Negotiating Culture and Human Rights / Edition 1

by Lynda Bell, Andrew J. Nathan, Ilan Peleg

Overview

Negotiating Culture and Human Rights provides a new interdisciplinary approach to issues of cultural values and universal human rights. Central to the discussion is the "Asian values debate," so named because of the culturally relativist ideals embraced by some key Asian governments. By analyzing how cultural difference and human rights operate in theory and practice in such areas as legal equality, women's rights, and ethnicity, the contributors forge a new way of looking at these critical issues. They call their approach "chastened universalism," arguing that respect for others' values need not lead to sterile, relativist views. Ultimately the authors conclude that it is less important to discover pre-existing common values across cultures than to create them through dialogue and debate

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231120814
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	02/22/2001
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	364
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.10(d)
Lexile:	1470L (what's this?)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Lynda Bell is associate professor of history at the University of California, Riverside. Andrew J. Nathan is professor of political science at Columbia University and author of China's Crisis and China's Transition (both by Columbia). Ilan Peleg is Charles A. Dana Professor of Goverment and Law at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Contributors
Part 1. Human Rights and the Asian Values Debate
Introduction. Culture and Human Rights, by Lynda S. Bell, Andrew J. Nathan, and Ilan Peleg
1. Who Produces Asian Identity? Discourse, Discrimination, and Chinese Peasant Women in the Quest for Human Rights, by Lynda S. Bell
Part 2. Culturally Informed Arguments for Universal Human Rights
2. Getting Beyond Cross-Talk: Why Persisting Disagreements are Philosophically Nonfatal, by Michael G. Barnhart
3. Western Defensiveness and the Defense of Rights: A Communitarian Alternative, by Kenneth E. Morris
4. Rights Hunting in Non-Western Traditions, by Steven J. Hood
Part 3. Human Rights Law and Its Limits
5. How a Liberal Jurist Defends the Bangkok Declaration, by Michael W. Dowdle
6. Are Women Human? The Promise and Perils of "Women's Rights as Human Rights", by Lucinda Joy Peach
7. Re-Positioning Human Rights Discourse on "Asian" Perspectives, by Sharon K. Hom
Part 4. Rights Discourse and Power Relations
8. Human Rights and the Discourse on Universality: A Chinese Historical Perspective, by Xiaoqun Xu
9. Jihad Over Human Rights, Human Rights as Jihad: Clash of Universals, by Farhat Haq
10. Universalization of the Rejection of Human Rights: Russia's Case, by Dmitry Shlapentokh
11. Ethnicity and Human Rights in Contemporary Democracies: Israel and Other Cases, by Ilan Peleg
12. Walking Two Roads: Reading Human Rights in Contemporary Chinese Fiction, by Thomas N. Santos
Part 5. Beyond Universalism and Relativism
13. Universalism: A Particularistic Account, by Andrew J. Nathan
14. Dedichotomizing Discourse: Three Gorges, Two Cultures, One Nature, by Jennifer R. Goodman
Appendix A: Universal Declaration on Human Rights
Appendix B: Bangkok Declaration on Human Rights
Appendix C: Bangkok NGO Declaration on Human Rights
Appendix D: Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women
Index

What People are Saying About This

Kenneth Roth

This collection of insightful essays is a valuable guide for those seeking to transcend the polarized debate about whether human rights are universal or culturally variable. It leaves the reader appreciating the necessity of drawing on both universal and cultural norms to fortify the public morality in each society that is the ultimate source of strength for the human rights ideal.

— Kenneth Roth, Executive Director, Human Rights Watch

Philippa Strum

Negotiating Culture and Human Rights is a major addition to the scholarly literature about human rights.... Any university course on the subject would be much enriched by it.

— Philippa Strum, Gibbs Professor of Constitutional Law, Wayne State University

Editorial Reviews

Rich and complex.

International Affairs

American scholars from a broad range of disciplines, including law, political science, history, and criminology, gathered at Columbia University in the summer of 1997 for The Asian Values Debate: Human Rights and the Study of Culture as Problems for Area Studies seminar. The 14 papers that emerged cover human rights and the Asian values debate, culturally informed arguments for universal human rights, human rights law and its limits, rights discourse and power relations, and beyond universalism and relativism. Texts of three declarations on human rights are appended. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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