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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > International relations > International institutions > United Nations & UN agencies
The very concept of human rights implies governmental accountability. To ensure that governments are indeed held accountable for their treatment of citizens and others the United Nations has established a wide range of mechanisms to monitor compliance, and to seek to prevent as well as respond to violations. The panoply of implementation measures that the UN has taken since 1945 has resulted in a diverse and complex set of institutional arrangements, the effectiveness of which varies widely. Indeed, there is much doubt as to the effectiveness of much of the UN's human rights efforts but also about what direction it should take. Inevitable instances of politicization and the hostile, or at best ambivalent, attitude of most governments, has at times endangered the fragile progress made on the more technical fronts. At the same time, technical efforts cannot dispense with the complex politics of actualizing the promise of human rights at and through the UN. In addition to significant actual and potential problems of duplication, overlapping and inconsistent approaches, there are major problems of under-funding and insufficient expertise. The complexity of these arrangements and the difficulty in evaluating their impact makes a comprehensive guide of the type provided here all the more indispensable. These essays critically examine the functions, procedures, and performance of each of the major UN organs dealing with human rights, including the Security Council and the International Court of Justice as well as the more specialized bodies monitoring the implementation of human rights treaties. Significant attention is devoted to the considerable efforts at reforming the UN's human rights machinery, as illustrated most notably by the creation of the Human Rights Council to replace the Commission on Human Rights. The book also looks at the relationship between the various bodies and the potential for major reforms and restructuring.
This is an account and analysis of the United Nations peacekeeping operation mounted in Cambodia betwween 1991 and 1993 in fulfilment of the 1991 Paris Peace Settlement. Although its mission was jeopardized by non-cooperation of the Khymer Rouge, the UN Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) successfully guided Cambodia back to democratic, constitutional government and relative peace. This study reveals the successes and failures of UNTAC and draws lessons for future UN peacekeeping operations.
The world's first independent black republic, Haiti was forged in the fire of history's only successful slave revolution. Yet more than two hundred years later, the full promise of that revolution - a free country and a free people - remains unfulfilled. Home for more than a decade to one of the world's largest UN peacekeeping forces, Haiti's tumultuous political culture - buffeted by coups and armed political partisans - combined with economic inequality and environmental degradation to create immense difficulties even before the devastating 2010 earthquake killed tens of thousands of people. This grim tale, however, is not the whole story. In this moving and detailed history, Michael Deibert, who has spent two decades reporting on Haiti, chronicles the heroic struggles of Haitians to build their longed-for country in the face of overwhelming odds. Based on hundreds of interviews with Haitian political leaders, international diplomats, peasant advocates and gang leaders, as well as ordinary Haitians, Deibert's book provides a vivid, complex and challenging analysis of Haiti's recent history.
This book provides a comprehensive and analytical overview of human rights law in Africa. It examines the institutions, norms, and processes for human rights realization provided for under the United Nations system, the African Union, and sub-regional economic communitites in Africa, and explores their relationship with the national legal systems of African states. Since the establishment of the African Union in 2001, there has been a proliferation of regional institutions that are relevant to human rights in Africa. These include the Pan African Parliament, the Peace and Security Council, the Economic, Social and Cultural Council and the African Peer Review Mechanism of the New Partnership for Africa's Development. This book discusses the links between these institutions. It further examines the case law stemming from Africa' most important human rights instrument, the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, which entered into force on 21 October 1986. This new edition contains a new chapter on the African Children's Rights Committee as well as full coverage of new developments and instruments, such as the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the Convention on Enforced Disappearances, and the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance. Three cross-cutting themes are explored throughout the book: national implementation and enforcement of international human rights law; legal and other forms of integration; and the role of human rights in the eradication of poverty. The book also provides an introduction to the relevant human rights concepts.
One of the most remarkable stories of immigration in the last half century is that of Indians to the United States. People of Indian origin make up a little over one percent of the American population now, up from barely half a percent at the turn of the millennium. Not only has its recent growth been extraordinary, but this population from a developing nation with low human capital is now the most-educated and highest-income group in the worlds most advanced nation. The Other One Percent is a careful, data-driven, and comprehensive account of the three core processesselection, assimilation, and entrepreneurshipthat have led to this rapid rise. This unique phenomenon is driven byand, in turn, has influencedwide-ranging changes, especially the ongoing revolution in information technology and its impact on economic globalization, immigration policies in the U.S., higher education policies in India, and foreign policies of both nations. If the overall picture is one of economic success, the details reveal the critical issues faced by the immigrants stemming from the social, linguistic, and class structure in India, the professional and geographic distribution in the U.S., the simultaneous expressions of pan-Indian and regional identities and simultaneous leadership in high-skill industries (like computers and medicine) and low-skill industries (like hospitality and retail trade), and the multi-generational challenges of a diverse group from the worlds largest democracy fitting into its oldest.
