How Activists Provoke Multilateral Action / Edition 1

by Susan D. Burgerman

Overview

In the 1980s, security forces and paramilitary organizations killed, abducted, or tortured an estimated 80,000 Salvadoran citizens. During this period, the government of Guatemala was responsible for the death or disappearance of more than 100,000 civilians, many of them indigenous peasants. But such abuses were curtailed when peace talks, largely motivated by international human rights activism, led to interventions by United Nations observers who raised the degree of respect for human rights within each nation.

These two cases are emblematic of many more in recent world events. Susan Burgerman here explains how international pressure can be effective in changing oppressive state behavior. Moral Victories includes a detailed comparative study of human rights abuses in El Salvador and Guatemala from 1980 to 1996, as well as a brief, focused examination of the situation in Cambodia from 1975 to 1992.

Moral Victories lays out the mechanisms by which the United Nations and transnational human rights activists have intervened in civil wars and successfully linked international peace and security with the promotion of human rights. The meaning of state sovereignty, defense of which had previously limited governments to unenforceable statements of opprobrium against violator nations, has changed over the past two decades to allow for more aggressive action in support of international moral standards. As a result, human rights have gained increasing importance in the arena of world politics.

While researching this book in Guatemala and El Salvador, Burgerman interviewed government officials, negotiators, analysts, and human rights workers, and accompanied UN observer teams in their travels through rainforests and mountainous terrain.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801438608
Publisher:	Cornell University Press
Publication date:	05/16/2001
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.88(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Susan Burgerman is Associate Director of the Institute of Latin American Studies at Columbia University.

What People are Saying About This

Jack Donnelly

"In this book, Susan Burgerman speaks thoughtfully to audiences concerned with international human rights, with the politics of Latin America, and with the role of norms in contemporary international society. She does a fine job of creatively bringing together these disparate groups, and she tells a good story along the way. Moral Victories stands as one of the best and most thorough investigations of the constraints on and opportunities for multilateral human rights action."

Editorial Reviews

This is an informative and thought-provoking book, and should be read by anyone interested in human rights work or recent Central American politics.

Contemporary Sociology - Stephen Hart

Susan Burgerman considers one of the most important questions facing the post-Cold War world: why do sovereign states cooperate to promote human rights'.... Grounding her claims in face-to-face interviews with government officials, negotiators, UN rapporteurs, and grassroots activists in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Cambodia, Burgerman offers an honest, yet hopeful appraisal of the present status and future prospects of human rights promotion.

Virginia Quarterly Review

Burgerman's generic template is a useful first cut of determinants of success, particularly for her specific issue of respect for human rights during civil conflict.

World Politics 55 - Richard Price

Burgerman shows how human rights activism is increasingly changing state policy, especially in the case of 1980s El Salvador and Guatemala.... While intervention is not always feasible or apropos, Burgerman provides circumstances when the international community has and should enforce human rights.

Book News

Moral Victories is a solid and very readable contribution to the literature on attempts to implement the international human rights regime.

Anne Marie Clarkn Political Science Review

The clearly written text of this work is only 146 pages; the remainder of the book consists of excellent notes, lists of the many acronyms, interviews, and documents cited. This attests to a serious and unbiased work by a well-qualified author, an expert on Latin America.... The book is very useful to studies of the UN, human rights, and the changing nature of state sovereignties.

Choice

Moral Victories is a solid and very readable contribution to the literature on attempts to implement the international human rights regime.

American Political Science Review - Anne Marie Clark

"In this book, Susan Burgerman speaks thoughtfully to audiences concerned with international human rights, with the politics of Latin America, and with the role of norms in contemporary international society. She does a fine job of creatively bringing together these disparate groups, and she tells a good story along the way. Moral Victories stands as one of the best and most thorough investigations of the constraints on and opportunities for multilateral human rights action."

Jack Donnelly

"Burgerman shows how human rights activism is increasingly changing state policy, especially in the case of 1980s El Salvador and Guatemala. . . . While intervention is not always feasible or apropos, Burgerman provides circumstances when the international community has and should enforce human rights."—Book News, September 2001

"The clearly written text of this work is only 146 pages; the remainder of the book consists of excellent notes, lists of the many acronyms, interviews, and documents cited. This attests to a serious and unbiased work by a well-qualified author, an expert on Latin America. . . . The book is very useful to studies of the UN, human rights, and the changing nature of state sovereignties."—Choice, April 2002, vol. 39, No. 8

"Susan Burgerman considers one of the most important questions facing the post-Cold War world: why do sovereign states cooperate to promote human rights' . . . Grounding her claims in face-to-face interviews with government officials, negotiators, UN rapporteurs, and grassroots activists in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Cambodia, Burgerman offers an honest, yet hopeful appraisal of the present status and future prospects of human rights promotion."—Virginia Quarterly Review, Vol. 78, No 1

"This is an informative and thought-provoking book, and should be read by anyone interested in human rights work or recent Central American politics."—Stephen Hart, State University of New York–Buffalo, Contemporary Sociology 31:6

"Moral Victories is a solid and very readable contribution to the literature on attempts to implement the international human rights regime."—Anne Marie Clark, Purdue University, American Political Science Review, 96:4, December 2002

"Burgerman's generic template is a useful first cut of determinants of success, particularly for her specific issue of respect for human rights during civil conflict."—Richard Price, World Politics 55, July 2003

"In this book, Susan Burgerman speaks thoughtfully to audiences concerned with international human rights, with the politics of Latin America, and with the role of norms in contemporary international society. She does a fine job of creatively bringing together these disparate groups, and she tells a good story along the way. Moral Victories stands as one of the best and most thorough investigations of the constraints on and opportunities for multilateral human rights action."—Jack Donnelly, University of Denver, Author of Universal Human Rights in Theory and Practice

From the Publisher

Burgerman (Latin American studies, Columbia U.) shows how human rights activism is increasingly changing state policy, especially in the case of 1980s El Salvador and Guatemala. The logic of national sovereignty no longer protects a nation abusing public freedoms because activists have linked human rights abuses with destabilization of international peace and security. The UN is now freer to step into conflicts, even scoring some successes in such nations as Namibia, Cambodia, and Haiti. When national attention focused on Bosnia and East Timor, UN intervention looked like common sense, rather than revolutionary as it had in El Salvador, or politically risky as in Cambodia. While intervention is not always feasible or apropos, Burgerman provides circumstances when the international community has and should enforce human rights. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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