The Charter of the United Nations was signed in 1945 by 51 countries representing all continents, paving the way for the creation of the United Nations on 24 October 1945. The Statute of the International Court of Justice forms part of the Charter. The aim of the Charter is to save humanity from war; to reaffirm human rights and the dignity and worth of the human person; to proclaim the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small; and to promote the prosperity of all humankind. The Charter is the foundation of international peace and security.

View the Table of Contents. Read the Foreword.

"The thirteen essays in this important collection examine grass-roots struggles for racial justice throughout the United States from 1940-1980...Read together, these essays remind us that activism changes people as much as society."
--"Journal of American History"

"The essays in "Groundwork" assert individually and collectively that at the root of any national movement for change are local activists working from the bottom up to change their communities first, then the world. This excellent and invigorating collection is crucial reading in an election year."
--Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Director, W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research, and author of "America Behind the Color Line: Dialogues with African Americans"

"A major contribution to the ever expanding historical literature of the modern African American freedom struggle. This book brings together outstanding examples of detailed and thoughtful studies of northern as well as southern local movements."
--Clayborne Carson, Professor of History and Director, Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project, Stanford University

"Brilliantly conveys the vibrancy and creativity of community-based movements that transformed America's racial and civic landscape in the decades following World War II."
--Patricia Sullivan, author of "Freedom Writer: Virginia Foster Durr, Letters from the Civil Rights Years"

"Required reading for anyone who wants to understand what the Civil Rights Movement actually was - a national movement conceived and executed by local people in cities and towns across this country. They are the people who made the movement that madeMartin Luther King, Jr.--not the other way around."
--Julian Bond, Professor of History, University of Virginia, American University, and Chairman of the NAACP

"This work demonstrates again and again how local movements complicate the standard civil rights narrative of nonviolence, black power, busing, and the nature of leadership."
--Tracy E. K'Meyer, Associate Professor US History, University of Louisville

"These essays enrich understanding of the valiant struggles to make real the promise of a more democratic US."
--"CHOICE," highly recommended

Over the last several years, the traditional narrative of the civil rights movement as largely a southern phenomenon, organized primarily by male leaders, that roughly began with the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and ended with the Voting Rights Act of 1965, has been complicated by studies that root the movement in smaller communities across the country. These local movements had varying agendas and organizational development, geared to the particular circumstances, resources, and regions in which they operated. Local civil rights activists frequently worked in tandem with the national civil rights movement but often functioned autonomously from--and sometimes even at odds with--the national movement.

Together, the pathbreaking essays in Groundwork teach us that local civil rights activity was a vibrant component of the larger civil rights movement, and contributed greatly to its national successes. Individually, the pieces offer dramatic new insights about the civil rights movement, such as the fact that a militant black youth organization in Milwaukee was led by a white Catholic priest and in Cambridge, Maryland, by amiddle-aged black woman; that a group of middle-class, professional black women spearheaded Jackson, Mississippi's movement for racial justice and made possible the continuation of the Freedom Rides, and that, despite protests from national headquarters, the Brooklyn chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality staged a dramatic act of civil disobedience at the 1964 World's Fair in New York.

No previous volume has enabled readers to examine several different local movements together, and in so doing, Groundwork forges a far more comprehensive vision of the black freedom movement.

The Citizen Action Encyclopedia provides basic information on the activities and significance of the people, organizations, and events that comprise the history of American citizen activism in the 20th century. Containing almost 300 cross-referenced entries and 50 illustrations, the encyclopedia includes individuals, groups, and movements that achieved both national standing and significant success in altering the political, legal, social, or economic structure of the United States. The encyclopedia is the first single-volume reference work to cover the entire spectrum of American activism in the last century, describing groups and activists of both the Left and the Right. The book also offers broad general entries that put the debates on such issues as the environment and abortion policy into balanced perspective. The entries cover such broad issues and topics as BLAnimal Welfare and Rights BLConsumer Rights and Safeguards BLFarmers' Rights BLHomelessness BLLesbians and Gays BLLiberal Activism BLReligious Right BLStudent Activism BLTerm Limits BLVeterans' Issues And such specific organizations and individuals as BLAmericans for Tax Reform BLCesar Estrada Chavez BLJames C. Dobson BLFeminists for Life in America BLJohn Birch Society BLMalcolm X BLNational Council of Senior Citizens BLPeople for the American Way BLSierra Club BLUnited Students Against Sweatshops

Gibbs and Bankhead examine the history and current situation in California as it struggles to deal with the ethnic and racial change that will make it the first American state to have a non-white majority in the first decade of the 21st century. From shock and denial, to bargaining to change the outcome, they analyze the impact in California and what this may mean for the rest of the country.