Born in 1945, the United Nations came to life in the Arab world. It was there that the UN dealt with early diplomatic challenges that helped shape its institutions such as peacekeeping and political mediation. It was also there that the UN found itself trapped in, and sometimes part of, confounding geopolitical tensions in key international conflicts in the Cold War and post-Cold War periods, such as hostilities between Palestine and Iraq and between Libya and Syria. Much has changed over the past seven decades, but what has not changed is the central role played by the UN. This book's claim is that the UN is a constant site of struggle in the Arab world and equally that the Arab world serves as a location for the UN to define itself against the shifting politics of its age. Looking at the UN from the standpoint of the Arab world, this volume collects some of the finest scholars and practitioners writing about the potential and the problems of a UN that is framed by both the promises of its Charter and the contradictions of its member states. This is a landmark book-a close and informed study of the UN in the region that taught the organization how to do its many jobs.
This book provides the first analytic account of the United Nations relief operation in Bangladesh. Written by a United Nations staff member involved in the operation, it reflects his direct access to archives and thus offers a doubly valuable description of the inner workings of an international organization. The unusually large relief program in Bangladesh has been described as "a rare example of international cooperation that has enlarged the scope of constructive United Nations action." Originally published in 1978. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
The prohibition of the use of force is one of the most crucial elements of the international legal order. Our understanding of that rule was both advanced and challenged during the period commencing with the termination of the Iran-Iraq war and the invasion of Kuwait, and concluding with the invasion and occupation of Iraq. The initial phase was characterized by hopes for a functioning collective security system administered by the United Nations as part of a New World Order. The liberation of Kuwait, in particular, was seen by some as a powerful vindication of the prohibition of the use of force and of the UN Security Council. However, the operation was not really conducted in accordance with the requirements for collective security established in the UN Charter. In a second phase, an international coalition launched a humanitarian intervention operation, first in the north of Iraq, and subsequently in the south. That episode is often seen as the fountainhead of the post-Cold War claim to a new legal justification for the use of force in circumstances of grave humanitarian emergency-a claim subsequent challenged during the armed action concerning Kosovo. There then followed repeated uses of force against Iraq in the context of the international campaign to remove its present or future weapons of mass destruction potential. Finally, the episode reached its controversial zenith with the full scale invasion of Iraq led by the US and the UK in 2003. This book analyzes these developments, and their impact on the rule prohibiting force in international relations, in a comprehensive and accessible way. It is the first to draw upon classified materials released by the UK Chilcot inquiry shedding light on the decision to go to war in 2003 and the role played by international law in that context.
This book considers the varied roles played by the United Nations in cases where threats to peace are created by civil strife in modernizing societies. These struggles for internal supremacy are viewed by the superpowers and other states as parts of larger racial, anti-colonial, or ideological contests. Through a careful analysis of selected cases-Algeria, Angola, the Congo, Cyprus, the Dominican Republic, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, Lebanon, Laos, Yemen, and Vietnam-the author clarifies the legal and political factors limiting the United Nations' effectiveness in containing violence and promoting peaceful change. Originally published in 1967. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
This book is a study of regime change in the context of international administration, where the United Nations and other multilateral organisations hold temporary executive authority at the domestic level. Work on the politics of state-building has highlighted how these administration operations can influence nearly every aspect of politics in the country or territory in which they are deployed. This book concentrates in particular on the 'regime-building' practices of these missions, and examines the aims and influences of international administrations in the area of democratic development, as well as their ultimate impact on the process of regime change. Through a comparative analysis of events in Bosnia, Kosovo and East Timor, the book demonstrates how external actors assume positions of power conventionally held by domestic elites, and in so doing gain the ability to affect democratic development in ways unavailable to international actors in more conventional settings. In particular, the case studies highlight the ways in which the democracy promotion objectives of international administrators can have both positive and negative effects on democratization processes, with the presence of international authorities helping to rule out non-democratic options in some areas, while at times undermining democratic development in others. The book identifies the key international actors involved, highlights the mechanisms of influence available to them in these contexts, and explores the crucial mediating role of domestic actors and structures. Oxford Studies in Democratization is a series for scholars and students of comparative politics and related disciplines. Volumes concentrate on the comparative study of the democratization process that accompanied the decline and termination of the cold war. The geographical focus of the series is primarily Latin America, the Caribbean, Southern and Eastern Europe, and relevant experiences in Africa and Asia. The series editor is Laurence Whitehead, Official Fellow, Nuffield College, University of Oxford.
