Talking Rights

from today’s USA Today:
Before her visit to China, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton removed the issue of human rights from the table, saying it could “interfere” with talks on the global economic crisis, climate change and security.
She missed a critical point. Human rights aren’t a side dish on a crowded buffet. Human rights support and [...]

The history of what is studied in universities is long and abundant in controversy. In his old age, Plato once complained that his star student, Aristotle, was “kick[ing] me, as foals do their mothers when they are born” by refuting his teachings.In more recent times, we’ve seen battles erupt over area, gender and ethnic [...]

This is an excerpt from an interview with Army Specialist Brandon Neely by the University of California at Davis Center for the Study of Human Rights in the Americas. Often overlooked in the torture debate is the effect of torture on the perpetrators.
There is a wonderful Danish documentary about this called “Your Neighbor’s Son: The [...]

An effort at Duke I’m really proud of is the Archive for Human Rights, run by Patrick Stawski. We’re collecting the institutional papers of (primarily) US-based human rights groups. We;re also looking for private collections, like the one held by Coletta Youngers, for many years (and counting) a human rights advocate on the Andes, in [...]

There is quite a kerfluffle going on now about Obama’s position on extraordinary rendition.
The Los Angeles Times recently reported that “under executive orders issued by Obama recently, the CIA still has authority to carry out what are known as renditions, secret abductions and transfers of prisoners to countries that cooperate with the United States. Current [...]