They begin by tracing the major historical, social, economic and political events of the past 50 years that laid the foundation for the impetus of such ethnically and racially divisive initiatives as the efforts to strengthen anti-crime measures, remove illegal immigrants, limit affirmative action measures, and eliminate bilingual education. Each of these ballot propositions is examined, detailing the pro and con arguments of their advocates and opponents, their major financial contributors, campaign strategies, ethnic voting patterns, implications of implementation, and their impact on people of color. Gibbs and Bankhead then look at parallels from a national and international perspective. They conclude with a discussion of the values that should guide public policy debates in a multiethnic, multicultural society, and they propose specific policy alternatives to address the issues of crime prevention and control, illegal immigration, affirmative action, and bilingual education. A thoughtful analysis that will be of value to concerned citizens as well as policy makers, scholars, and students of contemporary American issues.

Amidst ongoing allegations of inappropriate behavior and trafficking during UN peacekeeping missions, this volume takes a step back to analyze the post-war and peacekeeping contexts in which prostitution flourishes. Using ethnographic research conducted in Kosovo from 2011 to 2015, this book offers an alternate understanding of the growth of the sex industry in the wake of war. It features in-depth interviews with the diverse women engaged in prostitution, with those facilitating it, and with police, prosecutors, and gynecologists. Drawing on the perspectives of women engaged in prostitution in the wake of war, this volume argues that the depiction of these women as victims of trafficking in the hegemonic discourse does more harm than good. Instead, it outlines the complex set of circumstances and choices that emerge in the context of a growing post-war sex economy. Extrapolating the conclusions from the study of Kosovo, this book is a valuable resources for researchers and practitioners studying the aftermath of war in the Balkans and beyond, and researchers engaged with the function of the UN and peacekeeping missions internationally.

The Reagan Adminstration justified its civil rights enforcement by claiming an electoral mandate to reduce government. The Administration employed an administrative strategy to fulfill this asserted mandate, illustrating the conventional wisdom that the strategy enhances political responsiveness. But responsiveness to popular will is one democratic value, while protection of minority rights another. In the case of the administrative strategy to enforce the law protecting civil rights of the institutionalized, career employees within the Reagan Justice Department reacted forcefully to the change in policy direction, believing their action was critical to protecting basic human rights because of the powerlessness of the affected group.

Holt examines how the Reagan Administration implemented its strategy of limited enforcement and the varied responses of the career employees, including internal and external criticism, mass departure, and even sabotage of some actions. A survey of careerists and interviews with both political and career employees provide detailed accounts of the clash that ensued. In addition to providing valuable information on how and when an administrative strategy can best be employed, Holt identifies some of the hidden costs of a tightly controlled bureaucracy. An apparently successful policy, which minimizes the involvement of experienced career employees, can have an adverse long term effect. A valuable study for all students and researchers of public policy formation and implementation, the contemporary presidency, and civil rights.

Can transnational corporations ignore human rights as long as governments don't hold them accountable? If the UN is put in charge of a territory, is it bound by human rights law? Does that body of law apply to private security contractors who use torture to achieve their goals? Does the right to freedom of speech apply in a private shopping mall which has become the modern-day town centre? Under traditional approaches to human rights, non-State actors are beyond the direct reach of international human rights law. They cannot be parties to the relevant treaties and so they are only bound to the extent that obligations accepted by States can be applied to them by governments. The result is that entities including Non-Governmental Organizations, international organizations such as the UN and the IMF, private security contractors, and transnational corporations, along with many others, are generally considered not to be bound directly by human rights law. This situation threatens to make a mockery of much of the international system of accountability for human rights violations. As privatization, outsourcing, and downsizing place ever more public or governmental functions into the hands of private actors, the human rights regime must adapt if it is to maintain its relevance. The contributors to this volume examine the different approaches that might be taken in order to ensure some degree of accountability. Making space in the legal regime to take account of the role of non-State actors is one of the biggest and most critical challenges facing international law today.