The relationship between populism and democracy is contested among scholars. While some propose that populism is inherently harmful for democracy because it is anti-pluralist and confrontational, others argue that populism can reinvigorate worn-out democracies in need of greater popular participation. In A Dynamic Theory of Populism in Power, Julio F. Carrion advances this debate by examining the empirical relationship between populism in power and democracy. Does populism in power always lead to regime change, that is, the demise of democracy? The answer is no. The impact of populism on democracy depends on the variety of populism in power: the worst outcomes in democratic governance are found under unconstrained populism. Carrion presents the permissive and productive conditions for why and how populism becomes unconstrained, as well as a dynamic theory of change that shows how the late victories of populists build on early ones, resulting in greater power asymmetries. A Dynamic Theory of Populism in Power provides an analysis of five Latin American populist presidencies, all located in the Andes. In four of them (Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela), populism became unconstrained and regime change followed. In one case, Colombia, populism in power was successfully contained and democracy survived. The concluding chapter places the Andean cases in comparative perspective and discusses how unconstrained populism in other cases (Nicaragua and Hungary) also led to the end of electoral democracy. Where populism in power was constrained (Honduras and the United States), regime change did not materialize. Carrion advances a theory of populism in power that helps us understand how democracies transition into non-democracies. To that extent, the book illuminates the processes of democratic erosion in our time.
The issue of state succession continues to be a vital and complex focal point for public international lawyers, yet it has remained strangely resistant to effective articulation. The formative period in this respect was that of decolonization which marked for many the time when international law came of age and when the promises of the UN Charter would be realized in an international community of sovereign peoples. Throughout the 1990s a series of territorial adjustments placed succession once again at the centre of international legal practice, in new contexts that went beyond the traditional model of decolonization: the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia, and the unifications of Germany and Yemen brought to light the fundamentally unresolved character of issues within the law of succession. Why have attempts to codify the practice of succession met with so little success? Why has succession remained so problematic a feature of international law? This book argues that the answers to these questions lie in the political backdrop of decolonization and self-determination, and that the tensions and ambiguities that run throughout the law of succession can only be understood by looking at the historical relationship between discourses on state succession, decolonization, and imperialism within the framework of international law.
Bereft of any comprehensive analysis and subject to little if any
sustained debate, the tangential location of the prohibition of
propaganda for war in the discourse of international law has
resulted in a situation where state conduct in this area too often
appears to be acting in a legal vacuum. In proposing a more robust
role for international law in responding to what is a matter of
widespread public concern, the book analyses the context in which
international law first came to be concerned with propaganda for
war in the years following the First World War. With the
establishment of the United Nations and the corresponding
development of international human rights law, the issue of the
prohibition of propaganda for war in both human rights law and
international criminal law became a highly significant, yet
frequently divisive matter during the Cold War.
This is a study of the principal negotiating processes and
law-making tools through which contemporary international law is
made. It does not seek to give an account of the traditional - and
untraditional - sources and theories of international law, but
rather to identify the processes, participants and instruments
employed in the making of international law. It accordingly
examines some of the mechanisms and procedures whereby new rules of
law are created or old rules are amended or abrogated. It
concentrates on the UN, other international organizations,
diplomatic conferences, codification bodies, NGOs, and courts.
