Ethics In Action: The Ethical Challenges Of International Human Rights Nongovernmental Organizations

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This book is the product of a multiyear dialogue between leading human rights theorists and high-level representatives of international human rights nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) sponsored by the United Nations University, Tokyo, and the City University of Hong Kong. It is divided into three parts that reflect the major ethical challenges discussed at the workshops: the ethical challenges associated with interaction between relatively rich and powerful Northern-based human rights INGOs and recipients of their aid in the South; whether and how to collaborate with governments that place severe restrictions on the activities of human rights INGOs; and the tension between expanding organization mandate to address more fundamental social and economic problems and restricting it for the sake of focusing on more immediate and clearly identifiable violations of civil and political rights. Each section contains contributions from both theorists and practitioners of human rights.

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This page intentionally left blank ethics in action This book is the product of a multiyear dialogue between leading human rights theorists and high-level representatives of international human rights nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) sponsored by the United Nations University, headquartered in Tokyo with centers around the world, and the City University of Hong Kong. It is divided into three parts that reflect the major ethical challenges discussed at a series of workshops: the ethical challenges associated with interaction between relatively rich and powerful Northern-based human rights INGOs and recipients of their aid in the South; whether and how to collaborate with governments that place severe restrictions on the activities of human rights INGOs; and the tension between expanding the organizations’ mandate to address more fundamental social and economic problems and focusing on more immediate and clearly identifiable violations of civil and political rights. Each section contains contributions by both theorists and practitioners of human rights. Daniel A. Bell is a professor in the Department of Philosophy at Tsinghua University in Beijing. He has held teaching posts at the City University of Hong Kong, the University of Hong Kong, and the National University of Singapore and research fellowships at Stanford’s Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences and Princeton’s University Center of Human Values. His books include Beyond Liberal Democracy: Political Thinking for an East Asian Context (2006), East Meets West: Human Rights and Democracy in East Asia (2000), and Communitarianism and Its Critics (1993). Jean-Marc Coicaud heads the United Nations University (UNU) Office at the United Nations in New York, prior to which he was senior academic officer in the UNU Peace and Governance Programme, Tokyo. He also served in the Executive Office of the United Nations Secretary-General as a speechwriter for Dr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali. A former Fellow at the Harvard University Department of Philosophy and Harvard Law School, the United States Institute of Peace, Washington, D.C., and New York University School of Law, Coicaud has held appointments with the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the European Parliament (Financial Committee), the University of Paris-I Sorbonne and the Ecole normale sup´erieure, Paris. His books include Power in Transition: The Peaceful Change of International Order (co-authored with Charles A. Kupchan, Emanuel Adler, and Yuen Foong Khong) (2001), Legitimacy and Politics: A Contribution to the Study of Political Right and Political Responsibility (Cambridge University Press, 2002), and Beyond the National Interest (2007). The United Nations University is an organ of the United Nations established by the General Assembly in 1972 to be an international community of scholars engaged in research, adv