'The Flaming Bullet' attempts to determine all root causes of the disturbances manifest across England in August 2011. It compares recent findings with past riots and their associated motivations. Added to this, it explores racial prejudice, social injustice, civil liberties and taboos pertaining to British society in general. This book is a well-researched example of how hard life is at grass roots level for many impoverished families within modern Britain. It examines the prominent growth of gang culture and lack of role models for our youth emanating from disadvantaged families within our urban sprawls. Moreover, it underlines the importance of having positive role models in all spheres of life for our youth to aspire to. The decline in stable family life, lack of respect and apparent absence of shame within many of society's prominent figures in the political, economic, sporting, celebrity, artistic and and institutional world have set a dismal example for our disillusioned youth. The riots stemmed from a growing culture of entitlement and corresponding lack of opportunity for many who seemingly have no voice. The book acknowledges the pain of the victims who had their businesses and homes destroyed by the looters wanton destruction. Furthermore, this book encapsulates the need for more openness within our criminal justice system and purports to a fairer world where the greed of corporate bankers, politicians and leaders is replaced by transparency, help for the poor, freedom of expression and a more liberated society.

This book describes how international development works, its shortcomings, its theoretical and practical foundations, along with prescriptions for the future. International Development Law provides the reader with new perspectives on the origins of global poverty, identifies legal impediments to sustainable economic growth, and provides a better understanding of the challenges faced by the international community in resolving global poverty issues. The text is structured into two basic parts: the first part deals with the theoretical and philosophic foundations of the subject, and the second part sets forth issues relating to the international financial architecture, namely, international borrowing practices, privatization, and emerging economies. In particular, the book provides new, innovative analysis on corruption as an impediment to sustainable development. The three interlocking facets of corruption are examined: transnational organized crime, Islamic-based international terrorism, and corruption within emerging economies and the international banking system. Thus fresh new analysis adds depth and clarity to a field that heretofore has been scattered and superficial. Finally, the "right to development" within the international human rights discourse is critically reviewed, particularly in light of new jurisprudence emerging from the African context.This book offers a fresh, new and balanced legal perspective on the development process. The text has been rigorously researched and has many practical facets based on the author's professional experience within the international development field. It is an invaluable research and teaching tool since it takes a multidisciplinary approach to putting complex issues, legal trends and political questions into a clear, new perspective that is highly analytical as well as accessible to the reader. The author's elegant legal prose is both powerful and persuasive.

The social security of a person in the modern world can only be ensured by a purposeful policy and actions of the state and society aimed at achieving it. This requires favorable socio-economic conditions and creating an effective personal security system protecting property and citizens. Human social security can be threatened by phenomena and processes that lead to drastic changes in the life of society and dangerous deformations that entail severe social consequences for the individual, social groups, and institutions. Regulating Human Rights, Social Security, and Socio-Economic Structures in a Global Perspective discusses the global regulation of human rights, social security, and socio-economic structures in an era of acute challenges and crises. It presents comprehensive research on political structures and the conflicts within causing challenges to individual identity and insecurity. Covering topics such as legal-socio studies, digital authoritarianism, and regional security, this premier reference source is an essential resource for government officials, politicians, geopolitical experts, economists, non-profit organizations, human rights advocates, libraries, students, researchers, and academicians.

"A stimulating debate of a great case."
--Library Journal

"Balkan offers his own assessment in a critical introduction and the iconic impact of "Brown,""
--"Black Issues Book Review"

"Balkin persuasively argues that the courts play a vital role in tempering the nation's political and legal mechanisms."
--"Journal of the West"

"Passionate, intelligent, accessible, and eloquent. If only the real court would follow suit."
--Kirkus, Starred Review

"A remarkable collection of writings. The eminent scholars it features articulate with insight and passion a wide range of views. No other book better relates the Supreme Court's landmark decision of 1954 to the debates and anxieties of our own time."
--Randall Kennedy, Harvard Law School

"A critical introduction to the original ruling."
-- "Reference & Research Book News"

"Brown v. Board of Education," the Supreme Court's landmark 1954 decision ordering the desegregation of America's public schools, is perhaps the most famous case in American constitutional law. Criticized and even openly defied when first handed down, in half a century Brown has become a venerated symbol of equality and civil rights.

Its meaning, however, remains as contested as the case is celebrated. In the decades since the original decision, constitutional interpreters of all stripes have found within it different meanings. Both supporters and opponents of affirmative action have claimed the mantle of Brown, criticizing the other side for betraying its spirit. Meanwhile, the opinion itself has often been criticized as bland and uninspiring, carefully written to avoid controversy and maintain unanimity among the Justices.

As the50th anniversary of Brown approaches, America's schools are increasingly divided by race and class. Liberals and conservatives alike harbor profound regrets about the development of race relations since Brown, while disagreeing heatedly about the proper role of the courts in promoting civil equality and civil rights.

In this volume, nine of America's top constitutional and civil rights experts have been challenged to rewrite the Brown decision as they would like it to have been written, incorporating what they now know about the subsequent history of the United States but making use of only those sources available at the time of the original decision. In addition, Jack Balkin gives a detailed introduction to the case, chronicling the history of the litigation in Brown, and explaining the current debates over its legacy.