Since the mid-1990s the United Nations and other multilateral organizations have been entrusted with exceptional authority for the administration of war-torn and strife-ridden territories. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, Eastern Slavonia, Kosovo, and East Timor these organizations have assumed responsibility for governance to a degree unprecedented in recent history. These initiatives represent some of the boldest experiments in the management and settlement of intra-state conflict ever attempted by third parties. This book is a study of recent experiences in the international administration of war-torn territories. It examines the nature of these operations - their mandates, structures, and powers - and distinguishes them from kindred historical and contemporary experiences of peacekeeping, trusteeship, and military occupation. It analyses and assesses the effectiveness of international administrations and discusses, in thematic fashion, the key operational and political challenges that arise in the context of these experiences. It also reflects on the policy implications of these experiences, recommending reforms or new approaches to the challenge posed by localized anarchy in a global context. It argues that, despite many of the problems arising from both the design and implementation of international administrations, international administration has generally made a positive contribution to the mitigation of conflict in the territories where they have been established, thus removing or reducing a threat to peace and helping to improve the lives of the vast majority of the territories' inhabitants. This major new work from a leading scholar provides the first comprehensive treatment of recent attempts at international governance of war-torn territories, and will be essential reading for anyone interested in peace-keeping operations and international administration.
Should states use military force for humanitarian purposes? What are the challenges to international society posed by humanitarian intervention in a post-September 11th world? This path-breaking work brings together well-known scholars of law, philosophy, and international relations, together with practitioners who have been actively engaged in intervention during the past decade. Together, this team provides practical and theoretical answers to one of the most burning issues of our day. Case studies include Somalia, Rwanda, the Balkans, and East Timor, as well as the recent US intervention in Afghanistan. The book demonstrates why humanitarian intervention continues to be a controversial issue not only for the United Nations but also for Western states and humanitarian organizations.
The governance of post-conflict territories embodies a central contradiction: how does one help a population prepare for democratic governance and the rule of law by imposing a form of benevolent autocracy? Transitional administrations represent the most complex operations attempted by the United Nations. The operations in East Timor and Kosovo are commonly seen as unique in the history of the UN - perhaps never to be repeated. But they may also be seen as the latest in a series of operations that have involved the United Nations in 'state-building' activities, where it has attempted to develop the institutions of government by assuming some or all of those sovereign powers on a temporary basis. The circumstances that have demanded such interventions certainly will be repeated. Seen in the context of earlier UN operations, such as those in Namibia, Cambodia, and Eastern Slavonia, the view that these exceptional circumstances may not recur is somewhat disingenuous. Moreover, the need for such policy research has been brought into sharp focus by the weighty but ambiguous role assigned to the UN in Afghanistan and the possibility of a comparable role in Iraq. This book fills that gap. Aimed at policy-makers, diplomats, and a wide academic audience (including international relations, political science, international law, and war studies), the book provides a concise history of UN state-building operations and a treatment of the five key issues confronting such an operation on the ground: peace and security, the role of the UN as government, judicial reconstruction, economic reconstruction, and exit strategies.
Since the mid-1990s the United Nations and other multilateral organizations have been entrusted with exceptional authority for the administration of war-torn and strife-ridden territories. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, Eastern Slavonia, Kosovo, and East Timor these organizations have assumed responsibility for governance to a degree unprecedented in recent history. These initiatives represent some of the boldest experiments in the management and settlement of intra-state conflict ever attempted by third parties. This book is a study of recent experiences in the international administration of war-torn territories. It examines the nature of these operations - their mandates, structures, and powers - and distinguishes them from kindred historical and contemporary experiences of peacekeeping, trusteeship, and military occupation. It analyses and assesses the effectiveness of international administrations and discusses, in thematic fashion, the key operational and political challenges that arise in the context of these experiences. It also reflects on the policy implications of these experiences, recommending reforms or new approaches to the challenge posed by localized anarchy in a global context. It argues that, despite many of the problems arising from both the design and implementation of international administrations, international administration has generally made a positive contribution to the mitigation of conflict in the territories where they have been established. This major new work from a leading scholar provides a comprehensive treatment of recent attempts at international governance of war-torn territories, and will be essential reading for anyone interested in peace-keeping operations and international administration.
This book offers a portrait of the practice of monitoring, reporting, and fact-finding in the domain of human rights, international humanitarian law, and international criminal law. By analyzing the experiences of fifteen missions implemented over the course of the past decade, the book illuminates the key issues that these missions face and offers a roadmap for practitioners working on future missions. This book is the result of a five-year research study led by the Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research at Harvard University, Massachusetts. Based on extensive interviews conducted with fact-finding practitioners, this book consists of two parts. Part I offers a handbook that details methodological considerations for the design and implementation of fact-finding missions and commissions of inquiry. Part II - which consists of chapters written by scholars and practitioners - presents a more in-depth, scholarly examination of past fact-finding practices.