Contributors include: Bruce Ackerman, Jack M Balkin, Derrick A. Bell, Drew S. Days, John Hart Ely, Catharine A. MacKinnon, Michael W. McConnell, Frank I Michelman, and Cass R. Sunstein.

"This book makes important contributions to Women's Studies and Speech Communication and deserves our critical attention."--"Women's Studies in Communication"

Many of us have grown up with the language of civil rights, yet rarely consider how the construction of civil rights claims affects those who are trying to attain them. Diane Miller examines arguments lesbians and gay men make for civil rights, revealing the ways these arguments are both progressive--in terms of helping to win court cases seeking basic human rights--and limiting--in terms of framing representations of gay men and lesbians.

Miller incorporates case studies of lesbians in the military and in politics into her argument. She discusses in detail the experiences of Colonel Margarethe Cammermeyer, who was dishonorably discharged from the National Guard after 27 years of service when she revealed that she was a lesbian, and Roberta Achtenberg, who was nominated by Clinton for the job of Assistant Director of Housing and Urban Development and became the first gay or lesbian to face the confirmation process. Drawing on these cases and their outcomes, Miller evaluates the advantages and disadvantages of privileging civil rights strategies in the struggle for gay and lesbian rights.

Learn how the power of a petition can give Americans the ability to create real change! This nonfiction book includes a related short fiction piece, glossary, an exciting bonus activity, and other useful tools. The fun images and meaningful text will teach students how to be responsible citizens who can improve their communities by writing petitions. This 32-page full-color book describes the purpose of petitions and how they can be used to make a difference. It also explores important topics such as laws and democracy and includes an extension activity for grade 3. Perfect for the classroom, at-home learning, or homeschool to explore working together, First Amendment rights, and ways to create change.

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. Between 1914 and the present day the political makeup of the Balkans has relentlessly changed, following unpredictable shifts of international and internal borders. Between and across these borders various political communities were formed, co-existed and (dis)integrated. By analysing one hundred years of modern citizenship in Yugoslavia and post-Yugoslav states, Igor Stiks shows that the concept and practice of citizenship is necessary to understand how political communities are made, un-made and re-made. He argues that modern citizenship is a tool that can be used for different and opposing goals, from integration and re-unification to fragmentation and ethnic engineering. The study of citizenship in the 'laboratory' of the Balkands offers not only an original angle to narrate an alternative political history, but also an insight into the fine mechanics and repeating glitches of modern politics, applicable to multinational states in the European Union and beyond.

Bringing to light a long-neglected aspect of Thomas Jefferson's political philosophy - the "ward republic" - Gary Hart here offers a wholly original blueprint for republican restoration in which every citizen can participate democratically in the governing of his or her own life. Of crucial relevance for contemporary society, including its startlingly prescient plan for homeland security, Restoration of the Republic provides original insights into issues of national urgency as well as the timeless questions that bedevil the American democratic experiment.

The Irish Famine of 1845-49 was a major modern catastrophe. The return of the potato blight in 1846 triggered a huge exodus of destitute Irish seeking refuge in British towns and 1847 witnessed an unprecedented inflow of Irish refugees into Britain. This book examines the scale of that refugee immigration, the conditions under which the refugees were carried to Britain, the relief operations mounted, the horrors of the typhus epidemic in Liverpool, Glasgow, Manchester, South Wales and the North-East, and the financial cost to the British ratepayers.

Amnesty laws are political tools used since ancient times by states wishing to quell dissent, introduce reforms, or achieve peaceful relationships with their enemies. In recent years, they have become contentious due to a perception that they violate international law, particularly the rights of victims, and contribute to further violence. This view is disputed by political negotiators who often argue that amnesty is a necessary price to pay in order to achieve a stable, peaceful, and equitable system of government. This book aims to investigate whether an amnesty necessarily entails a violation of a state's international obligations, or whether an amnesty, accompanied by alternative justice mechanisms, can in fact contribute positively to both peace and justice. This study began by constructing an extensive Amnesty Law Database that contains information on 506 amnesty processes in 130 countries introduced since the Second World War. The database and chapter structure were designed to correspond with the key aspects of an amnesty: why it was introduced, who benefited from its protection, which crimes it covered, and whether it was conditional. In assessing conditional amnesties, related transitional justice processes such as selective prosecutions, truth commissions, community-based justice mechanisms, lustration, and reparations programmes were considered. Subsequently, the jurisprudence relating to amnesty from national courts, international tribunals, and courts in third states was addressed. The information gathered revealed considerable disparity in state practice relating to amnesties, with some aiming to provide victims with a remedy, and others seeking to create complete impunity for perpetrators. To date, few legal trends relating to amnesty laws are emerging, although it appears that amnesties offering blanket, unconditional immunity for state agents have declined. Overall, amnesties have increased in popularity since the 1990s and consequently, rather than trying to dissuade states from using this tool of transitional justice, this book argues that international actors should instead work to limit the more negative forms of amnesty by encouraging states to make them conditional and to introduce complementary programmes to repair the harm and prevent a repetition of the crimes. David Dyzenhaus "This is one of the best accounts in the truth and reconciliation literature I've read and certainly the best piece of work on amnesty I've seen." Diane Orentlicher "Ms Mallinder's ambitious project provides the kind of empirical treatment that those of us who have worked on the issue of amnesties in international law have long awaited. I have no doubt that her book will be a much-valued and widely-cited resource."

Survivors of the Holocaust accounted for fully one-half of the wave of immigration into Israel in the aftermath of World War II. These survivors were among the first to enter the gates of the new state following its founding in 1948.

In this important addition to our understanding of the social integration of Holocaust survivors into postwar society, Hanna Yablonka draws on a wealth of primary materials such as recently released archival material, letters, newspapers, internal army magazines, and personal interviews, to examine, from all sides, the charged encounters between survivors of the Holocaust and the veteran Jewish population in Israel.

Yablonka details the role the new immigrants played in the War of Independence, their settlement of towns and villages abandoned by Arabs during the war, and the ways in which Israeli society accepted-and often did not accept-them into the armed forces, the kibbutz movements, and the trade unions.

Survivors of the Holocaust illuminates the ways in which Israeli society grew and developed through its emotional and sometimes contentious relations with the arriving survivors and how, against all odds, the survivors of the Holocaust and their offspring became pillars of modern Israeli society.

Van Belle provides the first systematic analysis of the effects that press freedom has on the conduct of international politics. The institutionalization of press freedoms within a state and the free flow of information between the free presses of different nations creates a foreign policy decision making environment that systematically limits policy options, generates domestic political imperatives, and provides specific benefits to a leader. This shapes some aspects of foreign policy in a consistent and empirically identifiable manner, most notably by limiting international conflicts. When social-psychological propositions regarding dehumanization and the acceptance of killing in war are introduced to Van Belle's model, shared press freedom is shown to provide a mechanism that prevents lethal conflicts. The effects of press freedom on international conflict, particularly on hypotheses related to escalating conflicts beyond the threshold of casualties, are quite robust. However, Van Belle indicates there is no evidence of a complimentary effect on cooperation. The combination of findings from the empirical analyses suggest that the key to the effects of press freedom center on the creation of images, such as the dehumanized image of an enemy. A thoughtful analysis that scholars and researchers of foreign policy and international relations as well as journalism and mass communication will find particularly useful.

Freedom of expression is enshrined in the Constitution as a "sacred right" of the American people. The appeal is clear: "Congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom of speech or of the press." Yet the ink had barely dried on the Constitution before the first landmark freedom of expression issue exploded onto the scene. This student resource traces 11 such issues that have polarized the nation. These events show the variety, complexity, and intensity that freedom of speech and expression issues engender. Issues include: BLAlien and Sedition Acts of 1798 BLThe Abolitionist Movement BLThe Civil War BLThe Comstock Law BLWorld War I BLThe Cold War and the "Red Menace" BLThe Civil Rights Movement BLThe Vietnam War BLThe Nazi March on Skokie BLPolitical Correctness and Free Speech on Campus BLThe Internet These events show the variety, complexity, and intensity that freedom of speech and expression issues engender. Magee illustrates how the United States has worked through these contentious periods with American citizens' freedoms remaining intact, if not enhanced. An annotated bibliography follows each issue to provide avenues for further research, and a timeline and general bibliography provide additional reference support.

The relationship between the media and government and the influence that relationship has on democracy and national development is explored in this book. The study provides a succinct descriptive review of scholarly research works on communication and its implications for freedom, democracy, and development. The book lists the most frequently cited works in political communication (specifically regarding media-government relationships and press-freedom issues) and development communication. Following a general introduction, Part One examines press-freedom issues and research worldwide, and Part Two presents the relevant literature on development communication issues and provides insights into why the concept is popular with the developing world's journalists. Students, scholars, and policymakers in political communication, development communication, and international development will find this an invaluable tool for their research endeavors.