The United Nations Peacebuilding Commission (UNPBC) was established in December 2005 to develop outlines of best practice in post-conflict reconstruction, and to secure the political and material resources necessary to assist states in transition from conflict to peacetime. Currently, the organization is involved in reconstruction and peacebuilding activities in six countries. Yet, a 2010 review by permanent representatives to the United Nations found that the hopes of the UN peacebuilding architecture "despite committed and dedicated efforts...ha[d] yet to be realized." Two of these hopes relate to gender and power, specifically that peacebuilding efforts integrate a "gender perspective" and that the Commission consult with civil society, NGOs, and women's organizations. This book is the first to offer an extensive and dedicated analysis of the activities of the UN Peacebuilding Commission with regard to both gender politics, broadly conceived, and the gendered dynamics of civil society participation in peacebuilding activities. Laura J. Shepherd draws upon original fieldwork that she conducted at the UN to argue that the gendered and spatial politics of peacebuilding not only feminizes civil society organizations, but also perpetuates hierarchies that privilege the international over the domestic realms. The book argues that the dominant representations of women, gender, and civil society in UN peacebuilding discourse produce spatial hierarchies that paradoxically undermine the contemporary emphasis on "bottom-up" governance of peacebuilding activities.
Should states use military force for humanitarian purposes? Well known scholars and practitioners come together in this book to provide practical and theoretical answers to this burning question. Case studies include Somalia, Rwanda, the Balkans, and East Timor, as well as the recent US intervention in Afghanistan. The book demonstrates why humanitarian intervention continues to be a controversial issue not only for the United Nations, but also for Western states and humanitarian organisations.
China's role in the United Nations has been a significant one. Yet, Samuel Kim contends, as far as the literature on Chinese foreign policy is concerned, the People's Republic of China still remains outside the heuristic framework of the global community. In a comprehensive macro-analysis of Chinese global politics, Professor Kim probes China's image and strategy of world order as manifested through its behavior in the UN. The author draws upon a wide range of previously untapped primary sources, including China's policy pronouncements and voting record and over a hundred personal interviews with UN delegates and international civil servants. He finds that Chinese participation has made the United Nations not only more representative but also more relevant as the global political institution responding to the challenge of establishing a more humane and just world order. Originally published in 1979. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
El Informe sobre Desarrollo Humano 2020 (que celebra su 30º aniversario) constituye la última edición de la serie de Informes sobre Desarrollo Humano publicados a escala mundial por el Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo (PNUD) desde 1990. Estos informes ofrecen una explicación independiente, analítica y basada en datos empíricos sobre los principales problemas, tendencias y políticas en el ámbito del desarrollo. Este informe ofrece una alternativa necesaria y que invita a la reflexión frente a la parálisis ante un alarmante cambio planetario. Su publicación se produce en el momento en que la pandemia de COVID-19 ofrece una visión de lo que pudiera ser una ""nueva normalidad"" al mismo tiempo que abre la oportunidad de que la humanidad cambie de rumbo. El informe también plantea un nuevo Índice de Desarrollo Humano, de carácter experimental, ajustado por las presiones planetarias.
Throughout what publisher Henry Luce dubbed the "American century," the United States has wrestled with two central questions. Should it pursue its security unilaterally or in cooperation with others? If the latter, how can its interests be best protected against opportunism by untrustworthy partners? In a major attempt to explain security relations from an institutionalist approach, David A. Lake shows how the answers to these questions have differed after World War I, during the Cold War, and today. In the debate over whether to join the League of Nations, the United States reaffirmed its historic policy of unilateralism. After World War II, however, it broke decisively with tradition and embraced a new policy of cooperation with partners in Europe and Asia. Today, the United States is pursuing a new strategy of cooperation, forming ad hoc coalitions and evincing an unprecedented willingness to shape but then work within the prevailing international consensus on the appropriate goals and means of foreign policy. In interpreting these three defining moments of American foreign policy, Lake draws on theories of relational contracting and poses a general theory of security relationships. He arrays the variety of possible security relationships on a continuum from anarchy to hierarchy, and explains actual relations as a function of three key variables: the benefits from pooling security resources and efforts with others, the expected costs of opportunistic behavior by partners, and governance costs. Lake systematically applies this theory to each of the "defining moments" of twentieth-century American foreign policy and develops its broader implications for the study of international relations.
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